One of the persistent problems I’ve faced as a blogger has been the demand of my peers to post certain kinds of content. Typically I don’t actually blog a series, for instance. Series blogging is often pointless in my world, because unless the narrative lends itself to extrapolation, I just don’t see a point to writing about it. Lucky Star was a really big deal for me, partially because I wanted to challenge its critics, but mostly because the show had a lot it didn’t say about itself.

The less is already said, the more there is to say.
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Electronic gaming’s a huge part of our culture now, and one of my favourite pasttimes is sitting down with a good fighter. The problem, some would argue, is that it’s hard to find a fighter that’s just right for you. Some people end up playing just about any (or every) fighter they come across; others pick a particular series and run with it.

Some fighters are better suited to a particular task (in regards to pleasing their audience) than others. For instance, a competitive gamer doesn’t have much to look for where Soul Calibur is concerned, largely because the game itself was never intended for such a purpose. It doesn’t lend itself towards serious competition, so by and large it’s been passed up for such purposes outside of populist needs.
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I’m not the best authority on games — at least not anymore. I used to be pretty well informed, to the point that I could name just about any given composer, graphic designer, lead programmer, or director on a project. These days, not so much. I still keep as up to date as possible, but my interest has really waned.

Am I a casual gamer? I’d like to think so, but not in the way that term is used these days. “Casual” in gaming implies someone who doesn’t really understand gaming, or doesn’t have an invested interest beyond the mainstream. Hardcore, by contrast, implies that you spend the majority of your free time gaming, whether those games are actually credible products or not.
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Occasionally I try to be helpful when it comes to understanding another culture.

While many companies now try to include liner notes of some kind to explain cultural items in anime, there’s still a wealth that goes unexplained. In an effort to compensate for some of this (and fulfil my own vain need to write about these topics), I’m going to do a series of articles called “Cultural Cross Reference 101″, or CCR101 for short.

CCR101 (it even sounds like a University course code!) isn’t exactly new for my blog. I’ve done a few articles before, on topics like O-Bon, the 47 Ronin, and so on. Those were a bit more throwaway in my mind though, since I wasn’t sure how to frame them in the context of pop culture.
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A rising star of manga, about whom the internet has relatively little information, Aki Shimizu is the artist of Suikoden III’s manga adaptation, and wholesale author of the historically-based fantasy manga Qwan. She’s the latest manga-ka up in the spotlight!

If you ask your average anime fan about Japanese culture, you’re likely to get an enthusiastic response. For some who consider themselves more informed than others, this enthusiasm will often be balanced with that pernicious use of “but…”, followed shortly by a laundry list of things wrong with the country. It can cover anything from molestation and paedophilia to vending machine underwear and Hello Kitty vibrators.

The paramount issue however, is racism. On any number of occasions I’ve had the opportunity to discuss Japan with fellow anime fans and the issue always comes up. Until a few years ago, I was content with the idea that the Japanese, being a homogenous society, were quite given to racism. Despite it being a part of my heritage, I didn’t really delve into the question until recently. Is racism as prevalent in Japan as some say it is?
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A short discussion some time ago left me wondering what my favourite heroines were. I then realise that I didn’t consider the majority of them “heroines” in the proper sense of the word. Madoka Ayukawa from Kimagure Orange Road, for instance, is not a heroine. She is a protagonist however. Things became clearer from there on in.

To differentiate the females from the males for this top ten, and because not everyone mentioned is a main character, I’m inventing the word “protagonista” and going from there.
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I have to wonder if we don’t put on some blinders when viewing other cultures and their humour. It’s one thing to be merely ignorant of what another culture works out to be funny, but when you’re unaware of your own, what do you call that?

The gap for me between say, Canadian or American humour, and Japanese is a matter of some refinement.
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Though she’s not a true manga-ka, her work’s still been very important to manga and anime in the last few years. Head over and check out my profile of Fuyumi Ono!

I’m left wondering why I didn’t continue this blog for awhile. I guess I was burnt out? Not on anime per se, but on writing. It’s not exactly hard to write every day, but I’m a bit fickle about my projects — something which I know has to change. Routine has never felt right to me, and while I have a few things I do regularly, it’s preferable in my mind to change up when or how they happen.

It took me about four tries to write that Tokyo Magnitude 8 review. Other reviews have definitely presented me with more trouble, but that’s not really what my point is. The fact it took me four tries and some research into the Great Kanto Earthquake was refreshing. It meant I was doing research again and really thinking. The first few drafts were boring, trite reviews, recapping the story synopsis without any real insight.

Then something clicked. I started to really dig back into what the characters meant to the story and to the audience. Though I’m not sure how well I articulated the point, having all three be sides of a consummate whole made me view the material in a new light. Where most shows have archetypes that play separately from each other (and are therefore usually caricatures), TM8’s are a tightly wound trio playing off each other. It speaks to me of sophistication on the part of the writers and director.

I think that’s what I’ve been missing from blogging — finding insight that is. TM8’s a good place to pick up so far, but I’m going to need more material. So I’ll ask again: What else is good this season?