Otaku Ryōhō

Gian cannot contain himself any longer and he chooses to start a discussion about the value of Slice of Life anime. He invites special guest Marc Cuiriz (Here Comes a Thought Podcast and The Codex Podcast) to talk about what about the genre inspires us. They all give examples of their favorite slice of life animes and why they are so meaningful.
They also discuss how we define Slice of Life and its therapeutic value.

Talking Points: Slice of Life, Mundane Experiences, Highschool, Relationships, Romance, Anime, Ordinary life, Extraordinary lives, magic, Students, Emotional Intelligence, shojo, shonen,

Anime Mentioned: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Clannad, Fruits Basket, Tora Dora, Rent-A-Girlfriend, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, The Pet Girl from Sakurasou, Tonari no Seki-kun, The Ancient Magus Bride, Persona 5, Food Wars, Dragon Ball Z, Attack On Titan Junior High, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, Golden Time, Honey and Clover, Quintessential Quintuplets.

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The post Slice-of-Life is Nice and Wise appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Josué starts a discussion about the tendency of shōnen anime to escalate the stakes of the story to astronomical levels and beyond. What can we learn from these stories? They talk about the value of having characters that constantly face increasingly difficult challenges with unwavering optimism and confidence in one’s own capacity for skill acquisition.

Talking Points: Hopelessness, Resilience, Overwhelm, Time Travel, Change, Progressiveness, Growth, Challenge, Obstacles, Generational Gaps.

Anime Mentioned: Dragon Ball, Naruto, Attack on Titan, Food Wars

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Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

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The post Overwhelming Scales: When Anime Goes Over 9000 appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Gian tries his best to explain his favorite genre of Horror, the cosmic type. He uses Attack on Titan (Season 3) as an illustration of what happens when we are faced with threats or ideas that feel beyond our comprehension. He talks about H.P. Lovecraft’s beliefs about race and mental illness and how communities have utilized the framework of his work to talk about overwhelming experiences and fear of the unknown while still addressing the more pernicious aspects of his perspective. Josué and Gian disagree about how people would hypothetically react to cosmic threats. Gian talks about why the genre resonates so much with him.

Talking Points: Cosmic Horror, Resiliency, Grand Scale, Anxiety, Despair, Existentialism, Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy, Race, Syphillis, Lovecraftian concept of the insane, Xenophobia, Lovecraft

Anime Mentioned: Attack on Titan, Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World, The Promised Neverland, Dragon Balls, Naruto

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

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The post Otaku Ryoho Mythos: Cosmic Horror in Anime appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Welcome to Season 2 of Otaku Ryoho! Josue starts the season by talking about how difficult 2020 has been for him, but also for so many of us. In these times, it is likely to many of us have felt overwhelmed not only by our own struggles but by vicariously witnessing the struggles of others in our communities. Josue frames the discussion around the way he experiences compassion fatigue as he watches the protagonist Subaru on the hit series Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World tolerate cyclical forms of suffering. We talk about ways that we have used our creativity as a way to deal with compassion fatigue. Gian talks about how Subaru’s suffering was relatable to his own struggles as a medical student and how his story actually felt more validating than tiring for him.

Talking Points: Compassion Fatigue, Intersectionality, Trauma, Resilience, Loneliness, Journaling, cycles of suffering

Anime Mentioned: Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World, Attack on Titan

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

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The post Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Compassion appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

As they end Season 1, Gian and Josué talk about the Ryoho Experience. Josué talks about the benefit he gained from using anime as illustration to illustrate discussions on life and more complicated/fascinating matters. Gian talks about how viewing anime through the lens of another can change your world view and goes at length to talk about how Food Wars changed his life. They then talk about possible future themes and anime they would love to explore in the future.

The post Understanding Life through Anime appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Josue brings the topic of Anime Remakes and how frequent series are remade into rebooted series, spinoffs, and movies. They talk about how this changes the way we consume these stories. They also talk about the way these stories are rewritten and reflect the context of newer generations and how much they love to see old stories be adapted, rewritten, and reimagined.

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

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The post Anime Remakes: Same but Different appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Gian starts a discussion about the diverse representation of gender identities in anime. Special Guest Link Keller joins us to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly about the way anime has represented gender through the ages. We discuss Gender Nonconformance, Transgender, Non-binary identity and much more. Anime has featured characters of diverse gender identities years before western animation has caught on to the idea of gender diversity.

Talking Points: Gender Identity, Gender norms, Biological Sex, Transgender, Non-Binary.

