Oh wait, I am already 33 years old. Well, I certainly don’t feel or look like it. Even so, I want to briefly reflect on the past year of my life along with some plans.
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Editorials
Opinion pieces related to Anime in general
The Reasons You Should Start an Anime Blog
With the talk of Elon Musk buying Twitter and the adverse effects, people wonder what the alternative places to talk about anime are? After all, Musk has a history of silencing his critics, and I can see why some are concerned. However, the question remains on who owns the platform and if some egotistical millionaire will come in and ruin the platform to allow hate speech and harassment.
Starting your anime blog may be a worthwhile experience for those looking for an alternative to Twitter. Irina and Jacob have shared their own reasons for creating one. Still, it’s always good to share other perspectives, especially from someone who has done it for 13 years straight.
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My Experiences on Learning Japanese for 10 Years and Why You Should Do It
Last time, I shared some of the tools I use to solve the remember the Kanji problem and what I use as my dictionary. It’s been a little over 10 years since I started my quest to learn Japanese.
As expected, I learned some things during the past 10 years. So, with that, should you learn the language?
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Mid-Season Impressions: Birdie Wing and Sachiku-san and Blogging Fustrations
With spring being halfway over and since this week’s episode of Machikado Mazoku 2-Choume is delayed until next week due to golf for some reason, I want to share my short mid-season impressions of the other two shows I’m currently not covering. They are Birdie Wing and Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai. Also, I will be sharing some thoughts on the state of the blog, which has been a bit rough.
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What is on My Mind – Winter/Spring 2022 – Sony Pulls a Monopolistic Move, Sentai Gets Bought, Dealing with Content Thieves and More
With Winter coming to an end, it’s time to share some things I found interesting throughout the last three months. Yes, I will talk about Sony’s new monopoly on anime, at least in the west.
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State of Japanese Study – Solution to Studying the Kanji, Thoughts on Denshi Jisho, and What I’m Doing for Immersion
Now that we are in 2022, this marks little over 10 years trying to learn Japanese. While I gotten a bit lazy in the past few years, I felt I am not progressing at all, although I still know most of the Japanese grammar. The Kanji remains an area that I am still struggling.
However, with a new year, I want to do things differently. With that, I want to share what I am up to in my Japanese studies and the change in approach I’m taking.
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Top Anime of 2021 and Year in Review
With the year finally come to an end, it’s time to take a glance of some of the top shows I enjoyed and share some thoughts on blogging this year as well.
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12 Days of Yuri Pairings – 2021 Edition
Almost every year, I do the 12 days of Anime thing every year. With that, we will focus on more yuri pairings of course. As expected, they are in no order.
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What is on My Mind – Fall 2021 (September-December 2021)
Since I have been so busy with work related and swamped with anime coverage, I plan to do these posts whenever I feel like it in the future. With that, it’s time to share some thoughts on some interesting topics from the past few months.
Also, Merry Christmas for those who celebrate. I couldn’t get the 12 Days of Anime post up on time since I was busy, but it will be out before the year ends.
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What is on My Mind – August 2021 – Kireina Yuri Revival, Feeling Left Out of the Anime Blogosphere, Kadokawa Censorship Remarks and More
It has been a while since I wrote a monthly post since I was very busy last month. With that, I want to share some interesting things from June and July. Also, I will also share some more details in the revival of the Kireina Yuri community.
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What is on My Mind – June 2021
At least, we have reached the halfway point of this year. With that, it’s time to share some interesting things that happened in May.
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What is on My Mind – May 2021 – Kadokawa’s Unsustainable Goal, Interest in Seiyuu Live Performances, Madoka Magica 4th Movie Announcement and More
While we are heading to the halfway point of this year, it’s time to share some interesting things from the last month.
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What Is on My Mind – April 2021 – Sony’s Purchase of Crunchyroll in Jeopardy, Uma Musume Mobile Game First Impressions, Importance of Backups, and More
Now that we at the start of spring, it’s time to share some interesting posts I found interesting from the past month.
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Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture
In last week’s monthly digest post, I shared my thoughts on the disturbing rise of Anti-Asian hate. Since I review Japanese media, I think it’s important to make people aware of this. It’s not too surprising since only a very few focused on it in the anime blogging community. Given recent events, I think it’s a good idea to make everyone aware of this so we can fight against hate.
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What Is on My Mind – March 2021 – Anime Blogging Frustrations, and Feeling of Isolation, Fighting Anti-Asian Racism, Poor Animator Pay and More
With February coming to an end, it’s time to share my thoughts on posts that I found interesting during the past month.
