I have mentioned in passing that nearly every anime that aired on American television was somehow altered for US audiences.
I thought right away of Gundam in America. It's a very strange story, and Gundam fans in Japan might be a little mortified to hear it.
At midnight on April Fool's Day this year, Cartoon Network changed its usual late-night programming to “Toonami”, the fondly remembered programming block from the late 90s.
I won't exactly call it a trend-- it's much too small for that-- but in the last few years a lot of English-speakers have suddenly been taking up Japanese-style mahjong.
If you give American anime fans a few square feet of free space, they'll do one of two things: pull out a stereo and start a dance circle
Speaking of moe outside Japan, here's one you might not have heard. Years ago, the Japanese artist Raita drew some pictures in a doujinshi
"Letters from the New York Otaku"
The US anime market is a funny thing. Just a few weeks ago, Discotek-- a small distributor that specializes in old titles with
I talked about how there's no Akiba in the States, but that doesn't mean that there isn't anywhere to go. A big city like ours will inevitably have small pockets of otaku interest.
If you ever find yourself making jokes about stereotypical American anime otaku for some reason, and you really want your joke to be authentic, say
"Letters from the New York Otaku"
I want to take a minute from the convention talk while this interview with Takashi Murakami is still recent.
You know what otaku like to do, anywhere in the world? They like to share information. Think of the 20,000 brains walking around in those big conventions,
I said I'd be answering the question “just what do American otaku do?”, but certainly the majority of us
Last time I left you on a cliffhanger: that was cruel of me, and I'm sorry. To make up for it,
Takeshi Koike and Madhouse's passion project Redline toured film fests around the world over the last year or so to rave reviews from
Last time we talked about the title of this column and the importance of the word otaku to many foreign fans. My feelings
American fans of Japanese anime, manga, and even games claimed the loanword otaku for themselves years ago, and they argue about it the way people with better priorities
