Back in February, I shared my thoughts on why I continued to watch Anime. Still, the special thing about Anime is its ability to cover a wide range of topics and in some instances, show the little things in life. It makes me wonder, how does Anime presents this? (Image Source)
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analysis
Overused Character Archetypes and Clichés – Are they making Anime Unoriginal?
One of the things that some fans complain about Anime is how similar the characters are. It’s true that there is an array of archetypes you can use to describe a character, but is this a reasonable complaint? (Image Source)
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Examining the Dark Side of the Anime Fandom – The Anime Fan Dumb
If you look at any fandom, you will bound to find obsessive fans that take things seriously and start berating people for not having the true fans or going on the rampage when the couple he/she wanted doesn’t happen. Or maybe you might come across an elitist anime fan that says your taste in Anime is crap. To me, I think an Anime Fan Dumb exists for the fact that a small percentage of the fans in the whole fandom are obsessive. (Image Source)
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The Appeal of Video Games: Why I Continue to Play With Them
In February, I talked about my personal experience of how video games changed my life. Just like Anime, video games also play a big role in my life. Since Neptunia the Animation will be airing in a few weeks, I wonder what are the things that make video games appealing? I will share my reasons why I think so. (Image Source)
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Light and Dark Moods in Anime – Emotions and its Effect on Watching Anime
When we watch Anime, there is always has a degree of escapism depending on the show and its setting. From creative plots and nice scenery, each show invokes a different feeling. But, how do they evoke different feelings in their stories? Also, how feelings affect the person’s ability to watch certain kinds of show? (Image Source)
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Views and Thoughts on Bad Anime – Is Anime Getting Worse?
Last week, Yumeka and Froggykun discussed of about liking bad anime, which got me thinking: What makes a bad show? Last year, I shared my thoughts on what makes a good Anime. However, the other side of the quality scale is a bit more controversial. (Image Source)
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The Magical Girl Genre and Why it’s has a lot of Appeal
When I started watching Anime back in my childhood, I saw my first Magical Girl (魔法少女, Mahou Shoujo) anime. Since then, I noticed how much the genre changed throughout the years. With that, I will share some aspects that I enjoy about magical girl shows. (Image Source)
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Remembering Love II – Madoka Magica – Part I – Make a Contract with Me!
Back in 2012, a now retired blogger named trzr23 have created an Anime Blog project called “Let’s us Remember Love.” Apparently, Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses will be doing the second year of it and I will be participating.
For this year, I decided to take a look back at Madoka Magica since two movies has already released for the franchise. When I watched this back in 2011 with a group of people online when it was airing, it felt like a different magical girl show filled with despair. This is mostly contributed to Gen Urobuchi’s writing, the person who is also behind Fate/zero and Gargantia. His stories are filled with tragedy and a lot of character deaths. While shows like Lyrical Nanoha have girls fighting for survival to maintain peace, Madoka completely deconstructs the genre, which is already a good reason to take a look back. (Image Source)
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Disney Princesses vs Females in Anime – The Problem with Damsel in Distress
Last weekend, I have watched Nostalgia Critic’s video on the princess hate. After watching it, I think he has a point since this trope exists in all types of media. The problem lies with Damsel in distress, which became a negative stereotype for females because it’s over usage. In particular, Disney Princesses tend to play this trope a lot, which is a bad representation of how women are portrayed in real life.
In Anime, it’s the opposite most of the time since some female characters take a bigger role. This is the main difference compared to Disney Princesses. (Image Source)
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The Art of Reviewing and Scoring Anime
Before we end off the season, I wanted to share my thoughts about reviewing Anime and grading since they are highly subjective. In general, people will have different opinions based on personal experiences and tastes. While people on Social Networking and Anime Forums tends to share a few thoughts on what they saw, Anime Bloggers are different as we tend to be more critical on what we see. This is because we take the time to share our thoughts to make a more detailed review and for the fact that opinions aren’t necessarily the same. Because of this, I like to share how I write reviews and go into a few scoring systems Anime bloggers use. (Image Source)
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Chikorita Cast – Episode 2 – State of the AniBlogosphere (AniBlog Tourney Edition)
It has been a while since I did a podcast, but it’s finally alive, for now at least. Since I don’t feel like writing about this subject in written form again, I’m doing it in video podcast form. Also, I got a new microphone, which is another reason I want to record one. However, I’m not perfect because I don’t make podcasts on a frequent basis.
In this episode, I will analyze some data I gathered about the state of blogging in the Aniblogosphere. The contains all the blogs participated in the first round with a few dead ones in the second round. So enjoy and feel free suggest other topics I should focus on in future podcasts.
