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I watched the first episode of death parade a few years ago and I kind of abandoned it after that because it didn’t intrigue me in the first place. And honestly this time around I couldn’t really say that my mind has completely changed. I still think one of the only things that I really enjoy about this anime is the opening because it is so damn catchy. 

After watching Violet Evergarden I was blessed with the beautiful animation and soundtrack that accompanied it and the nice story progression. However, the thing that stood out to me most were the themes regarding the military and the importance of communication.

Throughout the episodes we see Violet barely progress socially. From the start she acts like a robot and teaches everyone like a total stranger and that’s because that’s what she has been conditioned to to her whole life. She has been a dog to the military and has had no real life outside of it ever since the age of 10 which is why when the military ends she retains her cold and shut off personality. However, we do see some emotions affect her in episode 10 when she finally comes to her realization over Gilbert and the words “I love you”. It is in this episode that we see the frustration of Ann coming to a heap and we see Violet making strides in her own emotional context.

This manga sure knows how to be quite controversial. From the second the whole pooping fiasco finished it was clear the direction this manga was going to take. And that direction would be the radical nationalistic one.

For a manga published in 1998 it portrays an extremely dated viewpoint on wartime Japan and on the events that occured during WWII. Kobayashi rants about how Japan has been brainwashed by America and this brainwashing is still instilled in them to this day. He claims that America and other nations unrightfully took Japanese generals and such to court after the war and they framed all of the bad actions on Japan. I think that this topic in and of itself is very debatable and even though I have learned about all of the history before I don’t really know what conclusion I should come to. On one hand it is true that Japanese generals took a big hit from the war, however, on the other hand these generals had done horrible things regardless of whether or not Kobayashi wants to admit it. Both Korea and China were abused by Japan whether it be comfort women or the rape of Nanking there is clear history to tell us this. Kobayashi attempts to deny the severity of Nanking as well as put down the victims of Japanese occupation with his trivial evidence. I think that Kobayashi is trying to stir even more hate for China and Korea within Japanese society by putting these ideas out there. 

Also back to the brainwashing thing. I think that regardless of whether or not America impacted Japan with their politics and occupation following WWII, America did good for Japan. The Japanese Government were the ones perpetuating the war longer than it needed to be. The likelihood of success continually diminished yet they dragged on the war and inflicted suffering upon the average citizen. They literally brought their country down just an attempt to keep their pride. Obviously America utilized a very severe end game in order to put an end to the war. I don’t know if I can say that this was justified simply because we don’t know how many more lives would’ve been lost if the war continued.

I watched this movie for the first time in 2017 and it was my first real anime movie(after I had become conscious of the anime I was watching). And honestly its still probably in my top 5 anime I have watched and it keeps holding that spot in spite of the anime I am continuously watching and adding to my list. The first time I watched I couldn’t help but cry when Taki and Mitsuha had their fleeting meeting on the hill and rather than right his name he wrote I love you. 

Regardless of the emotional content the show holds a lot of different messages regarding gender roles and how society perceives people. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was how Taki and all of his coworkers are flustered and seemingly in love with Okudera, however, it only when Mitsuha is in Taki’s body that he is able to actually make a move on her. Although the relationship ultimately goes nowhere it shows that acting as macho buff masculine guy doesn’t always get you the girl. In fact, displaying more feminine traits and breaking the typical gender roles actually proves to be useful. Similarly, when Taki is in Mitsuha’s body he sticks up for Mitsuha being bad mouthed by her classmates. 

I didn’t know what to expect from this anime considering I had never watched it before. I’ve overheard my friends mention the name in passing but for some reason I just thought that it was an actual historical rendition of world events. To my surprise I was greeted with a light-hearted(almost satirical) anime that had a lot to offer in terms of the history it presented and the way it represented the other countries. 

To start off Hetalia basically went through certain historical events(many related to WWI and WWII) and showed all of the different characters(representing the different countries) either re-enacting events or discussing/arguing over them. Many of the characters, within representing their countries, perpetuated certain stereotypes in order to fit their role. In my opinion because this is anime, I really don’t think that these stereotypes are that harmful if the audience watching is already educated on the topics. However, I understand where the author in ‘Anime Conflict’ was going in their argument about these stereotypes. Because of the way the anime downplayed the events and represented certain countries as acting in certain ways I could see how that would be harmful(especially for the people from the countries being represented in a bad light). 

Before I dive into a little more about this anime I just want to say that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I was going to before watching. Normally I am quick to judge an anime by visual elements and despite this being quite beautiful for a game I didn’t have high expectations. 

Watching the 'True Otaku’ really opened my eyes more to fan culture around Anime and other Cool Japan concepts in America. The documentary is quite old but I don’t really think that the concept of the fandom has changed that much overtime and therefore the documentary still remains quite relevant 8 years later. Some things the documentary talked about that I found interesting were: establishing a community through hobbies, the passion in cosplaying, comparing the term otaku in America to Japan, and how anime has become an international phenomenon(the interview with the Japanese guy about culture).

To start, I think that the way the documentary discussed fan culture as a way to establish a community and embrace your hobbies really resonated with me. A lot of the anime goers and the people at the convention were enthusiastic because they normally find it difficult to find people that share their hobbies and don’t mock them for it. At a convention they are able to connect with people of all walks of life who just share their interest in otaku culture. One of the best examples of this was the girl who was cosplaying as peach who stated that she has a passion in anime yet has a completely different career path(something with the airforce). Basically what I am getting at here is how the convention lets people meet others with the same hobbies. In my own experience, I have never been to a convention but I have been to gaming tournaments. I used to play DOTA 2 a lot and went to a tournament in New York. Prior to having gone I thought that those events were kind of cringey but I still wanted to go and my friend did as well. Upon going I realized how nice it is to be surrounded by people with all of the same hobbies and passion about a game. Similarly, in every day life I tend to make friends more easily with those who share my hobbies. I listen to a lot of Korean and Japanese music and dabble in anime and video games and I think its easier to click with people you can share your interests with. 

Another thing I noticed was the sheer compassion that many of the people put into cosplay. We saw DustBunny who initially got into it as a hobby but became engrossed in it and really found it fun to compete with her cosplays. A lot of the people seemed that they liked taking the role of that character, getting attention, and just submerging themselves in the fictional worlds that they consume to the best of their ability. This submergence is what we discussed in class when we discussed Otaku and how they can’t consume the fiction worlds they idolize so they rather attempt to replicate it in the real world. Cosplay, Doujinshis, and other fan art are forms of this otaku-based consumption that we can see are abundantly present at these conventions. 

The documentary also briefly discussed the word Otaku and how its usage dependent on country differs. In America, Otaku refers to someone who enjoys consuming Japanese pop culture through anime, manga, and games. Whereas in Japan, Otaku is a general term that refers to a ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’ what I mean here is someone who has any sort of obsession/ large interest in a specific thing. 

Lastly, the documentary discussed anime becoming a global phenomenon and how that there are so many different languages and cultures but anime is something that can be consumed in so many places and therefore almost be a bridge between cultures by establishing some sort of common ground. The culture representative stated that when he was in Italy he met students and asked them if they liked anime and they responded with “like anime?? we grew up of with it of course we like it”. This also surprised me a little because that means that anime has been localized into so many different languages and therefore has casted a huge net across the world. Moreover we can relate this to our soft power debate we had in the beginning of the semester. If this many people consume anime all over the world that means that Japan is developing a name for itself, which formerly used to be in electronics and just car companies, and now it is in its popular culture because it is probably consumed at a greater rate than Japanese electronics and car companies at this point. 

Miyazaki always puts out pieces of art and this film was no different than his usual film. The music, the art, and just every little detail he put into it is one of the reasons so many people love Ghibli films. Their beauty always creates enchantment for the audience and their (sometimes)vague yet distinct story telling techniques do the same.