7 Year Anniversary and… Now What?

It’s been 7 years since I started this anime blog.  It originally began as a challenge for me: a way to force me to think deeply and critically about anime; to share my thoughts and appreciations of the shows I watch; to develop a voice for my creative writing; and to discover and grow my relationships with other anime enthusiasts.  When I look back – as I’ve done with every anniversary post – across these 7 years and 640 other blog posts – I am satisfied with my accomplishments, achieving far more than even my wildest dreams back on December 20, 2010.  But the same can’t really be said of the last year, which saw only a single post get penned in the last 12 months.  If I were to do a reflection of the year, then I’d simply request that you re-read my thoughts on an anime season that concluded 9 months ago.  Instead of looking back at 2017 for this anniversary post, I’ll try something new and look forward to what the future of this blog might look like.

Winter 2017 – Season Recap

If you’re wondering where I’ve been, I hibernated this last winter.  Seriously.

 

 

 

 

Great, and now that I’ve answered all your questions, let’s dive right into… wait, the Winter 2017 anime season started already?  I guess we can skip the Season Preview and jump right into the First… oh, it’s over now?  Wow, that’s uh… well, better late than never, right?  Anyway, here are my reflections from the recently completed Winter 2017 anime season.

6 Year Anniversary and the Opportunity to Write about the Autumn 2016 Anime Season

Today is a time to rejoice as we celebrate six years of Avvesione’s Anime Blog.  And while I typically use this post as an excuse to post screenshots of Setsuna from Needless to write about my lessons in anime or blogging from the previous year, I find myself lacking in subjects or ideas that weren’t communicated in years passed.  But I suppose I should consider myself fortunate for reserving the time to pen a post; this is just my fourth post in the last seven months.  Or perhaps more sobering truth of my current situation: in my first 3 years I published exactly 500 posts, whereas in the last 3 years I have only completed 139.

Really, I’d love nothing more than to continue to write about anime and to discuss anime with others, but it’s nearly impossible to find the time these days.  Instead of doing the usual for my anniversary posts, I’ll do what I’ve longed to do these last few months and write about the Autumn 2016 anime season!

Autumn 2016 – Season Preview

Every season has its defining features.  Autumn, for example, is known for its bountiful harvests and leaves falling to the ground.  Likewise, every anime season has its distinguishing characteristics thanks to the anime that air within its interval.  Sometimes, anime seasons are bountiful, like an autumn harvest, and others are barren, like the trees after shedding their leaves.  What type of season will Autumn 2016 bring us?  Let’s take a peak and see what we have in store for the final season of 2016.

Summer 2016 – First Impressions

This post reviews: Berserk (2016), Rewrite, Orange, Tales of Zestiria the X, Amaama to Inazuma, Taboo Tattoo, New Game!, Amanchu!, 91 Days, Hitori no Shita: The Outcast, Time Travel Shoujo, Handa-kun, Qualidea Code, Ange Vierge, Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!, Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume, Danganronpa 3 Mirai-hen, Danganronpa 3 Zetsubou-hen, Mob Psycho 100, and Battery.

Summer 2016 – Season Preview

Tis the season for new anime, fa la la la la la la la la la.

Hopefully all the shows are okay, fa la la la la la la la la.

But we know that’s not realistic, fa la la la la la la la la.

Then again, I am pessimistic, fa la la la la la la la la.

 

Look below for my Summer preview, fa la la la la la la la la.

Berserk, Zestiria, and Amanchu!, fa la la la la la la la la.

Looking pretty good with those, fa la la la la la la la la.

Wait, what’s with all these fujoshi shows?, fa la la la la la la la la.

Spring 2016 – Week 5 Spotlight – The Shanghai International Settlement in Joker Game

The fourth episode of Joker Game had an astonishing setting, both in terms of its historical context and for the presentation of its story.  Yet, how was such a locale and situation even possible for a plot like this?  This episode was set in Shanghai and between 1937 and 1941, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War when Japan was invading and controlling large regions of China.  You may be wondering, with war between Japan and China raging across the nation, how was such a setting possible for Joker Game to utilize?  How was a military police unit, Chinese revolutionaries, and America and British citizens able to coexist in such a place with such turmoil and conflict?  This post on the fourth episode of Joker Game attempts to describe all the details and history of the Shanghai International Settlement and why it was such a remarkable setting for this episode’s narrative.