Anime & Manga
Why the Studio Rarely Owns the Show
A publisher, a TV station, a label and a toy maker each buy a share of an anime. The studio that draws it usually holds none, and that decides sequels.
Japan Know How archive
Category: Anime & Manga
The pop culture that brought most American readers here in the first place: honorifics and speech styles in subtitles, names and how they are written, what gets lost between the Japanese and the dub, and the cultural references that translation notes never have room for.
Anime & Manga
The Money Behind a Single Episode
One episode passes through a committee, a studio and a dozen subcontractors before it streams. Who funds it, who owns it, and why schedules slip.
Anime & Manga
Manga Reading Order: Direction, Formats and Where to Start
Right to left at every scale, why English publishers stopped mirroring the art in 2002, the five publication formats, and whether to read the manga or watch the anime first.
Anime & Manga
What Gets Lost in the Dub
A dub is not a translation with a deadline. It is a rewrite constrained by mouth movements drawn to a Japanese script - and subtitles lose things too.
Anime & Manga
Character Names in Japanese: Meaning, Kanji and Readings
A Japanese name sounds like something and means something, and translation can usually carry only one. Plus why the same written name has several correct readings.
Anime & Manga
Anime Speech Styles, and What Subtitles Cannot Carry
Ore, boku, watashi and half a dozen more all become 'I'. The pronoun a character picks is characterisation, and English has no slot for it.
Anime & Manga
Japanese Honorifics in Anime: -san, -kun, -chan and the Rest
Nine forms of address, what each one claims, and why the moment a character drops the suffix is a plot event that English subtitles cannot show you.