I think the Attack on Titan fandom has a love/hate relationship with Reiner Braun. I know I do. And I’ve been on the latter side of that recently since, ya know, betrayal, but I’ve since moved back to the other end. I caught up with the manga for the series upon hearing of a major… Read More Reiner Braun and Knowing the Whole Story
When I was a high school teacher, I tried to impart to my students that both history textbooks and media outlets have a bad habit of reducing complex human beings to simple numbers. To demonstrate the significance of events, writers and journalist sreport the number of casualties in an event, like the sixty Palestinians killed… Read More Potato Girl and Our Casualties of War
No doubt, Kyoko Mogami is one of manga’s coolest characters. Originally introduced as meek and subservient to childhood friend and budding superstar, Shotaro Fuwa, she quickly reveals herself to be vindictive, determined, and a little crazy. In fact, Skip Beat focuses on Kyoko’s attempt to become an idol, not out of a search for fame… Read More Skip Beat, J-Pop Idols, and Discovering Your Passion
Kodansha Comics has recently begun reissuing one of my favourite manga, which has long been out of print—Battle Angel Alita. It’s been long enough since I last picked an issue up to make this something of a rediscovery for me, especially with regard to Yukito Kishiro’s art, which feels almost expressionistic in its starkness and… Read More Bodies in Battle Angel Alita
In the isekai manga series, Final Fantasy Lost Stranger, Yoko and Shogo Sasaki are siblings who loved Final Fantasy games as kids. They pledged to one another early in life that together they would get jobs at Square-Enix and create their own Final Fantasy game. Now as adults, they seem to be living their dream as… Read More Newman’s Nook: Lost Stranger Martyr
I stumbled upon A Silent Voice when I was at my local library in the manga section. What piqued my interest was seeing that it was a story about living with a disability, something I seldom find in Japanese fiction. A story that isn’t about trying to get senpai to notice you, but instead the… Read More A Silent Voice and the Value of Human Life
Donyatsu is an interesting manga (and short-form anime series) about a post-apocalyptic world setting where, so far, the only survivors are animals who’s bodies are also pastries. And mice. The main character is a donut shaped cat named Donytatsu. Seems fitting. After a strange attack by other-worldly beings, Donyatsu gets lost from his pastry animal… Read More Newman’s Nook: Donyatsu’s Prayer and Questions
