Anime – The Casual Otaku

Japan Is No Longer “Someday”

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was planning a solo trip to Japan. At the time though, that’s all it was: a plan. There were still variables in play that I wasn’t ready to fully commit, especially when we’re talking about a significant amount of money.

For years, dreaming about going to Japan was just that: a dream. Every attempt to save for the trip eventually ran headfirst into real life taking its pound of flesh, whether it was having unexpected expenses or simply not having enough leftover to put a meaningful amount toward the trip.

It happens, right? It’s just life.

But “someday” has a funny way of sticking around.

Every few years, I’d look at Japan again. I’d check airfare, think about where I’d want to go and occasionally start putting together the rough outline of a trip. Then reality would intervene and Japan would return to the someday list.

This year was different.

Yeah, I Get It: Why Bocchi the Rock! Hits a Little Too Close to Home

There are some anime characters you like because they’re funny, cool, well-written or just entertaining to watch.

Then there are the characters who make you sit there and think:”Okay, I didn’t ask to be personally attacked today.”

Bocchi the Rock! occasionally falls into that second category for me.

In a previous post, I talked about how anime helped me go from a shy, introverted loner who routinely struggled with social interaction to something resembling a social butterfly.

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.

Trading Traditions for New Adventures

For me, the Fourth of July has usually meant one thing: Anime Expo. With the exception of the pandemic years, I’ve attended every year since 2007. Some years were fantastic, some made me question why I kept coming back, yet somehow I always found myself buying another badge the following year.

It was tradition, after all, but this year is different.

Instead of braving the crowds at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I’m sitting at home attempting, and mostly failing, to make a dent in my never-ending anime backlog.