Chikorita157's Anime Blog

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

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Happy 23rd Birthday and Some Thoughts

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今日は私の誕生日です。(Today is my birthday.)

Believe it or not, time flies when you are working hard. A lot has happened since then as I took on the task of self studying Japanese, experiencing some Anime Blog Tourney drama, moving to another server and of course, overhauling my blog’s theme. Although I have experienced some hardship with my mother having cancer that she has fully recovered from, I think the future ahead will be blight one. I don’t intend to give up blogging any time soon since I enjoy doing it and there is a lot to write about.

As for what I got for my birthday, I received a Playstation Vita. I still haven’t got any games for it besides my downloaded games from Playstation Network since I don’t know what game I should get. I plan on fixing that soon. Aside from that, “Idolmaster SP Missing Moon” plays great on it.

With that, feel free to share your birthday wishes to me, whether it’s on Twitter or in the comments below. Also, I want to thank all my readers and followers who have supported me during these years. Hopefully, I can defy Anime Blog death by passing the four-year mark!
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Welcome to our New Home!

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After the hard work in setting up a new server, I’m pleased to tell everyone that it went smoothly. Compared to last time, downloading the backup from the old to new host didn’t take that long since I can just grab the whole backup and download it directly to the server.

Considering the troubles Scamp had with WPWebHost (visit if you want the worst hosting experience) for being too popular and the downtimes in the past, I decided to initiate the move immediately to get away from these jerks (although the account is still active since I can’t transfer the domain at the moment). After painful hours in the SSH terminal to optimize and harden the server, I finally got it up and running smoothly on an affordable Virtual Private Server located in the Midwest. Besides the increased speed, you can now access my blog via IPv6 if your ISP supports it.

Aside from that, if you encounter any issues or have any feedback, just leave them in the comments. I’m new at managing a server, so there are probably a few bugs in the system. With that, I should have the Fate/zero Episode 17 post done by 9:30 PM EDT. (Image Source)

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In Response to the Mudslinging by Draggle

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Notice: I never intended to make this serious and I might have took it the wrong way. Of course, the tournament is meant to give more blogs exposure and get constructive criticism. So no offense is intended on both sides and this is just a joke.
With that over, the constructive criticism for all the blogs I have checked out will get posted on Wednesday at 4 PM EDT. So enjoy the e-drama for now.

Yeah, I definitely saw the post you made and I’m very disappointed in you. It’s one thing to become competitive. However ruining my reputation is one of the things I will not allow you to do. Don’t pretend I didn’t notice because I have trackbacks coming in for my posts and I’m watching your updates on twitter!

In the end, I predict that I will have a comeback because cheating is bad and I believe in Karma… Don’t be like the Republican candidates and play fair.

If you against this mudslinging, vote for the deserving underdog in the Aniblog Tourney!

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Support Us in the 2nd AniBlog Tourney!

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いらっしゃませ！(Welcome to my blog!)

During the first Aniblog Tourney, I experienced a close loss in the first round. Since then, I have learned from my mistakes by improving my content and interacted with more people. Now, the second Aniblog Tourney is about to begin and we are up against Draggle’s Anime Blog.

As most say, quality is always better than quantity. With that, I have been working hard on writing more posts outside the realm of episodic posts. So, check out my opinion pieces that I have handpicked (you can see more in the Editorials category) and feel free to comment on them if you have any thoughts before you vote… (unhide the spoiler to see the recommended posts)

Spoiler InsideSelectShow

In addition to editorials, I have also focused on other features such as:

This is pretty much it. Feel free to browse around for my other content (episodic and review posts) and most importantly, don’t forget to vote for the deserving candidate in the Aniblog Tourney! Polls will open today until Wednesday at 4 PM Eastern Daylight Time (20:00 GMT)! May the best blog win!

(Update 1:also, ignore the nonsense that Draggle is spreading about me… he is just having some fun. :p)

(Update 2: Cheating is bad, so please vote for integrity and content quality, not the libel he wrote about me.)

(Update 3: We playing around, so don’t take any of our mischief seriously)

(Note: This post will remain stickied until the poll’s closure.)

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A Message by Kuroi Takao from 961 Production

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This is perfection!

