Anime blog that focuses on Yuri and School Girl Slice of Life Anime and Editorials
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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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.
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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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 (癒し系), 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Some people in the aniblogosphre nickname the Pokémon after favorite Anime Characters, friends, etc. I have started to nickname some of the Pokémon in Pokémon Platinum, but not on a large scale until HeartGold. Since I have created my preliminary team in Pokemon White, I may as well explain some of the nicknames I picked for some of the Pokémon I use for competitive battling. (Image Source)
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Most of you should know that Kyoko is no longer with us after she faceed a battle with Sayaka who became a witch. Kyoko is one of my favorite characters in Madoka Magica since she is strong willed and kind in the inside. Therefore, I want to give a tribute to Kyoko for being kind and strong person who genuinely cares about Sayaka. (Image Source)
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Oh Kyubey, you look so cute with the never changing cat smile. After Mami’s death, a lot of people including myself started to question Kyubey’s motives. Some people took it a step further and think that Kyubey is the devil, thus creating intensive hate. While I don’t agree with his views on morality, I want to explore some of the possible reasons why Everybody Hates Kyubey™ thus far. (Image Source)
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It seems that another year has passed by and I have finally reached my important milestone in Anime Blogging. Today is my second year anniversary since I started this blog back in February 17, 2009. Many things had happened during my second year of blogging I want to share some of the events that I thought was important. (Image Source)
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In my last post, I focused on specific important and influential moments that happened on my blog and the aniblogosphere in 2010. In my opinion, 2010 was a good year for blogging, but how about 2011? There are many things I want to accomplish for New Year, but not everything can be done. It’s more like goals instead of resolutions since most people usually break it. Besides doing better in college, these are the five goals/resolutions I wish to achieve for the New Year. (Image Source)
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It’s the end of 2010 and it was a nice year for Anime Blogging considering how many events that occurred during the year. With the second year milestone on the horizon, things can only get better. So, this post will basically take a look back on the major events that are influential to Anime Blogging and myself during the year. (Image Source)
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In the 7th Anime Moment for this year, I will be focusing on Ookami-san. While I have some mixed feelings about the show, it was rather entertaining since it had a really violent tsundere named Ookami Ryoko. While not too different from other tsundere stories that JC Staff makes, it has fairy tale characters as its cast, which made it pretty interesting. (Image Source)
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If you have known already, Tokyo pass the very controversial ordinance, Bill 156, which is also known as the “Nonexistant Youth Bill” that have strong support. However, this bill has been called an act of censorship and an apocalypse for the Anime Industry as a whole. While I think the bill is overblown by a certain tabloid blog in the Anime Blogosphere, I still think that this bill is very destructive to the industry and it’s an excuse to promote government-sponsored censorship. (Original Image)
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Angel Beats was a rather unique show even though the execution was so tsundere that it was not even funny. The show was pretty interesting with girls with guns, fighting against other people and learning about the heroes’/heroines’ tragic memories. Therefore, this makes it the 8th Anime Moment in our countdown to Christmas.
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I have to admit, Kobato was one of the sweetest love stories from CLAMP I have seen from 2009-2010. This makes it the 9th Anime Moment with our countdown to Christmas. (Image Source)
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Besides the second season of K-ON, which I will be covering in a future Anime Moments post, there was an OVA that released in the first season. Basically, the Light Music Club decides to do a live house performance, which they are very excited about. They met many girl bands they haven’t heard before and had lots of pleasurable time with them. (Image Source)
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In our second moment of Anime in 2010, we are going to take a look at Sola and the fanservice/pool episode (Image Source).
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I have always wondered about the themes Ore no Imouto covered since it was a topic that has been done in the past, but not well executed. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu covered only the surface of the Otaku subculture but only to throw it out of the window in the second season.
While there are some resemblances of the two shows, they are significantly different. The difference between them is what I want to cover. (Original Image)
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