Anime and Manga

[mochicrackersss]

Blog Post - Hetalia ᯓᡣ𐭩‧₊˚ ⊹

GIRL WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS SHOW!!! ITS SO GOOFY! I always forget that CountryHumans: The Anime exists, but when I do remember it, I always wish I could forget it again. Hetalia is pretty silly, but it gets kinda weird when you think about it for more than five minutes. I can recognize that it succeeds as a massive parody to make fun of real-world powerhouses and how much they don't attribute to the world besides violence. But, the show turns whole-ass countries into buff or twink men and lowkey encourages their fans to ship them with one another. No wonder the Hetalia fandom turned out to be so crazy.

However, one choice I didn't really like was when the creators cutie-fied the events of World War 2 from the perspective of the Tripartite Pact. I think it's a bit insensitive, especially for how infamously evil German and Japanese forces were during that time. I think if the show wanted to create shenanigans between personified countries in the present time that would be fine. But having a tiny stranded beach episode with Germany, Japan, and Italy while both sides of the war tortured and murdered thousands in real life during fights, concentration camps and sieges is just. Again, kinda weird. I don't wanna know that Germany is good at tying shoelaces right now!!! But maybe the show just wasn't my cup of tea, I could see how others can get behind it.

If I put to the side that all the characters were countries, Hetalia was a lot more enjoyable. But I think it was an odd choice to have this for our last anime in the class. This anime could've paired so well with Genshiken as a real-life example of toxic fandoms within anime communities. Both shows deal with the balance of good gay representation and dangerous representation from BL, but adding the representation of countries on top of that could've been super interesting to compare! But I understand why it was paired with Kobayashi's Sensōron instead.

But anyways, this is my last blog of the class! Yay!!! Pasta!!!

[davidfahim]

Hello! I agree with what you said about your dislike for how they made the events of World War 2 seem so light. I thought that was a very weird choice as well, especially how they made Japan and Germany seem so normal despite all the war crimes they committed. Overall, I thought you did a great job on this post and gave really good analysis. Well done!

[davidfahim]

Hetalia

I thought that Hetalia was definitely an interesting watch. The humor was very hit-or-miss and I thought that there were plenty of things in the show that could be offensive to people. The show basically represents countries as a single person which is already a risky concept because it can be seen as using every country's stereotypes and putting it into one person. For example, the writers made Italy seem very weak and goofy through the stereotype of the Italian character being obsessed with pasta. Although it was somewhat funny, I could definitely see this being offensive to an Italian. I also thought it was really funny how clearly biased the show was towards Japan. Obviously, this makes a lot of sense considering the fact this is an anime that was created in Japan.

The main thing that I wanted to focus on for this post was the idea of stereotypes in this show. I already mentioned how some of the different countries were portrayed but I wanted to connect this idea to the real world. I think that stereotypes are a big issue in today's world and I have struggled with them in my life. As someone who appears to be a jock at first glance, I have often been looked over and people usually think that I have no intelligence at all because I love sports and the gym. I think that stereotypes are very destructive and hurtful and can really make a person self-conscious. Ok, now that my little rant on stereotypes is over, I would say that Hetalia was a decent watch but I did not personally enjoy it that much. I would give it a 4/10 and would not recommend it to a friend. I feel a little bittersweet right now as this is going to be my last post on this page ever although I am happy that I do not have to do more assignments lol. Overall, this blog was a really great experience for me and it helped me learn about different animes and guided me into finding which ones I liked and which ones I really did not like.

[abhiramanimeblog]

Your Name and Kizuna

This is the 3rd time I have seen the movie Your Name and it is just as good as I remember it. It is one of my favorite movies I have watched in this class and I highly recommend anyone to watch this movie if they have not already done so. However, for this blog post, I want to talk about the Kizuna in Your Name.

Your Name mainly revolves around a body swap plot. 2 people of 2 different genders and livelihoods swap bodies and experience life through the other one's perspective. In this case, both characters Mitsuha and Taki gain an appreciation for the country and one another. Taki gains this through living Mitsuha's country life and engaging with Mitsuha in their diaries. Mitsuha gains this by living away from the country in the city like she always had wanted and realizing what she lost while also engaging in diaries. This is significant since both characters despite coming from different backgrounds and experiencing life in a city can see the appeal of the country and each other. We see that Mitsuha stops complaining about her life in the country all the time, and instead, she wants to go to the city to see Taki. We also see that Taki becomes obsessed with Mitusha's town and the disaster, he even makes his job revolve around stopping disasters like this which is shown to be unliked since he is not able to find a job. This appreciation they both share for the country along with their body swapping forms Kizuna between them and they cannot stop longing for one another even when they forget their names and experiences.

