Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials

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Monthly Anime Music Ramblings – April 2012 – The iDOLM@STER

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It has been a while since I wrote guest reviews of related singles and soundtracks relating to Anime. Since I want to come up with another single review within a few months, I suppose I should share my thoughts on some good music I heard from the shows I watched. With that, I come up with the “Monthly Anime Music Ramblings,” an idea I had in my mind two nights ago.

In this feature, I will pick one to three track(s) from a particular series or artist. Then, I will explain what I like about the song along with other aspects like instrumentals and singer’s performance. This will replace the yearly list of favorite artists along with the best songs from a particular season.

In this inaugural post, I will talk about three tracks from The Idolmaster that really impressed me. (Image Source)
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Getting into the Producers Chair – Experiences of Producing for 765 Production

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Before I begin posting my Let’s Play, I have always wanted to write more about my experiences in general about The iDOLM@STER in regards to the Anime and the Games. As you know, the anime like the game has important life lessons such as interacting with others, solving problems and teamwork that gives us the fabulous dancing and singing. (Image Source)
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Anime, Blogging and Life – Enjoying and Managing Time

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In this week’s editorial, I decided to take up a topic in the blogosphere that is relatively important with any Anime fan: “How does one fits time to watch shows while juggling with college or work?” Given that I have managed to survive three years and made over 830 posts about Anime, you wonder how the hell I manage that when college gives you a lot of work to do. I’ll share my experiences on how I find free time to watch shows and blog while doing well in college. (Image Source)
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Chikorita157’s Anime Blog 3rd Year Anniversary – Still Alive and Kicking…

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It feels like yesterday since I started blogging back in 2009 during my freshman year of college. Since then, the overall anime blogosphere landscape changed a lot since then.  I saw some bloggers quitting/going on an endless hiatus along with others starting new blogs replacing the dead ones. Also during these years, I got to know a good number of bloggers in the blogosphere and fans. For that, I feel that this is a good time to look back and comment on it. (Image Source)
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Valentines Day Special – My Favorite Idols

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For those who celebrate, I hope everyone a Happy Valentines Day/Singles Appreciation Day. To commemorate this faithful day, I want to focus this week’s opinion piece on my favorite idols from The Idolmaster. I know people will have different opinions since they are many to choose from and I will respect that. (Image Source)
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Anime and Video Gaming: How they changed everything…

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Like Anime, video games had played a big role in my life after I was introduced to it during my childhood. After some thought, I felt the need to share my experiences with video games and how it influenced me to watch Anime since these two mediums are closely related to each other. Not surprisingly, most anime fans are probably gamers as well. (Image Source)
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Brief Thoughts about the US Anime Industry and Anime Collection

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By now, this topic got hammered to death in the blogosphere by now, but looking back at my DVD collection back in 2009, it has significantly grown into a sizable stack. Therefore, I feel the need to share my brief thoughts about the current situation with the anime industry in the United States and of course, taking a look at my collection after these years. (Image Source)
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Improving Anime Blogs and Writing – 2012 Edition

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Yep, it’s that time of year again with the wave of competitive e-drama from 2010 known as the Aniblogosphere Tourney. Since then, the blogosphere landscape has changed significantly with some blogs dying and new ones popping up while others improve. With 2012 being a big year for bloggers, I want to share how people can improve themselves, especially for the newcomers who have yet grasp the joys of blogging and writing good posts. (Image Source)
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2012 – New Beginnings and Anime Blogger Resolutions

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As the New Year came upon us with the strike of midnight, it’s time to set some new goals for 2012.

From last year, I have only achieved about two of the five resolutions from last year. Since my blog turns three years old in February, perhaps I should become more ambitious and try to aim even higher this year. To do that I laid out a few goals I should achieve by the end of this year (Image Source).
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2011 in Review – Top 10 Anime and Blogging

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Before I go overboard with video games and completely forget about the year-end post, I may as well do it now so I can bring in the next year on a high note.

