I don't know for you but I always, always, hate the end of an anime season. It doesn't even need to be a good season but for some reason I always find it really depressing and, even if I'm not doing episodic reviews, I find it hard to write.
You see Mio? That's my state currently, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone because the whole blogosphere (or at least the blogs I subscribe to) are in the same state.
I'm positive most people are busy with hollidays and such and that's why a lot of people are silent but, I, I do nothing for Christmas, for me it's just a day like any other.
I wanted to use the opportunity to have a few articles ready in case I'm hit by a writer's block, but nope, all I did on Christmas Eve is play an online otoge my anime date kindly provided so I wouldn't feel lonely (first time ever I'm playing an otoge, it's so ridiculous it becomes interesting) and write ... fanfics.
I can't even watch anime, all I painfully manage is to watch one or two episodes per day, when I know I won't have this much free time in a long time.
All I want now is for the next season to start, so I can feel excited about something. And hopefully find more inspiration to write.
I have successfully completed the challenge! *applauses*
That being said, it was indeed challenging but, even if some posts were really short, also a good lesson that I am still able to find a different subject to talk about everyday.
In the end, it's still a bit early but we're mostly celebratin Christmas Eve at my place (and it's already the 25 in some countries anyway, yeah, I love timezones only when it's convenient) I wanted to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Have cute mascots to celebrate! (I admit the second has nothing to do with anime but I find these ads hilarious. And French.)
If there's one thing I have realized on my journey in the anime-verse, it's the importance of the fandom, I'm not going to say it's always a happy and welcoming place (No.6 fujoshi fandom I'm looking at you!) but I can't help but appreciate to see so many different people coming together in one place doing one thing.
2011 was really fun in terms of fandom events.
First came Nopy's my History with anime project which helped me discover quite a few interesting anime blogs that I still follow to this day.
Next came Kidd's Ani-bloggers Choice Anime Award which has been quite a challenge to take part to but also very interesting.
And I won't even start on all the numerous Tiger&Bunny related projects I was crazy enough to join and sometimes made me feel like an hopeless creepy otaku (you know, the kind that celebrates a character's birthday by taking pictures of food in front of a picture of said character, yeah I did that) and not even regret it.
That being said, the last event was to design a Christmas memorial pin in Tiger&Bunny's style. Which I did. Obviously.
You probably wondered when the hell I'll start talking about my favorite anime of the year, and probably favorite anime for a long, long time and this time is now! So, have a whole post entirely dedicated to this wonderful anime that is Tiger&Bunny.
I've been under the impression I was a little bit alone in my endless spazzing over this in the anime blogosphere, and I can understand that. I didn't want to start watching it either. Not everyone can like what I like and I have to admit the first few episodes are rather dull when compared to what's next.
However, what's next is wonderful. I already said it but it can't hurt to say it again, I stopped counting how many times I cried and laughed at that. How many theories I made. How many people I met. How surprised I was by the performances of the seiyuu, by the quality of the writing and by how realistic they all felt.
It's the kind of anime that grows on you before you even realize it and in the end, you don't regret it the slightest bit.
I love music in general, however, it seems I have rather peculiar tastes and it really is incredible for me to like an OP or an ED or an insert song or well, J-music.
Which is why I was incredibly surprised when I came accross Kalafina. They quickly became one of my favorite band ever, I love the diversity of their songs, the music and their voices.
2011 was the year of the release of their new album After Eden.
Seems like these 12 days of Christmas will end up covering all of my favorite anime of the years. Hey, that's an easy topic, what else would you expect? It's been quite long since I forced myself to write daily blog posts after all.
So yeah, as you may suppose I loved Steins;Gate, after all, it did rank second in my ACAA post and it'll probably stay one of my favorite anime of all time and Okarin one of the most awesome character I have ever come accross. Now, unfortunately I have already talked about Steins;Gate in length. Several times. And I don't really know what more to add aside that the simple fact it's awesome and you should watch it.
For nostalgia (yeah already) sake, have the OP! (Well hopefully it won't stay nostalgia that much longer because of that planned movie, it's just wishful thinking though, god knows when it'll be out. As long as it does come out I won't mind the wait!)
Of course you all remember the Great Tohoku Earthquake and the tsunami that followed and spread over all Asia back in March 11th.
And, as much as I'd like to personnally offer my sympathy to people who lost a loved one I can't, and saying it here won't achieve anything, so, what I wanted to focus on and express my admiration for what the community did to help.
HEREis a book put together by mostly French artists and sold for charity. The LJ fandom community put together auctions. Good Smile released a special Nendoroid.
