What unusual anime activities do you like to do?

I’m sure we’ve all taken part in some of the usual anime fan activities, such as blogging, reading fan fics, making AMVs, listening to anime songs, etc,. But I’m curious as to what fans’ more unusual anime activities are…

In this post, I’ll share two activities of my own as examples of what I mean by an unusual anime-related activity. I’m sure they’ll sound silly to some people so I hope no one will make fun of me XD

One thing I used to do from time to time (though not so much anymore) is marathon anime opening videos. I would pick out 1 to 2 hours worth of anime openings and watch them one right after another. For series that have multiple openings, I would sometimes watch more than one, but usually I would just pick my favorite one. With this activity, I would sort of get the sense of rewatching each series without having to actually take the time to watch them all again. I was also very meticulous about the order I would watch them in. I liked watching them with the genres as mixed as possible, so I wouldn’t want to watch a Naruto opening followed by a Shaman King opening since they’re both shonen. A good order would be something like 1) Sailor Moon OP, 2) Cowboy Bebop OP, 3) Code Geass OP, 4) Air OP, 5) Digimon OP, and so on. I liked to watch them in this order because I would imagine that I’m showing this anime opening marathon to someone who doesn’t know much about anime, and the variety of genres back-to-back would be a good way to show how diverse anime stories can be. This idea is actually what inspired me to make my anime video project. I even kept a list of the order I liked to watch the openings in, constantly adding new ones as I watched new series.

I haven’t done this activity for a few years now. My life has been busier than it used to be and whatever spare time I have is used for blog work or catching up on anime episodes. Another reason is that I’ve started watching more anime at one time and haven’t gotten around to gathering video files of all the new openings. I used to rip anime openings from raws or fansubs for every new series I watched, since good quality openings on YouTube were unavailable. Now they’re easy to find, so it’s a matter of me taking the time to download my own copies of the openings I like but haven’t gotten yet.

Actually, thinking about this old activity of mine has gotten me to want to do it again, with an updated list of OPs. I do similar marathons with my favorite AMVs sometimes, though not nearly as often as I used to do with openings.

Another (and more embarrassing) thing I started doing since I got into anime (and still do to this day) is make up my own episodes and “watch” them in my head. I would usually do it right when I go to bed before I fall asleep, since it’s dark and quiet and I can concentrate better. Like my taste in fan fics, they won’t be OOC or anything like that. They would simply feature situations or stories I would like to see in the actual anime but haven’t. I’ve done this with all the series that have been my favorite, and a little bit for others in between. Most of these series have been ongoing, in which case I would “watch” my own versions of later episodes or even the finale itself, making sure to incorporate what the original creator has done up to that point.

For the five years I was into Inuyasha, I kept refining my version of how the series would end and “watched” it many times over the years, as well as many side-story episodes. When I was into Evangelion, I imagined a WYDS for the movie, which I actually did turn into a fan fic. Now I’m trying to work on how I want Haruhi to end, though I’m having some difficulty.

LOL, I used to be really hardcore with this activity of mine – sometimes I would watch an episode from that series before I went to bed just to get me ready, and if I fell asleep before I finished “watching” my episode, I would try to finish it in the morning before I got out of bed…yeah, go ahead and laugh.

Like with my anime OP marathons, lately I haven’t been able to “watch” my episodes that much. Mostly it’s because I’ve been too tired every night and I fall asleep right away, so I’ve only been doing little snippets while I’m working out or just chilling in my room. For the past three years it’s been all Haruhi (and a little Kannagi and Lucky Star) but who knows what my next favorite will be.

So yeah, as silly as they are, these are two of my unusual anime activities. I’d love to hear what any of yours are too (don’t be embarrassed!) Also, I’ve only done individual activities, but feel free to share any group ones you like as well.

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. digital boy says:

    I create anime episodes in my head, but they tend to involve lesbian sex something like 100% of the time.

    Also that pic at the top of this post is really, really ugly. Try to avoid images that look all pixely like that (jpeg artifacts, they are called.)

  2. Yumeka says:

    @ digital boy

    Wow, that certainly is an unusual activity =0

    I know the quality for the picture isn’t good, but I didn’t think it mattered that much. I rarely use images that look that pixelated, but I’ll try to avoid it in the future.

