Author Junji Hotta has blessed the world with “Tsundere, Heidegger, and Me”, a tour de force of European philosophy… in a world where all the philosophers are self-conscious anime girls. The books went on sale September 14.
The table of contents includes: “Chapter 1, Descartes: proving the existence of God”; “Chapter 2, Spinoza: man is the greatest for man”, “Chapter 3, Berkeley and Hume: to exist is to be aware”, “Chapter 4, Kant: the starry heaven above me and morality within me”, “Chapter 5, Hegel: the world is an infinite progression towards wisdom”, “Chapter 6, Nietzsche: God is dead, but nothing has changed”, “Chapter 7, Heidegger: without a world, we do not exist, without us, the world does not exist, we are not alone”.
Part of me, of course, is sceptical about the quality of the philosophy this publication might contain. Another part of me thinks it might be fab for children to see philosophical thoughts coming out of the mouths of “girlie girls”. (Assuming this is meant for children. I’m never quite clear on that point, wrt anime.) …but…and don’t get me wrong, I’m no puritan, and no prude; teens are sexual creatures. but does Kant really need the big pendulous breasts? And don’t get me started on Spinoza…
Read more here.
Feminist Philosophers 
Okay, this isn’t relevant to the main issue, but I couldn’t resist. This isn’t ‘anime’: ‘anime’ in its broad (and original) meaning is just any animation; in its narrower usage, it refers to a style of animation originating from Japan. This isn’t anime in either sense, because it’s not animated. You could call it manga, which both has a broad usage to refer to all comics and a narrow usage to refer to comics of a certain style. And just like with all animation and comics, some anime and manga is intended for children and some of it is not.
Hmmmm. There are things about this I like. But the ridiculously stylized poses reminded me of this:
http://knowyourmeme.com/forums/meme-research/topics/11186-mary-jane-pose#.TniHZM33LjQ
I’m more disturbed by the fact that Berkley and Hume seem to be in an incestuous relationship… which is something I never thought I’d write.
pedant, thanks for the clarification. i had wondered how the word ‘manga’ fitted into all of it. good to know.
magicalersatz,it is a weird pose. it happens in still-image porn a lot, does it not? (my vast experience of still-image porn is not, in fact, sufficient to make such a claim. but it looks like a porn pose to me.)
mike, it’s a bit sweet. no? maybe? (i like nietzche. she’s so cross! grr!)
Correction: Hegel is the one with the big knockers.
Pedant, couldn’t they be anime girls without the current vehicle being anime? It seems quite possible, just as one could have a small still photo of a big screen star.
Perhaps, alternatively, the meaning of “anime” is shifting and now encompasses something like “in the style of” so that “anime” overlaps with “manga”?
manga, hegel’s knockers… I clearly didn’t do a thorough job researching this one! (does it make some sort of sense if it’s Hegel? I mean, nietzche scowling, I get. berkley and Hume being a bit friendly, yes I can sort of understand. but…?)
Maybe Hegel represents a return to the excessive pleasures of the body after uptight little Kant gives everyone a stern, sullen talking-to? Or *perhaps* I over-read…
The Kant and Nietzche characters don’t look very self-conscious here to me… To be honest the exercise reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional author Kilgore Trout, whose earnestly written work was used as filler material for pornographic magazines. …. (do)Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet?