Anime

Although absorbing character arcs are ubiquitous in anime, few depictions of development have been as gratifying as the first thirteen episodes of Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow. Viewers witnessed protagonist Ohana Matsumae move from Tokyo ...

In his 2006 book, Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter, writer Steven Johnson asserts that the act of watching television has shifted from simple passive escapism to ...

Unquestionably, shrewd thematic decisions propelled 1997’s Titanic to break box office records. Blending star-crossed romance with an ample supply of CGI spectacle, the film appealed to an exceedingly wide demographic. Similarly, director Jun Shishido’s The ...

The last four entries in the NIS America-published Atelier series are a rarity in gaming. While industry pundits plead for less formulaic representations of women, a quartet of female protagonists have quietly squashed stereotypes. Contrasted ...

Much like the tsundere’s transition from cold to cordial, the gradual thaw of social isolation is a familiar theme in Japanese media. Last October, NIS America localized the first two seasons of Natsume’s Book of ...

For decades, extraterrestrials have been used to invigorate the oft-mundane American sitcom. As a variation of the ‘fish out of water’ motif, series such as My Favorite Martian, Mork and Mindy, ALF, and 3rd Rock ...

Typically, the verb ‘watch’ implies a passive experience. ‘Watching’ fictionalized television can be a relaxing recreational pursuit, as viewers discern unambiguous character development or follow the trajectory of an oft-linear plot. It’s an ephemeral process ...

Save for Casper, Harvey Comics’ altruistic apparition, Western depictions of the supernatural are almost always rooted in menace. That isn’t always the case in Japan- where folklore is filled with tales of yōkai- spirit creatures ...

NIS America aficionados may have noticed a schism between the publisher’s interactive output and their growing library of anime. While their games habitually incorporate capricious scenarios peppered with lascivious situations and a reliable sprinkle of ...

After years of enjoying anime fixated on mecha, magic, mystery and moe sirens, I had convinced myself that the ‘slice of life’ genre had little to offer. Certainly, after witnessing Kemonozume’s naked protagonist sinuously thrash ...