12 Days of Anime (2012) – Day 10 – Sakura-Con, My First Anime Convention

In April of 2012, I attended my first anime convention, Sakura-Con, the premier anime convention in the Pacific Northwest.  Although I’ve had numerous opportunities to attend the convention since its inception in 1998 and even made legitimate plans to go while in high school, this year was the first that I actually went to.  For three days, I witnessed and participated in a paradise created by and intended for anime fans such as myself and my experience has provided a permanent impression on how I watch, understand and appreciate anime.

50 Questions for Avvesione

Now that I’ve arrived back home from Japan, I can resume blogging about random tangential posts on the various anime I watch.  But before we dive into the finales for Nisemonogatari, Guilty Crown, and Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam is a post I intended to have published while I was on vacation but it wasn’t completed in time and left for when I returned.  Starting the trend of answering 50 questions was AceRailgun (I recommend you check out his blog) and quite a number of other anime bloggers have already done similar posts since.  I meant to have this up weeks ago but it kept getting delayed and was never completed until now.  So here are my answers to the 50 questions!

Autumn 2011 – Mid-Season Review

One of my favorite things about blogging is making a list of all the anime I’m watching and putting them in order according to score and ranking.  It’s a fairly unscientific and messy process but it helps sort out my thoughts and impressions of every anime and helps me visualize which ones are my favorites and which ones are simply ‘alright’.  And it’s always fun to match these lists up with all the others, especially when there are major discrepancies between our favorites (and I’m fairly certain no one else has the same top anime as I do, so this ought to be fun).  With about half the Autumn anime season already over, now is the best time to create such a list and have my Mid-Season Review for Autumn 2011!

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam – 1

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam (Fam the Silver Wing) contains a healthy blend of old and new when bringing back the Last Exile franchise.  There are themes, concepts, and details that have been retained from the first series present and prevalent everyone in this new anime, which does well to connect this series with the original.  And then there are the newer elements which integrate nicely to distinguish itself from the first series.  This incorporation of new and old was the aspect I worried about the most when watching this first episode but, for the most part, everything turned out alright.

Autumn 2011 – First Week Impressions (Part 2)

This post looks at Tamayura ~hitotose~, Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon and Chihayafuru.

Well, this post should be easy.  All three shows in this post are in the undecided category at this point, meaning each is fighting for one of the final slots for this season.  Each show that is put in this category will survive another week and have one more chance to make its case to be kept for this season.  Oh, except Phi Brain.  That show doesn’t stand a chance against these three, so consider it dropped.

Fractale – 1

Is it just me or does Fractale remind you a bit of Aria?  There is that feeling of unity between the classical and futuristic going on in this world.  The architecture of buildings and dirt roads lined by stonewalls intertwine seemingly commonplace with strange, talking robots and personalized flying vehicles.  The tiny house located by the water certainly reminds me of the Aria Company, as well.  Ah, it’s nice to be reminiscent about one of my all-time favorite animes when beginning a new one, but this isn’t about Aria, today.  Fractale certainly stands out as a well-rounded anime on its own.