me – Page 4

Plans for Anime Expo 2013 (and brief hiatus)

June 29, 2013 by Yumeka 14 Comments

For those of you who have been following my site for a while, you know that Anime Expo is the big anime convention I attend each year. I’ve been going every year since 2005…well, minus 2006 and 2009 because I was in Japan =P So this year will be my seventh Anime Expo. However, a couple of things will make this year different. First, this will be the first time I’ll be staying the full five days, arriving on Day 0, July 3rd, and not leaving until the end of Day 4, July 7th. And secondly, this will be the first time I’ll have Internet access while I’m there, which means I’ll be able to live-tweet things I see and do via Twitter. But as a result of my staying the full five days and my current work schedule (and I won’t be blogging while I’m at the con), I’ll have to have a brief hiatus since I won’t be able to blog again for at least a week and a half from now. But don’t worry, you can look forward to my full coverage of the con, as well as my reviews of the anime that are finishing this season, in the weeks after. My planned schedule for AX and more info after the jump…

Watching anime alone vs watching it with others

June 22, 2013 by Yumeka 29 Comments

The most common way the anime fans I know watch anime, myself included, is by themselves. But there are certain occasions where fans watch anime in groups, whether with just one or a few other people at a weekend get-together with friends or family, or with tons of other people at a big gathering like a convention or an anime club. Though I usually watch anime by myself, I’ve of course watched it with others many times over the years as well, and it’s interesting to think about how the viewing experience is different for each…

Anime blogging and evolving as a writer

May 10, 2013 by Yumeka 19 Comments

Having been dedicated to writing about anime online for over a decade now, it’s no surprise that my style as a writer has evolved over the course of those years. Kai on deluscar wrote a post last month about how he’s also evolved as a writer thanks to a passion for writing about anime, which inspired me to share my experiences in writing and how my anime hobby has helped shaped me as a writer…

How to keep the hobby going

March 15, 2013 by Yumeka 22 Comments

In numerous past posts I’ve discussed topics about keeping our anime hobby going even when the social pressures and time constraints of real life kick in. I’ve talked about what things could determine how long our fandom lasts, citing examples of friends of mine who once loved anime but eventually lost interest in favor of other things. I’ve talked about what it could be like when we become the first large wave of senior citizen anime fans and whether we could even remain fans for that long. I’ve even talked about how I budget my time to make room for anime activities like watching and blogging among real life obligations. But one related thing that’s been on my mind recently is, when we become full-time workers, parents, or gain other kinds of real-world responsibilities, how do we still find time to partake in all of our favorite anime and other “nerd” activities, like blogging, video games, reading manga or novels, going to conventions or other fan meetups, and of course, just plain old watching a lot of anime…

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…

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…

My continued adventures in Japanese self-study

December 7, 2012 by Yumeka 28 Comments

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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Posted in Japan & Japanese
Tagged Japanese, me

What determines our favorite anime?

November 30, 2012 by Yumeka 15 Comments

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…

My favorite and least favorite anime cliches

October 4, 2012 by Yumeka 24 Comments

As much as we love anime, there’s no denying that the medium is, for better or worse, full of cliches. But as I’ve mentioned in past posts, this isn’t always a bad thing; I’m of the opinion that a cliche doesn’t necessarily equal poor writing if it carries out an appealing cliche well or adds something memorable to it. Not only does anime have its own set of unique cliches not found in other mediums, but because it caters to a lot of different genres, it naturally has cliches to match all kinds of tastes. We all have our anime cliches we like and don’t like, so today I’d like to look at my favorite and least favorite ones…