Ichi-F

Ichi-F

A documentary manga about the daily life of the cleanup crew at the No. 1 Fukushima nuclear plant after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

An incredibly fascinating look at what actually happens at ground zero of a nuclear disaster. Kazuto Tatsuta details everything behind the lives of worker from the process of getting hired to the daily Geiger counter checks.

There is some controversy surrounding this book as readers have been critical about how the companies behind the Fukushima cleanup in it are portrayed too positively, thus suggesting that the manga artist is in cahoots with them some how. While I’m not very familiar with the Japanese politics behind everything, I will still say that this manga is still a wonderful resource for learning about how nuclear fallout is contained and cleanup crews work.

We dedicated an episode to this book if you’d like to listen for further analysis.

~dakazu

154 – Anime Interlude 5 – Welcome to the Ballroom

154 – Anime Interlude 5 – Welcome to the Ballroom

On this episode our buddy Miki’s Stopwatch stops by to join us in discussing this season’s hot(mostly not) anime and older stuff as well: Welcome to the Ballroom, Magical Circle(Mahoujin Guru Guru), Made in Abyss, Restaurant to Another World(Isekai Shokudou), Haibane Renmei, Ashita no Joe, Snow White with the Red Hair(Akagami no Shirayuki-hime), Love and Lies(Koi to Uso), Gamers!, Kakeguri: Compulsive Gambler, My First Girlfriend is a Gal(Hajimete no Gal), Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun(Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun), and RIN-NE(Kyokai no Rinne)! Also, Miki praises BEASTARS & The Ancient Magus’ Bride, we talk about the money behind anime streaming services, we talk about finding a theater that will show obscure anime movies, we talk about the New York Review of Books reviewing Ichi-F, darfox notices a change in Shuzo Oshimi’s art style, dakazu loves a tale of imaginary girl training victims in Chuni no Danshi to Dairokkan, and we debate the appeal of dark, weird, interesting manga like Naraku no Hitsuji!!!

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130 – Saikyo Selections 6 – Sailor Moon with Dawn “Usamimi”

130 – Saikyo Selections 6 – Sailor Moon with Dawn “Usamimi”

This week Dawn “Usamimi” from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast is back to talk about one of her favorite series, Sailor Moon! We examine everything from the differences of the manga vs. the anime to the recently aired Sailor Moon Crystal! Also on this episode, Dawn’s been reading Goodnight Punpun and recommends Naoki Urasawa’s Manben for a look behind the scenes of creating manga, darfox checks out Reiraku and likes the unique art of BEASTARS, we celebrate the English release of My Brother’s Husband and Ichi-F, we discuss the difficulty of translating and the slippery slope of fan-translations, and we’re hyped for devilman crybaby by Masaaki Yuasa but not so much for Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution!!!

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029 – Nausicaä part 1

029 – Nausicaä part 1

We start off by delving into non-fiction manga with Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Then darfox gives an update on Jisatsutou, Seamus is back to his yuri ways in Sweet Blue Flowers, and Nana to Kaoru leads dakazu to explain censorship laws? Finally, we begin our next retrospective of Hayao Miazaki’s acclaimed manga Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind!!!(covers vol. 1)

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