About

Otaku Lounge began in 2013 and is for the most part an anime blog, although it occasionally focuses on other forms of Japanese general and pop culture such as music, film, food, fashion, and travel. Few posts are academic in nature, but rather aim to be easily understood and enjoyed by anime veterans and those newer to the medium alike. This blog also encourages open discussion from its readers – all comments (other than spam) are welcome.

The author of Otaku Lounge is Artemis. Having lived and worked in Japan for several years, she is now taking this opportunity to write informally about her passion. Since 2015, she’s also been a contributor to The Glorio Blog.

For any questions about Otaku Lounge or its author, please refer first to the FAQ page.

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120 thoughts on “About”

    2. Nice to meet you ,Artemis!
      I am chinese ACGer (person who addicted in anime、comic、game).
      Recently i am working on paper about anime pilgrimage .
      May i contact with you for some advice??

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  3. You did you doctoral thesis on sexuality in anime? You. Are. A. Genius. ❤ I look forward to reading your writing in the future!

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  4. Hi, it’s the writer for Sunny Side Anime Blog. I wanna start by saying that over the year I’ve been blogging, I have been cruelly ignoring my WordPress feed and I now find that that was a huge mistake on my part. The truth that I have been denying myself is that I am actually interested in other people’s opinions on anime as well as I am interested in sharing my own. In a way, I’ve been “tsundere” about all this. Anyway, every tsundere eventually has to quit the act and I guess that’s what I want to do now. I read your blog because you provide a lot of interesting insights and opinions, but I’m also interested to know what other blogs and sites you read. See, I want to open myself and my blog to anyone who has an idea or opinion worth sharing, so if it’s not too much to ask, can you recommend some blogs that you find interesting?

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    1. Hi there. 🙂 I guess I’m still getting into the whole blogging thing myself, because even though I’ve been writing about anime and Japanese pop culture for a few years now, I’m fairly new to WordPress. There’s only one blog I currently read on a regular basis that’s not on WordPress – all the other blogs I follow, I’ve just found through keyword searches here.

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      1. Thanks anyway. If you find an interesting blog or site in the future, don’t hesitate to share it please. I think it’s important that we blog writers encourage and promote each other and share what we find interesting as I hope to do soon. Keep up the good writing 🙂

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  5. Hi, thanks for visiting my blog! Really appreciate it and I checked out yours too! You have a lot of interesting posts, I particularly liked the one about Japan and Gender Inequality. Anyway, following you now and keep up the good work. 😀

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  10. I have only one question? Is that a photo of you? Very stunning pleasing to the eye, there surly must be a lucky man, an apple of your eye…

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  12. Just is not right! And humanity letting continue is a worse crime… Gender Equality Must End for Humanity to move forward… If I am able to keep in my thoughts I will continue the battle with you…

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  13. Kind of a random question… What are some of your favourite fantasy books/series? I don’t read as much as I want to these days 😦 but I used to be a huge reader. Some of my favourites are A Song Of Ice And Fire (George R R Martin), Sword of Shadows (JV Jones) and Malazan Book Of The Fallen (Steven Erikson). And Harry Potter :-). I don’t see much about books in aniblogger land so I’d be interested to hear your favourite books.
    Also if it’s ok with you may I read your thesis too? If it is you should be able to find my email address in the “comments” section of the Dashboard. Or if you can’t see it I can put it here.
    Thanks!

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    1. My favourite books of all time are the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m also a big fan of Juliet Marillier, particularly the Sevenwaters Trilogy. And while it’s more supernatural than fantasy, I adore the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. I also tend to gobble up anything by Sherryl Jordan, Catherine Webb, Holly Black, and Gail Carson Levine.
      Sure, I’ll be happy to send you a link to my thesis. Please be gentle. 😉

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      1. Ah, the Kingkiller chronicles. When you mentioned them I had a sudden burst of hope that the third book had been finished. Sadly not 😦
        I LOVED the first book of the series. The second I can’t really remember. Maybe I should check it out again while I’ve still on holidays.

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  14. Interesting, I’m curious why you’ve decided to work where you do currently. Have you been working there while working on your thesis and thus just continued more of the same, or..?

    Also, interesting to see an active LiveJournal member, I remember back when everyone used LJ. I’ve had my account since 2002 and it was mostly active until 2010, when I saw most people depart it, for blogger, wordpress, facebook and other outlets. I guess it fits, since a large segment of the remaining LJ activity seemed to have been focused on Fan-fic, which is a circle you belong to, apparently.

