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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 4d

Well put. It also helps that the barrier of investment is so low for manga magazines. Giving an artist a chance is a lot cheaper than (say) filming a pilot episode of something. There's probably no cheaper way to reach so many millions, and that allows for a lot more freedom of experimentation.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 4d

Join @patrickmacias.bsky.social and I on a “very special episode” of Pure Tokyoscope recorded on the floor of Tokyo’s greatest vintage toy show: Super Festival! (That’s probably a quarter million USD worth of vinyl kaiju in that shot) www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 4d

I actually think this mindset is key to the whole enterprise. It is certainly key to anime’s authenticity.

For too long we’ve seen “Galapagos” used to denigrate Japan’s inward focus. But in a world gone crazy, it has made Japan (and things from Japan) an oasis. Stay tuned for more about this soon.

Daniel Morales @howtojapanese.com · 4d

Fascinating: "When I asked the editor of a major manga magazine how much thought they gave to foreign consumers when planning new series, they told me none — because how would they know what foreign people wanted?"

Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 5d

“Very few people here in America have the balls to do what anime does,” a veteran Hollywood animation director told me.

blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/why-hollyw...

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 5d

An even bigger difference is that in America, corporations own the characters and stories. In Japan, the creators do (or more accurately share ownership with the publishers.) it sets up a completely different, and I would suggest more authentic, dynamic with consumers.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 5d

“Very few people here in America have the balls to do what anime does,” a veteran Hollywood animation director told me.

blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/why-hollyw...

Why Hollywood stars are saying “F*** anime”

And why they’re right to be scared

blog.pureinventionbook.com

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Reposted by Matt Alt

Luis Aguasvivas 🔜 TGS @aguaspoints.bsky.social · 6d

For @unwinnable.com I explored Anime NYC with the one and only @mattalt.bsky.social.

"Anime is another form of drag for the human race... Binaries break down."

Staring at Japan’s “Fantasy Industrial Complex” at Anime NYC 2025 with Matt Alt - Unwinnable

“Anime is another form of drag for the human race.”

unwinnable.com

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 7d

I still feel that it remains more fondly remembered by foreign anime fans abroad than it is in Japan. Perhaps not quite Voltron-vs-Golion or Cowboy Bebop levels, but still. My point is, there used to be a real schism between what hit domestically and what hit abroad. That gap has truly narrowed.

Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 7d

I get it -- it's a Gundam series, so fringe might be stretching -- but you just do not see Wing being celebrated here in the way series preceding and succeeding it are. You mostly hear it discussed in Japan as "the one that hit in America."

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 8d

The souvenir from Japan for your father:

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 8d

I regret knowing this! Thank you.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 8d

First, AI came for the writers, then the coders, then the filmmakers. Now it seems to have come for the gashapon.

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Reposted by Matt Alt

curious ordinary @curiousordinary.bsky.social · 9d

Two more books also by Hiroko and Matt are Yokai Attack and Yurei Attack. These are a really fun introduction to Japanese #yokai and ghosts.
#JapaneseFolklore
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Front covers of Yokai Attack and Yurei Attack.

Open page about Tsuchi-gumo, illustration on right of a giant spider.

Open book with more information about Tsuchi-gumo.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 9d

This is a great lecture. The part about how "funhouse mirror" distortions of Japanese culture can then affect Japanese culture itself reminds me of @hirokoyoda.bsky.social's writing about how the Japanese gov't is now promoting Western "ikigai" on locals. blog.hirokoyoda.com/p/ikigai-vs-...

Dr. Wes Robertson @scriptingjapan.bsky.social · 10d

[X] the Ancient Japanese Art of [Y]: The Mobilization of #Japanese Metalinguistic Fantasies in Self-Help Literature

Recording of a lecture I gave at JSAA2025

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TElW...

X the Ancient Japanese Art of Y: The Mobilization of Linguistic Fantasies in Self-Help Books

YouTube video by Scripting Japan

www.youtube.com

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 10d

Before animation historians jump down my throat, yes, there were Japanese animated features before this, but Astro Boy was the first full length TV series. Tezuka described it thusly:「これは、アニメーションじゃないんです。テレビアニメなんです。アニメなんです」"This isn't animation. I call it 'anime.'" And a new word was born.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 10d

62 years ago this month: Osamu Tezuka inks a deal with NBC for the broadcast of "Astro Boy," giving the world its first taste of anime:

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 10d

It's PURE JIMBOCHO as @patrickmacias.bsky.social & I broadcast from the heart of Japan's "coolest" (according to a certain foreign magazine) neighborhood -- Jimbocho, Tokyo's used and new book district. Listening to us talking about reading is fundamental: www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...

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Reposted by Matt Alt

Deb Aoki @debaoki.bsky.social · 12d

A neat profile on Manga Awards host/judge & author @mattalt.bsky.social during @animenyc.bsky.social with some impressions of the Kagurabachi / Manga Plus panel with Takeru Hokazono

unwinnable.com/2025/10/02/s...

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 12d

Thanks to @aguaspoints.bsky.social for this profile from the floor of AnimeNYC in August: unwinnable.com/2025/10/02/s...

Staring at Japan’s “Fantasy Industrial Complex” at Anime NYC 2025 with Matt Alt - Unwinnable

“Anime is another form of drag for the human race.”

unwinnable.com

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 12d

The gothic elements certainly don't hurt. They've also moved far away from the distinctly Taisho-era Japan settings of the first few series into a fantasy world that's much easier for non-Japanese to digest.

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 13d

There are 10,000 manga artists working in Japan today. The extraordinary success of "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle" is due to Shonen Jump's knack for spotting talent.

Its success abroad is due to a more singular factor.

We're all otaku now.

blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/dollars-an...

Dollars and Demons

Demon Slayer's success shouldn't surprise. We're all otaku now.

blog.pureinventionbook.com

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 13d

Congratulations!

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Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 18d

Turning Japanese: Japan-style "conbini" in the US, Japan-style "anime" sweeping the US, and Japan-style "horror" shaking up US, all brought to you by.... US, me & @patrickmacias.bsky.social! www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...