I think I'm pretty much done with LJ. Not sure if I'm going to delete this account or not yet. 

If you want to keep in touch, Something Eternal is the place to be. If not, then that's okay, too. I'm not a very good LJ-friend anyways. Hope anyone who still reads this is doing well~

It's been almost a year since I created this journal/blog/whatever. As you know, hordes of people have been abandoning LJ because it's being a dumbfuck. Guess what?

    I think I'll be conforming.    

Ever since the rich text and shit changed, I have been retyping my posts. And I'm sick of it. And I don't even think half of my friends list even updates anymore. There are other reasons why LJ's been annoying me, but I'm too tired to think. So I'm prancing off merrily to Wordpress and starting over. Feel free to continue reading my posts. Or not. I'll still be checking in regularly in LJ, but not updating. Might delete my myna5194 journal...

Anyway, I hope to see you over at Something Eternal!
(you don't need an account to comment ;D)

Back in the winter season almost a year ago, there was an image of four pastel and fluffy looking girls on the preview charts. "Oh dear god, it's the token mahou shoujo of the season," I thought to myself. "Oh wait, Kajiura Yuki's composing the soundtrack? And Kalafina's singing the ending theme? Maybe I should watch this anyway."

And then, episode three happened. The Internet exploded. Madoka Magica became a phenomenon.

Thousands of people were entranced by it, people who had dropped it picked it up again, and it landed a spot on a vast number of fans' all time favorites lists. No one expected it to be as popular, or as epic, or as well told as it was. I feel pretty confident saying that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the first classic of the 2010s.

Moment #3: The moment Madoka Magica finally showed its true colors.

Yes, I know it's not anime. Deal with it.

I consider myself gamer. Well, a light one. After all, the only type of games I really play are JRPGs: Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Golden Sun, etc. I also play the Professor Layton games, Mario Kart, Pokemon of course, and a few others. (I'm terrible at FPSs though. Don't get me started.)

Anyway. The point is: I have never played a Zelda game until last month. The franchise that was named the greatest game of all time in Game Informer magazine. The RPG that transcends the title of legendary. I've never touched it.

When word got out among my nerd friends in school, I was jokingly harassed to play them. In November, my boyfriend forced me to play them. I started a few: Majora's Mask (which seriously gave me nightmares), Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, and the newly released Skyward Sword. I promptly began to read up on a whole lot of things: titles, terminology, characters, etc. I soon found myself immersed in the magical land of Hyrule. 

Words don't even describe how much I suck at playing these games. It's really pathetic. My boyfriend enjoys laughing at my failure. But they're fun nonetheless, and I play them almost every time I go over to his house. Not necessarily by my own volition.

Moment #4: Finally playing the Zelda games.

The name of a legend. A god of the anime world. Mention this name in any anime community, and people will start singing nothing but endless praise for the man. Unfortunately, I was only blessed by the anime gods this year and just discovered him about a mere six months ago.

My first Kon directed anime was Millennium Actress, and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Then I moved in to the TV series, Paranoia Agent. It's brilliant, filled with tons of excellent metaphors, and is one of the best psychological/horror stories out there. Tokyo Godfathers is perhaps, as Scamp so puts it: the greatest feel good anime ever. Paprika is tons of fun, and Perfect Blue is a genuinely creepy and an extremely well done horror flick. Basically, everything Satoshi Kon does is terrific.

I'm a little late here, but RIP, Ssatoshi Kon. I'm so sorry I couldn't celebrate your magnificence while you were still alive.

Moment #5: watching the works of one of the greatest storytellers ever.

Prior to this year, I'd only seen a small handful of mecha series: Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, and Macross Frontier. And I love all of them. But despite the fact that I like them, I still had the awful tendency to judge mecha as a whole. Well, that finally ended this year. 

I completed Rideback. I got through half of Eureka Seven. I watched and read Bokurano, which quickly became one of my favorite mangas of all time. In addition, I watched all of the Evanglion movies (save for Death & Rebirth) and both Gurren Lagann films. And now I've also become a fan of one of the biggest anime franchises of all time, Macross. (I have one more Macross installment to go, Macross 7. I've heard abysmal things about it, and I hope that they're not true.)

