Real Neat Archives | 100 Word Anime

Real Neat Blog Award – Nominated by Voyager

Posted on November 26, 2018November 30, 2018 by Karandi

I’d like to thank Voyager from Galvanic for this nomination. Last week I responded to another one of these and hopefully I don’t end up nominating the same people twice. A huge thank you for the award and now I’ll get on with it.

The Rules:

Display the Award Logo.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
Answer the questions of the one who nominated you.
Nominate 7-10 bloggers.
Ask them seven questions.

The Questions:

Thanks Voyager for some interesting questions. Hopefully the answers make sense.

01. Do you have any writing habits on your blog that bug you and you try to stop doing?

Since blogging I’ve found I start a lot of paragraphs and sentences with unnecessary conjunctions (‘and’, ‘so’, and occasionally things like ‘okay’). I’d really like to edit all of these out though I suspect that is going to take quite some doing. I realise it is because I’m writing more conversationally in my blog than I do elsewhere, but I hate it when I read it back and I notice how often I’ve done it.

02. Is there any particular type of character arc that really appeals to you? (i.e Redemption Arc? Revenge Arc? Romance Arc? Be The Very Best, Like No One Ever Was? etc.)

I don’t know that there is any particular character arc that appeals. I know tournament arcs in plots usually bore me, but in terms of appeal almost any character arc can be brilliant if well executed. Still, I will admit a well written Revenge Arc will usually hook me right in (too bad so many are poorly written).

03. What’s a character that you like despite normally being a type of character you really don’t care for?

I really like All Might as a character, which kind of makes no sense to me because he’s this brash, intrusive character who is always smiling and just assumes that by declaring things are okay they will be. Admittedly, he won me over when I saw the genuine effort he put into things, when I realised the smiles were entirely for the benefit of others, and because he knows when he needs to be serious.

04. What’s a story you revisit often, just to relax?

Obvious answer: Natsume Yuujinchou. Also, Kimi ni Todoke and Snow White with the Red Hair. Pretty much guarantee at the end of a long week I’ll be curled up on the couch with one of these.

05. What’s a series you think had potential but could’ve used a little more time in the oven?

So many choices. This year I’d have to pick Caligula. There were some genuinely interesting ideas in that anime and I’d really love to see the concept, with that art style and music, done again but with significantly more work put into the plot and characters. They could really have had something phenomenal if they’d actually thought about what to do with their set up.

06. Is there anything you’ve always wanted to do with your blog that you couldn’t/can’t, for whatever reason?

While I love writing and will keep my blog text based, I would genuinely love the time to produce other content. The problem is at the moment I get half-way through editing a video project and then life takes off on me again and by the time I get back to said project I pretty much need to start over because I’ve lost any sense of what I was trying to accomplish. Realistically I just want to make my blog my full time job and I’d love to be able to put time and energy into writing better posts, doing some audio based posts each week, and periodically putting out video content. Of course, I think that’s what a lot of bloggers would like and I’m just not in a place where I can do that at the moment. Still, long term goals.

07. How’s your year been, so far? Good, I hope ^_^

2018 is going to go down as the year I absolutely had a blast online with my blog and on social media, and the year where I more or less dreaded everything else. Between poor health and excessive working hours, realistically it has just been a bad year. Admittedly, my health has been better the last few months so even though I’m still being monitored at intervals, I think things are in the clear (fingers crossed and all that).

The Nominations:

As always, there is no obligation. Thanks for being awesome.

My Questions – Same as last week’s:

We’ve just made this an official award’s ceremony. What are you going to wear?
What vehicle will you rock up in?
And who is accompanying you?
Who would you like to present you with your award?
When you accept your award, who do you thank in your speech?
After you have received your award you decide you want to give a message to the audience, what is it?
Finally, after the ceremony is over where do you go for your after party?

And that is it for the post. Hopefully you enjoyed reading my responses and I will get on to the other post for next week sooner rather than later. Thanks again, Voyager for the nomination.

Thanks for reading
Karandi James

Consider supporting the blog by:

Or, use one of my product affiliate links.
Attack on Titan Canvas Board (Eren & Levi)

The Real Neat Blog Award – Nominated by Lynn Sheridan

Posted on November 21, 2018November 30, 2018 by Karandi

I’d like to thank Lynn Sheridan for his kind nomination. Now, I do have another one of these award nominations to respond to but I will tackle that in a separate post, probably next week. For now, I’m going to get on with this response and hopefully you will all have some fun reading my answers.

The Rules:

Display the Award Logo.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
Answer the questions of the one who nominated you.
Nominate 7-10 bloggers.
Ask them seven questions.

The Questions:

“Here’s the setup. You’ve just received a letter in the post. I know, how old fashioned. Anyhow, the letter tells you that you’ve won a massive prize. It is a rent-free house/apartment of your choice for life, but before claiming your prize you must make some choices. Remember these decisions are for life too. There are no take backs.“

01. You will need three anime roommates. Who are they?

Okay, I’m definitely going to want someone who is quiet but independent and functional. Preferably someone who will cook for themselves and generally not be in the way. Choice number one is Shizuku Mizutani from My Little Monster.

