While I had a lot of top favorites last year (see Part 1 and Part 2), I also watched a lot of anime that I’d classify as good or even great, but which didn’t break through and affect me the way some of the others did. This doesn’t mean that these series weren’t worth talking about, so I’d like to give a little bit of the spotlight to some of the “also-rans,” the series that I think are worth watching from the past year.
I limited this list to series that I’ve either completed, or
in the case of multi-cour series, ones where I’d watched at least half. This
isn’t an exhaustive list of every series I completed last year, just ones I
wanted to talk about and signal boost. As a reminder, my “year” runs from
Autumn 2017 through Summer 2018.
As we embark on a brand new year, many of us are resolving to better ourselves in various ways. I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, mostly because the stress of setting expectations and being unable to meet them is often more detrimental to my psyche than continuing to be the same old person I’ve been for years, warts and all. I also think that the calendar year is a pretty arbitrary concept, and that modest goal-setting can be a year-round process rather than a huge one-time ordeal that takes place on January 1st.
That said, I was thinking about an exercise that we complete at my workplace every year, where individuals provide feedback to their supervisors and managers in order to help them improve. One of the questions on the formal survey asks “what things should this person start, stop, or continue doing?” This is closer to how I like to approach thinking about the New Year. There are things I’m already doing that I want to maintain going forward, there are bad habits that I should probably attempt to curtail, and there are potentially new things I could start doing to make my life easier and more fulfilling. It’s a good way to take stock of the good things that are already happening while still leaving room to make tweaks and improvements.
Looking ahead, there are definitely some blog-related things I’d like to start, stop, and continue doing. While it’s been a good year around here, I feel like there are some bad habits I’d like to break and some new avenues I’d love to explore. Below are some thoughts.
2018 has been a good year for me. This year I finally feel like I’ve gotten back in the writing groove, which after a very dark time in my life seemed as though it had maybe disappeared forever. That might seem a little over-dramatic (definitely one of my talents), but there truly were times where I’d sit down at my computer in front of a blank WordPress entry and be completely unable to produce anything. Now, though I go through short spells where writing isn’t my tip-top priority, I always manage to make my way back to blogging. From about March onward I managed to post at least every couple of weeks, and the Summer and Autumn seasons got me back in my first episode reviewing process. So overall things have been on the upswing.
Because I feel like there’s finally enough content to make a post like this, I wanted to toot my own horn a bit and call out some of the writing I’ve done this year that I’m the most proud of. These picks aren’t necessarily my most popular entries (I don’t get a ton of traffic anyway, so there’s not that big a difference between “popular” and “overlooked” here at S1E1), but they’re ones that I still think about from time-to-time and hope you’ll enjoy reading (or re-reading) as well. I’ve tried to provide a little context around what I was thinking when I wrote them. I hope you’ll check them out!
Welcome back! I wasn’t originally planning to split my favorites up between multiple posts, but I realized while writing that there was just too much great anime that I wanted to talk about and it would have been unjust to cram them all into such a tiny space. It may also be that I can get a little long-winded talking about the things that I love… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing (at least if you enjoy my writing).
Just for consistency’s sake, I’ll reiterate that the anime series I’m writing about for my favorites were broadcast from Autumn 2017 through Summer 2018, rather than from the entirety of 2018, not only because I tend to watch things in fits and starts, but because I like to let my opinions crystallize a bit before naming something a favorite. There was obviously a lot of great stuff airing this Autumn… so some of it will probably end up as a favorite next year!
Now is the time when many of my favorite anime bloggers are posting their picks for their favorite (and sometimes least favorite) anime of the year. While this is something I’ve always wanted to do, what’s prevented me from posting lists like this in the past is the fact that I tend not to finish watching the Autumn season shows in a timely manner, and so feel ill-equipped to participate. I also like to let the series I have finished watching settle for a while so that I can ensure that my opinions hold up over time; sometimes I may feel one way about an anime immediately after completing it, but after some further thought my opinion becomes more nuanced and even completely different.
My solution, then, is to operate on a slightly different time-table. For this list of favorites, I’ll be drawing from the anime I viewed from Autumn season 2017 through Summer season 2018 (basically October 2017 through the end of September 2018). While that will offset my picks a bit from others’, I feel like this is the best way to confidently represent how I feel about the anime I’ve completed.
