Shigeru Mizuki's Showa is an epic four-volume graphic novel series about the Showa era of Japan (1926-1989) and a semi-biographical account of Mizuki's own life during that period. It's funny, heartbreaking, illuminating, beautiful, and complex, and it shows why graphic novels are such a powerful and important medium. We talk with Dr. Maryanne Rhett about using graphic novels in the classroom and some of her favorites.
We originally planned for this episode to focus on the 2014 film The Interview, but we ended up talking about the Olympics, U.S.-North Korean relations, the Korean War, and even a Korean folk story about the war! If you want some perspective on all the recent developments in North Korea, listen to this episode, featuring an interview with Christine Hong, professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
This mini episode has it all! We play the board game "Home Play," discuss the history of LGBTQ people in Taiwan, and respond to a listener question with help from Prof. Chia-rong Wu.
Our third full episode features a discussion of Ghost in the Shell, a long-running Japanese pop culture franchise, as well as issues of whitewashing, gender, and technology in the Japanese and American popular imaginations. Dr. Noriko Aso came in to help us discuss all these issues and more.
Our second episode features a discussion of Japanese writer/politician/singer Nosaka Akiyuki and two of his works, Grave of the Fireflies and "American Hijiki." We brought in Dr. Alan Christy to help us discuss Nosaka's works, World War II in Japan, and the postwar American occupation.