Paper fans symbolize Japan, right up there with giant robots, sushi, geisha, and kimono. While a humble part of fashion and summer, the fan has a history of its own. Japan isn’t unique in having fans. It’s the most convenient way to cool off, after all. A leaf or anything flexible can become a fan,…
Naked! Understanding Anime Nudity and Fan Service
I get it, some of you like fan-service, but fan-service has become a blight on anime as a whole. It’s fine when it appears in genres you fully expect to see it in: ecchi and hentai. Let it remain there. However, the mentality behind fan-service has leeched most categories of anime. Breast jokes have no…
The Dangers of the Anime Community Moving to Corporate-Ran Platforms
In the old days of the anime community (okay, not to old, old VHS days. Rather, the days before social media), private blogs and forums dominated. This wild-world of shanty-websites huddled across the various oases of fandoms had their own sheriffs and rules. People often traveled between these towns as word (pingbacks) spread of interesting…