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.
