People have a built-in resistance to killing, but this resistance can be overcome through various methods. During World War II, only 15-20% of American riflemen fired at the enemy. This included men faced with Japanese banzai charges and other situations. Most people would rather die than kill someone else (Grossman, 1995). People often bluster about…
Male Suicide and the Problem of Workism
Japan has seen a recent increase in male suicides in the wake of the pandemic. In September 2020, 705 working-age men between 20-50 years old killed themselves. This is up by 8.6% from last year. Likewise in August, the number was 6.6% higher than in 2019 (Suicide, 2020). The pandemic is driving non-regular workers and…
Anime is Not Japanese Culture
The other day I stumbled across various YouTube videos of people who felt like they were “becoming Japanese” because of their increasing love for sushi, anime, manga, and “other things Japanese.” At first, I thought it was just attention grabbing, but as I dug deeper, many weeaboo of all different ages seemed to follow this…
Love and an Umbrella: Romance Anime and Context
Anime has many romance tropes, such as the symbolism of an umbrella. These tropes came out of the realities of relationships within modern culture. After all, romance is more about fantasy and escapism than any sort of reality. Romantic literature traces to 12th-century France. The first romance story appears to be Tristan and Iseult. As…
The Child of the Thunder
In among the hills of Echizen, within sight of the snowy mountain called Hakuzan, lived a farmer named Bimbo. He was very poor, but frugal and industrious. He was very fond of children though he had none himself. He longed to adopt a son to bear his name, and often talked the matter over with…
The Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Ichi
As a writer, I pay attention to words. The use of the word they as a gender-neutral singular pronoun has been a debate among my editing and writing friends. Many people take offense to the use of he, she, her, his, it, and him in reference to their gender identity. Let’s set aside the identity debate…