aphilosopherchair
An energy economy intubated, intercepted and interrogated by its multiverse escape game, TikTok-addicted black holes, go-getting cerebral vampires and healing rice ball spirits. Originally an extension of The Asian Drama Philosopher (A-Philosopher)’s Chair, a site examining literature, art and ideas featured in East Asian series.
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Ghibli Geometry Homework
Merch Bubble: A petition for Studio Ghibli to best OpenAI by channeling the 2025 trend of cheery citrus-juiced images into an endeavor with more lasting impact — revamping the image of math and captivating young learners through geometry problem sets jazzed up with visuals and story contexts from its films.
Picture the following in their relevant aesthetic backdrops:
Estimate the height Spirited Away's Chihiro successfully descends despite her fear as she speeds down a rickety stairway section with 20 horizontal steps. Each gap between the steps is 5 units in slope and 4 units in width.
Spirited Away's No-Face tries out a circular mask 3 units in radius. Its holes for his eyes are 0.3 units in radius. How many times larger in area is his fake face compared to his fake eyes?
He next tries out a fancy circular mask which outline circumscribes tightly-packed, non-overlapping circles each 0.3 units in radius. The circles are made up of k rings of six circles surrounding one circle. Two of those hexagonally packed circles form holes for his eyes. How many times larger in area is his fake face compared to his fake eyes?
Witch Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service is on a 10-unit long broomstick tilted at 45 degrees as she takes freshly baked cinnamon rolls to a customer. As she passes by a tall structure, she notices its tip is labeled 10, 000 units. The rolls are in a 2-unit long satchel hanging halfway on the broom. Since the temperature of the air affects how fast pastries go stale, she wonders: How far are the rolls from the ground?
A bunch of kids are squeezing onto the ginormous, fluffy tummy of the furry creature Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro. Predict how many kids can stay on the tummy given the relevant simplifications, assumptions and information. (You already got the drift.)
Make no mistake. There's much virtue in the uncluttered designs of typical math worksheets: faster concept rendering, faster information perception, lower workloads, lower technical requirements and lower production costs. One might sum them up as higher time, resource and cost efficiencies. Add to those pros a potential cultivation of academic asceticism on the learners' part. That would be efficiency as well, in the sense that we meet two student developmental goals (math and discipline) in one shot.
In eyeing these efficiencies, however, teachers and allied industry players may be neglecting their numerator terms, most of which concern learner progress. That is ironically where pure quantitative logic breaks down. We are all emotional creatures. That is all the more so, all things equal, in young people whose brains are still underdeveloped. Looking around, we can see many school leavers who have not matured in time to take full advantage of educational resources temporally and financially accessible only in early life stages. Nor have they met adult figures sufficiently skilled in the elusive art of mathematical motivation. By the time such school leavers gain an appetite for delayed gratification, austere thinking as well as for the inherent beauty in quantitative subjects, adulthood commitments and sociocultural barriers like ageist biases often deter or delay their reentry into the educational system, threatening their scholastic journey and any STEM career trajectory. There is therefore a case to be made for deep yet down-to-earth arts-based engagement of apathetic young learners, many of whom struggle to perceive the relevance of abstract fields like geometry and find math problems in general mundane, through instructor-independent means. The emotional resonance and relatability of Studio Ghibli's works — evinced through their box office successes and the controversial generative art trend applying a warm, effusive and rustic Ghibli style to personal images — would make them powerful helpmates in battles against math hate viruses, which feel as far-reaching as influenza bugs.
Even engagement of kids who will become non-STEM high-fliers can make a huge difference. Ever heard of the phrase "The medium is the message"? Our communication approaches communicate values and signals beyond what our content says. In denying all exuberant expressions of emotion and wonder a place in mathematical materials, even in the face of learners impaired by hopelessness despite their best efforts, adults are reinforcing perceptions of mathematics experts as inflexible, unfeeling and boring nerds. The persistence of those stereotypes in spite of genial, approachable educators painstakingly passing down the magical field's legacy of ingenious problem-solving tactics to students is unfair. And the few pops of color in worksheets that do try to inject fun are not enough to make a strong counter-statement. In the end, non-STEM high-fliers inherit the math as well as the stereotypes, perpetuating the latter in everyday life interactions and media portrayals. Reversal of such perpetuated negativity may spur more kids, especially counterparts who struggle in non-STEM careers and could have flourished in STEM careers, to persevere in the subject and widen their career options.
