Again, it’s my birthday. As I reached the midpoint of my 30s, another year passed as I turned 35. Sure, I didn’t accomplish too much when I was 34, but I may as well share my thoughts.
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personal thoughts
Thoughts on Taking the JLPT N2 and What I Have Learned?
Last year, I decided to take the JLPT. However, I am not too confident that I will pass it since I spent a lot of time doing WaniKani and doing some Bunpro along the way. My only immersion was a handful of JDrama and many Manga volumes.
While I knew that passing the exam at the N2 level would be a stretch, I may have a better chance of passing N3, but I am up for a challenge. Here are my thoughts on the JLPT N3 exam I took at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. I took the exam to see my progress in my studies.
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2023 Year in Review and Plans for 2024 (Including Winter 2024 Anime Season Preview)
Well, it’s finally the last day of 2023, so I will share what I plan to watch in 2024, my thoughts on 2023 and my goals for next year.
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Happy 34th Birthday
Wait, it’s already my birthday. While today I leave my early 30s as I turn 34, it has been an eventful year. Besides going into the office for a whole year, I did accomplish quite a bit.
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Jumping Further Down the Anime Merchandise Rabbit Hole – More Thoughts about Anime Figures and More
Back in 2014, I shared my thoughts on collecting merchandise. Of course, a lot has happened since 2014, when I was in my second year working on my Master’s Degree. A lot has changed since I started working and can afford things.
As a result, since I last shared my thoughts on collecting anime merchandise, some views have changed. But, of course, there are some more things I want to go through, and there is more to this rabbit hole than what I shared last time.
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2022 Year in Review, Future Plans, and Happy Holidays
With Christmas around the corner, it looks like I’m not going to get my 12 days of Yuri pairings posts out. I do this every year to share the yuri pairings from anime I watched during the year. However, it will come out during my holiday vacation. So I may just limit what I think about the pairing to 1-2 paragraphs and make it brief.
To make it up, I will focus on the year in review stuff and the plans for the future. But yes, 2023 will be a big year for obvious reasons.
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Happy 33rd Birthday
Oh wait, I am already 33 years old. Well, I certainly don’t feel or look like it. Even so, I want to briefly reflect on the past year of my life along with some plans.
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Mid-Season Impressions: Birdie Wing and Sachiku-san and Blogging Fustrations
With spring being halfway over and since this week’s episode of Machikado Mazoku 2-Choume is delayed until next week due to golf for some reason, I want to share my short mid-season impressions of the other two shows I’m currently not covering. They are Birdie Wing and Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai. Also, I will be sharing some thoughts on the state of the blog, which has been a bit rough.
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State of the Blog – Part III – More Frustrations, Possible Burnout, and Anxieties, But Still Hopeful
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.
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Tribute to Kyoto Animation and How Their Works Rekindled My Interest in Anime
On July 18, 2019, tragedy stroked as an arsonist set on fire the main studio for Kyoto Animation. About 33 people died from the incident along with several injured. In addition, the fire destroyed all their production materials in the first building. However, the second animation studio and headquarters were not affected.
This tragedy is heartbreaking to not only to the family members, but also the anime industry and fans of anime. It’s not too surprising since Kyoto Animation’s production values are regarded highly by most people. It’s mostly thanks to the talented people who worked on the productions. Not only that, they are treated well compared to other studios.
In the past, I shared my thoughts about the studio. In this post, I want to share how the productions from this studio influenced me to start blogging about anime.
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State of the Blog – Part II – Frustrations and Possibility of Burnout
In recent months, things have been very frustrating in regards to the state of my blog. The past few episodic and editorial posts received no comments at all, which adds to the frustration. If you have been following me on Twitter, the lack of comments has been my torn in my back for the past few months. Rather than keep my frustrations in, I want to share them. Also, I want to ask for your suggestions on how to motivate readers to comment on my posts.
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State of the Blog – Addressing my Frustrations and Changes for the Future
Now that we are heading to the 10-year mark next month, I would like to share the state of this blog. This month has been a very frustrating month. Rather keeping my frustrations in, I would like to share how I feel along with future changes.
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The Lack of Comments and Self Doubt – My Thoughts
I have to admit that this month have been very stressful. Aside from real life stuff, which I will not cover, the lack of comments has been bothering me. With that, I want to get this off my back once an for all since it’s not good to keep it in. Also, I want your feedback as well.
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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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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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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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