This is the first installment of a series of blog posts that will serve to briefly highlight various materials here at FSU Libraries. Materials are chosen completely on the basis of my personal judgement; generally, it comes down to whether I think they’re interesting, helpful, or underappreciated (or some combination of all three). In doing so, my goal is to build up an understanding of the kinds of things students, faculty, and staff have access to through FSU Libraries, as well as to hopefully illustrate that research can be both fun and accessible.
As such, I am beginning this series with an academic article which critically examines a popular manga/anime series, accessed through the FSU Libraries digital article catalog. The article in question, “Hollowed Out: Exhuming an Ethics of Hollowing in Tite Kubo’s Bleach“ written by David John Boyd, analyzes the series, Bleach through the lens of imagined Japanese pasts, futures, and philosophical/political ideologies. Of course, this is an incredibly simplistic and frankly, reductive way of summarizing the article; therefore, I shall now quote from the article’s abstract:
This essay explores Tite Kubo’s hit manga series Bleach (2001–2015) as a forerunner
for a contemporary revival of Japanese supernatural narratives, often referred to as yōkai shōnen (“spiritual adventures”). specifically, this exploration approaches Kubo’s manga series as a philosophically enriched text, one aware of and in dialogue with various theological, political, and phenomenological strands of thought. this essay asserts that in this aesthetic and philosophic bricolage, Bleach approaches complex theories on death, subjectivity, politics, and ethics that vibrantly resonate in the backdrop of a critique of Japanese modernization (Boyd 242).
This impressive array of topics that are all covered in this article should immediately catch the attention of scholars of culture, philosophy, Japanese history, manga, animation, and fans of Bleach. Even if you’re none of those things, this is still an incredibly fascinating read and well worth your time, on top of being incredibly accessible thanks to FSU Libraries and JSTOR.
Simply visit lib.fsu.edu and search for the article on the homepage. In order to access it, you will need to sign in with your FSU credentials. The database will also allow you to view related articles, in case this one doesn’t quite hit the mark, or if you need more to satisfy your academic/intellectual needs.
Citations
Boyd, David John. “Hollowed Out: Exhuming an Ethics of Hollowing in Tite Kubo’s Bleach.” Pacific Coast Philology, vol. 50, no. 2, 2015, pp. 242–67, https://doi.org/10.5325/pacicoasphil.50.2.0242.
Leave a Reply