Friends, we are gathered here today to mourn the passing of Rooster Illusion, which I killed. July 12, 2018: “That’s right, folks. After six years–holy shit, ten years if you count its origins as a column in a college newspaper–I’m laying this old bird to rest.” —Rooster Illusion: Closing Time, the last post on this…
That’s right, folks. After six years–holy shit, ten years if you count its origins as a column in a college newspaper–I’m laying this old bird to rest. Ideally, I would be writing this post after Rooster Illusion had reached majestic heights and launched every writer into the stars, career-wise. Then again, maybe not. I like…
For the past several articles, I’ve talked about a trope in anime that I called “the token foreigner”, and as we have seen there are several different types of portrayals of non-Japanese characters in Japan-centric cartoons. They’ve ranged from absolutely horrid to mostly harmless to full and well-developed characters. My purpose in writing these articles…
Coming from its Japan-loving counterpart “weeaboo”, a “westaboo” is one who is obsessed with Europe or America/American Culture/Cartoons/Comics etc. and assumes everything made in the west is superior to everything else in the world. Characters in Japanese anime that use western imagery, culture, or language despite not having anything to do with said countries can sometimes…
Welcome to part two in my series of articles about “The Token Foreigner” seen in Japanese animated shows. Last week I defined what exactly is a “token foreigner”, and I left off talking about the use of non-Japanese characters as antagonists or rivals in anime. This week I’ll be focusing on a special category…
As I have probably mentioned before in previous articles, I live in Japan. I am originally from America, but came to Japan to work as an assistant English teacher. Living in Japan has been great, and I truly enjoy it here, but I would be lying if I said there weren’t downsides to being one…
(I did not forget. I just pressed play on the next episode of Trailer Park Boys. I am not sorry.) Five years. 365 days, but five times of that. An avalanche of minutes, hours, weeks, memories, and times that I shampooed my hair twice during a single shower because the act has become so automatic that…