I can relate to the appreciation of the country. I have a lot of family members living in villages that are even less developed than Mitsuha's which I love and want to keep safe. I would never want them to die in an accident like what happened in the original timeline and I think I would go to great lengths to keep them safe. I also think that shared interests and appreciation can make connections that transcend time like in the movie. There are many people I know that although I do not see often or talk to often I can always find a common ground with some subject that we have talked about before.

Overall, Your Name is a must-watch movie. I think everything in it is amazing and it showcases how strong connections can transcend time. I would also recommend watching Weathering with You after Your Name to get some more context in this movie.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I liked that you focused on the idea of Kizuna for your post. I was a little confused on it before I read your post but you did a great job of explaining it clearly. I also really liked how you related to the movie and talked about what it would be like if you put yourself in Taki's shoes. Overall, well done on this post!

[davidfahim]

Your Name

I had heard many amazing things about this movie in the past but just like every other anime in this class, I had never seen it before. The first thing that really stood out to me when I was watching this movie was the amazing animation. I thought the movie as a whole was a fantastic watch. The plot and characters were so captivating and interesting, I could not take my eyes off the screen for a second. The premise of the film is that two teenagers, Taki and Mitsuha switch bodies out of nowhere and begin to live in each other's place. Taki has always lived in the city and has wanted to know what the countryside is like. Mitsuha lived in the countryside and wanted to know what city life was like. Both people were able to experience what they had always wanted and figured out a system in which they could communicate through writing in a diary. Everything was going great until a meteor hit Itomori and killed Mitsuha. This led to Taki going back in time to save Mitsuha and other people in Itomori.

I wanted to connect this movie to what Foucault said about formed identities being heavily influenced by social and historical aspects. We see this in the movie because, after the swap, both Taki and Mitsuha start to enjoy their radically new and different lives. I thought this was very interesting because I have always been a person who is not a big fan of change. I know that if one day I just woke up with a whole different life, I would not be a happy camper. Overall, I thought that Your Name was a great watch as it covered issues of identity and tragedy. I would definitely recommend this for someone who is just getting into anime. I would give it a 9/10 in the end.

[robian]

XenoBlade Chronicles 2

I've heard a bit about this game before so I thought it was an interesting pick for the class. The anime is a clear cut comment on the relationship between humanity and nature. Basically, Klaus destroys the entire world and is trying to rebuild it. He uses nanobots and the titans in order to achieve this restoration. Humanity is clearly struggling with the absence of nature and would have completely died off if it wasn't for Klaus creating the titans. Humanities depictions of Heaven or “Elysium” is basically just a place that has nature within it. After living in a world absent of nature, humanity's greatest wish is simply to return to it. It comments on today's world that is actively harming nature. It's easy to destroy nature but hard to rebuild, and once it's gone, you'll wish you never destroyed it. So, we should preserve nature, so there is never a point in time where humanity is threatened by the absence of it.

What's interesting is that unlike in Nausicaa, it seems that nature has no way of naturally healing itself. Nature is completely reliant on Klaus and his plan in order to regenerate. Nausicaa gives the idea that nature can live independently without us but that we cannot live without nature. Xenoblade makes it seem that we are intereliant on each other. Personally, I think nature being capable on its own makes more sense from a current standpoint. We'd really have to mess up the world, for nature to not be able to survive without us. Ultimately, our job as humans is to simply not prevent nature from doing its purpose and preserving itself.

Anyways, like I said before Xenoblade is a clear comment on humanity's relationship with nature. We shouldn't harm nature for our own greed. We are reliant on nature to survive.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I liked the way that you connected Xenoblade to Nausicaa and showed the similarities. I thought that was a great connection and you explained it really well. I also agree with what you said about Xenoblade being a commentary on human's relationship with nature as that is something that I mentioned in my own post. Overall, great job on this post!

[davidfahim]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I thought this was a very interesting watch considering the fact that it was purely made up of cutscenes from a videogame. I knew a couple of the characters from when I used to play smash bros a couple of years ago but I had no idea they came from this game. That being said, I found that Xenoblade has a lot of similarities to Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. Both take place in a world that has been destroyed and we see the struggle between the characters and nature in both. In Xenoblade, there was a huge disaster that led to pretty much all life being destroyed by the Cloud Sea. The goal of the characters in Xenoblade is to make it to Elysium in which there is supposed to be a thriving ecosystem. When they eventually do make it, they meet Klaus and find out that there is no other life left on Earth due to the actions of Klaus.