Also, all the data that I compiled is here in PDF form. (Image Source)
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Challenges of Localization: The Never-Ending Debate
While I have talked a bit about the subtitles and dubbing debate early in my anime blogging career briefly, there is something that caught my attention regarding localization. Just this week, there has been news that Tecmo Koei won’t be having dual audio to the English version of Atelier Ayesha. As you would expect, the whole fandom blew up in rage just like that and advocating boycotts. However, there have been recent instances in Anime where licensing companies such as Sentai Filmworks excluded the Japanese Audio from Blu-rays, most notably the Persona 4 The Animation to make the release unattractive for reverse importation. Of course, that too had repercussions.
In general, localization and the whole sub vs. dub debate is a never-ending controversy for many reasons that I will explain. (Image Source)
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Kyoto Animation and Why They Remained Successful
Believe it or not, sometimes a studio that animates a particular show sometimes brings appeal to a work. As seen with the likes of Studio Shaft, Production IG, PA Works, Sunrise and Kyoto Animation, they add something unique. Most notably, Kyoto Animation from the past several years has gained a lot of praise for its production values. This is more so with the airing of Hyouka and now Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai this year. I felt that they do deserve the praise for various reasons as they pay attention to detail, bringing appeal to the characters and their ability to make faithful adaptations. (Image Source)
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A Year of Self-Studying Japanese – Some Experiences
It’s almost a year since I started teaching myself Japanese and I think it would be best to share some of my experiences in certain aspects. Obviously, learning a second language takes a lot of commitment and it’s not easy like buying Rosetta Stone (which is a big waste of money) and expecting instant gratification. It took a lot of effort since it’s learning by doing.
On the surface, Asian languages tend to be difficult since most of them use logograms, also known as Chinese Characters along with different grammar rules. With practice and constant studying, it’s just like learning any other language, except it takes a bit more time to have a basic understanding
Aside from that, here are some observations I had after one year of studying.
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Tiger Moms and Eagle Dads – Strict Parenting in Anime
Just recently, something has come into my mind about how parents raise their children in Anime after watching the 8th episode of Tari Tari. With the stereotype of Asian parents wanting their children to succeed such as the Tiger Mom and Eagle Dad, some of these stereotypes are also present in Anime. This is because Asian countries typically value education a lot, which is why they tend to rank high on science and math. For that, I’m going to explain what these terms mean with examples from various shows. (Image Source)
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Dog Days and the Power of Escapism in Anime
While watching Dog Days, something came into my mind for another topic to write about from Anime regarding escapism. Although I analyzed Iyashikei’s escapism along with friendship and healing last far, of course adventure/fantasy shows such as the one I have mentioned and Sword Art Online has many elements of escapism though it’s setting, characters and their abilities. I’m just fascinated how they accomplish this aspect for these genres in general, which want me analyze them and share some thoughts about it focusing on a fantasy world called Flonyard. (Image Source)
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Journey of Self-Studying Japanese – Honorific Expressions
Since I’m close to finishing all the lessons in my Elementary Japanese textbook for my self-study, I may as well share one of the most interesting aspects of the Language. (Image Source)
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Journey of Self-Studying Japanese – Study Strategies and Technology
Since it’s been about 8 months since I started Learning Japanese, I want to touch on some of the strategies and resources I used to practice and retain what I have learned. This includes a mix of traditional practice and technology to help me out. (Image Source)
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Reasons for Dropping AKB0048 and Thoughts about Eastern Asian Idols (Updated)
From the look of things, the reasons I dropped AKB0048 didn’t satisfy some people since I was full of rage after watching the second episode. After taking some time to let it settle in, I would like to share some thoughts on why I dropped it and my thoughts about the idol craze in East Asia that is going on in the past few years. (Image Source)
Note: Added additional thoughts regarding Idol Production Companies taking full control of the girls’ lives. (Originally published May 19, 2012)
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Monthly Anime Music Ramblings – June 2012 – Songs for Summer
Since summer is coming around the corner, I want to share that feeling with some thoughts about three songs to set the mood. (Image Source)
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Remembering Love: Clannad After Story Part IV (END)
As the month of “Remembering Love” comes to an end, I will focus on the last part of Clannad After Story, namely Ushio and the ending. (Image Source)
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Remembering Love: Clannad After Story Part III
For the third week of “the remembrance of love,” I recall some of the more dramatic moments of Clannad After Story as Tomoya and Nagisa starts life as a new family before it gets cut short. (Image Source)
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Remembering Love: Clannad After Story Part II
Continuing on “the rememberance of love,” I dived deeper into the second quarter of Clannad After Story.
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Blue Bracket Brief Thoughts – Round 1
Finally, we are at the Blue Bracket and there is not much to say. So I’m just going to leave a list of sites that I considered good and just leave it at that. For sites that I have critiques for, I’ll leave them directly on their blogs. (Image Source)
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