It’s that Time Again – The Sunshine Blog Reward

Yep, it’s that time again! A fellow blogger named Black Ragdoll, who runs an Anime Blog called Absolutely Anime has nominated me for the Sunshine Blog Reward. Like I did with the previous questions posts. With that, it’s time to answer her questions.

1. To what degree do you separate your blog content and personal life, and why?

Besides separating my anime blog content with my other content, hence I have a side blog titled Atelier Shiori for non-anime topics and short form posts. I typically keep my online and personal life/professional life separate. This is because I don’t use social networking compared to most millennials (a term that refers to people who were born between the late 1980s to early 2000s).

When I had a Facebook during high school, I only update it so often, but eventually I stopped using it and ended up deleting it since I don’t have a need for it. Aside from that, my life is not that interesting to make an update at every possible moment. Plus, there is always a fear that employers will find something that a person posted on any social network that might be considered embarrassing and can cost one their job. I’m sure nobody wants that.

In short, I only share personal life stuff if it’s relevant to what I’m doing online or is something that I won’t get embarrassed over. Moreover, I don’t talk about politics online since people in the Anime fandom either don’t care or don’t want to hear about it.

2. If you could only watch one anime for the rest of your life, which one would it be and why?

This is a tough question since there is a good amount of shows that I like, but if I have to choose, Clannad will be my first choice and Idolmaster as my second.

3. Do you use MyAnimeList (or any other) to track your anime progress?

Yes I do, but I don’t necessarily like it for the fact that they still don’t have great API (Application Programming Interface). I have to admit that maintaining a list is a pain in the butt since I always forget and it’s time consuming. Since I know how to program, I basically wrote an open source application for the Mac to automate this for me. The program just takes whatever show it’s playing and uses that information to update the list for me.

In addition, I also have a Hummingbird account and develop a similar program for it too.

4. What’s your opinion on the anime industry and where it’s headed?

While I don’t think the industry is heading to an endless spiral downwards and that most people accept that Sturgeon’s Law is a fact of life since there are always going to be a good number of shows that are bad or mediocre, I have some concerns.

First is on how animators are treated in the industry, which is something that I covered earlier this year. While it’s understandable that production budgets are not really big, I think it’s downright disgusting that most animation studios pay the animators below minimum wage for their work while forcing them to work long hours in poor working conditions. The tight deadlines to get the production out of the door also contribute to this problem.

To me, the animation industry needs to fix this problem before it gets worse, especially now since more people now have a basic understanding of how animation production works thanks to Shirobako and an American animator, Henry Thurlow sharing his experiences on working for a Japanese animation studio.

Other issues that can be a problem for the industry is of course the excuse for poor production values, which can be contributed to above and of course the potential decline in Blu-ray/DVD sales due to declining birthrate (although it might change if the Japanese economy improves), which can put a strain on new productions.

5. Do you buy anime merchandise?

Since I have done a whole post on what I collect, so I won’t go in detail. In short, I only really buy music CDs mostly because I don’t have that money to spend. In other words, I don’t buy character goods or figures, although that might change when I start working depending how my expenses look. Still, I would rather spend my money on video games and CDs instead.

6. Why do you write about anime and what’s your goal when it comes to this?

The main reason I write about anime initially is to improve my writing skills while sharing my thoughts about a medium that I enjoy. After a while, it’s something to keep me occupied while sharing my passion for it.

7. Do you think you will keep watching anime long-term or eventually grow out of it?

For the foreseeable future, I can see myself still watching anime since I have a huge backlog to finish and there might be new shows that fit my tastes.

With that, this sums up all my answers. Here are my questions:

1. Have you experience some type of writer’s block during your Anime blogging career?
2. What is your favorite Japanese voice actors/actresses?
3. Have you ever gone to an Anime convention before? If so, what conventions did you went to?
4. If you can make a live action production, which Anime/Light Novel/Manga would you choose as the source material?
5. Based on your knowledge on how Anime production works, what is your opinion on how animators are being treated in Japan? What would you do to improve their situation?
6. Do you watch or experience any other forms of media besides Anime?
7. What do you prefer, official subs (e.g. legal streams or home releases) or fan subs?

Here are the people I nominate:

• Kai
• Moonlitasteria
• Overlord-G
• Yumeka

Note that you are not obligated to answering these questions. If you don’t feel like making a separate post, feel free to answer them in this post. If you decide to answer them and make a post, just link back to this post and answer the questions. If you want to, make the same amount of questions and nominate a few people.

Aside from that, if you want to ask me additional questions, ask me on tumblr or Ask.fm. ¶