AnimeKritik’s Interrogation Room: Uninvited Guest

Even though I wasn’t tagged, I couldn’t resist, AnimeKritik’s questions are just TOO AWESOME not to answer… I’m not starting a new interrogation or reposting the rules, I’m just doing this for fun.

AnimeKritik’s questions:

1. DREAM: You go to the bathroom and hear the sound of water.  You open the door and to your utter amazement __________ is using your shower and smiling at you.  [Fill in the blank with an anime character of your choice]

2. NIGHTMARE: You go to the bathroom and hear the sound of water.  You open the door and to your utter amazement __________ is using your shower and smiling at you.  [Fill in the blank with an anime character of your choice]

3. Why do anime characters have such big eyes?

It has something to do with purple, which girls can’t do…

4. What anime series, if mentioned in a conversation as “a good show” or “a fun show” or “actually OK” or “not that bad”, will most likely make you throw up because of the horrible taste the person speaking evidently has?

Bleach, Naruto, One Piece (sometimes)…

5. Does watching anime in the nude enhance your viewing experience in any way?  How so?  Explain in detail and/or with pictures.

 

Okay, I’m done…unless the remaining victims of my own interrogation complete their torture, in which I’ll answer my own interrogation.

The Anime Blogger Interrogation Game Olympics Championship

Also known as just “Anime Blogger Interrogation Game”… I was tagged by Chikorita157 to answer some questions, then post my own, tagging other bloggers in similar fashion. Other than being a convenient filler (too tired and lazy to write about anime), it seems like fun. So I’ll cut to the good stuff:

• Each person is supposed to follow the rule of fives.You are allowed to ask 5 questions, after which you can tag up to 5 bloggers by hyper-linking to their blog; 5 questions because it’s not too many to flood another blogger and occupy too much of his/her time, but yet a large enough number to ask your most important questions, and 5 bloggers to avoid spamming. Hence, prioritize your questions, and who you wish to ask!
• Those tagged are obliged to answer the questions in a blog post, and after which, they are entitled to create their own 5 questions and tag 5 other bloggers, so on and so fourth. You are allowed to tag the person that tagged you in the first place. Also, copy and paste this section on your blog so others can understand how the game goes.
• In the case where a blogger strongly refuses to answer a question, he/she must instead post a nice anime image, wallpaper or cosplay picture, et cetera in response to that question.
• To make things interesting, a blogger can include wildcards in his/her 5 questions by placing an asterisk, (*), after which those tagged are obliged to reveal something interesting about themselves that others did not previously know. There is no limit to the number of asterisks one can place (which means there can be up to 5 wildcard questions).
• Anyone can feel free to start the game; you don’t necessarily need someone to tag you. Just create your 5 questions and tag your 5 people of choice. However, the catch is that you must answer your own 5 questions as well.
• To potentially prevent an endless game, this round of games will end on the 8th September 2012, 12pm JST (GMT +9). After which, no more bloggers can tag others to answer their questions.

Chikorita’s Questions:
1. Which anime from 2011 did you enjoy most?
A Channel…I don’t need no reason to enjoy (love) A Channel…but here’s a few.

2. Do you play video games? If so, what kinds of games do you play? Also, what consoles do you own?
I do play the video games. I mostly play Pokemon, but I also dabble in a varying degree of games. I’ve wasted more time than I care to admit playing Skyrim (without actually accomplishing anything), and I got tired of FPS multiplayer pretty quick. I still play with my friend (owns a PS3), but I have no interest in playing online with anyone else. I don’t have many games because my budgetary status won’t allow for them, but I do own a DSlite and a busted DS (to use for trading and migrating pokemon). I’m hoping to get a 3DS soon to play Black 2.

3. Do you currently study the Japanese language? If so, what method did you take? If not, why?
はい、わたしは日本語をべんきょうします。
I’m learning in school with a native-speaking teacher (one of my scariest/favoritest teachers). I just started Japanese III and will be soon studying kanji. I’m also the Vice President of my school’s Japanese club.

4. Who are your favorite Japanese singers/composers?
I have awful tastes when it comes to music, and my preferences don’t usually fall along artist or composer lines. But, I guess Aoi Yuki is really the only Japanese singer I consistently enjoy. My favorite song being either “Sugar Loop” or “Tokei Kanransha” (don’t make me choose). But I’ve also got some Supercell as well as various anime singles (even though it goes without saying).

5. How do you taste test a show?
It’s kinda weird how I gauge to watch a show or not. If I see good things, like in Nichijou’s case, I’ll try it. Nichijou massively surpassed my expectations from the few Youtube clipes I’d seen, and I regret not seeing the whole thing sooner. But there’s also a thing where if I think it’s overhyped, like Sword Art Online, I don’t want to try it. I feel like I can’t get a real opinion of it and I’ll only see “its awsume!!1!!”, and don’t want to touch it.

Now that you know just how horrible of a person I am now, I’ll hit up my questions for 5 “new” victims of the Interrogation.
1. Do you consider any single series unwatchable?
2. Is there a single series that spring-boarded you, per se, into a wider obsession with anime?
3. Name an anime/manga character (from any series) that most closely matches you in appearance (or in personality, if you want).
4. When you read other bloggers’ posts about a series you are also watching, if they post about an episode you have yet to see, do you read it, or do you avoid it until you’ve written your own post about it?
5. If you could be present at any point on the Earth, at any point in time, when and where would you go? Explain.

