Category: Anime

Eisner Hall of Fame: Rumiko Takahashi!

It’s the year of Rumiko Takahashi! She is the FIRST female mangaka to be inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame!

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Maison Ikkoku cheers via giphy

Let’s briefly start with what the Eisner Hall of Fame is, from the Comic-Con International website:

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry, are handed out each year in a gala ceremony at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Named for renowned cartoonist Will Eisner (creator of “The Spirit” and pioneer of the graphic novels), the Awards are given out in more than two-dozen categories covering the best publications and creators of the previous year.

Big deal? It’s a big deal. More at the Comic Con International website. She joins Osamu Tezuka (2002 inductee), Goseki Kojima (2004 inductee), Kazuo Koike (2004 inductee) and Katsushiro Otomo (2012 inductee).

Rumiko Takahashi’s works include:

  • Urusei Yatsura – 34 volumes
  • Maison Ikkoku – 15 volumes
  • Mermaid Saga – 3 volumes
  • Ranma 1/2 – 38 volumes
  • One-Pound Gospel – 4 volumes
  • Rumic Theater (Short story anthologies)
  • Rumic World (Short story anthologies)
  • Inuyasha – 56 volumes
  • Rin-Ne – 40 volumes
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Rumiko Takahashi and manga via giphy

She had been nominated for the Eisner Hall of Fame previously in years 2014, 1016, and 2017. Ms. Takahashi won the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award in 1980 for Urusei Yatsura and in 2001 for Inuyasha, both in the Shonen category.

Congratulations to Rumiko Takahashi!

Today’s Menu for Emiya Family

Crunchyroll recently released Today’s Menu for Emiya Family, a cooking spin to the normally action-charged Fate/Stay Night anime series. Each episode is shorter than others, clocking in at a little over 12 minutes. Shiro Emiya, our protagonist, shops and cooks for the household. As this is a spin-off, he interacts with characters that are normally viewed as enemies in the main plot line with hilarious and intriguing results. I also like the portrayal of a young man who is cooking for the rest of the household, all of whom are women. Everyone cooks! Everyone eats! Everyone wins!

This has been a fairly popular series to show at my library’s ani-mazing anime programs due to how quick the episodes are. However be warned when showing this without snacks or having lunch yourself. Just be aware that if you laugh or discuss about the characters in relation to Fate/Stay Night, unless the attendees have seen it, it would be best not to bring it up and keep it light.

 

 

Anime Programs

I just did my first official Ani-mazing Anime Showing!

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Yay! It was quite exhilarating I’ll say. However I have to wonder, with technology widespread and anime being available (pirated or streaming), is it worth showing anime at the public library anymore?

First thing is to pre-screen the series to be shown. The series have been pre-screened by me so to make sure the series can also be good for middle schoolers who want to watch, so context can be mentioned if there are questions.

How it works: The program is set at two Fridays a month after school (3 pm). Audience members can choose from a list of anime titles that can be shown at the next showing. In essence, it would be beneficial for an audience member to come to the first showing because they have a chance to vote for a series they want to show at the next showing, and so on. The trick also I had was to mix titles up, that way the audience doesn’t know which series I’ll be showing, it’ll be based on a vote by the audience members.

The thing is, I had to learn from previous YA librarians who held anime showings at their libraries. One librarian had teens suggest a series to show and when the time came, he didn’t show up. When she saw him later and asked why he didn’t show up because she showed the series he suggested, he replied that he had already seen it.

From that example, I had decided to the the aforementioned voting and mix and match series. However… Out of the participants (all of 3 people) have already seen what Crunchyroll had to offer, even the Premium episodes. Premium episodes can only be viewed by a paid member of Crunchyroll and will be free to watch after a certain time frame. There’s only so much that the library is licensed to show. From that, where does anime programs fit if it is so easily accessible? Another point to consider is that, because the series have been pre-screened, that means the series has to have finished already. Unless it is a remake of an old series, under that rule I cannot show brand new anime series that comes out each season.

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