Second choice is going to need to be the people person. You know, the one who answers the door and deals with telemarketers in a way that doesn’t lead to the phone being strapped to the speakers and blasting the person on the other end. For the Mr Everybody I’m definitely choosing Kazehaya Shouta from Kimi ni Todoke.

Lastly, I’m going to want someone in the house who will inspire me and push me to want to do more than I am. Okay, there’s probably plenty of other reasons for this choice, but I’m so taking Victor Nikiforov as roomate number 3.

02. You can have one anime pet. What is it?

Easy question. Nyanko-Sensei from Natsume Yuujinchou. Who wouldn’t choose him?

03. You can have an anime vehicle to get around with. Which one?

You know, I think I’m just going to stick with walking and public transport (I’m assuming I am in Japan and public transport is an option.

04. You will receive an anime robot to help around the house. Who is it?

I’m going to pick Chamber from Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (that would also take care of a lot of the transport issues as well).

05. You will receive a new wardrobe. Which anime character will you dress like?

If I had to pick an anime character to dress like for forever, I’d have to go with Madame Red from Black Butler. Not practical, but that woman had some style.

06. For protection, you can select any anime weapon or ability. Which one?

Totally picking Kuroko Shirai’s teleportation from Index/Railgun.

07. And lastly. You can have your house/apartment in any anime world. Which one?

And yeah, I’m going with Aincrad (after the game was cleared and it isn’t trying to permanently kill its visitors). I’d love a house right next to the lake where Kirito and Asuna set up house. Beautiful.

The Nominations:

As always, there is no obligation. Thanks for being awesome.

My Hero Academia Episode 56 - Celebrations

My Questions:

We’ve just made this an official award’s ceremony. What are you going to wear?
What vehicle will you rock up in?
And who is accompanying you?
Who would you like to present you with your award?
When you accept your award, who do you thank in your speech?
After you have received your award you decide you want to give a message to the audience, what is it?
Finally, after the ceremony is over where do you go for your after party?

And that is it for the post. Hopefully you enjoyed reading my responses and I will get on to the other post for next week sooner rather than later. Thanks again, Lynn for the nomination.

Thanks for reading
Karandi James

Consider supporting the blog by:

Or, use one of my product affiliate links.
BANANA FISH Canvas Board

This Blog Is Apparently Really Neat

Posted on November 2, 2018November 1, 2018 by Karandi

A huge thank you to David Allesio from Confessions of an Average Otaku. As much as I sometimes (okay often) don’t get around to responding to these blog awards, I really do appreciate being nominated. However, as always, we have some rules.

The Rules:

Display the award logo.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
Answer the questions of the one who nominated you.
Nominate 7-10 bloggers
Ask them seven questions

The Questions:

What’s your single, one favourite anime or author? You can only pick ONE!

Okay, I’m bad at this whole only pick one because it really depends on my mood. I love some Pratchett or Eddings though sometimes I’m in the mood for Bishop or Harding or even some V.C. Andrews. If I had to pick one, my most often re-read author would be David Eddings, though I’ve kind of moved away from his work over the last decade so probably it is just that I loved his novels as a teenager.

What’s your favourite cartoon made in America (non-Anime)?

Um… probably Monsters’ Inc or the Incredibles.

What’s your favourite place to visit?

Civilisation. When you live in a town with only a handful of shops and there’s no book store, no place to really buy DVD’s (or even socks), and there’s definitely no sushi, a visit to a town of reasonable size is greatly appreciated.

Is getting nominated for something like this fun or a pain in the buns?

I really like the nomination. That doesn’t mean I always get around to responding because usually unless I respond right away I lose track of who nominated me and their questions, but I do enjoy these posts.

Sports: Do you have a favourite or is your favourite None of the Above?

Growing up I really enjoyed dancing and netball. Now I’m more of a yoga kind of person mostly because it is fairly relaxing. That said, I’m just not that into sport.

Are you a morning person, a night person, or other?

Definitely morning. No doubt about it.

If you could write your own seventh question, what question would you write and what would the answer be?

I think that’s kind of cheating pushing the question back on me, but okay. What is the cutest thing in the world? A kitten doing that thing where they tilt their head sideways and look up at you.

My Nominees:

No obligation to participate but I just want to give a shout out to the following bloggers.

My Questions:

I’m going to have a bit of fun this time and so my questions will probably seem a bit weird. Hope you have fun with them.

