Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to take a look at the top 5 anime I enjoyed and completed during 2015.
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Best and Disappointing Anime of 2015
Editorials
12 Days of Anime for 2015 and Merry Christmas
It is that time of year again, it’s time to share my 12 anime moments for this year, a tradition I do every year. Since I am busy with work, I decide to do it in one shot.
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Site Updates, 12 Days of Anime and Thoughts about Muse’s Decision to Disband
Now that Thanksgiving is over, 2015 is almost coming to a close. With that, it’s time to focus on the plans I have in store along with my thoughts on the recent announcement regarding Love Live.
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The Dark Side Behind the Glamor or Why Being a Voice Actor in Japan is Difficult
Earlier this year, I have focused on how being an animator is tough given the poor working conditions, salary and being overworked in general. However, I have not covered the other aspect of anime production, voice acting. As seen with Shizuka in Shirobako having extreme difficulty in landing in a role, there are a good number of people who want to become a voice actor or rather, a seiyuu (声優), but they do not realize how difficult it is to gain a role.
Like I did with my analysis on how much animators make, I will focus on some of the basic aspects in regards to how people become voice actors, how much they are paid, how roles are determined and issues they face.
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Anime Scoring – Has it Outlived Its Usefulness?
As you recall, I have shared my thoughts on scoring in the past. Sure, everyone has their own way of scoring things when it come to writing reviews. However, as time goes on and our opinion changes through experiences, you might look back at the list and wonder to yourself, why you gave a show a certain score. Moreover, scores usually do not tell whole story since it is just an arbitrary number. This makes me wonder why bother with them?
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The Trans-Pacific Partnership – The Trade Agreement that will Destroy the Anime Fandom as We Know It
Remember the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act from 2011? These acts aimed to stop piracy, but at the same time introduced unintended consequences since the legislation was so broad that companies and government can use it to request internet service providers to censor sites. If thy were to pass, companies can use it to censor your content and limit free speech. Thankfully, people protested and these two legislations died. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) faced the same fate since it was SOPA-like.
Now, we have a new bogeyman that will threaten free speech, reign in censorship and limit free speech. This will not only destroy anime blogging, but the anime fandom as we know it. That is the TPP, which is commonly referred to as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secret trade deal that involves the United States and other Asian countries in the pacific, including Australia, Canada, Japan and others.
This recently leaked treaty has a lot of nasty copyright restrictions that will undermine fair use and make copyright violations a criminal offense. This mean that you might get a hefty fine or even get thrown into jail. With that, I’m going to share some background information about the treaty and then go into certain provisions that will possibly impact the anime fandom as a whole.
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Thoughts about Japanese Anime Releases: Why they are Expensive?
A few years back, I have shared my thoughts about collecting anime Merchandise. While I stopped buying anime DVDs several years back since I wanted to focus more on importing Japanese games and anime CDs from Japan, I decided to buy Idolmaster Cinderella Girls in Blu-Ray, which makes me wonder about Japanese anime releases and how they differ from licensed releases.
While I covered it somewhat in previous editorials, I never gone into much detail considering that I did not own a single Japanese release. Now I do, so it is time to talk about some differences and why they are expensive.
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What makes a “So Bad It’s Good?” and Ridiculous Anime Enjoyable to watch?
I have been wondering for a while why people tend to enjoy shows that are either have a ridiculous premise or ones that it can be considered as “so bad it’s good.” While I have shared my thoughts about bad anime, I wonder what qualities make a show so bad it’s good.
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Charlotte and Jun Maeda – Did he learned from his mistakes in Angel Beats?
With Charlotte coming to an end in two more weeks, there has been some discussion going around on whether or not Jun Maeda learned his lessons from the mistakes he made while creating the story for Angel Beats because he made a lot of questionable choices that impacted the overall quality of the show. Since five years has passed, it makes me wonder if he learned from his mistakes. (Warning: Spoilers!)
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Overly Obsessive and Misbehaving Anime Fans – How it Negatively Impact Normal Fans
For a while now, I have covered several aspects of the fandom and of course there are always going to be good and bad fans. However, after hearing news about fans threatening others through violence over other fans opinions and such, it makes you wonder if there are some really bad apples and messed up people in the fandom that are worse than the anime fandumb since their behavior hurt the overall reputation of ordinary people like you and me who happens to enjoy anime or even video games.
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False DMCA Claims and Daisuki – The Negative Implications on the Anime Blogosphere (Update: Getting fixed)
Recall what happened in 2011 and winter of 2012 for one moment. The United States wanted to pass two different acts called the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP. These acts aimed to grant the ability for companies to block sites that host illegal content. Of course, the legislation was so broad that companies and even the government can basically abuse it and request the Internet Service Provider to completely block a website for using copyrighted content, even if it covered under Fair Use under Copyright law for review or literary criticism.
If these two acts were to pass, it would allow companies to censor your content and limit your free speech. This means that you are not allowed to say anything bad about them because they can simply use these powers to take down your site. Of course, these two legislations never passed congress due to pubic outcry.
Shortly after, ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) came along, which is another treaty like SOPA and ACTA. It basically did the same thing, but is a lot worse since it is now worldwide. Just like the previously two failed pieces of legislation, ACTA died in a fire after public outcry.
Now, I am faced with another dilemma. It seems that the media industry is not happy with how the war on piracy is going on that they are resorting to other tactics, namely DMCA claims to Google. You might be wondering why I am writing this post. While I condone piracy, some of my posts became collateral damage as they DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claimed some of them. In other words, they got removed for the search results, basically censoring my opinion about the show, which I am fighting against.
