Christopher Kincaid's Blog, page 5

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Misses its Potential

Trigger is an animation studio known for its frenetic action scenes with the likes of Kill la Kill and Darling in the Franxx. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doesn’t disappoint…when it has action scenes anyway. The anime is based on the video game of the same name, which I haven’t played.

The story follows a street kid named David who gets entangled in a cybernetic dystopia ran by feuding mega-corporations. He joins a group of black-market mercenaries, who are called edgerunners, to survive. He develops...

Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako

Osamu Tezuka is considered the godfather of manga. He popularized the format with his storytelling, using film techniques as a part of his approach. His art style mixes the style of early Disney with Japan’s native ukiyo-e style. This lends the impression that Tezuka’s work is “childish.” His three-volume story Ayako contradicts this perspective. As usual for essays like this, I will spoil this story.

Ayako follows the tangled affairs of the Tenge, a Japanese landowning family, during the post-...

The Art of Love and War | Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a romantic comedy that I’ve already covered in a few other articles. However, the story deserves a deeper look. Beneath its comedy is a male-aimed romantic message that shows how romantic notions are for men too. Akasaka Aka approaches the romance with using the “slow boil” method as we will explore. The article assumes you’ve watched the anime or read the manga. Spoilers will abound.

He (She) Will Confess First!

Shuchiin Academy houses the nation’s highest performin...

2024: Another Spin Around Our Star

This next year, 2025, will mark my 14th year of blogging about anime, the anime community, Japanese history, and all the other meanders I make here. JP began as a video game blog called Gamemories about a year before I changed over to blogging about anime. Some fragments of that blog still float around if you look. I changed the blog to help support a manga and anime club my girlfriend at the time handled at her library. So 2025 will mark my 15th year blogging if you want to get down to the fib...

Public Writing and Self Censorship

As JP has increased in views and approaches the 7 million total-views milestone, I’ve become even more aware of how what I write can influence people. Of course, JP doesn’t have the reach of various other blogs, websites, and YouTube channels. However, whenever your make anything public, you expose yourself to a variety of personalities. The majority of people are cool, but the few trolls can cause problems. I’ve been fortunate so far: trolls have been rare.

However, I still censor myself somet...

Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide by Jack Seward

When I worked as a librarian, I had the chance to come across many interesting old books. Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide is one such book. Dating to 1968, the 103-page read covers the development and history of hara-kiri, or seppuku, in Japanese culture. Seppuku, as it is formally called, was a type of suicide practiced by Japan’s warrior class. It varied across history, as Seward explains. At first, it was a way to avoid capture and the resulting dishonor and possible torture. It began wit...

The Unfettered Mind by Takuan Soho

The Unfettered Mind contains essays and letters written by the Zen monk Takuan Soho, who was a friend and a teacher of Miyamoto Musashi. As Takuan neared death, he reportedly told his students: “Bury my body in the mountain behind the temple, cover it with dirt, and go home. Read no sutras, hold no ceremony. Receive no gifts from either monk or laity. Let the monks wear their robes, eat their meals, and carry on as a normal day.”

The essays in The Unfettered Mind delve into Takuan’s understandi...

Anime and Body Boundaries

Anime has a problem with body boundaries, and the problem extends to both men and women. Fan-service centers on seeing breasts, abs, pecs, panties, and other parts, often without a character’s consent. It involves women pressing up against flustered men (and the reverse and every other combination) as they struggle to get away while expressing their dismay. Fan-service involves unwelcome touches, accidental or otherwise. The breaking of character body boundaries features in many comedic situati...

Manga in Theory and Practice by Hirohiko Araki

Manga in Theory and Practice seeks to provide a framework for manga writers. Hirohiko Araki is the author of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Much of what he discusses applies to any type of story writing. He emphasizes the importance of the first page; it sets the tone of the entire story and is vital to selling the story to the reader. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the importance of doing something different rather than copying your favorite artists.

Araki breaks down everything into various li...

The 82 Winning Moves of Sumo, the Kimarite List

When a sumo wrestler wins a match, how he wins is recorded with the victory. This move is called a kimarite. Think of kimarite as fatalities from Mortal Kombat or named moves from shonen anime. Think Inuyasha’s Wind Scar attack. Sumo has 5 non-winning moves, such as stepping out of the ring or touching down accidentally (Gunning, 2018). The Sumo Association determines the list. As of this article, the list sits at 82 moves. Sumo extends deep into history, beginning as a ritual designed to pleas...