Also, I want to address my anime blogging frustrations as I am becoming increasingly upset. This is mostly due to the lack of comments, people not following directions of not to like posts on WordPress Reader, but instead leave a comment, promoting my content on social media, or linking it back. I’m just really frustrated after 5 years of my blog stagnating and not growing at all. While I have touched on some of this in my anniversary post, but I want to share my overall thoughts.
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What Is on My Mind – January/February 2021 – Ex-Arm Fiasco, Sony Buys Crunchyroll, Precarious Future for Anime Conventions, WordPress Like Button is Toxic
It’s finally 2021 and I didn’t write a monthly post for January due to it being the holidays. With that, there is a lot of things I want to share throughout the two months.
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Best Anime of 2020 and Reflecting Back on Anime Blogging in 2020
Now that the year is about to end, it’s time to share some of the titles I really enjoyed this year. Given that not too many shows aired this year thanks to the pandemic, I will only focus on 7. Also, I will reflect on this year of blogging.
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12 Days of Yuri Pairings – Part II
It’s that time of year again as every year, I always do the 12 Days of Anime thing every year. This year has been a particularly rough year. Instead of talking about some of the depressing aspects of the year such as Covid19 delaying anime and Aniplex USA shutting down the English server for Magia Record, I want to keep things positive.
Yes, it’s true! We are doing another 12 days of more Yuri pairings like we did in 2018. After all, despite what is going on this year, the yuri pairings did not disappoint at all. Of course, they are in no particular order.
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What Is on My Mind – December 2020
Now that we are finally in December, meaning that the year is finally coming to an end. With that, it’s time to share some brief thoughts on what I found interesting for the month.
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Behind the Scenes – The Tools I Use to Blog About Anime (2020 Edition) – Updated
As mentioned, several times, I finally resolved my job woes and finally moved to a new place earlier this year. As expected, things have changed a bit since I shared my last behind the scenes post. With that, it’s time to share an updated version including my overall setup since mostly everyone is stuck at home. This should give some insights to new inspiring bloggers.
Note that I won’t go too much in detail with the hosting aspect, since everything is the same. If you are curious about that, read my first behind the scenes post.
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Decline of Crunchyroll and Failure of Originals
For a while now, Crunchyroll is facing a big decline. In recent seasons, Funimation has been getting a lot of high profile shows in the past. To make matters worse, the service has been losing a lot of shows in its catalog while increasing the subscription fees.
Now, WarnerMedia, who owns Crunchyroll wants to sell it to Sony. Not only this will cause the problem of Sony almost controlling the western anime market, Crunchyroll will most likely cease to exist as they will most likely merge it with Funimation.
With the lack of shows that appeal to my tastes, I kind of let my Crunchyroll Premium lapse and I have yet to renew it. This is mostly because the titles I want to watch is now on Funimation or Hidive.
The question remains, what led to this situation? Is it because of Crunchyroll’s ambitious plans to work on creating their originals with the long-term plan of controlling anime? Or is it bad luck caused by the Covid19 induced recession.
Note: An audio version of this post is now available.
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What Is on My Mind – November 2020 – Supporting Seiyuus in Age of Covid, Magia Record Gallery Mode Epic Fail, Mangaka Ragequit and More
Now that it’s the end of October and fall finally settling in, it’s time to share my thoughts on anything interesting during the month and of course, thoughts on any anime I decided not to cover.
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What Is on My Mind – October 2020
Now that summer is finally over, it’s the end of September and it’s time to share what I have on my mind for this month. This one will be short since this month has been very quiet and there is no notable posts or posts to share.
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The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service
It’s not a big surprise that anime fans tend to play Japanese mobile games that has a gacha element. In some cases, you probably saved a lot of free in game premium currency to roll for your favorite character. Others probably spent a lot of money in order to get the character they want in the game.
However, not everything is forever, especially in gacha games. The big downside of these games is that unless it’s successful, as in bring in a lot of money, the game won’t last long. In other words, you will lose all your progress and money spent in the game.
Believe it or this, this is not too uncommon, especially with localized mobile gacha game releases. This can really upset a lot of people as seen when Aniplex USA decided to pull the plug on the English version of Magia Record. Yes, I was livid about it, but apparently the franchise isn’t popular enough compared to popular franchises such as Fate Grand Order.
Since I spent money on monthly passes, this announcement really left a bad taste towards mobile gacha games or the whole games as a service thing. The question is, do you really own anything in these games? The answer is obviously no. Since I am salty about this a few weeks after the announcement, I want to share my thoughts on the dark side of Games as a Service.
Note: An audio version of this post is now available.
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