This list is in no particular order, other than chronological based on time of broadcast. I’m terrible at assigning rankings to things, and would rather feature these different anime for their specific good traits rather than attempt to figure out which ones I liked more or less. I also hope that through this list I’m able to feature a few underrated gems that readers might want to give a second look.
This was getting lengthy, so I split it up into two parts. Stay tuned for the second half!
I’d planned to finish seasonal anime stuff before my husband and I left on an out-of-town vacation – obviously, that didn’t happen (the vacation was fun and much-needed, though!). It’s funny, though, how I start looking forward to the next season when I’m done with the current one, but while I’m still in the midst of the current season I always have the urge to write about unrelated things. I’m sure it’s a side-effect of my anxious and avoidant personality issues. Anyway, I spend a decent amount of time keeping up with ani-Twitter in general and recently caught a thread in passing regarding the state of anime simulcast streaming. The specific conversation was in regards to some of the less user-friendly aspects of streaming websites, as well as how those sites might be disinclined to make changes or updates because of a (specific?) group folks who “evangelize” legal streaming in spite of its perceived problems. The thread got me thinking about the situation we’re in to the point I thought it was worth writing about.
To put it plainly, one could argue that I’m one of those streaming evangelists. When I present panels at anime conventions, part of the information I often provide to the audience are the legal channels by which they can view the anime I’m discussing. I also use the official English translations of the titles when they’re available, so that when people are searching for anime they’re more likely to find those viewing avenues instead of “unofficial” ones. To me, operating this way isn’t as much out of a sense of duty (although I do know a couple people who work within the US industry side of things), as it is a perception of how much easier it is than what I used to have to deal with to watch anime.
Like a lot of fans of my generation, I’ve had a long-standing relationship with fan-subs and other unofficial means of viewing anime. Let me tell you, the means of access that we have now is leaps and bounds more user-friendly than the mish-mash of torrent or direct-download websites and video formats that were the norm many years ago. Without going too far into it (again), for a long time there were no good central hubs of anime acquisition, no standardization of formats until much later in the game, and there was often some kind of delay between broadcast and episode availability for the simple reason that people were volunteering their time to perform unpaid fan-work to translate and encode video files. And you often didn’t have much of a choice in the quality of the translation; I still have some video files from the early-ish 2000’s where a native Italian-speaker translated a series into English because no one else was doing it – it was a good service to the community, but it definitely doesn’t read that well. On the upside, there was a much more direct line to translators in those days, along with supplementary notes about translations. I feel like I learned a lot from people whose language and cultural knowledge of Japan was more expansive than mine and I suspect (and hope) some of those individuals are able to do paid translation work nowadays.
“Chotto, shitsukoi desu yo!” – Shitsukoi (しつこい) translates to “obstinate” or “persistent.” The context is that a man has approached this woman on the street about a “job” (forced prostitution) and won’t leave her alone. From “Tokyo Tribe 2” translated by Kanji Subs.
That isn’t to say that modern streaming translations are altogether infallible or always superior to fan translations. While I suspect that some criticisms of streaming translations come from fans whose familiarity with the techniques of translation and understanding of the Japanese language might not always be top-notch, I’ve also been in situations where my rusty grasp of Japanese and my decent English ability have been able to suss-out some unsatisfying “official” translation choices. In some cases the problem may be as minor as dialog that doesn’t “flow” properly in English; translation is always a push-and-pull between forces that demand slavish accuracy and those that translate more liberally in service of fuller localization. I’m more on the side of liberal translations myself, as long as the original intent is preserved, but there’s absolutely a great deal of wiggle room.
Panty says, “yarou” (野郎), a suffix meaning “wild or uncouth” (literally “field boy”) that, in context, often has negative connotations. Panty is mad because the announcer was wrong about her career. The word “yarou” doesn’t have a sexuality component; a better and less problematic choice (imo) would have been a term implying a lack of intelligence. Official Funimation streaming translation.
