Anime Solstice

That’s a question I’ve been asking a lot recently. I’ve recently returned to full-time work, and though I know that is no excuse whatsoever, my time spent with anime is dwindling. And I can’t really explain why either.

My plans for Anime Solstice for this year remain the same though. I want to do my Revolutionary Girl Utena post project, and I want to get this “Everyone is Telling Me to Hate” project going. A part of me is even looking forward to watching the torture that is Mahouka all in one ago again. So has it really been this season that has done a number on me?

I think perhaps what it has been is that I had been so engrossed in watching the current season’s anime for so long, that I had somewhat forgotten about everything else. I had a real ball writing my Otaku Theater column for The OASG, and so now I’ve stepped away from that and feel this new freedom to watch whatever show I want when I want*, it is just…strange.

(*I know this sounds absolutely nuts to a lot of anime viewers, but bearing in mind that seasonal anime was pretty much the only thing I watched for over 10 years…)

Let us have a quick look at what this Winter 2024 has for us. A lot of us will be turning to Netflix’s acquisition of Dungeon Meshi, which they have renamed as Delicious in Dungeon…for some reason. It’s a 2-cour show, and it’ll be something I’ll need to sink my teeth into. I think Studio Trigger might be in that weird position where they are considering where to let their shows go to first. Two reasons why I think this:

1. Their last show, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a co-production with CD Projekt RED, is a Netflix exclusive. Details on when their new version of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt are very sketchy as of time of writing, and their most recent movie, Gridman Universe, still has no Western release date (again as of time of writing).
2. Episodes for Dungeon Meshi are being released at the same time in the West as they are in Japan. Netflix have only ever done this once, with Violet Evergarden. Trigger obviously know the West are an audience to be reckoned with.

Another show I have my eye on is Metallic Rouge, by Bones. And yes, people are already putting out theories and conspiracies that Bones’ other shows set on Mars, Cowboy Bebop and Carole and Tuesday, are all set in the same universe and/or timeline. I personally would consider that pretty awesome, although I honestly don’t think so at all.

So, two shows. Everything else this season has been a hard no for me. And although I know that’s not really an unusual thing for an anime viewer to do, it’s often been the case that I feign interest in at least 6-8 shows. But even though I say that, I don’t consider this Winter season to be a weak one at all. It is giving us a lot of shows that a lot of viewers will watch, love and appreciate. I think when the Spring season comes, I’ll be onto a lot of shows…and I mean a lot.

Both Yuru Camp and Sound! Euphonium are coming back for their third seasons. Production I.G are giving us an epic-looking action show about kaijus in modern-day Japan (Kaiju No. 8), and even my beloved Mahouka is getting its third season too. And of course there’s the fact that the Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia hardcore fans have new content to chew on. I just cannot believe that My Hero Academia is in its seventh season, plus a fourth movie is coming out later this year. At this rate, I think Bones will consider the MHA franchise done and dusted when Deku retires from his salaryman job.

This blog is important to me, even if not many people read it. I’m able to vent some frustrations and put out some ideas about how anime has come to me and affected me over the years. I do have my next post in a draft, so that’s something – a brand new “Everyone is Telling Me to Hate” post. I do think that the Utena post project will take a lot of research and time to complete though. And of course I won’t ever say no to a show review post. I will also say that there has been one other post that has been in draft for a while, but because of its very sensitive nature, I know I have to get it 1000% perfect before publishing it (yes, that’s a thousand, not a hundred).

So am I just making my full-time job an excuse to put this blog aside? It feels so wrong that I’m thinking like that considering how much time and effort I’ve put here. I am no journalist or professional reviewer either. I just type words onto a screen, and then mix them round to form sentences that make some kind of sense.

(I didn’t even bother with a witty title for this post. Written hastily in less than 30 minutes…)

Hi. So it’s almost 2024. And this blog has been around for longer than I thought. Although I know that this hasn’t really been a place I update as much as I would like. I look at so many other anime bloggers and am in a kind of mixture between envy and awe. Writing here isn’t a full-time thing for me, and it never really has been. I left my regular column on The OASG in July meaning I haven’t had a real reason to catch up on new shows. Which in turn meant I had less of a reason to even watch anime in the first place.

The Spring season saw me watching Oshi no Ko, Skip and Loafer and season 2 of Tonikawa, alongside an out-of-season Lycoris Recoil. I don’t even remember what was in the Summer season, and I only know a handful of stuff that came in this Fall season. I won’t lie when I say that these last few months of an ‘anime break’ have been quite wonderful. I had been following and writing about new and seasonal anime for around 8-9 years, and now that era (if you can call it that) is over, it’s like some weight has been lifted off my shoulders. You know how corporate Vtubers can sometimes be tied down with what kind of content they have to put out, and then when they leave the company they feel a sense of relief knowing they can do what they want…well that almost how I feel.

(Not sure why I used that analogy; I just have gotten into them this past year. Call me a Nijisanji EN and VShojo simp, I guess.)

So what will 2024 do for me now that I’ve taken a good amount of time off from watching anime? Well I do have a few ideas in mind, and I thought I might as well share some of them. Not sure if I mentioned some of them in a past post, but whatever:

• Before the blog post purge, I did a 12-hour marathon of Mahouka season 1. To say it was a painful experience would be an understatement…which is why I think it’s time to not only relive that experience, but make it bigger by watching season 2 alongside it.
• I remember mentioning that I was doing another post project similar to the Revue Starlight one I did. Well I’m still committed to doing it, and I’ll also tell you a little more about it. The show I’ll be covering for it is another sword lesbian show: Revolutionary Girl Utena. Like the Revue Starlight post project, I won’t be going down a chronological order route, and instead will be touching on individual topics and moments that are raised in the show. Things like gender non-conformity, feminism, misogyny and manipulation, flower language, and the deeper connection that Utena and Anthy have.
• My EX-ARM defense post is one of the most read posts I have here, and stands out considering everyone else in the community seems to loathe it so much. Well I wanted to write about shows that the community either despise with a passion, or really love to hate. And there are quite a few of them too. Which is why I’m going to do an ongoing project which I’m calling ‘Everyone is Telling Me to Hate’. I have a couple of shows already in mind, and am eager to put out the first one as soon as I can. Possibly once Christmas is over.
• The Pretty Cure/Precure franchise has been going for a very long time, and will be in 19th generation (21st season) in 2024. Going through all of them would be a Herculean task, I know, but it’s still something I want to talk about somehow. Whether it be going all the way back to Futari wa Pretty Cure, or talking about the franchise’s themes as a whole, or even the Glitter Force show that Netflix put together. I won’t be putting this idea aside; I just want more time to think about what to do. Hell it may even become a super long post project like the Utena one I have in mind.
• More show reviews are definitely coming. I’m happy with the recent ones I’ve done of Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall and Fate/Extra: Last Encore. They are both shows that people have mixed opinions on, and I really liked talking about the pros and cons of each of them.
• Will I be going back to talking about brand new seasonal shows? I haven’t really decided yet. To be honest, I haven’t really paid much attention to what is coming in 2024. Who knows though…depends on what catches my eye, I suppose.

There are other post ideas as well, but I won’t be talking about them just yet. I’m hoping 2024 will be a year where I take this blog more seriously. This Christmas will be super cheap for me intentionally. I want to raise money for other things coming up in life, so some of the holiday days will just feel like any other day.

I’ll try and binge-watch some show I guess.