In 2011 we should have been wearing jumpsuits and whizzing up and down spiral ramps to airports in the sky. Jeez, what went wrong?
Tag: Japan
Can’t a man have a little privacy?
Japanese demons, or yokai, invade the personal space of this very aghast male bather.
Untold Horror
I really have to wonder what stories these Japanese illustrations are telling. First, someone in a caped costume meant to depict a skeletal ape menaces miniature children standing in teacups. Then, a cyclops lady with a flying, detachable head spews freezing breath at a stage magician and a teenage boy. Anyone have a clue?
Narnian Manga
Sample drawings from a (probably unauthorized) manga adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Note Aslan seems to be wearing a crown of thorns and the dessert Mrs. Beaver is holding is a Swiss roll cake, a Japanese favorite.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/19/20: Female Transformers
For the first few years of its existence Transformers was strictly an all-male universe. By universe, I mean the line of toys, comics and cartoons in the US; there may have been some distaff members in the Japanese lines, which are traditionally more accepting of females in action roles. It was not until the mid-1980s …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/12/20: Rejected Transformers
As the picture above ** suggests, some Transformers just never made the grade. Since part of the fun of them are those oh-so-easily parodied names, here’s a list of those Autobots and Decepticons who never should have been born. I’ll call them Aborticons. Aborticons Cosmiclutter Dirtbag Lumplizard Dinofart Kittenstrike Hysteridemic Crunkbrawl Skysnort Menhonk Hypimple …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/5/20: Transformers
Do you know American President Ronald Reagan is to thank for the success of the Transformers franchise? In the early 1980s Hasbro executives noticed a line of Japanese toys called the Diaclones, which were robots that transformed into vehicles. They thought the concept had merit, so the company licensed them to be sold in the …
Rubber
The industrialized world depended on rubber once. There was rubber everywhere. But then, one day, it came to life.
Parakeet Horror
I had a parakeet growing up, and I loved the little thing. But as pets, budgerigars have their horrible side. When they die, for example. Often suddenly and without warning. Nothing can freak out a small child like seeing a bird that had been happily chirping an hour before lying motionless on the bottom of …
The Last Samurai [Reading Challenge 2019]
The Last Samurai by Mark Ravina Wiley, 2005 [Challenge # 5: A book taking place in Asia (Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Vietnam.)] I really wanted to like this book. It’s a biography of Saigo Takamori, a Japanese historical hero who might be compared to Abraham Lincoln in American history, a down-home politician who embodied …