It’s what it says on the can folks.. It’s been a while since I took the time to write about Yokai and I just got a hankering for it all the sudden. By sheer coincidence, OWLS is doing folklore in honour of the Taylor Swift album as a theme this month and Yokai is one…
***I’m on vacation so this is a repost of one of my older posts – I hope some of you will still enjoy it! I should be back by the end of the week!*** Don’t worry I’ll be quiet… I’ll even try to tone down the brightness of this post for you. There, better? It’s…
One of the very many aspects I enjoyed about Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is the neatly bureaucratic depiction of Japanese hell. And if you think “Japanese hell” is a weird way to put it, I agree, it’s just the expression they used in the series and it stuck with me.
Ok, I really need to get this out of the way first. I’m a bad blogger… That title is clickbait! Japan has a very rich tradition of supernatural creatures and assorted folklore and often times these so called monsters are fairly lovely folks. Certainly no worse than you see across European countries or the terrifying…
Happy October everyone. Ok, I’ll be straight with you: I’m writing this in September. Late September but still September. I just got excited and couldn’t wait to dive into the spookmonth posts! There are two things that I have grown to learn about Halloween. First is that most people who celebrated it, really like Halloween….
If you’ve watched enough anime (or pretty much any historical anime), you’ve most likely encountered the name Shinsengumi. They were a pivotal group in Japanese history and as such remain a popular subject of fiction and cultural fascination. But do you actually know who the Shinsengumi were?
I’m not sure when I started having this fascination with colours. It’s not like I wear any. But at some point, I started to really notice them in all things and particularly in cinema and anime. I do know that I’ve been fascinated with tropes since I was small. I would see archetypes come up…
Man, I’m slow sometimes. (No comments, thank you!) I have been watching anime for years, multiple years, and only recently did I notice the windchimes. I saw them a lot in Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits, then more recently in Yotsurio Biyori. When there was a quick scene of one in Cinderella 9, I…
It’s not really Tanabata, technically it’s on August 7th this year (“the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Japanese lunisolar calendar”). But there are celebrations between July 7th and August 7th so we’re in the range. I guess my title was clickbait…sorry! In my defence, I didn’t want to miss it. I…
Hello everyone! We’re going back to some basics here. I know that for long time anime fans, Japanese honorifics have become something of a second nature. However, I remember that when I started watching anime, I was pretty confused with all the sans and chans and bokus… Ok so that last one isn’t an honorific, but you…
It’s no coincidence that one of the very first Japanese words I picked up by watching anime was: Sakura. Cherry trees are so ubiquitous and important to Japanese culture and identity that they even name girls after them! The breathtaking sight of cherry trees in full bloom, raining down soft petals on passersby is so…
Genre : Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural Episodes: 26 Studio: If you think your job is tough, imagine having to make sure Hell runs smoothly. It’s not exactly a place full of the most dependable people, after all. Keeping everything smooth and on schedule is an impressive feat and you don’t have the courtesy…
I like to think of myself as not entirely uncultured but there is always going to be a bit of a culture clash when I watch anime. I think that’s true for a lot of western viewers. The social reality we live in as well as the history, traditions and beliefs we grew up with…
Genre: Slice of Death, Supernatural, Yokai, comedy, folklore Episodes: 13 Studio: Wit Studio Hell is nothing if not… efficient! Judging all those souls, dealing out appropriate punishment, making time for diplomatic relations with all the other hells, it can really be… Well you get the idea. It takes a lot of work to keep a…
This is the second blogmas I’m spending with you all. The second time we get to sit down together and just chat over the holidays about nothing and everything. I really appreciate it. It makes the snowy season just a tad bit warmer. It really is a comforting exercise for me to just sit down…