If it’s not specified, the time period covered in this post is from the 21st of October 2019 to the 25th of November 2019.
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Other People’s Reads
It wouldn’t be a round-up post without them. However, since I scour people’s archives on a regular basis, these may not even be from the right time period…
- Fans and Media by 012Mashi – This blogger did this post as part of the Animanga Festival, but I didn’t tackle this prompt (had some other writing and stuff to do). There’s entire studies about how fanwork works, but if you don’t want to get bogged down in that…well, there’s always the alternatives, one of which is us WordPress bloggers.
- #223 – Uchitama: Shirai Yuusuke and Umehara Yuichiro by Seiyuu Plus – I was going to pass on this anime because…admit it, who really cares about a mascot series from the ’80s that’s randomly getting a reboot in 2020? (Not me, at least…even with Ume in the cast.) Well, just seeing the chemistry between Shirai and Ume-chan was enough to give me nostalgic fuzzies and actually getting to read about Ume-chan in English (rather than having to parse bits and pieces from Japanese) is always a plus!
- Swipe Right: Otome Guys I’d Totally Date in Real Life by BeckNaja (Blerdy Otome) – Those Tinder profiles for fictional characters always amuse me in that I don’t know how to make one (although I feel like if I saw a proper one and had the right fonts, I could make one) as well as the fact they’re quite amusing.
Maybe I should try installing Love 365 on my phone one day…I’ve been eyeing Star-Crossed Myth as something to play ever since I heard about it… - Upsetting, Provocative, Empowering (I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Review) by Animated Andy – There’s surprisingly a lot to love about this movie (having seen it with my anime club and a pizza dinner this year), even though I feel like the ending was a curveball that almost makes it feel as if the movie is pulling your heartstrings just because it wants to prove its power upon you (for better or for worse, although I mean that phrase in a slightly negative way).
- No Guns Life: Renegade Extended by Luc (Believe in Geek) – No Guns Life is pretty up there in regards to the shows I like this season, but I don’t think I’ve really mustered up much to say about it (even after I made the post on this anime below). So, to avoid that whole “they took the words right out of my mouth” thing, hear it from someone else.
- Fire Force 1 – Shinra Kusakabe Enlists by BlameSaiki – It’s been a bit since I started Fire Force, so it was nice to have a refresher while also getting someone else’s opinion on it. (This is exactly why I don’t put much stock into standard recaps, people – your opinions hold much more weight than a recap does. Take that into account if you haven’t already, all of the bloggers this can apply to!)
- How Trends Affect the Quality of Japanese Media by Kapodaco (The Visualist’s Veranda) – To be honest, these trends affect all sorts of media, but they just crop up most visibly in anime and its kin.
- Standards Aren’t Universal by Lethargic Ramblings – Despite Leth’s jokes that SAO is anime of the summer, he’s pretty dead serious about the fact people’s tastes are subjective. (Pay attention to the comments – there’s some quality discussion there!)
- Is Demon Slayer Actually Good or Is It Just the Animation? by Keana Ghost (Geek Gals) – Now that Demon Slayer has come and gone, if you’re still on the fence about it – especially after episode 19 – here’s a second opinion.
No One Cared Who I Was Until I Opened The Box. (Sarazanmai) by Perpetual Morning – This is one of my favourite types of post – one that expresses the love/s or other interest/s of the author (in this case, cosplay) while never straying from its chosen topic all the while.
Also, to quote one of the dotpoints, “wtf a post”.
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Spellbook Offerings
Auri’s Animanga Festival
Fall 2019 First Impressions
#AniTwitWatches (School Days)
Other Stuff
- Yuki Yuna is Empowering (Or Is It…?) [Oct. ’19 OWLS Blog Tour] – Just to prove exactly how under pressure I was, I ended up conflating anime with things I was reading and writing about…
not that that really helps… - The Devil’s in the Details in Mairimashita! Iruma-kun – By “details”, I mean “Japanese puns”. Who knew you could wrangle so many demon jokes from one show…? (I also missed a pretty obvious pun in the kanji for Iruma’s name – it looks a lot like the kanji for “human”.)
- Ode to Anime Studios – Studio 3Hz – Introducing a new concept to the posts – polls!
- Mitama Security: Stretching a Single Joke Thin – This comedy manga about vanquishing spirits doesn’t really have much going for it, to be honest…
- Why We Don’t Have Enough Horror Anime – After reading some Stephen King on the way back from Japan
at an hour I probably should’ve been sleeping, it begged the question: why is there not that much horror anime? - Balancing Blogging with Daily Life – Exactly about what it says on the tin.
- No Guns, No Life – Extolling the virtues of No Guns Life, one at a time…literally!
- Failure as a Way to Move Forward in Aoharu x Kikanjuu [Nov. ’19 OWLS Blog Tour] – Hotaru fails a lot more than you think she does…
- Mangaka: Evolution – Sometimes, the entire artstyle of a mangaka can change drastically from work to work…and even within the same work.
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Current Obsessions
This is a new segment, inspired by the similar posts of Bloom Reviews and Manga Maven…I dunno, I just like to talk about whatever’s on my mind at times. So basically there will be a few dotpoints here about things I liked this past month.
- Shield Hero game: Crunchyroll was advertising a Shield Hero game made through RPG Maker a bit back and I only just got around to trying it recently. My feelings on the anime are still pretty mixed, but that doesn’t mean the game isn’t fun – in fact, the shield-switch mechanic, while a bit fiddly (since you can swap shields mid-battle but the switched-in shield stays beyond the battle), definitely does add to the experience.
- Hozuki no Reitetsu 2 (pts I + II): Finally finished it as a Halloween marathon. I think the show hit its stride this season, but at the expense of throwing in more poop jokes (which I don’t like). King Shoko and the witch could’ve gotten more focus, but…well, that’s all we’ve got. The manga apparently finished recently, so I wonder if we had enough manga content to get a (proper) season 3?
- Area no Kishi: I don’t really care about soccer – when given a choice of sports, it’s generally one I consider “a lesser evil” (but I guess it doesn’t help that there were a bunch of guys I knew when I was younger who became very passionate about Manchester United), so I have a vague understanding of the sport but no knowledge of the jargon. That said, I’ve been mentioning this show a few times because I spotted a video one day, fell for bishonen!Araki…and the rest is history.
- [secret project] – I do start making Ren’py VNs with the intention to finish, but I have a pretty terrible finishing rate with creative things, even though once an idea grabs ahold of me, I can’t let it go. That’s why I’m choosing not to reveal any more titles of these weird VNs (well, this one might be a kinetic novel first, just to prove I can finish it) until I actually get close to finishing the darn things. (I can tell you that lately in that department, isekai parodies have been in, since two of the recent ones – including this one – have been of that sort.)
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Coming up next…
- …Christmas, of course. It’s a (volunteer) retailer’s nightmare, not to mention the January clearance sale the store I volunteer at has…
- I’m thinking of changing things up a bit for the 12 Days of Anime 2019 by celebrating a bunch of anniversaries, as hinted during this post. Of course, the end posts will be the rankings – I’ve consumed a lot of anime this year for that very purpose – and the winter 2020 rankings – but I really wanted to go all out with celebrating my 5 years of simulcasts with something extra.
The Animanga Spellbook 
Wow, I appreciate the mention in the article! Thank you so much.
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You’re welcome.
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Thanks for sharing our “Demon Slayer” article!
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Thank you for the shoutout!
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