Guess that one of my favorite anime ever has a place in this 12 days of Christmas series that can't even be called a series since there's no sign of continuity.
Maybe next year I'll actually plan things before starting and have a vague idea of where I'm going instead of making things up as I go.
Anyway, the reason why Natsume has a place here is because its third season aired this year and that the fourth one is starting next season. It's rare for an anime to do well enough to have 4 seasons, even rarer to have enough material to make these 4 seasons, especially considering the manga chapters are released every two months. (Now please make me a fourth of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei too!)
I'm having an additional reason as to why Natsume Yuujinchou should be highlighted in this period of the year, it's sweet. Sweet, adorable and heartwarming. Isn't it well needed?
I'm pretty sure you've all wondered at some point what the hell was so great about being a fujoshi (a decent one, because, well, every group of people has its idiots, thankfully I now know how to avoid them) so I'll tell you what I find great about it.
As usual, my opinions are mine alone, and the usual warnings apply etc etc.
- The love : Believe it or not but the fujoshi world is overflowing with love, well, that's kind of the point, after all it's not called boy's love for nothing. But that's not exactly the path where I want to go, what I really wanted to say is that most of my anime friends are fujoshi, were fujoshi, even before I went down the same path, you want to know why? Because we like the same things. It may seems shallow and it obviously doesn't always work that easily but, making a friend in the fujoshi world is easy. It goes like "OMG you like that too?" "Yes I love it, let's be friends!" and from there it develops quite easily compared to what I experienced before.
- The fanwork : It's emulating and inspiring being in the middle of people who writes or draws constantly.
- The porn : Well, obviously XD No, more seriously, when you're a girl who loves porn in the first place, it's really hard to find people who are able to accept it without judging you. You don't usually casually bring up in a conversation the last porn videos you have watched right? At least, not with everyone. That's the same, when you're among fujoshi you know it's ok to talk about those things.
- The acceptance : While there are general disagreements since different human beings have different opinions I think I can safely say the community is generally pretty accepting. Where you come from, what you do, what kind of sexuality you have or anything doesn't matter, you are who you are and that's OK.
After all, it'd be a shame if we started to judge each other, we're already prejudiced enough as it is.
While Wordpress snows, Blogger doesn't (not that I mind since, after all, most of the time you don't even see the snow on Wordpress blogs since most of them are white)
That being said, changing banners is something one should do from time to time. Coincidentally, I like doing that, which is why, I thought I should change it in the course of these 12 days of Christmas thing, it's supposed to accompany us on the way to Christmas right? Changing a blog theme to fit the hollidays does accompany you to Christmas right? So, what's better than a Christmas themed anime banner?
New edition of the 12 days of Christmas that might end up being more or less than 12 because I don't know how my inspiration will follow me and more importantly, IF it will follow me through 12 days, or more.
Oh well, let's enjoy it while it lasts.
I was genuinely not going to do actually that many Christmas themed post but I don't seem to be able to escape it so, today's topic is going to ask you to be a little imaginative, I'll be taking my top 6 shows of my ACAA post, try to imagine how their characters would spend Christmas and would love it if you shared your opinions with me!
Working!! : Yamada would insist on spending it with her "family", cry when her wish was crushed by Takanashi, be comforted by the girls who would find it's a good idea, the manager will join because Christmas = food, Satou would join because Todoroki, Takanashi would finally accept because Taneshima, Souma can never miss any occasion to find more blackmail material, and then they'll celebrate together after the closure of the restaurant!
And I think it would be adorable.
Level E : I can totally expect Baka Ouji to bring a carnivorous Christmas tree to Earth. And then going all "But I thought you celebrated Christmas with trees" with his innocent eyes.
"WE DO BUT NOT WITH CARNIVOROUS ONES"
Something like that.
Fate/Zero : Iskandar would bring on himself to invite everyone to celebrate, it'll end up exactly like last week episode, they'd all argue and try to kill each other.
Natsume Yuujinchou : His friends would invite Natsume but he'd feel bad about leaving the Fujiwara alone but they'd tell him to go so he would, or he'd invite everyone at home.
I don't think I have ever read a Christmas Natsume chapter, nor a New Year one. I want to, it'd be cute.
Steins;Gate : I am firmly convinced Okarin would start by planning a little party with the labs member but would end up inviting everyone he meets (or nearly) the lab would quickly become too small and they'd end up at Feyris' place because of course Daru would want to go there anyway.
Tiger&Bunny : Since of course Bunny doesn't like Christmas, Kotetsu would want to help him forget and since he of course would want to see his daughter at least for Christmas he'd bring Bunny forcefully back home with him.
