Japan, Earthquake, Anime and You


Frankly, I lost the motivation halfway through writing about the latest episode of Madoka that I've just posted. Like some other guy on his blog wrote, I'm not even sure if it's appropriate to do so either, as I'm practically leecing off and enjoying Japan's (plunging economy) crisis. As I write that post, my mind is filled the many, many problems going in animeland because of the stuff I kept seeing on the net, on the papers, on the TV and hell even on the ANIME blogosphere. A friend of mine is also badly affected by this national disaster too.

I didn't take the situation in Japan too seriously because, well, I was pretty confident that Japan and it's famed efficiency will definitely make it through without much problems. But the more I read, the less optimistic I was, especially in the light of the threat of the nuclear reactor. Wikipedia would never be 100% accurate, but here's a pretty good summary of what's going on; basically 3 of the 6 nuclear reactors had an explosion, but it wasn't nuclear explosions; it was hydrogen explosions. One of the explosions send radioactive materials into the atmosphere, but workers had been releasing a substantial amount of radioactive gas in order to bring down the pressure inside the reactors, to prevent a nuclear explosion. The fight to prevent a Chernobyl disaster from happening is still ongoing, and the INES level had just risen. Basically it spells bad for Japan, on top of the wreck the earthquake + tsunami caused.

I'm way more concerned about the nuclear reactor problem than the stranded people, not because I fear that the radioactivity will spread to my country, (radiation is spreading east across the pacific) but because the radioactivity will cause some serious long-lasting damage and worse, it's invisible. That is what seriously impedes the recovery Japan could be having from the earthquake.

It's too bad I can't do anything to help the nuclear threat, but I thought I could make the lives of the Japanese a bit easier for now... even if they ravaged my country in WW2. Japan has enough problems as it is. It's not much, but it'll help. Here's the link to the one I've donated to if you wanna help too (same as the one on the side bar). Like how Yumeka said, this incident does hits closer to home than it seems... Even if I've never spoken with a Japanese or even entered the country, I've probably came to like Japan more than my own country from the things I've learn through the medias. Since I have the Japanese to thank for all the almost 4000 episodes of anime I've watched so far, there's never a better time for me to contribute back.

I had planned a trip to Japan somewhere in June, but now I'm not sure if I really want to go there anymore with all the problems going on. Hopefully things would all calm down by the time I would make that trip.

Back to anime. RC had a good list of what shows would be affected, and so there's only Fractale left for me this week. Not that I'm really bother by it but... it just reminds you of how wide the impact of the disaster is. And I thought that if I'm of those who were badly hit my the disaster, I would count on the next episode of my favourite series to lift my spirits and the cancellations and delays would be such a downer.

I won't talk about the quake anymore... and my post from now on will be anime-related. While I couldn't quite get this thing off my mind, this blog is meant for anime in the first place and Animenano isn't suppose to be flooded with earthquake posts anyway. But what can we do for Japan now, the place that made us anime and manga fans? That's something to think about.

2 comments:

  1. The absence of the anime episodes leave a heavy and sober void because we know why they're delayed...

    It's very sad time. I'm thinking about Japan a lot.

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  2. That's why I just maked a note on my blog and nothing else. Let the correct people do their job to resolve the situation and let the Japan rebuild from the disaster. (trying not to hear too much the journalist catastrophist theories)

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