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But What Happens When You Get Tired Of Anime?

Posted on February 16, 2018December 19, 2018 by Karandi

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 12 Rimuru

I was asked this question, quite innocently, by someone in real life who actually expressed an interest in my blog and what I spend so much of my time working on. And I have to admit, I did have that momentary pause as I thought it through. It isn’t as though I haven’t had weekends where I haven’t been in the mood for watching that next episode of whatever (fairly recently my desire to finish Conception or Release the Spyce has been pretty low and A Certain Magical Index was dropped because I just couldn’t stomach watching anymore) or even seasons where it feels like there are slim pickings on shows I am genuinely interested to watch. More importantly, it is something I have seen happen to quite a number of other bloggers. They take a break and put the blog on hold or change topics for awhile because they feel they’ve hit a rut or they’ve lost their passion for anime.

And there’s been a real glut of these kinds of announcements recently with reviewers and those who discuss anime deciding they need a break to re-find their passion or just explore other options. It makes sense that when you are putting so much of your time into one thing burn out is a real problem.

For me though, that isn’t something I am overly worried about. While I have the off day or weekend where I am genuinely too tired or just over everything, for me stories have always been what have grounded me. Whether it is books, movies, TV, games, or any other form, I’ve always surrounded myself with stories. It is a feeling like no other for me; that moment of possibility and hope when I hit play on a new show or movie or crack open a novel for the first time. The pure joy found in watching Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai or falling in love with something like Girls’ Last Tour, or even just the fun of revisiting something like Sword Art Online, is more than enough to keep me coming back for more.

And specifically with anime, I think the reason I’m not concerned about ever getting too tired of it is because I don’t limit myself to a handful of genres. I’ll give pretty much anything a go (now that I’ve gotten over my snobbery about sports stories and I’ve become less inclined to drop shows that are in a genre I don’t like mostly because I want to give things a bit more of a go) and I’m regularly surprised by what shows end up grabbing me. And my tastes change with the season and with circumstances. Basically, every season is a new beginning and while I might end up disappointed by the end the wonderful thing about seasonal anime is it is seasonal. In three months time a whole new round of shows will roll out. In the meantime, it isn’t as though my watch list has actually gotten any shorter. There are a plethora of shows I genuinely want to watch that I just never had the time for so a slow season might give me that opportunity.

I think I might feel differently if I was just an anime fan. However, it isn’t actually anime I’m in love with. I’m in love with stories. Well crafted stories with great characters, trashy and predictable stories, stories that fall apart under the weight of too much ambition, characters that I can love, hate, feel something for, just experiencing stories. For me, anime is the medium that allows me to experience an incredible range of stories in a way that is fun and engaging. Some of them have great depth and others are completely shallow and cliché filled dribble and yet there’s always something out there and the next great story that will blow me away could be just a click away.

So to answer the question of what happens when I get tired of anime, I would have to say that I don’t anticipate that happening. I anticipate the kinds of anime I like and what I look for in an anime to change over time as it has already, and I anticipate that there will be seasons where I get a bit stuck as nothing really grabs my interest, but given the wide variety of shows out there if I ever can’t find any anime that I want to watch it would have to be because I lost my love of stories. And that would be a very sad day indeed.

A question then to all the ani-bloggers out there: Do you ever worry you will get tired of anime?

Thanks for reading
Karandi James

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MY LITTLE PONY BISHOUJO 1/7 SCALE PRE-PAINTED FIGURE: PINKIE PIE

Friday’s Feature: Why Believing In Yourself As A Blogger Is Easy To Say But Hard To Do

Posted on November 10, 2017November 7, 2017 by Karandi

sailor moon s episode 125 sailor saturn and sailor moon

Keeping this one short this week for many reasons but the most pressing one would be that the real world has decided that I just needed a few more obstacles in my path and has been fairly liberal in dropping them more or less directly on top of me over the last few weeks. Most of it is work related but I’m going to be honest and admit that my confidence has taken some serious hits lately (and given my usual raging insecurities that probably wasn’t something I needed). Still, I’m not turning this into a post about my personal dramas so I’ll get to the topic at hand.

Don’t you just love in anime how characters are constantly asking others to believe in themselves or announcing that they are the strongest or most amazing? It is almost as if they think a self-declaration or affirmation will somehow reshape reality and make it so. Black Star from Soul Eater is the perfect example of a character who screams his many wonders at any given opportunity despite plenty of early failures.

