About

Epic Win /ˈɛpɪk wɪn/ – 1. to overcome an adversary; to gain the victory in an heroic, majestic, or impressively great manner. – see also – pwnt.

Epic Win is yet another speck in the sea of blogs centered around anime, manga, and Japanese culture. As you may have noticed, however, EW is a little different from many other blogs. Rather than each article being authored by a single person, we decided that whenever possible it would be more fun and interesting to write in tag-team style. The small avatar icons you see in our posts help distinguish who’s doing the talking at any given moment. Each post is a dialogue, a window into our back and forth conversations and differing viewpoints. We hope that you will take the time to join in and add your thoughts to the discussion by posting a comment or sending us a message.

0rion

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had an abiding interest in The Land of the Rising Sun, and in the people, the culture, and the language. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to meet many wonderful individuals from Japan and engage in a number of interesting cross-cultural experiences. I also lived and worked in Japan for a time (near Tokyo), and have traveled extensively all across the country. In addition to our regular anime related dicussions, from time to time I’ll also be sharing some of my travel tales, as well as thoughts on broader aspects of the culture.

My anime preferences are pretty varied, as you can see from my top ten list. I mainly watch everything raw these days, so occasionally you’ll see posts about shows that haven’t been subbed yet. Besides anime, I enjoy a number of other eclectic hobbies, and you’ll see references to them creeping into our posts on occasion.

Most notably, I’m a semi-pro photographer and a big travel buff, so I enjoy posting photos of my travels from time to time as well.

Top Ten Anime

  1. Mushishi
  2. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
  3. Fullmetal Alchemist
  4. Read or Die
  5. Aria
  6. Lucky Star
  7. Ghost in the Shell
  8. School Rumble
  9. Akagi
  10. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Guff

I had initially aspired to be a either a ninja or the self ordained king of coffees when I grew up. These seemed like a fairly attainable goals. I had a cheap steel wakizashi and I drank enough caffeine on a daily basis to invigorate a small water buffalo. It seemed as though my dream was basically in the bag.

Tragedy struck when I discovered that ninjas were largely regarded as murderous scoundrels, and Starbucks had purchased all rights to the term “Coffee King.” Jerks.

So, the only sensible alternative seemed to be to go college: a place where I could play videogames and watch movies while simultaneously masquerading under the guise of scholarship. Later it dawned upon me that I might actually need to find a genuine vocational calling. But I did some reading on the internet (it being the tome of all truth), and it turns out that that sort thing requires a lot of work. So, I watched Haruhi and Blood+ instead.

I have always derived immense pleasure from watching and making films, and several years ago I discovered the engrossing film medium known as anime. Though it isn’t exactly a career per se, it is a highly entertaining distraction. This has only served to further my fascination with Japanese culture, film, and language. I’ve had the opportunity to visit Japan twice and to travel quite a bit of the country.

Top Ten Anime

  1. Cowboy Bebop
  2. Samurai Champloo
  3. Ghost in the Shell
  4. FLCL
  5. Mushishi
  6. Fullmetal Alchemist
  7. Original Mobile Suit Gundam
  8. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
  9. Blood+
  10. Akagi