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Wow, I didn't really have any expectations going into Perfect Blue since I hadn't heard of it, but that movie was far from what I imagined. I thought the anime was really interesting. It definitely gave a strong message regarding stardom and the pressure that comes along with the role.

The movie tries to visualize the immense pressure placed on celebrities, specifically "idols" and actresses. Mima's character is forced to choose between her career as a pop idol and one as an actress; despite seeming to like being a pop idol more, Mima chooses to follow the actress path out of a lack of money found in the idol path. Following her transition, Mima severely stresses herself out by forcing herself into uncomfortable positions. She agrees to act out a rape scene despite knowing deep inside that she absolutely does not want to. Furthermore, Mina finds herself seeing illusions from time to time. Of course, part of the illusions was a result of her stress arising from Mr. Me-Mania and Rumi; however, that stress does not normally result in someone seeing an idolized version of themselves. the pressure placed on Mima's transition sends a strong message about the mental health of celebrities.

This is my first time watching Death Parade, though I've heard the OP before (but I'm not that big of a fan of it). I knew the anime was rated mature, but some of the scenes made me really tense when dealing with pain during the games (especially darts). The show tackles the human condition with a large focus on human emotions.

The interactions between Chiyuki and Decim show that human emotions are both simple and complex at the same time. Decim judges deceased humans strictly based on the "darkness of the soul" revealed through the games, deeming them their true emotions and intentions; however, Chiyuki's character shows the fallacies in his judgment. In my final essay for the class, I talked about how emotions were one part of the human condition and what makes us human. After watching Death Parade, I think that is an oversimplification; it is the understanding of each other's emotions on a deeper level that makes us unique in some manner. Decim ruled that Machiko was "evil" and sent her to the void; however, Chiyuki's experience as a human and not some arbiter being allows her to understand Machiko's true thought process and her pain in deceiving Takashi. That understanding is the difference between Chiyuki and Decim. That difference seems to be lessened as Decim spends more time with Chiyuki; he takes her experience as guidance on how to better judge humans, but we don't really get to see the result of their time together.

Violet Evergarden continues to be one of my favorite anime and one of the select few that has made me cry. It tackles the human condition as well as human emotions through several non-linear adventures with Violet. If you get bored during quarantine, I highly recommend watching the rest of the show (also go watch Made in Abyss, 'tis a shame we couldn't watch both).

Much of the show focuses on Violet Evergarden's discovery of herself and her human emotions. In episode one, we see Violet as a war-torn orphan who basically has no control over herself; she is ordered around as simply a "weapon" of war and does not know what emotions really are, let alone the complicated feeling of love. Her exaggerated lack of emotions may be a representation of the effects that violence and war can have on humans and their behavior. Violet's transition back to normal, civilian life is constantly hindered by her inexperience with the world outside of the army; in the beginning, she repeatedly uses military salutes and formal speech in unorthodox settings. As the show progresses, we can see her discovery of emotions that both helps and hurts her. She becomes more open to society and interacting with others; at the same time, her realization of the horrors of war comes back to hurt her with the "burning" sensation discussed by Hodgins and Violet.

I don't read much manga, but Sensoron's arguments and content is not something I would have expected from this type of medium. Furthermore, I did not expect this level of conservatism in Sensoron, even after hearing it would be "conservative". The content in Sensoron seems to paint an extremely strong argument for Japan's innocence.

While reading Sensoron, I couldn't really grasp whether Kobayashi was being satirical with his writing or not. The fictional examples and stories he made lead me to believe that his arguments were satirizing Japan's innocence and involvement in violence and war; however, Kobayashi's repeated examples of "framed Japan" makes me think that his arguments were legitimate and it is what he truly believes. That's not to say the Japanese didn't commit war crimes; however, the misinformation and information manipulation obviously present in the text are morally wrong in my opinion. Everyone is at fault in some manner and I don’t have the capacity to validate any claims made within the manga or by any information I’ve received in the past.

