Tag Archives: anime

Even Gundams Get Snowed On

This is a life-sized, 1:1 model Gundam (making it going on 60 feet in height) that exists in real life in Japan. Gundam was Japan’s first “realistic” (that is, realistic style) leading robot in Japanese animation (i.e. anime). You can … Continue reading

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A Short Tale of a Novel

It had taken me many years, but I finally tracked down the first novel of the Record of Lodoss War novels. I’d seen the OVA years before and was a great fan of it for many reasons. It took a … Continue reading

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Sensei’s Corner, Dec. 9, 2011

Nothing Bad It’s been a while since I’ve been writing in this blog, but it’s not really because of anything bad. Actually, a number of minor and major problems have been fixed so I feel like I have the luxury … Continue reading

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On Sacred Seven

Sacred Seven is a 12-episode anime by Sunrise with high quality imagery in a “tokusatsu” style, reflective of popular shows like Kamen Rider, but with the sweeping visual power anime can provide. It is a little about love, a lot … Continue reading

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On Katanagatari

Katanagatari (“Katana Tale”) is ostensibly about swords, but it is really about people. It is epic in various senses. It is 12 episodes of 50 minutes. It is beautiful, yet simple; frivolous, yet deadly serious. It is an experience. It … Continue reading

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Today’s Random Anime Lesson, Oct 31 2011

When a leading male arrives in an unfamiliar town and breaks up in laughter at seeing a house, commenting about how terrible it looks and what awful taste the owner must have, it is invariably the house of his leading … Continue reading

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Quick Hits: Guilty Crown ep 1

Just A Quick Word I don’t have enough time to do as much blogging as I’d like, but more to the point, I hadn’t actually watched much anime for a while. In this case, I took a look at Guilty … Continue reading

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Drama: Cutting Off One’s Hair In Japan

An Old Tradition One theme that arises in Japanese drama, be it film or anime, is a character dramatically cutting off her hair. This is signals some kind of dramatic, life-altering change.

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Making Viewers Suffer Before Good Endings

大した苦労だった One enduring feature of Japanese storytelling is that, if there is ever to be a good ending, protagonists must appropriately suffer before it, and so must the viewers. Some shows can get very hard to watch. And not all … Continue reading

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The Japanese Art of Storytelling

I’ve written my thoughts about this before, to a point, but one of my enduring reasons for liking Japanese culture is the deep tradition of high quality storytelling that I have discovered within it.

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