  3. ReleasedNinja says:

    I can also watch op/ed for hours, recently downloaded this torrent

    Creditless OP & ED / No credit OP & ED [1980-2010 L., DVDrip/BDrip]
    http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=138529

    A must have for every collector of OP/ED

  4. Yumeka says:

    @ ReleasedNinja

    Nice to know I’m not the only one who loves watching OPs over and over ^^

    And holy moley, that’s one enormous file! Is that like, every anime OP for those 20 years? There’s no way I’d want a file that large on my comp, but if I ever need just a few of those OPs, I’ll know where to look.

  5. Scamp says:

    I made anime top trump cards. Had them printed out and laminated and everything. I still have the pics on my computer and was planning on uploading them onto the blog at some later date when I was far enough removed from them as to not be embarressed by making them anymore.

    Used to play with these cards with my sister or the cousins when they came over. Lelouch was the star of the game, along with people like Kenshin, Hei, Light and Lucy. Although we tended to have a lot more fun with the crappy cards, like Tohru Honda and Sai from Hikaru no Go. You could always tell when your oponent picked one of these up because there face visably fell when it happened.

    Actually Hei was the most fun. He was great at everything without having a clear best stat. That meant that, by Murphy’s Law, you would almost always end up picking the one stat he ended up losing with. Hei was always better to have when it wasn’t your turn so you could win matches against the head.

  6. Yumeka says:

    @ Scamp

    Nice…I hope you decide to upload those cards. I’d love to see them :3 I’ve actually never played trump, but this would give me an incentive to learn.

  7. f0calizer says:

    (Hurray, your blog is back up & running! =] )

    I find your ability to make up your own episodes fascinating, maybe because I don’t have enough imaginative power or brain space to sustain a 24-minute self-created episode. Cool!

    I may have mentioned this to you before, but one odd habit of mine is scouring Youtube for different remixes or cover versions of anime songs I like. This ranges from “live” versions performed by the original singers at concerts to Vocaloid covers (which, sad to say, aren’t very impressive) to different instrumental arrangements to piano solos, etc. I’m fascinated by the subtle changes or reinterpretations of a good song by different people or voices — for e.g. I recently came across a Mikuni Shimokawa cover version of Maaya Sakamoto’s classic “Yakasoku wa iranai” (Escaflowne OP). Shimokawa’s version has a lot more of a techno/hip-hop arrangement and her voice sounds more seasoned and sultry than Sakamoto’s, but it’s a good cover nonetheless. I often download several cover/remix versions of the song, queue them all up along with the original and play them repeatedly, just so I can enjoy them back to back. Oh, & I often sing along as well, thought not too loudly. That’s as far as I’ve gotten in terms of karaoke… =)

  8. Yumeka says:

    @ f0calizer

    Somehow you managed to post your comment before my blog was fixed. It must have been working just for you XD

    Looking up all those different remixes of songs isn’t too strange since obviously the people who make them must be fans too. The fact that there are enough of these remixes to make a hobby out of means a lot of people must enjoy them ^.^

    LOL, I sing to myself too, usually when I play anime music in the car or while chilling on the computer. But it can’t beat karaoke. We gotta try it together sometime =D

  9. Liza says:

    I actually do create my own episodes of animes in my head or as I still do it, I put in a new “charcter” which is essentially a character I created for this purpose. But what I do, while actually watching the episode is to have this character in there as well, living the action along with the main characters but my character can only play background so they get talked to in conversations and such. It’s quite embarrassing but it’s actually a lot of fun to do.

  10. Yumeka says:

    @ Liza

    Heh, nothing to be embarrassed about. My episodes aren’t perfect either, but the main thing is that we enjoy them =) I’m sure many of the episodes that fans watch in their heads are better than the real episodes of the series.

  11. kluxorious says:

    Why do you think I write fanfics? ;)

  12. Yumeka says:

    @ kluxorious

    Besides my Eva fan fic and one other Tenchi side story fan fic, I haven’t written fics for any of the many episodes I’ve made up, mostly because I haven’t been interested in fan fics at all since high school. I just don’t have the motivation to write them all out, and since many of the series I fantasize about have been ongoing, I wouldn’t want to write the story only to have later events of the series contradict it. I’m a stickler for following closely to the real series =P

  13. Saere says:

    I used to have detailed Pokemon adventures as daydreams. They would usually take a few days of off and on imagining, and I had rules such as “no legendaries” so that they would seem more realistic. I always started out in Kanto. :)

  14. Yumeka says:

    @ Saere

    I wish I had a dollar for every Pokemon daydream I’ve had, especially during my peak years of being a hardcore fan from 1999-2001. My preferences would be more dramatic stories that focused on Team Rocket (since they were always my favorite characters) or Pokemon battles more intense than what’s shown in the anime.

