Didn’t mean to do such a bummer roundup this week, but it’s fitting as one of my final link lists for 2016. Enjoy?

• Not sure this GateBox commercial is intended to be as depressing as it comes off. Watch a salaryman text his anime clock all day. “Feels great to have somebody at home for me,” he says. Womp womp. HT @AnimatedInk.

• Japanese anime fans rank anime’s most tragic endings. Gundam is on here three times and I wouldn’t have it any other way. HT @Dormouse42.

• Watching Long Riders right now and surprised to see its Engrish subs alongside other Daisuki shows, like Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, that are fairly legible. Answerman addresses this in “Why Do Subtitle Styles From The Same Company Differ?“

• “Which horrible pun is Wave Motion Cannon going to make next?” is a game I’ve played with myself ever since their Gundam Build Fighters article titled War Is Sell. This time: Ice Have A Dream, an extremely rare piece of Yuri!!! on Ice commentary that isn’t about how gay it is (answer: still pretty gay).

• Can This American Disrupt Japan’s $392M Young Adult Novel Industry? My Forbes piece this week is about the business plan behind J-Novel Club. You might recall I worked for them and designed the J-Novel Club website, but they didn’t compensate me for this piece; just thought it’d be cool to write about.

• Relatedly, what makes a light novel popular? Frog-kun wrote a helpful explainer about how to understand Japan’s light novel rankings and what they mean for a title’s popularity.

• This week we said goodbye to Ben Schoedel, an anime fan and convention panelist who was only around for 30 years, but who definitely made his mark. Evan wrote a thoughtful obituary that reminded me just how much of an impact fandom activities can make, even after the fan himself is gone.

• I’m not doing the 12 Days of Anime, but Emily is! I loved this post tying her anxiety-calming methods to Pikari’s daily routine in the very relaxing scuba diving anime Amanchu!

Photo by Robert Schwenzer