Like most years, 2011 was a mixed bag, especially as far as watching anime and blogging goes. Spent much more time this year fiddling with tabletop RPG stuff. I still love anime and figures, which is why I can’t quite kill this blog, no matter how sad it gets.
The Good
On a personal front, something interesting happened to me. If you’re ever near Sydney, Australia, and find yourself at a Japanese restaurant called Sokyo (at The Star), head over to the bar and look up at the ceiling. It’s kind of hard to see the ceiling from the pics in the link (3rd and 6th slides), but if you’re ever there, look up.
Best thing I watched this year? I loved the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Saw it at Otakon, gaining the benefit of the collective *GASP* of a few hundred people, then I saw it again twice on Blu-Ray. Favorite single episode of anything was Angel Beats Ep. 3, for the funny way that it reminded me how as a teenager that a song saved me once and how now a song can’t have that power for me anymore. As far as streaming, the only things I watched to the last episode were Usagi Drop, Hanasaku Iroha, and Fate/Zero. I liked each of them enough to finish. I also like the much maligned Guilty Crown, but at this point I’m just going to wait for a release to finish it.
Favorite figures were Ritsu with Drum Kit by Alter, Trunk Girl by Native and GSC’s Rin Tohsaka. I was quite happy with almost everything I got this year. Maybe only 2 or 3 out of (20+) that I wouldn’t have ordered if I had the chance to leap back in time, which is better than previous years, where the number was closer to 5 or 6.
The Bad
Blog content has been pretty bad. At best, a post every other month. That’s not likely to change much, so I’ll still be bad there.
And as someone who mostly watches anime via physical media, Bandai shutting down sucks. Probably means less choice when it comes to what gets on Blu-Ray and looking like another set of anime voice actors who I’ll not get to hear anymore.
The Ugly
I have a DVD/BD backlog that would occupy me for the whole year if I didn’t start something new. It’s been out of hand for a while. I mean, I still haven’t cracked open Gurren Lagaan, Summer Wars, or even the Rebuild of Evangelion discs. There’s a lot of good stuff waiting on the pile. I’ve watched shows with less reputation and hype in the meantime, so I guess I’m afraid of being disappointed when I finally do attempt to watch these. On the other hand, it means I still have some good stuff to watch at some point.
Apocalypse
Also might not be a bad thing to assume the Mayans were correct. Don’t hold yourself back in 2012.
Guess that’s how it is for most people, some good, some bad and some just ‘meh’ stuff. ^^
I’ve purchased near no figures at all in 2011, spent most on Dollfie Dream. ^^;;
“Guilty Crown” is a bit of a mixed bag for me as well, some of it is good, some of it not so good, perhaps the ending will be epic? Or not… we’ll see!
Live every day to the fullest like it’s the last! d^^b
I am still resisting the DD!
That’s really cool to see your work on the ceiling of a business. Will they give you free meals and drinks if you ever eat there?
I love Guilty Crown because it’s given me an idea for a blog post. It’s rare for an anime series to move me enough for me to want to write about it but Guilty Crown has so much that I’ve spent time thinking about. Also, Shu’s mom should get a figure.
I guess I should pick up the Sora Kake Girl DVDs before they become too difficult to find. I still prefer buying discs rather than downloads as well, and books instead of Kindle files, but I have the feeling it’s a losing struggle and looking at all the books, CDs, and DVD boxes around me, I can’t deny that it’d be pretty cool to be able to access all of those things on a tablet or telephone.
Right after Christmas I went to visit a friend and his wife to see their newborn son, and I was chatting with him about how he’s going to have to save money for his kid’s college fund while I’m dropping $200 on each pornographic pillowcase. His wife looked at me and said, “Spend it while you’ve got it.” I thought to myself, what a perfect way to phrase it. I think that’s the philosophy I’m going to follow until everything comes to an end.
I’ll probably never get to see it in person, since it’s all the way in Australia and they plan to rotate the ceiling art every year or so. It was still cool, unexpected, and totally out of the blue. I had to re-shoot both images with a 5D, which meant reconstructing the diorama for Momohime.
Friends with kids tell me the same thing. Enjoy it while you got it, because as soon as you have kids, they absorb everything. Not that they’d trade their kids for disposable income (lol), but it’s basically enjoy what you got when you have it sort of thing.
We have so much anime to be watching. We have 7 animes on our shelf and have only started like 3… haven’t finished any of them… not to mention the other ones that we just haven’t finished. So much anime so little time….
Though figurine wise we were very success with this year.
Wow the restaurant seems awesome! and you manage to get your work in it!
Whenever i head to sydney ill pop by.. but im stuck in perth for one more year :/
I wish I can check the restaurant out but I think that it would just remain to be a wish because it’s way out of my budget. Can you post more pictures of it? I’ll just view it at far.
Thanks for sharing!
Anya Ty
I love anime too but I haven’t seen this one yet. Will try to watch it if I can have a copy of it. How was the ending? Was the main character found?
You don’t have to spoil me though.
-Lou
I definitely recommend Summer Wars. Easily my favorite film of the past year.
I will have to check out Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. There are so many good animes to watch and so little time to watch them.
I agree with Mark S., Summer Wars is great and also one of my favorite film of the past year. Check it out!
It’s been hanging out in a stack of discs waiting to be watched. I need to break it out of the shrink wrap and watch that thing.