    (I like looking up people I converse with.)

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    1. I’ve had a thing for Japan since as long as I can really remember, so living and working here has been a dream of mine for a few years now, even before I started my PhD. I’ve only been living here for one year now though – I wrote my PhD back at home in New Zealand, then came to Japan when I was done.

      Yeah, LiveJournal feels pretty quiet these days. I don’t think I’d ever stop blogging there though. WordPress is just for my anime and Japanese pop culture articles, whereas LJ is where all the more personal and day to day stuff goes. 🙂

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      1. So no academia life for you?

        Yeah, I find it hard to find a place to post more personal meanderings I wouldn’t want to post on Facebook/G+ these days. I just don’t have time to really post on my livejournal anymore, life’s been busy. In fact, a large part of me resurrecting my blog was just general unhappiness about not having any writing outlet.

        Political thoughts as well, just don’t have a place for them, and not in the mood of stirring shit-storms on my FB page, since my friend list runs all the gamuts of hyper-liberal to ultra-conservatives, hyper-religious to militant atheists, poor to rich, etc.

        And also, with the lack of ability to just go back and read discussions or have them properly, I don’t feel Facebook is the right arena to have these discussions anyway. G+ is much better, but it’s more aimed at “Awesome”. When I need some awesome in my life I spend 5 minutes on G+ and then don’t visit it again for a month in fear of drowning in all of the awesome stuf shared on it.

        I do have a couple of other WP accounts, one is really inactive, about competitive story games, and one is generally about games and game design which gets a post now and then.
        No, when I maintained 3 or so blogs concurrently it wasn’t easy >.>

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        1. To be honest, I have no idea what I’ll do in the future. Academia is a possibility and I’ve published a couple of articles around the place along with finishing my PhD, but I don’t know that I’d want to do that kind of thing as a career. I’m not sure I’d have the patience for it.

          It’s just WordPress and LiveJournal for me. I use Facebook, but mostly only as a means of keeping in contact with my friends who don’t blog. I never put anything very personal there, and I’ve never especially been attracted to Facebook in any case. It’s more a convenience than anything else, much like having a cellphone is – I use it, but I don’t necessarily like it.

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      2. I definitely hear you on facebook. I mostly use it for some of the silly free games on it to pass 5 minutes here and there, and sometimes suddenly notice someone I’ve went to high school with just got married or had a kid (I feel so old typing this ;_;)

        I definitely feel the lack of a more personal way to communicate with people, which is why I’ve always used a lot of IM programs, I guess. Or LJ back in the day. There is just no place I currently feel comfortable really talking about my day or emotions. Though I can limit every G+ message it feels like it’s kind of missing the point of sharing, nearly no one I know uses LJ anymore so it’s more of a memoir, Facebook gets checked when you apply for jobs and as you said half the point is to have people you’re not that close with on it… :-/

        I definitely hear you about academia and wanting to leave your options open, was just curious. I’m following my Masters right now, and I really am not so sure I wish to teach for one 😉

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  15. Thank you for visiting my blog! I had to click on you because I love the name Artemis (there’s a series of YA novels about a boy genius called Artemis that I love). Now I find that you’ve pretty much done the exact thesis I thought of doing when I was better plugged into anime and manga. May I ask how ‘rural’ your Japan is and how much longer you’re planning to stay?

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    1. Ah, the Artemis Fowl novels? I like them too (although that’s not where my internet name comes from). 🙂
      I live in a little fishing and agricultural town in Ehime prefecture, near the bottom of Shikoku. I’ll be staying here for at least one more year, but probably longer.

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        1. Wow, that’s a pretty big question. I guess the thing that immediately springs to mind is the 88 temple pilgrimage (Shikoku Junrei), but there are plenty of other things to see around Shikoku depending on where you are – castles, some great festivals including the very famous Awa Odori, gorgeous countryside, etc.

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  16. Hey Artemis, I finished reading your thesis (took a long time lol). I found your anime analysis really interesting – personally, in English classes and such I struggled with analysis of themes and characters etc so I admire peoiple who can :-). My favourite chapter was three, the one on Evangelion. I’m a big fan of the series and love reading about it, and shot through that chapter at light speed! Anyway thanks for letting me read it, it was most enjoyable.

