Ryan Walsh

The one common debate among anime fans is the quality and importance of filler. Most of the time filler is used in anime not to surpass its ongoing manga that came first so it is used to pad the story out so the manga is further ahead of development than the anime. But when it comes to stories that doesn’t have an original source, filler is often used to slow the pace down to let audiences get familiar with the characters and even build up its own lore. But these days audiences want a faster paced story at the cost of character development and world building. So should filler be excluded from all stories if it has no purpose? Or when done right, should it be allowed to stay?

With the hype surrounding Marvel’s latest film Black Panther, there is a lot of focus from word of mouth and marketing that this is the first black superhero on the big screen. That is not true however as many have been shown in tv and films before such as Blade and Luke Cage. Yet Black Panther’s role for POC representation in film is much more culturally significant than the other african-american superheroes that appeared on the big screen before the King of Wakanda. By comparing how the others were represented in comparison to Black Panther today.

Analyzing the history of Superman’s concept as a hero who fights for truth, justice, and freedom, to how freedom was replaced by the "American Way" leading to fans and casual readers to argue about Superman’s national identity. Overlooking how national identity does not solely define Superman’s legacy as an inspiration for hope, and question if his label as an "American icon" is more harmful to the character than anticipated.

Kinnikuman is the name most people would be familiar with from the dubbed version of its second anime entitled "Ultimate Muscle", not knowing that it is a sequel to Kinnikuman. One would wonder why it has not been released in North America as it moves like a typical shonen story. However, during the times of Japan’s naivety compared to today regarding anime, Kinnikuman presents some questionable imagery that would be baffling and unintentionally insulting to other countries. Should Kinnikuman be allowed to have a proper North American release? Or should Kinnikuman be lost from the public eye except to the internet culture and online fandoms?

With the rise of progressive animated shows for children and adults these days such as Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, a lot of praise has been spreading around for how entertaining the shows are for balancing heart, development, and comedy. However, there seems to be a vocal backlash towards shows that doesn’t live up to the expectations of the people who enjoy progressive shows. If an animated show is comedic without much depth or drama, it is garned as idiotic and for some reason, deserves to be hated by many even though those shows never really harmed anyone. This article would discuss the progression of animated shows through time and make comparisons between shows that are different in their presentations. And determine if they truly are meant to be hated, or are just getting attention from people who are not their intended target audience.

Introduced to North America in the 1990s, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a different type of superhero show that became a major part of pop culture. Later on it was revealed that the series actually used footage and characters from the 16th Super Sentai series in Japan, Zyuranger. Both series has similarities but contain many differences due to cultural differences from their home countries. Are the changes justified or was the conversion from Sentai to Power Rangers an example of Americanizing foreign shows?

This is a topic that has many people split down the middle. Many people will say that if the new film is a remake of a classic, watch the classic. However, for many people, they believe the remake is better than the original. Ranging from the Chocolate Factory films, the Planet of the Apes films, even superhero films such as Batman and Spider-man have people split about which version is better. Are the originals always better, are the remakes superior, or will this just be an endless debate with no real end?

Analyze and discuss why Sonic the hedgehog gets a lot of ire on the internet despite his status as a video game icon. The Blue Blur became a phenomenon in the 90’s but then struggled during the dawn of 3D gaming. Despite having some successful 3D games with praise from critics and fans, a mass others still cry out that all 3D Sonic games are garbage and inferior to Sonic’s 2D games despite there existing good 3D Sonic games. Is the massive disappointment of the modern Sonic justified or are people putting down Sonic as a popular fad to hate something for no explained reason.