Ghibli geometry should not distract attention from school-based or educational ecosystem solutions like sharing of best pedagogical practices since they involve different chief solution architects. Content drafting may be accomplished by Studio Ghibli through the blending of its imagery and story contexts with licensed, existing geometry problem sets, leaving only an ideally quick task of expert review to math educators. Moreover, pedagogy discussions and Ghibli-related visuals occupy different influential niches. One speaks to educators, from whom successful translation of advice into action is not guaranteed. The other speaks directly to students.
The existence of entertaining math video clips and games does not obliterate the potential value of Studio Ghibli's math creations either. Unlike graphics that can be transferred onto printouts, video engagement prolongs device usage, already a hot issue of concern in today's youth climate. Moreover, no math clip or game to date has matched the cultural reach and memeability of Ghibli works. The maker of a long string of fantasy films has big shoes no mortal teacher, Tiktoker, YouTuber or software developer can readily fill.
A formidable rival to pop culture, on the other hand, is pop culture itself. This proposal can be generalized to cover a wide array of quantitative subjects and popular screen brands, except that it can be problematic to bring investigations of real-world physics into universes governed by supernatural forces.
By and by, we may even wean captivated students off fancy elements after the relevant aesthetics and narrative structures coax them to develop a fondness for the subjects' intermingling of order and surprises. The capacity for such standalone devotion can stand them in good stead in professional lives dotted all over with mundane but vital to-dos. But first, we need that captivation.
Ceramics Yoga, Anyone?
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. (Ernest Hemingway)
There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen)
Luminescent Scars: As light pours into a cavernous space, participants in ballet tights practice their yoga poses within its ceramic-like, curved walls crisscrossed with fracture lines. Powdered gold, copper, brass, silver or platinum fill the lines. The instructor, in shimmering tights, is one of the bundles of rays that have descended to the weary and wounded. Shadows of other scar lines flit across participants’ bodies from time to time in acknowledgment of feelings all around, before transforming into waves of light. The above quotes reproduced by Critical Dance from program notes of Aurum, a ballet set in motion before such patterned backdrops, have told us the art form kintsugi’s ideal of embracing and growing more beautiful through broken parts. Ceramic surfaces portrayed across the sessions hail from a number of masterful or storied wares
:: Full concept ::
What If A Robotic Grump Takes Over H Instead??
Oh, so you’ve stumbled into the world of Eternal Night Star River-inspired aerial yoga, have you? Let me guess—you’re already rolling your eyes at the thought of flowy, ombré battle robes, aren’t you? Spare me your skepticism. You wouldn’t know genius if it smacked you in the face with a silk harness.
Yes, the participants are suspended in a dazzlingly white indoor space with proto-calligraphic scribbles on the floor. And yes, the harnesses are also ombré. What, did you expect beige mats and gym shorts? This isn’t your pedestrian yoga class where everyone’s draped in monotone mediocrity. This is art. It’s drama. It’s everything unthinking plebeians clearly lack the capacity to appreciate.
And don’t even get me started on the instructor. A mossy stone panda with a loudspeaker, you say? Oh, I can hear your incredulous snort from here. But tell me, genius, what were you expecting? A chatty human in a yoga tank top? Please. This is thematic immersion. The panda is iconic, unyielding, and probably wiser than you’ll ever be.
Then there are the assistants, dressed as oversized versions of the dust demons from the show—an absolute stroke of absurd brilliance! Are you squirming yet? Good! That’s the whole point, darling. They’re meant to unsettle you and make you laugh, to drag you into that deliciously awkward space where whimsy and discomfort collide. If you’re not feeling both, then clearly, you’re missing the entire performance. Do try to keep up, won’t you?
And for the love of all things celestial, stop sneering at the System’s motivational speeches. “You need not be a side character in your own story.” If that’s too cheesy for you, then maybe you are a side character. It’s not the System’s fault you lack the imagination to take the words to heart.
So go ahead, roll your eyes, scoff, and make your clever little quips. But deep down, you know this is brilliant, and you’re just mad you didn’t think of it first. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a transcendent universe to rewatch. Try not to ruin it for the rest of us with your pedestrian takes.
(With some human edits.)
:: The 100% human text version on the 100% human text site (except an instance demonstrating AI responses) ::
A love letter to dramas and other art forms.
The curation process was long and arduous but also a source of precious delight and balm. Another callout to y'all pollophiles: How about casting a vote for your favorite setting, among a whooping 18 settings, in the casual poll right at the end of the article? You can see the results right after you submit your choice(s). The link has also been reproduced slightly further ahead in this post.