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    1. Thank you for saying so, and you’re very welcome! 🙂 I majored in English at university, so analysis of characters, themes, symbolism, etc. has always been my strong point (on the other hand, I’m completely useless when it comes to maths and science).

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  18. Wow! You’ve got some pretty serious analyses of anime/manga and those who enjoy it! Stuff I’m definitely curious about, though I’m just an analyst by nature, not one specific to anime and such genres.

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    1. Ever since I was in school I’ve loved analysis in terms of characters, symbolism, etc., so I’m just glad I’m able to apply my particular specialty to one of my main passions like this. 🙂

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      1. I look forward to seeing more. I’m hoping to do more myself, and on a much bigger scale like at a Con rather than just online where some people might do it but nowhere near the traffic and interest that there would be in person at a Con.

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  19. Hi Artemis! Somehow I ended up in your blog, and after reading some of your posts, I have to say you have done a really good job for doing these anime reviews. Do you have any particular anime/genre that you hate in general? Oh and if you don’t mind, could you send your thesis to my e-mail manggorow@gmail.com, it would be very appreciated and I’m looking forward to read it.

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    1. Hi there, and thank you for saying so! It’s always great to know that I have readers who enjoy my articles. 🙂
      I tend to watch a mix of all demographics and genres, and have found anime titles that I like in all of them. However, I know from experience now that I’m far less likely to enjoy long-running shounen titles such as Naruto or Bleach – which makes sense, given that such shows don’t tend to be targeted towards women in their mid-20s.
      No problem, I’ll send you the link to my thesis shortly.

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      1. Yep, I enjoyed it. Do you write the articles professionally as well? Well, that was an expected answer. For me personally I don’t mind long running series but that only applied to manga, while for anime a 24 episode series feels eternal.

        Thanks! I already received it.

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        1. My articles here on WordPress are purely for fun, but I’ve written articles for academic journals before. I work full-time though, so those articles are only occasional.

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  20. “competitive swimming?!” you got my attention. i’ll throw down a follow to your WP for now. i’m quite new to this blogging thing so i hope you don’t mind if i take a few notes from your style!

    I was a competitive swimmer through middle and high school when I was living in Korea

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    1. I feel pretty new to WordPress myself – I only joined up earlier this year. But of course, you’re very welcome to follow. Nice to meet you. 🙂

      Yes, I’ve been into competitive swimming since I was about 8 years old. I stopped the more highly competitive stuff in my late teens, but I still love swimming and compete every now and again just for fun.

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    1. Oh my! I didn’t know there was such an award – thank you for nominating me (and generally being awesome yourself)! I’d love to participate, sounds like fun.

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  24. This is an awesome blog and you seem really cool… I like your way of thinking. And on top of that, you’re an Otaku so yeah… Super Awesome!

    I just started an anime-related blog myself recently. Still getting the hang of things. Not quite sure how I ended up finding you to be honest. It was either through my own blog or from a blogroll… I honestly can’t remember… I went to sleep in between blogging and its been sucked right out of my head.

    If you visited my blog… Arigato!

    If not, I hope you do in the future…

    http://amiageekblog.wordpress.com/

    Also, I’m adding you to my blogroll. 😉

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  25. Pingback: Extra: The Liebster Awards | Risembool Ranger Anime Reviews

  26. You’ve probably already been nominated for the Liebster Award, but I’ll go ahead and nominate you again. Why not? You’re awesome, after all. 😉

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    1. Thank you. 🙂 I figured it’d be nice to spruce things up a bit for the new year, and I’d been wanting to use something more recent for a while now in any case.

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    1. Wow, thank you so much! I probably won’t have time to do this – I just have too much on my plate at the moment – but nonetheless, I’m flattered by your nomination of my blog. 🙂

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  30. Wow, you did a doctoral? A professor blogging about anime? That’s so cool. Well, we have 2 things in common. Love for Japan culture and love for lifelong learning.

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  31. You have one cool life story. New Zealand!!!??? Living in rural Japan???!!! Writes scholarly articles about anime?!!??!! — (Denny’s head explodes in bewilderment that something could be so wonderful) —

    If you are eve in doubt, there is at least one person who wishes he could be you : )

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    1. It’s really probably much duller than your imagining. I go to work, come home, and hang out every day just like most everyone else does. Still, I enjoy it.

