As time goes, so go we. Yet, the world continues to spin around us.

This post is the first of my entries into 2017’s rendition of the 12 Days of Anime aniblogger project. For more about the project, read appropriant’s introductory post. Please also check out the spreadsheet containing the work of all the bloggers participating!

The Breathing Year

Lately I’ve been trying to figure out my own taste in anime.

I don’t mean that I think my taste has dramatically changed over the past year. I still stand by my top anime list as an accurate listing of my favorite shows and an effective illustration of the kinds of things I like. In fact, if anything, I think my preferences toward specific kinds of things have only solidified. But as I continue to seek out new things to engage with, hopefully enjoy, and possibly even love, I find myself fascinated with the ever-shifting relationship between myself and this curious industry’s wonderful productions.

Our brushes with art are always intensely personal experiences, even as they are communal ones, and despite the seeming narcissism of pondering my own idiosyncrasies as an anime fan, I find that I believe there’s something worthwhile in this. At least, that’s what I tell myself—else this coming series of posts would not exist.

Despite everything, I am still Aqua.

“If I learn something about the art I love, perhaps I will learn something about myself.”

This is the assumption, the guess on which this project is founded. I am not going into this entirely blind. Somewhere along the way (perhaps it was while watching Star Driver), I hit upon the idea that what I’m looking for in anime these days, what I’ve perhaps always been looking for, is “color.” Of course, I don’t mean this in a strictly visual sense, although that is part of it. Rather, I believe this vaporous idea has something to do with what I perceive to be the essential nature of the anime of which I am most fond.

What does this has to do with me, the person, and my evolving life as a person who comes into contact with art? What can I learn about myself while teasing out the implications of those things that are “colorful”? Somewhere in the collage of sight, sound, and emotion that was my year in anime and anime fandom, I hope to find something that resembles an answer—and I hope that perhaps my exploration and (God willing) insights provide a chance for those of you who explore with me to consider yourselves in new and curious ways.

Will Macross Frontier reappear in this year’s series? Only time will tell…

So that I don’t leave this post entire void of anything beyond my own spacey wonderings, here’s a non-exhaustive list of some of the shows I plan to cover: 

• Owarimonogatari S2
• High Speed! -Free! Starting Days-
• Houseki no Kuni
• Star Driver: The Movie
• Saekano♭
• Anthem of the Heart