In other cases I find that language sensitivity is an issue that even official, vetted translations have trouble avoiding. The examples that stick out to me are those that use gendered or sexual slurs in place of more general or neutral words. While I love Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt in large part due to its general vulgarity, the official English translation makes some of these kinds of missteps. It definitely says something about our culture when insults towards male characters are so frequently focused on their lack of perceived masculinity, and the series is full of them. Even back in 2010 when this series was released, though, I feel as though words like “f*g” or “s*ssy” were already perceived as insensitive and generally off-limits, even if the reasoning wasn’t as clear to many people; the fact that these subtitles were not only produced, but were also not subsequently edited and finessed when I think it would have been easy enough to fix at least the online version, just goes to show that paid professionals have their blind-spots and other subjective challenges. For every Land of the Lustrous or Made in Abyss, which have translations that consciously use gender-neutral language for non-binary characters, there are several other anime translations that stumble. Let’s not forget thatYuri!!! On Ice, an anime released only 2 years ago that’s largely about a romantic relationship between two men, still had a subtitle translation that assumed a potential lover’s gender when none was implied by the Japanese word used.
Here, Victor uses the term “koibito” (恋人), which translates to “lover” and is gender-neutral. This line takes place after mentioning Minako, Yuri’s ballet instructor – it’s an understandable (though somewhat careless) error which was corrected in Funimation’s English Dub. Official Crunchyroll streaming translation.
It’s easy enough to be an armchair translator when you’re not the one sweating to complete an episode translation under a deadline, and I think that’s something many of us, whether we’re enthusiastic about anime streaming services or not, forget to acknowledge. Language is full of nuances, idioms, and complications; to expect a translation put together at odd-hours of the day (which sometimes becomes a reality if an anime’s scripts aren’t available with enough lead-time), quickly and with little opportunity for translation-checking, to be perfect right out of the gate is always going to be unreasonable, no matter how talented the translator.
I agree, though, with some criticisms of streaming services, mostly in regards to the inability of viewers to provide feedback about errors or other aspects of the viewing experience. While I do think that some translation criticisms boil down to pedantry or one’s desire for one language to reflect another one like a mirror (rather than as, for example, a different instrumental arrangement of a popular song), as I’ve mentioned there are choices that are more obviously actual mistakes – mistakes that have remained in place for months or years, based on the screen captures I took for this piece today. If there were some obvious feedback button on an episode’s streaming page where users could report a language issue, time-stamped at the appropriate point in the episode, that might be helpful to quell some of the complaints. This would, of course, require a new set of resources, including employees available to read and determine the veracity of the complaints, as well as a way to easily change subtitles or re-upload files, but it could be an avenue for innovation that hasn’t been explored yet. To Crunchyroll’s credit, they’ve already shown that they can respond to ad-hoc user feedback; earlier this anime season, they added a content warning to the first episode of Goblin Slayer after users responded to the unexpected shocking nature of certain scenes.
Oh, Lupin… from “Lupin III: Part 2,” Episode 155, screen cap from Crunchyroll.
Ultimately, though, some rough translations and other relatively minor issues aren’t enough to scare me off from being a streaming evangelist. While I hate to beleaguer the point, as I’ve said my earlier fandom years were defined by fly-by-night translation groups, hard-to-acquire digi-subs, and a general decentralization of fan spaces that made it a lot of work to be an anime fan. This time period had its perks, not the least of which was its frontier spirit and its enduring illusion of being somehow more “special” because of its niche qualities. Unfortunately, anime fandom was also a bastion of sexist gate-keeping and online (and in-person) harassment, both things I experienced many a time in supposedly “welcoming” spaces. Streaming services, many of which, like Amazon or Netflix, are general-use and present anime alongside other popular media, have helped bring anime out into the light, thus inviting new and more diverse fans and helping to drown-out at least some of the jerks. A lot of non-anime fans I know have at least heard of Crunchyroll and are familiar with what anime is and what some of the popular series are (and I no longer have to keep explaining that anime isn’t “Japanese cartoon porn!”). And streaming is easy, relatively inexpensive, and available in high-definition – all things my college-aged self only dreamed about. The only thing streaming isn’t is permanent, and that’s something I hope changes; while buying digital downloaded episodes on Amazon or iTunes is definitely an option, it’s still an imperfect one. As someone with a collector’s tendencies, I prefer to own the things I like, and that’s becoming more difficult.