Just recently, 961 Production offered me a great sum of money by allowing them post stuff on my blog. Since I couldn’t let the offer slip away, I took it despite the bad things they done to my favorite idols… but I’ll let it slide for only this instance. For further ado, here is what Kuroi Takao, the President of 961 Pro has to say.
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It’s Here Again – The 2nd AniBlogger Tourney Blog Critiquing

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It’s that time of year again as the 2nd AniBlog Tourney commences in a few weeks. During the first one, I looked at the participating blogs and gave constructive criticism to help people improve for the future. This time around, I will do the same, but a little differently…

For those who don’t know what is the AniBlog Tourney, it’s a competition where the readers check out blogs and then vote for the one they are most likely to read. (Image Source)

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Chikorita157’s Anime Blog 2012 Reader Survey

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It’s that time of year again and since the AniBlog Tourney is coming up, I want to get some feedback from the readers. Compared to the survey from last year, I’m doing it a bit differently since it’s more open-ended. Therefore, it would be helpful if you specify what are my strengths and things I should improve on in terms of content through constructive criticism. In addition, I’m open to posting other content besides the usual posts (editorials/reviews/episodics) as long it related to Anime, Manga and Visual Novels (Anime of Games are also fine). So, be aware of that question since it might be interesting to see how will it turn out. I might implement them depending on the feasibility and my capabilities.

So, further ado… take the Reader Survey and be honest with your answers. It will close on March 20th (two weeks from now) and I will share the results afterwards with some analysis.

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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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Reflecting on Today’s SOPA/PIPA Strike… (Update)

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As most people knew already, today was the SOPA strike and several anime bloggers like myself have joined in by either blacking out their site or spreading awareness by writing a post about it. If you haven’t known already by now, SOPA and PIPA are two extremely dangerous pieces of legislation that will severely harm freedom of speech, innovation, security and the openness of the Internet. Not only that, it will have profound effects on the Anime Blogosphere as we rely heavily on derivative works to share our thoughts about Anime, which protected under fair use. Most bloggers who didn’t participate and Anime Fans have to realize that this law will not affect everyone in the United States, but everyone if they were to get passed. Therefore, I have been proactively reminding others to keep a close eye on this and take action, even if you are in a different country.

Aside from that, I want to share an exhaustive list that participated or mentioned the bill’s existence (perhaps as an excuse to get out of a post):

With that, the blackout was a success as it caught everyone’s attention even though some very ignorant SOPA/PIPA supporters like Chris Dodd still paints this as a “dangerous” gimmick and usual mainstream media supporters like CNN still against the opposition. On the other hand, the large-scale protest had convinced three co-sponsors to drop their support for the SOPA bill along with thirteen senators dropping support for PIPA, which is good news. Still, the fight isn’t over yet, so we still need to keep the pressure on Congress and supporters for both bills. Continue to spread the word to everyone in the fandom, not just the blogosphere and contact congress! We need to effectively kill both bills so we can keep continuing what we enjoy most, blogging about Anime.

Update: Just today, the creator of the SOPA bill killed it off for good. Not only that, PIPA got delayed indefinitely. This is good news for everyone in the internet, not just our fellow Anime Bloggers. Even with this huge victory, we must stay vigilant so future bills that are similar to these won’t pass by us without our knowledge like the “Indefinite Detention” clause in the NDAA. Needless to say, I hope congress will get behind the OPEN Act that will attack the source rather than the free, open and innovative internet.

Anyway, let’s thank the tech companies, our fellow Anime Bloggers and everyone else who spread the word about this disastrous bill and saved us from censorship…

Read moreReflecting on Today’s SOPA/PIPA Strike… (Update)
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Merry Christmas!

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メリークリスマスみんなさん！

For those who celebrate, I wish everyone a healthy and Merry Christmas. If you haven’t read my Secret Santa review of Kuragehime and my second part to the 12 Days of Anime, I suggest checking it out.

Just as a note, I will not blog tomorrow since it’s Christmas. Therefore, the post for the Fate/zero Episode 13 will get delayed to Monday… but for now, so along. Enjoy the holidays and of course, Yukiho’s birthday!

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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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Extended Downtime = Extreme Rage

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Having a site go down for more than a few hours is every blogger’s nightmare and it seemed that it became reality this weekend. Yesterday, the site went down and I complained numerous times to the host on why it’s not fixed. This was not the first time it happened this month as my blog faced downtimes, some lasting a few hours.

