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Five Years of Weekly Anime Streaming Reviews

In the summer of 2014, I became an Anime News Network weekly streaming reviewer. I just finished up my reviews for summer 2018 and realized it’s been five years. Interestingly, one of the summer 2014 shows I reviewed was Free! Eternal Summer and one of the summer 2018 shows I reviewed was Free! Dive to the Future.

I started out reviewing three shows every season, though now I usually cover two. My reviews have a minimum 500-word count, though I end up going over that more often than not because it’s easy to get chatty about a half hour of anime. Last year I calculated that I had written about 300,000 words of reviews in four years and that’s probably close to 380,000 now.

Unlike other work, each write-up is simple enough that I rarely take time off for them. I’ve written my weekly streaming review between panels at Anime Boston and in a hotel room over the Shinjuku skyline. I’ve tested the extent of internet connections everywhere. I watched an episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans from John’s grandmother’s house in rural West Virginia in three-minute spurts between buffering (not my favorite viewing format). Another time, at a friend’s forest-enclosed lake house, everyone else agreed to log off their various devices so I could throttle the connection with Luck & Logic.

After my first reviewing season, I wrote up some takeaways about the art and craft of anime criticism. Reading that same post now, all I can think is that I was spending too much time in the comments section, checking out how other people were critiquing my critiques. At the time, I thought the only way to be fair was to write while predicting the comments my reviews would get, but that just made my reviews too cautious. I would read what other fans thought about the show in the forums and try to deliver the median opinion, but it wasn’t genuine. Now I realize people come for my opinion on a show, which gets more nuanced the more experience I get. Five years means I have reviewed 20 seasons of anime, which amounts to a lot of practice!

Ultimately, the main thing I’ve learned is that so much of the anime we watch each season is forgettable. In those 20 seasons, I’ve reviewed something like 40 shows (because of double cours and multiple seasons, otherwise it’d be a lot more), and how many of them do I even recall? Some stick out as winners I’ll inevitably watch again, like Land of the Lustrous and Ushio and Tora. But most of them, I struggle to remember clearly. Remember Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun? What about Gunslinger Stratos? I barely remember Denki-Gai, but the ANN website informs me that I’ve written 6,000 words on the subject.

With five years on the books, I’m not planning on slowing down. I’ve already begun my Fall 2018 reviews for Run With The Wind and Tsurune. While 2018 has been kind of a bust for me as a fandom writer, as health and other personal issues have slowed me down a bunch, anime reviews keep me grounded in a routine while contributing to the conversation. Thanks to so many of you for reading my reviews of shows great, awful, and middling, and I’ll see you around for the next five years at least, if ANN will continue to have me.

(Screenshot from Tsurune.) 

My Otakon 2018 Panel Line-Up

When my to-do list is packed, updating this blog is the first thing to go. Over the last few weeks, John and I bought a condo and moved in—a life-changing event that was not made much easier by our old apartment and our new place being located just a block apart.

At the same time, it’s been a client-heavy July for me. Since I don’t make the same amount of money every month, I rely on the busy times to make up the difference. For that reason, I didn’t say no to a single assignment in July even though I was in the middle of a move!

Additionally, I have a four-legged houseguest coworking with me this week. For timely updates on this developing story, check Twitter.

Even though I still have Gunpla models to unpack, I’ve moved on to using my free time on polishing my Otakon panels. I’m planning to write a tutorial about how I research and technically create panels in the future. But for now, if you want to see what I do, you’ll have to come to one of my panels! Here are the panels I’ll be giving at Otakon 2018:

Patlabor, the Other Great Mecha Franchise You’ve Never Heard Of

Friday, 5 PM – 6 PM

It ain’t Gundam, but this mold-breaking mecha show is credited as the inspiration behind Pacific Rim. On the heels of an announcement about a brand new addition to the Patlabor franchise, we’re revisiting Studio Headgear’s original masterpiece. We’ll be sharing plenty of clips from this part-comedy sitcom, part-robot action show, so get ready to party like it’s 1989!

The title sounds hyperbolic but comes from my partially evidence-based belief that even as I get older and keep going to cons, the average anime convention attendee remains fairly young. While it can be hard to find these stats, I know that at Anime USA the median age is around 19. This younger group is the demographic that I’d like to introduce to Patlabor with this panel.

That said, I’m presenting this panel with John and Tom Aznable, and Tom in particular is an expert on the franchise. So while this will be beginner-friendly, it won’t be without depth. Even if you’re a Patlabor fan already, you will learn something new—I did, during our research!