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Anime Influences on Japanese Games and Thoughts about Licensed Anime Games
For a while, anime influenced many types of media not only because of its popularity, but also for its art style and the story telling. Because of this, it is easy to not only see anime not only as some form of advertisement, but also having a big influence on other types of media such as video games. You might be wondering: what aspects in video games do anime influences? I will share my take on it along with my thoughts about licensed anime games.
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The Lifelong Question: Will Anime Become Mainstream Outside of Japan?
Since the late 1990s, Anime has grown tremendously popular mostly due to globalization and the Internet becoming widespread. When I read Moonlitasteria’s take on the topic on whether or not Anime as a whole have become mainstream in the West, I wanted to share my own thoughts on it.
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Thoughts about Anime Reviews done by Fans and Professional Critics
Since I am busy settling down, I may as well share my thoughts about something that I’m curious about: Who does Anime reviews better, the Anime Blogging community or ones done by professional reviewers like Anime News Network? I have wanted to share my thoughts about this after reading an infamous review from a certain famous Anime news website.
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Reflecting on Iwata Satoru’s Accomplishments and Sharing my Experiences with Nintendo
You might have heard from social networking sites and news sites that the President and CEO of Nintendo, Iwata Satoru has passed away this Sunday from cancer. It’s saddening for the fact that he contributed a lot to gaming and managed to turn Nintendo around by innovating the consoles, which have enjoyed a lot of success, namely the Nintendo Wii, DS and the 3DS.
With that, I will share my thoughts on his accomplishments and contributions to Nintendo and the gaming industry. Of course, I will also share my experiences with Nintendo and how I got into video games.
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Life Lessons – Relating with Shizuka’s Difficulties – Should you Chase a Passion?
Since its airing, Shirobako gave a good glimpse of the Anime Industry on how it works and the issues surrounding it with some that are interesting to discuss about. Now, I am going to take a look at the last aspect, should you chase your passion or pursue a career that pays well?
Sure, the other four girls (Aoi, Ema, Misa and Midori) had an easier time getting their foot in their door, but there is one girl who had an extremely difficult time and her name is Sakaki Shizuka. The difficulties she faced comes at no surprise considering that the voice acting industry is very competitive and there are only so many roles to go around at a given time. Was it worth it at the end to pursue such a career? Could she have done things differently?
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The Idolmaster turns 10 Years Old – Reflecting back on my Experiences with the Franchise
As mentioned in my summer preview, the Idolmaster franchise will finally have its 10th anniversary on July 26th, the date when the arcade version of the game was first released. Since its inception, the franchise has grown tremendously with Cinderella Girls, Million Live and Side M (which everyone forgot about). With that, I want to celebrate the occasion by reviewing two games from the franchise, movie and share a personal reflection on the franchise as a whole.
To start things off, I want to reflect on my experiences with the franchise and why it’s special to me, especially from a person that has a musical background.
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GochiUsa – Favorite Characters and Relatable Moments
I have to admit that I regret not watching Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka when it first aired since it’s a very enjoyable show about cute girls working at a coffee shop. There were a good amount of heartwarming moments and the little things in life that I can relate to. Since I have two episodes left to watch, I want to share some thoughts about the show.
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Hibike! Euphonium and Concert Band Nostalgia – Remembering the Fond Memories with Music
It has been several years since I last played an instrument after graduating high school. For me, music played a big role in my childhood because I learned how to the piano at a young age and played the Clarinet since 4th grade. While there are shows like Tari Tari and K-ON, which focuses on music that I can relate to, I have to admit that Hibike! Euphonium feels very nostalgic since concert band was one of my favorite aspects of grade school, which I will share.
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More on Anime Watching Habits: Rewatching and Watching Anime with Others
In the past, I shared my thoughts on how I watched Anime. With that, it’s time to take a look at two more aspects of watching Anime that I haven’t talked about yet, rewatching shows and watching Anime with other people.
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More on Idol Anime – Which Franchise do I prefer and who are my Favorite Idols?
It has been a few years since I shared my thoughts on my favorite idols from The Idolmaster. Of course, a lot of things have changed since then. Bandai Namco eventually came up with Cinderella Girls (which is receiving an Anime adaptation) and Million Live. Of course, other idol shows have popped up as well such as AKB0048, Aikatsu, Love Live School Idol Project and Wake Up Girls.
I guess some people might be curious on which one I prefer and what are my favorite idols from these franchises. This is what I’m set out to do right here.
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Forget Twin Tails, Ponytails are the Best!
You might be wondering, which hairstyle looks better, twintails or a ponytail? Naturally, Twintails are the cutest since two is obviously better than one. Today, I realized that twintails are so overrated when I saw the light. Obviously, ponytails are the best and I will tell you why.
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Effect of Source Material on the Anime Viewing Experience
In the past, I have written several opinion pieces on how a person perceives an Anime as a good one and what is considered a good adaptation. However, I feel that expectations on how the viewers perceive an adaptation can vary depending on prior knowledge of the source material and how the show is being made.
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Japanese Language and Kanji – How Exactly do you Learn Them?
Throughout my 3 years of teaching myself Japanese, I have learned quite a lot. To me, the grammar and vocabulary was not the difficult part since I am used to the subject-object-word sentence structure from studying Latin in High School. So far, I can understand most of what they are saying providing that I have a Japanese-English dictionary by my side.
For most people, the Kanji or rather Chinese Characters tends to be the hardest part of the Japanese language since it uses logographic characters (in addition to Kana) opposed to the traditional roman characters. People might be asking: why do we need it when we have ひらがな and カタカナ? I will answer that question along with sharing strategies I currently use to understand them.
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