Archives for 2012

Finishing up 2012 reviews – Sword Art Online, K, and Kaibutsu-kun

Credit to linked pixiv user

And here’s my last seasonal review post, and last overall post, of 2012…

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Finishing up 2012 reviews – Chuunibyou and Hayate Can’t Take My Eyes Off You

One-cour fall anime and two-cour spring anime are now ending these final weeks of 2012, and as usual, I plan to review the ones I’ve seen. The first two I’ll be discussing today are the ones with the longest names and a love of exclamation marks: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! and Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You…

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My 12 moments of anime for 2012

Credit to linked pixiv user

Since 2009 I’ve been participating in the anime blogsphere’s “12 Moments of Anime” project, which consists of us counting down our best anime-related moments of the year every day during the twelve days until Christmas. As usual, I prefer to list my twelve moments altogether in one post rather than split them over twelve posts. I know I’m doing my moments post earlier than usual this year, but that’s due to my new blogging schedule of only posting once a week and in the coming weeks I’m already planning to review some seasonal anime that are going to be ending. So, without further adieu, here are my 12 moments of anime for 2012…

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My continued adventures in Japanese self-study

After taking my last formal Japanese class in mid-2009, I’ve only had self-study to rely on in keeping up my study of the language. Starting in 2010, after graduating college, returning from my second trip to Japan, and getting settled in my then-new job at the YMCA, I decided to have my own periodic Japanese self-study sessions so I won’t forget the things I’ve learned and also so I could continue to learn more of the language, albeit at a slower rate than I did when I was taking actual classes. And surprisingly, my passion for the language has allowed me to keep up the motivation for those study sessions since, though the rate did fluctuate. I recently fell behind on my studies due to the long hours at my new job, but the other day I decided to finally make up for lost time and spent all day hitting the books and flashcards…and much to my surprise, I didn’t forget that much =D So today I want to share how I conduct my Japanese self-study sessions, which may perhaps be helpful to those of you who are also learning the language…

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What determines our favorite anime?

I know there are some people who have trouble picking favorite anime, but as for me, I’ve always been particular to favorites and enjoy thinking about what it is that makes me like one anime over another even if I can sincerely say I like both. Most of the anime among what I’d consider favorites have been the same for years actually. So today I’d like to discuss factors common to anime I consider favorites that distinguish them from others I like…

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The significance of the second viewing

I’ve always believed that any great work of fiction that you enjoyed the first time should definitely be watched at least a second time – the first time it’s new to you and a lot of the value comes from surprises and novelty, while the second viewing allows you to focus on things like thoroughly examining the story, characters, and writing, and seeing how well its entertainment value holds up when you already know what’s going to happen. Anime is no different in this respect and there are many titles I’ve watched over the years where my opinion did change for worse or for better upon a second viewing…

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Anime for people who don’t like anime

A recent post on Japan Powered talks about certain anime titles that even people who hate anime could watch and enjoy. The idea it’s bringing out is that, despite how much we love it, we know that all anime – from shonen to slice-of-life – is full of tropes and character archetypes we see over and over again. Many of these cliches we love, some we don’t, but generally what makes us stay fans is that we don’t mind such things in our anime or even have specific tropes we can’t get enough of. But for some people, anime-specific tropes such as bishy guys, moe girls, giant robots, wild fantasy battles, and cuteness for cuteness’ sake, just aren’t their thing. So today I wanted to think about what anime are virtually free of these cliches and seem to cater to universal tastes rather than otaku tastes…

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Six years of anime blogging

Credit to linked pixiv user

A little over a month ago, Mainichi Anime Yume turned six years old. Unfortunately I was too busy in early October with getting settled in my new job to remember, so all I managed to do was a quick tweet about it last week. But I did eventually want to write something about being one of the long-lasting anime bloggers, and since I don’t want to repeat what I wrote about when the blog turned five years old last year, I thought I’d do something a little different and take a brief look at how I got started with blogging in the first place…

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The appeal of trading card games

Credit for photo to linked site
Lucky Star Weiss Schwarz cards

I know trading cards have been around for a while, but if you were a kid growing up in the 90s or later, you’ve most likely indulged in them somewhat, whether it was Magic the Gathering, Pokemon cards, or just regular cards to collect such as baseball cards. Every major anime and other media franchise, especially those aimed at a younger audience, usually has some kind of trading cards fans can buy. Today I want to share my experiences with trading cards and discuss why they have such appeal, especially in our world that’s vastly becoming more digitized…

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Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 review

Credit to linked pixiv user

I realized that I’ve reviewed all the main series Pokemon games here on the blog since Diamond and Pearl in 2006. So why break that tradition now? Let’s review the latest Pokemon games, Black 2 and White 2…

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