Another year of anime

Thirty anime series.

One week, two days, twenty-two hours, and twenty-six minutes.

Last year, I estimated that I spent 12.3 minutes a day watching anime. This year, it was more like 1.6 episodes every day!

What changed? I started reviewing anime, which meant I usually watch the anime I am reviewing twice before I write it up. John and I started watching anime while we eat dinner. I spent more of my nights curled up with an anime on my iPad instead of a book (I only read 44 books this year, compared to 57 in 2013).

It’s becoming apparent that “anime burnout” isn’t a problem I’m ever going to have. It’s not a phase either; the older I get, the more I love it. So something has to change on my part. Here are the ways I will make my anime viewing more disciplined in 2015:

Pick my review shows veeerrry carefully

At Anime News Network, I’ve indefinitely agreed to review three shows every season. If I don’t like those shows, I still have to watch them (twice, usually), and watch the anime I actually like in my spare time. If I do more research and plan better, I can make those the only shows I even want to watch that season. It’s not like there are often more than three that are really good.

This time really, seriously, vow to drop bad shows

I always say I’m going to do this and I don’t! I wonder if it got better, or I get minorly interested in something that’s happening; heck I’m still watching Psycho Pass 2 which by this point has become almost unwatchable. I pride myself on being a filter through which my friends can receive only the choicest recommendations but ew, who wants to be a dirty filter? This year I will try to cultivate a sense of disgust for watching shows I don’t even like.

Think, “What could I be creating right now?”

I have a lot of creative project ideas. I’m working on the fandom short story collection I started, embarrassingly, back in August. I have a lot of helpful mini product ideas for otaku journalists. I want to self-publish some guides for Gunpla 101, too. And this is just the stuff at the top of the list. What if, instead of watching anime for 30 minutes a day, I could say I worked on a special project for 30 minutes every day in 2015? That’s an accomplishment I could be proud of.

Yes, these are almost the same resolutions I set for 2014. Guess I’ll need to keep making them until I finally graduate to new goals.

Screenshot via Yowamushi Pedal.

This post is the twelfth installment of The Twelve Days Of Anime, a blogging series in which anime fans write about shows that inspired or impressed on them this year. For all the posts in this series, visit my table of contents.