I wanted to focus on the idea of the relationship between humans and nature in Xenoblade. We see that Klaus is trying to rebuild nature artificially through the use of nanobots in the Cloud Sea. The nanobots collect genetic information for Titans that are capable of growing back the ecosystem. I thought this was an interesting concept because Klaus is tampering with nature, taking everything out of its natural state and trying to build his own world artificially. In terms of connecting this to the real world, I think that this relates to the environmental issues worldwide in which people do not realize what they have until it is gone. I think that in the future we will rely more and more on artificially sustaining nature just as Klaus tried to do and this is a dangerous idea. Overall, I thought that Xenoblade was a decent watch but not the most entertaining. I would give it a 4/10 in the end.

[mochicrackersss]

Blog Post - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ᯓᡣ𐭩‧₊˚ ⊹

I have very fond memories of watching Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind last year. During my and Dad's flight to Japan last summer, we downloaded all the Ghibli films we hadn't watched in preparation for the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Going to Japan, but ESPECIALLY the Ghibli Museum was on my bucket list for so long because I'm such a huge fan of Ghibli, so I wanted to make sure I could enjoy every bit of it! And I'm glad I did, as I don't know why I never watched Nausicaä until then. Not only is it (kind of) the studio's first release (since technically it was created and directed by Hayao Miyazaki even though the studio was founded after its release), but it's also just a beautiful animated story that holds up great even today.

During my second watch, I noticed Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind has a similar setting and tone to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Both stories are set in this post-apocalyptic world populated with monstrous, alien creatures. Although, it seems Nausicaä's world is more far gone than Evangelion's. The air is barely breathable due to the spore-like infection covering almost every inch of the Earth, and massive insects that could crush any remaining human civilizations. However, unlike the Tokyo-3 citizens, Nausicaä stresses to her people that cohabitation with insects and humans is possible. If anything, similar to Evangelion, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind illustrates that humans are the root cause of violence and destruction. The soil and water were polluted by the wars thousands of years ago, which caused the air to be unbreathable, all the plants to be lethal and the toxic jungles to grow.

Side note, I absolutely love the music for this movie. Joe Hisaishi ate so hard with the 8-bit synthesized fantasy score, it tickles my brain so well.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I thought it was so cool how you went to the Ghibli Museum as I have a newfound love for Studio Ghibli after this class. I thought it was very interesting how you connected this movie to Evangelion as I never made that connection in my head but once I saw your post it made a lot of sense to me. Overall, great post all around!

[davidfahim]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

As someone who had never seen anime in his life before this class, I think that Studio Ghibli alone has made me an anime fan. To be fair, there were definitely other animes that I enjoyed outside of Studio Ghibli. However, all my favorites that I have seen in this class have come out of Studio Ghibli. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was an amazing watch. I was completely hooked from start to finish. We see a world that takes place 1000 years after some bad nuclear warfare pretty much demolished everything. In this world, almost everything can kill you just like that. This has caused humans to have a stark dislike for nature in the world. The main character Nausicaa is different from the rest. Nausicaa respects nature and tries to convince her people that they can coexist.

The main point that I wanted to focus on in this post is the idea of instrumentalism that is seen throughout this movie. We can see that Nausicaa's people use nature as an instrument for their own benefit and do not treat it well at all. I thought that this was parallel to how nature is treated in the real world as humans take it for granted and treat nature terribly. Nausicaa was an example of how to break out of this. We see that she is very caring and wants nature to be respected. I think that this movie serves as a critique of instrumentalism due to the difference between Nausicaa and her people. Overall, I thought this movie was a masterpiece from start to finish. The animation was amazing, especially considering how old this movie is. Studio Ghibli has cemented itself as being my favorite anime production company by far. I would definitely recommend this movie to a friend who was just getting started in anime. I would give it a 9.5/10 in the end.

[robian]

End of Evangelion

Sorry for cursing, but what the actual fuck did I just watch. To understand this film, I basically had to read an entire essay about background information that can only be found in outside sources such as video games. I even watched a 5 minute YouTube video purely just to understand the infamous hospital scene. 

