Much has been written about hair and the dramatic cutting of hair that appears in all forms of media, focusing on the symbolism behind the act for both men and women. We see it in a variety of films from Disney to Anime. It’s a universal concept for humans, our connection to our hair, as … More Waxing Philosophical: A New Life, A New Haircut
Kiki’s Delivery Service is the quintessential animated witch movie, brimming with magic, energy, and the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki. It’s been a while since I got the chance to sit down and watch this one, so I thought this month might be the perfect time and atmosphere to revisit one of Miyazaki’s most popular movies. … More Waxing Philosophical: Kiki’s Delivery Service and Burnout
I feel like being a critic or a reviewer of anything pop culture related has always been a hard job. Especially when it comes to large news outlets, pup-culture criticism and reviews have always taken a back seat to politics and larger news stories. In the past couple years, a lot of newspapers and websites … More Waxing Philosophical: “Nobody Likes a Critic”
Valentine’s Day is behind us but I think it’s important to continue thinking about romance and the kind of impact these kinds of stories have on readers. It’s one of the reasons I created this blog and continue to return to romance series. Reading romance books and manga were majorly important to me when I … More Waxing Philosophical: What We Can Learn from even the Trashiest of Romances
Happy new year and all that jazz. I have returned from my long break and will be slowly working my way back up to a predictable post schedule. I didn’t really have a chance to plan any posts last month while I was on break, so I figured I’d ease myself back into the blog … More Waxing Philosophical: Embracing Predictability
What would be your response if someone inexperienced with reading graphic novels and comics came up to you for advice on where to start? What kind of titles would you recommend? I bet I can name a few of the ones you just thought of. Maus, right? The Watchmen? It’s easy enough to pull these … More Comics as Literature Part 2: Literary Graphic Novel Canon
Just this past week, the late and great Stan Lee passed away, one of the founders of the US comic book industry. He was and forever will be a cultural icon so many in the industry hold dear, and his passing reverberated across comics media and into the mainstream media. Unfortunately, the news reached the … More Waxing Philosophical: Current Opinions on Comics as Literature, Part 1
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 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
Bloom Reviews 