  15. xueqir says:

    i use to imagine myself as a character in the series that i’m watching, except the character is entirely made by me and i usually imagine those “where’s-the-hero-that-saves-the-day” moments, where yours truly is the heroine… LOL. of course, i would include characters that i really liked and imagined myself in all sorts of relationships with them xD

    But let’s just say that it was back in junior high ;)

  16. Yumeka says:

    @ xueqir

    Ah, I’m sure many people do that but don’t want to admit it =P Strangely, I’ve never had any desire to imagine myself as part of my favorite anime (whether in fan fics or in my head). I prefer imagining the series as it would normally be, just with certain changes in the plot that are to my liking =)

  17. Silvy says:

    I know exactly what you mean with OPs: when I watch old openings it brings the whole show back to me, even if its been years since I watched it!
    I love watching anime openings, I don’t do it that often anymore though, I used to collect them, but now I don’t like to store too much on my computer, plus thanks to youtube its way easier nowdays. My only problem with watching them on youtube is I like them to have good subs/karaoke (I was surprised to here that alot of fans find karaoke annoying, I love it, especially when the typesetter gets really creative with the text!)

    As for the second, I don’t think up whole episodes, as f0calizer said, I don’t think I have enough imagination to create a whole episode in my head, so I envy your imagination!
    I do the same as xueqir, where I imagine myself as a character 8D I think I’ve only done that with Wolf’s Rain and Naruto though… its books and movies usually.
    Actually, I think I did imagine another Wolf’s Rain episode once… Its my favourite anime, I guess my brain needs more. XD
    I find it hard to sleep at night, I seem to sleep better and quicker if I imagine something as I try to sleep, clears my mind. <3

  18. Yumeka says:

    @ Silvy

    I’m exactly the same way with openings – the only difference is that I prefer not having karaoke. Sometimes I like to follow along with the words, but usually I want to focus on the images only, so extra text gets in the way of my concentration =P

    As I told xueqir, I don’t care to imagine myself as part of an anime rather than just create my own episodes that follow along with how the series really is. But yes, they do help put me to sleep at night sometimes. Only problem is, when I really feel like “watching” my episode that night and I fall asleep before I can finish, that bothers me XD I’ll sometimes have two or three-part episodes, where I’ll “watch” one episode one night, then another night I’ll watch part 2. Yeah I know, I’m a nerd =P

  19. Jan S. says:

    If you tried to marathon all the ops of Naruto + Naruto Shippuuden, you’d be watching until 3 in the morning. ;)

    Your second activity brings to mind writing fanfic, sexual fantasies about the characters, and/or daydreams about the characters and universe, all of which have been mentioned by other commenters above. Nothing to be embarrassed about, IMO – it’s all part of being a devoted fan of anime. It also proves that the best animes present characters and universes that are so striking that they actually live on in one’s mind after the episode is over, making you think and muse about them.

  20. Yumeka says:

    @ Jan

    Naruto certainly has a lot of openings, but it’s not so bad compared to series like Doraemon that have been on for years longer =P I remember when I used to have my OP marathons, I would have trouble picking just one OP from long-running series. For Naruto, I usually went with OP3(“Kanashimi wo Yasashisa ni”) because I like the images.

    That’s true, people aren’t embarrassed to write really wild fan fics and post them publicly, so a dedicated fan shouldn’t be ashamed to “watch” their own episodes in their head.

  21. Reiko says:

    I find myself singing karaoke to my favorite anime songs (whether I’m a good singer or not, I don’t really know…XD). I do it almost every night and it annoys my parents to no end. ^^;

    I’m not really sure if this would count, but I love telling my mom about the anime I’m watching or about what anime I’m going to watch, etc. She enjoys hearing about all of the different characters and such, but she often says that I talk too much about it. There was one time that she said “NO TALKING ABOUT ANIME FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!!!!” So I suppose that you could count this as part of my “fandom.” XD

    Oh, and I also love rewatching anime OPs. Just like you said in your post, it makes me feel as though I’m rewatching the whole series, but not really, too. =)

  22. Yumeka says:

    @ Reiko

    I love singing karaoke, whether to myself or with friends at an actual studio. I don’t think I’m a bad singer – I know it XD My mom used to be a musician and she always notes how I sing off key during karaoke. I can sometimes do okay when it’s a song I know really well or if I sing along with another voice, but when it’s just me and the music, I’m off key 90% of the time =P But I enjoy singing regardless, so I’ll just have to stick to singing by myself or singing along with someone.

