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Today’s post will be the scariest post from me during the spooky season. And what’s scarier than real life. Today’s topic will be a very dark subject of Japan’s darkest moment in history. 

   This post will talk about horrific events that happened during WWII. So read this if you can stomach it. This is your WARNING. 731-640x375

   Today I am talking about the infamous Unit 731 known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department. Lead by Shirō Ishii, this unit specialized in biological weapon testing. What they did was torture and killed a ton of people in a very horrible ways for research. Up to a half of a million people were killed. There were many horrible experiments they conducted. And they referred to the human subjects as “logs”. The human subjects ranged from criminals and war prisoners to infants and pregnant ladies. Here are some of the experiments they have done.

  1. Vivisection: were they dissected people still alive and awake and removed organs of the test subjects. They removed limbs and reattached them to different parts to see if the body will reject it. 
  2. Biological testing: they would make affect many people with bubonic plague, anthrax, and many other different biological diseases. 
  3. Weapon testing: they would use people as live dummies to see how different weapons affected them. 
  4. Random things: put people in low pressure rooms and have their eyes explode out their heads. Fill their kidneys with horse urine. Put air bubbles in their veins. Burn them. Ect
  5. Frostbite experiments: one of the creepiest and most fucked up thing they did. They would wet their test subjects and freeze their limbs and start slamming the limbs with sticks and other things to see if the limbs were frostbitten and if they would feel it. Sometimes the limbs would shatter like ice.

 

 I’m leaving out what they did to women because it’s way too fucked up to talk about. 

   The most horrific thing is that after the war, The US gave immunity to a lot of the researchers that were part of Unit 731 in exchange of all the research documents they had from the experiments. Dark and fucked shit the US did back then. 

   War is a scary and ugly thing and the secret things we find out later really is dark and frightening. So much is hidden from us and it’s always the most frightening things. Monsters, ghosts, aliens, curses, and demons are scary, but the scariest thing is humans. 

   I know that today’s post was really dark, but it’s a historical thing that happened, that a lot of people have never heard of. Next week’s post will be on the lighter side of horror. Plus on Halloween I’ll be posting a Japanese horror story that I’m writing that takes place in the 90’s Japan. 

   Thanks for reading and have a great day. 

-Tsubaki Kuro

Hello all you wonderful people! It’s me, Alexie, and I’m back with another post for the Panda Gang! If you haven’t realized yet, I like lists. They’re simple, and usually a summary of the points in the list is good enough to get people to know what I’m talking about. This will be another one of those lists, because why not?

So, as the title says, what are some novel series I would love to see as anime (or cartoons, whatever)? Within the realm of anime being based off manga and light novels, I do think that it’s a bit of a shame that what we almost always get are series from Japan. Okay, obviously that’s going to happen, but outside of Japan, in the West, there are some fantastic series that I think would actually work better as anime/cartoons (I know they’re different…maybe animated is a better word?) than live-action adaptations (like all the Marvel series on Netflix, or whatever else). Let’s get into this list!

 

The Night Angel Trilogy, Brent Weeks

Yep, this is a trilogy that is based on a medieval Europe, with ninjas and a neat magic system that doesn’t make a ton of sense until pieced together through the trilogy (but in the end it actually makes a tone of sense), and a huge amount of political intrigue that rocks the world and its boundaries. Plus, the world that the Night Angel trilogy takes place in has an awesome name: Midcyru. If you want to know more about this trilogy and what it’s like I highly recommend reading it if you’re into fantasy novels or you can just visit the author’s website (brentweeks.com) and check some other stuff out. There’s also a graphic novel of the first book in the trilogy, so what’s to say an animated adaptation is impossible?!?

