About

A Brief History:

I have been watching anime for probably about ten years now, maybe a little longer, starting with a few series from the 1990s such as Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Cowboy Bebop Nadeshiko. I tend to watch a wide variety of anime, but my preferred genres are romance and slice-of-life, or at least these are the kinds of series that I will fall back upon if there isn’t much to watch. I do like other genres of course, such as action or more thoughtful or psychological series, and even some ecchi thrown in there (it’s a guilty pleasure). Really not a fan of most mecha, sports and long shounen series though, they have never really interested me and I dont think I have ever got past episode 5 of a long shounen series. I do like some mecha anime though, often the more organic robots, series such as Rahxephon, and other shows such as rinne no Lagrannge.

I’m currently a Postgraduate student, and my area of research and study is focussed mostly on the Culture and Society of Japan, which is partly where this blog comes in. I’ve been fascinated by Japan in general for several years now, and this has only increased with my studies – this blog is partly a way for me to explore areas of Japanese culture and how it relates to anime. It is also a way for me to begin to explore elements of anime that i’ve been fascinated by, but never really had a chance to write about, which has led to a lot of ideas just being stuck up in my head for years now. It also gives me a chance to practice my writing style and further explore areas of anime and borader Japanese society and culture further.

I realise that the first 6 months of my blog are pretty dead in terms of posts, and most of those posts I consider to be rubbish actually, many of the posts aren’t especially well written or coherent either. For me, I think I have only really started writing properly in the last 6 months or so, and that is when my best writing has been published. Hopefully people like what I have written, even if they dont necessarily agree with it.

I am currently doing some episodic blogging, partly to see what writing about individual episodes of an anime series is like, whether I continue to do this or not largely depends on my enjoyment, along with time contraints.

The name:

I am not sure if anyone has wondered why this blog is called Illogicalzen, but here is a small explanation. My interest in Japan does not simply stop at anime, manga and what some people call ‘Otaku’ culture, but also includes various other parts of the culture and society . One day I was reading a book about Zen, by the esteemed writer D. T. Suzuki. One particular phrase in that book ‘Illogicalzen’ struck me as something curious, yet facinating, and basically that became the blogs name. In a sense this phrase encapsulates my amazement for anime and manga, it is massive, and yet sometimes I wonder why and how this particular part of Japanese culture as grown into such a massive thing that it even appears in other countries all over the world. A curious name to give my blog, because it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with anime or manga, but there you have it.

Comments:

I’m happy for people to comment, but it has to be constructive in some way. I dont mind people disagreeing with my opinions on a series, because everyone has their own viewpoints, but simply telling me im wrong or dont know anything is likely to get the comment deleted. Not keen on flamming or anything like that either, which is another way of getting comments deleted. Basically I want to have constructive comments/discussions, whether they are criticisms or people agreeing with what I have written.

Contact:

Can find me on twitter [at]illogicalzen

Or email: illogicalzen[at]gmail[dot]com