Thirty anime series.

One week, two days, twenty-two hours, and twenty-six minutes.

Last year, I estimated that I spent 12.3 minutes a day watching anime. This year, it was more like 1.6 episodes every day!

What changed? I started reviewing anime, which meant I usually watch the anime I am reviewing twice before I write it up. John and I started watching anime while we eat dinner. I spent more of my nights curled up with an anime on my iPad instead of a book (I only read 44 books this year, compared to 57 in 2013).

It’s becoming apparent that “anime burnout” isn’t a problem I’m ever going to have. It’s not a phase either; the older I get, the more I love it. So something has to change on my part. Here are the ways I will make my anime viewing more disciplined in 2015:

Pick my review shows veeerrry carefully

At Anime News Network, I’ve indefinitely agreed to review three shows every season. If I don’t like those shows, I still have to watch them (twice, usually), and watch the anime I actually like in my spare time. If I do more research and plan better, I can make those the only shows I even want to watch that season. It’s not like there are often more than three that are really good.

This time really, seriously, vow to drop bad shows

I always say I’m going to do this and I don’t! I wonder if it got better, or I get minorly interested in something that’s happening; heck I’m still watching Psycho Pass 2 which by this point has become almost unwatchable. I pride myself on being a filter through which my friends can receive only the choicest recommendations but ew, who wants to be a dirty filter? This year I will try to cultivate a sense of disgust for watching shows I don’t even like.

Think, “What could I be creating right now?”

I have a lot of creative project ideas. I’m working on the fandom short story collection I started, embarrassingly, back in August. I have a lot of helpful mini product ideas for otaku journalists. I want to self-publish some guides for Gunpla 101, too. And this is just the stuff at the top of the list. What if, instead of watching anime for 30 minutes a day, I could say I worked on a special project for 30 minutes every day in 2015? That’s an accomplishment I could be proud of.

Yes, these are almost the same resolutions I set for 2014. Guess I’ll need to keep making them until I finally graduate to new goals.

Screenshot via Yowamushi Pedal.

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This post is the twelfth installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.

Just last week, I was talking over udon noodles with one of my closest friends, Jessica, who does not watch anime, about differing Christmas traditions here and in Japan.

“You know,” I said, gushing like the Japanophile I am, “If we were in Japan this Christmas, we might be more likely to celebrate with a bucket of KFC and strawberry shortcake.”

“You’re bullshitting me,” Jessica replied. She looked at Kailer. “She is bullshitting me, right?”

“Most Japanese people are Buddhists,” Kailer said. “The New Year is a much bigger deal.”

In fact, out of the 30 shows I watched this year, only one had a Christmas special. Actually, scratch that. That show, Denki-gai no Honya-san, has had two and counting!

I’ve been reviewing Denki-gai for Anime News Network, and the show moves very quickly through the seasons. In eleven episodes, we’ve spent two Christmases with the cast. In case you’re not familiar, Denki-gai is a show about young customer service workers at an manga bookstore that specializes in erotic doujinshi. Cue nonstop blushes and hilarious sexy-silly misunderstandings.

At the cast’s first Christmas, during episode three, the group holds a party on Christmas Day after working hard all Christmas Eve. It’s constantly alluded to that in Japan, Christmas is a romantic holiday meant to be spent with a loved one. For this decidedly single ensemble, it means having a cosplay pizza party.

The second Denki-gai Christmas takes place at the bookstore. Christmas Eve means a mad rush of sales of erotica for customers who plan to spend Christmas curled up with a sexy book in lieu of a special someone. The capstone is when a government worker whose job is to regulate sales of erotic manga plays Santa with a bag of confiscated books…

Which the cast gives away to fans of erotic manga…

Like this elderly couple.

It’s pretty clear that there’s nothing religious about Christmas in the Denki-gai universe. Actually, I’d go as far to say that nothing is sacred in this anime.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas with your loved ones, if that’s your jam, and an awesome Thursday if it isn’t. According to Denki-gai at least, as long as you’re having fun, there’s no wrong way to celebrate Christmas.

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This post is the eleventh installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.

Ira Gamagoori, Kill La Kill

Gamagoori is a bit of a paradox. Unbounded by physics, his physical presence is as large as he wants it to be. But for all his imposing enormity, he creates situations for himself in which he becomes vulnerable, from a decidedly kinky fighting uniform that makes him the M to his opponent’s S, to getting himself wrapped around the little finger of tiny, whimsical Mako. I like characters you can’t describe in just one sentence, and Gamagoori fits the bill.

Haru, Free! Eternal Summer

To be honest, Haru isn’t my favorite character in Free! It’s Nagisa, the small-statured blonde prankster. However, I was deeply impressed by his character development this summer. If Rin was the evolving personality of season one, Haru stole the spotlight this time around. While he was cold and indifferent before, this season we saw his emotions in technicolor as he wrestled with losing his friends, his dreams, or both. Haru’s metamorphosis was explosive and changed the dynamic of the entire group.

Ginko, Mushi-shi The Next Passage

If I were a better journalist I would be more like Ginko: somebody who tells stories about people’s lives in a way that is both insightful and healing to subjects and listeners alike. A wanderer, Ginko has a lot of stories he could tell about himself and his travels, but what makes him even more inspiring is that he chooses not to focus on himself. Since he acts as a moral center for the show, Ginko is one of the most reliable narrators we’ve gotten in an anime.