    I wish I had the outspokenness to tell my mom about all the anime series I’m watching. I do sometimes, but rarely. I feel she just wouldn’t “get” many of the stories, especially the complex, fantasy-laden ones. Also I’m just not good at explaining things well…but I sometimes have her read what I’ve written about anime on my site.

  23. akani says:

    I know what you mean about watching “episodes” you create yourself. Basically it’s about the same as imagining a fanfic unfold in your head except it’s in anime form. Somewhat like an AMV/MAD except there are scenes that aren’t there yet. The only problem is that it’s so detailed that I get stuck if I try to write it down, so I basically can’t really write fanfics even though I have lots of ideas.

    It’s even better imagining scenes and images playing out in your head when you’re listening to music, especially anime songs and battle music tracks. The scenes tend to be perfectly timed to the music that way. Sometimes I imagine certain characters replacing others in scenarios or openings, like for example if GROUP from To Aru Majutsu no Index were actually a band in an alternate dimension instead of being an underground organization for Gakuen Toshi (…not that anyone would know who GROUP actually are, since it’s in the later light novels past the ones gonna be used for season 2…)

    Other than that, I like spending time on forums and blogs and such. I tend to get fairly wordy sometimes and end up spending like 30 minutes on a detailed post of my favorite characters, shows, pairings, etc. I also lurk around for spoilers (mainly of Index LN’s) and such.

    I also raid Pixiv and Danbooru for good pictures (…most of the time of accelerator, but that’s not the point) and read quite a good deal of fanfics.

  24. Yumeka says:

    @ akani

    If by “stuck” you mean you can’t think of how to end it, I don’t usually have that problem with my imagined episodes, I just don’t have the motivation to write it all out since that’ll take way more time than just “watching” it =P

    It’s even better imagining scenes and images playing out in your head when you’re listening to music, especially anime songs and battle music tracks.

    When I’m not in bed, the most frequent time I “watch” my episodes is when I’m listening to music. Besides full episodes, one little random thing I like to do is, when I listen to certain OPs or EDs for one anime, I imagine them with characters/scenes for other anime. Faor example, I’ve come up with a pretty good rendition of One Piece’s 5th OP using Inuyasha.

    And I raid pixiv a lot too but mostly just the daily rankings every few days.

  25. akani says:

    It’s not that I don’t know how to end it, it’s that I picture it as a movie and I have trouble translating everything into words, so basically I fail at writing. XD

    I love how we both like replacing characters in different openings. Also, sometimes when I’m listening to music, for example a piano track, I imagine a character actually playing that song on the piano. If it’s a vocal song I imagine them singing the song. Imagining stuff with anime characters and music is pretty fun.

    Also, this isn’t anime related, but I like raiding Youtube for great arranges of Touhou music. The uploaders usually include great pictures with the video so I’m killing two birds with one stone.

  26. Noelle says:

    I’m the Assistant Pres. of the Otaku at my school.

    We did some intresting activities but most of our members are getting tired of just watching anime.
    We’ve done brackets on which anime character was the best. (The categories were human and super human)(Honey Sempaii from Ouran High won for the Humans and
    Alucard from Hellsing won for the Superhumans)

    Does anyone have any ideas as to what other activities we can do?

  27. CoolCARTGuy says:

    One odd anime-related activity I like to do is imagine anime characters in sports or auto racing leagues. For an example, I have wondered many times about which NCAA Division I-A school certain characters would attend and where they would be on a football team; often in this kind of scenario, I lump them in with prominent (and sometimes not-so-prominent) athletes and musicians. What school the characters go to is determined by a combination of school colors, the character’s personality (including interests, which can determine the character’s degree), what position they can play on the team based on size and athleticism, and where other characters like them enroll. Sometimes I provide a backstory, sometimes not. Also, I ponder what will happen to the characters at the NFL Combine and (inevitably) the NFL Draft.

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