The thoughts, reviews and analysis of Comedy, Romance, Drama and Slice of Life Anime of a College Student
Last time, I shared some of the tools I use to solve the remember the Kanji problem and what I use as my dictionary. It’s been a little over 10 years since I started my quest to learn Japanese.
As expected, I learned some things during the past 10 years. So, with that, should you learn the language?
…
Now that we are in 2022, this marks little over 10 years trying to learn Japanese. While I gotten a bit lazy in the past few years, I felt I am not progressing at all, although I still know most of the Japanese grammar. The Kanji remains an area that I am still struggling.
However, with a new year, I want to do things differently. With that, I want to share what I am up to in my Japanese studies and the change in approach I’m taking.
…
In this episode, we will be sharing our thoughts on popular anime streaming platforms where you can watch anime legally.
This is an audio version of our post, originally titled, Reviewing the Anime Streaming Platforms – Which One Is the Best?, published on June 14, 2020. If you have any comments, leave a reply in the original post.
This podcast uses the following songs:
Night In Venice by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5763-night-in-venice
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5010-ultralounge
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
In this episode, we will discuss the dark downsides of playing Gacha Mobile Games and the Gaming as a Service Model. After all, with a Gacha mobile game, you don’t own anything.
This is an audio version of our post, originally titled The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service, published on September 10, 2020. If you have any comments, leave a reply in the original post.
This podcast uses the following songs:
Night In Venice by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5763-night-in-venice
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5010-ultralounge
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
In this episode, we focus on calling out Anti-Asian hate. We also focus on the dark history of the treatment of Asian Americans in the United States. Lastly, we focus on why fetishizing a culture is bad and how it contributes to Anti-Asian racism.
This is an audio version of our post, originally titled Speaking out Against Anti-Asian Hate and The Problem of Fetishizing a Culture, published on March 21,2021. If you have any comments, leave a reply in the original post.
In last week’s monthly digest post, I shared my thoughts on the disturbing rise of Anti-Asian hate. Since I review Japanese media, I think it’s important to make people aware of this. It’s not too surprising since only a very few focused on it in the anime blogging community. Given recent events, I think it’s a good idea to make everyone aware of this so we can fight against hate.
…
With February coming to an end, it’s time to share my thoughts on posts that I found interesting during the past month.
Also, I want to address my anime blogging frustrations as I am becoming increasingly upset. This is mostly due to the lack of comments, people not following directions of not to like posts on WordPress Reader, but instead leave a comment, promoting my content on social media, or linking it back. I’m just really frustrated after 5 years of my blog stagnating and not growing at all. While I have touched on some of this in my anniversary post, but I want to share my overall thoughts.
…
It’s finally 2021 and I didn’t write a monthly post for January due to it being the holidays. With that, there is a lot of things I want to share throughout the two months.
…
Now that we are finally in December, meaning that the year is finally coming to an end. With that, it’s time to share some brief thoughts on what I found interesting for the month.
…
As mentioned, several times, I finally resolved my job woes and finally moved to a new place earlier this year. As expected, things have changed a bit since I shared my last behind the scenes post. With that, it’s time to share an updated version including my overall setup since mostly everyone is stuck at home. This should give some insights to new inspiring bloggers.
Note that I won’t go too much in detail with the hosting aspect, since everything is the same. If you are curious about that, read my first behind the scenes post.
…
Now that it’s the end of October and fall finally settling in, it’s time to share my thoughts on anything interesting during the month and of course, thoughts on any anime I decided not to cover.
…
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.
…
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.
Note: An audio version of this post is now available.
…
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.
…
With July ending very soon, it’s time to share some interesting posts and some thoughts during the month.
…
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.
…
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.
…
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.
…
It has been a while since I have done one of those blog award posts. As you have might know already, I have been busy relocating to the Washington DC metro area. Yes, it’s for a new job that I have been working at for almost 4 weeks.
Since I have been doing lots of driving back and forth moving stuff, finding a new place and such towards the end of last year, I didn’t get the chance to do it. It’s not until the end of January that I finally moved into a new place. The only problem, I didn’t have stable internet since I didn’t have stable internet. In other words, I couldn’t publish any other content besides episodic reviews, until now.
While I was busy moving, two people appeared to have nominated me for the Mystery Blogger Award. They are SparkNorkx of Supaku Blog and Keni from The Anime Basement. Apparently, the latter person appeared to have lost their post, so if you want me to do it, contact me as soon as possible.
If you are wondering, here is some background on what is this award.
“Mystery Blogger Award” is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.
– Okoto Enigma
Since I am very busy, I will not be nominating anyone from this award, but I will just do it.
…
Since my blog hit the 10-year mark in February, I never wrote a post sharing behind the scenes. Yes, this includes the tools I use to create content. I think it’s probably a good idea to share the tools of the trade for those who want to get into anime blogging or interested in technology as I will cover some of the software and hardware I usually use on a daily basis.
Updated: Added some prices of the plugins/themes I use and added some more tools.
…
It has been a year since I started reading manga of series I enjoyed. This mostly consists of Manga Time Kirara series in Japanese. To me, it’s a good way to practice my Japanese language skills without the time commitment compared to other mediums such as video games.
Of course, there is more I want to touch upon the manga reading experience besides what I covered already. It includes the debate over buying physical or digital formats and of course the whole piracy debate with manga.
…
If you have read my editorial on the popularity of BanG Dream and the changes in the Japanese video game market, Gacha games are wildly popular. While I have some mixed feelings with mobile gaming in the past, smartphones and tablets have changed substantially. They are now powerful to give good enough experiences.
…
Yes, it’s that time again. It’s time to answer some questions with the second Sunshine Blogger Award. You can see my first award post back in 2015 over here. This time, this nomination comes from OG-Man, who writes a blog called The Yuri Nation. With that, it’s time to answer some questions that he provided.
…