Anime Mentioned: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Ouran Highschool Hosts club, Fruits Basket, Evangelion, Kino’s Journey, A Silent Voice, Ranma 1/2, Steins:Gate, Tokyo Ghoul, Wandering Son, My Hero Academia.

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

Follow Gian Ramos on twitter @Psychogonically

Follow Josue Cardona on twitter @JosueACardona

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The post Anime: The Gender Blender appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Josue brings up the topic of humor and how it is a mature defense mechanism that helps us cope with difficult times or ideas. Gian and Josue attempt to bring up anime that illustrates the use of humor in order to deal with difficult topics. Gian brings up Honey and Clover and how it illustrates the struggles of youth and young love in art school. He mentions Aggretsuko and the way this anime illustrates the issues that working women face with humor. Gian ends with mentioning Fruits basket and how the relationship between two brothers is heavily influenced by their coping mechanisms and how they interact.

Josué then shows Assassination Classroom as a great illustrator of the struggles of high school youth. He talks about Gintama and how he’s wanted to watch that anime for some time. He talks about the clever ways that Hetalia tackles history, which can often be overwhelming, in a comical package. Then he talks about the adaptation of Attack on Titan, a dark… dark… dark… anime, to the high school setting in Attack on Titan: Junior High, and how the humor reinvents the way the original story beats are taken. Finally, Josue talks about gender in Ouran High School Host Club and the struggles of the working class in The Devil is a Part-Timer.

Talking Points: Humor as a coping mechanism, the struggles of a working woman, schooling, random humor, education through humor, humorous remakes, Gender, working-class problems, dark humor

Anime Mentioned: Honey and Clover, Aggretsukko, Fruits Basket, Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Hetalia, Attack on Titan, Attack on Titan: Junior High, Ouran Highschool Host Club, The Devil is a Part-Timer

Reference Links:

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

Follow Gian Ramos on twitter @Psychogonically

Follow Josue Cardona on twitter @JosueACardona

Follow the Geek Therapy Network on twitter @Geektherapy

The post Humor: Coping… The Humorous Kind… appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Gian chooses to talk about a difficult topic near and dear to his heart, the timeless conflict between biology and behavior. Josue and Gian both dissect Beastars in an attempt to see how the series could be used to talk about race, gender and drug addiction. Gian talks about naturalistic bias when talking about male behavior in the context of the gender binary and dissects the idea that what is natural is not always ethical. Josue talks about the hopeless state of feeling out of control drawing parallels between Legoshi and drug addiction. Gian and Josue debate on their conflicting views on the amount of volition or choices available to people enduring drug addiction, spurring a long exploration on what it means to “have a choice” and the environmental and societal factors that influence said choice.

Talking Points: Sexual urges, Hunger, Carnivore vs Herbivore, Binary Gender norms, Naturalistic bias, Biological Determinism, Drug addiction, Volition, Environmental factors, Societal factors, Opioid addiction, Alcohol addiction, Control, Interventions, Depression, Suicide

Anime Mentioned: Beastars, Demon Slayer, Dragon Ball

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

Follow Gian Ramos on twitter @Psychogonically

Follow Josue Cardona on twitter @JosueACardona

Follow the Geek Therapy Network on twitter @Geektherapy

The post Biological Urges: Conflicts with Biology appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.

Josue starts a conversation about Fan Service. We give our personal definitions of what the term “fan service” entails and give examples of our favorite types of fan service. We also talk about the specific form of fanservice that involves sexual gratification and our discomfort and experience with this ever-present concept in the overall world of anime. Gian talks about formative anime that on reinspection as an adult had problematic representations of women and forms of fan service. They then talk about Motivation and anime’s skillful manipulation of our emotional states to keep us invested in a series.

Talking Points: Fan service, Sexual gratification, fans, Cameos, Character arch, Strength narratives, Violence and gore,

Anime Mentioned: Dragon Ball, Food Wars, Love Hina, Chobits, Fruits Basket, Beastars, Cells at Work, Weathering with You, Your Name

Non-Anime Mentions: Avenger’s Endgame

“Get in the Robot” Youtube page

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcU3qwLQ4E4t1AeCCkZg5dw

Contact Us:

Contact us in the Geek Therapy Forums: https://forum.geektherapy.com/

Join us in the Geek Therapy Discord

Follow Gian Ramos on twitter @Psychogonically

Follow Josue Cardona on twitter @JosueACardona

Follow the Geek Therapy Network on twitter @Geektherapy

The post Fan Service and it’s many faces appeared first on Otaku Ryōhō - Geek Therapy.