Apparently, a few sites on the shared host got compromised in a XSS (Cross site scripting) attack, most likely from an outdated TimThumb library that compromised many Wordpress blogs. Still, the poor communication with support and the inability to detect this problem before it was too late kind of shows how irresponsible WPWebhost is. They talk about how good Wordpress is, but they care less about their customers. I felt that I received subpar hosting for them to the point where I’m furious at them for not fixing these problems before. To make it worse, this wasn’t the only problem I faced with them in the past. My site had numerous short downtimes, slow loading times and database not working properly because the tmp folder is full. From what I have experienced this weekend, I feel that their support staff and the people who manage the server needs to get fired and replaced with competent people since their response in this situation was horrendous.

Needless to say, I’m still going to send a complaint letter so maybe I can get out of the contract and get a prorated refund. If I’m successful in doing this, I will transfer my domain to another registrar and move my site to an affordable unmanaged virtual private server like Burst.net. If not, I’ll stick it out for another year, take daily backups and then move to a new host. Either way, there is no way in hell they will ever get my business again and heed the warning… Never get hosting from WPWebHost.

Aside from that, the post for Fate/zero episode 7 will be up in a few hours.

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New Theme and Feedback

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Since I decided to redesign the theme ahead of time, so I spent 6 hours making a new child theme.  And you might be asking, why are you changing the design if the old one is okay?

From April of last year, I created my first major theme based off the Thematic Framework. It took many hours since I don’t have a sufficient knowledge of CSS. Because of this, I had to play trial and error. Eventually, I liked the design and made several minor changes over the months. While the design looked fine, it had some quirks with the layout and such. Because I’m redesigning the theme and color scheme when my blog turns three years old next February, I may as well overhaul the backend of the theme.

When I was deciding on the theme framework to use, I didn’t want to use a free theme since these designs tend to get overused, especially the Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven themes (especially with the sidebar removal being a pain in the butt). I made a decision to spend some money to get a premium theme that will last into the future. After looking around, I have chosen to use StudioPress’s Genesis as I can create a child theme like I did with Thematic and it’s not too outrageously expensive compared to Thesis. This new theme still uses the same color scheme since I haven’t come up with one with some noticeable changes, which makes it look cleaner. Of course, the theme itself reduced the need to use a few plugins like WP-PageNavi, which will hopefully take the load off the site. Also, I’ll be adapting this theme to Shiori’s Diary when this design gets finished.

If you have any suggestions on what I should add or change in the new theme, make a comment below and I will take a look at it. Besides from that, enjoy the somewhat new design!

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Happy 22nd Birthday and chikorita157.com’s 1st Anniversary

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With my 21st birthday quickly passing by us, I turn 22 years old today. Since my last birthday, lots have happened with my blogging of more Anime series, most namely Ore no Imouto, Madoka Magica, Wandering Son, Gosick, Hanasaku Iroha and Ikoku Meiro no Croisèe while facing a mild case of an overactive thyroid. In the first few months, I found it considerably difficult to blog while dealing with the autoimmune disease, but I eventually overcome it.

Besides that, my parents and sister are planning to take me out to celebrate my 22nd birthday. I have received a Nintendo 3DS as my birthday present in advance (a new iPhone has to wait) and planning to review it sometime this month. Besides this, feel free to share your birthday wishes in this post or on Twitter. I’ll post the birthday tweets on this post once the day is over.

In addition to my birthday, the domain I am using for this blog and everything else (chikorita157.com) finally turns 1 year old on August 11th. I felt that getting a domain name was a rite of passage to get more noticed and it was fairly affordable. Even so, I am planning to keep on maintaining the domain well into the future. (Image Source)
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On Summer Vacation… we will see you soon!

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Like I have mentioned earlier, tomorrow will be the day I will leave New Jersey for the Midwest on a two-week vacation. I will NOT be on hiatus at this time and will still be making new blog posts while on the road even though they may be delayed until I get to a place with Wireless Internet.