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The Lightbringer Series, Brent Weeks

Okay, okay, I know…I have a thing for Brent Weeks, obviously, but the man hasn’t won the top fantasy novel award for nothing (he got a damn axe!—it’s the David Gemmell Legend award if you’re curious). This series has a magic system based on color, which is super cool. The magic users are called Drafters, and each color of the spectrum we know as the visible spectrum has metaphysical properties–there are some other “draftable aspects, too. Also, there’s a picture below showing properties… The cool part is whatever color your eyes are is the color you can “draft,” but some people have multi-colored eyes and can draft multiple colors (red/green, green/blue, you get the point). There’s also one person in the world called The Prism, who can draft every single color of the spectrum…even…well, I’d rather not go spoiling anything, so I’ll leave that as it is. There’s also massive political intrigue on a scale I haven’t read in any fantasy before, which is super cool, and a cast of characters that is large, but not too large to not know who is who right off the bat.Lightbringer seriesLightbringer series drafters spectrum

The Ancestor Trilogy, Mark Lawrence

This is a trilogy I have yet to complete, since I have paperback versions of the first two novels and I’m waiting for the paperback version of the final installment to release. I’m weird. If I start hardcover I get all hardcover and if I start paperback I get all paperback for a more uniform look to the novels. The Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence is a cast full of females. The lead is female, the supporting characters are female, and they’re all badass! They’re a convent of nuns, but they’re assassins and magic users and healers and users of medicine. They’re also awesome as all hell. We start with a younger girl named Nona, and it’s her story of becoming who she is, a badass. The magic system is a bit confusing unless you’re reading the story, but with the political intrigue, power of the cast, and magic system, this trilogy would be great to see animated.Ancestory trilogy

Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

I seriously don’t remember anything about this series since it’s been around fifteen years since I read any of the novels, but in all honesty I think seeing it as an animated series would be awesome. There’s magic and elves and a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind as the main character (Artemis Fowl II), but yeah. I would love to see this series animate because I think the colors and characters would be great to see on a screen and it wouldn’t work as a live-action adaptation. Animate it and you can get all of what you want out of this series. While it is a series aimed at younger readers, I still believe it would be an enjoyable series.Artemis Fowl series

And that does it for my post today. Are there any series you would love to see animated? If so, I would love to know!

Thanks for reading!

Alexie 🙂

   So on Friday I was on a Asian movie binge. I watched the Live Action Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy, I Saw the Devil (a Korean thriller), Train to Busan (a Korean zombie movie) and the last one, Parasite (a Korean thriller) I know that all our posts have been Japanese oriented blogs, but today I am doing it on two Korean movies. So which Korean movies am I talking about today. Well the one that was beautifully made by Bong Joon-ho. And the other made by Kim Jee-woon Today I am talking about the movie Parasite and I Saw the Devil. 

  Let me start by saying this, I’ll try to make these as spoiler free as possible. I WILL TRY MY BEST OKAY. MV5BOWVmODY4MjYtZGViYS00MzJjLWI3NmItMGFmMDRkMzI1OTU3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQ0NTUxOTA@._V1_

   The first one I will talk about is Parasite. This movie is pretty new, came out this year in Korea. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, this thriller is about this extremely poor family that slowly infiltrates a rich family to get money. That’s just a real simple plot synopsis without spoiling too much it. It’s much more complicated than that but I don’t want to SPOIL anything. The scary thing about this plot is that it can possibly actually happen. 

   The visuals are so beautiful. Each shot is a masterpiece. Even the darker theme shots of the movie were strangely beautiful. The acting in this movie was also very amazing. Each person played their parts amazingly well.

  If you like thrillers, this movie is a must watch. Beautifully done and very haunting. 10/1081UEsqer-sL._SL1500_

   The second movie we are also talking about today is I Saw the Devil. Which is a more brutal thriller. Like holy shit this movie was brutal. In an amazing way. This movie is the darker of the two movies. It’s a beautifully done revenge story. 

   The plot is that a special service’s pregnant fiance is kidnapped and brutally murdered by a psychopath. The would be husband than goes out searching for this man. He eventually finds him and he beats the shit out of him. Then he lets him go. The would be husband plays catch and release with this killer, every time he finds hims he does something horrible. The would be husband slowly starts becoming as evil as the guy he is hunting.

