Isekai (異世界) has become a word many people involved in the subculture in the West —whether they’re fans of anime, manga, or light novels— have seen more and more frequently. The term is gaining traction especially now. You can find the term either in the titles of certain anime and manga or, more commonly so, in the title of a light novel.
Continue reading “Isekai — A World of Possibilities”
Moe is a controversial word.
Continue reading “Tengoku ni Namida wa Iranai — Symbolisms Through Moe”
Hideyuki Kurata, the writer of Read or Die and the good episodes in Samurai Flamenco, has once purchased more than 100K USD worth of DVDs in two years. He owns every single edition of Die Hard. Why? Because, according to him, Bruce Willis fuckin’ rocks. The same thing happens with every other mainstream movie franchise you can think of.
He also writes in his essay collection, Kurahon: Kurata no Kuradashi (倉本倉田の蔵出し): Women exist either in paper or in a JPG (perhaps a MPEG) for me.
Magazines, manga, encyclopedias, hardcovers, limited editions, eroge, dakimakura — you name it, he buys it. Size and price are meaningless to his credit card. All he does is buy. His life is a dream come true to many people.
But isn’t this life a bunch of nothings? Isn’t this just squandering? What kind of life is that?
He has heard all the questions regarding his eccentric lifestyle. Hideyuki is probably sick of hearing them because, to him, the answer is quite simple. You only need one word to understand everything about his life. That word is passion.
What are the best-selling light novels of all time?
I’ve been wondering about this as I was reminded about it thanks to a question I received recently.
As there doesn’t seem to be any approximate information about the subject—at least in English, or any other language that isn’t Japanese—I decided to go ahead and write a post about it, including the 25 best-selling light novels of all time by their total of volumes. Continue reading “On Best-selling Light Novels”
Let’s head all the way back to 2002. Continue reading “Akuma no Mikata: The Search for Ueo”
Sun. Summer. Heat. Sweat. Humidity. A clear sky. The rainy season accompanied by the wet monsoon. A paved road. It has cracks. You can see the grass struggling to grow between them. Grass is green. Or blue, perhaps? I don’t know. I don’t want to know. Why I don’t want to know? Good question. To answer a question I picture an image in my head. Images. Images of someone. All I know is that is a girl, but I can’t tell the color of her eyes, or hair. How old she is. What she is wearing. If she is tall, or short. If she is pretty, or if she is not. Does it matter? Do details even matter? No. Or so I think. I want to think so. I want to believe so. I say I want, I want, I want. But why instead of “I want,” I say “I will”? Even if I won’t, at least sounds more resolute. Continue reading “RUN & そして明日の世界より”
墓碑銘の楽しき混乱 A Fun Derangement of Epitaphs 