If you're confused like I was please read this:

and read:

https://imgur.com/2oRZv

Shinji at this point in the story is just absolutely fucked up in the head mentally. Both of his friends leave. Asuka is comatose. Rei is swimming in a juice bathtub. He even killed the guy that finally accepted him and even liked him. By the way apparently some people think Kawaru is a representation of Jesus who needed to be killed. Anyways, Shinji was just mentally not there. Shinji's in this shit mental state and knowing Shinji, he doesn't know how to properly express his emotions. So naturally what does he decide to do? Bust a load to Asuka's comatose body. Btw although the anime doesn't show any attraction for Asuka prior to this (except the kiss maybe and the childhood friend fantasy) apparently there's some side content that makes their relationship make a bit more sense.

I would explain the events of the story in more detail, but reddit can explain it better. Basically at the end Shinji decides he would rather live in the new destroyed world than a fantasy and the only person that we can see who also decided to stay is Asuka. Basically,Shinji chokes Asuka so he knows he's not living in some weird fantasy. Asuka caresses his cheek and calls him disgusting, letting him know that it isn't a fantasy. Basically Shinji has the craziest character development in all of anime history. Although it's hard to say if he's even alright at the end.

On one hand I think Evangelion is a masterpiece and on the other hand I think it's garbage. It's an anomaly within anime. As a story writer, if most people can't understand your story, then it's badly written. However, Evangelion reminded me of poetry. It was confusing but clearly had deeper meanings. I doubt anyone could ever COMPLETELY understand Evangelion by only watching the series&movie. It practically requires discussion between people to even grasp it. If the writers wanted to leave a lasting impression, they certainly achieved their goal.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I really liked how you included a link to some sources that helped explain the movie as I thought that was very helpful for my own understanding of the movie considering how utterly confused I was after watching it. I definitely agree with how you can't decide if Evangelion is amazing or terrible as I also can't decide. Overall, your post was very helpful, great job!

[davidfahim]

The End of Evangelion

Ummmmm, not so sure how to start off a post after watching a movie like that. I'm honestly still not really sure what I just watched. I thought it was very captivating because of how confusing it really was. I mean starting off with a scene of Shinji pleasuring himself to Asuka's body was definitely a bold choice from the writers, to say the least. When I saw that, I thought for a second that I had somehow clicked on the wrong movie because that did not fit how Shinji acted for the entire show. Shinji was always more of a gentleman who claimed to not get aroused by women's parts which I guess was clearly a lie after seeing that scene.

In terms of connecting this to the theme of masculinity throughout the show, we see that Shinji is doing everything in his power to break out of his queer masculinity. Doing something as disgusting as he did definitely falls out of the range of queer masculinity and I thought he was trying to prove that he is manly because of how he objectifies women (as messed up as that is.) We see that Shinji thinks up a dream world in which Asuka is still the hegemonic masculine one while he is the weaker feminine one out of the two and he ends up strangling her which signifies how he is trying to break away from queer masculinity. Overall, I thought the show was pretty solid but the movie kind of lost me. As I said at the beginning of this post, it was very interesting but not necessarily in a good way if that makes sense. I would probably not recommend this to a friend as it is a pretty intense watch. I would give the movie a 3/10 in the end.

[blogs-no-giggles]

Neon Genesis Evangelion Part 2 reflection

  Part 2 of the Neon Genesis Evangelion took a very interesting turn at the end which I’ll discuss later. But first, the Anime started out with Asuka, the 2nd Child of Eva. She is quite the opposite of what Shinji is. She possessed a more impulsive, straightforward, courageous, and lack of restraint which is what usually males are precepted as. She represented what Shinji should have been. Also in a couple of episodes, I feel like the narrator lightens Shinji’s voice to make it sound more feminine in to addition of the fact that he’s presented queer masculinity discussed in this module.

  We later see how Asuka and Shinji worked together to defeat the whale-looking Angel. Afterward, another angel appears in the shape of a sphere. The Angel swallowed Shinji and the Eva 01 whole and they almost died because of it. However, at the last second, Eva 01 suddenly operated on itself and tore the Sphere Angel in half which shocked many of the observers. Seeing the unpredictable potential of the Evas, it made the people think about whether the Evas were protecting humanity or will it turn against humanity and ultimately destroy them in the end.

