Hi, I'm Kastel. You might know me as @highimpactsex on Twitter (now: X) and Cohost (RIP) and I consider myself a low IQ media hipster like Yamada Ryou from Bocchi the Rock. I used to write some newsletters about Japanese media until the platform decided to be uncool.

This is now the new home of Kansoulations, a newsletter/blog about neat and interesting things in Japanese literature. I want to read and write about these works from my perspective because I haven't found a Japanese book blog or newsletter in English that looks at these works from a perspective steeped in subculture media thought.

But this project also allows me to take a new approach to writing. For many readers, they won't have the time, energy, and motivation to learn Japanese, and these articles will more or less be how they encounter Japanese literature and culture. With this in mind, I want to provide a literary anthropological analysis of these works. I will not only examine untranslated Japanese works but also read the foreign language media that influence their writers. What we often call Japanese media is actually an ecosystem of works written in Japanese that have also been influenced by other scripts and cultures outside the islands. The local and the global are indeed best buddies.

I hope my articles will give you insight on the interesting world of Japanese literature and more. Hopefully, they'll inspire future translations and I'll be famous. I want to one day found a yuritopia.

You may also follow my Bookmeter to see what I've been reading. Feel free to recommend me books or ask questions through the Ask tool. Support me by reblogging, share my articles, or funding my wasteful spending through Ko-Fi.