Here’s the thing though. They are actually kind of right. While just declaring yourself the best won’t make it so, being paralysed by fear and uncertainty and worried about the consequences of every decision actively prevents you from moving forward. The difficulty of course is then finding a balance.

Midoriya from My Hero Academia is starting to find his balance. Early season one Midoriya spent a lot of his time mumbling to himself and fairly crippled by his own inadequacies. Still, when the time came to act he did and since then he gained strength. Small strength and first, strength he couldn’t really control and he knew he could still lose, but from that strength he gained confidence and started to believe he could become strong. And so he started to act. Now we have season 2 Midoriya who still does think through consequences and occasionally reverts to the mumbling mess he was, but for the most part he faces forward and plans his next moves. He isn’t a braggart but he has confidence in his growing abilities and that he can overcome most obstacles.

Is he right? Well, he isn’t dead yet so I guess he can’t be too wrong.

So let’s apply this to blogging.

A lot of the bloggers I interact with are self-declared introverts or not overly social people in the real world. A lot of them worry about how people will take something or whether they’ve made a mistake. A lot of people worry whether leaving a comment is the right choice or whether they should just like. A lot of them worry that they might seem brash or rude, or that they might be taken the wrong way.

That’s a lot of worry going on and it is understandable given we’re told continuously that once something is online it is there. Even if you delete it later someone may have already shared it, screen capped it, whatever, and it might never disappear entirely.

But… If you don’t hit the post button, if you don’t send that comment, if you don’t write that tweet there is only one certainty. And that is, no one will ever reply to you or know what you were thinking. No one will be able to respond to you, acknowledge you, consider your view. It just won’t exist.

And while every thought you have may not need to be broadcast to the world, sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference.

So maybe 100 people already wrote a review or their impressions of that episode. Maybe you aren’t adding anything new that hasn’t been said by one of them. But are they your thoughts? Didn’t you start a blog to put yourself out there (even if only in a small way)? Didn’t you want someone to know how you felt?

As someone who lets their self-doubt cripple them in real-life on a fairly regular basis, I know that nothing will come from needless worry. Think it through. In regards to a blog post just do the basics. Is your point clear? Can it be read easily? Are there too many glaring errors that probably should be fixed? Is this what you want to say? If your post does that schedule it or post it. Stop worrying. Stop hesitating. Maybe someone will write a nasty comment and maybe no one will say anything. But just maybe you’ll start a conversation with someone and you’ll be happy that you wrote it.

Not saying it is easy but if you want to blog just do it. Don’t let your worry stop you.

Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed this post and like the blog, consider becoming a patron to support further growth and future content.

Thanks,

Karandi James.

Tuesday’s Top 5: Anniversary Special – Top 5 Blog Posts

Posted on May 2, 2017April 14, 2017 by Karandi

As part of the 1 year anniversary special posts, my Top 5 this week looks at my favourite 5 posts that I have written since starting the blog. By favourite I am looking at the posts I had fun writing or discussing and I’ll explain my reasons in the list below. This was an enormously hard list to narrow down but I had a great time revisiting old posts (and flinching a little at just how many typos I let slip through particularly when I’m tired).

I’d love to know which post you liked the most on my site or what you would like to see more (or less) of. Please feel free to comment below.

Please Note – There are no spoilers this week.

Honourable mentions this week go to:

Number 5: Natsume Yuujincho Series Review

This one is actually a review of the first 4 seasons of Natsume after I did a rewatch in preparation for season 5’s release last year. I genuinely love Natsume as an anime and I really enjoy writing about it so this post was just really fun to write as it made me think about all those moments in the show that made me smile and the reasons I loved it so much. Admittedly, this isn’t the most critical of reviews and could probably use a do-over at some point, but that’s fine. I’ll take the excuse to revisit Natsume any day.

Number 4: Friday’s Feature – On Overpowered MC’s

This post was kind of written in protest to the ongoing criticism of shows that the MC was overpowered. I happen to like strong and competent main characters so simply telling me that the main character is crazy strong is not actually going to deter me from watching or enjoying a show. While I respect the opinion that many people have that an overly strong main character does take some tension from certain parts of the narrative, I feel this feature kind of points out why a blanket declaration that overpowered MC’s are bad is probably not the best approach to take either. Anyway, it was fun to write simply because I just wanted to get that idea out there and feel I’d had my say on the issue.

