Christopher Kincaid's Blog, page 14

[Expanded] Manga Sound Words Guide

Page from “Karate Idiot in Another World”

Manga has a vast amount of onomatopoeia. They go beyond simple sound effects, representing emotions  like anger and actions like staring. Manga artists fold sound words into their panel designs and story.

Japanese sound words divide into three families (Inose, n.d.):

Giseigo mimic the sounds of people and animals.Giongo imitate other sounds, like water, snaps, and pops.Gitaigo represent emotions and visual events.

The words break down into 5 classes ...

Remember Death All Year Long

The man who would be a warrior considers it is the most basic intention to keep death always in mind, day and night, from the time he first picks up his chopsticks in celebrating his morning meal on New Year’s Day to the evening of the last day of the year. -Daidoji Yuzan

Remembering death sits as the cornerstone of Bushido philosophy. During Japan’s various warring periods, samurai had to face the reality of death on a regular basis. However, this wasn’t anything unusual at any level of society...

How Can I Invest in Anime and Manga?

So, you want to learn how to invest your money in anime and manga and other Japanese companies? Why would you want to? If you live in the US, investing in these companies isn’t as easy as popping onto a stock trading platform and clicking buy. In fact, most publicly traded anime, manga, and Japanese culture companies aren’t available to us in the West. However, you still have options.

This article focuses on investing, which differs from trading. Trading is when you buy shares of a company and ...

Search Engine Changes and You

Microsoft and Google work to fold their Large Language Models, better known as ChatGPT (Bing version) and Bard respectively, into their search engines. What does this mean? For users, answers can become more immediate. For writers, less traffic. People don’t click beyond the first page of search results in most cases. Considering this well-known behavior,...

Tomo-chan is a Girl! Offers Interesting Relationship Dynamics

Tomo-chan is a Girl! offers interesting character dynamics and avoids many of the pitfalls of using the “dense” character tropes. In this story, the characters’ inability to see the feelings of the other is intentional on the part of the characters, coming from their own awareness of their conflicting feelings. Tomo is a tomboy with...

Otaku USA, the physical anime and manga magazine

Physical magazines have increasingly been going extinct. As far as I know, Otaku USA is the last-standing physical magazine that covers anime and manga in the US. At my library, the children’s department uses the magazine to help their manga ordering. The magazine reviews manga, anime, and video games as they release here in the...

The Learned Helplessness of Male Protagonists in Anime and Manga

How many anime have you watched or manga you’ve read where the female characters dote on the male protagonist? You...

Can You be too Old for Anime?

Some time ago, I went to the theater to watch Dragon Ball Super: Superheroes, which is an entertaining film. I...

Okakura Kakuro’s “The Book of Tea”

Okakura wrote The Book of Tea in 1906. The books seeks to bridge and explain the Eastern perspective to the...

The Spectrum of Relationship Difficulties and Hurt Among Men

When a boy is raised without the tools to identify and communicate his feelings, he initially might still be able...