Anime’s Influence On The Japanese Society
I’ve recently been approached by a second year M.A. student who decided to include a manga analysis in his upcoming thesis work. Although I am by no means a “know-it-all” in the field I did write my own thesis paper on manga and was happy to help him with some questions he had. One of his questions in particular struck me as interesting and I wanted to share it with you here. That question was “do you know of any instances in which manga influenced the Japanese society?”
To which I answered that while there have been many manga series that garnered large attention from the Japanese populace throughout the years my opinion as a researchers is that manga is an entertaining medium while anime is a critical medium. Continue reading
Anime Reviews Is Going On A Trip To Japan
Starting July Anime Reviews.co will temporarily relocate to Japan. What does this mean? It means exclusive movie reviews, newer anime reviews, event coverage from Japan and more. Continue reading
C.C. Lemon Personification Illustration Contest
Suntory has created a contest on Pixiv in which contestants are requested to create a persona for the companies C.C. Lemon soft drink. The winning artist will receive 200,000 Yen. Suntory will also pick 200 outstanding artists among the contestants which will each get a C.C. Lemon can in the mail with their own drawn design. Here are some of the impressive entries from the contest. Continue reading
5 Best Anime/Game Motorcycle Figures
Were you stocked when you saw that new Fate/Zero Saber figma riding that bike last week? Don’t worry, we got you covered. Here’s a list of the coolest, meanest, shiniest lumps of metal a figure has ever laid hands on. Continue reading
The Blue Submarine No. 6 Special Edition DVD Review Is Now Available
The Blue Submarine No. 6 Special Edition DVD review is now available here and in the reviews section.
I’d like to use this post to talk a bit about the Blue Submarine No. 6: Antarctica PlayStation game that never made it outside of Japan. I always feel bad when a game that truly adds something to the anime/manga world it was based upon doesn’t get licensed in the U.S. Realistically speaking I can’t blame Bandai USA for not localizing this anime-based game. I mean, just look at the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex PS 2 game and the Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces Wii game. Both were genuinely good games and were released when anime was popular outside of Japan, and yet they still didn’t receive any attention from gamers. When I watched the animation clips taken from Antarctica and read some of the game’s scripts (all of which are available on the third DVD of Blue Submarine No. 6) I understood how much love went into making this game. In fact it made me feel that the OVA would have been much better if it was expended into 8 episodes to include the game’s plot. Antarctica had so many appealing main characters, none of which made it into the OVA. Antarctica also proved once and for all that Kino is in fact just a bystander whose purpose is mainly to ask questions and bug the other people around her 
Gia: Moefication Of Chemicals
Moefication is the practice of converting a certain object or subject into a cute/sexy girl (and occasionaly a boy). Various things have been submitted to this treatment in recent years: the girls in the Hyperdimension Neptunia video games are moefications of game consoles, the girls in “Understand the World’s Countries Via Moe!” are moefications of countries, and the girls in the anime Upotte! are moefications of guns.
Gia, an artist active on Pixiv, chose some very peculiar fields for his moefications; From chemicals and particles to phobias and plants.
I’m a big fan of Ghost in the Shell and the intellectual stimulus it injects into the anime world. The… ∞
Any contemporary anime viewer has, to some extent, been exposed to moe in one form or the other. Moe can… ∞
In 2012 we were graced with a unique short film called Death Billiards, which aired as part of the Young… ∞
The 2014 autumn anime season had a few excellent shows with high production values. It also had a considerable amount of low profile shows… ∞
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home is not about the Kissuoiso. Unlike the… ∞
The 2014 autumn anime season is one of the strongest, most robust, anime seasons in memory. As a result the offerings this… ∞
Good Smile Company's Nendoroid figure line has been with us for some years now. It had its fair share of… ∞
The fall 2014 anime season is here and its time to catch up on what's new and hot. So we've… ∞
The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex DVD Review is now available in the reviews section and here. Even though I've seen my fare share of anime along the… ∞