Why One Piece Works So Well

Text version and links:

Why I See Gensokyo More Clearly Than Any Anime World

This is the only result I got for 'Gensokyo map' ROFL

One of the things that anime is surprisingly not very good at is creating a fully-realized fictional ‘world.’ When you open up a fantasy book (and fantasy is of course the best genre for fictional worlds) you are often confronted with a ‘world map’ right off the bat. You will be given details about all sorts of countries and locations and customs, etc., to bring this world to life as you read. The reason that this doesn’t really happen in anime is for the same reason it does happen a whole lot in JRPGs – time.

December's Forty Fandoms – Part Three: Kazuya Nakai

A post in the ‘Forty Fandoms‘ series.

Kazuya Nakai

Influentially Long-Ass Manga

There are some seriously, seriously long-ass manga out there, and a lot of them are really great. There are some like Golgo 13 and Detective Conan that have been doing the same thing for decades and are still going strong, which is cool. There are also those with a continuing story that keep on truckin’, and some serious long-runners that ended somewhere along the line like the Dragonball saga. I want to talk about three long-running manga series that are very influential to me and what makes them so.

Youth Isn't ALL Mistakes – I Re-read Volume One of Bleach

art by Wildarmsheero. Source: http://www.mistakesofyouth.com/index2.php?id=moy_comics/5/index

The above Mistakes of Youth comic rings especially true for me. Back in my early days as an anime fan, I liked all the same crap that most newbies do – Naruto and the rest of the Shounen Jump gang, the other stuff on Cartoon Network, and hell even a few years later I got really into Death Note when the manga started in the US. At some point these series all just kind of became passe – there was this huge flood of newbies getting into them that I didn’t want to be associated with, and it was painful to see people asking me if I ‘liked Naruto’ when I had gotten to seeing around 200 anime even then (now I’m up to, what, 700?) But I don’t think I can totally attribute falling out with these series to my own aging nor to the increasing popularity of the shows. I’ve started to wonder – do I really dislike overlong shounen action shows? With this question, I turn to an odd case – Bleach.

100 Characters For 100 Otaku (Part Fourteen: 35-31)

The fourteenth post in “100 Characters For 100 Otaku.”

Can you believe it’s been two whole weeks since “100 Characters For 100 Otaku” began? Neither can I! But it’s still a’runnin and heading on towards the finale! We’ve still got a good week more before that, though, so keep on stickin’ around! Today we have numbers 35 down through 31 to play with, so let’s get into it!

100 Characters For 100 Otaku (Part Eight: 65-61)

The eighth post in “100 Characters For 100 Otaku.”

It’s “100 Characters for 100 Otaku” part eight! Back in the comments to part one, Ghostlightning predicted that the series would end after the eighth part. Little does he know that the ninth one is already written and queued up! But that’s tomorrow’s news – today, we’ve got numbers 65 down through 61 to play with. So let’s have some fun!

100 Characters For 100 Otaku (Part Two: 95-91)

The second post in “100 Characters For 100 Otaku.“

Welcome to the second post in the “100 Characters for 100 Otaku” series in which I, upon request, take the list of my 100 favorite anime characters and state what I like about them, how they are mirrors of the nature of otaku, and draw a parallel between them and my own otakudom as well as the first episode of Crest of the Stars (yes, this was part of the request!) Today I’ve got numbers 95 down through 91, so let’s see what they’re all about!

Calling All Artists! Please Draw Me a Banner Image!

The recent fanart debate reminded me of my long-standing desire to fill my site with original artwork. However, I can’t draw worth a half of a shit. I don’t mind trying to draw some of the site’s imagery, but for my banner image, I’d like it to be done by someone with talent. So, if you have that, please help me out!

The Reason a Phrase Like "Shounen" Exists is So You'll Stop Bitching About Shows That Weren't Meant For You

There's a good reason this shit is in a "shounen" magazine

People love to bitch about anime, as is made evident by the fact that blogs and /a/ exist. It’s understandable that people want to talk about anime that they don’t like, to possibly exercise the frustrations of having sat through a disappointing show. I know what it’s like when a show suddenly goes down hill or a character gets on your nerves in a show you like and you want to complain. However, it bothers me to see people complaining about things that they were never meant to like in the first place.