One series I’ve been looking forward to this season is the continuation of Gate, an anime about a magical gateway that opens in the middle of Tokyo linking to another world, through which Japan’s military travels to do battle with and/or befriend the magical creatures on the other side. Like other series such as Muv-Luv and Zipang, Gate is what’s known as a jieitai-kei anime, specifically designed to appeal to fans of Japan’s military, which are designated as Self-Defence Forces by Japan’s Constitution. Although it’s ostensibly about a gate to a fantasy world, the show is really an homage to the classic Sengoku Jieitai “timeslip” movie series from the 1970s in which modern military units are transported back in time to the Warring States period, during which titans like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Date Masamune fought to unify Japan under the title of shogun.
It’s funny to look at the various ways anime represents real world facial features from our 3D world in only two dimensions. Like the way characters with those crooked-in-a-cute-way teeth (called yaeba) are represented by a single fang in the mouth. Another odd thing you see from time to time is a character who seems to have his eyes closed all the time, like Brock from Pokemon, Akari’s older sister Akane, or Yachiyo from Working! Sometimes the eyes closed thing signifies that the character is relaxed and calm, or that they’re a bit of an aho (pronounced ah-ho, it’s Osaka-ben for “stupid”), in a charming way. It can also be used to denote narrow eyes that have just one crease in the eyelid when open, called 一重 hitoe, compared with eyes that are larger and more expressive with two eyelid creases, called 二重 futae. I’ll bet you never wondered about eyelid creases before, did you?
J-List’s fuku-bukuro grab bags are always a popular item on our site, and customers love to pick up our anime & toy, kawaii & fashion, snack and “naughty” random grab bags. We’re announcing that we’re in the final week for our grab bags, so if you want to grab one, do it now!
