Anime

For many Westerners, Serena Tsukino is the principal ambassador of anime, but that almost wasn’t the case. In 1995, DiC purchased syndication rights for the first two seasons of Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn), ...

If the success of an anime can be measured by its emotional impact, then the Mari Okada-penned Anohana: The Flower We Say That Day easily ranks among the medium’s best works. Alternating between life-affirming beauty ...

The latest Pokémon movie opens with a fundamental crisis, with the future of The Diamond Domain in peril. The Carbink, a tribe of peaceful, rock-like creatures have relied on a huge glimmering gemstone to keep ...

In media, the apocalyptic context is one of the most remarkable narrative stratagems to scrutinize humanity. Whether catastrophe occurs via George R. Romero’s infestation of zombies, Mad Max’s oil shortage and subsequent collapse of societal ...

Most anime follows a conventional narrative structure, with setup, conflict, and resolution occurring both within an episode, and often, across a larger story arc. But over time the traditional method becomes predictable and stale, thus ...

For anime aficionados, there are several significant works that serve as historical turning points for the medium. One early, essential exemplar is 1963’s Astro Boy, a title which boosted the global influence of Japanese animation. ...

One of the fundamental principles of Aristotle’s Poesis is the subject of mimesis, a term used to discuss one of the tensions of artistic representation. For the Greek philosopher, mimesis was the stylization of reality; ...

Pundits argue that the medium of anime is teeming in trope. Yet that allegation could be leveled at the creative efforts of any culture; entertainment acts as a transmitter of social norms and practices. Certainly, ...

Popularized during the 1960’s, the high concept situation comedy juxtaposed the ordinary with the extraordinary. In theory, the technique was seemingly simple, taking one of more fantastical characters- such as the eponymous djinn of I ...

An English professor once explained why Shakespeare’s sonnets were still a fundamental part of the college curriculum: they are the quintessential model of triumph over form. Shackled by a structure of a rigid rhyme scheme ...