   This movie isn’t for the faint of heart. There is strong violence, strong language, a few attempted rape scenes, and some nudity. 

   This movie is a fast paced thriller unlike Parasite. You will be constantly on the edge of you seat. The acting on this was phenomenal. Another must watch thriller, if you can stomach it. I give this one a 11/10 because how much it kept my heart racing and the sheer amount of feelings it gave me. 

    Hope you can watch these two amazing movies and that you enjoy them as much as me. If there is any Asian movies that you enjoyed, let me know in the comments. Love you all, and take care. 

                       -Tsubaki Kuro

I’m sure most of us have a specific genre of anime that we like more than others, even if we watch just about anything that will catch our eyes for at least a few episodes; however, I’ve noticed that I hold team-focused anime in a higher regard than other genres. Why is that? Well, let’s get into this and I’ll try to explain my mindset!

What do team-focused anime bring to the table? I’ll write a quick list and then go into some of them more specifically (obviously there are more than what I’m listing, but I wanted to keep it short):

  1. Rivalries
  2. Diversity/Personalities
  3. Determination

Rivalries: I like to look at Haikyuu!! for this point in all honesty. We have our main cast in Karasuno, but the way Hinata and Kageyama play off each other is amazing. They’re each trying to out-do the other in so many different ways. Who can get to the gym first? Who can stay on the court the longest (sorry, manga readers!)? Who can jump the highest? Who can do whatever the most amount of times… the list goes on and on. And with those rivalries we get teamwork and character progression, a section of the cast that pushes each other beyond what they themselves are capable of accomplishing.

hinata kageyama racing
They’re so funny together

Diversity: Diversity can mean a lot, but in all honesty I think that in sports anime we see a lot of people who are simply different socially or academically. The cast’s are diverse in their humor, their actions and mannerisms, their upbringings, etc. I think one of the better examples of this kind of diversity actually comes in Tsurune, where our main character Minato is quiet and struggles with anxiety, another (Onogi) is loud-mouthed and fiery, there’s a pair of twins that are a bit quirky, the main character’s supportive best friend (Seiya) who is calm and caring, and so much more. They fight, they struggle, but eventually they begin to trust each other by learning about each other and coming together to accomplish what they’ve been striving for.

tsurune characters
I love these guys

Determination: Throughout team-focused anime, all of the shown schools are determined within their respective sports to achieve the most they can–which is usually a large tournament win, or reaching a specific tournament (like nationals), or in Run With the Wind’s case making it to a prestigious race and competing in said race (I don’t know if that was like a national thing or not, sorry)… So yeah, sports anime shows us what people are capable of when a group is determined and collectively striving toward a common goal. I do think that sometimes this determination is used as a crutch, but either way it’s been fun to see a cast of characters grow together despite their differences and try to achieve what they’ve set out to do at the beginning portion of the series.

run with the wind
Look at Haiji cheering 😀

 

So yeah, just a short little post about why I love team-focused anime. If you have any other aspects of team-focused anime that I didn’t talk about I’d love to know what you think about them. Do some characters completely put you off to the show? Is there a specific personality type that you adore? Let me know in the comments!

 

Thanks for reading!

Alexie 🙂

 

Hello all you wonderful people! It’s me again here for another post on the amazing Kawaii Paper Pandas! Let’s get into this!

So, we all know that manga can have some amazing adaptations and when they’re animated it’s mind-blowing and wonderful to see in motion. What were some of the moments in manga that I was excited to see and am excited to see animated? Let’s take a look!

