Anime Bingo

I don’t do memes too often anymore (not cool enough), but I really enjoyed this one, which I first saw posted on Rise’s blog a couple of days ago. I know bingo card generators in general have been around for quite some time, but I found this anime one super quick to make and pretty fun to put together. For anyone who may be interested, you can do so over on Anime Bingo.

For my bingo card, I didn’t want to make it super difficult, so I elected to just do a 4×4 (other options are available). I did feel like making it at least somewhat of a challenge though, so I deliberately selected several titles that I’ve personally watched all of but which don’t seem especially popular or overwatched in the broader anime community.

Let me know how you do!

Watson Watches: Gankutsuou

Way back in 2014, a friend and I collaborated on a series of articles we called Watson Watches, in which I forced enticed Watson to examine a bunch of new-to-him anime shows. Using a basic question/answer format, the general idea was to gain a fresh, non-otaku perspective on some conversely very otaku-friendly titles such as Azumanga Daioh, Kuroshitsuji, and Kill la Kill. While wading through some old files the other day for a long-overdue PC clean-up, I came across one such article that, for whatever reason, never quite made it onto the blog, and Watson was kind enough to allow me to belatedly post it rather than have it remain in a folder titled only: ‘Unpublished’. This is that piece. Read More

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. Read More