#matt alt

[bitchy-peachy]

Very crappy photos I took of Pure Invention by Matt Alt.

Fascinating chapter. "Men shot in the back" from 2chan.

I already heavily perused everything anime girl. 😂

[guy60660]

Sparko Box | Shigeichi Negishi | Matt Alt | WSJ

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[randomrichards]

THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK: MEMES TO MAYHEM

Merry web pranksters

Sparked a series of movements

Till it turned toxic

[fictionz]

The soul of the matter.

[jigokuyeah]

Reminder that “obake” and “bakemono” do not refer to a class of  shapeshifting yokai. They’re generic words for ghosts and monsters. The word for “shapeshifter” is “henge”. 

The above is an exert from The Book of Yokai by Michael Dylan Foster defining “obake” and “bakemono”. By the way, if you care at all about yokai, you NEED this book. It’s not just a book of yokai descriptions and stories, it’s about the history of yokai and their place in Japanese culture.

I also recommend Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide by Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt. It’s a small book but absolutely packed to the gills with information. And when you’re done with it you can dig up the other books these two have written for more on yokai and Japanese pop culture.

For even more book recommendations, here’s a list I made: https://jigokuyeah.tumblr.com/bookshelf

Please reblog this post to share the knowledge and help stamp out this annoying “obake = shapeshifter” misconception. 

[mangamachinations]

327 - Manga Machinations Awards 2020

Welcome to the final episode of 2020! We’re doing things a bit differently this year by launching the Manga Machinations Awards! Darfox8, dakazu, Morgana, and Seamus have all created unique awards to go with their top manga picks from 2020! Enjoy our picks and have yourself a safe and happy holidays from all of us here at Manga Machinations! See you next year!!!

Get it [here] and get updates on our podcast here! [RSS]

Check out our website!

Join our Discord server and come talk to us!

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro Song: “Massara” by KANA-BOON from Sarazanmai, Opening, Introductions, St. Stephen’s Day

00:02:00 - Main Segment Manga Machinations Awards 2020: We present our personal awards along with our top manga picks of 2020

00:03:04 - Best New Series Discovered by dakazu Award

00:06:14 - Am I Gonna Over Analyze This Manga? Award

00:09:25 - Most Wholesome Manga Award

00:11:59 - Jack’s Tattoo Award

00:14:17 - I Was Surprised I Enjoyed This Award

00:16:47 - Most Interesting Re-read Award

00:25:18 - Fuck This Award

00:35:01 - More Of This Award

00:37:34 - Best Manga-Adjacent Read Award

00:39:50 - Best Manga-Crafting Award

00:46:43 - WTF Did I Just Read Award

00:53:57 - Manga Machinations Listener Popularity Award

00:56:02 - Transition Song: “Fiction” by sumiko from Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Morgana’s Top Manga of 2020

01:00:46 - Seamus’ Top Manga of 2020

01:11:16 - Darfox8′s Top Manga of 2020

01:22:11 - dakazu’s Top Manga of 2020

01:30:43 - Final Reflection on 2020, Next Week’s Topic: New Chapter Check-in, Social Media Rundown, Sign Off Song: “Auld Lang Syne” by Home Free

[prettyindeath]

Saw this real interesting thread on Twitter about the Japanese boycott happening in South Korea. The thread was spurned on by Uniqlo closing its Seoul flagship due to a combination of the boycott and pandemic. Because of the boycott, less South Korean shoppers were buying from the store, thus their sales began to rely on tourism. And when the pandemic took said tourists away and they had to rely on said natives...despite the boycott not being as strong as it was when it started...well...

The thread author, Matt Alt (who also wrote a book on how Japanese pop culture became so prevalent across the globe, which is his pinned tweet and the thing that put him on my radar), goes into very interesting detail about how the thing that South Koreans AREN'T boycotting is Japanese "fantasy-delivery services."

Think Nintendo Switches, PlayStation 5s, Tamagotchis. They're products that can't be easily replaced by South Korean alternatives because they're more specialized (and loved) services than clothing.

Alt mentions that this "selective bashing" took place in the U.S. during the 80s as well. "As (ostensible) grown-ups smashed Honda cars and Toshiba radios with sledgehammers to protest Japanese businesses, so too did they feed literally millions of quarters into Japanese games like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man."

According to the article that Alt links talking about Uniqlo closing it's Seoul flagship, the South Korean boycott of Japanese goods began in summer 2019 when Japan decided to "restrict exports of chipmaking materials to South Korea." In fear of backlash for selling Japanese goods, retailers with brick-and-mortar storefronts would pull things like Japanese beer from their shelves; which an all-Japanese brand like Uniqlo absolutely couldn't do to maintain sales. However, this only meant that said goods weren't being bought in-store—so while it's likely that Uniqlo's products were and continue to be bought by South Koreans online, in the end, the decline of the Seoul store's performance has led to it closing down.

This topic definitely has me thinking about how I should align my store when I get around to building locations for it. Obviously the first one would be on American soil but like...I'm an immigrant to this country and absolutely can't and don't want to tag it as patriotic. But if I don't, should boycotts of this-and-that come around, would I be able to hold firm on it being more of a "citizen of the Earth" type deal? And what about when I want to do international locations? Surely the natives—especially the governments—of the countries I'd want to expand to would see my establishment as being American...

All in all, this was quite the topic for me to get into. I recommend y'all read the thread and the linked article, as I know I got a lil serpentine in discussing my thoughts here.

Also, gotta give a special nod to how boycotts are useless in the face of the power of nostalgia. Once you've got 'em young you've got 'em forever, basically.