Mainichi Anime Yume
Today I wanted to experiment with a different kind of post – one that involves taking a break from anime and blogging about one of the most popular overall blog topics: places traveled to. I’m not much of a traveler and haven’t been to many interesting places. But there are some I would like to share at some point, besides Japan and anime conventions, which I’ve already shared quite a bit of here on the blog. So what better way to start than with the “happiest place on Earth”…
When I think of where my anime fandom originated, I know that it started with my obsession with Pokemon back in the late 90s. However, the roots of it go back further than that – perhaps the origin of my eventual anime fandom can be traced back to how I related to all the fads I ever went through as a kid…
A couple of weeks ago I went to the theater to see The Secret World of Arrietty, the latest Studio Ghibli film being released in the US by Disney. Unfortunately I saw the movie on President’s Day, so the theater was packed with kids and families who had the day off. But despite this, the kids weren’t as loud as they could have been throughout the movie and it was indeed a very good film. However, it also got me thinking about a very noticeable difference between an anime production like Arrietty, and most other animated films kids here are exposed to nowadays…
One of the many things that makes anime stand out among other forms of media is the sheer variety of art styles that exist within the medium. From the sharp lines of shonen and fluffiness of shojo, to the dark hues of sci-fi and the brightness of moe, anime entails an amazing variety of character designs and artistic elements to match anyone’s tastes. So what have I found about my tastes in terms of anime art styles…
I wouldn’t call myself a Harry Potter fan, but I do enjoy the movies and have great respect for the books and overall series. With the release of the final movie, which I saw this past weekend in IMAX 3D, it seems like the franchise has now officially come to an end. With that, I feel like a bit of reflecting is in order, as well as wondering if a HP anime is ever possible…
This past Saturday I purchased my first Blu-ray player. I know Blu-ray has been around for a while now but I was a bit skeptical about getting into it. Firstly, I didn’t have enough money to even get my first HD TV until this past summer, but even then I suppose I was waiting for the price of Blu-rays to go down and for anime to start being released more steadily on BD here in the U.S. But now I feel the time is finally right for me to move up as far as my anime/movie viewing experience…
While browsing through this entertaining little site yesterday, a thought suddenly occurred to me: are there any Japanese films in which anime characters and live-action characters interact?…
For the past five to six years, my field of academic interest has been Japanese language and culture, which was brought about by my love for anime. However, that was not the case for most of the years of my life. In fact, for quite a long time I thought my career would follow not the language and culture of anime, but its visual medium – animation and cartooning…
Back in January I wrote a post about my most favorite non-Japanese cartoon. Today I’m following up with that idea and writing about my most favorite non-Japanese comic. I’ve always been an avid fan of animated movies and TV shows, but I’ve only read a few non-Japanese comics. I never had that much interest in comic strips, but this one stands out to me in particular…
Lately I’ve been indulging in the wonders of emulators – programs that allow you to play old video games from various consoles on your computer. Back in the 90s when I was a kid and before I knew about anime, I spent the majority of my free time engrossed in video games. And even to this day, thanks to emulators, I’ve discovered that I still love old school games, sometimes even more so than new games…