How deep into the anime fandom would you say you’ve delved? If I really push it, I can trace my fandom back to somewhere in the mid 1990’s, when Sailor Moon and Akira were first popular in the US, and perhaps even earlier to when a friend of mine commented that my character doodles looked like “Japanese cartoons” – it turned out it was mimicking some of the designs from one of several anime that had been wiped of Japanese culture for the consumption of American kids on Nickelodeon. While I know that anime had a minor presence in the West even prior to that, the era of anime alongside Saturday morning cartoons really marked a big jump in its fandom cache. I don’t say all this to imply that I’m somehow “more” of an anime fan than any particular person, I just want to point out that I have the benefit of time and exposure to a lot of series that have since become much less available to newer fans.
Category: Personal
The other day I heard one of my Facebook acquaintances complaining about their kid’s obsession with Minecraft, and how they just don’t understand it. I can relate, but maybe not in the way they might expect. In my household, I’m the one obsessed with Minecraft – although I do have a pretty good handle on why it appeals to me. Though, at almost 38 years old, I might be a little bit of an anomaly, or at least outside the “average.”
Hi all, it’s been quiet here for a few weeks, hasn’t it? Without going too deeply into the gory details, my partner and I are currently undergoing IVF/ infertility treatment, and since I’m the one with more involved anatomy the medication has left me feeling really exhausted. Unfortunately, I get home from work feeling exhausted, and that leaves me with very little energy to indulge in my hobbies – including this blog. The down time has given me the opportunity to think things over a bit, and I suppose now is probably a good time to implement a few changes.
- Regarding the remaining first impressions from this season – I don’t know if I’ll finish them or not. There have been a lot of great things airing this season and I feel a little bit guilty about not providing my personal input, but at this point many series are wrapping up and it feels a little silly to talk about first episodes when many people have already watched the final ones. It’s not like I haven’t been watching stuff, so I may come out with some kind of wrap-up or summary or something similar, but that will depend highly on my free time and energy (I’m getting close to finished with this round of medication and I anticipate there will be some down time after that, so hopefully I’ll feel a little bit more up to writing).
- Going forward – I’d like to start switching stuff up a bit. Obviously I enjoy doing first impressions and surveying the anime landscape each season, so I don’t want to stop doing that. Instead of deep-dives into each series, though, I have been thinking about doing a few posts with shorter impressions on some of the series I’m not quite as interested in, and then writing a few “feature” impressions of the things I think are more worth talking about. These could be ones I really like, ones that misfire in interesting ways, or just episodes that provide a lot of food for thought. Part of what makes my current system really difficult sometimes is that I feel obligated to write at length about episodes that I just don’t have very strong feelings about, and that’s always really frustrating for me and wastes a lot of time.
- I’d like to spend my energy writing more thoughtful pieces – digging into the details of certain anime series and writing more full-series reviews. Those are the types of things I find more satisfying to write about, but as soon as first impressions start falling behind my time to write these types of things is diminished quite a bit.
It remains to be seen how this will all end up playing out – I’ve got a surgery scheduled right around the start of the new anime season, so my ability to put into practice the things I’ve planned may be compromised somewhat (though on the other hand I’ll have a few days of free time with no obligations, so it might work out to my advantage). But hopefully the new direction will be a good refresh and re-focus for me. Thanks for reading!
Categories
A Different Type of Convention Reaction
Another year, another CONvergence. I’ve written here before about the convention itself, and I may have more things to say later about the nuts and bolts part of the convention since it was in a new location this year (spoiler: I thought it was a net positive overall). Today I’d actually like to talk about CONvergence’s panel culture and some specific experiences I’ve had related to that, including some positive and not-so-positive ones I had this year. My experiences aren’t necessarily directly related to CONvergence in all respects; I’ve got some personality problems/mental health issues that make certain situations different for me than they might be for others, but hopefully this will all resonate with others to some degree.
Categories
The Disorientation of Unplanned Hiatuses
Some people plan their writing hiatuses, some don’t. I’m obviously the latter type of person. My preference is to post here a few times per week as it suits my schedule, but I’m also quite the slave to my own emotional state. Depression for me doesn’t really manifest as outright sadness a lot of the time. Instead, it bubbles underground as a lack of motivation and exhaustion at the thought of trying to accomplish anything (even something fun – like watching anime and talking about it with my readers and friends). I especially struggle when I compare myself to others who are much more consistent than I am, because I get this nagging feeling that there’s just something wrong with me.
