Any self-respecting anime has to have a festival episode. If it’s set in Japan and the story can allow for any degree of downtime, there’s no excuse not to dress up the characters in colorful yukata and send them to a festival (known as a “matsuri” in Japanese) to eat junk food and play carnival games.
This Halloween season, we wanted to go over some of our favorite matsuri in anime. They range from fun little diversions to major aspects of the story. Let’s get in our yukatas and enjoy!
Around Halloween, what’s more fun and frightening than exploring a haunted house or trekking through the nearby spooky forest? It’s a perfect adrenaline boost for the holiday, and if you bring along someone you have a crush on, maybe you’ll have the chance to protect them when they get scared!
The kimodameshi (test of courage) is a Japanese variant of the same concept. It often pops up to provide a tense atmosphere, endless pranks, or just an excuse for two prospective lovebirds to get a little bonding time alone together. So today, let’s take a look at five of our favorite kimodameshi in anime!
In Part 1 of this series, we took a brief look at how mahou shoujo (magical girl) anime grew from its cutesy, harmless origins into a full-fledged genre about realistic girls who kick ass and control their own destinies. But even though certain anime like Mai-HiME (2004) and Heartcatch Precure (2010) incorporated some very dark subject matter, it wasn’t until the release of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (2011) that the magical girl genre got its big gut-punch deconstruction.
When you think of kid-friendly anime, mahou shoujo (translated as “magical girl”) shows are probably pretty high on the list. They’re all about young girls conquering evil with sparkly magic and the power of friendship, right? Well, not so much anymore.
Mahou shoujo anime in the classic style still exist, of course, but the staggering impact of shows like Princess Tutu (2002) and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (2011), among others, has blown the door wide open for deconstructing the typical tropes and expectations of what once was once viewed as a genre strictly for young girls. In this two-part series, we’ll explore how mahou shoujo grew and changed over time, and how certain influential shows turned the entire genre on its head.
Steve Conte has had quite the career. He’s a New York City-based singer and guitarist whose resume includes playing with the New York Dolls, The Michael Monroe Band, his own band, and too many other acts to name. He also writes and produces his own songs, and even after over 30 years of rocking, he still makes his punk haircut look good.
Even if you aren’t into rock music, you’ll likely recognize his voice from songs like “Call Me, Call Me” and “Rain” from Cowboy Bebop, “Living Inside the Shell” from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, or the opening “Stray” from Wolf’s Rain. He’s worked with Japanese composer Yoko Kanno since the ‘90s and has helped create some of the most iconic music in anime history. We interviewed him over the phone after his summer European tour and his appearance at J1-Con in Atlantic City, NJ. Here’s what we found out!
Fear of the darkness is something deeply ingrained in us as humans – what waits in the shadows could very well kill us without even having to defend itself. So in the pantheon of superpowers, it’s no surprise that plenty of fictional characters have mastery over the terrifying element of darkness. And over the years, anime has shown us far more creative applications for shadows and darkness than we could ever think of.
![[Honey's Anime Interview] Steve Conte: Composer and Vocalist (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Wolf's Rain)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/594f053cbf629a4fd216a1b2/1537999555206-Q1A20080Y6YXDBJ6FGKQ/Picture17.jpg)