As a Chinese-American, this text is really confusing for me. Both my Chinese background and American background tell me that Japan is terrible (my parents still don't like the Japanese) and that we were not at fault for much during wartime. Furthermore, American schooling has always taught us that Japan became a pacifist nation and a great democracy as a result of the United States. The content of Sensoron obviously goes against all these teachings and beliefs of mine. I also read some of the responses from our classmates that have Asian backgrounds regarding Sensoron. Not surprisingly, there were some rather strong positions on the portrayal of Japan's innocence. At this point, I personally don't know what to think of the situation. For example, the Rape of Nanjing was obviously an atrocity on Japan's part; however, the death toll is hotly debated. Is it 300,000+ as reported by the Chinese? Is it 60,000 as reported by Kobayashi? There is so much information that I can't confirm; because of this, I've basically chosen to simply take in the information without deriving a conclusion. While the actions of the Japanese are unforgivable, the world is different now; America doesn't hate Germany for its actions in the past, so why should Japan be any different?

Yeah...so I'm pretty sure I've watched Your Name around 20 times. It's a problem. The animation and soundtrack still blow me away, and I still learn something new every time I watch it again. Most notably, I found myself focusing on the differentiation between traditional Japanese life/religion and modern Japanese society.

The main plot of Your Name revolves around having two teenagers in completely different lifestyles: one living in a traditional town (aside from the politics surrounding it) and one living in Tokyo. Shinkai juxtaposes their lifestyles several times, especially in the beginning when both are still getting accustomed to switching bodies. I think Shinkai tries to show the benefits of a traditional lifestyle through the actions of Taki and Mitsuha, as Mitsuha's traditional religion ends up being the key to saving the town of Itomori. Additionally, the movie seems to place more emphasis on the struggles of Mitsuha trying to adapt to the Tokyo lifestyle; much of Taki's adjustments and actions in Mitsuha's body are projected through dialogue with other characters, such as her sister and classmates. Shinkai also seems to critique modern society through the actions of Mitsuha's father; his shift towards politics (i.e. modernity) hurt his own family and caused a divide in his relationship with Mitsuha. His ignorance nearly killed the residents of Itomori because he could not listen to his own daughter's warnings, instead calling her "crazy" like her mother and for still following the Miyamizu family traditions.

I think Shinkai also touches upon sexuality through the body-swapping of both characters. Although rather hectic at first, both characters become accepting of the bodies they have, regardless of whether they are in their actual body or that of the other gender. Additionally, the "masculine" and "feminine" behaviors of Taki and Mitsuha were also praised throughout the movie. When in each other's bodies, both characters broke traditional gender norms which increased their popularity (e.g. Okudera liking Taki's "feminine" side, male classmates staring at Mitsuha during basketball); this is in direct contrast to Hourou Musuko where children were punished for breaking from gender norms.

I think Hetalia Axis Powers is the first show I've watched where I prefer the dubbed version over the subbed version. I've never watched the show before but didn't really know what to expect knowing the historical background of the plot. After watching most of it, it gives off a similar feeling to Cells at Work. They're both "informative" animes that bring a comical aspect to factual information.

As I implied before, I basically always watch the subbed version of an anime. I think part of the reason I do this is because the characters' voices seem to fit more naturally with the character being animated in the subbed versions; with dubbed anime, I feel that there is something off or unusual about the anime. Hetalia is an exception to this case largely due to the fact that there are a variety of different nationalities in the show; naturally, a Japanese voice actor would not be able to replicate the accents Western-dominated list of countries in the show. I think the best example of the difference in voice acting is episode one, where the countries are all congregated; I could definitely make out the stereotypical accents of some countries in the dubbed version while the subbed version sounded...like normal anime. The opposite holds true as well; watching episode 16 in both subbed and dubbed was interesting seeing as the two main characters were both oriental. Like any other anime I watch, the clash of a Western voice actor with oriental characters just seems odd. Therefore, the subbed version sounded more natural to me for that episode in particular.

I feel like Japanese video games have this unwritten rule to make terrible graphics, even on modern titles. Despite the animation and art being rather lacking (in my opinion), Xenoblade Chronicles 2 brings a vast world with an interesting story, including ideas relating to the environment, technology, and more.

