Geishas and the Floating World by Stephen and Ethel Longstreet examines the history and development of Tokyo’s red-light district of Yoshiwara. The name of the book misleads a little. Most of the book focuses upon the prostitutes that worked Yoshiwara. The authors note that geisha weren’t sex workers, but geisha did blur the line as…
Parallel World Pharmacy Review
Parallel World Pharmacy takes a different direction from the usual isekai. When medical researcher Kanji Yakutani dies from karoshi, he wakes up to find himself reborn in a medieval fantasy culture with all his medical knowledge intact. Fortunately, he was also reborn to a pharmacist family and, in isekai fashion, born to power. In his…
The Internet’s Spoiler Culture
Every week, some upcoming video game is leaked to the Internet. Either you have an entire ROM (read only memory) drop of the game, or leaks of screenshots and gameplay videos. For old-school gamers like me, it’s nearly impossible to avoid spoilers with how prevalent they are on the Internet. You see, I grew up…
Your After Anime Sadness is Okay, but it Brings Personal Responsibility
My article 5 Ways to Handle After-Anime Depression surprised me with the amount of comments people have posted. Feeling sad or empty after finishing a story that resonates with you is a common experience for anime fans. Now, many people would roll their eyes at this idea. “It’s a cartoon! It’s not reality. Save your…
Sketching Taoism’s Influence on Japan
Taoism, or Daoism depending on which transliteration system you want to use, like many Chinese imports, mixed with Japan’s culture and the native religion Shinto. Although calling Shinto a unified religion is an oversimplification, let’s just go with it for now. Like Taoism’s venture into the West, the philosophy took root in Japan more than…
My Top 5 Nostalgic Anime
Nostalgia has a bad reputation online. It is looked down upon because it isn’t objective. I’m sure you’re familiar with the idea of nostalgia goggles: the idea that nostalgia keeps you from seeing how bad something is. Nostalgia’s warm fondness doesn’t have to keep you from knowing if something is objectively bad. What matters is…