It feels like every day, another friend is talking about being tired of anime or anime blogging. I sympathize; not all anime is good, and watching duds repeatedly can bring you down.

Well, I sympathize, but I do not relate. This has been an unusual year for me in that I was in the middle of a show pretty much constantly. This may be the Twelve Days of Anime series, but if I count up how many shows I watched this year, it was more like 17.

And that’s when I realized that while a lot of my friends are experiencing burnout, I’ve got the opposite problem:

• Let’s say there are 264 minutes in the average show (12 episodes by 22 minutes).

• And I watched 17 of them, conservative estimate. That’s 4,488 minutes of anime.

• That’s 74.8 hours of anime. Or more dramatically, 3.116 repeating days of anime.

• Averaging out to 12.3 minutes a day watching anime in 2013.

That’s a ton of TV. And what’s more, I probably did watch more than that. And for me? It’s way too much for one year.

So for next year, I’m setting a few resolutions to keep myself from a 2014 anime binge:

1) Do your homework

The aniblogosphere is a milieu of diverse opinions. Just because a show is getting a lot of hype from some corners doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out to be my cup of tea. Case in point: Samurai Flamenco—sorry, everyone else!

Otaku Journalist is not an anime tastemaker blog. If I’m honest with myself, it’s more of a mid-season or season’s end anime analysis blog. So instead of watching a bunch of first episodes myself, I’m going to wait and see other bloggers’ first impressions. This is the whole reason we have review blogs, so I don’t have to slog through the new season alone.

2) Drop bad anime

Be more discerning. If you realize you’re not going to enjoy the rest of a show—or, bonus points: it’s good but not great—then drop it.

I watched several anime this year just for the sake of finishing what I’ve started. I have nothing notable to say about Maoyu or The World God Only Knows: Goddess Arc. And readers know I had nothing good to say about the second season of Oreimo.

Nobody cares if I suffer through a show for completion’s sake. And here’s a hint for Future Lauren: if you don’t like it by episode four, you’re not going to like it.

3) Spend as much time creating as consuming

Watching three days’ worth of anime in 2013 isn’t something to be proud of. Spending three full days writing in-depth anime analysis, however, is something I’d be falling over myself to brag about.

Before I mindlessly turn on Crunchyroll for the night, I’ll ask myself: have I written three blog posts this week yet? Are they the most thought-provoking/helpful they can be? Have I worked on my digital journalism guides this week? (Remember those?)

Watching anime all year isn’t a bad thing, though different amounts satisfy different people. For me, the important part is that I’m always analyzing and dissecting what I watch on my blog, so it’s not just mindless consumption.

Thanks for joining me for the Twelve Days of Anime this year! How many shows did you watch in 2013?

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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.

(Screenshot from fantastic 2010-2011 anime Squid Girl).

What else is there to say about the most ridiculously popular show of the year?

Equal parts dark and hilarious, Attack on Titan toyed with our emotions by laying down primetime worthy plot twists. We still haven’t found out the secret that lies in Eren’s basement, but a steady stream of shocking reveals leaves us with even more pressing questions.

What fascinates me most about Attack on Titan is that its impressive popularity means it’ll be a gateway show into anime for hundreds, if not thousands of fans. Already I’m beginning to talk to budding fans who tell me Attack on Titan is the first anime they’ve ever seen.

In Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know, author Gilles Poitra theorizes that anime fandom occurs in waves, often sparked by one singular work. He calls them the “Astro Boy generation,” the “Akira generation,” the “Sailor Moon generation,” and so on. Every wave sets higher standards to what fans enjoy and expect out of a quality anime. And each notable work inspires an era of knockoff shows.

Plenty of writers have tackled the subject about what makes Attack on Titan so darn popular, but most agree on its strong character development, fast-paced plot, and epic stakes of life and death. And of course, there’s the Titans, a group of antagonists so formidable and yet so farcical as to make them unpredictable to even the most jaded audience.

These are the characteristics that will define how the “Attack on Titan generation” of fans determines the quality of a show. We’re going to see a lot of attempts with subsequent shows to capture its same success with similar methods.

But what I think this new wave of fans is looking forward to most of all? A season two.

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This post is the eleventh 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.

(Top illustration by Sauce via Pixiv).

Mr. Ral, Gundam Build Fighters

Though nothing is ever explicitly laid out, Mr. Ral shares an impressive number of similarities with Ramba Ral, the ruthless lieutenant of ‘79 classic Mobile Suit Gundam. The humor is in the contrast between Mr. Ral, a bashful fanboy, and Ramba Ral, a dignified warrior. Each episode has me wondering which Lt. Ral throwback he’ll spoof next.

Kenjiro Hato, Genshiken Second Season

The most beautiful guy on the list, Hato-kun is a crossdresser who doesn’t know what he wants. A fudanshi (male fujoshi), Hato has developed an elaborate female persona to avoid attention while he’s enjoying BL, but his good looks get him more than he bargained for! For such an unusual backstory, Hato’s is relatable. Like the rest of us, he’s still working on finding himself.

Jean Kirschstein, Attack on Titan

It’s not so much Jean I like as the fandom around him. The “What is it, Eren?” meme, inspired by an Exorcist-style pose of Jean’s in the manga, still cracks me up. Like most every character in Attack on Titan, Jean’s character development is exemplary as we watch him go from caustic troublemaker to nervy badass.

Shimogamo Yajiro, The Eccentric Family

We first meet Yajiro as a frog in the bottom of a well. Though this family of tanuki can shapeshift, Yajiro has lost the heart to after the death of his father. But as the mystery of his father’s death unravels, Yajiro undergoes a dramatic change, and some of the most uproarious shapeshifts of the series, including nothing less than public transit.

Yakomaru/Squealer, From the New World

We first meet this Monster Rat as a humble servant to the all-powerful humans of this series. But this duplicitous creature has untold ambitions which he won’t stop at anything to achieve. Barely human and brimming with Machiavellian ideals, Yakomaru makes a treacherous foe.

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This post is the tenth 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. 

Oe Kanade, Chihayafuru

She’s the geek of an already geeky karuta team. While the others focus on speed alone, Kana-chan reveres every poem that makes up this complex memory game. Her adoration and understanding of the poetry behind karuta grounds the other players.

Merei Yajima, Genshiken Second Season

She picks her own way to be a woman. Even though her friends—boys and girls—love fashionable clothes and makeup, she isn’t swayed from what makes her comfortable. She’s the only one unafraid to ask Hato about his crossdressing, and while her approach is clumsy and inconsiderate, she soon becomes the most respectful of his wishes out of everyone when he declines to share.

Nadeko Sengoku, Monogatari

Shy and quiet, a supernatural new hairdo changed her whole personality. I first fell for Nadeko’s barely concealed affection for senpai (not to mention an awesome OP) in the first season. This time, the gloves are off and she speaks her mind to everyone. She thinks it’s the side effect of supernatural possession, but (spoiler alert!) it was Nadeko all along.

Sawa Nakamura, Flowers of Evil

I hated her at first. Her abuse of Takao struck me as nothing short of sociopathic. But as the anime progresses, and we are privileged with increasingly vulnerable glimpses of Sawa’s psyche, it becomes clear that she’s the most complex and understandable character of the show.

Benten, The Eccentric Family

Effortlessly cool and subtly dangerous, this femme fatale disrupts the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope with the agency to live her own life instead of becoming somebody else’s muse.

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This post is the seventh 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.