Number 3: Assassination Classroom Episode 46

Okay, don’t click on the link if you are worried about spoilers for Assassination Classroom. This is the second last episode and there’s a clear spoiler warning on the post for a reason. This was a post I had to write. No filter, no rewrite, just get the words down. The episode hit me that hard emotionally I just had to get it out and writing the post really helped in stepping back from the events and thinking about the show a little bit more objectively.

Number 2: Friday’s Feature – Beneath the Squeals What is Driving Yuri on Ice Fans

While I could easily have filled this list with my Top 5 Yuri on Ice posts I decided to limit myself to just one and of all the episode reviews, lists, discussions and features that have focussed on Yuri on Ice, this is my favourite. The show hadn’t ended but it gave me a chance to reflect on what was actually drawing me into this show (amazingly enough good looking anime guys isn’t actually enough of a reason for me to keep watching a show – not that it hurts). Anyway, mostly I just loved writing about this anime and there are probably more Yuri On Ice themed posts in my future.

Number 1: Tuesday’s Top 5: Totally Narcissistic Characters

Okay, this list was never intended to be taken seriously but it list my favourite narcissists from anime. It was great fun to write and some of these characters are hilarious. This may not be the best post I’ve written, but as I said at the start this list was about posts I had fun writing. I must admit, the more odd my list topic is, the more fun I have writing it.

Over to you: Which posts or topics do you like on 100 Word Anime? What don’t you like so much?

Are you a fan of 100WordAnime.blog?

If you like this site and you like what I do, please consider becoming a patron.

Thanks,

Karandi James.

Nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award

Posted on November 11, 2016November 7, 2016 by Karandi

I’d like to thank Lethargic Ramblings for the first nomination. Despite their continuous claims to being lazy they have a very active and interesting blog so definitely worth checking out and following if you haven’t already.

A couple of other thank-you’s for nominations.

Thanks to D from D Talks Anime for their nomination. D does some great reviews, however my favourite posts from D are their discussion pieces where they look at the ideas presented in anime. Again this is a great blog to check out so if you haven’t already you definitely should.

Thanks to Cauthan who also nominated me. Cauthan does some great reviews and episodic thoughts and is one of my must visit blogs so if you haven’t visited this blog, go check it out.

And thanks to Tessa on All About Anime for their nomination. Tessa seems to do a little bit of everything on their blog with news, reviews of anime and some manga, and recently their responses to the 30 day challenge. Definitely a blog to visit.

Another thanks to Prattle for nominating me. Prattle is still pretty new but often gives me something to think about with some of the current shows in their let’s talk posts so if you haven’t stopped by their blog it might be worth a look.

Finally, a thank you to Raistlin0903 for their nomination. Raistlin has been a great supporter of this blog and a regular commentor for a while. Their blog is also great to visit with a range of reviews of anime, movies, boardgames etc. If you haven’t checked them out already, you should head over to their blog.

The Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write then 11 new questions.
List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

The Questions (I’m kind of combining both Lethargic Ramblings and D’s here):

01. Your opinion on the manga vs anime discussion?

I’m all about anime. I’ve said it before on my blog that I just don’t do manga, though I have read a couple in desperation to find out how a particular story has developed. I just don’t enjoy the medium. The thing is, I am a voracious reader but manga slows my reading pace down and I lose immersion because I’m tracking between images and text and not really taking in either.

Honestly, this one all comes down to personal preference, however I will say that telling someone an anime isn’t rubbish because the manga is good is not a valid argument. The manga could be off the wall amazing and it still won’t improve a poor adaptation.

02. What’s your all time favourite Anime series and why?

I really don’t have an all time favourite. My most common answer to this would be the original D Gray Man series. However, my love of it probably came more from the fact that at the time I had maybe 20 – 30 series under my belt and D Gray Man was incredibly different from anything I was watching. It had the frantic energy and battle sequences of Bleach with the darker and more serious tone (at least the overall plot) of something like Death Note and for me, at the time it was exactly what I was looking for.

That said, most of my love for it now probably comes purely from nostalgia because objectively looking at it, while there are still some really incredible things about the series, it doesn’t do all that much that you can’t find elsewhere (though perhaps not that same combination).

Other favourites include Bleach, Sailor Moon, Death Note, Darker Than Black, Angel Beats, Baccano, and pretty much whatever grabs my fancy at the time.