You just found a portal to a new world, do you enter it willingly and why?
Once on the other side of the portal (whether you entered willingly or not), you find yourself face to face with the thing that most annoys you. What is it?
Finding yourself face to face with the thing that most annoys you, you decide that since you aren’t in our world you can react however you want. What do you do?
While you are dealing with the annoying thing, a group of travellers approach. Who or what would you like in this group (no more than five)?
One of the travellers attempts to stab you in the back. Who was it and why did they decide to attack you?
You are saved from being stabbed. Did you save yourself or did someone have to rescue you?
You decide you want to return home. Explain how you go about getting there.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

Consider supporting the blog by:

Or use one of my affiliate product links:

Real Neat Blog Award Nomination

Posted on February 10, 2018February 7, 2018 by Karandi

Rules for the Award:

Display the award logo.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.
Answer the questions of the one who nominated you.
Nominate 5-10 bloggers.
Ask them 7 question

Thanks for the nomination, Rossiroad from My Brain Is Completely Empty. I only started following you recently but I’ve dropped by your blog fairly regularly and have always found it interesting. Most recently your month of Evangelion posts really grabbed my interest and definitely made me want to watch Evangelion again, and eventually get serious about actually writing a review of it which is something I have so far avoided doing.

The Questions

01. What is your creative process for writing your blog posts?

Do I have a process? Does closing my eyes and typing really fast count as a process? That’s more or less how I start writing anything because if I think I’ll talk myself out of committing anything into words and basically paralyse myself. So I write. I just type. And then I read the incredible mess of word vomit that has been produced and I figure out what the key points are that I’ve clearly wanted to express, and then I write it again with those in mind. Usually that works. Sometimes I need to walk away and consider how to link ideas, but mostly my posts are pretty short so I don’t really need much of a plan, though they do need a fairly heavy edit before they are comprehensible to people who aren’t me.

Features I will admit usually have a dot point layout before I start but I still begin simply by writing whatever I think of under each point and slowly something takes shape and then I take a breath and write the article I actually think I want. Usually it will get rewritten multiple times before I’m happy enough to schedule it. Even then, I sometimes go back and scrap a post and start again.

02. Who are your main influences as a writer?

Honestly, no one. I’ve read such a huge range at this point and I’ve probably picked up a little bit from all over the place. While I love fantasy fiction and find authors who use sarcasm and irony fairly liberally kind of entertaining, I don’t think I would ever try to use their style because it isn’t me (Pratchett etc). Even in primary school I would start at one end of the library shelf and work my way through the books so I doubt any one style or writer has had all that much sway.

In terms of what I aim for on my blog, I try to keep it conversational as I really am looking for a response from the readers and to talk about anime.

03. If you had an infinite amount of time and money to do one massive blog post series what would you write? Something that you couldn’t possibly hope to do now but could with the time and money.

I’d probably like to delve more into how Japanese culture is reflected, reinforced, challenged and addressed in anime. This would take a lot of research and time to really give even a semi-decent attempt to do in any way that wasn’t just superficial identification of things that happen in Japan, but I’d really enjoy the process of learning more and discovering new things about the anime I really enjoy and the culture that produces it. But yeah, infinite time and money and maybe a squad of research monkeys (real monkeys as they are adorable).

04. What do you think of anime OP’s? Do you listen to them in your spare time? Do you skip them? I want to know your attitude and thoughts on OP’s!

There are some OP’s I love and I have actually got quite a lot of OP’s and a more than a few anime soundtracks that I’ve bought. Sailor Moon in particular features heavily in my phone play list with both the English and Japanese soundtracks being included. That said, there are plenty of OP’s I actively skip when watching anime. I may watch them episode 1, given them a second go episode 2 and then never listen to them again.

05. Why should a person follow your anime blog? I’m interested to see you try and sell yourself!

There’s a reason I’m not actually in sales, despite currently trying to sell an ebook. I think what I’ve tried for with my blog is regular content and covering a range of genres, looking at seasonal and older anime, so hopefully most anime fans can find something on my blog that appeals to them and that they’d like to discuss. I know some of my followers only really check in on the features and top 5 lists whereas others check the seasonal episode reviews and others still prefer the full season reviews.

06. What’s your favourite fake vehicle? Mine is the Nissan Golf!

I don’t think I have one of these.

07. Why did you get into anime blogging or reading anime blogs? If you never got into anime why did you decide to follow someone who only talks about anime? I really want to know!

I want to talk to people about anime, though the longer answer can be found here as I was recently asked this question as part of my ‘inquiring minds’ series of posts.

The Nominations

The 7 Questions

If you had to sum up your life in a hashtag, what would it be?
I’m stealing this question because I liked it: What is your creative process for writing a blog post?
Share your favourite screen cap from an anime (or favourite image from a manga). Or, if you can’t pick a favourite, what is one that you’ve really liked recently?
If you could take any two characters from different anime and put them together in a story (not necessarily romantically), who would you choose and why?
How do people react when you tell them you write a blog about anime?
What is your favourite collectable from anime? (Or if you don’t have any, what would you love to have?)
When travelling, what are three things you absolutely have to take with you where-ever you go?

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more great content on this blog, consider becoming a patron for as little as $1 a month.

Another way you can support the content here is by buying a copy of ‘Thoughts on Anime 2017‘ as an ebook. It contains a selection of reviews, features and top 5 lists from 2017 and while the content is available free on the site, this is a great way to give a one off show of support for the blog. It is available for $3.99.