Mikorin, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun

A shoujo heroine in a man’s body. Mikoshiba, whom Nozaki has affectionately nicknamed Mikorin, wants to come off as a lot tougher than he actually is. When he makes bold statements to girls, he’s the one who ends up blushing! While playing a dating sim, he decides that the hero’s best friend is a better partner than any of the girls. I loved how Mikorin consistently skirted gender roles while remaining comfortable in his own masculinity.

Sommelier, Denki-gai no Honya-san

Strong, silent, and kind of a softie, Sommelier is Denki-gai’s straight man. His matter-of-fact observations and understated personality bring balance to the otherwise loud, emotional cast. Like Gamagoori, he’s the impossibly ginormous half of a size-difference couple. Plus, the fact that he only needs to look at a person to recommend the perfect manga for their tastes makes me want to hang out with him.

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This post is the tenth installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.

Gyanko, Gundam Build Fighters Try

 

I definitely have a crush on her, given she’s practically a female Toudou. Proud, boastful, and a little bit selfish, Gyanko is a classic ojou-sama character. Gyanko is confident in her abilities and her desires and wholeheartedly goes after what she wants. Even if her methods are a bit underhanded, she’s so upfront that it’s hard not to cheer for her.

Mashiro, Engaged to the Unidentified

What makes Mashiro so cute is that she’s a little kid thrust into sister-in-lawhood pretty early and attempting to seem far more grownup than she is. She wears a high school uniform even though its sleeves are comically long on her. She insists she can handle spicy and sticky foods when she can’t, and she gets overly excited over cryptids while trying to conceal it. She has a catchy ending theme. In a show that’s dull overall, Mashiro was my reason to keep watching.

Sensei, Denki-gai no Honya-san

Sensei is an adorable and goal-oriented person who constantly believes she is failing at life. She is obsessed with feminine gender performance, not considering for a moment that there could be more than one way to be a girl. She has dreams of becoming a famous manga artist, but when she’s sleep-deprived and caught in the moment she becomes a huge crybaby. She’s far from perfect, and that makes her relatable.

Sakura Chiyo, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun

It’s rare that I really adore the female protagonist in a romance, since she’s usually designed to be a stand-in for every female viewer. But as Sakura is repeatedly thrown for a loop from the rest of the cast’s unpredictability, it feels like she has more agency than your average shoujo heroine to react in a more human way. Shy but stubborn, she’s a likeable narrator who offers the reasonably perplexed responses to Nozaki’s straight-man routine.

Akane Tsunemori, Psycho Pass 2

This show has really fallen from grace, but it certainly didn’t bring Akane with it. In season two, Akane has graduated from shy rookie to Boss Lady, maker of tough decisions and ass kicker of criminals. The events of the previous finale might have broken a lesser woman, but Akane has only come back stronger. Unfortunately, it will take more than even her awesome managerial skills to put this mess of a show back together.

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This post is the ninth installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.

I’m 28 today! I’ve been an anime fan for sixteen years and blogging for five.

I’ve celebrated five birthdays on Otaku Journalist now. Here are the entries for my 23rd birthday, my 24th birthday, my 25th birthday, my 26th birthday, and my 27th birthday. Whew!

I used to talk about my yearly accomplishments and goals on my birthday, but participating in the Twelve Days lets me postpone that pressure until the new year. Instead, let’s talk some more about anime! Even though I watched 29 shows in 2014, it was pretty easy for me to narrow it down to my five favorites. Here they are in no particular order:

 

Free! Eternal Summer

Every moment of this show was fanservice from start to finish. I don’t even mean the sexy type, though there was at least a full ten minutes of shirtless muscular man each episode. Fans wanted characters’ relationships and personalities explored, and we got this is incredible detail. I could say a lot more about the High School Boy Emotional Theater that made Eternal Summer so much fun, and I have—here’s 3,000 words of it for starters.

Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun

This series took me by complete surprise. I didn’t even start watching it until episode ten when the buzz about it on my Twitter feed became too loud to ignore. After years of being an anime fan, I love meta shows that take familiar anime tropes and turn them on their heads. Everything from characters’ personalities to their relationships to Nozaki’s shoujo manga was an unpredictable and welcome departure from the norm.

Yowamushi Pedal

Well, obviously this is here. I love the way each character looks like he’s been drawn by a different artist. I love how one shared passion unites so many interesting and diverse personalities. I even love learning the ins and outs of road racing for the first time. This show’s heart lies in its ability to take protagonists and antagonists alike and make them equally sympathetic to viewers and to one another—after all, everyone is striving for the same goal.

Parasyte

At first I thought this body horror thriller would be too much for me. I couldn’t even get past episode one of Tokyo Ghoul! But beyond the gore, Parasyte is the best kind of science fiction that forces us to examine and question the human condition. Each increasingly risky battle only escalates the tension between Migi’s survival instincts and Izumi’s waning humanity—and how far Izumi will go to preserve it.

Shirobako

This is the sliciest slice-of-life show I have ever watched. The action truly comes from real day-to-day issues in the workplace like crunched deadlines and career self-doubt. And yet for all its relatability in the mundane, it remains a truly compelling character drama. On a meta level, Shirobako is essential viewing for every otaku who has ever complained about an anime coming out late, unaware of the immense pressure on the animators.

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This post is the eighth installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.