  Then with the appearance of the 5th Child of Eva, Kaworu, who later turned out to be an Angel and was eventually crushed by Shinji operating the Eva 01, or else humanity would have been destroyed. Kaworu’s death made Shinji rethink about his life which leads to Episode 26, a very interesting and sophisticated Episode in the Anime.  The majority of the last Episode talked about how a person find their own identity. How we fear loneliness, and how we seek partners to overcome that fear. How we as a person find meaning in life. It talked about the concept of emptiness and freedom. How a person experiences unrestricted freedom when the world is just themselves, then with others comes restriction but meaning to life. The world with just ourselves will be blank, we comprehend and see pictures of ourselves based on the perception of others outside of ourselves. We learn things from others and we all implement ourselves in others in order to feel. How we find meaning to live by being with others. We love, hate, argue, and experience emotions as a way to find meaning in life, to find what we’re living for, and to experience all the good and bad life has given us.

[davidfahim]

Hello! After reading what you said about the narrator lightening Shinji's voice, I had to go back and check for myself and I realized that you are 100% right. I thought that was a great observation as I never noticed that when I was watching. I also thought what you said about humans fearing loneliness was very real as that is something that I struggle with. Overall, amazing job on this post!

[davidfahim]

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Part 2)

I thought that the second half of this show was very interesting, yet very confusing. The confusion mainly came from all the skipping around as I found myself wondering about plot holes. That being said, it was still very enjoyable to watch and see the character development throughout the show. We get introduced to a new character named Asuka who is the second child of Eva. Asuka is basically just the exact opposite of Shinji in every way. She is a fierce woman who is brave and impulsive. I thought that this was pretty funny because she is a perfect example of hegemonic masculinity even though she is a woman.

I thought that this character contrast was very interesting to watch as we saw Shinji try and change himself. We see that he tries to make the brave decision of taking on the Shadow Angel on his own. He hypes himself up and then walks in there and gets absolutely embarrassed. The Angel dismantles him and is about to kill him and Shinji breaks down and starts begging the women to come in and save him which was extremely counterproductive for his character development. We see by the end of the show how much of a toll this takes on Shinji. I felt as if Shinji truly hated himself by the end of the show and felt as if he was never going to be accepted due to his queer masculinity. Shinji was one of the most relatable characters in this class to me. I have found in my own life that it is not always easy to do what is expected of a man. For example, I have never been in an actual fight and hope that I never do. Shinji's not being accepted resonated personally with me as I feel as if I have to put on a mask and act tough all the time to be accepted. Overall, I thought the first half was better but that was mainly because we did not have to skip around as much. In the end, I would definitely say that Neon Genesis Evangelion is worth a watch and would give the show a 7/10.

[abhiramanimeblog]

Evangelion and Masculinity

This was my first time watching Evangelion. I was aware of it well before I watched the episodes I did, but I never got around to watching it. I do think the episodes I watched did not give me the full idea of the story, and it left me a bit confused about the world so I would recommend watching everything if you do. For this blog, I want to talk about Evangelion about masculinity.

Mecha anime in general typically focuses on performing actions of violence through using mech suits. It is this violence that is tied to hegemonic masculinity in a normative sense. Men in a traditional sense are expected in society to engage in violence when they are needed which is something that mecha anime shows often through their conflicts with deadly threats. This applies to Evangelion as we see that from episode one Shinji is called up to bat to fight off a giant monster, but he is deadly afraid and rejects his role. This goes against the willingness to engage in violence that hegemonic masculinity in men expects and leans more toward queer masculinity for Shinji. We also see that in the society of Evangelion that this queer masculinity is highly criticized. Shinji is pushed into the role and he is called a coward for denying it, his fear of stepping up to the plate makes him the subject of a lot of disrespect from the scientists, his father, and his friends. This shows that when someone engages in a lesser form of masculinity such as queer masculinity, straying from the expectations of Hegemonic masculinity then they cannot be readily accepted in society as a true contributor.

This is an interesting stray away from typical mecha main character traits. We see that in Mobile Suit Gundam Amuro is ready to jump into action, taking his father's creation and going into battle at the first sign of danger. This is in stark contrast to Shinji who avoids this responsibility and seems to let everyone who was relying on him down. This passivity is what gives Shinji a less masculine appearance and makes him so different from all other characters in the mecha genre.

I can relate to Shinji's fear of taking on that responsibility. If I was in the situation he was in, where I had to enter a mecha robot to fight a threat I would likely not readily step forward. I do not think I would consider my male status to be on the line in my decision, but I do think I would have accepted since the situation was very dire. In that way, I do think I am a mix of the hegemonic masculinity and the sissy masculinity.