39 Years of Gundam Anime

Saturday, 12:15 AM to 1:15 AM

Haven’t watched all 39 years of Gundam yet? Do you feel overwhelmed and not know where to start? Join us as Gunpla 101 covers the best and worst of Gundam-detailing those awesome highlights and unintentionally hilarious lowlights-to get you caught up.

Technically, John and I are hosting this panel in the early hours of Sunday morning. I am not a night person so get ready to see me really amped up on caffeine.

Since the panel is so late, we’ve decided to switch it up with a lot of new additions—more than 10 new video clips in particular. We’re focusing on interesting and strange parts of the Gundam canon to keep people awake late at night. We’re also going to feature a few of Gundam’s racier moments since this is quite literally Gundam after dark.

How Gundam Became an Art Form

Sunday, 9 AM to 10 AM

As it nears its fourth decade, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has become more than just an anime series. It’s now a cultural phenomenon. We’ll take a look at some fascinating ways it has influenced things from art museum exhibits to clothing lines and many more areas, some that might surprise you!

I’m working on this with John, Tom Aznable, and Doug Wilder, and I feel a little like the kid who coasts during the group project and expects to get an A based on everyone else’s work. I’m really lucky to be part of this fascinating, extremely well-researched panel. Some of the Gundam art, exhibits, and product tie-ins that we’re showcasing were completely new to me.

Between the late Saturday panel and this early Sunday one, I sort of lost the panel time lottery. But based on what I’ve already seen behind the scenes, this will be worth the early wake-up call.

The ‘Free! -Dive to the Future-‘ friend circle is familiar, but not unchanged

Free! -Dive to the Future- marks a new era in Haru’s life. Our swim boy protagonist is attending college now, a major milestone in anybody’s life. But while college is normally a time to branch out and experience new things, Haru is spending an awful lot of time with his old friends.

You could call this lazy storytelling. Or perhaps smart marketing, to not give up on the characters Kyoto Animation has spent so much time developing and selling merchandise for. But for a few viewers, myself included, I’d say this experience is pretty true to form.

I’ve never liked change. When I was looking at colleges, I only searched nearby. I ended up picking a place about an hour from home, the University of Mary Washington. Several of my high school friends also decided to go there, and I was so incredibly relieved. Once again, I could stay in my comfort zone and spend time with people I already knew.

Today, I’m regularly in touch with exactly one person I met in college: my husband, John. He was the president of the college anime club that I and some of my friends attended. If he hadn’t made his way into our group, I might not have gotten to know him.

It’s not that I’m snobby or even particularly shy, but I’ve always had a difficult time making new friends. Growing up, I was bullied a lot because I tend to get very enthusiastic about things I like, which made me a target. (A great example of this is when I studied abroad in Italy and made zero friends. On the way to Tuscany, I kept excitedly pointing out the animals and birds, assuming other people would also care, not realizing it was obnoxious. People called me Nature Girl and either laughed at me or ignored me for the rest of the semester.)

For most of my life, I was like Haru. I think it’s easy for plenty of fans to relate to this introverted, socially anxious swimmer. I wasn’t reserved the way he is, but I could relate to how cultivating existing friendships feels like a safer bet than making new ones. I used to think this was the most low-risk strategy, too. I used to think there was actual strategy involved, and that the right one earned you a group of friends who never judged, fought, or left you.

For me, the most prominent example of how unlikely this is occurred this week in 2017 when a friend of mine died unexpectedly. It took us until November to find out why: a congenital heart defect. She was a wife, a new mom, and an incredible friend. Not a day has passed this year that I haven’t thought about her. She would have teased me so much about being on my anime blog again, in a post about Free! of all things. The enormity of her legacy could never fit into a couple of trite blog posts, but I bring up her impact again because on this anniversary, I am reminded that change happens no matter what. The people you love have a fixed amount of time in your life, and no method of making friends, or closing yourself off from others, will ever make you “safe” from heartbreak.

The Free! franchise has always been surprisingly good at portraying nuanced relationships, and -Dive to the Future- appears to be a story about exploring the intricacies of friendship. None of the characters we meet are new (though two might seem unfamiliar if you haven’t seen the movie). But while Haru has been growing up, they certainly haven’t been standing in place. Even when you’ve known somebody since middle school, the unexpected can strike. People grow apart or together. Acquaintances can become best friends. Best friends can become rivals. Friends can stay by Haru’s side for years, like Makoto, or travel thousands of miles away from him, like Rin. Change is inevitable.

