Media Blog
Picture by hbieser
The 7 Shapes — Reflected in the Stories We Love
Not only in the magical world of Esperia, but right here on our beautiful planet Earth, we can also find echoes of the 7 Shapes—hidden in plain sight.
While we may not possess the magical powers of the Espers, we carry within us a human equivalent of their StarDust:
our incredible brain.
What if we looked at the world around us with greater awareness?
What if the stories we read, the movies we watch, the anime, manga, and books we cherish…
were more than just entertainment?
Each post below explores the presence of wisdom, balance, willpower, empathy, and more—through the lens of popular culture.
Let’s rediscover what inspires us, one tale at a time.
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Uplift Spice’s “Justice”: A Dark Reflection on Society and Inequality
I first discovered Uplift Spice through their song Kanojo, introduced by the now-defunct French television channel, NoLife TV. Despite not being as famous as the major hits dominating the Japanese music scene, their music left a lasting impression. I was surprised when a drummer friend of mine turned out to be a big fan of
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Green Book and the Power of Cultural Understanding
When I watched Green Book for the first time, I was shocked by how Viggo Mortensen transformed himself for the role. While I hadn’t seen many of his movies before, his portrayal of Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings still holds a special place in my memory. The 2018 film, directed by Peter Farrelly,
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From the Rose of Versailles to a Vision for Global Equality
The Rose of Versailles is a classic shojo manga written by Riyoko Ikeda, which I first encountered as the anime adaptation, Lady Oscar, on French TV during my childhood. As a boy, enjoying a show targeted toward girls meant keeping it somewhat secret. The weight of peer and societal pressure was astonishing, even as a
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Lessons from Starcraft: Balance, Unity, and the Power of Shared Values
I first played the game Starcraft while visiting my family on Reunion Island. A cousin, who shared my love for games, introduced me to it. Back then, the Internet was still emerging, and we used old Windows operating systems like Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Millennium. Thinking about that time feels nostalgic. If you’re fortunate
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Lessons from The Last Samurai: Addiction, Redemption, and Cultural Unity
The Last Samurai by Edward Zwick stars Tom Cruise alongside renowned Japanese actors such as Ken Watanabe and Hiroyuki Sanada. The movie brings together American and Japanese cultures, and while it includes some inevitable clichés, it does so thoughtfully, adding authenticity by casting Japanese actors. (Unlike many productions that cast non-Japanese Asian actors for Japanese
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The Impact of Media on Children: Why We Must Rethink Screen Time
I first heard of Kinnikuman, written by Yudetamago, from my brother. We were reminiscing about the anime we watched on French TV as kids in the late 80s and 90s, and he brought up one called Muscleman in French (Kinniku meaning “muscle”). He recounted a particularly traumatizing scene where a character, after winning a battle,
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Building Empathy: Lessons from “Another Day in Paradise”
A French friend I met in Japan once sang Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins during a karaoke session. While I knew Phil Collins as the drummer of Genesis (yes, I’m not that young, though it’s still not my generation), I hadn’t heard this particular song before. The beauty of karaoke, especially when you
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Exploring the Universe: From Interstellar to the Marvel of the Human Brain
I recently began reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and it immediately brought to mind the 2014 film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan. This movie, though lengthy and dense, is the kind of masterpiece that leaves you curious, inspiring deep dives into the unfamiliar concepts it explores. Terms like space travel, wormholes, and