I already griped about anime and high school. It’s time I look at exactly why so many anime use high school as the main focus…other than letting the artists draw cute uniforms. Certainly teenagers are a good audience to market to, but many manga and anime oriented for adults still feature teens as characters…Perhaps this…
Author: Chris Kincaid
Kawaii
Kawaii literally means lovable, cute, or adorable. Kawaiasa is the noun ( love-ability, cuteness, or adorableness). Kawaii refers to the cuteness that appears throughout Japanese pop culture. Both men and women are expected to look and act kawaii. Interestingly, when cute seems fake it is looked down upon. Women who try to be kawaii and…
PES: Peace Eco Smile
I don’t like advertisements. They are annoying and too ubiquitous; I do everything I can to block and avoid them. But I find PES: Peace Eco Smile very interesting. Peace Eco Smile is an advertising campaign for Toyota Motor Corporation. Promotional anime? Sounds like a corruption doesn’t it? I can only say it is about…
Rosario + Vampire
Tsukune is a normal high school teenager. Of course, in the anime world that means abnormal events are on the menu. Tsukune is unable to get into a private school because of his poor grades. With help from his parents, he lands a spot at the Yokai Academy. Yokai is a class of monster in…
Brief Visual Anime History
Anime as we know it has been around in Japan since the Edo period…ok at least it draws it’s roots to that period. Ukiyo-e were woodblock prints. Ever heard of Katsushika Hokusai? His work is ukiyo-e. You can see many of the elements anime will draw from: the simplified yet expressive faces, the vibrant colors,…
Japanese Gestures
Japanese have many gestures that come off as strange to us Westerners. When we see ’em in anime and movies they can leave us scratching our heads. I couldn’t find some of the odder gestures, but I did manage a collection of the more common conversation gestures. Here is a low down on some of…