Winter 2013 – Season Review

Since I never wrote a season review for Winter 2013 at the end of the season, I’m finishing it up here at the start of Winter 2014.  Let’s take a moment to look back and revisit the anime of yesteryear and see what my final thoughts, opinions and grades are for these anime.

12 Days of Anime (2013) – Day 8 – Giving a Disappointing Anime a Second Chance

I’ve tried to follow some themes in my 12 Days of Anime posts, and Day 8 has traditionally been reserved for an anime that I normally would not have watched but ended up enjoying greatly.  In 2011, I gave a bad anime (Softenni) a chance and in 2012, I gave a forgotten anime (Yuru Yuri) a chance.  In 2013, I changed my stance again, and decided to reexamine an anime I would not have watched based on how dissatisfied or frustrated I was with an earlier installment.  And earlier this year, Tamayura ~more aggressive~ aired.  Considering my displeasure with Tamayura ~hitotose~, the first television series in the franchise, I considered passing the sequel without a hesitation.  It even took me about a week after the first episode aired to even watch the first episode.  But since that moment, I found myself enjoying Tamayura like never before and it’s all thanks to giving a disappointing anime a second chance.

Summer 2013 – Week 10 Anime Review

This week: social commentary on social media in Gatchaman Crowds, questioning the ability of transformation in Uchouten Kazoku, realizing how Tamayura ~more aggressive~ is beginning to feel more like Aria and wondering what else Monogatari Series Second Season could’ve done with an older Hachikuji.

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.