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The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student

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The SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak – The Impacts on the Anime Industry and Everyone’s Lives

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While Eripiyo doesn’t have Coronavirus, but the flu, this scene is relatable to this situation.

As expected, it seems that the Novel Coronavirus has started to affect everyone’s lives. For an anime fan, it definitely had an impact. Not only anime productions are getting delayed, but also events and even anime conventions. Even the Tokyo Olympics that is happening later this year is in jeopardy and will most likely see a delay.

Not only that, various anime productions faced delays as a result. Some are very noticeable with Koisuru Asteroid, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T, A3, and others. It doesn’t end there. Some spring anime, most notably Re Zero Second Season along with a bunch of films pushed back until the summer. Moreover, Amazon is prioritizing shipping of certain goods to deal with the virus. This causes things like anime DVD/Blu-rays, merchandise, video games, etc to face shipping delays. With that, we are living with a new reality and life as we know it is changed forever.

You might be wondering, what is the Novel Coronavirus (aka Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2/SARS-CoV-2/nCov-19/Covid-19) and what affect it is happening on the anime industry. Most of you should have heard about this virus on the news and social media. As expected, it’s having a huge effect on people’s everyday lives. I will share some of my thoughts on how this situation is affecting me personally.
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Pitfalls of Anime Streaming, Competition and Subscription Fatigue – Is It Becoming Too Fragmented?

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Artist: stick_jitb</a?

It’s obvious that the Novel Coronavirus has caused a lot of public events to become cancelled along with schools. Aside from people who have a job, but can’t telework, most will be at home. In other words, some or most of you would binge watch on anime while being stuck at home.

This of course brings the topic of anime streaming. In recent years, anime has become more accessible legally through legal streaming services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, and others. Not only that, you don’t have to spend $50-250 to buy the whole series on DVD or Blu-ray to watch it. Of course, we started to see Crunchyroll losing the lion share of the anime streaming as competition heated up.

If you recall, Amazon tried to jump in the fray with Anime Strike and Netflix doing its own thing. While competition is good as it doesn’t cause a service to become complacent. During that time, Crunchyroll became a bit lazy by not updating their video player and with poor video quality.

Once competition took hold, they eventually added an HTML5 player. It’s not without consequence. They lost a good amount of their catalog once Funnimation pulled out of the deal.

As expected, exclusive simulcasting is becoming an issue as people have to subscribe to the multiple services to watch the content they enjoy. Otherwise, he or she will miss out unless they subscribe. As they say, each subscription adds up in the end. This phenomenon is called subscription fatigue. While some bloggers have covered this concern, it’s time to go more in depth in it.
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The Reasons Why You Should (Probably) Not Pirate Anime

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Artist: キュードリ

Since 2017, I started the shift towards streaming mostly because it’s convenient and it’s probably the cheapest way to support the industry. From the monthly subscription fees, royalties are paid from the shows you watch, which eventually goes back to the studios and the industry.

Given the problem that studios are facing with low pay and poor working conditions, if more switched to legal alternatives, it would help the industry. After all, revenue generated overseas will become more important given the change in demographics in Japan.

While streaming is not the ideal solution mostly because of region restrictions, it’s not a problem if you live in North America. Of course, exclusivity of titles and fragmentation is another issue. Certain titles will only be available on Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Amazon, Netflix or Funimation. In other words, this will require subscribing to multiple services.

If you take these drawbacks from the picture, it’s a better way to watch anime as it’s convenient. One doesn’t have to mess around with Bittorrent, worry about what video players to use, and having enough disk space. You just watch whatever you want.

However, people who live in regions where legal options are readily available and can afford it still choose to pirate. People have to realize that not only this is selfish and immoral given the poor state of the animation industry, you are also putting your information security at risk. Not to mention, piracy or rather the correct term, copyright infringement is illegal. I will explain why you should probably stop pirating anime and consider legal options if available.

(Note: Pardon the lack of images, they are coming in a few days)
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Top 5 Anime of 2019 and Top 10 Anime of the 2010s

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Artist: 倉本 たかと

Since 2019 is finally coming to an end, it’s time to take a look at the top five shows for this year since I only completed 14 titles this year. We will also take a look briefly at the top ten shows of the decade. As always, this list is subjective.
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Year in Review – Reflecting on Anime Blogging in 2019

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Artst: さいのひかり。

As expected, I hoped that in 2019 things will finally turn around. As expected, I finally got my wish. Also, we will take a look back at the year in review. I know this is a bit early, but I still have two to three posts left before the year ends.
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12 Days of Anime for 2019 and Merry Christmas

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Artist: ぼや野

As always, I do the twelve days of anime post. For this year, we are back with the usual sharing the anime along with any other moments related to Japanese video games and such. As always, nothing is in particular order.
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Behind the Scenes – The Tools I Use to Blog About Anime

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Artist: 世音

Since my blog hit the 10-year mark in February, I never wrote a post sharing behind the scenes. Yes, this includes the tools I use to create content. I think it’s probably a good idea to share the tools of the trade for those who want to get into anime blogging or interested in technology as I will cover some of the software and hardware I usually use on a daily basis.

Updated: Added some prices of the plugins/themes I use and added some more tools.
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Tribute to Kyoto Animation and How Their Works Rekindled My Interest in Anime

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Artist: 紗江

On July 18, 2019, tragedy stroked as an arsonist set on fire the main studio for Kyoto Animation. About 33 people died from the incident along with several injured. In addition, the fire destroyed all their production materials in the first building. However, the second animation studio and headquarters were not affected.

This tragedy is heartbreaking to not only to the family members, but also the anime industry and fans of anime. It’s not too surprising since Kyoto Animation’s production values are regarded highly by most people. It’s mostly thanks to the talented people who worked on the productions. Not only that, they are treated well compared to other studios.

In the past, I shared my thoughts about the studio. In this post, I want to share how the productions from this studio influenced me to start blogging about anime.
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Transfer Limitations in Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield, Is Game Freak Betraying their Fans?

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Artist: ゆーき

Back in February 2019, Game Freak finally announced their next generation games, Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch. This game will finally have a third person view in an open world compared to the previous games. However, after showing off new features at E3, a lot of people became upset. News broke that you won’t be able to transfer all your Pokémon from the Pokémon Home service to the new games. This is because of Game Freak’s change in direction.

To me, this decision is a big betrayal to the loyal Pokémon fan base. Of course, many people are angry about this decision and for good reasons. He or she won’t be able to use all of their favorite Pokémon in the new games. With that, I want to share my thoughts on why Game Freak is out of touch with the fan base.
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Vita Retrospective – Why It’s Better than the Nintendo 3DS for Anime and Japanese RPGS, but Still Unsuccessful

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Artist: 蜜桃まむ

Since I finally obtained a PlayStation Vita in 2012, it was my console of choice. It had a great library of Japanese role-playing games and anime themed games released throughout the Heisei Era. While the console did poorly in the west, it sold well in Japan. This is not too surprising since Japan vastly prefer portable consoles opposed to home consoles.
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