(WARNING, SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T READ OR SEEN ANY OF THESE)

  • Julius Novachrono vs Licht– Yeah, Seeing the fight between Julius and Licht in Black Clover. Time vs Light, The Magic Emperor vs Leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun… I started reading Black Clover a few months before the anime aired and have kept up with the series ever since. Now, what I will say is seeing Julius’s grimoire was something that I was extremely excited for. It has no cover, and it’s actually a book, but like a cylinder…Oh, and it’s absolutely MASSIVE! Also, seeing Julius use his Time Magic to avoid Licht’s attacks and defend the Clover Kingdom? Absolutely wonderful. The colors and animation were great to see!

    Screenshot (304)
    It’s So BIG!!!!!
  • Hinata at Nationals in Haikyuu!!– So, there’s a specific scene that I’m really excited to see in Haikyuu!! and the manga has me super hyped to see it animated. Those of us that know anything about Haikyuu!! know that Hinata can jump super high despite his small stature, but we haven’t seen him jump at his highest yet in the anime. Nope, and with season four coming, I’m hyped to see a specific scene from the manga. The panel is absolutely amazing and I really can’t wait for this jump… Oh, and for all the Haikyuu!! anime fans….Nekoma is back!

    Screenshot (306)
    Fly High!! (Burnout Syndromes)
  • The Promised Neverland–Just before The Promised Neverland starts getting into it’s final arc, there’s a scene that I really want to see, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but within the realm of what’s happened in the story there is some sense to it; however, I think the point of this portion of the arc is to keep the reader confused, and this panel really takes the cake for me. So, what would you do with an older Ray and an infant Emma? I’ll leave it at that…

    Screenshot (307)
    Chapter 135…like I said earlier: SPOILERS!

And that does it for this post! I’m super excited to see these two scenes animated if they ever get the chance, and seeing the fight between Julius and Licht was better than I imagined! Seeing Julius’s grimoire was freaking fantastic, and how he moved between Licht’s attacks? Absolutely wonderful. What were some of your favorite scenes in anime? Also, if you read manga, what are some panels that you’re excited to see animated? I’d love to know!

Thanks for reading!

Alexie 🙂

Hello all you wonderful people! It’s Alexie again with another post for KawaiiPaperPandas!

 

So, like I asked in the title, what can anime bring without a solid story? Well, I’ll be going a bit into my personal preference here, but whatever you can think of you can shoot down into the comments if you’d like! Without a solid story, I honestly believe anime can still be very enjoyable. Why do I say this? Well, because they have animation and artwork. If I were to tell you how many shows I watched simply because the artwork and animation blew my mind I would take up enough space to fill an entire post, so I’ll list a few and talk about them!

First, Violet Evergarden. I know, that has a great story as well, it teaches us what it means to love and be human and accept how our lives have turned out and how to better ourselves because of it. However, upon starting Violet Evergarden you’ll be able to see just how fantastic the artwork and animation can be. And in all honesty, the two work together as well. Take this clip of Violet taking her glove off. In the background, while it is a bit blurred to give more attention to Violet’s action, you can still see each book on the shelves and the way the lighting of the room is hitting each portion. And where Violet actually takes the gloves off, the animation is extremely smooth. You can see her bite the tip of the finger, pull her arm outward, and the glove loses it’s grip on her mechanical hand. The glove dips in and wrinkles! Her hand, too, reflects the light that hits it, casting a small glow and some shadow on the metal. It’s a small detail, but one that I believe truly makes up some of the best parts an anime can bring to its audience.

violet evergarden glove pull
This is just pure beauty

Now, what about other shows? We all know Violet Evergarden had some of the best animation and artwork in recent years (as well as a compelling story), but what about the anime that didn’t have a story as compelling? The first one that comes to my mind is actually Iroduku: The World in Color.

The World in Color wasn’t the best anime out there. It dealt with time travel, had some odd character development, but what really drew me to watching that show was the artwork and animation. What I truly enjoyed was how bright the colors of the artwork of the characters and the background really were. It drew me in because seeing something so vibrant was a breath of fresh air. While some of the animation was a bit clogged in certain areas I still believe the colors during said animation were good enough to make up for it. I honestly believe if you want to watch a show that has some amazing artwork and pretty decent animation, then Iroduku is one you can totally check out if you haven’t.

