Mainichi Anime Yume
Now that I’ve had some years of experience studying and being immersed in Japanese culture, one particular thing that’s always fascinated me about Japan when compared to America is the sense of communality that permeates many aspects of the country. Japan’s emphasis on the communal is quite contrasting to America’s emphasis on individuality…
I finally got around to watching Summer Wars, director Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime film that just won Japan Academy’s Animation Award of the year. What I expected to be a good movie ended up being a fantastic movie that gave me a number of things to ponder…
Despite the complexity of anime fandom, it always amazes me how it’s a hobby one can be fully involved in and yet never have to spend any money on it. I’m not going to get into the whole debate about fansubs vs official viewing. Rather, I’m just thinking about what compels some fans to spend a good amount of money on their hobby, while others spend little to nothing, yet both are equally interested in anime…
I put “how” in quotations because I’m not discussing how you watch anime in terms of subs vs dubs, bittorent or streaming, etc,. Rather, I’m curious as to how my fellow fans watch anime in terms of two things in particular – one, your ideal setting for watching anime, i.e., by yourself or with friends, on the computer or TV, at night or during the day, etc., and two, do you prefer to watch currently airing shows once a week, marathon older shows a bunch of episodes at a time, or some combination of both…
I’ve noticed that, for a handful of recent anime, a trend has been going on in which the openings and/or the endings are changed more frequently than usual. I’m curious if this is just a coincidence or if it’s pointing to something more…
There’s a certain trope that’s quite popular in anime, though not so common in Western TV shows and movies – the abundance of characters who embody animism, with human traits and often human form, but are not human…
Now that the 2009 rebroadcast/second season is over and the much anticipated “Disappearance” movie has proven to be quite successful, it seems that Haruhi’s popularity continues despite the three year wait for new episodes and the “Endless Eight” fiasco. However, an interesting discussion came up on this AnimeSuki forum post – the fact that “The Disappearance” movie may be the final installment of the title known as “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”…
One (of many) things about anime that’s always stood out to me since I became a fan is the songs. No matter what the nature of the anime in question is, with relatively few exceptions, the majority of anime opening and ending songs, more often than not, have common themes…
The other day it was announced that new additions to the main series of Pokemon games are slated for a late 2010 release. These new games will feature the long-awaited 5th generation of new pokemon. Being the big fan that I am, I was very pleased with the news, but it also got me thinking – how many more new pokemon will the games, or the franchise in general, be able to handle? Will the Pokemon series be able to deliver “newness” at the rate it has been for the past 12+ years, or will the day ever come when it simply overloads?
In addition to watching niche anime marketed towards fans, I also enjoy a number of children/family series that are marketed for the general Japanese public, from the massive, long-running hits like One Piece, Pokemon, and Naruto, to shorter and newer shows like Tegami Bachi and Kobato. Since I started watching kids anime over a decade ago, it never ceases to amaze me how vastly different the characters are compared to American cartoons…