H Universe Awards 2024—Taking Over the Resident Grump (See the end)
These aren’t just awards; they’re reminders of how art can save lives, challenge perceptions, and bring beauty into our worlds.
Potential Lifesaver Award
🏆 Winner: Baby Reindeer (UK)
Care is not an invitation for possession. Self-hatred may get in the way of justice.
Raw. Unflinching. Devastating. Baby Reindeer doesn’t hold your hand—it grips your soul and refuses to let go. This Netflix original dives headfirst into the messy, painful realities of trauma and abuse. It’s a tough watch, but it just might change how you see the world.
Most Meaningful Character
🏆 Winner: Player 120 Cho Hyun-ju – Squid Game Season 2 (South Korea)
People are more than their circumstances.
Feminine yet fierce, tender but tough, Hyun-ju is a wake-up call to stop boxing people into stereotypes.
And her bond with Player 149 Jang Geum-ja? Absolute dynamite. This silver-haired grandma might not get gender identity, but her care for Hyun-ju speaks louder than any words. Together, they’re proof that humanity is messy, complicated, and full of surprises.
Most Thought-Provoking Series
🏆 Winner: Hell / Hellbound Season 2 (South Korea)
Human hubris isn’t about defying divine forces—it’s pretending to know what we don’t.
If Season 1 got characters questioning their beliefs, Season 2 left them spiraling. This supernatural K-horror goes beyond the shock factor to grapple with big questions about belief, morality, and the consequences of our assumptions.
Best Finale
🏆 Winner: Eternal Night Star River / Cringey Official English Title (Mainland China)
This finale hit us with the ultimate truth bomb: You can only love others fully when you love yourself first. (But Ziqi’s real problem? It’s not some conventional “demon” identity—it’s believing he is one.) Emotional, uplifting, and just the right amount of bittersweet.
Geekiest Series
🏆 Winner: Avatar: The Last Airbender (US)
Cultural depth? Check. Epic fight scenes? Double-check.
Avatar draws inspiration from Inuit and various Asian traditions, blending them into an action-packed adventure that’s as visually stunning as it is culturally rich. For fans of intricate world-building and diverse fighting styles, this series is a must-watch.
Best Aesthetics
🏆 Winner: Luxuriant Blossoms / Blossoms Shanghai (Mainland China and Hong Kong for cinematography)
Every frame of Blossoms Shanghai looks like it belongs in a film museum.
Wong Kar-wai’s signature style shines through, making this a feast for the eyes. And yes, the “director’s color-graded version” fixed those earlier hiccups, giving us the lush visuals we deserved.
Best Music
🏆 Winner: What Comes After Love (South Korea and Japan for soundtrack)
Each track is like a perfume note—delicate, layered, and unforgettable.
The music isn't just background noise; it’s an essential experience, taking you to new places with every note.
Notes and Reflections
Here’s the thing: there’s already a ton of online chatter about acting, directing, and writing. Why add to the noise? Awards in these areas just feel unnecessary—especially since acting, in particular, is so vulnerable to cultural differences. What’s more, assigning a “Best Drama” title is always subjective. Why should you impose your idea of what factors to include or exclude and how to weigh all the factors on everyone else?
On a personal level, Tibetan Sea Flower (or Adventure Behind The Bronze Door) is the drama that hit H hardest this year. Its breathtaking visuals, pulse-pounding directing, and sci-fi adventure kept H hooked. But let’s be honest—why should that matter to anyone else? Is it as thematically meaningful as some of the other dramas on this list? Probably not. Is its storytelling flawless? Not quite. The show repeats a certain trick, and when some big mysteries are revealed, it opts to tell rather than show.
For H, though, some of these choices make sense. Tibetan Sea Flower is part of the larger Lost Tomb franchise, and its place in this intricate, interconnected universe justifies a lot. It’s built for those of us who love Easter egg hunts and piecing together the big picture—something H finds thrilling. But is that enough for it to resonate universally? Not necessarily.
H's more level-headed pick for “Best Drama” would be any series recognized with the Potential Lifesaver Award—dramas that go beyond entertainment to deliver messages that genuinely matter. That's even if the drama conferred the honor were an artistic disaster. Is that something you can accept?
Finally, a word of caution: awards are often shaped by sampling errors. The dramas that get shortlisted—or even noticed—are frequently determined by marketing prowess and social media buzz, rather than their intrinsic quality or impact. Keep that in mind when appraising any list like this one.
📝Guest-authored by your cheery machine, with some edits, based on original version here. Hey, say you prefer the human grump's!