Although 2011 was a very eventual year with a big Earthquake in Japan that occurred in March of this year and some disasters that hit close to home like Hurricane Irene and the October Snow Storm, it was a very good year for Anime. While noitaminA had many disappointments, there have been some great shows, most notably Madoka Magica, which aired earlier this year. So for a further ado, I’ll share my thoughts about the year as a whole and some accomplishments. (Image Source)

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Twelve Days of Anime – Part II (Days 7-12)

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アニメの１２日 – 二部

Today is the day before Christmas and to celebrate it, I’m looking back at the reminder of the moments in this year’s Anime that made it awesome. This includes Croisee, Ano Hana, Fate/zero, Idolmaster, Hourou Musuko and Madoka Magica.

If you don’t know what this project is all about, I highly suggest checking out the prelude (Image Source).
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Twelve Days of Anime – Part I (Days 1-6)

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アニメの１２日 – 一部

Christmas is almost here and to celebrate it, I’m taking a look back at the first 6 notable events that grabbed my attention or surprised me.  This includes Fractale, Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Hanasaku Iroha, Working Second Season, A Channel and Gosick.

If you don’t know what this project is all about, I highly suggest checking out the prelude. (Image Source)

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Twelve Days of Anime – Prelude

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メリークリスマス！ (Merry Christmas!)

It’s that time of year again and thus marks a starting of another Anime Blogger tradition, the 12 Days of Anime Project. In this group effort, Anime Bloggers like myself share twelve Anime related moments on our blogs. It’s an activity that got started by a former blogger named CCY (also known as Canon-chan) 4 years ago whose blog pretty went into a vegetative state recently. Of course, there are many who want to keep it alive. So, I feel that I should share some of the holiday cheer.

Unlike last year where I have stopped half way because I got overwhelmed with too much finals that it drained my motivation to complete the last six, I’m doing things differently this year. Instead of 12 individual posts, I will squeeze it down into two separate posts. Each post will spotlight 6 notable events either from Anime or the Aniblogosphere. Hopefully this time around, I will actually finish it this time! So, check it out this Saturday when I plan to come up and spotlight the first six.

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SOPA, The Cancer that will kill the Aniblogosphere… in America.

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In the past few years, there are notable and controversial legislations that deemed as the apocalypse of Anime Industry and its fandom. Just last year, I have shared my thoughts on Tokyo passing a very controversial ordinance called “Bill 156” also known as the Nonexistent Youth Bill, which aims to restrict sexual content. Up to this day, the industries’ impact of the bill is still questionable, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. (Image Source)

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Iyashikei, The Art of Friendship, Escapism and Healing

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In recent years, shows involving schoolgirls doing cute things have become considerably popular, especially in the second half of the 2000s. Although some people argue that these works don’t have any substance, for others, it gives a feeling of happiness and refreshment. Shows like K-ON, Hidamari Sketch, Sketchbook, Tamayura, and A Channel along with the acclaimed Aria series and Ikoku Meiro no Croisèe, which don’t set at a school setting. So, what are in these shows that give this present feeling?

Iyashikei (癒(いゆ)し系(けい)), which means “healing series” in Japanese is what it says on the box. It’s a genre that focuses on the lighthearted aspects of life with little to no conflict. If you look further, there are several qualities in this genre, which contributes to feeling such as the emphasis on friendship, the setting and an easy-going feeling. (Image Source)
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Nichijou and Kyoto Animation’s take on Creativity

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In the past few years, the Slice of Life genre gained a lot of popularity. Many of these shows while similar have unique stories. As I explained in my editorial about the genre back in 2010, there is really no defined definition of what makes a show a Slice of Life.

