The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student
Now that summer is finally over, it’s the end of September and it’s time to share what I have on my mind for this month. This one will be short since this month has been very quiet and there is no notable posts or posts to share.
[Read more…] about What Is on My Mind – October 2020
It’s not a big surprise that anime fans tend to play Japanese mobile games that has a gacha element. In some cases, you probably saved a lot of free in game premium currency to roll for your favorite character. Others probably spent a lot of money in order to get the character they want in the game.
However, not everything is forever, especially in gacha games. The big downside of these games is that unless it’s successful, as in bring in a lot of money, the game won’t last long. In other words, you will lose all your progress and money spent in the game.
Believe it or this, this is not too uncommon, especially with localized mobile gacha game releases. This can really upset a lot of people as seen when Aniplex USA decided to pull the plug on the English version of Magia Record. Yes, I was livid about it, but apparently the franchise isn’t popular enough compared to popular franchises such as Fate Grand Order.
Since I spent money on monthly passes, this announcement really left a bad taste towards mobile gacha games or the whole games as a service thing. The question is, do you really own anything in these games? The answer is obviously no. Since I am salty about this a few weeks after the announcement, I want to share my thoughts on the dark side of Games as a Service.
[Read more…] about The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service
Now that Summer is coming to an end soon, it’s time to share my thoughts during the month. As expected, it’s not pretty because it’s 2020 after all.
[Read more…] about What Is on My Mind – September 2020 – The Things You Like Turn to Crap Because 2020, Machikado Mazoku 2nd Season, and More
With July ending very soon, it’s time to share some interesting posts and some thoughts during the month.
[Read more…] about What Is on My Mind – August 2020 – Crunchyroll and Poor Translator Pay, Blog’s Domain Turns 10, In Defense of CGDCT Genre, and More
A while ago, I shared some thoughts about anime streaming services. Believe it or not, in 2017, I realized that streaming anime is a lot more convenient than messing with torrents. While I dabbed into streaming sometime in 2016 by subscribing to three months of Funimation Now, I never shared my experience using it. Eventually, I cancelled it. A year later, I finally subscribed to Crunchyroll after being a holdout for years. It’s mostly because I couldn’t afford a subscription since was in college at the time.
While I was going to share my experiences with Crunchyroll and my three months using Funimation Now a while back, well it didn’t quite happen. Between the period when I lost my job, focusing my time finding another job, finally getting one and moving, this idea went by the wayside.
Since then, a lot has changed in the legal anime streaming landscape. Some players such as Daisuki and a few others have gone under. Of course, there are some new players as well such as Hidive, and the revamped Funimation streaming service.
What really inspire me to finally share my thoughts is Irina sharing her thoughts on streaming platforms. While her review focuses on the state of streaming in Canada, since most of our readers are from the United States, it’s time to focus on the state of streaming here. Of course, I subscribed to all three services. With that, I will share my overall impressions on after using them for a while.
[Read more…] about Reviewing the Anime Streaming Platforms – Which One Is the Best?
Now that it’s finally June, the rather desolate spring season thanks to Covid19 is coming to an end.
After the breakdown I had on Twitter, I want to change things up to perhaps improve the content of this blog. Since I usually do some kind of life updates on season previews, I want to do some kind of monthly summary type of posts.
Back in 2013-2015, I shared some kind of updates in a weekly summary of titles I chose not to cover individually. What I tend to do with these monthly posts is to share not only what I am up to and have planned, but also mini editorials on anime-related topics I find interesting during the month but couldn’t write a whole post for. Also, I will also share my picks for this summer, providing that it doesn’t get delayed.
Since the time I shared my concerns about the state of the blog, I fell anxious about where my blog is headed. Sure, I have tried making some improvements. However, I still feel the bottom is coming underneath me as the pandemic delayed a lot of titles. I fear that this could be the end of my blog. It’s not too surprising since there would be less content to cover, thus fewer comments and likes. The thing that really upset me today is the lack of comments in my recent posts. This is despite the hours put into writing these reviews and even an editorial nobody bothered to leave a like and/or a comment. I became upset that I complained on twitter in several tweets today. I felt that I can’t let this go on any further.
Believe it or not, at some point, some anime bloggers probably faced these issues. When he or she look at other blogs, they have no problem receiving comments and likes. It does make one feel that the effort one put into creating content is going to waste. Of course, this is not the only problem that can cause a blogger to become frustrated and/or even quit for good. Instead of continuing to vent on Twitter and going nowhere as I did this morning, I want to share my thoughts in a rational manner.
[Read more…] about Dealing with Possible Blogging Burnout – How to Deal With It
Believe it or not, I have covered the impacts of the Anime Industry due to Covid-19. However, we still didn’t know the full impact back then, until now. This just didn’t happen overnight. Animation studios faced problems such as poor working conditions, a packed production schedule and noticeable delays in 2019.
As expected, the coronavirus situation made the whole thing worse. Sure, a handful of titles suffered minor delays. Eventually, the coronavirus situation worsened with more than forty titles facing delays. As a result, studios had no choice but to delay productions. Eventually Japan declared a state of emergency on April 16, weeks after delaying the Olympics. This does not come at a surprise since the workplace at these studios clamped. As a result, this makes social distancing efforts nearly impossible. With that, I want to focus on some thoughts on the whole situation.
[Read more…] about Impact of Covid-19 on Japanese Animation Studios and the Need to Embrace Digital and Telework
Since I last shared my frustrations, I felt that things were getting a bit better. Sadly, while things got better in terms of comments and such, it didn’t last. Things took a turn for the worst since the start of this year.
With Coronavirus outbreaks in Japan delaying some anime productions with more on the day, this does give me a lot of anxieties of the future of this blog. Not only that, the lack of comments on my recent posts, including my editorials from last month, which are hurting my motivation to blog. In addition, the lack of followers are becoming a sticking point too. What troubles me are the few who I follow are unfollowing me, which is a huge betrayal. I don’t know exactly what I am doing wrong since I do not post anything controversial.
Instead of keeping my frustrations in, I want to share them. Also I want to receive feedback from the readers on what areas to improve the engagement on this blog before I completely burn myself out. Hear me out.
[Read more…] about State of the Blog – Part III – More Frustrations, Possible Burnout, and Anxieties, But Still Hopeful
As expected, it seems that the Novel Coronavirus has started to affect everyone’s lives. For an anime fan, it definitely had an impact. Not only anime productions are getting delayed, but also events and even anime conventions. Even the Tokyo Olympics that is happening later this year is in jeopardy and will most likely see a delay.
Not only that, various anime productions faced delays as a result. Some are very noticeable with Koisuru Asteroid, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T, A3, and others. It doesn’t end there. Some spring anime, most notably Re Zero Second Season along with a bunch of films pushed back until the summer. Moreover, Amazon is prioritizing shipping of certain goods to deal with the virus. This causes things like anime DVD/Blu-rays, merchandise, video games, etc to face shipping delays. With that, we are living with a new reality and life as we know it is changed forever.
You might be wondering, what is the Novel Coronavirus (aka Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2/SARS-CoV-2/nCov-19/Covid-19) and what affect it is happening on the anime industry. Most of you should have heard about this virus on the news and social media. As expected, it’s having a huge effect on people’s everyday lives. I will share some of my thoughts on how this situation is affecting me personally.
[Read more…] about The SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak – The Impacts on the Anime Industry and Everyone’s Lives