03. What’s your favourite Anime genre and why?

Again, this one is hard to answer. Looking at my DVD collection, I definitely favour darker anime. Anything leaning toward supernatural, horror, psychological or thriller is usually a winner. But, I have a whole bunch of stupid high school romances, slice of life comedy, sci-fi, straight action, and magical girl series as well so like the last question, I really just watch whatever grabs my fancy at the time.

04. The anime character you hate most?

Excalibur from Soul Eater. Hands down, most irritating character ever. There are characters who are written badly, and characters that are annoying, and there are villains who do horrible things, and none of these characters will ever induce the same amount of aggravation that Excalibur can in his brief appearance in Soul Eater. It does not help that you realise he is supposed to be annoying and the other characters are annoyed by him too. From his ridiculous character design, to his affected way of talking, to his total lack of relevance to the story, I really hate Excalibur as a character.

05. What’s the most important aspect of an Anime series for you? (Eg – Setting, script, themes etc).

I would say it is a combination of character and story. I don’t mind plot driven anime with fairly shallow characters and I don’t mind slower stories as long as the characters are interesting and have sufficient depth to hold my interest. The other elements can make the experience better or worse but ultimately whether I watch something or drop it will come down to whether I am interested in the story or the characters.

06. A story/song that always makes you cry?

Angel Beats.

Yes, I know it is working very hard throughout most of the second half to stomp on your heart and it isn’t really trying to disguise what it is doing, but it still works. I cannot watch the final episode without being in tears.

07. What’s your main reason for watching Anime?

As it says on my about page, I love stories and anime has yet to bore me as there is always something new and even when you are getting an old story they continually find new ways to present that story and to surprise the audience. That said, I engage with almost any kind of story (book, video game, movie, TV show, anime, etc). As long as it is interesting and well told I’m in.

08. What’s your favourite thing to do outside of Anime and Blogging?

In all that free time that isn’t work or anime or blogging? Um… gaming? No, that’s pretty much the same thing. Reading? If I have to go for something outside of my house, I’d have to say travelling.

09. The last complete anime you watched/manga you read?

Gangsta. I was busy and it is short. Plus I realised I hadn’t written a review on it yet so decided to take some notes so that I could add it to my review list once I’m done with Summer 2016 anime.

10. If you had the choice of eating only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Chocolate. Was there ever a doubt?

11. What’s your biggest fear/phobia?

Well, we already established that I have water issues though mostly I would say that I’m not big on risk in general.

Nominations (feel free to ignore if you have already been nominated or you aren’t into these awards):

New Questions:

What made you decide to start blogging and how long have you been doing it for?
What is your favourite anime series?
If you could change one thing about your favourite anime series what would it be?
Least favourite genre (anime/tv series/books/anything)?
Fictional character you might have a crush on?
Favourite opening theme for an anime?
Favourite source of anime news?
An anime cliché you wish you never had to see again?
Most interesting premise for an anime (whether or not the anime was any good)?
Main reason you would stop watching an anime?
Do you collect any anime related merchandise and if yes, what?

Thanks again for the nominations. I had a lot of fun answering these.

Six Months!

Posted on November 1, 2016October 28, 2016 by Karandi

Oh, I actually used an exclamation in my post title. Well, I guess that’s because I’m excited as reaching six months without losing momentum was one of my major targets when I started this blog. I figured if I made it that far it would have become a habit. And that’s actually kind of true. Fitting in time for blogging and reading blogs has become part of my routine and so I don’t feel like it’s an extra thing that has to be done but rather it is something I look forward to in my day.

As always I want to thank my followers and readers as without you this blog serves no purpose.

Some reflections on October:

This month my post with the highest views was my review of Yuri on Ice episode 1. I always find it strange when a single episode reviews gets a lot of hits but with Yuri on Ice I’m a little less surprised given all the buzz about it.

That said, the posts that consistently get the most views are my In Case You Missed It posts, my Tuesday’s Top 5, and Friday’s Feature. And on that note, the Top 5 list that still has the most views are the top 5 reasons for dropping an anime and the top Friday’s Feature is one where I looked at the flaws in the time travel concept in Orange (mostly because a lot of people disagreed with my view but that was kind of fun too).

All and all though, October has been an awesome month for blogging. The big news: I hit 500 followers on word press. This has meant a lot of great conversations and finding even more blogs to visit to read about and talk about anime.