The Ignorance of "It's Just a..."

 The Ignorance of "It's Just a..."

You ever reached a point so low that it felt like you had reached the bedrock?

I have. More than once. That hollow moment when the stone you’ve been pushing—the weight, the guilt, the expectation, the dream—slips from your hands and thunders back down the slope. You stand there watching it roll, knowing exactly what it means. Knowing you have to walk back down. Knowing you have to press your shoulder to it again. 

How AKIRA Reshaped Western Cinema and Me

 How AKIRA Reshaped Western Cinema and Me

If you were an 80's or 90's kid with a love for anime, you probably remember Akira...

I do.

But I remember it all.

I was a late-’80s baby, which meant I came up in that narrow window where anime existed—but only barely, and never where it was supposed to. Back then it wasn’t “anime.” It was that weird cartoon from Japan. The thing you got side-eyed for. The thing you learned, very early, not to bring up unless you were prepared to defend yourself or be laughed out of the room.

The Public Humiliation of the Once Incredible Hulk

 The Public Humiliation of the Once Incredible Hulk

There was a time when few characters came close to the strength of the Incredible Hulk...

And when I say strength, I am not talking about raw lifting power alone. I am not talking about holding continents together, resisting planetary-scale tectonic collapse, or punching holes through time itself. Impressive as those feats are, I would argue they pale in comparison to the true core of the character: the strength of Bruce Banner.