As always, if you want to know what I am doing during vacation, check my Twitter, Google+ (if you have an invite) or my side blog, Shiori’s Diary. I will be posting updates there frequently through my iPhone. I will also approve and respond to any comments if I see any with a small delay. Nevertheless, I hope my vacation is a good one and hopefully everyone enjoys their summer thus far.

Also, feel free to check out the list of shows that I will be marathoning on vacation… These reviews will be posted in a few hours after I completed the series.

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Summer Vacation Marathon Plans

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As you have known for a while, a vacation was in the works for a while now. The vacation will last for at least two weeks to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Chicago. Since tethering is out of the question, I’m deciding to marathon few Anime series to keep the boredom to a minimum. I will be watching three series that previously aired last season, which I did not get a chance to watch with the addition of two movies, full with a short synopsis from Melative. (Image Source)
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I’m Kyubey the Espeon… Please make a Contract with Me!

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Hi, my name Kyubey. I am a very special Espeon with the power to grant girl’s wishes in exchange of becoming a Puella Magi. In the past, some people tried to prevent me from doing my job. To prevent that from happening, I have reincarnated myself in the Pokémon World when Kotomi, another Espeon gave birth to me as an Eevee.

Since I have finally evolved into Espeon, I am going to continue my job like I did in the other world and make more contracts. I know there are many grief seeds and witches in the Pokémon World, so I need your help. Please make a contract with me and I’ll grant you any wish that you desire like getting any legendary you want, becoming the most powerful trainer, etcetera. Just fill out the contract below and your wish will be granted instantly!

Name:

Gender:

Desired Magical Powers:

Appearance:

Wish:
By signing this contract with Kyubey, you are agreeing to become a magical girl/boy to fight witches to purify your Soul Gem. Once you gain magical powers, you may not revert back to your previous form. If the contract is broken, severe consequences will follow and Kyubey will not be held responsible.
Signature: x___________________________
Good Luck… and hopefully Homura-chan won’t oppose me. ◕ ‿‿ ◕

Spoiler InsideSelectShow

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Spring 2011 Preview and Future Plans

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Madoka will finish during Spring... and after the troubles are solved, cake will be served!

Since the Spring 2011 Anime Season will start in about a week, I have a hard time deciding what to watch besides Nichijou considering that there are so many shows airing during the season.

In addition, I will reveal future plans regarding the blog and real life stuff. (Image Source)
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Blog’s Reader Survey Results and Reflections

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Two weeks ago, I have created a Reader’s Survey to take look to give the direction of what I need to improve on and get some demographic information. Today the survey has finally closed and I have the results. Therefore, I want to take a look at the fascinating results with some of the questions. (Image Source)
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Chikorita157’s Anime Blog First Reader Survey

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Since I have passed my second year milestone, it might be a good idea to have a reader survey to get some feedback on what I should improve in my third year of blogging. This survey will also give some Anime Interest questions. They are added to give me a good idea of the demographics of my readers. The survey is completely confidential and all the questions are completely optional. However, it’s in your best interest to answer all the questions

The survey is here and it will be open until March 15th.

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Chikorita157’s Anime Blog 2nd Year Anniversary and Reflections

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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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Sickness and the Lack of Updates

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Ever since the first day of January, I gradually felt sick of some unknown disease. First, I have experienced shaking that started back in October. Recently, lost weight even though I ate normally and my heart starting beating fast two Saturdays ago. This is when I saw a doctor and today I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (Grave’s Disease). [1. Image Source]

The thyroid, located in the neck regulates the hormones, which controls one’s metabolism. Iodine is important for thyroid function unless to take too much in. If the thyroid takes too much in, it causes an autoimmune disease that tells the thyroid to create excess hormones. As a result, it resulted in the symptoms I described above.

Since I got the medications, I’m feeling a bit better and hopefully it will go away. I most likely need to change my diet since I have an unbalanced diet with a lack of vegetables and junk food.  Since I am a picky eater, this might be difficult, but I will have to force it.

As a result of feeling strange, I have been posting less than I normally do on the blog. I felt a lack of motivation, but still covered the Winter Anime along with the creation of the podcast. Hopefully the medications will work, so I can feel better and feel motivated to write these blog posts and finish my backlog.

Lastly, check out the SCCSAV Podcast, which is a collection of recorded commentaries for a specific episode.  Some of the stuff people mentioned could be interesting.

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