You're Not

the anime that shattered what was left of my childhood innocence when i was 14. god bless it.

pffft

i was having a great day then this appeared

We go forward.

A view of Monet’s house and own inspirational garden: Giverny, France.

Anime doesn’t equal Japanese culture

I think we’ve heard this statement a lot. I mean, anime is just fiction and so it’s free to mend reality to fit the story it’s trying to tell. And some anime fans would be surprised to know that real Japanese people can act a lot differently than anime characters.

But…

… at least personally, I think this statement simply isn’t true in some cases. Anime is indeed able to teach us something about the Japanese culture.

We have these:

Chihayafuru

Chihayafuru introduced me to the world of Karuta, a traditional Japanese card game, which is something I didn’t even know existed. The anime (and manga) is featuring real shrines and places in order to make it feel as real as possible. It even made me watch a real queen match on YouTube because I fell in love with it. And not only that - it boosted the profile of competitive karuta in Japan and overseas.

Truly a masterful representation of Japanese culture.

Kono Oto Tomare!

This anime introduced me to koto - a traditional Japanese string instrument, which is something I, again, didn’t even know existed, making me and millions of other fans watch real koto performances. And if it wasn’t for this anime I’d completely missed it. Now, I can’t stop listening to it. Goddammit, anime!

Tsurune

Putting KyoAni drama of just-friendship between cute anime boys aside, Tsurune introduced me to Kyudo - Japanese archery. Now, I’m not stupid and I knew what archery was before but I certainly didn’t know that Japan developed its own traditions around a simple bow and arrow. And it certainly was fascinating seeing how competitions work and what goes into it and I’m thankful for that.

Barakamon

Barakamon isn’t even trying to introduce you to the world of Japanese calligraphy. The story focuses heavily on character development and not on the traditional art itself but seeing the main character desperately trying to find his own style or teaching children how to write beautifully in order to win a school competition still managed to leave an impact on me and taught me something new about the Japanese culture.

And there are many more

Noragami, Kamisama Hajimemashita and Natsume Yuujinchou introduced me to the world of Youkai, Ayakashi and Japanese gods and while I know that the authors made their stories unique and they aren’t 100% accurate to the real legends, they still count.

Kimi no Na wa shows a traditional shrine dance during which maidens make Kuchikamisake. Not to mention the hundreds of other anime which show a simple visit to a shrine like Hyouka.

Shougi - a Japanese strategic game similar to our chess is featured in a lot of anime - the most popular being Naruto.

And don’t even make me talk about the food.

What I’m trying to say is…

…anime did introduce us to Japanese culture and while it isn’t the best representation there is, we shouldn’t take away the credit it deserves and appreciate it.

USE HEADPHONES

genius, give this person a medal

dark academia literary works: a masterlist

Hello! I replied to this post on Reddit today, trying to compile all the dark academia books I could think of, and then thought that maybe all of you here might find it useful too, so here you go. It is a very, very broad list, a mix of classic and contemporary literature, and there is no set criteria besides having a dark vibe (this includes murder and crime but could just be the way it’s written as well) and portraying an academic setting, most of the time from the student’s point of view. I haven’t read all of these myself and so I can’t judge on quality, but hopefully this will inspire people to add on to it in the comments.

Here you go!

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson The Secret History, Donna Tartt If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio Maurice by E. M. Forster The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Possession by A.S. Byatt The Truants by Kate Weinberg The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Vicious by V. E. Schwab The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (tangentially related) A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Likeness by Tana French The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (coming out tomorrow!) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman Oleanna by David Mamet Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Other classics that are not Dark Academia in content, but which I would include in a list of the DA canon: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer Shakespeare’s plays (Macbeth, Hamlet are good ones to start with) A Separate Peace, John Knowles The Bacchae, Euripides Greek tragedies (a good one to start with is Antigone, very popular and staged many a time) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Beat generation literature Jane Austen’s books (light academia, anyone?)