Overall, Evangelion is a very interesting mecha anime that focuses on Shinji a timid and cowardly boy who has to try and step up to perform the masculine hero role. The series seems very interesting and worth the watch if you have the time.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I agreed with what you said about this show highly criticizing queer masculinity as that is something I discussed in my own post. I liked how you put yourself in Shinji's shoes and went in depth about how you would feel as that helped me to better understand Shinji's struggle in the show. Overall, great post all around!

[davidfahim]

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Part 1)

I had never heard of this show before this class so I had no clue what to expect when I started watching it. I was pleasantly surprised as I found myself enjoying the show. It was confusing skipping around episodes but I still thought the plot was very interesting. The show is about a monster called "Angel" who absolutely demolishes everything in their path and the humans seemingly have no hope of stopping it. This is where we meet our main character Shinji. Shinji gets rescued from the city during an attack by a character named Ms. Misato. Shinji then finds his dad and his dad tells him that he is humanity's only chance at survival. His dad tells him that he has to operate the Eva Series 01 and take on "Angel." We see that Shinji is very hesitant to take on this big responsibility and that is what I will focus on in this post.

Shinji is an example of what is known as "queer masculinity" which basically means that he is not a stereotypical macho masculine man which is known as "hegemonic masculinity." The idea of queer masculinity is highly criticized in this show. Shinji gets shamed for not wanting to take on the role of saving the world. I found that Shinji was very different from your usual protagonist because of this which I actually enjoyed because it made him more relatable for me. I know that I would definitely have second thoughts about taking on a monster as powerful as Angel. I found that this show represented the real-world issue of how men are expected to act. We see that Shinji is ridiculed for not being brave and taking the honor of saving the world. I found that this is true in real life to some extent as men who do not fall under hegemonic masculinity are seen as outcasts and are seen as feminine which I have never been a fan of. Overall, I did enjoy the show and I would recommend it to a friend as long as they actually watch all the episodes without skipping around. I would give the show a solid 7/10 in the end.

[robian]

Convention Post

I've only been to one convention in my life, which, to be fair, is one more than most. In the summer of 2022, I was lucky enough to be able to attend Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California with a friend of mine. Honestly, in some ways I regret going to Anime Expo as my first con experience because every other one in the US pales in comparison (except maybe the NY one). However, Anime Expo was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

When I arrived at my hotel, people were already in cosplay. When I woke up, I saw a line for the bus and a ton of people were in cosplay. I actually felt out of place since I wasn't and if I went again I'd definitely try it out. Then when I actually arrived, I felt even more out of place, because so many people were in cosplay. Of course, many weren't, but the people in cosplay were just so noticeable. Maybe it was just luck or maybe it was because we arrived more towards lunch time, but we skipped the notorious hours long line and headed straight in.

Honestly, it was overwhelming, there was just so much to do and see. There were events constantly happening, and sadly I didn't know that many needed pre-bought tickets. I still had a blast just exploring the exhibit halls and Artist Alley. I think I ended up spending like $150, which I found out through other peoples posts, is actually not a lot. Some of these people are dropping over a thousand dollars on merch. Maybe I should start using that as motivation to do well in college and get a well paying job so I too can drop a rack on anime merch.

Honestly, I was super nervous to ask any cosplayers for a photo but next time I'm going to need to just suck it up. I did get one photo though with this dude in an awesome set of armor. I really admire the skill and dedication it takes to make some of these cosplays. I'll do my best, but I have a feeling I'll be buying a premade one in the future.

Anyways, the con was amazing and I'd 100% recommend people to go to it. When I went, the last day was July 4th (this year, July 4th was the first day) and the post con depression hit so hard as I watched Los Angeles’ sky fill with fireworks from my hotel window. It was as if the fireworks were a farewell or an ending. Kinda like how some anime end the season with a firework festival y'know? Post-con depression hits hard though, so be wary.

[davidfahim]

Hello! Man, I'm so jealous you were able to go to Anime Expo as that is something on my bucket list. I liked the way you told us about your experience, especially with what you said about feeling left out by not dressing in cosplay. I definitely relate to the social anxiety of walking up to people to ask for pictures lol. Overall, it was really cool to see what an anime convention would be like, great job!

