Some anime do genuinely deserve a reboot. Others should probably never again see the light of day, no matter how historically important.
Category: history
Sailor Fuku: The Long and Short of It
Despite or perhaps even because of its prevalence in anime, the traditional sailor-style school uniform, or sailor fuku, is one of the more misunderstood articles of clothing out there, particularly by those viewers who may watch anime only now and again or have little to no direct knowledge of Japanese daily life. I must admit, even as someone who consumed anime voraciously prior to my actual move to Japan, I was still surprised by some of the things I discovered firsthand, especially when it came to things like school-specific rules around sailor fuku and what students could/could not get away with. Continue reading “Sailor Fuku: The Long and Short of It”
Re-Thinking ‘Otaku’
Given the name of this blog, it seems only fitting that I make a post dealing with the word ‘otaku’ – its linguistic roots, the connotations it carries, and why many people today (myself included) feel okay labeling themselves as such, regardless of how the term may have been used in the past. Continue reading “Re-Thinking ‘Otaku’”
A History of Hentai: The Super Abbreviated Version
Way back in February 2016, after wading through my computer for a good old fashioned spring clean, I ended up editing and posting some history material that never quite made it into my PhD – mostly due to length and relevance issues. Continuing my adventures of delving into the folder helpfully labelled ‘UNUSED WRITING’, here’s another piece that’s been repurposed for my blog after a period of deep hibernation. Enjoy!
Note: I have gone out of my way to exclude any visually explicit content in this article. However, the topic itself obviously may not be considered child-friendly, and possibly won’t be to everyone’s taste regardless. Please proceed with this understanding. Continue reading “A History of Hentai: The Super Abbreviated Version”
A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 4 (2000s-todayish)
Welcome to the last totally exhilarating installment! The 90s are done and we’re onto the stuff I assume the majority of readers either love or loathe, depending on their age. Let’s get started on that shall we? Continue reading “A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 4 (2000s-todayish)”
A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 3 of 4 (1990-1999)
Where we last left off in the previous exciting episode of this (mini)series, the anime industry was actually dying (as opposed to, you know, whatever people are saying about anime now), and Japan as a whole sure wasn’t look too healthy either. Anime needed a hero. A hero fresh from the fight… Continue reading “A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 3 of 4 (1990-1999)”
A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 2 of 4 (1970s-1989)
Welcome back to the second ultra-exciting installment of the super abbreviated history of anime! I’d make a recap, but as far as I’m concerned this whole article series is the recap – so if you missed part one, go read it, it barely grazes 1000 words. Continue reading “A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 2 of 4 (1970s-1989)”
A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 1 of 4 (1907-1970s)
There’s a bit of a story behind this article series. See, longer ago than I now care to admit, I finished up my PhD, and a couple years before that, there was a really rambling draft of a PhD that had way too many chapters – one of which was a history of anime. Said chapter was one of the first to be kicked out, because although writing it was definitely beneficial to my thought process, it was pretty useless as a finished product and did the overall PhD absolutely no favours. I enjoyed writing it though and didn’t want to just get rid of it, so the document just sort of hibernated for a few years somewhere in the darkest recesses of my computer, in a folder literally labelled ‘UNUSED WRITING’.
Until this year that is, when I was doing a computer clean-out and going through all my old crap to see what had been hiding in there. I then decided that my poor, long-winded chapter deserved a bit of fresh air, and who better to be subjected to it than a bunch of randoms on an anime blog? Fear not however, for the chapter has been severely edited for style and size. In fact, not only did I challenge myself to finally let the thing see the light of day, but I also challenged myself to cut it more or less in half. I was going to write a full history of anime in no more than 5000 words.
This is the end result.
Continue reading “A History of Anime: The Super Abbreviated Version – part 1 of 4 (1907-1970s)”
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