Welcome! My name handle is Eternal, and I like to tl;dr about irrelevant things. I'm not picky about case-sensitivity, but in case it isn't obvious, the underscore in my name is only there because the site isn't case sensitive and Eternal was already taken. That problem occurs about as frequently as you'd expect it to.
Anyway, I'm an anime blogger with just a few too many aspirations for the future, and I have a deep love for both otaku/nerd culture and the creative arts as a whole. I plan to major in English literature in university, and my ambition in life is to create and appreciate fiction.
In terms of anime, my favourite genre is usually the male-targeted romance/drama category, more often than not based off of visual novels. That said, I also like some psychological sci-fi stories like Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon, and a light dose of shoujo/slice of life never hurt anyone (though for some inexplicable reason I've never been into iyashikei).
Honey and Clover still stands as my favourite anime in a list of 400+, because in my mind, it's romance/slice of life at its absolute best; even a million Key's and Makoto Shinkai's can't beat the tear-stained, bittersweet taste of a honey-and-clover sandwich that I associate the show with. It's my Bible. I could write a lot more about it - in fact, I have - but the bottom line is that it's the only love story you'll ever have to watch. Period.
I also have a tremendous respect for the anime adaptations of ef - a fairy tale of the two. Just as I consider H&C to be the embodiment of flawless slice-of-life/romance, I view ef as the perfect romanticized love story. It's artistic, beautiful, simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking - the romance is both intense and dramatic, yet painfully realistic - and ultimately, it gives off a surreal aura that draws you in like nothing else. Incidentally, Kanon is also on my favourites list because it defines the visual novel genre for me, and Clannad speaks for itself with its fairy-tale-like telling of life and love, using fantasy and escapist elements to convey the message that life can be as beautiful as it can be painful.
(I don't think I need to justify 5 Centimeters Per Second - Shinkai does Distance and Bittersweet Romance like GAINAX does Super Robots.)
I believe it's worth noting The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because there's a reason why it isn't on my favourites list: it's in a tier of its own. I think that the "tier list" that one puts up for their favourite anime should represent the anime they consider to be the best, subjectively and objectively, but that doesn't say much for the shows that influenced you along the way. I've technically seen better anime, but to me, Haruhi is timeless, and chances are I wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for Suzumiya-sama and her crazy antics. While I may not shower the show with praise for being the greatest anime of all time like I did when I first watched it, there's one thing it did do: it changed my mentality from "just an anime fan" to "an anime fan and proud of it."
Aside from anime, my other otaku-related hobbies involve visual novels, merchandise collecting, and miscellaneous games like Beatmania IIDX and the Touhou series. I play a bunch of other stuff too, although I'm not as interested in JRPGs as a lot of anime fans are. Anyway, I keep track of my various internet profiles and sites over here in case you're interested. The center of my focus on the internet is the anime blogosphere (I'm the guy from Memories of Eternity), but I'm also interested in other things like fan translation and doujin visual novels.
Anyway, feel free to drop a comment or friend request if we have something in common. You can also follow me on Twitter or contact me most anywhere else on the internet; automatic email notifications work like a charm!
2-D Fighting Game: Super Smash Bros Melee 3-D Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV Danmaku/shmup: Touhou 8 - Imperishable Night Rhythm Game: Beatmania IIDX Adventure Game: Fable II Storyline: Xenogears/Xenosaga Visual Novel Adaptation: ef - a tale of memories/melodies Romance: Honey and Clover Comedy: Lucky Star Sci-fi: Ghost in the Shell Movie: 5 Centimeters Per Second Director: Makoto Shinkai Artist: Naru Nanao Composer: Yuki Kajiura Visual Novel Company: Key Branching Visual Novel: Fate/stay night Kinetic Visual Novel: Narcissu Doujin Visual Novel: True Remembrance J-Pop Artist: Nana Mizuki J-Rock Artist: Asian Kung-fu Generation Doujin Music Artist: SHIKI Male Character: Tomoya Okazaki Female Character: Shiori Misaka
RATINGS
Ratings
10 - All-time favourite; extremely good for subjective or objective reasons, made a personal impression on me.
9 - Very, very good; extremely enjoyable for whatever reason, but not quite on the same personal level as a 10.
8 - Quite good; significantly above average, but not quite amazing. Solid recommendation.
7 - Sorta good. It isn't mediocre in the truest sense of the word, but it isn't far above average either. It's in the typical middle ground of "it's fun, but not exceptional."
6 - Not really that good. These are basically completely average, with only one or two saving graces.
5 - Average. I'm completely and entirely apathetic to them.
4 - Slightly below average. There's nothing that I liked, but also a bit that I didn't like.
3 - Pretty bad. Instead of just being mediocre and unimpressive, it now descends into annoying, or otherwise discomforting.
2 - Quite bad. Very, very close to being painful to watch, but not outright horrendous.
1 - So bad it's funny. The sheer ridiculousness of everything becomes a reason in itself to enjoy the show.
My ratings are around 75% subjective, meaning that I occasionally give higher ratings to mediocre shows and lower ratings to so-called classics. Also, I usually don't assign ratings to DVD specials/OVAs that are related to a pre-existing series unless they contain a distinct plot.
Hello ^^
I suck at maintaining clubs, I know you don't need to tell me that XD I make one and forget about it after a week lol
But thanks for being kind and offering your help and I'm going to make you an admin ^^
I found what was wrong. Apparently I added an extra 0 to the times I've re-watched all the One Piece episodes I've watched, which led to 3000+ extra episodes being counted. XD
Now that you mention it, you're right, the stats are off. I'm not picky about it but, a glitch is a glitch and the mods should know about it. Thanks. :p
Sorry for the (very) late reply, but that Profile Picture was from Twinkle ☆ Crusaders, possibly my favorite visual novel of all time. And as you might've noticed I changed it to Kurimu. xD;
Maybe I should go back and play Kanon again sometime. It was my first eroge and a lot of the elements from that game defined my likes even now. I hope you have time to continue playing Shiori's route :)
Well, I plan to spend some time playing some of the games I started (namely Mashiroiro Symphony). I -was- planning to write something up for Christmas, but was just too busy at work lately. Probably will try to get a post together about the past year. So much to do! I've been enjoying reading your posts the past couple days ^^