This past year, I’ve been trying to embrace change for the first time in my life. My Japanese English conversation group has become a surprisingly big part of my social life for a group of people who are constantly speaking to each other in their least fluent language. I’ve met people through anime conventions, groups like Anime Feminist, and my local entrepreneur circle. My core group of friends from high school is still very important to me, but the way I interact with them has changed, too. I try harder to reach out, to not take people’s friendship for granted. I can’t keep friends with me forever, but I can appreciate them more while they’re here.

An anime where nothing changes would be boring, so I get how people might be concerned to see the same old characters returning and making an exciting new setting all too familiar. But as someone with a similar lived experience, I’m confident there’s more than enough to explore.

What I want the parents of anime fans to know

Last week, a parent asked for my advice about his teen daughter’s new interest in anime.

I was down in Florida, visiting my own parents when I got the email. “What would you advise him?” I asked.

My mom and dad weren’t sure. After all, when they raised their own anime fan daughter, there wasn’t really anyone they could ask. Anime was not as popular then and they didn’t know any fans their own age. As I wrote in my 2016 post, What I want the next generation of anime fans to know, “I wish there had been someone like me to talk to my parents when I was a kid.”

Today, anime is more ingrained in popular culture than ever. Celebrities like Michael B. Jordan and Kim Kardashian West profess their love for it. And there are lots of adult fans like me who are old enough to sympathize with parents’ concerns about anime while still remembering what it was like to be a tween or teen discovering anime for the first time.

So when uninformed parents need somebody to ask for advice, I’m thrilled when they go to me. Bill is one of those parents, somebody who found me through my Forbes page. He gave me his permission to repost a short version of his original email.

I am the father of a 14-year-old girl who loves anime and doing art related to anime. Although she is a very intelligent young lady, she is still a child is so many ways. She has been very open with us about what she is doing online and her interests.

Lately, she has been telling us about Anime Amino, a site where she posts her art and receives feedback. After reading the negatives from people on Common Sense Media, it appears that many of these anime and cosplay (not sure what this is exactly other than dress up) activities lead to sexual content at some point. If that is the case, or there’s a high likelihood of it occurring, I’m inclined to prevent her from going any further.

Online addiction aside, if she can get some positives from these experiences then I would want to continue to support her efforts. Since you are very knowledgeable in these areas, I would really appreciate any thoughts you might have regarding our situation.

—Bill

When people write to me, I try to balance my adult mind with how desperately my young anime fan self simply wanted to be understood. That’s what I was channeling with I wrote to Bill.

Hi Bill,

Anime is a medium of entertainment, not a genre. So there are many kinds of anime: action, comedy, drama, stuff for kids, and stuff for adults. Just like with the entertainment medium of movies, there’s anime that’s age-appropriate for your daughter and anime that isn’t.

So where to start? Anime Feminist is a website organizing a list of anime that is good for teens and tweens. Beneath the Tangles is an anime blog for Christian anime fans and their families. There’s also Common Sense Media’s list of anime for kids. Maybe you could check out one of the shows on the list with her as a way to check it out while also showing interest in her and her hobby.

One thing I do want to say is that cosplay (you’re right, it’s dress up) is not considered sexual. It’s about wearing costumes of characters fans admire from anime, video games, comics, or movies. (I’m certain it can be made sexual, just like anime, movies, video games, and comics can be made sexual, but it isn’t on its own.)

As far as I know, Anime Amino is a forum for mostly teen participants. You can just scroll through it to see the kind of stuff kids talk about there. Additionally, it has a lot of stuff that’s against the rules, including hate speech and explicit words or imagery.

Finally, it’s great that your daughter is being open with you about her activities because it shows a bond of trust. She’s not scared that you’re going to judge her or try to stop her from participating. I think that means that if she has a problem or does find content that makes her uncomfortable, she’ll feel comfortable coming to you about it.

Best wishes, Lauren

Thanks to the Anime Feminist team for helping me develop this response—especially the final paragraph. It’s important to remember that there are people of all ages in our community and to make it something kids still feel as comfortable as we did participating in (and something their parents feel comfortable condoning, too).

What kind of advice would you give to a concerned parent of an anime fan?

Otaku Links: New year, new links

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Happy new year, readers! Did you miss me? Regular posts resume Monday.

Top image via Hisako Akagi via SakugaBlog.