Month: March 2021

Takeshi Koike’s Lupin the Third

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Ever since 1967, Lupin the Third has been a staple of Japan’s animation culture and one of the most storied and recognizable icons in the international market’s perception of anime. Despite having persisted in so many different iterations by so many different teams, it was only in preparation for this very review that I watched a Lupin anime all the way through for the first.

Why? I’m not sure. It’s a certified classic, and it isn’t as though I couldn’t have gotten into Part IV or V, both of which aired within the last few years. Not to mention Sayo Yamamoto’s critically acclaimed series, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Yet it was a story set in the same continuity as that last series that truly caught my eye.

Takeshi Koike is insane. I say that lovingly as a man who loves his 2009 film Redline, which was famously in production for seven years. Koike is a frenetic and wildly imaginative director and when he has the freedom to direct and do character designs, his style treads this line of adult maturity and wild cartoonish exaggeration so well it becomes a dimension all its own. So when I asked myself “where the hell has he been lately?” I was pleased to find the answer in the form of Lupin.

From Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment, this is Takeshi Koike’s Lupin the Third, a bold vision of a beloved classic that just so happens to be my first true entry into this series.

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[Context Needed]: 4 Controversial Anime From the Last 4 Years

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The anime community is wide, varied, and growing all the time. Every couple of years a significant tentpole anime comes out that brings in a whole new crop of fans to the medium, whether simply to visit or make a more permanent stay within its bizarre and inviting lodgings.

And yet for as diverse as anime’s following may be as, you know, a medium, people are quick to resort to mob mentality and pretend as if the community can be divided evenly into two halves, or worse, that the “other” is so minuscule as to not even really be worth mentioning.

But if that were all that was needed to be said, I wouldn’t just be oversimplifying anime discourse. In all likelihood, I’d be oversimplifying humanity. No, anime is no stranger to controversy. Just as frequently as a new tentpole anime comes out to bring in new people, some shows kick all kinds of hornet nests.

[TRIGGER WARNING: The following post contains analysis of sexual assaults and other topics related to sexual violence depicted or hinted at in the shows that will be discussed.]

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Watching Anime As A Feminist

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It’s Women’s History Month and since yesterday at the time of posting was International Women’s Day, I figured I’d write a little something for the occasion that’s been on my mind for a while.

I get the impression that there is an idea shared among some anime watchers. That feminism – and particularly being a feminist – clashes with being an anime fan. But why? Is it the boobs? It’s the boobs, isn’t it? I mean, it would make sense. After all, sexualization is one of the elements of anime that – for better or worse – comes to mind first when describing it as a medium. We all seem to get it.

So naturally, some people don’t like anime for those reasons. And just as naturally, there are defenders of anime who will draw a fine line between those pesky feminists and all the “real” anime watchers out there. The two groups seem contradictory to one another. How on earth can a feminist be a true anime fan?! Well, joking aside, I am here to reveal to you the truth of watching anime as a feminist.

And the truth is, it ain’t that different from watching anime normally…

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