And the victims are:
Marthaurion @ Marth’s Anime Blog
Tsurugiarashix @ KaminariAnime
Animekritik @ Kritik der Animationskraft 
Feal87 @ EmptyBlue 
Chikorita157 @ Chikorita157′s Anime Blog (returning the tag)

And for added fun, if all 5 of these victims fulfill the Interrogation, I’ll answer my own questions as well.

Anime…all the time?

If you’ve been stalking me, then you know that I haven’t posted anything here in about a week. While I could easily attribute this to packing/moving/working on other projects, I think it could be better summarized as me simply not wanting to watch any anime, whether I was writing about it or not. I even tried to catch up on Folktales from Japan (which I’m still 10 episodes behind), but I just wasn’t in the mood to watch any anime last week, much less write about it.

Some, rather annoying, anime fans may conclude that I don’t have the same level of passion for it that others do. But I see it more like this: how can you appreciate something fully if you don’t occasionally go outside your norm? When it comes to anime, how could you be able to understand why you like it so much if you don’t take in other forms of media and entertainment? While I normally entertain myself with more than just anime, programs like Adventure Time, Scrubs, and Louie frequent my television, whatever I’m currently watching from the season tends to hold majority over my entertainment content.

But what happens when you cut out your majority share of entertainment? If you look at my Youtube history, you’d see that I start watching interviews with everyone from Louie C.K. , Jon Stewart, and Ze Frank, every abridged episode I find, random Pokemon videos, and one hour long videos about the “hidden” human history involving Atlantis, Jesus, and martians. Essentially, a range of comedy to seriousness. But what’s important to take away is that it helped me to break away from the usual tranes of thought that watching anime keeps you on. Being able to delve into topical subjects helps to freshen your outlook in ways anime can’t. There’s also a certain way of interacting with others, both online and in real life, that gets impaired when all you watch is cartoons (being brutally honest).

Or maybe this is all just me and I’m over-thinking being too lazy to write anything for a week. What do others think of not watching anime for a week to explore outside tastes in other forms of media? Is it a good idea to get back to why you liked anime in the first place, or just a horrible excuse to let new shows pile up on the docket while you don’t watch them…which reminds me, new stuff to watch and write about.

Remembering Love: A Channel

Following a string of “Remembering Love” posts, initiated by trzr23, I’ve decided to remember my love for A Channel (shockingly :3). The rules set by trzr23 are straightforward and simple: Rewatch your favorite anime, Post about it every Sunday, Do NOT review. Like Yumeka, I’m breaking the 2nd rule seeing as May is more than half over. And as for the 1st rule…I rewatch A Channel periodically, so I have no qualms with this.

From a completely subjective standpoint, the reason A Channel is the anime that sticks out most for me and helps me return to the reason I started reviewing anime series, is because I absolutely fell in love with the characters. Maybe because I was going through something similar at the time (older, close friends moving away), or perhaps it was just something more personal that reached out to me in the comedic day-to-day activities and the sometimes exuberant cast. At the time, A Channel wasn’t “the anime to watch”, and (if memory serves) few blogs were covering it at all. This usually drives my decisions to watch and review the anime series no one else is. Because it’s not about which one is more popular or which one looks like it’ll be the best. It’s about what someone enjoys.

A Channel, by no means, has a ground breaking plot or original character sets. But it’s the fact that it captured the fascination of a single anime viewer almost a year ago that reminds me of what I felt when it seemed like I was one of the few who adored it so much. I’m not saying I was in a place by myself, it’s just…not a fun feeling to see your favorite anime being overlooked and passed over. Not criticized, but not elevated to the same level you put it up to in your mind. While this is probably true of almost every anime, we all wish to see our favorites adored by others as well, but sometimes it’s merely the fact that someone else has taken the time to partake as well that helps secure your feelings for a show.

I still remember hitting “Refresh” like a maniac the night before my foot surgery last spring, I was desperate for the last episode of A Channel. Not that I was afraid the surgery would be problematic or that it was new to me, this was my fourth major surgery. It was just that by the fourth time going through it, I had started feeling numb to it, and that scared me. I found kinship with Tooru as she moves toward a future without her friends, and I guess I was determined that she saw it through, so I could as well. I fell asleep that night just after Tooru’s tears fell over her smile as she hugged Run for being the same friend she’s always been.

It was such an irrational emotional connection, but that’s what eventually got me into anime blogging. That feeling of being so immersed in a show, and how all anime viewers just look for others who enjoy it as well. A Channel was the series that really propelled me into more anime series currently airing, and was the door that led to where I am today. My re-watch count for A Channel (beginning to end, including the +A Channels and now the OVA, A Channel +smile) is in the 20s, and I’ve even made a game out of it called “A Channel Roulette”. It’s shows like A Channel that I dream and hope to make once I’ve become an animator, and every time I re-watch, my desire gets re-kindled.

 

As for the last rule of “Remembering Love”, I’ve never been able to review A Channel anyhow. I’m far too biased, and maybe you now understand why. Through good anime and bad, A Channel has remained my favorite series. With the release of A Channel +smile, I’ve seen a slight increase in interest for the series, but overall, I think it’s just the ones who loved the original season that are getting excited for the OVA. So, while you’re free think what you want about me and my irrational emotional attachments, I’ll be sitting here, waiting, for A Channel….Season 2!