Back when I first started watching anime regularly–during my early college years (I’m getting old)–I would sometimes get hooked on opening and ending themes. Two later favorites were Ichirinnohana by High and Mighty Color and Natsumi Kiyoura’s Tabi no Tochuu from the original Spice and Wolf. While I would find other opening and ending themes…
Anachronisms in Anime
Anachronisms appear throughout anime. They take many different forms, sometimes impacting the story and other times erring in details that don’t matter. Merriam-Webster defines anachronism as “a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other.” Anachronisms can pull you out of a story by jarring the fragile illusion the story…
The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses
The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses is a harem comedy that focuses on the theme of a found family. Spoilers ahead for both the anime and manga, by the way. Hayato Kasukabe returns to Miura to close his recently deceased grandmother’s cafe, Cafe Terrace Familia. But he discovers his grandmother had taken in five women…
Should You Read Musui’s Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai?
I had hunted for a cheap English copy of Musui’s Story for several years. Finally, I stumbled across a copy buried in a used book store for $5. Katsu Kokichi wrote his autobiography toward the end of the Tokugawa period. Musui, to use his retirement name, wasn’t a scholar, administrator, or a samurai of any…
Not All Heroes Draw Their Swords: Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth in Modern Anime
The journey story stands as one of the oldest types of stories, although the Cinderella story is likely the oldest story pattern. The journey pattern involves a hero of some sort traveling across various places, facing all sorts of challenges, and, at the same time, delving into their own psychology. This story archetype remains popular…
This Monster Wants to Eat Me: the Guilt that Drives Someone Toward Death
I enjoy a good yokai story, having studied yokai stories and even reworking versions of them for modern readers, freeing them from their late 1800s English and Latin (which were often the first time these Japanese stories were written down). If you are curious, I collected all of these into my Tales from Old Japan…