Posted in Film and television The Orient

Godzilla: King of the Moe-blobs?

The word “moe” is synonymous with anime girls and a “cutesy” style. But what if this way of thinking is hopelessly flawed? What else can moe look like?

Continue Reading Godzilla: King of the Moe-blobs?
Posted in Literature Other media The Orient

After Nasu: The consumption of myth as data

Our search for the Nasu copycats means it is time to expand the conversation beyond just him. We came looking for a genre, but what does that even mean?

Continue Reading After Nasu: The consumption of myth as data
Posted in Literature Other media The Orient

The rise of Kinoko Nasu: A cultural autopsy

Fate/stay night and Kinoko Nasu feel like a whole genre on their own. But why aren’t there more Nasu copycats?

Continue Reading The rise of Kinoko Nasu: A cultural autopsy
Posted in Book reviews Culture and sexuality Literature Politics and current affairs The Orient Wider issues and society

Catch-up: Nine book reviews

Nine book reviews to catch up on what I’ve been reading and enjoying while taking a bit of a break from blogging.

Continue Reading Catch-up: Nine book reviews
Posted in Film and television The Orient

Love & Pop & End

Love & Pop is a unique piece of art because it does not present answers, it presents a world too contradictory for any such thing to exist.

Continue Reading Love & Pop & End
Posted in Book reviews Literature The Orient

Tsukumojuuku and Symbolic Realities

Tsukumojuuku by Outarou Maijou succeeds in crafting something that seems authentically confessional out of deconstruction and metatext.

Continue Reading Tsukumojuuku and Symbolic Realities
Posted in Film and television The Orient

Shin Godzilla and the Tyranny of Metaphor

It is true that Godzilla and nuclear disaster are deeply linked. But, simply applying the formula that Godzilla=nuclear weapons would pervert our thinking greatly.

Continue Reading Shin Godzilla and the Tyranny of Metaphor
Posted in Book reviews Literature The Orient

Fiction and the world: Our Sekai Breakdown

To be direct about it, Our Broken World (Sekai vol. 1) is my favourite novel ever written. Here is a review.

Continue Reading Fiction and the world: Our Sekai Breakdown
Posted in The Orient

Wonderful Everyday and the landscape within

No matter where one looks in Wonderful Everyday (Subarashiki Hibi), there is no escaping the pervasive importance of its landscapes.

Continue Reading Wonderful Everyday and the landscape within
Posted in The Orient

Fake metafiction: THE Umineko review

Metafiction attempts to erase the existence of its author, the authority of its fictional world, who is even analogous to God. What about Umineko?

Continue Reading Fake metafiction: THE Umineko review