Christopher Kincaid's Blog, page 8

The Boundary Between Lies and Truth | Oshi no Ko

Where do the lies end and the truth begins? This theme unifies the first season of Oshi no Ko. The story stares into the dark side of entertainment industry, deep into the abyss of pop idols, acting, and online personalities. Oshi no Ko‘s beautiful and bright artwork contrasts against the story’s dark story. This article will spoil season 1 of the anime.

Death, Rebirth, and Fandom

The story begins with Ai Hoshino, a famous pop idol who overshadows the entirety of the story through her tragic ab...

Call of the Night: FLCL with Vampires. The Rituals Boys Need to Become Men

Call of the Night, like most anime, explores the emotional tangle of growing up, only with vampires. Ko is a high school drop out who struggles with school and fitting into society. He drops out of both, even to the point of avoiding the daylight hours. During his nocturnal roaming, he stumbles across the vampire Nazuna. Ko learns about vampires from her and decides to become a vampire himself. The catch: he has to fall in love with Nazuna. For her part, Nazuna keeps Ko as a friend in addition ...

Pachi-slot and Japan’s 20+Year Casino Fight

In 2019, pachinko made ￥21 trillion. That was 3.7% of Japan’s GDP for that year (Higuchi, 2020). Historically, pachinko, when combined with Japan’s lottery and legal sports betting, makes more money than Japan’s car industry (McMahon, 2014). Officially, pachinko isn’t considered gambling. Rather, Japan’s government sees it as an amusement or a skill-based game. Pachinko managed to avoid being lumped into a 1980s shift in legal language surrounding gambling. At the time, the yakuza had shifted t...

Find My Retail Memoir on Wattpad [If It Was a Snake It Would’ve Bit Me!]

I wrote a short memoir about my experiences working with the American public. If It Was a Snake It Would’ve Bit Me! breaks my experiences into sad and funny (at least I found them funny) vignettes from across my retail and library careers. The book will release as a series of 26 parts. Each will release on each Monday 8 PM EST (assuming that’s the timezone Wattpad uses) until it’s complete.

Here’s the blurb:

Without wage-slaves, people would go hungry, go naked (not that health regulations stop...

Bushido Explained by Alexander Bennett

Bushido Explained offers a good primer to how samurai thought across Japan’s different time periods. As the subtitle of the book states, it is a new interpretation for beginners. Bennett offers a broad, top view of samurai thought using diagrams and clear prose. While I wanted more details at times, Bennett sticks to offering a solid understanding of Bushido and debunking common misconceptions surrounding Bushido.

Namely, Bennett explains how Bushido wasn’t a unified philosophical system. Rathe...

The Kyoto Animation Fire and Mental Health Pleas

Violet and the Letter Writing Crew

In 2019, Shinji Aoba broke into Kyoto Animation studio (also known as KyoAni), sprayed gasoline, and ignited it. He escaped to the nearby train station before collapsing from the burns he also sustained. Witnesses reported (BBC, 2019):

“A person with singed hair was lying down and there were bloody footprints,” a 59-year-old woman living nearby told news agency Kyodo.
“He seemed to be in pain, irritated and suffering, but also angry as if he was resentful. I he...

How to Not Sound Like A Weeb

How does a weeb sound? That depends on vocal cord size, lung capacity, language, and–okay, the question deals with the words and references people use. First, what is a weeb? I’ve written an article that defines what a weeb is and how to not be one. But to summarize, weeb is short for the slang term weeaboo. These negative terms label fans of anime who violate social boundaries such as ignoring body boundaries by standing too close or through inappropriate touch. Any unwanted touch, even if it ...

Japanese Book Guide : 27 Books You Ought to Read about Japan

Here’s a collection of books to help expand your knowledge about Japan. I’ve referred to these books for my various writing projects. This list skews toward history because that’s my thing. You will also find English translations of landmark Japanese literary works, which everyone interested in Japan ought to read.

The Art of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Considered the touchstone work on Bushido. Tsunetomo, a former samurai retainer, imparts his wisdom through a series of contemplative and...

Snag All of My Books For Free!

To kick off summer, I’m offering you all of my books (ebooks through Amazon) for free. Please consider leaving a star rating or a review on Amazon or on Goodreads. It really helps.

Download your copies between June 1 and June 5.

Happy reading!

 

Why are Anime Obsessed with Big Boobs?

Anime is obsessed with breasts. Top-heavy female characters appear across anime stories, including stories aimed at girls. Female characters obsess over their bust size, fondling larger friends or feeling self-conscious about their own small bust. It’s easy to dismiss this as simply “boobs sell” and anime is made for horny teen guys. These are partial reasons. Anime, along with all forms of fiction, seek to entertain and teach through exaggerating and exploring a simplified version of reality. ...