Categories
Don’t Harsh the Squee
I wrote a lot about my experience at Anime Central this year, and with good reason; I had a good time and felt like I’d finally settled on reasonable expectations for a big convention. I previously attended the con five years ago, and my experience then was somewhat less positive. Part of it was due to the convention location – at that time the hotel and convention center were located pretty far away from any inexpensive food options and the weather wasn’t cooperating (obviously not the con’s fault, but it did color the experience). Also, the amount of travelling back-and-forth between convention buildings felt excessive.
Critical textual analysis can be a tough gig. By design, there will always be folks who disagree with your conclusions, and a subset of those readers will be genuinely angry with you because of them. One of the pieces of advice I try to give out whenever I participate in an “Anime 101” or similar panel is for people new to the fandom to seek out a critic whose values and opinions reflect their own. This could be myself, another blogger, or a professional reviewer; it doesn’t really matter in the end as long as they speak to the subjects and concerns that person has as a consumer.
As a reviewer, I have certain things specific to myself, my life, and my experiences, that make their way into my writing. Those things can mostly be gathered under the umbrella of “representation of marginalized groups,” though I tend to specifically focus on women and how they’re characterized and treated within narratives. I’m not a big fan of violence, especially sexual violence. I don’t really enjoy fanservice, either, although that’s not always a deal-breaker. All of these are specific opinions of mine, and they’re much broader than any one anime, manga, or film.
Categories
Fan Art Fun – June 9th, 2019
While I’ve long since given up on making a career of it, I sometimes enjoy creating art. I especially like to make fan art of anime series and video games that I enjoy. I recently invested money in some Copic markers; for those who aren’t familiar, they’re alcohol-based markers that are considered to be very high-quality. A lot of Japanese artists use them. I’ve wanted a set for years and they were recently on sale for Memorial Day, so I grabbed a set.
Sometimes I have trouble coming up with things to draw, though. Inspiration comes in fits and starts with me, and it’s difficult to predict when it will strike next. Because I wanted to get some use out of my new art tools, I sought my inspiration from friends on Twitter. Below are the requests and my responses, as well as a “bonus item” that I came up with on my own. All the drawings are created using Copic markers, Copic multi-liner pens (in several different colors), and Sakura Pigma Micron pens (black), along with the occasional highlight using a Sakura Gelly Roll white pen, on Bienfang Bristol drawing paper. I messed around with some of the levels in a photo editing program to attempt to best capture how the colors appear in real life. The first four drawings are about the size of an index card, while the final one is on a full 9″ x 12″ (23 x 30.5cm) sheet.
Note: The final image may be NSFW, because it contains very mild non-detailed nudity.
This post discusses plot spoilers through episode 5 of the series.
Read my First Impression here!
I watch anime for all sorts of reasons, but beyond just enjoying it for its aesthetic properties I also appreciate the many different stories that are told within the medium. I think one of the better ways to achieve some sort of empathy is to read or watch stories about people who are different than yourself, and while anime characters tend to be homogeneous in their own way, I’m still amazed at the variety of characters and stories there are to experience. It is always nice, though, when what I’m able to decipher of an anime’s worldview feels very much in line with my own.
It’s taken me until the second season of this anime series to hone in on the fact that its biggest strength has always been Shigeo’s (Mob’s) decision to choose kindness over all else. Typical for most heroes, he tries to avoid hurting others outright; it’s both a testament to his personal ethics, as well as a reaction to having been bullied himself. While others might take these experiences and twist them into an excuse to lash-out (we see many such characters throughout the series), Shigeo chooses not to perpetuate unkindness or fall into the trappings of his power, and it’s the active and deliberate nature of this choice that drives home the story’s message.
This post contains spoilers through episode 7 of the series.
Check out my first impression HERE!
I wonder a lot about the human race’s ability to survive its seemingly innate urge to destroy itself. Right now climate change is at the forefront of many people’s minds, but there are also a lot of military conflicts going on and concerns about nuclear weapons hordes, among other things. It’s the intrusive background noise of my life, static that makes sure my anxiety level never drops to zero.
Sometimes anime that addresses humanity’s natural (or decidedly unnatural) endpoint can provide some comfort, though. It’s helpful to think that, even if we destroy our society and bungle our management of the planet’s limited resources, there may still be remnants of our existence in this place that speak to our collective better qualities. I’d still rather that we get our act together and stop killing one-another, but theories about our eventual twilight years as a species as they manifest in anime and other media can be a comfort even in their melancholy conclusions.