Grief and Loss in Anime: a case examination of Puella Madoka Magica Magi, Mawaru Penguindrum and X

Either you are recently introduced to anime or you are a seasoned fan, it's highly unlikely you haven't watched or simply heard about the first two shows in the picture above, because twitter, forums and blogs were abuzz and overly hyped about them last year. Now, it's highly possible you don't even recognize the hunks in the bottom and the anime/manga they are from, unless you are an obsessed fan of CLAMP or a MADHOUSE admirer. All three of them have as central themes the loss and how people face them. The important issue here is how these series present the themes and how well they handle them...

Retrospect on CLAMP: In good and bad times...

5 things I LOVE about CLAMP and 5 things I want to complain about...

Their destiny was foreordained - an X/1999 review

The seven angels and the seven seals.

  At the millennial edge, the concluding battle for humanity's future is staged. Kamui Shirou's destiny has been decided as he returns to Tokyo to face his ultimate challenge. The Dragon of Heaven, defenders of the Earth, stand ready to protect the world from the Dragon of Earth, the seven angels of legend, who embrace the devastation of the planet to bring about its purification. Now Kamui must decide which side to fight for although he finds the idea utterly unappealing. It isn't until realizing that his two childhood friends, Fuma and Kotori Monou, are in grievous peril that Kamui decides to step into his fated position in the climactic struggle of the Year of Destiny: 1999.

Do you love Tokyo? - a Tokyo Babylon review

From right to left: Subaru, Hokuto, Seishiro

   The year is 1990. The city is Tokyo, a busy megalopolis where people are caught in dreams, anonymity, loneliness, sadness and crushed hopes underneath the fevered rush for success and wealth. Sometimes the high-pitched emotions and acute despair manifest themselves into ghosts and curses.
   Enter Sumeragi Subaru, 13th head of the Sumeragi clan and a 16-year-old onmyouji. He uses his spiritual power and genuine compassion to help people, exorcise trapped spirits and undo maledictions. In this modern world, where nothing is truly black and white, this is hardly easy, especially because of Subaru's tendency to care too much for people. His twin sister Hokuto is there to help him, to cheer him up, and to make him wear eccentrically fashionable clothing. Sakurazuka Seishirou is a (male) 25-year-old gentle veterinarian friend of the twins, who professes to love Subaru.
   Hokuto thinks that making them a couple would be a marvelous idea, even though - or maybe because - she believes that Seishirou is the mysterious Sakurazukamori, an assassin onmyouji said to protect Japan from the shadows.

A mysterious very young thief- a Man of Many Faces review

Akira, Utako and Akira's mothers

   By day nine year old Akira Ijuyin is a normal student at Clamp School, but at night he becomes the mysterious thief 20 Masks. His thefts are usually subject to the whims of his two stepmothers, which Akira pulls off without any true objections or interactions. One night Akira ducks into the room of five year old Utako Ōkawa in an attempt to hide from the police.   
   Although the pair shares a four year age difference, they find themselves quickly falling for each other even as Akira finds himself being increasingly more involved with thefts, some of which include Utako's family. This as well as several other obstacles give the young couple's budding relationship a fair amount of difficulty.

The Beautiful Sinners: Angel Sanctuary and Diversity

To be called a sinner is one of the hardest accusations a person can face throughout his lifetime. Sinners, through all of mankind's history, have been punished repeatedly for their desires and actions. Yet, through my personal experience in this world, it often seems to me that sin is a blessing, the road to happiness. In this article I try to prove this point by using Angel Sanctuary, mangaka Kaori Yuki's testimony on the nature of sin, as reference material.

Queers and the complicated reality

Look carefully at this picture. Focus on  the rainbow. Can you really tell where each color starts and ends? No, because rainbow is a spectrum of colors. And that's exactly where the problem with the pride flag lies. Its colors aren't gradient. I believe that this fact reflects certain solid ideas within the lgbtq community. Although the colors of the flag stand for ideals and not labels, and reasons of convenience might play a major role in the final creation-symbol (namely the flag), I think that when someone produces 'art', the subconscious always gets involved. In this case, it represents a denial in complexity and fluidity of identities ...

Warning: A comic follows whose last two panels are NSFW.

"Six stars will fall to this plane. The dark stars that will defy the heavens..."- a RG Veda review

From left to right: Ashura, Yasha-ou, Souma-ou, Ryou-ou, Kendappa-ou, Karura-ou

    A 10-volume manga series by CLAMP, notable for being their debut work, and named after the ancient Hindu hymn collection the Rigveda. The series borrows elements of Hindu and Buddhist mythology for its setting and characters.    
300 years ago, the general Taishakuten rebelled against the Heavenly Emperor, killing both him and the guardian god Ashura-ou and installing himself as the king. The Ashura clan was thought to be destroyed until the god Yasha-ou found the remaining child sealed in a forest and began to gather the Six Stars, a group of individuals said to be the prophecied bringers of a celestial revolution.

Down the hole in Clampworld!

“A land that doesn’t need a map” claim CLAMP the world of their works to be, but only in terms of enjoyment; because otherwise their claim is a belief of theirs… Especially after TRC and xxxholic, more readers have question marks floating over their heads about the past of the cameos and how things function in CLAMPverse. And let’s not forget how tags like shoujo and shounen don’t apply to CLAMP due to their diverse writing and styles. For a beginner a guide is useful.

Our Genshiken Diairies: The Greek Community Part 3

Now it is time for the third part of our project "Our Genshiken Diaries: The Greek Community." On part three of our series, we invited some good friends to write about their own experience as members of the j-community.

First comes Marilena, whose blog you can visit here, who speaks about how j-culture and those who care about it influenced her life. Afterwards, Gina, also known as Yu~Kun, a veteran otaku herself, gives us a more detailed version of our story.

Our Genshiken Diairies: The Greek Community Part 2

As we saw in part 1 of this article, being a member of the j-community in Greece has had its ups and downs for the past few years. Yet, how are things now that the hype of the late 00s has calmed?

Majo: Long ago there were witches...

Prepare yourself to enter an unseen world where living means experiencing with your whole being, body and mind. Prepare yourself to take a dip into the world of Witches...

Learning and Teaching in Space Brothers

In episode 13 of Space Brothers the teams of astronauts-to-be are shown what we call a flaming video towards their dreams and possible jobs. There is a journalist who expresses her negative opinion towards space travelling, especially due to its high-cost budget that is supported through the citizen's taxes without any visible results for the present. JAXA asks of them to write a letter as a response.

What this situation has to do with learning and teaching? Learning is the change of the behavior and that's the goal of the letter they are asked to write. Teams A,B and C are to 'teach her a lesson' and convince her that what they want to do is worthy and beneficiary to everyone, as well as cancel any negative effects the journalist's stance had to the public.