Anime – The Casual Otaku

Legendary UR Pull: I’m Going to See Love Live in Japan

Well, that escalated quickly.

I was planning to write a post about a completely different topic, but apparently the universe had other ideas.

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, I’m planning my first trip to Japan. Actually, considering I just pulled the trigger on buying my airfare, it’s no longer a plan but a trip on the calendar.

A while back, the Love Live! 15th Anniversary Fest was announced, and it just happened to fall around the same time I was planning to be in Japan.

So naturally, the thought process became: Extend the trip a little in case I somehow get into the concert?

As a Love Live fan, that’s about as much of a no-brainer as can be.

Let’s be clear, the entire trip wasn’t hinging on whether I got a ticket.

Growing Up Without Growing Out of Anime: 30 Years of Fandom

When I log into Crunchyroll to watch the latest anime while pointedly ignoring the 30 or so series that I will eventually catch up on, I’m reminded of just how easy it is to watch anime these days.

The anime landscape was very different when I first started watching 30 years ago.

Streaming wasn’t a thing, and if you missed the latest episode of Sailor Moon on Toonami and didn’t have it recorded, you just missed it. By “recorded,” I mean on a VHS tape, not downloaded for later viewing.

Let me back up for a moment, this isn’t going to be a “back in my day” post where I tell you everything was better when I was younger. I’m also not going to argue that older anime is automatically better than newer anime as that’s entirely subjective.

More Than Cosplay: Why My Dress-Up Darling Resonates With Me

If there’s one consistent thing about me, it’s that I have a handful of passions that I always seem to come back to. Some interests come and go, but others become part of who you are. On the anime side of things, nothing has had a bigger impact on me than Love Live!, a franchise that’s been a constant in my life for years as I wrote about in another post.

Over the last couple of years, though, another series has quietly worked its way into that same conversation: My Dress-Up Darling. When I first heard about My Dress-Up Darling, I honestly didn’t think much of it. My anime watchlist is always several series deep, all competing for the same limited amount of free time, so it takes something special to jump to the front of the line. Somehow, this series managed to do exactly that. What started as “I’ll watch a couple episodes” quickly turned into binge-watching the entire first season in a single day. By the time the credits rolled, I completely understood why so many people had fallen in love with it.

15+ Years of Love Live – The Fandom I Almost Missed

There are some anime you fall in love with immediately, and some you just can’t get behind no matter how many times you try.

And then there are the ones you almost drop completely…only for them to come back later and completely take over your life.

The Love Live franchise was definitely the third one, because when I first watched Love Live! School Idol Project, I just didn’t get it.

So I’m Planning a Solo Trip to Japan (Send Help… or Pocky)

Japan.

The land of the rising sun, ancient temples, neon-lit cities, and the birthplace of anime. For a lot of us otaku, it’s less of a vacation and more of a pilgrimage — the kind you spend years saying you’ll take someday.

And after more than 20 years of saying “someday,” it finally looks like that someday might actually be happening this year, which means, naturally, I’ve decided to plan the entire trip myself.

Because apparently I enjoy stress.

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