On Obsession, free will, and the cabinet that won’t close We yelled at the screen. Me, my fiancée, her friend, three grown adults hollering in the dark at a boy who would not move. That’s when we’d do something. That’s when I’d say it. Say it. Say something. There’s a specific pitch a theater hits when a whole room agrees a character has run out of excuses and the character does not agree.…

Outlet: Manga Mavericks  ·  Published: April 4, 2026  ·  Format: Press roundtable, co-byline At Anime NYC 2025, Manga Mavericks was granted access to an industry roundtable with two key figures behind the upcoming Akane-banashi anime adaptation: Seisuke Araki-san, the Weekly Shonen Jump editor overseeing the manga at Shueisha, and Kazuki Endo-san, the television producer helming the Studio ZEXCS…

This is an original essay on He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 3, made by reviewing my fifth reread/close listen of the audiobook/kindle versions. By recapping certain events with my lens, I hope to prove a thesis about the themes of this first Saga of the series. By Michael “Marion” Peña I. What the Grandfather Said The Grandfather’s Lesson In Book 1, Rufus Remore tells Jason about his…

A Culture Hub Review, By Michael “Wavey” Peña Spoilers ahead for One Piece, both Netflix’s Season 2 and up to the current manga arc. Why Netflix’s One Piece Live Action Season 2 Is the Soul-Healing Sequel We Needed If Season 1 of Netflix’s One Piece was a tentative dip into treacherous waters, testing whether modern audiences were still too irony-poisoned from the past decade to accept a…

Kadeem, Mog, Derek, and I get together every two week to talk about stuff like manga, anime, news, sometimes games and wrestling! We have three episodes out and we’re on iTunes and Soundcloud. If you somehow still follow me from back before I became a full-blown weeb, you have my utmost respect. This is basically my final level of fandom before entering the professional circle.

I still haven’t graduated from college yet, but I’m still studying Japanese and I’m aiming to become either a freelance translator, or an JPN>ENG editor in the publishing industry. If things go well, I could probably branch more into overseas work with PR and licensing/producing, because I’ve learned while working that my strengths also lie in stuff like diplomacy and breaking deals.

Anyway, that’s a long ways off, and regardless of how that goes, it’d mean a lot to me if you could support me as I am now! I’m finally making moves towards turning what makes me happy into something that support and sustain my life.

In some other news, I recently watched a little film called In This Corner of the World, directed by Sunao Katabuchi. It’s a WWII drama about this one girl’s life from childhood into adulthood up to the Hiroshima Bombing. It’s a very moving piece of film, and after watching it I feel strongly that this should be some kind of required viewing in multiple venues. If you like animation as a medium, please watch this. If you want to know about history, please watch this. If you want to know about basic human compassion, please watch this film.

I tweeted about it, and found myself being translated by a fan who shares other foreigners experiences tweeting about it, because fans of the film over in Japan want to and love to see overseas reactions to it. It was extremely nice and wholesome, I had a nice chat with them! And the conversation + my tweets + their translation was retweeted and liked by the director himself!! All of this happened today, and I’m still not quite over it. It’s experiences like these that make me hopeful and stopped me from deleting all my social media altogether. These kind of interactions in the digital age are the fuel I need to stay honest with myself and receptive enough to others who care about what I feel or think.

Anyway, that’s really it for now. Life is turbulent but I’m doing the best I can right now. Y’all should buy and read some manga and anime I’ve been digging: That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Devilman: Classic Edition by Seven Seas, Astra Lost in Space, The Promised Neverland, all have physical and digital releases (minus Devilman, print only). Crunchyroll manga is simulpubbing a lot good Kodansha titles such as Seven Deadly Sins, Space Brothers, Heroic Legend of Arslan, Kiss Him, Not Me!, Grand Blue Dreaming, and To Your Eternity. On Netflix, you should watch Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Aggretsuko, In This Corner of the World, and Fate/ Apocrypha. There’s tons of good shit on Bluray now if you missed them while airing like Mob Psycho 100, Yuri on Ice, seasons 1 and 2 of My Hero Academia, and awesome classics brought by Discotek Media like Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Tomorrow’s Joe the Movie, Robot Carnival, and Mazinger!

Remember to support legal releases of the content you love, so the artists can be rightfully paid! I’ve basically completely weaned myself off of Shonen Jump leaks of stuff available in the official English version, and it feels really good. It’s a really good time to be a fan right now. In June, we’re getting an iconic retro manga, Claudine!!, by Riyoko Ikeda, the author/artist of Rose of Versailles, about a trans man and his struggle. THAT GOOD SHIT!