- How to Interview Japanese Manga Artists: Tips for Western Journalists. Deb Aoki is one of the best working journalists in the manga sphere, and she’s just posted some advice that could help you be a better journalist, too.
- An interview with Lexi, 19, the Fall Out Boy-loving Ferguson police supporter who became a meme. This is such a great example of a journalist having a respectful interview with somebody he disagrees with that serves both his source and his audience.
- My steamy night with a dolphin furry. An interesting confessional about one of the most unmentionable geek subcultures. It’s fascinating how the way outsiders predominantly perceive furries so deeply affects their understanding of themselves.
- The Grammar of Clickbait. This article is a year old, but still a great resource on bloggings’ biggest clichés.
- Ash Ambirge of The Middle Finger Project has some business advice I obviously agree with: Please, I Beg You, Get A Niche. Also amazing: A Meditation on Shit-Talkers.
- 8 Crucial Budgeting Lessons I Learned From Having A Fluctuating Income. Ever since I left my last regularly salaried job at ReadWrite, this is my life. This is how I can travel even when I’m not sure how much money I’ll be pulling in the next month.
- This Book Is A Dungeon is my friend Nathan Meunier’s new interactive fiction project. I don’t know what impresses me more—Nathan’s creativity or his productivity. He is constantly churning out books and projects all the time!
- I’m still watching: visual feast God Eater, shounen throwback Ushio & Tora, and moe slice-of-life Castle Town Dandelion. In my spare time: My love Story! and Monster Girls. I’m sure that last one raises a few eyebrows and I’m going to need to write about it soon.
6 Comments.
It’s good to know that you are watching Dandelion. I see Akane’s viewpoint in a sort of political sense.
@assortex:disqus tbh that’s what keeps me watching. Interpreting Akane’s story as coming of age in a world where we no longer have privacy.
“Monster Musume” is unquestionably a despicable show, and for that reason a fascinating well of material to mine. I’m going to leave that to other people, though. :D
@GenjiPress:disqus there is SO MUCH I want to say about it. How it’s so removed from reality that I’m not offended. How it goes to ridiculous extents to provide in-show logic behind the actions of its characters as in, “Ew you perv, this isn’t for your amusement, centaurs HAVE to have big breasts to provide more milk (???)” and how in the most recent episode, it provided an audience analog, a horny cameraman, to hassle the characters. It was like seeing what the show thinks of its viewers.
I have an essay I mean to pen at some point about the idea that the further removed something is from reality, the less potentially offensive it is. I think a lot of that revolves more around the degree of suspension of disbelief people are willing to entertain about a given subject.
I found myself reacting negatively to the show on a gut level, in big part because they took what could have been an interesting setting and ruthlessly pruned everything out of it that didn’t support its central premise of being a fetish parade. It’s not the fetishism itself that bothers me, because for all I know a show actually ABOUT that could have been really interesting. The way I put it to a friend was: Queens Blade bothered me less, because at least they weren’t all fighting over the right to bed down the same guy.
I need to emphasize, I don’t think everyone who likes the show or sees something in it is a creepy perv. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bug me.
“I like where this is going…”
Nice mix of articles covering the non-mainstream, from non-typical current event views, to frowned upon fetishes.
My wife is really enjoying Monster Musume, it’s not ideal, but I am glad “unusual” shows are getting made, including more otome game anime adaptations. It’s better to encourage fringe topic shows than to tear them down, calling them shameful or sick; even if it’s not specifically your kink. Everybody wins that way. You may just find a hidden gem, even if you aren’t into the particular fetish or sexual preferences of the show (Simoun, Love Stage, Sakura Trick, Kamigami no Asobi were all great shows I really enjoyed – and likely anyone would even if they aren’t your sexual preference)
As long as a fetish isn’t directly or indirectly hurting anyone (without their own consent that is) it shouldn’t be trashed. People are just born with some crosswried instincts sometimes; whether it’s sex, food, comfort, pain, fear, compassion, ect. Sort of like the concept of Synesthesia. Some people have those linked in their brains. No reason to go out of your way to trash or judge someone else’s fetish if it does not effect you or anyone else and there are only consenting adults involved.