Mainichi Anime Yume
This is a topic I have never given much thought to, but it recently came up during a conversation I had with a friend. I always assumed that a more-or-less singular definition of shojo and shonen anime/manga was agreed upon by everyone involved in anime. But I can see now that that’s not entirely so…
I recently came across a post about a book called “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals” by Prof. Hiroki Azuma. Although I’ve never read the book myself, Mike over at Anime Diet had some very interesting comments about how Prof. Azuma describes the mentality of Japanese otaku…
The title of this post is a question that I’m confronted with fairly often. Why do hardcore fans spend so much money buying anime collectibles, such as figures, plushies, and trading cards, when such things are relatively expensive, take up space, and all they do is “sit around and collect dust?”…
As I’m making my way through the concluding episodes of the Enies Lobby arc of One Piece, I’m continually intrigued by the series’ reoccurring theme of “rebelling against authority,” particularly how the heroes of the show are pirates, and the villains are often the Marines or other authoritative figures…
The skill, ingenuity, and often times bizarreness of fan-made anime MADs never cease to amaze me (and Hetalia ones are no exception)…
During my trip to Japan a few weeks ago, I spent most of my time with Japanese college students (between the ages of 18 and 23) who I stayed with at the dorms and who took us out during our sightseeing. I was curious how Japanese people my age would feel about an American female anime fan like me…
Ever since all anime switched from cel animation to digital animation back in the early 2000s, there has been some debate among fans about whether story/character quality has decreased even though animation techniques have increased…
This is a recent Ask John post that caught my attention. John points out that there is indeed a difference between what Japanese fans like about anime and what American fans like about it…
For some time I’ve been puzzled about the difference between “fandom” in America and “fandom” in Japan, not just anime fandom but fandom in general. It seems to me that the Japanese place more emphasis on having people become totally immersed and supporting fans of anime and other entertainment, while America doesn’t really offer the same kind of hard-core immersion in its shows and movies. I’ll illustrate my points further in this post, and I’d also like to hear your opinion as well…
This has been a pretty hot topic amongst the English speaking anime world lately, especially with the collapse of Geneon and with ADV barely holding on. Now I don’t know much about business, licensing, finance, etc., nor about the inner workings of US anime companies. However, from what I’ve seen being an American anime fan for almost ten years, I definitely know that there are some things that need to be done in order to help the R1 anime industry recover, outdo fansubs, and to also please the majority of fans…