It's taken a while but I've finally gotten past my bias against giant robots. (For the most part anyway.) All that's left to do is become a Gundam person. Then I'll really feel like a nerd. 

Moment #6: Discovering then ten year old boy within my heart.

Steins;Gate is undoubtedly one of the best shows to air this year. It's also one of the most well received, ranking at number three on MAL. (Which I still disagree with.) But it took a long time to get so great. The first half was full of witty humor and other interesting things that slowly moved the plot along. But it was very, very slow.

However, the end of episode twelve was then Steins;Gate finally kicked it into gear. Episode twelve fulfilled a desire that I had from the very beginning. It was the moment when all of the underlying danger finally rose to the surface. The moment when I finally started looking forward to seeing the next episode every week.

Moment #7: Seeing the HanaKana moeblob getting a well deserved bullet to the head. (As well as getting hit by a train, etc.)

I've loved CLAMP since my beginning days as an anime fan. Cardcaptor Sakura was the first anime I ever watched in Japanese, and it's still one of my all time favorites. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles was also a very early favorite, both the anime and manga. (Though now I realize that Bee Train did a shit job with the TV series.)  So yeah, I like CLAMP. I like what they do. But this year, not so much.

Let's start with Blood-C. Oh dear god. It was one of the most hyped shows of the season. With an all star cast, a great composer, and animation by Production IG, what could possibly go wrong? 

Then, episode one happened. And then it happened again. And again. And again; With the slightest hint of plot progression only appearing around episode five. They storytelling was terribly amateurish, characterization failed, and the animation quality that was rather strong in the beginning plummeted during the last few episodes. Blood-C was a hot mess of endless trolling.

I've been reading xxxHOLiC since seventh grade. It was one of my favorite mangas back then, and I still managed to love it for the past five years. The characters are very dear to me, I loved the individual stories, and the spirits were very fun and charming. But then....the food arc happened. The first sign that xxxHOLiC was heading downhill. And then, Rou happend. Rou. Rou. Rou. I hate Rou. I refuse to acknowledge its existence. It destroyed everything that I loved about the series. It ruined so many thing: from the hints that Watanuki was in love with Yuuko, to the hints that Doumeki and Kohane were going to be a couple, to Watanuki's transformation into an emo drag queen. It was just wrong in an infinite amount of ways.

CLAMP needs to take a long vacation, get some new ideas (guh, Gate 7), learn to write good (or at least decent) stories and endings again. Regain the spark that they had in the 90s. Because their track record hasn't been to spectacular these past couple of years.

Well, at least the Kobato manga got a nice ending.

Moment #8: Losing respect for CLAMP.

Usagi Drop was one of the best and sweetest shows to air this year. It told a lovely story of an adult male and a little girl without being loli-pedo or otaku bait. It was slow paced, but still retained a story structure. Rin was an adorable little child who was genuinely cute and didn't act like a nondescript moeblob. Since I loved the anime so much, it's no surprise that I decided to read the manga, which had ended earlier this year.

Everyone said the manga ending was terrible. Everyone said that it ruined the series. That it was just so creepy and destroyed everything Usagi Drop had once been.

And they were right.

If there is ever a second season, I pray that the writers will chance the ending.

Drastically.

Moment #9: The despair I felt when I realized exactly where the manga was going. 

The title is self explanatory. This year, I passed the 300 completed anime mark. And unlike my 200th completed anime, this one was completely and utterly spectacular. 

Gankutsuou is easily one of the best shows I've seen this year, landing in my top ten just as soon as I finished it. It has one of the most unique and greatest art and art direction of pretty much any anime I've ever seen. Its pacing, storytelling, and characterization are all pretty much flawless. The soundtrack was also very good. Gankutsuou is amazing in every aspect imaginable. 

It makes me wish that more anime nowadays were still like this: creative, original and ambitious, 

So if you haven't seen Gankutsuou yet, what the hell are you waiting for?! (I've already went and rewatched it, haha.)

Moment #10: Watching and completeting my 300th anime, Gankutsuou.