Archives for 2013

Celebrating 50 years of anime – how the medium has changed me

March 8, 2013 by Yumeka 15 Comments

Most of you are probably not aware, but 2013 marks the 50-year anniversary of modern style anime (thanks to chii for bringing this up). Fifty years ago in 1963, Astro Boy began airing, the series credited with being the very first television anime that inspired the style of anime we see today. Anime has come a long, long way since then and has certainly changed in more ways than I can write about. But I wanted to do something to celebrate this milestone for the medium that has been such a big part of my life for roughly 14 of those 50 years. I thought, should I do something generic, like write about what I think are the best anime, characters, scenes., etc., to come out in those fifty years? But in the end, I opted to do something more personal and discuss a few ways anime has affected me personally – how it’s affected my life, my thoughts, my relationships, and other things…

Funny pics and videos

March 1, 2013 by Yumeka 25 Comments

Madoka and Fate/Zero characters eating out together…why not?

I’ve been sick this week so unfortunately I’m not up to writing my usual lengthy editorial or review posts. But, not wanting to go over a week without blogging, I’m just going to do a laid back post today and share some funny anime and related pictures and videos that will hopefully brighten your day…

What makes an anime memorable?

February 22, 2013 by Yumeka 20 Comments

Last month, hoshiko wrote a post discussing certain qualities of anime she feels make them memorable. While I’m sure we can all think of things that make an anime “good,” I think the traits that make an anime “memorable” are different…

A plunge into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

February 15, 2013 by Yumeka 19 Comments

If someone told me thirteen years ago (when my anime fandom was just taking off) that down the line I’d get into My Little Pony again, I probably wouldn’t believe them. Actually, I was never really into it before; I remember having a few toys and watching the old cartoon a bit when I was very young, but that’s it. So how did it come about that a few years ago this somewhat forgotten franchise suddenly burst into new-found popularity among an audience much older that its creators intended?…

My top 10 male anime characters

February 8, 2013 by Yumeka 32 Comments

For the majority of my years as an anime fan, female characters tend to be my favorites more often than males. Anyone who’s seen my favorite characters list on my MAL profile can see that it’s pretty much just girls and cute animals XD I’m not sure why, but perhaps it has to do with the kind of anime I mostly watch – late-night series aimed at the general male otaku audience – which typically emphasize the personalities and backgrounds of the female characters and de-emphasize the males, since male otaku are more likely to be interested in the females. But while I don’t particularly care for bishonen and yaoi series whose target audience I more closely fit, I do watch a fair share of shonen, action, and even mecha series which offer stronger male characters than the moe/slice-of-life anime I usually watch. So today, I wanted to take a look at my ten favorite male anime characters…

The “true” otaku

February 1, 2013 by Yumeka 15 Comments

A recent Ask John article on AnimeNation brought up a very interesting idea of what some people believe defines a so-called “true” otaku. The thought is that such a person is one who revels in great anime series that have narrative depth, notably good writing, and are all in all good shows with a good story and cast of characters. While that sounds like a perfectly reasonable definition, the article brings up the possibility that this is in fact not the fundamental meaning of what an otaku is…

First impressions of the winter ’13 anime I’m watching

January 25, 2013 by Yumeka 26 Comments

A little late with my first impressions post this season…but better late than never ;) Here’s my opinion of the five winter 2013 anime I’m currently watching after seeing the first 2-3 episodes…

What do you like in an anime couple?

January 18, 2013 by Yumeka 25 Comments

In a post on the blog Shojo Corner, author starsamaria discusses what qualities the best anime and manga couples possess. Like many other things in the fandom, what makes an anime couple good to one fan could be quite the contrary to another, so it was interesting to read the points she brought up and think about my own criteria for a good anime couple. I’m sure there are some who care little about romance in anime, but I for one am quite the sucker for a good couple, whether it’s a big part of the overall story or not…

More anime lateral thinking puzzles

January 11, 2013 by Yumeka 12 Comments

Two years ago I made a post of anime-themed lateral thinking puzzles, which are basically riddles that require you to use logic and put aside assumptions to solve. People seemed to like the original post (I enjoyed making them too), so today I felt like constructing some more anime lateral thinking puzzles…

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Posted in Miscellaneous

My 5 favorite anime of 2012

January 4, 2013 by Yumeka 26 Comments

A little late this year but I couldn’t miss out on every anime blogger’s obligatory post of picking their favorite anime of the year. Since 2008 I’ve been picking 5 favorite anime from that year, except for last year where opted to participate in the AniBloggers Choice Awards and picked 12 favorites of the year. This year however I decided to go back to my previous tradition of only picking 5 favorites…