Near the end of the video game, Klaus activates the conduit in an attempt to change his own universe; he reveals to Rex that once he leaves, the Conduit - the large source of power in this world - will likely vanish, causing the World Tree to collapse as well. The importance of the Conduit displays technology's grip on the world portrayed in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The world benefited greatly as technology played a large role in the formation of it; however, their over-reliance on the things they took for granted cause the world to nearly cease to exist. Cobb's "Drama of the Anthropocene" partly relates to this in the fact that science and engineering has contributed to a "naive" worldview separate from nature. This worldview, then, warps our perspective on nature causing us to ignore certain aspects of this world. The collapse of the Conduit brings back nature in a sense; the Titans merged together to create a new natural landscape, one that fulfilled Rex's true goal of Elysium. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also addressed the role of the environment in the world earlier during the story.

           The documentary on Otakon was very eye-opening; it highlighted an entirely different portion of the “anime convention” experience than the Genshiken episodes we watched before. Even though I am disappointed that we could not attend SwampCon in person, I think that this documentary was able to give me a deeper look into the fandom culture and how otakus come together to celebrate Japanese culture and media. I certainly would not have been able to get the insight received from the interviews of cosplayers – such as Dustbunny – had we only gone to SwampCon.

           One of the first topics the “otakumentary” discussed was the term “otaku”. From the interviews of people at Otakon, it appeared that every single person had a different perspective and idea of what an “otaku” truly was; for some, it was only the most invested fans while for others, virtually every person into anime could be defined as an “otaku”. The responses in the documentary reminded me of our reading discussing what an otaku was; both our reading and the documentary reflect the fact that the otaku category is comprised of a variety of people and that the word itself is up to interpretation. I think one benefit of watching this documentary over attending SwampCon is that we got to see a greater variety of people at Otakon; SwampCon would definitely not have had more than twenty thousand people in attendance, limiting our experience with other people who appreciate Japanese culture. Most SwampCon attendees would likely have been UF students and not representative of the entire otaku group. I highly doubt there would be people like the Peach cosplayer who was in the United States Air Force at SwampCon.

           Otakon also revealed far more aspects of a typical anime convention than Genshiken. In the anime, there was a heavy focus on Dōjinshi (original, fan-created works) with some mentions of cosplay on the side. The documentary displayed a variety of other activities at the anime convention including panels, shops (with the MIKU doll), videogame stations, interviews, and more. The shops in particular highlight the capitalistic nature of Japanese culture, as well as Japan’s soft power. A large part of attending these types of conventions is the items one can purchase; True Otaku interviewed one convention goer who said it was worth buying the MIKU DOLL, even if it meant he had little money for much else. The potential for profit is great at conventions, where vendors can appeal to those interested in the products. The influence of Japan is also shown at these conventions; despite being in America, the products being sold at anime conventions are mostly Japanese. The Miku doll is a vocaloid from Japan. The posters all depict characters from anime.

           The focus of the “otakumentary” was centered around cosplayers and their role at conventions like Otakon. Genshiken seemed to reflect the atmosphere surrounding cosplay relatively well; in the anime, people dressed up and were the center of attention for those wanting to see their characters become reality. At Otakon, the same thing was prevalent to an even greater degree. Most of the attendees seemed to don some sort of outfit, even if it was not a full costume of a character. Both Genshiken and Otakon reflected the idea that people wanted to experience the simulacra of their favorite shows and characters some cosplayers at the convention said they enjoyed the attention and recognition of characters. Many acted like the characters they were cosplaying, bringing those simulacra to reality. Another aspect of cosplay reflected both in our anime and the documentary was the social aspect; convention goers were able to bond over similar interests and make friends. Funnily enough, both Genshiken and the documentary highlighted a couple that got together because of their interests; Ohno and Tanaka started dating in Genshiken due to their common interest in cosplay. Similarly, the couple interviewed at Otakon met at an anime convention in Boston.

           Overall, the documentary by True Otaku helped connect many of the themes found in our class so far. I was able to see the pull of capitalism, the otaku fandom, and much more even without experiencing SwampCon in-person. Maybe next year I can go see all the different activities for myself.