Jakob's Blog

Oishinbo generally is about cultural foods and what is in them that makes it good and how they are made. It is quite relaxing to read as it is not story-heavy but instead it tells you the many facts and appreciation of foods from other cultures. It makes the story feel more realistic. I also like how it is not exaggerated with characteristics like a lot of other shows do such as Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma. It is a nice break to read about the cultural aspects and the value we have in our foods today.

The story takes place in an agricultural school where people are very familiar with livestock. Hachiken has a strong relationship he had with this pig named Katsudon every since it was a baby. He raised it and cared for it as it was his friend. But eventually, he had to give Katsudon away and bought his meat, and made a pork barbeque. He was sad and did not take it for granted, as he appreciated more than anyone else. And eventually, Hachiken gave everyone a wake-up call that livestock is not just animals but their friend who gives you life. Animals are cherished and appreciated, giving them the rights that they deserve. This anime gives a really strong message that animals give us food on the table and we should be more appreciated for them than ourselves who work for the food. It truly makes me think how much we are not thankful enough for the sacrifices these animals make and I believe every animal needs to live a happy fulfilling life because they deserve it more than we do.

When it comes to the horror genre in manga, Junji Ito works are always my go-to and it never disappoints. His style stands out as grotesque, expressive, and very unnatural but believable at the same time. It's almost he captures all the images we used to have in our nightmares and brings it on paper. A lot of his works are more short stories which every chapter is another scenario of a different person's experience. The characters are given a general idea of who they are and what they do in the beginning. Then the story progresses a somewhat normal life, giving subtle hints of the horror that is about to come. And in the end, it goes from 0 to 100 real quick, always resulting in a shocking scenery. Not only is his art incredible but the true beauty of his work is, it's making us question how and why these people turn this way and his work express the monster some of us all have inside.

I never knew Isekai was considered a genre in the world of anime/manga. And now that I think about it, I have seen a lot of Isekai genre series before this class such as Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, No Game No Life, Danmachi, etc. What I realized watching these shows is they have a sense of an open-world RPG game, making the world incredibly huge. You can really tell by the characters how they get new gears or even level up after a battle. Character customization can be sometimes seen too with clothing and overall appearance. In addition, there are often non-human characters as well which gives it another feeling of a video game. It is not my most enjoyable genre because I think the storylines do get kind of predictable and repetitive, and a lot of characters are not fully developed in the end.

My experience with the Cyberpunk genre is Psycho-Pass and Neon Genesis Evangelion. This genre opens up a whole other world of what we would predict the future would be like such as technology and mixed cultural traits. It is almost like we merge with technology and even builds our identity. The question that every character goes through is what makes them human or who are we as humans. And the show reminds you that in reality. In the show, Psycho-Pass, each person has their own psychological data and it's measured how healthy our mental state is. But who has the right to judge and who is the technology that gives us who is right or wrong? Emotions are always challenged and that is common in the Cyberpunk genre.