Mainichi Anime Yume
When asked what one of the most appealing aspects of anime is, fans will usually mention character development. However, I’ve often wondered exactly what defines character development, at least in terms of anime narratives. Over the years, I’ve come up with two prominent types of anime character development, though I’m still debating whether that’s what they should both be called…
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…
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”…
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…
As much as anime fans love praising their favorite series for artistic values, many will still acknowledge that anime is, in the end, a commercial product that is precisely tailored to what fans want, and whose main goal is to increase ratings and merchandise sales…
From what I’ve observed in the many anime titles I’ve watched over the years, the concept of love, especially compared to most Western TV shows and movies, is much more ambiguous, and sometimes downright strange…
I wasn’t sure how to start this relatively personal post. I figured the below quote would be a good way (and yes, I will relate it to anime)…
Over the past few days I’ve been going through my 7+ year-old, but still active, anime fan site, Anime Yume, updating information pages and saving copies of important files. Going through sections of my old site made me reminiscent of the days before blogs, when anime fan sites flourished…