And of course before leaving Nathan would insist on throwing a big party with everyone, obviously disrupted because they can't party properly.
Or they'd have to take part in a HeroTV special. Or both.
Well, as obviously these are only my headcanons, you're free to disagree. But I had fun writing them and that's all that matters. (The fanfic writer that hasn't written fanfics in 6 months is talking ^^)
As of when this will be posted Gintama hasn't any Christmas episode for this year yet, however, it has provided its fair share of Christmas episodes as it went on for 4 years before re-starting earlier in 2011.
In the beginning of 2011, when I heard it would come back after a few years hiatus, I hurried to catch up on the 150 episodes I had to catch up on. Gintama is special to me, Gintama is one of the first anime I have downloaded back in the days it was only 100 episodes long, for some reasons (read : the team translated from English subtitles to French and it was just bad translation) I stopped watching halfway, always telling myself I'll continue at some point. (Read : when my English level would be sufficient to accurately follow the jokes. Now I can even somehow, maybe, follow some of them in Japanese, it was about time I pick it up again)
And thus I finished the first season before the start of the second. And, so far, that second season hasn't disappointed the slightest bit.
All I can say now is that I'm eagerly waiting for Gintama's Christmas episode, as it is always hilarious. And I'm recommending it to you. While the jokes may be sometimes trash, while the tone might sometimes be serious, a friend of mine told me she wanted to become like Gin and I think there are much worse heroes than him in the world.
Children, don't celebrate Christmas that way at home though!
I am jumping on the bandwagon and thought I'd be doing this kind of meme thing named 12 Days of Christmas, in which I'm basically listing 12 thing pertaining to anime that I want to remember.
The first one definitely have to be YOU. Yes, YOU, YOU who're reading this lame corner of the internet (not that you're very numerous but that makes you all the more precious to me)
And even if you're not reading this I love you anyway. Because even if we're all different and have different tastes when it comes to specifcs we all love the same thing in the end. We all enjoy talking about it. We all enjoy reading about it and discussing about it and a lot of different and wide subjects more or less related to anime.
This year has been quite important for me in terms of blogging as I have finally found readers (I say it everytime I touch on the topic but I suck so bad at promoting it's not even funny) and the kind of blog I want to have, as well as blogs I like to read and other authors I like to interact with.
It has felt like a new beginning, in more ways than one, in real life too, when I'm asked to reflect on the year spent I realize that, for me, nothing big happened, just an accumulation of small steps and I think that it makes it, as a whole, even more amazing.
So yeah thanks for being awesome everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read, thanks for taking the time to comment and thanks for keeping on updating your blogs, please continue!
How can I resist joining a project hosted by someone who calls me his favourite fujoshi, there's no way I can right? I urge you all to go checkKidd's AniBloggers Choice Anime Award post for further informations on how to join and to just do it! (He said I was his favorite fujoshi after all, KYAAA *cough*)
And this is why I present you with my own list of 12 anime, movies and OVAs that marked, for me, the year 2011. Probably ranked. Or not. It's always pretty hard to rank things.
Damn do I have the feeling I'll be quite alone in some of my choices.
12) KamiNomi II (Spring)
Because this is probably the only harem anime I genuinely like. I don't usually like the genre and get bored pretty soon. It didn't happen. Not only that but the second season was much more enjoyable than the first.
11) Mawaru Penguindrum (Summer)
Only reason as to why it is so low in the ranking is that it's not finished, and, knowing the kind of anime it is, it can take a turn to have a disappointing ending pretty quickly. Even the risk exists, at least it was a very fun ride.
10) Usagi Drop (Summer)
Heartwarming and adorable piece of fluffy feelings. And realistic. And pretty.
09) Yondemasu yo Azazel-san (Spring)
I think more people should give a chance to that very short (one episode is only 10 minute) anime, it's totally nuts, crazy and over the top in every way (and a bit trash too, considering the favorite "food" of one of the main character).
Nyorin~
08) Hellsing Ultimate 8 (Summer)
It did something very difficult, making me cry for the death of a character. At least one character dies per episode you think I'd be used to it by now but nope, that one was horrible. Beautiful in a very sick way, but horrible. (Yes that's the only thing I remember about the episode, I'm not even ashamed of it. At all.)
And, since I'm talking about it, every character voiced by a seiyuu I really like die in that series. I'm glad he lasted that long.
07) Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Winter)
Because I didn't think they'd dare to behead Mami. And because Kyubey is adorable. And because I really liked the story and the visuals and the music. (I didn't quite like Madoka the character but that's another story)
06) Level E (Winter)
That was hilarious. I love trolls. Especially alien trolls.
