I really took this class because I heard it was an easy GE and my friend was so into anime so we decided to take this class and can I just say, it was one of the easiest GE's I've taken in UCLA. Sadly professor Kanesaka is transferring to another university to teach anime, but I'm more than happy I got to meet him and be his student for 6 weeks while it is COVID season. I have heard that all other Japan 75 classes are exactly like his class where the final and midterm are papers so I would advice you to take any Japan 75 class. All you do is watch anime films the professor assigns you to watch, write a discussion post about the anime you watch and that is it. Again the midterm and final consist of the themes you see in this animes. Really fun class, I recommend this class 100%.

This class has honestly been one of favorite courses that I've taken at UCLA thus far. The material is super engaging, even for someone who doesn't have a particular affinity or childhood love for anime like myself. The course load felt appropriate-enough to keep students engaged but not enough to stress them out. Students are graded on lecture attendance, discussion participation, weekly quizzes, weekly film responses, and a final paper. Although Professor Kanesaka was strict in terms of lecture and discussion attendance and protocol with online classes, he was incredibly understanding of students and adjusted well to events that occurred throughout the quarter. He gave students the option to opt out of submitting a final paper, and he was also very helpful when I had issues because of my late enrollment. I had an equally great experience with my TA, Victoria. She led great discussions and felt very approachable when it came to asking about anything related to the course. Overall, I would highly recommend this course!

I took this class in Spring 2020, the first quarter offered completely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall this wasn't a difficult GE, though the workload (mainly the amount of writing) was disproportionately high.

As a result of the quarantine/new online format, lecture times were modified to be once a week, and what were originally meant to be in-class screenings were now the responsibility of the students to watch in their own time. Despite the lectures being online, they were never recorded and attendance was taken for part of a participation grade.

Grading was 10% participation, 10% weekly quizzes, 30% online assignments (mostly posting responses on the forum), 20% research project proposal, 30% final research paper.

Every week we were required to watch an assigned anime movie, with the lecture later that week discussing the movie, its context and impact, and possible interpretations. Additionally, we needed to submit 1) a written response to the movie and 2) a response to another student's response. I don't know if it was the quarantine draining my motivation or just my inability to write, but I personally found coming up with these weekly responses the most difficult part of the class. Most, if not all, of the grading is done by your TA, so if you end up with a chill TA the class should be a breeze.

In addition to the screening and responses, there was also weekly reading, with anywhere from 1 - 5 articles/excerpts from books assigned. Quizzes, taken on CCLE, were not terribly difficult, but there would be an occasional hyper-specific question on either the week's anime or readings.

Professor Kanesaka himself was extremely accommodating during this time, and made the final paper completely optional (and guaranteed those who submitted would get at least an A- on the assignment). His lectures, though a little dry at times, were informative, and I feel I really learned a lot in this class.