My Beautiful Girl Mari
South Korea is known for many things in the media world: its television dramas, its pop-stars-turned-actors like Rain, and even, slowly, its manhwa. But animation isn't one of them. For a whole raft of...
View ArticlePuella Magi Madoka Magika
I have to say right from the start: I am conflicted about Madoka Magika. So much so that I wrote only personal notes on it when I first watched it several months ago, and decided not to review right...
View ArticleSlapdash update
So busy. So, so busy! With 40 quizzes to mark, four lectures to write, a conference paper to edit, and all the regular reading, emails, meetings, and survival tasks coming up just for next week, things...
View ArticleSeeking new show/movie recs
Another quickie post, I'm afraid, but I have a question for anyone who actually has time to do more than skim the Anime News Network in the mornings. What's looking good in the fall anime season? Any...
View ArticleThe Adventures of Prince Achmed
It was my New Year's Resolution to get Netflix. So I did, and it has already expanded my world! The first film I watched on Netflix, using my new internet-enabled Blu-Ray player, was the first...
View ArticleNotes towards an Analysis of Beautiful Fighting Girl (finally!)
In the year 2000, Saitou Tamaki published Sentou bishoujo no seishin bunseki, an early attempt at (psycho)analyzing Japan's budding otaku culture. I read sections of it in Japanese in 2010, but,...
View ArticleSOPA/PIPA: saying something through sharing animation
I'd like to write a long, impassioned post on the whole SOPA/PIPA issue that's exploded this week. So many people have already raised their voices to counter the corporate and legislative restriction...
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[Event] Experiencing the Media Mix: Anime, Manga, Video Games
I don't think anyone on my flist is in Montreal (besides eacherown), but if you are, or if you just want to know what's going on in the academic anime-sphere, check out this event being hosted by...
View ArticleMoved by stop-motion: the Brothers Quay
It was my goal this term to post things I've been teaching in my Animation class, as a way of getting back into writing about anime. But now I find it's the works I put on the syllabus that are just...
View ArticleIntro to a lecture on Sita Sings the Blues
My life is full of grading. 55 sets of fresh assignments per class, ranging from film journals to full-out research papers to final exams, coming in every week from now til mid-April, YAY. And the...
View ArticleThe Merin Minute! (A drive-by blogging)
Broadcasting live from the heart of Grading Country, it's The Merin Minute, reporting on any and all things me-related! Today's top stories:Teaching: is done! Both classes wrote final exams this week....
View Article"Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan" [review]
Now that teaching is done and professional service is almost done, I'm finally getting back into concentrated anime research. And at the top of my pile (along with Mechademia 6, review coming...
View ArticleHello, Dreamwidth World!!
Woo, I'm excited! In a fit of initiative, I've finally created an account at Dreamwidth and I think I've configured everything to cross-post. This is the test. If you're an LJ friend of mine who's also...
View ArticleRandom musings on academia and anime because I don't have the energy for a...
People who don't know any academics seem to think that once classes end, professors get the summers "off" to sit around smoking pipes and reading arcane books on useless subjects. This is not at all...
View ArticleCongress 2012
This week, my home university, Wilfrid Laurier Univeristy, is partnering with the University of Waterloo to host Canada's major humanities conference, the Congress of the Humanities and Social...
View ArticleBack in Japan: First Impressions
Hi, everybody! As of last Thursday, I'm back in Japan, in my old neighbourhood (and in fact, my old apartment complex)in the western suburbs of Tokyo. It's a bit odd in its very familiarity: I still...
View ArticleWhat can a Vocaloid do?
Aaaand there goes the summer. Wow. Now that I'm home again, I can't even begin to summarize everything that happened in Japan, everything that's happened in my life. So instead I'll look back by...
View ArticleBook Binge
Fall has fallen! The air is getting cool at night, the leaves are starting to kindle, and yesterday a line of geese flew over my head talking loudly among themselves, probably about the sweet timeshare...
View ArticleKick-Heart
Just a quick post to promote a wonderful project!Masaaki Yuasa (Tatami Galaxy) and Oshii Mamoru (Ghost in the Shell) want to make a short animated film about S&M wrestling called "Kick-Heart." It...
View ArticleComing up next: a book and two conferences
Finally, spring! It took a while to come, but nice weather has arrived in Ontario and my sap is rising too. After a hectic end to the term, I'm finally feeling energetic and ambitious (enough to blog)...
View ArticleReview: The Soul of Anime
It's Saturday, which means time for book reviews! And since I just finished Ian Condry's new book The Soul of Anime a couple of weeks ago, here are some thoughts. Note: thoughts may be oriented towards...
View ArticleAbstract: Aca-Fan Service: Strategies of Scholarly Seduction in Ghost it the...
Aaah, summer! For the first time in years I finally had a vacation, a real 3-week vacation away from the internet and course prep and manuscripts and everything. But now it's time to gear back up, and...
View ArticleAca-Fan Service: Strategies of Scholarly Seduction in GitS:SAC and Ergo Proxy
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the always-enjoyable SGMS/Mechademia conference on Japanese popular culture in Minneapolis. (Hi to everyone who was also there!) I heard that some people on Twitter...
View ArticleAt last!
Hot off the virtual press: my article "New Media Beyond Neo-imperialism: Betty Boop and Sita Sings the Blues" in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing! If you have free access to Taylor & Francis...
View ArticleCatching up
Another spring, and another term over! When so much time goes by, it becomes impossible to sum up all the individual things that have happened. So instead, here are some general reflections on how I've...
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