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Anime Reviews Reviews

Backlog Busting – “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End”

I wrote recently about my shameful anime backlog situation. To keep myself accountable, I thought it would be good to document what I finish within a reasonable amount of time. This is the first of those.

I have a real issue with finishing the anime I start, which as I’ve mentioned previously has more to do with how and when I’m watching it than the actual quality of the series. With Frieren in particular, I watched the first half of the first season pretty readily (which, looking back, was a miracle considering that I’d just had a baby a couple months prior to when the broadcast started and just wasn’t really in my right mind due to broken sleep and such). I caught up at the midpoint and, unlike previously when it was easy for me to watch a bunch of anime from week-to-week, I lost my momentum and had to prioritize other more pressing matters.

This was always a small point of shame to me; I really enjoyed what I’d already watched, so why couldn’t I just sit down and finish the first season? I think a big part of why it wasn’t that simple and the main reason why a lot of my hobbies suffered at that time was that I’d gone from having some decent coping mechanisms for my lack of executive function (a life-long issue) to suddenly suffering from having both my guts and my neurons rearranged through the experience of pregnancy. My priorities were different and my ability to focus had really changed as well. A lot of my mental energy was being spent caring for my little one and making sure his needs were met, and so most everything else fell to the wayside.

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Personal

Getting to Know You the Anime Way

So in addition to getting some writing motivation, I’ve also been spending some more time on Bluesky lately (it’s possible the two are related). One thing I missed from the heyday of Twitter was the low barrier of interaction between myself and the people who I admired and followed, and I think Bluesky has brought at least some of that back (until it too goes down the drain someday). It’s a good environment to trade news and memes, as well as little bite-sized personality quizzes and opinions.

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Meta Personal

Crawling Out of Backlog Purgatory

For the past couple of years, the period between January and the end of March has been spent in preparation for the local anime convention where I volunteer as a staff member. What this has meant is that I spend the time period heavily involved in scheduling events and panels for the convention, as well as putting together my own panels (of which there have only been a few lately). One of the panels I put on is focused around new anime from the prior year (between the end of the previous convention and the start of the current one) and of course the pre-work for that one involves watching a lot of anime. Some years ago this was easy, because I didn’t have a lot of other responsibilities. Nowadays that isn’t the case – not only do I have a kid that I love and want to be around, I also have *gasp* other hobbies. Historically as the convention has come to a close, I’ve fallen into the trap of moving along in my “hobby cycle” (the last few years it’s been knitting, since I like to enter items into my local state fair competition). Anime becomes the last thing I want to deal with after marathoning a whole year’s worth of shows in a short time.

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Anime Reviews Personal Reviews

Dealing with Words Left Unsaid in “Journal With Witch”

For reasons that even I’m not quite sure about, I spent some time a few years ago in the corner of Reddit that deals with navigating toxic family relationships (primarily r/raisedbynarcissists, but also some focused more around other familial and romantic relationships). I wasn’t “raised” by any narcissists, but I think like most of us I’ve dealt with individuals in my life who I’ve suspected had some narcissistic traits, and learning about what that all entails has helped me to unpack some things about the challenging interactions I’ve had.

I think what’s interesting to come to know is that, in many of these cases, the overriding emotion being experienced by the person posting is grief. When dealing with someone whose perception of the world lacks grounding in reality, there’s often not a way to have a genuine interaction with them. Whatever relationship you think you have with them is always filtered through their illness; they often aren’t in a state of mind to see you as an equal existence with your own thoughts, feelings, and desires. The grief comes from mourning a relationship that was never really there, and the reality that you may never get the opportunity to say what you need to say to these people in a way that they will acknowledge. It’s forever suffering a lack of closure.

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Opinion Personal

Is it a Return? Only Time Will Tell

Over the past couple of years my writing output has gone way down (like 99.99% down, haha) from whatever you might call my “peak” output. There are a lot of reasons for this that I think at least some people might relate to. Firstly, I had a kid; while I don’t think being busy is limited to people with offspring, I’ve found that, for me, the mental space that parenting takes up has tended to push out a lot of other things that haven’t been immediately necessary. Secondly, the internet has gone through some changes that have been difficult to navigate. There was the fall of Twitter/X (yes, I know it still exists but it’s not been a place I’ve wanted to be for a long time; I’ve started spending more time on Bluesky though), but I think even bigger has been the rise of AI Large Language Models and how that may be contributing to some of the apprehensive feelings I’ve had to engaging online.

