October. Halloween, Beltane - the occult is in the air.
Oct 27, 2024 • Subscribe
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LiA Bespoke Project – A Crow by Any Other Name
They’re annoying - loud, garbage-strewing, pet-threatening - but we remain fascinated by such fiercely intelligent creatures living in our midst.
LiA Bespoke Project: Honoriffic!
It's fair to say that honorifics play an outsized role in the Japanese language. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – New Year’s in Japan
Akemashite Omedettou. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Pachinko: Balls Out
You may think you know pachinko, but you probably don't know the full story. I sure don't.
LiA Bespoke Project: Omake – Ranking Rumiko
I could easily have gone five deep just with Inuyasha.
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You
It may be American’s national pastime, but baseball is more popular in Japan these days than it is in the U.S..
LiA Bespoke Project – The Tournament Arc
When you've watches hundreds and hundreds of series like I have, how are you supposed to recall all of them on demand?
LiA Bespoke Project – Hanko? You’re Welcome!
If you want quirky, Japan is the culture for you. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project – Tying the Knot in Japan
As is so often the case, Japan's relationship with the spiritual is quite unique.
LiA Bespoke Project – Truth in Advertising: The Japanese Konbini
Finally, an institution that lives up to its name.
Protected: LiA Bespoke Project – The Chrysanthemum Taboo
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
LiA Bespoke Project: Top 10 Mystery Anime
Yes, I know I didn't include that one. I'm just not that much of a fan.
LiA Bespoke Project: Itadakimasu! – Japan’s Food Culture
The Japanese have certainly become quite sophisticated foodies, but it wasn’t always that way.
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime – Project Engage!
Let's get noughty. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Best of the 2000’s in Anime
This project would be really interesting to take on. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project : A BokuYaba Senryuu For Dark Flame Master
With 136 brilliant BokuYaba chapters in the books, how am I supposed to limit myself to 17 syllables and no spoilers?
LiA Bespoke Project: Tournament Arcs Overtime – Best Battles
As a companion piece to the main tournament arcs article, Nicc asked me to include some of my favorite battles from anime.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Career of Toriyama Akira
Even if I never felt a personal connection to Toriyama Akira's fiction, I found myself strongly impacted by his passing.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
It goes without saying that this list was incredibly difficult to put together. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Natsumatsuri – the Summer Festival in Anime and Life
Natsumatsuri which have been part of the fabric of Japanese life for centuries and anime virtually since it started. Read more
What’s in a Name? Nana
Some of these things are just too easy to write but too much fun not to, kno wut I meen? So this one here is my Christmas present…
What’s In a Name: Chibiusa
Okay, same thing as “What’s in a name?” last time. What in Heaven’s name does that name mean? It’s routine now for anime presented in the west to…
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga – #10
In many ways, this is the perfect sports manga. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Dessert – The Perfect Dinner (and Companions)
The food and drink is important, but so is the company.
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime Pals From Around the World
Anime may be a Japanese medium, but its settings know no borders.
LiA Bespoke Project: Guardian Enzo’s Top 10 Manga List
The people have spoken. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Tying the Knot – Extra Marital Affairs
A series is about more than the protagonists.
LiA Bespoke Project – Anime’s Top 5(ish) Product Placements
The recent overload of Suntory self-promotion in Bartender prompted a discussion of product placement in anime.
LiA Bespoke Project: It’s a Rumic World – The Career of Takahashi Rumiko
When you’d almost universally referred to only by your given name, that’s a mark of high status indeed.
LiA Bespoke Project: Yakyuu For You Extra Innings – Ballpark Food
And no ghost runner either.
LiA Bespoke Project: The Tournament Arc Double-Overtime – The Olympics
You gotta love sports.
LiA Bespoke Project – Live-action Anime on Stage and Screen
Anime and manga has another side, little known in the West. Live-action animanga is a huge and lucrative industry in Japan.
LiA Bespoke Project: Short Subjects – Anime’s Best Vertically Challenged Characters
Let's complete the short trifecta.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 10 Sports Anime – Honorable Mention
LiA Bespoke is back. Once again the benefactor is the incredibly generous LiA MVP Nicc. And the commission this time is a straightforward one.
Newman’s Nook: What’s in a Name?
I first watched Neon Genesis Evangelion as an 18 year old, new to the anime medium. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I was just enthralled by all the large-scale combat…
What’s In a Name: Rei Ayanami
Some of you long-term followers have figured out by now my posts tend to follow certain themes. Character analysis. How to build a series. The power of N.…
LiA Bespoke Project: Good Things Come in Small Packages – Top 5 Short Anime
This is a format anime can do extremely well.
LiA Bespoke Project: The 2000-2009 Anime Top 10 – Honorable Mention
Any Top 10 list is, by nature, highly personal. Read more
LiA Bespoke Project: Automatic For the People – The Japanese Vending Machine
Not all the legends are true, but the true ones are amazing enough.
LiA Bespoke Review and Project Announcement: Mouryou no Hako – 1-3
A new chapter for LiA begins... Read more
What’s in a Name? Seihu High School
I always let myself do something stupid for an anniversary post, and since my anniversary was Feb 2, here ya go: Last year at this time I didn’t…
What’s in a Name: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Can anyone really honestly say they know what’s going on inside Hideaki Anno’s head? There’s a cute manga out there written by his wife Moyoco about their life…
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes – #5
The hardest thing about this topic is trying to remember - in this case, all the first and last episodes I’ve really loved.
LiA Bespoke Project : The Top 5 College Anime (for Dark Flame Master)
This is another one of those requests that sounds easy but it actually maddeningly difficult.
LiA Bespoke Project : That Niche (You Know the One I Mean) – Top 10
You've heard met talk about a certain "niche" on the schedule, and it's easier to give examples of it than to define it.
LiA Bespoke Project: Hello, Goodbye – Anime’s Best First and Final Episodes (Wrap-up)
As always, whenever one compiles a "best of" (or personal favorites) list, what's not on it draws as much attention as what is.
The Natsume Project #9: Ayakashi Exorcism
Like Natsume, my conclusion is this: Natori Shuuichi is a royal pain in the neck and should be avoided at all costs.
What’s left to say about Mononoke
Over a decade ago, I asked a dear friend what were some anime they recommended. This friend had pretty interesting taste in anime, none of our absolute favorites…
What is the Difference Between Yokai, Ayakashi, and Mononoke?
If you watch enough anime – supernatural anime, in particular – you learn that there are seemingly many names for spirits and demons. All of them seem pretty