Aniwords – Being an Anime Fan in the 3D World

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One thing I really enjoy about being an anime fan is seeing how this particular hobby that I have interacts with the non-anime liking world. I’ve had some great experiences—like friends watching the entirety of shows I like and love (SAO and Chihayafuru, respectively) with me—and some not so great ones. But we’re all anime fans who live in the real world, and not all of us (aka, me!) want anime to just be a hobby that we keep in the privacy of our apartments. I’m not ashamed of liking anime, but every time I try and dodge telling people about it makes me feel like I am.

I don’t want to be that kind of person. I want to be someone who is authentic, even if it means that I get into some awkward moments sometimes. This column is a story about that wish.

Here’s the link~

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Hyouka, Episode 7

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It’s nice to have an onsen episode sometimes; I don’t think I could keep up the writing pace last week’s episode demanded for the rest of the show. That’s (of course) not to say that Hyouka entirely took the week off, only that the lower stakes of this week’s episode gave a little more breathing room to the cinematography and general character work—turns out Hyouka Lite isn’t so bad.

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First Impressions: Fall 2015 Anime (Part 2)

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After the first rush of shows wound up being something less than significantly impressive, we got Sunday. Ah, Sunday, formerly a bastion of peace and no simulcasting shows—now, the unarguable king of the autumn season. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve never had a single day of the anime week on which every single show was good (of course, I’m not counting things I didn’t even bother trying), so this is even more of a welcomed rarity. The Lord’s Day brings its blessings…

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Aniwords – Where Do Hot Anime Boys Come From?

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Thanks to the influence of a prominent fujoshi friend on Twitter (Mira, if you’re reading, you’re wonderful and yes, this is about you), I’ve kind of been working over the past few months or so at increasing my personal appreciation for good-looking anime guys. Whether they’re cute (you may recall my weekly palpitations over Danmachi’s Bell Cranel) or beautifully hot (shoutout to Kuroko’s Basketball and Kise), I think it’s a good thing for me to cultivate a healthy appreciation for good people aesthetics in both guys and girls.

Happily, the current anime season has had not shortage of cute/hot anime guys to aid me in this quest. So, of course, I spent this week’s Aniwords talking about how glad of that I was.

Here’s the link~

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Hyouka, Episode 6

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An episode in which Hyouka shows that it can not only be supremely delicate, sensitive, and elegant, but can also be a whole lot of fun. Unexpected, yes—but probably a wise decision after the subtle tension of the previous two episodes. If episodes 4 and 5 were a solemn navy, episode 6 was most certainly the rose-color Oreki so dislikes. But I’m not Oreki, so I liked this episode quite a lot!

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Fall 2015 Anime: First Impressions (Part 1)

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I was gearing up for next weekend to be the big rush of shows, but uh…yeah, apparently it’s already happening. And I’ve been watching, as it were—so here’s my rundown of what caught my attention, what disappointed me, and what left me in the aggravating middle between keeping and dropping. Why can’t everything just be very good or very bad! All this middle-of-the-road stuff is hard to deal with!

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Top Summer 2015 Anime: Final Ratings

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Another season has passed. Despite being a rather slow season and mostly lacking in shows I would consider worthy of serious superlatives, I was generally amused, entertained, and engaged by the stuff I ended up watching all the way to the end. As always, there were some up weeks and some down weeks, but on the whole I’m pretty happy with the way this season ended up. It certainly won’t go down as one of the best in anime history—but when you come away from a season with an episode of a bubble dropping on Lelei’s head, how can you really complain?

GATE

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Aniwords – Anime. You. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

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Alright, this week’s Aniwords is live! Sorry, I’m late posting it over here—I was busy watching the pile of crap that was Charlotte. Anyways, this week I used a sparkly title to talk about getting mad at people’s opinions. This honestly isn’t really even about anime that much, but more about the things that happen around anime watching (or engaging with any kind of media, really).

I’m not sure how much I actually like this post, but it came to me pretty easily, so that’s good, I guess?

Here’s the link~

Classroom Crisis

Hyouka, Episode 5

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In which all of my irritation with Oreki melts away—even if Oreki is constantly putting on an act for his friends, he can’t fool the camera. Unsurprisingly, the sincerity offered therein has given me a whole lot more appreciation (dare I say affection?) for this character and the particular circumstances of the life he’s living.

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