Author: Lee Matz

My relationship with childhood stories of fantasy has evolved over my lifetime, as the genre has also grown and matured into mainstream acceptance. Within the span of a couple weeks, two major fantasy franchises both launched on rival streaming services. After the first two episodes of each, it is clear that they could not be more different. They also reflect, perhaps unintentionally, major political and social narratives currently dominating America. I grew up with the old Lord of the Rings cartoon movie from 1978, and other Hollywood attempts to present the realm of fantasy to a mass audiences. They...

For my parents generation, I remember the TV news would always ask people where they were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. For my generation, in the early years of the new millennium, the question TV news asked was where were we on September 11 when the towers fell. Yet in the decade since the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin massacre, I have never seen anyone asked where they were on August 5, 2012. Perhaps the TV news has asked the question over the years and I missed it. But I have reflected on this question, and what it...

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot on July 8 as he delivered a campaign speech just days ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections. Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Abe was rushed to a hospital with wounds inflicted by a blast from a homemade shotgun. His death was officially announced hours later. In May of 2002, I was traveling with a two schoolmates from our university outside of Nagoya to visit my friends in Saga Prefecture. One classmate was from Wales, the other South Korea, and neither had been able to travel too extensively in Japan up to...