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An Autumn Update

The beginning of Autumn (in the UK) is one of my favourite times of year. There’s just something about the colour of the sunlight, especially in the mornings, like a momentary pause in time, that puts my mind at ease and invites introspective feelings (not to mention, the snoring cat curled up beside me). So, naturally, over a late lunch on this rainy October Sunday afternoon, my mind inevitably drifts to anime, and therefore this anime blog. It has been my muse for so long, after all.

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January status update

January was a good month for this here anime blog. I published 6 posts, which may not seem like a lot, but for me, it’s the most I’ve published in years. This was reflected in the blog’s views, which went up for the first time since November. I don’t know if I can maintain this pace going into February, but I’ll give it my best shot.

It helps that anime just seems really good at the moment. This is a cracking season, with Dororo and The Promised Neverland leading the way, and Run with the Wind carrying over from last year too.

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Anime Editorials Meta

The older I get the more I realise the less I know

Well, this is weird. This is the first time I’ve sat down to write something for a really long time, too long for a blog that inexplicably still has some readers. For that, I thank you. Whenever I hear from one of you, it truly boosts my spirits.
Over the years of writing for this place, I’ve tried to make sure that the writing is future proof. Even still, whenever someone links an old post, especially one that’s been collecting dust over the years, I’ll flinch in embarrassment. I mean, god, there are posts from 2006! That young me and my opinions! Because I’m so much wiser now, right?!

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Anime Editorials Meta

The Paranoid Reader and the Nonsexual in No. 6

(In my attempt to procrastinate a Haikyuu!! post I’ve been meaning to write for months, I present to you an excerpt from a final paper I wrote for one of my literary theory classes last year. Yeah, I’m that girl who always finds a way to connect her assignments to anime. No shame.)

In the anime and manga world, there have been countless debates on whether, No.6, a series by Atsuko Asano, is considered to be BL. BL, or boys love, is a genre of stories that depict romantic and sexual relationships between men. But although No.6’s main characters are both male, and they engage in acts that may be considered homosexual, Asano adamantly refuses the BL label. In her attempt to pull the series away from the charged label BL, Asano opens up the possibility of seeing it as queer. No.6 is a queer text because of its rejection of paranoid reading and exploration of nonsexual romance between men.

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Durarara!! Isn't an Escape

“The kind of scene you see every day. But sometimes, for no reason at all, you can see the hint of another reality…a crack, suddenly appearing in your peaceful, everyday life, throws you off guard, making you rethink things.”

My desire for the next season of Durarara!! has pushed me to revisit the first season quite a few times. And every time I do, my brain picks at a new detail that further enriches the series. Durarara!! (geez, that name gets old quickly) is a bit confusing at times but that is just a side effect of the multitude of layers Ryohgo Narita is playing with. One particular concept that caught my attention from the get-go is that of reality. I, for one, am an escapist, so the concept of reality and pondering whether an anime series is “looking out into the word” isn’t something that I often concern myself with. But Durarara!!, an anime brimming with folklore and myth, ironically brought my own reality into the foreground of my thoughts. Wow, who would have known; anime can actually teach relevant lessons.

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Manga Meta

All ends with beginnings; Naruto's swansong

Naruto is making me cry with each chapter it releases. The rebloggables are suddenly through the charts on my tumblr dashboard. Open Facebook or Twitter on a Jump release date, and there are people there to commiserate with. It’s the ending we always dreamed of, quietly gripping our rubber prop kunai, gleefully purchased as preteens at our first anime conventions.
General spoilers for the manga; but very little in the way of specifics.  

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To you, our loyal visitors: some questions

One thing I’ve always been curious about is how many of you guys read this blog without knowing that there’s been a new post? Perhaps you visit us through a bookmark? I’ve made it so that this post won’t be included in our RSS feed, therefore it can only be read by those of you that visit in this way.
These days, I almost exclusively read websites through Google Reader and that tends to influence my approach to this blog, too. It’s all geared towards emphasising the newest posts rather than generating a more complete “website experience,” (God, that sounds awfully business-speak,) but I’d really love to hear from you, our loyal visitors!
How long have you been reading our blog? Is there anything you’d like us to do differently? Would you like us to update more frequently? Focus on new or old anime? More live-action reviews?
I’m sure that there’s so much more I could do to make this a better website, so please don’t be afraid to be critical. Just hearing from you, even if it’s only to say “Hi!,” would be great.
And as ever, thanks for reading!