Tag: manga

November 17, 2016 · 0 comments

By Roxy Simons. Let it not be said that Hirokazu Koreeda doesn’t know a thing or two about creating emotional family dramas. It’s a topic he has been fixated with for over 20 years and is a genre that he has proven time and time again to be the master of, and his latest project […]

November 14, 2016 · 0 comments

Helen McCarthy on Ouran High School Host Club. It’s a criminal world: J.K. Rowling has been taken to task for selectively appropriating the mythologies of America’s First Nations into her universe, and for sanitising the Government-sanctioned genocide that followed the colonisation of North America. Another foreign invader packaging an alien history for creative gain… something […]

November 8, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. It’s often reported how first-time visitors to Japan find themselves dumbfounded by the cacophony of new colours, sounds and symbols that greet them. What does the jumble of neon-lit hieroglyphs on that building mean? Why is that woman wearing traditional kimono on the metro? Why are there stone statues with little red […]

October 6, 2016 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Whether they’re from the east or west, animation studios know you can’t beat a good mascot. It could be a giant mouse, a plasticine dog, or a box-shaped robot trash compactor. It’s the same story in Japan. Studio Ghibli has Totoro; Production I.G. has the cyber-warrior Kusanagi; Gainax has the Evangelion. The […]

August 22, 2016 · 2 comments

By Jonathan Clements. From its cheeky, quirky cover, to the selection of its contributors, to its unifying tone, Mark McLelland’s new anthology deserves to shoot right to the top of Japanese Studies reading lists. The End of Cool Japan: Ethical, Legal and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture offers a vital and timely warning for […]