H Universe Awards 2024
Potential Lifesaver Award
Baby Reindeer [United Kingdom]
Care is not an invitation for possession. Self-hatred may get in the way of justice.
Most Meaningful Character
Squid Game Season 2's Player 120 Cho Hyun-ju [South Korea]
Discriminated people are more than their discriminated statuses and traits. Femininity does not lessen a person's capacity for toughness or leadership. We often don't fall neatly into one box or another conceived by society. So. Stop. Treating People. As. Little. Categorization. Games.
Hyun-ju cannot be mentioned without mention of the silver-haired mother, player 149 Jang Geum-ja. The ignorant elderly woman frowns upon gender transition yet she tenderly looks after the much taller and well-built Hyun-ju more than many trendy young people around you and I care about marginalized individuals in their midst.
Most Thought-Provoking Series
Hellbound / Hell Season 2 [South Korea]
Human hubris manifests not in defying divine forces, but in knowing that which you do not truly know.
Best Ending
Self-love-themed finale of Eternal Night Star River / Eye-Rolling Official English Title [Mainland China]
You're capable of tapping your full strengths to give important people in your life your all only if you are comfortable in your own skin. The other side of the coin, though, is Murder Mindfully. Ziqi's problem is not that he is a demon in the conventional sense of the term, but that the him beneath it all wrongly identifies as one.
Geekiest Series
Avatar: The Last Airbender [United States]
Diverse cultural elements and martial arts galore.
Best Aesthetics
Blossoms Shanghai / Luxuriant Blossoms [Mainland China and Hong Kong in relation to the cinematography]
Wong Kar-wai did not compromise for the small screen. The question is whether any scene is overdone. It's also a pity he could not get the color grading perfected in time for the CCTV broadcast. A "director color-graded version" with richer colors in at least various scenes was later released.
Best Music
What Comes After Love [South Korea and Japan in relation to the soundtrack]
What comes after that? Fragrance notes-like music that takes you places, of course.
Notes
There is plenty of online discussion revolving around acting, directing and writing, so awards in those areas are unnecessary. The acceptability of acting, moreover, is perhaps particularly vulnerable to cultural differences. Also subjective is the weights and combinations of factors that should go into the assignment of any Best Drama award. On a gut level, the drama that worked best for H this year is China's beautifully-shot sci-fi adventure series Tibetan Sea Flower / Adventure Behind The Bronze Door, but why should it be important to anyone reading this? Is it as thematically meaningful as various dramas above? Is its adrenaline-pumping, breathtaking directing and writing close enough to flawless, given its repetition of a certain trick and choosing to tell instead of show when unveiling the secrets to certain mysteries? How important is it for everyone to accept like H does that some choices can be justified by its place in a larger network of stories (the Lost Tomb franchise) apt for Easter egg hunts and jigsaw puzzle games? A more level-headed personal pick in any event would be any drama conferred the honor of Potential Lifesaver Award.
Beware of sampling errors that may contribute to the appraisal of shortlisted dramas. This unspecified shortlist, in turn, is subject to marketing prowess and social media reach.
Oh, WOW,
the number of poll responses has been greater than expected. Five people, excluding the soapbender, voted yes, so here it goes. The hilarious chase that would deliver the checkmate is detailed in the comments to the attached article. Make sure to credit the soapbending variance authority in the requested manner if you want to share the solution.
In the meantime, we cross our fingers in the ongoing, live championship. A decisive game looks set for today (so far).
While the World Championship is underway, is anyone curious about the answer for the scenario below? It will be posted as a comment to the attached spinoff proposal if at least three people vote "YES," not counting the Cretaceous soapbender's own vote.
If you wouldn't go to someone for advice, don't take their criticism either.
Math ≫ Murder
small question, cuz I'm just curious
there are more infinities, but you'll have to explicitly mention them to vote em
Why do we study science? Well, since we can't study magic itself (it's invisible, very hard to detect), we choose to study the fields closest to magic: math, physics, biology, computer science, and so on.
Immensely grateful to the lovely souls who gave these little winged ones and trapped Sanya a chance. @tofuxoxo, @lideyna123, @luna11celeste and a blogger who provided feedback.
Drop a message at any time if you spot any issue.
PSA from Blobby. Something we should talk about more ❤️
In an alternate universe, all the warmongers around would be disciples of butterflies instead.
How it started 90% of the time: YASSS! Master Soapy T-Rex has only three lines to say about this impossible drama concept. Time guilt suppressed.
