The JCS: Oshiete blogger-san edition!

Hello Everyone and welcome to March’s edition of the Jon’s Creator Showcase. This is my first time working on a project like this so I hope you will ignore my shortcomings and just praise me for getting the post out in the end. I was inspired to come up with the idea for this project […]

The Otakusphere: Genres, heroes and all of the shows I should have watched

Welcome! Welcome! It’s another Sunday afternoon, and like usual, I have a curated collection of anime- (and some not anime-) related blog posts for you today. It’s been a relatively quiet stretch for anime, considering that we seem to be nearing the end of a season. At least judging by the fact that bloggers are […]

3 shows I like that no one has watched and 3 shows I don’t like that everyone loves

I’ve meant to write this post for a while, but I’ve always put it at the bottom of the pile. There always seemed to be something more exciting or more thought-provoking or more controversial to write about. But the truth is that I’m sort of ashamed. Look, I want to like these shows. By that […]

The space train of Winesburg: Galaxy Express 999 and grotesques

“Anderson evokes a depressed landscape in which lost souls wander about; they make their flitting appearances mostly in the darkness of night, these stumps and shades of humanity.” Irving Howe, Introduction to Winesburg, Ohio One of the most challenging parts of writing these analysis pieces is coming up with an introduction. Sometimes I settle on […]

The Otakusphere: Let’s get personal

It’s the beginning of March. The days are getting longer. It’s getting warmer here in the Northwestern U.S., and I can see the dreaded summer months just past the curve. Damn you, summer! Why do you have to exist just to ruin my day? Why can’t you just be late spring or early fall? Why […]

RahXephon does NOT equal Evangelion

I am writing this post in the hope of ending a needless and futile debate. I’m writing it knowing that I’m talking about the anime community, and unnecessary and futile debates have been their bread and butter since Harmony Gold first licensed Super-Dimensional Fortress Macross. But I’m writing it anyway because I feel like I’ve […]

Maetel kills them all?

One of the most famous pieces of X-Men lore revolves around the death of Jean Grey at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga. During the Dark Phoenix Saga, Grey destroys an alien planet, complete with killing billions. The unprovoked attack showed the brutality and power of the character. It would also prove the end […]

The Otakusphere: It’s still Sunday, right?

I’m always impressed by the amount of effort the various anime bloggers put in. I have a list of about 150 blogs that I peruse when I start putting together The Otakusphere, and I don’t always get through all of them. Today was no different. I started going through posts sometime around 10 a.m. and […]

Ranking #AniTwitWatches shows until now

So the #anitwitwatches crew just finished up SSSS. Gridman this week. Since the only real controversy I see out in AniTwitter is whether Goku could beat up Superman, well, I thought it would be interesting to draw up a list. (And by the way, Superman wins.) What is #anitwitwatches you might ask? It’s a community […]

Food zombies and wildflowers: Galaxy Express 999 and poverty

Growing up Leiji Matsumoto had an up-close relationship with poverty. His father was a former Japanese aviator who gave up piloting after the end of World War II. While his father could have gotten a job working as a pilot following the war, he did not want to. Helen McCarthy mentions this in her biography […]