This is actually the first post I’ve written on my birthday even though I’ve had the blog for my past three birthdays. Since this particular year has been pretty eventful for me (and for want of something better to write about at the moment), I decided to give it ago…
Is it weird to like anime characters more than actors?
March 15, 2010 by 12 Comments
The Academy Awards have once again come and gone, and once again I find that I have very little interest. The reason? Because I don’t watch any current American TV shows or movies (besides Disney/Pixar movies). Why not? Because, in all honestly, I just can’t get into live-action actors/actresses as much as anime characters…
Communal Japan vs individualistic America
March 11, 2010 by 9 Comments
Now that I’ve had some years of experience studying and being immersed in Japanese culture, one particular thing that’s always fascinated me about Japan when compared to America is the sense of communality that permeates many aspects of the country. Japan’s emphasis on the communal is quite contrasting to America’s emphasis on individuality…
“How” do you watch anime?
February 28, 2010 by 30 Comments
I put “how” in quotations because I’m not discussing how you watch anime in terms of subs vs dubs, bittorent or streaming, etc,. Rather, I’m curious as to how my fellow fans watch anime in terms of two things in particular – one, your ideal setting for watching anime, i.e., by yourself or with friends, on the computer or TV, at night or during the day, etc., and two, do you prefer to watch currently airing shows once a week, marathon older shows a bunch of episodes at a time, or some combination of both…
Nostalgia: remembering old school video games
February 25, 2010 by 7 Comments
Lately I’ve been indulging in the wonders of emulators – programs that allow you to play old video games from various consoles on your computer. Back in the 90s when I was a kid and before I knew about anime, I spent the majority of my free time engrossed in video games. And even to this day, thanks to emulators, I’ve discovered that I still love old school games, sometimes even more so than new games…
Determining my 10 favorite anime studios
February 22, 2010 by 8 Comments
About three weeks ago, I wrote a post listing my 50 favorite anime. Last week, Scamp over on The Cart Driver analyzed his own list of favorites based on animation studio. I realized that I had never really thought about my favorite anime studios even though it’s one of the first things I look at when deciding to watch a new series. Thus, I was inspired to look back at my 50 favorite anime and, based on those, decide on my favorite studios…
How do you keep up your Japanese studies after graduation?
February 10, 2010 by 14 Comments
I have now gone half a year without any formal Japanese study after taking it up to advanced level at my university. Although I don’t feel like I’ve forgotten too much yet, what with my daily exposure to anime and my sheer willpower to keep it in my head, I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep it up…
Finally decided on my 50 favorite anime of all
January 28, 2010 by 17 Comments
Even though I’ve been an anime fan for roughly ten years, I never actually made a concrete list of my favorite titles, not even a top ten list. I’ve always had a handful I would consider favorites, which would change slightly over the years, but I never put them in any order or gave it much thought. So recently, to celebrate my decade’s worth of anime fandom, I finally put together a list of my 50 favorite anime…
My most favorite non-Japanese cartoon
January 20, 2010 by 13 Comments
Although anime makes up about 90% of the shows I’ve been watching since the early 2000s, I’m a big fan of animation in general. However, while I still follow and enjoy American animated movies, I’ve been disappointed with American TV cartoons in recent years. But there is at least one non-anime cartoon show that holds a special place in my heart. So today I’m gonna take a little break from anime and discuss my most favorite non-Japanese cartoon of all…
Is being obsessed with anime good or bad?
January 17, 2010 by 58 Comments
The word “obsession” usually gets a negative connotation. Being obsessed with anything, at least in most societies, isn’t viewed favorably. But is being obsessed with something, anime or otherwise, a bad thing, or can it in fact, be a good thing?