Entries Tagged as 'Culture'

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Lasting Fandom

Albeit that when I had the epiphany, I didn’t actually intend it to be in anyway sequential, I realise now that one of the notes I most wanted to convey in my last article (that anime characters are strangely diverse, likeable and unique), must inevitably occupy the same territory as those at the heart of [...]

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

Great Shounen of the past

Shounen is absurdly popular, period.  And just like Naruto or Bleach, other shounen shows helped anime sneak into Western pop culture way before most would expect.
The oldest anime I remember watching was Astro Boy. Astro is officially the first anime serialization of all times and it defined many aesthetic standards of what is called anime. [...]

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Death of the anime club

One of the more poignant news items I’ve read recently is that the London Anime Club (LAC) intends to “close doors” by the end of 2008. The cited reason is plain and simple: low attendances, with the popularity of “the London Expo”, “fansubs” and the accessibility of popular anime and manga in “mainstream shops” all [...]

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

‘I am not an anime fan’

Silly as it may seem posting an article like this on an anime related blog but the internet does the wonderful service of giving the user whichever degree anonymity they so choose. Well thank heavens for that because if the people I know found out I watched cartoons then I would have to carry that [...]

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Mono no aware: sakura, nostalgia and transience

I’ve found that often being a fan of anime and manga goes hand-in-hand with an interest in Japanese culture and tradition. The influence Western media has had on them is well-known of course, but to my mind it had more of a bearing on the superficial, aesthetic side of things; from a thematic and character-driven [...]

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Synthesis

On Saturday, I returned home from my holiday in Hastings. Incidentally, it was fantastic! On our return home we always visit somewhere on the way back in order to delay our return home. This particular time we visited the De La War Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea. Exhibited there was a collection by artist Nathan Coley. Coley’s [...]

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Hierarchy of Alienness in Anime Fandom

Browsing through the internet’s many blogs and forums, it’s common to find “fans” of anime trying to separate the best anime from the worst, trying to decide whether or not it’s okay to enjoy moe anime; one side says it’s good fun, the other declares it’s sexist and disgusting. They might shout at each other [...]

Sunday, July 13th, 2008

Japan Expo: an otaku’s paradise, just across the channel.

Last weekend I was invited to attend the ninth Japan Expo at the Parc d’Expositions de Paris-Nord Villepinte. When I first read the names of the mangaka and anime artists who were appearing at Japan Expo this year, I had to pinch myself. Because the team who organize Japan Expo had accumulated a wealth of [...]

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Cats really are good luck.

With the G8 summit happening in Hokkaido all journalistic eyes are on Japan. The news is a pretty depressing (or more so than usual) thing to read at the moment. The economy is in tatters, people are getting sacked left, right and centre and some poor teenager is being stabbed. So it’s nice every once [...]