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Conventions Special Features

Anime Detour 2025 – Materials and Convention Thoughts

Hi all, Jessi here. Now that I’ve had a few days to recuperate from this year’s convention, I thought I’d do my (somewhat annual) reaction post.

Firstly, I’m sure some of you are here for panel materials 🙂 You can find the presentation and hand-out for Shiny New Anime below:

Hand Out
PowerPoint Presentation

Secondly, you may also be looking for the AMV contest results. I’ve posted them to several social media locations – the most easy of which for people to get to is likely the Reddit post I made on r/AMV. There is also a YouTube playlist that I’ve assembled (with a lot of help from my friend revolutionaryjo!) of the finalists who’ve uploaded their AMV entries there. You can find it linked below:

Anime Detour 2025 AMV Contest Finalists

For everything else, check out below!

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Wistoria: Wand and Sword”

Title: Wistoria: Wand and Sword

Episodes: 12

Streaming: Crunchyroll

I often claim that I have very broad tastes in entertainment. I don’t necessarily think that makes me special or a better consumer, but I think my experiences in sampling a large cross section of anime has allowed me to become comfortable when dabbling in many different genres. My criticisms tend to revolve more around the overuse of storytelling tropes, or the use of tropes that just rub me the wrong way. I’m happy to enjoy a fantasy series, but if many of its story beats revolve around slavery dynamics or its heroes are accessing video game style user interfaces, I tend to lose interest, or worse.

However, even stale tropes when wielded by the right hands can become fresh again. What it boils down to, I think, is being able to avoid cynicism when utilizing those story beats and having some amount of respect toward the audience who appreciates them. That, and being able to subvert expectations in other key ways so that the media doesn’t feel like a complete rehash of something else.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Train to the End of the World”

Title: Train to the End of the World

Episodes: 12

Streaming: Crunchyroll

At the rate that new technologies are developed and released upon the public, it’s natural to feel nervous when yet another miracle invention (which may or may not have been fully vetted by, well, anyone) appears for public consumption. Enter 7G, a communications technology that Japan tech gurus and government leaders alike hope will return the country to the technological forefront. Teenager Yoka finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is plucked off the street to press the start button for 7G during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, immediately after her finger pushes play, reality warps to the point that most places and people become unrecognizable and civilization collapses.

Now two years later the very few settlements that remain are scattered along the Seibu Ikebukuro line, where each stop is now hours or even days travel from its neighbors. Shizuru has spent the last couple of years since the 7G incident living her life in the town of Agano where, due to the effects of 7G, residents transform into animals after they turn 21 years old. Shizuru and Yoka had a falling-out just before the incident, and Shizuru grasps onto any snippet of information she can find about Yoka’s possible whereabouts so that they can hopefully repair their rift. When she by chance sees a newspaper clipping with a photo of Yoka in the now-mutated Ikebukuro, she makes it her mission to pilot an old abandoned train car to make the weeks-long trip into the city. However, she won’t have to make the trip alone – she’s joined by friends Nadeshiko, Reimi, and Akira, who experience this wild new world along with her.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Shiny New Anime Prep – “Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master”

Title: Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

Episodes: 20

Streaming: Crunchyroll

I’m trying something a little different this year – right now I’m prepping for an upcoming convention, and part of that involves catching up on anime from the past year that I think I may want to include (either featured, or included on our more extensive recommendation list). I’m hoping writing about what I’ve been watching will help me collect my thoughts a little bit better, and treat the media as less disposable – even though I’m watching a lot of in a relatively short time.

The Kingdom of Yamauchi is led by the Kin’u, or golden raven, a singular emperor among a race of Yatagarasu, or three-legged ravens. Though the title is often bestowed down a heriditary line, when the kingdom finds itself in need a true golden raven may be born to help protect Yamauchi and its people.

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Meta Personal

How to Get Yourself to Write More (Maybe?)

People who know me personally know that I spend quite a bit of my free time scrolling Reddit (possibly to my detriment at times, but because I curate my social media fairly well I’d say it’s generally a net positive). One aspect of Reddit that I suppose exists to inspire more engagement is that it will often recommend communities that are related to ones that you already follow. Because I interact with a lot of crafting (knitting, crochet, general crafts, needle felting, etc.) I tend to get a lot of related suggestions, one of which is journaling.

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