A Man and his Sword

My Love For You is Like a Truck
by Bolt Vanderhuge

If you want to know more, you’ll have to read the manga!

If you want to know more, you’ll have to read the manga!

Berserk is yet another one of those series that I’ve come to appreciate more upon later viewings.  Just as with Dirty Pair and Deep Space Nine, the first time I watched it, I just couldn’t really get into it all that much.  I suppose I could blame the obsessive yaoi fans ruining it for me, but really I’d say it had more to do with me not enjoying hack-n-slash all that much.  On repeat viewing, though, I’ve come to appreciate this show for the over-the-top action, and its story about love, loyalty, betrayal, and rape.  Also there’s plenty of joke fodder if you’re into giving anime the MST3K treatment like my friends and I are.

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Lost in Scanlation

Who will bring America’s awesomeness back into English?
by Bob Johnson

9/11 never looked so kawaii

9/11 never looked so kawaii

Dedicated manga readers seem to both love and hate scanlations. The love comes from having good new manga ready faster than official releases. The hate comes from the inconsistent or kludgy quality. Then depending on the commenter’s sense of self-righteousness, there is the inevitable white knight lecture on copyrights.

Well, I’m sure that the creators of anime and manga never, ever wanted to inspire others to be creative. That’s why there’s no word for doujin in Japanese.

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The Moé is Love, The Moé is Fight!

As Japan’s military expands, so too does the anime market
by Punch Rockgroin

srsitaly

Of course you can’t take this seriously, when did anyone think the Italians were a threat?

Japan’s armed forces have been a question lately. With China quickly building up their naval presence, there is reason to worry. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agrees that a strengthening China is a bad thing, and wants to build up Japan’s forces accordingly. But not everyone agrees, no sir. Others think this increase in military strength is just Abe wanting to return to the old (read: before WW2 was ended in nuclear fire for Japan) ways and take the country back to war. But… thinking so much about such a serious matter is so stressing. The average otaku doesn’t want to think about the consequences of provoking an army that’s tens of millions strong. They’d rather think about cute girls in tanks, or guns as cute girls, or what airsoft would be like if they and their friends were all attractive teenage girls. Considering the industry is made of people like this as well, the world of military moé really wasn’t that much of a stretch.

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