Modern Japan is well known for its fascination with all things robotic. This is rooted deep in their history, when they used clockwork puppets called the Karakuri Ninyao to play out folk stories during religious festivals. Like their preoccupation with robots, the Japanese are well known for their contributions to science fiction. Famous science fiction…
Chaos;Head
Chaos;Head is based on a Japanese visual novel. Takumi Nishijo is a reclusive otaku who lives for 2D girls. He is essentially a hikkikomori that suffers from intense delusions. The delusions begin to crack his psyche when he imagines himself as the person behind a series of murders. Labeled New Generation Madness by the media,…
Rockabilly in Japan, Baby
Rockabillies – or as we call them in the States: Greasers – is a fashion style that can still be found in Harajuku district in Tokyo. The rockabilly (or rokabiri in Japanese) is a strange import from America. Despite being in the style of Greasers, the fashion has roots in country and western music, dating…
Space Dandy – It was a Dandy of a Ride, Baby
Space Dandy, like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo before, is genre to itself. It plays with and breaks themes found in scifi and anime. The series lacked a cohesive plot, and it was sporadic at times. Yet, some episodes were the stuff of legend. Other episodes were the stuff of meh. Where Cowboy Bebop was episodic, but Space Dandy…
Midoricon 2014 Coverage Pt. 2-Interview with Marble Hornets/THAC
At Midoricon 2014, I had the chance to sit down with Troy, Tim, and Joseph, the creators and stars of the amazing YouTube series Marble Hornets, to talk about their future projects, Luke Skywalker’s GoPro camera, and other things. Was there any point in time that you were tired of the series and wanted to…
Pokemon: A History of Friendship and Controversy
Pokemon proved itself more than a fad. Back in 1999, at the height of popularity, Pokemania caused parents to fear for their children. Pokemon was an odd mix of good moral principles like friendship and compassion with acquisitiveness. Gotta catch ’em all! (Chua-Eaon, 1999; Kehoe, 2000). The fears of parents had little to do with…