I realise it’s been a long time since I last wrote, and I’m sorry if you’ve been hitting this blog every day since looking for a new post (Remember guys, that’s what RSS is for.)
I guess you could say I fell off the (anime) wagon; I was half-way through writing a post about Durarara!! when I realised I just wasn’t feeling it as well as I should (my writing, that is. Durarara!! is really good, but you knew that already.)
When something like that happens, that vague lack of inspiration, it’s usually as sure a sign as any that I’m burnt out and need a break (and this blog was going so well in 2010, too!) Alas, it’s now April already and a new season beckons.
At this point I’m so far behind on the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and One Piece that finding yet more to add to the back-log just seems crazy, but I can’t not watch the new Masaaki Yuasa series, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, while manglobe‘s latest House of Five Leaves is looking good, too. (The trailers for both are really interesting.)
There’s others as well. Previous favourite Ookiku Furikabutte has got a second season starting soon, while Giant Killing is another sports series I’ve got my eye on (potentially the first actually-good soccer anime?) As always, please feel free to let me know in the comments what you’re looking out for this season.
Anyway, that, I hope, is evidence enough that the reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. Anime and Japanese pop-culture are still things I find curiously fascinating. I don’t know why that is, but I can at least promise you this. I won’t suddenly just up and leave; I won’t go out at the top of my game; the end won’t be glorious, no, it will be a long, drawn-out and disappointing affair. This blog’s not so easy to quit.
Statement of intent: Spring 2010
8 responses to “Statement of intent: Spring 2010”
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I didn’t realise Masaaki Yuasa was doing Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, though I’d not seen the PV yet, my interest in it has certainly gone up. I’m hoping House of Five Leaves is more to my liking than manglobe’s last show.
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You should really start watching FMA: Brotherhood again. It’s not like One Piece since while that series is very good it is also never ending.
FMA Brotherhood started because the manga was nearing its end. The manga will be finished in 3 months and Brotherhood is set for 63 episodes. There is no reason not to catch up with it now. And I am sure it is not as daunting as a task as catching up with One Piece. The final arc of FMA is amazing too, trust me on that.
And yes I do have you on my RSS Feed, it’s helpful and it’s always exciting to see your blog pop up with a new entry. 🙂 -
I’ll watch them all at least once, get horrified by many, keep a few. Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei does look interesting; stuff in that timeslot usually is. The fact that it’s got Kaiba’s director is good to know. That was one show that I watched with great enjoyment even though I didn’t know what the hell was happening. In fact I skipped an episode or two without even realizing it!
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@Necromancer
Yeah, I must admit I haven’t really got into a manglobe series since Samurai Champloo; even Michiko to Hatchin, which feels like something I should like more than I actually do. Regardless, I have faith in the House of Five Leaves’ source material; it’s written by Natsume Ono, author of Ristorante Paradiso.
@Kim
I might try to catch-up with FMA during this Easter weekend. As weird as it sounds, I think I’ve probably fallen behind because I like the series too much. It’s like every time I sit down to watch an episode or two, I feel like I need to say something about it.
@Peter S
Heh. I hope you went back and watched those skipped episodes, though?! But yeah, I guess this season has been saved by Noitamina! They seem to be one of the few remaining sanctuary’s for adult-orientated anime, airing series concerned only with weaving a captivating, mature story (like the HBO of anime!) -
Man, it has been a while Bateszi. I even went through most of your “Anime bloggers I admire” looking for substitutes to tide me over until your eventual return. That didn’t go so well…
FMA is definitely worth your time. It flows nicely, the animation is great and the story is really interesting. My only complaint is that recently it feels like it is going in just one narrow direction, but I guess that happens as a show draws towards the conclusion. Given its serial nature I think it would make a good candidate for marathoning.
My advice is drop everything and watch Summer Wars. I started watching at 12:15 last night and just couldn’t stop. -
Its ok, we all get burned out eventually. As for Masaaki Yuasa’s new show, I really liked Kaiba, the art style and fantasy world really fit together. Kemonozume had weird art but the story was somewhat standard…Kaiba felt way more out there, which I liked more. Hope this new show is as imaginative as Kaiba, god knows we need something fresh with the slew of Otaku shows running around. Manglobe’s new show seems interesting. I just love the facial expressions used in some of the characters in the trailer, they’re not so black and white. They’re diverse and have them in betweens like normal humans. I consider myself lucky, as I haven’t even started FMA! Hehe so excited (on Bakemonogatari now, Shinobo’s stuff is just so weird its as if he tries to alienate his viewers). I’m just glad if there are any plans on stopping this blog, it will be long, drawn-out and by the books 😛 at least we’ll be ready to move on by then.
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Man I’m glad at least you’ve got the groove to write [i]something[/i]. For me, I don’t know if it’s burning out or losing interests, but I’m getting less and less fire to write anything or even watch new ‘quality’ anime (although I had no prob following light disposable stuff like Railgun, or rewatching familiar stuffs like parts of LoGH). Strangely I still read anime blogs/forums out of habit. If my blog’s end is to be long and disappointing too, I hope I get to produce few more stuffs I can look back and be happy with.
As for the spring series, like I said in another forum, I’d LIKE to say I’m looking forward to House of Five Leaves and Yuasa’s new series, but I still haven’t gone further than few episodes of Cross Game and Kemono Erin (which I ironically promoted in my own blog), haven’t touched the backlog that I promised myself to watch (i.e. eureka7, nana, kamichu, aoi bungaku, good gundams etc etc etc)…and I’m sure backlog will only grow bigger and bigger -__-
On the bright side of my animanga fandom, I finally got the urge to read One Piece and happy to say that I’m upto date (woohoo!). I didn’t really like Zombie land arc, I thought it was lacking creativity and whole lot of things (which is why I dropped one piece at that time), but after that I really enjoyed it, and the war between white beard and marines was pretty epic. -
@dengar
Thanks for the advice, dengar. Summer Wars is definitely one that I’ve been wanting to see for a while now (that and The Sky Crawlers both look really good.) I’ll be sure to watch it ASAP: if it’s anything like as good as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, I’ll be more than happy!
@Ivy
Ahh, Bakemonogatari! That’s another one I’ve always wanted to see– and even gone to trouble of downloading the first few episodes of– but never had the energy to actually sit down and start. It seems awesome, though.
@gaguri
I know what you mean. I think it’s just what happens when you get caught up with the online scene. Watching anime goes from being this fun hobby to a mandatory task. I always think back to how it was when I was first getting into anime, I’d only watch two series max at the same time, but I’d love those series and really get into their stories, characters and anticipate every new episode. Now it’s slightly different and I don’t know if it’s even possible to go back to that older, more innocent way of viewing things, but that’s all the advice I can really give you. Try to strip away everything else around you and just watch something that you really want to see, not something that you think you should watch, but something that you’re actually interested in seeing develop.
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