I’m sure in 10 years we’ll all be preoccupied with some other very passionate debate about anime consumerism. The streaming landscape may have changed completely by then, and with every improvement there may be an equal amount of new, unforeseen problems to deal with. I don’t fault people for wanting more convenience and user-friendliness from their hobbies and experiences. However, I also think it’s important to take stock of what we have now, and to be thankful for the challenges that have been addressed and overcome; myself from 10 years ago would be blown away by the things we fans have access to today. Though I’m not trying to come across as some old crone waving her broom around and yelling at kids to “get off my lawn!” I do think that seeing the transformation firsthand (similar to the transition between analog to digital video and audio formats and the continual increase in internet speeds, to name a few other technological advances from my lifetime) has allowed me the perspective to give a little leeway toward companies providing me a much-welcome service that I thought I may never see. And I’ll definitely keep letting people know that it exists!
And as a palate cleanser, an actual parody sub. “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” by Duwang subs.
As you can probably tell from the general lack of posts, it’s been a rough few weeks or so. Mental health has always been a struggle for me, and with the stress of the US elections (and aftermath), some long-term dental work (ugh), and various job-related stresses (I love my job, but it keeps me very busy and often leaves me mentally exhausted) I haven’t had much cranial strength left over to do any writing. I’ve actually avoided most corners of the internet aside from communicating directly with others; this is unusual for me, but sometimes I just need to stay away. There are also other factors that occasionally cause me to disengage with anime fandom more specifically for brief periods, though for right now I’m not interested in going into much detail about that for fear of harping on the same sorts of things too often. Needless to say, sometimes a break is in order (this is actually the first time I’ve sat down at my desktop computer at all in several days, though I’ve likely posted a thing or two now prior to this particular post being scheduled).
In addition to my general lack of internet presence, I’m still not particularly concerned with writing speed or volume anymore; as I told an audience at a recent convention, I may not be the fastest with my first impressions, but I am the slowest! Reviews will get done when they’re done, and I want them done to my specific standards. I’m more about maintaining an archive of reviews than I am being up-to-date anyway; friends of mine tell me that they appreciate being able to look up anime they’re interested in, and many of them aren’t weekly anime-watchers, so the relationship works well.
Though I assume most people who were planning to have already watched the first episode by now, I’ll warn that the first episode of Goblin Slayer – and by extension this discussion of it – includes references to sexual assault and rape, both generally and specifically.
As I mentioned in my Goblin Slayer first impressions post, I had the desire to write further about some of the extreme content that appears in the episode. This isn’t because other bloggers and reviewers haven’t been writing about it, but more because I haven’t seen my thoughts and feelings reflected in most of the reactions and I’d like to provide my perspective. A lot of what I’ve been reading in the past week has been very analytical, weighing various points in an attempt to come to some kind of logical conclusion about whether the episode’s content is warranted or appropriate. I believe that kind of disaffected point-by-point examination of scenes and images is the luxury and privilege of those whose lives are untouched by crimes of sexual aggression. I’m not trying to make enemies by saying as much, but I feel that there’s a certain survivors’ perspective on this matter that can be difficult for others to understand except from first-hand experience (or an incredibly robust sense of empathy).
Unfortunately the first book club entry for Mononoke is going to be delayed (well, is already delayed), probably just until this coming Sunday the 26th. I have just a few personal things going on that interrupted my workflow and I thought it best to wait a week rather than attempt a mid-week post (that, and I have other things I’m planning to put up instead and I don’t want to crowd this space too much). I hope this gives you the extra time (and motivation) you might need to check out the “Bakeneko” story arc from Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales!
I’ve been writing on and off about anime for over ten years at this point and have been enjoying a relatively fruitful run the last couple of months. It’s taken a long time for me to get back to this productivity level because I’ve been through some personal ups and downs and some major changes over that time period. I know first-hand how difficult it is to focus on side projects like this when everything else in one’s life feels out of control. Getting back into writing regularly just feels right to me, though; it’s a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings about something I love in a way that occasionally reaches other people (it’s definitely preferable to sitting at home and talking about anime to no one in particular).
There are a lot of guides out there that cover the ways in which one can be a successful blogger and make a side career (or actual career!) from their writing (I recommend starting with The Otaku Journalist). Because of the uncertainty inherent to that prospect I’ve never considered that to be an option for me since I appreciate stability and consistency over all things. However, I have intuitively happened-upon a few things over the years that have helped me out as a blogging hobbyist and I thought I might pass them along to any readers who are interested in following a similar path. These are in no particular order, and many of the items have as much to do with general online interaction as they do with blogging specifically (and likely stem from a specific incident or interaction I’ve had).