In particular, Kyoto Animation has pushed few of the most popular shows of this genre.  Lucky Star and K-On has a huge following for cute characters, but both of them have two different premises. The former focuses on the anime subculture and the latter, the true essence of friendship. On the other hand, Nichijou takes a spin of the genre with less emphasis on characters and more on ingenious comedy (Image Source).
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Best of Spring 2011 Anime Music

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During the Fall 2010 Anime Season, I have taken a brief look of some the opening and ending songs I heard from the shows I were watching. Since I only covered a few shows last winter like Madoka Magica, Hourou Musuko and Fractale (Gosick is left out since the ending theme single came out in the spring), I decided not to focus on it. However, I have published a full review on Madoka Magica’s opening song, “Connect” at Anime Instrumentality and you should check it out!

For the Spring 2011 Season, there was a good number of opening and ending songs I liked. Out of the songs that released and listened to during spring, I liked “secret base ~kimi ga kureta mono~” (Ai Kayano, Haruka Tomatsu, Saori Hayami),  “Scarlet Knight” (Nana Mizuki), “Hazy” (sphere), “Scarlet Ballet” (May’n), and “Spread Wings” (Aki Misato). For each song, I will share my thoughts about them briefly. (Image Source)
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The Reason why I Anime Blogging and the Social Experiences

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In the past few weeks, there has been some discussion on why fans decide to blog about Anime. It’s true that blogging takes time and dedication, but there are many reasons why people continue to do it.

For me, I have been blogging for nearly 2 years and a half now and I have my own reasons for blog. I decide to do it not for popularity, but to enhance my experience as a fan of Anime. (Image Source)
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On Taste Testing and Dropping Anime: My Anime Viewing Experiences.

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Just a few days ago, a blog post at the Behind the Nihon Review had myself thinking about the usefulness of the three-episode test I have been using for the past three seasons and questioning the rationale of dropping Anime. As we all know, fans have different tastes and expectations when it comes to the shows they watch. After I took a look of the three episode taste tests and the number of shows I dropped in the past two years, its quite obvious that dropping Anime is rather difficult for myself and I haven’t found a good reason to do so (Image Source).
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Anime and Japanese Music… and Favorite Artists – 1 Year Later

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For a long time, I have an interest in music ever since I played Piano and Clarinet when I was in high school. When I started to watch Anime again back in 2008, I have already established an interest towards Japanese music with Pokémon that simply grew beyond what I have listened to.

Several months after I posted my favorite artists last year, I guest reviewed several Anime related singles on Anime Instrumentality Blog. In addition, I have listened to other singers’ songs, which kind of redefined my perceptions of Anime Music a bit more. So, further ado, I want to share my updated favorite artists and music I have listened up to now (Image Source).

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Reflection: 1 Year of AniBlog Tourney… Aniblogosphere’s Death is highly exaggerated.

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I can’t believe a whole year has passed by with the Aniblog Tourney happening 1 year ago. If you are new to the Aniblogsphere, the Aniblog Tourney was a competition with 96 blogs being assigned to a specific division in pairs randomly. When the poll for each division opens, people look at both blogs and then vote for the better blog to go on to the next round. While the tournament is mostly a popularity contest towards the end, it allowed for constructive criticism, which was helpful for bloggers to improve their blogs.

The competition between my blog and Anime Princess was a very close one with a few percentages off from losing. Ever since the Aniblog Tourney, I have taken an initiative to improve my writing, the blog design and accessibility.  Eventually, I brought a domain name and moved to paid hosting several months later to make a bigger presence in the blogosphere. (Image Source)
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Hourou Musuko – Innocence, Acceptance and Betrayal… (Editorial)

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Preface: Hourou Musuko besides Madoka Magica has been one of few shows out of the winter season, which are considered very good. The reason why I have not blogged much about this show since the content in the episodes is hard to explain in episodic posts. So, I thought it would be best to share my thoughts on the events that were important in editorial form.

In the most recent episodes of Hourou Musuko, the story focuses more on the issues Nitori faces in his life that wants to be a girl.  Since he is delicate, anything that happens to him will impact him emotionally. This happens when Dori urges him to come out of the closet that causes the whole student body to become shocked. In addition, the play and Anna plays an important role of adding self-confidence for Nitori’s transgenderism.
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