A few months ago I wrote a post about six things that have disappeared from anime over the past decade. Today I’m doing a follow-up to that topic with six things that have increased in anime over the past decade…
Cats and dogs in anime and Japan
September 29, 2011 by 33 Comments
There’s certainly no shortage of cats in anime, whether as major or minor characters. Disregarding the ever popular cat-girl, I can list quite a few anime cats off the top of my head. When it comes to anime dogs however…I have more trouble thinking of some. I wonder why that is since, according to a recent Japan Times article, both cats and dogs seem to be equally popular in Japan as pets, with dogs outnumbering cats in some cases…
Hate in anime fandom
September 1, 2011 by 46 Comments
Often times when asked what our favorite anime and characters are, we’re also asked what anime and characters we hate. For most fans, it’s easy to rattle off a number of anime they despise and characters they wish would disappear into oblivion. When I’m prompted with this question however, I find that I have difficulty answering it. I could ramble on and on about anime and characters that I love (which I’m sure you’ve seen me do on the blog!) but I’m unsure when it comes to proclaiming my hate…
Life brings changes…
August 27, 2011 by 35 Comments
This is more of a personal post today, but I don’t mind sharing it and hopefully you’ll find it worth your while…
Female characters versus male characters
August 23, 2011 by 29 Comments
Lately I’ve been thinking of making a new list of my top 10 anime characters, since the one I wrote two years ago is a bit outdated. Along those lines, I once again realized that, for whatever reason, at least 80% of my top 10 characters are female. This in turn got me thinking – how many of my other fellow fans have a preference for just one gender of characters, and can we provide reasons for our preference?
Should any anime be called a “classic”?
August 17, 2011 by 36 Comments
Just as there are numerous books, movies, songs, and other cultural works considered “classics” by many, I’ve often wondered if certain anime should be labeled in a similar way…
6 things that have disappeared from anime over the past decade
August 8, 2011 by 45 Comments
Being the form of media that it is, anime, like all things, can’t help but change along with the times. There are many things that were common in the anime world a decade ago that have more or less disappeared nowadays. Today I feel like taking a look at six of those things and figuring out why they’ve become so rare…
What I’ve learned from fan translating
August 4, 2011 by 22 Comments
As some of you probably know, for the past couple of months I’ve been part of a translation group that’s been working on providing an English release of the latest Haruhi novels (volumes 10 and 11). We finally completed the project earlier this week. Baka-Tsuki, the group that had provided fan translations for the previous nine novels, could no longer work on the series, so myself and a few other dedicated individuals took on the task. I translated and edited one chapter myself (72 pages) and edited two that were translated by someone else (222 pages). Since this was the first major translation project I’ve worked on, I’d like to share what I’ve learned about the experience…
Organizing your anime fandom
July 27, 2011 by 23 Comments
It’s always amazed me how so many of us love anime yet we have such a wide variety of ways of relating to it. After all, anime is unique as a hobby because it’s not about being interested in one particular title or group of similar titles, like someone who loves Star Wars or Marvel comics. It’s a hobby that encompasses literally thousands of titles from an incredibly diverse range of genres. With so much variety in anime comes a variety of fans and a variety of ways in which they partake in the fandom. Today I’m going to see if I can find a good way for fans to organize different parts of their fandom, and in doing so, see the unique way that they personally relate to it…
Anime and its misleading tones
July 22, 2011 by 15 Comments
Yet another unique anime attribute is how many series can convey a variety of different tones regardless of their genre or target audience. What I mean by this is that it’s not uncommon for action/violent anime to have scenes of beauty, anime laden with gore to have moments of cuteness, or cute, sugary anime to feature things that are dark and disturbing…