How it always ended:
nothing has made me feel like an ancient grumpy crone more than the “using chatgpt for school is fine actually” sentiment among youths
Still mind-blown by this concept. It's arguably even more imaginative than Liu Cixin's scifi works, since people expect so much from books and screen creations but so little from disabled individuals, who have career dreams and need financial protection.
A reminder to fellow writers:
Don't feel too guilty about loving a heroine you painstakingly created just because she's not a paragon of virtue. That's especially if you've thrown curses into the blazing Sun for her, and cried by her side at the edge of a dusk-lit world.
Everyone else's reaction to The Acolyte: Not DEI again.
Your soapbending T-Rex: Moar, MOAR!
Can a drama give any demographic a lifeline?
The big question: Did Netflix hit Extraordinary Attorney Woo improve the employment rate of any autistic population?
In Korea, the rate increased by 1.3% from 2022 to 2023, against an increase of 0.7% for the full population of the country, although there may be other factors at work.
The sources are indicated in the alt text.
Mid-Year Watching Theme: Wild, "Weird" and Hot Pink
A Stranger in the Lee Soo-Yeon Strangeverse
Merch idea: You're a vacationer in mystery mistress Lee Soo-yeon's macrohabitat, where each story so far begins with a lead character running into a corpse: in a store he shops at, at the home he visits for an appointment, along his commute, in a vehicle arriving at his workplace, and right above her on her vehicle. To enjoy your stay with maximal peace in this video game, you must keep the place as safe as possible:
Brave the embarrassment and stigma to report suspicious activities and domestic violence and other wrongdoings before they escalate or occur to more victims
Stop establishment patrons from taking any unconscious person away
Clean up after yourself so that no sign of carelessness or sloppiness suggests an abundance of easy victims to potential criminals
Join a mentoring program for at-risk youths
Join a neighborhood watch
Help out at a soup kitchen
Sign petitions for safer infrastructure and other robust security measures and for legal reforms to hold wrongdoers fully accountable
Pay all your rightful taxes to sustain a well-functioning justice system, including adequate hot spots policing (but with policy safeguards to forestall racial profiling)
Depending on the number of crimes accrued by the end of your stay, you get to collect rewards or penalties. There are two tiers of rewards: (A) a computer-generated, shareable gif of you slurping noodles with ace prosecutor Hwang Si-mok and warm-hearted police lieutenant Han Yeo-jin or having desserts with the dashing emergency medicine specialist and secret change-maker Ye Jin-woo and (B) shareable AI doodle of you in Han Yeo-jin's art style. The penalties? Computer-generated imagery of Lee Soo-yeon's villains cynically pointing weapons at your photo avatar. Sorry, you'll have to do more work to show off this other visual on social media. Naturally, the number of villains increases with the number of crimes.
A leaderboard publicizes all players' rankings. Every few months, active players have virtual access to a debate between socially-driven crime writers like Lee Soo-yeon and Kim Eun-hee and experts on criminal affairs. Physical attendance is possible with ticket purchase. The top 5% of players receive complimentary tickets. Let's keep in mind, though, that virtual virtue does not always translate to real-world virtue. Nonetheless, at a time when apocalyptic news ceaselessly rains down on us, the reminder that we have so much agency to sculpt our surroundings would be empowering, clarifying and inspiring.
Familiar Question
Does one of the challenges from @overchers ring a bell?
A note of repentance!
Floral Bomb Bowling
Physical experience idea: For a touch of nature and a grit-cultivating element of unpredictability, players in medieval village garb or animal mascot costumes take turns to pick from a cart of transparent balloons stuffed with flower heads and petal powder. Complicated impact dynamics are introduced as the balloon selected for the turn may burst as it is rolled down the bowling lane. The elevated cost is justified because watching the jolly but starvation anxiety-inducing original game, Netflix's cabbage-bowling challenge (scroll to the bottom) for cast members of Avatar: The Last Airbender, sets off waves of warmth and guilt in relation to a tomato tennis tournament few know about. Food insecurity and crop wastage are real issues a double major in air-castle bending and soap bending readily overlooks until they see the real thing.
Note that Soap 4.0 is so far a text AI-free zone.
Kelp diet must have played some part in Human's air nomadhood, which certainly has its downsides. On the other eight-trigram-palm hand, the troubled, wounded Earth all of us are stuck in need to go beyond taking sides. The real camp we need to join is Alternatives. Take up arms not by pulling up yet more rifles but by brainstorming and refining fresh ideas.
Check out how minutely detailed the alt text is. That's more admirable than any epic-scaled artwork on any platform.
Whoops next gen jumpscare