Now for one last show, this one coming from a more recent season: Demon Slayer. Yep, Demon Slayer is one that I absolutely love seeing screencaps and videos of to be honest. While I haven’t seen more than eight or nine episodes at most, I think that it truly has some of the most amazing animation and artwork in recent years. While I’m sure the story of Demon Slayer is fantastic, can there be any denying that the artwork and animation of the show are top notch? I’m sure some of you readers will be able to think of more epic aspects of the show because you’ve seen more episodes than I, but there is a certain part that I truly enjoyed seeing. This picture below has some amazing artwork and color, showing just how Tanjiro has swung his blade and attacked his enemy. And it’s amazing. Check it out! The colors of the water, the whitecaps being shown, and the muted colors of both characters that draw attention to the swinging of the sword are beautiful.

demon slayer tanjiro sword skill
That blue!! Ugh…

And that about does it here for me! Without a solid story anime can still be quite stunning. Now, I know I chose two solid anime in Demon Slayer and Violet Evergarden to showcase some of what I’m talking about, but truly I think that animation and artwork can bring an anime to a higher aspect even without an amazing story. There are other examples of great artwork and animation, like the Ghibli films, and Fireworks, and Your Name that also showcase just how much impact artwork and animation can do for a story. They can be breathtaking and wonderful regardless of the story.

 

Thanks for reading!

Alexie 🙂

   Ever asked someone what was the worst anime and then watch that anime to see if it’s as bad as they said it was. I just recently done that and I have to say, it was worth it this time. The thing was an infamous anime movie. From the year 1992. And based off a famous artist’s manga. As a horror writer I find this mangaka and artist as an inspiration. 

   For professional reasons, I must give this WARNING: this blog post will have some mature content including violence and sexual content. So you have been warned. ff7874478167e97879c782964b905963bbe56da9r1-580-858v2_hq

   The movie I saw was Midori: Shoujo Tsubaki which horrorish anime movie from 1992 based off the manga with the same name by Suehiro Mauro. Suehiro Mauro is a mangaka that specializes in Ero-guro ( Erotic Grotesque) which is sexualized gore. For those who are like, what the fuck is this post and why do you like that shit, it’s a complicated thing. I love horror and all the weird shit that forms from it. I even have an autographed copy of his Laughing Vampire manga. Anywho, let’s get back on track. Suehiro Mauro made Shoujo Tsubaki and then later on it got an animated movie.

   The animated movie both good and bad. The good thing is that it is hella creepy, doesn’t censor, follows the manga, and one person animated the whole thing. The bad, the animation sucks, like there are parts where the animation is non existent. The art is not that great, but then again it was the year 1992, and Suehiro Mauro art style is fucking godly. And the content in the film can be extreme. Like showing a puppy getting smashed and its guts bursts out or a man having intercourse and licking the eyeball of the person. That stuff can be scarring. 

  Of course i had one of my blog buddies watch the movie for his reaction. So here is Bodell’s testimony. 

   “I really enjoyed the art direction of it, but the story was all over the place and I found it a little bit boring tbh. 

   It was as shocking as I expected and the discomfort I felt wasn’t due to it doing what it wanted, but more lack of enjoyment.” -Bodell

   There is also a Live Action movie of this piece, shocking enough, but i could only watch like 20 mins of it cus it was utter shit. I have it downloaded on my phone, so I will probably watch it all to torture myself later on. 

   I know you all are yelling at this blog, yelling at me for that one thing. WHAT IS THE FUCKING THING ABOUT???!!!! Well I’ll give you the quick synopsis. A young girl is forced into creepy circus and a lot of bad shit happens to her and around her. It’s not a happy story. 

   So if you have a strong stomach and a strong curiosity, check out the animated movie and tell me what you think of it. For those who have a weak stomach, stay away, for the love of god, stay away.

   Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.  

                         -Tsubaki Kuro