“About 600 years ago, a warrior was fleeing forces from the south when he discovered and befriended two six-year-old brothers. The oldest brother came down with a deadly illness, and succumbed after swearing to protect his home – the land of Ryokufuso Inn. When the owners and visitors of Ryokufuso Inn began noticing strange occurrences … More October Mythology Special: Zashiki Warashi
“While I’m staring at the instruments, during an unearthly age of time, both conscious and asleep, the fuselage behind me becomes filled with ghostly presences — vaguely outlines forms, transparent, moving, riding weightless with me in the plane. I feel no surprise at their coming. There’s no suddenness to their appearance. Without turning my head, … More October Mythology Special: Gremlins
High in the mountains, a group of samurai gather, bringing the youngest of their class with them. It is long after the wars between clans have ended, and so the samurai’s grasp at the chance to feel brave, to prove themselves the warriors they once were. The cave they come to is dark, eerie even. … More October Mythology Special: 100 Ghost Stories (Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai)
CLAMP has always told great stories. Cardcaptor Sakura has captured the imagination of a generation of young girls and remains one of my all-time favorite animes to date. It weaves magic, heroism, and romance in a way that keeps you coming back to see what new card or what new mystery Sakura will have to … More The Philosophy and Psychology of XXXHolic
I love stories about youkai, whether it be in anime or manga form. Mythology, especially that of Japan, has always been a huge interest for me, as you can probably tell from the plan for next month and my posts on the mythology of Ancient Magus Bride. Which also means that I’ve spent a lot … More Waxing Philosophical: On the Fate of Those Who Can See Youkai
I’ve been reading a lot more prose lately than comics, mainly in an effort to catch up on a lot of the new books I’ve missed over the last couple years. I have a problem though. Once I find a book I love, I can’t put it down. And once I find an author I … More My Top 4 Favorite Female Prose Fantasy/Sci-Fi Writers
I’ve been going back over and re-reading one of my favorite manga series the past couple weeks, Horimiya. It’s one that I feel has a lot of aspects that are both entertaining and make you think in certain ways, and this last read-through has gotten me thinking about the nature of self-harm. I’ve thought about … More Waxing Philosophical: Piercings as a Form of Self-Harm in Horimiya
I wrote an article about a year ago when I was still writing for the (now defunct) Girls Like Comics website about the various things American publishers could learn from Doujinshi culture in Japan. I’ve been thinking about that article again, and how it talks about some of the benefits Japanese publishers saw in the … More Waxing Philosophical: The Benefits of Writing Fanfiction
I think it was in a Liebster Award post earlier this year that I announced one of my goals was to reach 100 followers by the end of the year. A fairly reasonable goal, and one that I thought was pretty doable all things considered. So I kept writing the content I wanted to write, … More [100 Follower Celebration Post] The Top 5 Anime, Manga, and Comics that have Influenced Me
I’m back from a much-needed break. Time enough for me to recover some of my motivation to write again. I figured I’d write a quick “Waxing Philosophical” post to get me back into the swing of things this week, with my regular reviews beginning again on Wednesday. For today, I want to discuss something I’ve … More Waxing Philosophical: The Benefits of Negative Reviews
Bloom Reviews 