[davidfahim]

Convention Post

I am going to be writing this post on the three parts of the documentary "True Otaku" as I have never personally been to a convention before. Now, to start this post off I have to add the disclaimer that before taking this class, I had no interest in anime whatsoever. I always thought that anime was really cheesy and boring but man was I wrong. Through all the anime that we have viewed in this class, my perspective has been completely changed. I actually found myself enjoying this documentary. In this post, I will be focusing on the interactions between the interviewers and the fans as well as the Otaku community in the United States.

To begin, I found the interactions between the interviewers and the fans to be very interesting. In particular, when the interviewers were asking everyone what they thought the definition of Otaku was and every single person had a different answer. Some said that Otaku was actually more of a derogatory word and was used as a way to make fun of anime fans while others said the complete opposite and talked about how Otaku just meant complete fandom of something (anime and manga in this case). I thought that all the different answers were really intriguing because they showed how broad the term Otaku is and it actually helped me to get a better understanding of what the word meant. In the context of this class, I thought that it related to Fiske's definition of enunciative productivity which is when fans express their fandom to the outside world through speech or appearance. We can also see this idea through the fact that pretty much every single person that was interviewed was in cosplay. Cosplay is another version of Otaku and fandom and in this convention seen in the documentary, nearly everyone was taking part in it. Another point that I wanted to make was when the interviewers asked everyone if they considered themselves to be Otaku or not. I thought it was very interesting because of how split the answers were. Some people did not think they were big enough fans to be considered Otaku while others instantly agreed and claimed they were. This is something that is clearly subjective as there is no real way to know if someone is Otaku or not but I just found it interesting to see how split the people in the documentary were.

Another point I wanted to make was how large the convention and the Otaku community really were. There was a statistic at the beginning of the documentary that said "In 1999, the attendance for the convention was 4,060 people, in 2010, more than 29,000 fans were in attendance." This statistic really amazed me because it showed me the magnitude of growth of the Otaku culture in the United States in such a short period of time. I also noticed how diverse the crowd was. We could see people of all different ages, genders, and nationalities. I found that this diverse community was something really nice to see in the United States as we could see everyone making friends and learning about each other's cultures in the documentary. I thought that this documentary was a big celebration of Japanese culture making its way to the United States and it showed how it is getting more and more popular.

Overall, I actually found that I really enjoyed this documentary and I think it is a great introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about the Otaku culture and fandom in general. I would definitely recommend it to a friend and will give it a 9/10 in the end.

[mochicrackersss]

Blog Post - Wandering Son ᯓᡣ𐭩‧₊˚ ⊹

See, now this is proper LGBTQ+ representation compared to what was shown in Genshiken and Shin Sekai Yori (you wouldn't have even known Shin Sekai Yori discussed that topic without looking into its other episodes, but it wasn't that much better lol). Wandering Son follows Shuichi Nitori and Yoshino Takatsuki as their journies overlap while trying to figure out their dysphoria and gender identities. Shuichi yearns to be a girl and inspired by Shuchi's courage, Yoshino desires to be a boy. Simultaneously, the pair has to balance the shenanigans of middle school and their fear of social isolation due to their new identities. As Yoshino puts it, "It's just the difference between wanting to wear boy's clothes and wanting to wear girls' clothes. Even so, it's harder than you'd think." Although Shuichi and Yoshino are not specifically said to be transgender in the anime, they are either heavily implied to be or enjoy partaking in cross-dressing. And for whatever interpretation the viewer has, Wandering Son is a well-handled representation of transgender, gender-fluid, and non-binary communities. Especially in a Japanese school setting, which is somewhat unheard of in real life.

Another thing I wanted to discuss was the author of Wandering Son, Takako Shimura. Although there is no record of anything she identifies by (and it's also not any of my business) she is one of many great female mangaka who can create good LGBTQ+ media without going down a fetish-y, fujoshi route like seen in Genshiken. Not all (assumably) heterosexual cis-women are completely incapable of writing great stories with great representation, and I believe those authors, along with LGBTQ+ authors, are the ones who should be put into the limelight instead of the questionable BL content. Simple, down-to-earth stories like Wandering Son could truly be just what someone needs to begin their journey of self-discovery, and I think that's very special.

[davidfahim]

Hello! I liked how you compared Wandering Son to previous animes that we have had to view for this class. I thought that was very insightful and gave me a good base of understanding of how you felt about this anime. I also really liked how you talked about the author of this anime as that was something I never even thought about including that in my own post so it was interesting to see the backstory of the author of this anime. Overall, great post!