Kaguya-sama: Love is War shares a lot of similarities with Seinfeld. Seinfeld made a fuss out of nothing, such as waiting to be seated in a Chinese restaurant. Kaguya-sama does the same thing, but with a romantic twist to it. Playing a board game becomes a battle of wits and tricks to try reveal hidden…
Category: Anime
Examining Animation: Marin’s Embarrassment
During one scene in My Dress-up Darling, Marin stands in a bikini while Wakana takes her measurements so he can make her cosplay outfits. At one point, Marin’s self-control breaks down and her embarrassment bursts forth. Let’s look at this little scene’s animation. I will be working with an animated gif that I’ve exploded into…
Darwin’s Game
Darwin’s Game reverses the isekai premise: it brings the game into the real world. Kaname Sudo stumbles into the death game blindly and must learn how to survive. The game pits people into death battles against each other for points and rank. Points and rank can be cashed in for real-world money or weapons from…
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform is a healing anime by CloverWorks, the same studio that produced the recent My Dress-Up Darling. The story follows Akebi as she joins an all-girls school for the first time. She wears a sailor uniform, made by her mom. However, the school no longer uses sailor uniforms as their official dress, but…
Can Anime Show Sexual Assault Ethically?
A reader posed the question that serves as the title for the article, along with several other difficult and important questions. Long-time readers know I’ve addressed anime’s portrayal of sexuality and fan service from many different angles. Anime sometimes has scenes of sexual assault, such as in Sword Art Online and, rather infamously, Goblin Slayer….
Manga Artists, Child Pornography, and the Influence of Manga, Part 2
In the first part of this article, I examined the effects associated with pornography use, both child and adult, and how they encourage personality traits that can lead to sex crimes. In brief, porn use links to increased aggression, particularly if you have aggressive traits, skewed sexual perspectives, and misogyny. With pedophiles and sex offenders,…