Category Archives: Anime

Japan: Anime, Video Games, and Art

“In this sense, we don’t play the game; the game plays us.” Continue reading

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Super Robot Wars Z the 2nd Promo Video

For The Mecha Crowd Oh and, definitely count me among the mecha crowd. I’ve played the predecessor of this PSP game exhaustively. Rather than babble about my experiences, those inclined to see a sampling of the various series and mecha … Continue reading

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The Season That Was: Anime in Japan, Winter 2011 Review

The Short And Sweet Due to older experiments with spoiler tags, I’m using “more” tags now. Just go to the main link for my short, concise, minimum spoilers assessment of anime that ended at the end of the Winter 2011 … Continue reading

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Random Oriental Wisdom, 2-24-11

Wisdom Comes In Various Forms The enemy of my enemy is my cannon fodder. – Random blog Seen in the context of a review of Star Driver episode 20, here. I found it quite amusing… and of real application in … Continue reading

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On Japanese Popular Culture

Rejecting A Restrictive View In reading an article in the Japan Times about popular culture in Japan, the article takes a position that is overtly or covertly taken by many purported conveyors of wisdom about Japan: the position that popular … Continue reading

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Extra! Extra! Gundam Exia Survives Gundam 00 Season 2

“Sighted” Via Twitter Some fans of Gundam 00 had wondered if Gundam Exia had even survived the end of the second season in some form, or if it had been completely destroyed, never to be utilized again in any way.

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Quantum Physics and Gundam

Depiction: The Gundam 00 qan[t], shortly after entering the quantum portal in the Gundam 00 movie. No spoilers – watch the movie if you want to see where the destination is. Pretty, isn’t it? This just underlines how Gundam 00 … Continue reading

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Why Newtype Awakening Won’t Save Mankind

A Naive Idea, Often Repeated An idea advanced by Japanese writers, directors, and thinkers in general, goes something like this: if we only understood what was in each others’ hearts, war would cease and we would become a better, more … Continue reading

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Early Anime Impression: Gosick (Pronounced “Gothic”)

ゴシック (“Gothic”) Gosick is animated by Bones, which I have lauded in the past; I liked Heroman, but at any rate they tend to do far out and artsy stuff which I respect. Pronounced “gothic” (and you see this clearly in … Continue reading

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The Fractale Scandal And Its Implications

A Sad, Infuriating Spectacle My experiences with the new anime Fractale began innocently enough with this article in the Asahi Shimbun (official romanization; ‘shinbun’ in text but ‘shimbun’ as spoken in Tokyo dialect). Long story short, director Yutaka Yamamoto sees … Continue reading

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