AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES – Tapio Tokunaga still remembers the first time he saw George Lucas’ Star Wars films. “I fell in love with it,” he tells me, recalling borrowing the DVDs as a seven-year-old in Yokohama, Japan. Tapio would go on to learn as much about the story, characters, and…
LAUREN CRAVEN WRITES — Kawaii, a term meaning “cute” in Japanese, has morphed into an entire culture that can be seen in the everyday experiences of Japanese natives, tourists, and even in the lives of those outside of Japan. In the 1970s and 80s, the Kawaii aesthetic started as a…
SAVANNAH NUNEZ WRITES — Anime geeks, video game fanatics, cosplay creators and the like flocked to the Los Angeles Convention Center once again to celebrate the 26th Anime Expo this past July. The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation produces the annual event which features panel discussions, live concerts…
