Image Credit: さこ from Pixiv
Alright, I’m back from Fanime 2015. Unfortunately, I’ve come back to a horde of school projects I’ve neglected in favor of my special once-a-year geek-fest, so for now I’ll just go over the merch I spent my moolah on this year and share the rest of my Fanime 2015 experience later.
Image Credit: あきのん from Pixiv
よいお年をお迎えください!
It’s finally 2015 on my side of the world, guys! I didn’t do a “12 Days of Anime” countdown for the end of 2014, but I’m still up to share some blurbs of my Japanese-related highlights of 2014 all in one post (excluding Fanime, you can see that post here).
Image Credit: 芹野いつき from Pixiv
Americanization in imported media should have been a practice that we’ve abandoned long ago. Sure, we get stubborn folks like Capcom who insist on relocating series like Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) from Japan to Los Angeles and digging a deeper hole for themselves as the series progresses, but for the most part nowadays, especially in anime, you hardly see downright stupid crap like calling onigiri “jelly-filled doughnuts” as if western children have no idea what a ball of rice is (hint: ‘MURICANS HAVE RICE FIELDS TOO)… right?
Unfortunately for today, the practice of shielding our children from other cultures still persists in some anime aimed at the kodomo – shounen crowd that we manage to bring over here, though thankfully it’s a lot less than what we got several years ago. We have the unfortunate 4Kids titles (we can never, ever talk sense into old guys who think they know what kids like), and some other titles sprinkled here and there by companies that really don’t have much respect for anime as a cultural form of foreign animation, other than as a marketing vehicle towards kids. It was worse back during the 90s and early 2000s, when my (and many others’) beloved Cardcaptor Sakura got chopped up into the putrid Cardcaptors.
You’d think Doraemon, a very iconic JAPANESE anime/manga that gained popularity all over the world as such, would be able to remain Japanese when it’s finally able to make its way to the United States and be able to escape that sort of xenophobic treatment. Haha, yeah. right.
Continue reading “Americanization is stupid, especially if it’s for kids”
Let the cheek-pinching commence!
I gotta say, if there’s anything keeping me from going insane from my terrible, terrible Pre-Calculus class, it’s watching the continuation of our ADHD-filled adventures with the “The Summer of Far East Magic Nap Club” whenever I head home every week. Not only is it nice when you’re watching a bunch of heart-wrenching crap (doesn’t even need to be anime) and are in need of something extremely adorkable to soften the impact in-between, it’s also a good way to soften the impact of stress in real life.
I don’t know if I mentioned this during the first season’s run, but damn do the characters do a great job of carrying this anime. And this quality is something that’s played up a bit more this season, especially considering that characters other than Yuuta and Rikka aren’t getting shoved out of the spotlight, which in my opinion, was one of the biggest flaws during the first season.
Continue reading “Thoughts/Analysis on Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren so far (~Episode 05)”
よいお年をお迎えください!
Hope you guys are having a Happy New Years. Lack of time has kept me from posting a “12 Days of Anime” countdown like I did last year, but I’m still up to share some of my anime-related highlights of 2013 all in one post.
Image Credit: a-ka
“I found the romance somewhat lacking”, “the animation in this scene was horrible”, “good god what were they thinking while making this”, etc.
Sometimes, when you’re listening to a person’s opinion on a particular subject (say, a certain anime or maybe manga/VN), this person seems to go on long tangents about how a certain aspect of the story didn’t meet their expectations and continue by picking apart other qualities that the writers did wrong in their eyes, and seem to have more to say about the negative aspects than the positive aspects of the story. Jesus, this person must FRIGGIN’. HATE. THIS ANIME.
And then you realize: “No, wait… what? This person likes this anime? Not just like, it’s their favorite? Well hell, how the heck was I suppose to know that when they kept on talking down on it!”
Image Credit: buuta
While I definitely appreciate serious stories in media, more often than not, I enjoy a departure from that kind of atmosphere in favor of something that’s more friendly and innocent. Good stories don’t always have to be dark, edgy, and full of drama, after all.
For me, that remains especially true for anime, manga, and video games.
Continue reading “12 Days of Anime, Day 8: Carpe Fulgur is AWESOME!”
Being a starving college student and an impulsive buyer of anime-related stuff is not a good combination of qualities to have.
Boys and girls, take it from a victim, save your money for school, food, and maybe a nice car. You’ll probably get through your life smoother than me.
Continue reading “12 Days of Japanese Propaganda, Day 5: Right Stuf is AWESOME!”
Image Credit: namori from Pixiv
Hold it. Stop. Forget the holidays for a second. It’s my sister’s seventh birthday today. Because of this, I was sort of inspired to make a top-best list of cutest little sister characters, before my family decides to get all festive in celebration of the birth of the most adorkable first grader I know. Of course, I don’t know that many first graders to begin with, but… whatever!
She may be a pain in the ass sometimes, but it’s nice to have her around to brighten up the mood. Which is what little sisters are for in fiction, most of the time. At least in Japanese fiction, where the presence of a little sister character is supposed to be soothing – and these just happened to be my favorite little sister characters in recent times.
Continue reading “Imouto birthday! Favorite little sisters in anime”
Image Credit: juria from Pixiv
A little less than seven years in the blogosphere and this is actually my first time taking part in a “12 Days of Anime” post-spree, a project in which bloggers recount memorable moments related to anime either this year or in general. I decided to do it about 2012. I’m pretty excited about it, mostly since I don’t really physically *celebrate* any holidays outside of buying one or two gifts before Christmas Day comes around… and taking a break from school.
I was originally planning on doing this when the REAL 12 Days of Christmas began (which is Christmas Day), but then I saw everyone else start doing it today. So, I figured, I was probably planning on doing it wrong, somehow…
Any-who, let’s get the holiday season started. *calls the Christmas Carolers*
Continue reading “12 Days of Anime, Day 1: The Return of a Ronin”
竜国の戦場 ~オタクSPOT~ 