05) Working 2 (Spring)
This is the only reason you need :
04) Fate/Zero (Fall)
That's, for me, the second great surprise of the year. I'm not a fan of Fate/Stay Night. Not at all, so I didn't even consider watching this until I heard Yuki Kajiura was doing the music, and then I saw the first episode.
And I think I completely fell in love at the whole Sakura in the insect pool scene.
Anyway, I'm enjoying myself immensely while watching every episode and I just love the characters.
03) Natsume Yuujinchou San (Summer)
It's Natsume. It's adorable, peaceful and it has yokai.
02) Steins;Gate (Spring)
It took me off guard a bit too, it's something I heard about quite some times before it aired, so, as usual, I was a bit wary of the hype and expected nothing out of it, especially since I did see Chaos;Head before and thus assumed Steins;Gate had the same crazy themes and thus would be as hard to animate.
I was wrong, I'm glad I was wrong. Steins;Gate was amazing, I understood what they were talking about (since I'm not a scientist I'm sometimes lost, especially when it concerns time travel), I wasn't bored, even when re-doing the same days over and over, I loved the characters, felt sorry for them, supported them, didn't want them to die, wanted them to be happy. I loved the plot, I loved the surprises, the plot-twists, the romance. Everything.
01) Tiger&Bunny (Spring)
That is the first surprise of the list, I found no other interest in the first episode than the main character, I honestly thought the whole thing would be boring, hell, I wouldn't even be the slightest bit interested if Narita Ryogho didn't mention he was watching it on his Twitter. (Shallow, yes I know, though I can't really help to feel like I might be interested in something the guy who wrote Durarara!! likes ^^)
I expected some generic super hero show and it's exactly what I didn't get.
In the end I don't think I have cried more at any other show but this one, because I didn't relate to any characters more than I related to these two. (Crap, I outed myself as screwed up)
That's, I guess, part of the reason why I love it so much and obsess over it so much, but even speaking objectively the characters are really well written and realistically well written. Hell, even the seiyuu surprised me, upon seeing one of the main character was voiced by Morita Masakazu I sighed, thinking said character would be another fighting maniac without depth, I was wrong. Everyone else too was perfectly spot on and it showed me once again how perfect Tsuda Kenjiro is. If I had one complain to voice it'd be about the predictability of the story (because I honestly don't care much about the quality of the animation and saw worse anyway). But even with a predictable story it caught me in, and you had to actually think to predict it, I don't care much anymore at this point anyway, pretty much everything is predictable. (And I was wrong, I thought someone would die)
Still, the end of the series actually feel like a closure even if it's not, it leaves room for more thoughts and they keep on adding more depth to the universe. It's almost like an interactive story and I think it's great.
(Should probably stop before I write a novel about why I liked that anime ^^)
Suddenly I realized Un-Go was already at its Ninth episode and that in two weeks it'll be already finished. Where did my Fall go? (Granted, it doesn't feel like Winter at all yet but nevermind)
As such I thought it was about time to decide more or less about what I'll watch next season. (Instead of working on my Anime Blogger Choice Award post, damn procrastination ^^)
On my watch list for sure!
- Kyousougiga : In the hopes of finaly getting what it is all about I shall watch it.
- Black Rock Shooter : I liked the OVA and I'm curious about how they'll continue the story and how they'll balance the two worlds.
- Another : Horror story? Yes please!
- Nisemonogatari : Love Bakemonogatari a lot so I'll obviously watch this.
And they look like they're wearing a fried egg on the promo picture so ...
- Natsume Yuujinchou Shi : Well, it's Natsume Yuujinchou! <3
- Brave 10 : Sengoku Jidai is always a must. And I heard it had Kamiya so ...
Will at least check out (and probably end up watching anyway)
- Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou : Well, I usually trust Sunrise when it comes to adapting gag manga (*cough*Gintama*cough*) BUT I really don't want to see Kimi to Boku n°2 and Sunrise is either really good or painfully average so we'll see.
I think something's wrong. Usually my first list has at least 10 shows, I'm at 7, and I don't even know what's continuing.
Well, guess I won't have to feel guilty and suppress my urges to check more things when the season will start
It suddenly occured to me I'll probably have to put the blog on hiatus at some point during the year again, got another internship, a long one, yesterday. But that one is much further away than the one I'll do before, and they said they can lend me a small room for free, alternatively, I have family living there too, and even if I have access to the internet I don't know if I'll have time to watch a lot of anime.
Anyway, it's for April so it's still a bit long before it happens and I'll see.
