Me

Where Have I Been?

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Fuck.

I mean this is bad. I’ve been telling myself to continue writing in my spare time for months, but stuff kept getting in the way. At first, my job was taking up a lot of my time and leaving me not wanting to do… anything when I wasn’t at work. And now… things are a little more complicated… but also exciting.

Ladies, gentlemen, and others, I am now an Anime Feature writer for GameRant, and I have been since May. The reason I haven’t had time to write a bunch here is that I’ve been working two jobs, my day job, and my writing job. So I wanted to finally address where I’ve been and talk about where I want this blog to go.

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Saying Nice Things About My Least Favorite Shows

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Irina from I Drink and Watch Anime had a great idea.

Go to your MAL or AniList or Excel, or brain, whatever you use to keep track of your anime. Pick the 5 shows you personally rated the lowest (but still remember) and say something nice about them.

When Anime Fans Hate Anime

And then, Crow from Crow’s World of Anime jumped on the bandwagon and I figured, “why not? This looks fun.”

I mean, sometimes I feel like I’m too positive about shows and don’t write enough negative reviews. What kind of garbage is that?! I shouldn’t look to hate things! And god willing, I do my very best to be optimistic about whatever I’m looking to watch for a review or analysis.

So I’m more than happy to try – however difficult it may be – to find the good in some of my lowest-rated things on MyAnimeList. For many that shared the same score, I had to try to determine which of the 3’s were bad enough to earn their spot on the list. Otherwise, I had to determine if a few of them truly qualified. Like, if it was some low-budget 10-minute ONA on YouTube that I thought was trash, should that be on there over a show or film I spent more time with?

After hopefully not too much overthinking, these are the five worst shows I’ve seen and the best things about them.

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No New Post This Week; A Short Conversation

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Hey all…

I know last week I said “come back next week for the next Project Itoh review,” but this week got off to a bumpy start.

As of writing, I’ve come down with a cold. Yes, I’m sure it’s just a cold, I don’t think I have COVID. Normally I’d fight through a cold like it’s nothing but something about getting sick at all after six months of quarantining made me a lot more suspicious about what this was as soon as I got symptoms.

So I was spending the last two days – which are typically my biggest writing days – sleeping. If it were just that, I probably would have been a bit more indecisive on whether to make this post. However, there is something very important going on today, the day this is posted…

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My Review of BNA is Somewhere Else (Also, The Future of This Blog)

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I’ve been blogging here since freshman year of college and in the time since, I’ve thought a lot about what comes after graduating. For a while there, I was so excited about how well this blog has done that I shelved that question when it was most important. Given current events, however, I had to kick it into high gear and think about my future.

So I’m sad to say that my review of Trigger’s new show, BNA, isn’t here…

Instead, it’s on another site that I am now a writer for

That’s right bitches, your boy is a staff writer.

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I’m on Patreon Now!

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With the world going the way it is right now, I feel like more than ever, my life is on pause. I’ve graduated from college with a fairly concrete idea of what I want to be but less of an idea where my first step on that path is. Or, at least that’s what I thought.

To be more specific, I’m not sure what the first paid step on my journey is. I’ve been thinking so much about getting a job that I’ve let it distract me from how I’m already doing what I want to do. You just have to look at my bio on twitter or my About Me page to ascertain how crazy I am about being a writer, producer, and critic, both in written and visual media.

So I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing, and if you like what I do, maybe you can support me…

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Still Thinking About Devilman Crybaby

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Devilman Crybaby wasn’t my favorite show. In fact, about a year after its release, I was surprised to find that I gave it a 6/10 on MyAnimeList.net. I must have been somewhat underwhelmed upon finishing it. After all, I wouldn’t call it a show with an incredibly satisfying ending. But it was an ending appropriate of the source material it was adapting.

Go Nagai’s Devilman taps into the darkest reaches of the human condition and juxtaposes it with the horrors of demonic monstrosities. The story tells of the end of days; the brutal end to an imperfect race consumed by sin, depravity, and hatred. Masaaki Yuasa’s vision of the story modernized the doom and gloom, creating a unique series with far more of an international appeal than many anime.

It had issues, to be sure. The abundance of Engrish lessened the impact of big narrative moments and certain characterizations paled in comparison to previous adaptations. The animation – while lively – could be laughable at times, teamed with some inconsistent artwork that I could take or leave. Despite all that though, I think I was too harsh on this series. I came to that conclusion when I reflected on one scene which has stuck with me to this day.

[Spoilers for Devilman Crybaby]

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What Kyoto Animation Means to Me

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On Thursday, July 18, an arsonist set fire to Kyoto Animation, leading to a very difficult day for everyone in the anime community and beyond. The following morning, the final death tolls came in and it became clearer the gravity of what was lost. 33 confirmed dead and 36 more injured.

At the same time, the tragedy gained worldwide attention and over one million dollars was donated to a fund set up by Sentai Filmworks, while others suggested a myriad of other ways to help the studio. There is a lot that has already been said about how terrible this event was, and others far more loquacious than I have shared their words of mourning.

Regardless, I endeavored to try and figure out exactly what the studio meant to me and the effect it has had on my life. I considered how it effected me when I began watching anime, how it persisted as I became a critic, and most personally, how it helped me find myself.

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I Made A Video About Sakuga… Like… A Year Ago

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So apparently I never shared a video that I made last year on YouTube. Or maybe I did and it was within another post. Either way, I’m sharing it now. I was taking a culture course to prepare me for my trip to Japan (where I currently am). It was the same course for which I wrote my review of Your Name (which oddly enough, I did share here). The story goes, I was asked to make a video about my host culture. Being a weeb, I decided to make a video about sakuga, as it is something I am deeply passionate about. Check it out below.

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I’ll Be on Hiatus For a While

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I’m going to Japan for four months to study and I don’t know when I’ll be free to write about Anime. I’ve got a couple ideas for posts that I’ll see if I can squeeze out while I’m there, but if you don’t hear from me, don’t worry. I’ll be back with stories to tell and hopefully, even more ideas for things to write about.

I will be posting my review of RWBY Volume Six before I leave though. Expect that tomorrow or as soon as I have internet when I’m in Japan.

If you want to follow my journey, I have been assigned to run another blog during my trip. Sakura in Japan is the name. A lot of the prior posts are things I had to write for assignments so I procrastinated on some of them, hence the inconsistent quality. Still, expect some good stories and plenty of pictures.

Love y’all, and see you next time.