CG animator , political activist , forest cleaner-upper : even putting Academy Award-winning director aside, Hayao Miyazaki’s still got a pretty impressive resume. Miyazaki has one more job not often discussed in western writing: manga artist. While his magnum opus, Nausicaä, has been available in …Read more »
There’s an old maxim in screenwriting that goes “write what you know.” The idea is that if you write about situations in which you have some personal experience, your stories will carry a certain sense of reality. And what do anime creators know more than …Read more »
It seems like only yesterday that I was declaring Fullmetal Alchemist to be the undeniable top anime of the 2000s, but in fact over a decade has passed since then. Multiple new generations of anime fans have come—and gone—in the time since, so to everyone …Read more »
The collapse of the US print manga market in 2009-2010 took opportunities for manga-influenced Western comics down with it, but while printed manga died, other opportunities opened up. Japanese-influenced artists may not have a bookstore category anymore, but they kick ass in the world of web …Read more »
There has been a specter haunting Vietnam. It is the specter of cosplay. Out in the humid tropics of Ho Chi Minh City, cosplay events, once a niche within a niche in the nominally communist nation, have been becoming a common sight and a place …Read more »
What would Disney be without its mouse ears, Nintendo without its portly plumber, or McDonald's without its cholesterol-coated clown? Well, okay, these are major corporations here which could surely survive without, but what about the reverse scenario? Can a mascot exist without its brand? Can …Read more »
Never underestimate the power of the human voice. Throughout history, charismatic orators have influenced people on a widespread scale to do both tremendous good and monstrous evil. But what if an individual possessed a voice extraordinary in ways beyond imagination? What kind of power would …Read more »
We’re all good at something. For many of us, that something happens to be video games. That’s the case with Sora and Shiro. They’re basically shut-ins, proponents of the hikikomori lifestyle, but you wouldn’t know it if you came face to face with them in …Read more »
They may be gorgeous women, but first and foremost they're fierce warriors. Welcome to the world of Queen's Blade , a female-centric media franchise with spinoffs, series, and various other pieces of entertainment that explore a world where women are the most rugged fighters around, …Read more »
Persona 4: Golden is one of the highest praised role-playing games out there right now, and it’s a massive fan favorite that’s still being discussed, seeing new gaming spinoffs produced from, and delighting new players across the world. So it makes sense that it should …Read more »
Sword Art Online is one of those series that’s been difficult to escape over the years, regardless of whether you actually watched it or not. I’ll admit I managed to avoid it for a while—even playing the Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment game on PS …Read more »
Mid-1990s America was a time before high-speed Internet was available in homes, when owning movies was relatively uncommon due to cost. Nationwide video rental stores thrived. They would frequently offer a small section of “Japanimation,” where it would not be uncommon for violent pornography such …Read more »
No one can resist a good ponytail. That’s true for both the male and female respondents to the latest poll from Charapedia, which asked its readers to choose the anime girls who look best with the classic horse tail-resembling ‘do. Who wields anime’s best ponytails? …Read more »
Panties are harmless pieces of clothing. Sure, they’re titillating in many contexts, but for the most part they’re just underwear, right? No need to freak out. Tell that to Punch Line protagonist Yuta Iridatsu, who goes absolutely nuclear if he catches a glimpse of them: …Read more »
Hangings, beheadings, burnings at the stake—those who have been convicted as witches have met a myriad of grisly demises. This is such an entrenched piece of Western history that the English language has even adopted the term “witch hunt” to describe any instance of a …Read more »
Sean O'Mara
Matt Schley
Daryl Surat
Jason Bradley Thompson
Fernando Ramos
Kristina Potts
Brittany Vincent
Joseph Luster
