Category: Year-End Review

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2018: Changing my career path and watching mostly slice of life anime

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Advice from Michiru's co-worker Hanamori in Takunomi: "So quit worrying about how fast you get things done, and let's just focus on getting it done!"
Advice from Michiru’s co-worker Hanamori in Takunomi.

2018 was a long year for me. I moved to another city and started law school. The Winter Olympics happened in South Korea and the FIFA (men’s) World Cup happened in Russia, but unfortunately, I don’t recall much of what transpired in either of those sports competitions other than the U.S. women’s hockey team winning an Olympic gold medal over Canada and France winning the World Cup.

New anime series I watched most during the year included Pop Team Epic, gdgd Men’s Party, Takunomi., Laid-Back Camp, Crossing Time, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood., and Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san. You might notice the majority of those are slice-of-life comedies or series with short episodes.

I also watched many older anime series and movies with a group that I likely would not have watched on my own: Genesis of Aquarion, Simoun, Crest of the Stars, Mononoke, the first season of Minami-ke, the 1985 Night on the Galactic Railroad movie, the 1979 Galaxy Express 999 movie, and the Birdy the Mighty OVA series as well as re-watching Beck, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and Ouran High School Host Club. (You can read more about some of these in the “Check-In” posts I wrote earlier in the year.)

There were many buzzy new series I didn’t get to last year that I’d like to sample this month, particularly A place further than the universe, Cells at Work!, Darling in the FRANXX, FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative, Golden Kamuy, Hinamatsuri, Planet With, Wotakoi, and Zombie Land Saga. Add that to the unwatched and unfinished series carried over from 2017 & earlier and I suppose I don’t have an excuse if I claim I’ve got nothing to watch.

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Goodbye, 2017!

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I made this using an Evangelion title card generator.

In December 2016, I tweeted: “The year 2016 has felt like 2+ years have passed since January 1st.” This year somehow felt even longer and was filled with too many distressing news stories.

The year also offered many entertaining and thoughtful anime series, movies, manga, and novels. I started watching a bunch of anime series that I hope to finish in 2018 including Kemono Friends, Little Witch Academia, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and Sakura Quest. There were many others I heard about during the year that I would like to give a try. I am optimistic about 2018 being a more positive year overall while acknowledging the continuing potential of major tragedies and global strife.

To aid in reflecting on the past 12 months, I’m borrowing nine questions Lauren used in her year-end post at Otaku Journalist. Continue reading

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12 Days 2016: Post #6 / Final Post – Other Things I Enjoyed Last Year

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Sawako Machida in Miss Bernard Said

I had some ideas of other posts to write for the 12 Days blogging project but I’ve struggled to formulate those into individual posts so I am condensing the better ideas into this final 12 Days 2016 entry.
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12 Days 2016: Post #4 – Anime From 2016 I’d Like To Start Watching in 2017

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Using a screenshot from late 1990s anime Kare Kano to talk about anime from 2016 is *very* timely.

Over the past year, I saw a lot of new anime series being discussed on Twitter and elsewhere that I had mild to high levels of interest in watching myself but didn’t get around to trying in 2016, partly because I rarely watch new episodes on a weekly basis anymore. Different reasons for my interest in any new anime may be its basic premise, cool-looking characters, or word-of-mouth recommendations from friends. I put the ones missed in 2016 into five general categories: action, comedy, drama, slice of life, and sports/games.

Action/Adventure:

Active Raid; Ajin; Berserk; Big Order; Bubuki Buranki; Bungo Stray Dogs; Drifters; Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash; Izetta The Last Witch; Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress; Kuromukuro; Luck and Logic; Luger Code 1951; Lupin the Third Part 4; Magical Girl Raising Project; Mob Psycho 100; My Hero Academia; Qualidea Code; Taboo Tattoo

Comedy:

Ace Attorney; And you thought there is never a girl online?; Bono Bono; ClassicaLoid; The Disastrous Life of Saiki K; Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto; Heybot!; The High School Life of a Fudanshi; Kaiju Girls; Kiss Him, Not Me; KonoSuba; The Morose Mononokean; Rewrite; Sushi Police; This Art Club Has a Problem!; Time Travel Girl

Drama:

91 Days; ERASED; Flip Flappers; Girlish Number; Girls Beyond the Wasteland; The Great Passage (Fune wo Amu); Joker Game; Kiznaiver; Mayoiga (The Lost Village); Occultic Nine; Orange; Re:Zero; Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Slice of life:

Amanchu!, Ancient Magus’ Bride OVA series, Bananya, High School Fleet, Magic of Stella, Momokuri; New Game!; ReLIFE; Shonen Maid; Sweetness and Lightning; Three Leaves, Three Colors (Sansha Sanyou)

Sports and games:

Battery, Cheer Boys, Days, Keijo!!!!!!!!, Long Riders!, March comes in like a lion, Tiger Mask W, Yuri!! on Ice

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I don’t think I will end up liking all of the anime I listed above but I hope many turn out to be worth the time I put into them.

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12 Days 2016: Post #3 – Favorite Pairings of Theme Music & Visuals

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I watched one episode of HaruChika. Its opening theme song is not discussed in this post.

Good theme songs and accompanying animations help me enjoy some anime series. There were many opening and ending songs I liked hearing and watching during 2016, some of them coming from the same show.

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