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  32. Pingback: Otaku Lounge: New Year’s Update | OTAKU LOUNGE

  33. Hi. Did you study in Japan? And can I ask what your PhD is? Thanks. I’m planning to study film this year so..

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    1. No, I studied in New Zealand, my home country. As the above blurb states, I wrote my PhD on the topic of representations of sexuality in anime – mostly relatively mainstream titles rather than pornographic ones. It was mainly a textual analysis, so I used a couple of anime titles as the main examples for each chapter in order to discuss a specific genre or theme, such as yaoi, yuri, incest, etc. I then moved to Japan in mid-2012 for work.

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      1. Oh. I’m actually in the sciencey field and our PhDs have titles/majors/fields like Immunology, Virology, etc etc. I was wondering if your PhD was in animation or something like that? Or maybe you don’t have something like that. I’m sorry if I’m confusing you, but thank you for answering my question. 🙂

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        1. No, I never studied animation in terms of technical or practical study, though I did do a couple of screen and media studies papers back in undergrad. My PhD was on the topic of anime, but my major was actually English Lit. Sorry, I hope that clears things up for you. 🙂

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            1. Thank you for saying so! I think I still have plenty to learn, and I still feel pretty new to the whole blogging thing, but I hope to continue to improve with time.

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  36. Hi again! My adviser just told me to read a lot of postgrad theses in prep for my research proposal/interview for admission to an MA course. And I kind of would like to focus on anime so is it also okay for me to read your thesis? I find your reviews and opinions really interesting so..

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    1. Wow, thank you very much for the nomination! I don’t get back to Japan until September and I have the feeling I’ll be a bit too busy to take part, but seriously, thanks again anyway – I’m flattered. 🙂

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    1. Wow, thank you so much! I’m flattered. 🙂 Because of time restraints IRL, I may not be able to get around to doing this immediately, but thanks again for the nomination and I’ll try to get it done when I can.

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    1. Hi there. The thesis itself was published in book form for the university library, but it was also published in the university’s research commons, and is therefore free to download in pdf format. If you provide me with an email address then I can send you the link.

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  43. Can you recommend a good horror anime? It’s hard to find one that isn’t just blood and gore (not my style). I can take violence, but not when that’s all there is. Even Elfen Leid, with its strong story, was too much. I’m more into spooky, thriller horror styles on the whole, so would you know any that could offer good chills?

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    1. So maybe some horror/thriller pieces that are heavier on the supernatural than the blood & guts action then? Ghost Hound, Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, and Hell Girl (particularly the second season) would be at the top of my list for such titles. Another is mostly pretty good too, though the ending is a total bloodfest, fair warning on that.

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      1. I saw “Another.” I liked the freakish atmosphere of the first few episodes, but it got pretty bright and blah afterwards. Still a decent show, just not what I signed up for. That kind of blood was okay for me (bloody, but not torurous and not constant). I’ll definitely give the others a shot. Thanks so much!

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  44. Hey mate, thanks for stopping by! As a fellow anime blogger I hope I can learn from you and I look forwards to your post! Cheers!

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  45. Pingback: The Sunshine and Blogger Recognition Awards 2016 | Risembool Ranger Anime Reviews
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  48. Hi, Artemis. Sounds like you had some interesting adventures in your life: New Zealand, rural Japan, and now Northeastern Thailand.

    May I ask, why Northeastern Thailand?

    What are you planning to do next in terms of your career?

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    1. I moved to Thailand for work, and while the company I’m with operates in many places throughout the country, they have a particularly high number of contracts in the North and Northeast regions. So partly it was because I specifically wanted another rural and non-touristy place after my awesome experiences in Japan, but apart fton that was simply the place I was assigned.

      I’ll actually be making a proper post about this at some point soon, but my contract in Thailand is very close to wrapping up. Once it does, I’ll be heading back to Japan. Thailand has been a very interesting experience, to say the least, but Japan is where my heart is.

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      1. I see. Thank you for your detailed reply! Sounds like you are going back to Japan soon and that’s the place you want to be. That’s great! I wish you good luck in your journey! 🙂

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  49. Hello! I just found your blog, and honestly, it makes me really excited to see more of what you have (: Out of all the other anime / J-pop / Japanese-related blogs out there, I appreciate your quality writing, and I look forward to reading more. Thank you for all your hard work!

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  50. Pingback: It Also Means Favourite! – I drink and watch anime

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