Story: Three in the Morning, Four in the Evening. In the times of the Song Dynasty[i] in China lived a man they called Sokō, which means monkey trainer. He loved monkeys and reared a whole horde of them at his house. Sokō understood the monkey’s minds quite well, and likewise the monkeys understood their master….
One Punch Man Impressions
Who knew boredom and apathy could be so entertaining? One Punch Man, so far, has plenty of all three. Saitama approaches superheroing as a hobby. What’s his main problem as a part-time superhero? Outside of supervillains attacking during grocery store sales, Saitama struggles with being too powerful. One Punch Man explores what happens when a…
Top 8 Anime Villains
Villains move stories. They motivate and challenge the hero. Strong villains require the hero to grow in fortitude and strength in order to confront them. Most stories require the hero to grown in power. Think of how Goku must train to get stronger in Dragonball Z. But villains can also challenge the hero to grow…
Anime’s Breast Obsession Explained
Boobs, headlights, breasts, jugs, chichi. Modern American culture worships the breast. But American culture isn’t alone. Anime too has a special fixation on the breast. While I’ve already addressed breast symbolism in anime, I haven’t discussed why anime obsesses over breasts. At first blush, this seems like a simple answer: guys. Guys like boobs, and…
Musings VI: On the ghost of O’iwa, and why she’s still scary.
The Season of Horrors It may seem strange at first that summer is the prime time for ghost stories in Japan. We tend to associate summer with pleasant things… but imagine you’re living in early modern Japan. You have no iced drinks, no electric fans, no convenient water taps. There’s basically no way to keep…
Fanfiction Review: The Heart of the Ocean. Chapter 1.
Fanfiction sits in an important fandom niche. Fanfiction can encompass anime or, as in this case, Western stories. Alex reviews a fanfiction based on BBC’s Sherlock. While you may wonder what this has to do with Japan, Japanese culture has inspired modern fanfiction of all types. This story, “The Heart of the Ocean,” involves a…