Rezurrekt's Blog

Anime Relations: Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan, D.C.: Da Capo, Aria the Animation, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch, Nagasarete Airantou, Clannad, Rosario to Vampire, To LOVE-Ru, Sora no Otoshimono, Steins;Gate, Sword Art Online

So it's been exactly two years since I've joined MAL (December 15, 2010 being the date).


A lot of things happened during the two years here. I mean, I first registered to MAL because I wanted to find more ecchi series like Sora no Otoshimono but then I ended up discovering great shows like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Then I went on to watching Clannad and Code Geass. I was actually surprised by how good anime was.


I was that kinda kid who used to bash on anime saying it was gay, full of lolis only fat otaku nerds would obsess over in a sexual way. I was put off by it even more because my brother had an anime wallpaper of these three girls in weird ass robes (which I later found out it was from Aria the Animation). I was like, "the fuck is with this gay shit?" I mean seriously, I detested anime.


But of course that's when I stumbled upon some funny anime clips on YouTube which made me curious. Actually, going back to my first paragraph, I didn't watch Sora no Otoshimono first. I think it was Nagasarete Airantou then the Da Capo series. Goddamn Da Capo made me cry. That was the first time I actually cried because of an anime.


Well...actually no. Naruto was the first anime that made me cry. But wait, what the fuck? I hated anime yet I watched Naruto? Shit, I don't know what went on through my mind back then. Perhaps I was just disgusted with the moe/loli aspect of anime and not anime in general. I mean, shows like Rurouni Kenshin were fucking awesome.


Going back to Naruto....goddamn. Naruto has become so hard to watch because of how far behind I am and because of how much fillers I have to go through just to follow the story. I haven't watched the other big 3 or 4 or whatever it is nowadays, but I have a feeling it's the same for all of 'em. That's why I don't try to watch shows that are still airing while being over 100 episodes long. It's just takes too much time and frankly I think I have ADHD. So yeah that's why I dropped Naruto.


Anyways, I think it was around the middle of May of 2011 that I've decided to pick up a couple of mangas to read. Again, being the shallow person I was I ended up going for the ones with the pretty artwork. Amazingly, I managed to land on Rosario+Vampire. The manga was awesome. I read and read and read until I finally caught up to the second season. Oh yeah, along that time I started reading To Love-Ru, too. Another manga that was fucking awesome. That's where everyone else was. I felt like I had accomplished something. It was a milestone that allowed me to actually engage in discussions with other people reading the manga. I was fucking happy.


That's the same reason why I choose to watch and read a lot of currently airing animes and publishing mangas -- engage in discussion with others. I mean shit, I don't think I would enjoy anime/manga as much as I do now if I wasn't able to discuss and express my opinions on them. I guess that's why I started posting a lot on the forums. It's logical is it not?


OK so let's see, what else have I been doing during these two years...hmm. Well, I decided to join a lot of clubs. I also started to participate in many signature contests MAL had going on. I think it's still running, but I haven't participated in them in quite a while. I just got lazy I guess. Either that or it was the fact I'm on almost always on my laptop now which doesn't have as many of my photoshop brushes and stuff that were found on my desktop computer.


So what did I do after that? Well, around June or July of 2011 I got bored and decided to learn join a translation team to translate the Steins;Gate Visual Novel. Fuck, that was so much fun. Working on it all through the day and night, talking with others on IRC about how we wanted to interpret certain translations, sleeping a little and waking up to do it again next day. I miss it. We had so many supporters so I felt like I was benefiting society.


However, we started having trouble with our project. Our main translator BlickWinkel disappeared. We ended up pushing this project past December into next year (2012). We honestly wanted to finish it before the Christmas of 2011 but shit happens I guess. It was around January when I learned that BlickWinkel decided to sell his translations to Steam (a game company). Actually, I'm not sure if it was directly with Steam or if it was with some other third-party company. I can't remember exactly so don't hold it against me if I'm wrong. Anyways, of course I was upset but business is business so I was happy for him.


I think a shortwhile after that I stopped watching anime for a bit. I just got bored. Combine that with the summer break I used to work it just made me reluctant to watch anime. So yeah months past by and nothing new. That's when I suddenly realized "holy shit, you're not even bothering with anime anymore!"


So you know what I did? I hopped on myanimelist.net, went to the forums, and made a thread about my love of anime starting to deteriorate. I was surprised by the amount of reponses I got. A lot of them were useful and I took their advice. I began watching some of the older shows I loved. God, brings back memories. Thank god I got hooked again. I then began looking for currently airing animes and found a lot that caught my interest.


Hooray. Back into anime.


So yeah that's pretty much how my journey has gone like during these two years. There are many small things that happened during that time but I'm so lazy to write them all out. Actually, even writing one is a bit of a hassle for me. Funny thing is I realized how much of a pervert I actually ended up being. I mean, I was bashing people for watching anime because I thought it was gay and filled with hentai and lolicons yet nowadays I'm actually watching a ton of cchi shows and enjoy it. Oh the irony.


Shit almost forgot. I think many of you people want to know what I think of the MAL community. Surely a guy like me who has been around for two years must have some form of experience and opinion on the community? Well guess what? I do.


MAL is fucking retarded. No offense but many of the new users have been making threads everywhere regarding useless things. I don't even know where to begin. "How many people here enjoy anime?", or "Do you think anime is better than real life?" or the most recent one I've seen: "favorite anime of 2012 so far?????"


Like holy shit, how does that really engage people in discussions? The only thing it does it allows people to post their subjective opinions on what anime is the best. Okay okay. I get it. You can rebutt and question people's opinion. That's a discussion.


Techinically yes, but I say NO. Where the fuck is the discussions that raise good points and generate some wonderful insight on the topic? Where the hell is all that? Seriously. I don't even want to go further into this topic myself right now.


I just wonder where the hell all these people came from. Did MAL reach like an all-time high in terms of registrations? Pretty crazy. I didn't remember it being like this on the forums back then. Oh well. I can only hope it's a phase.


But having said all that, I think I'm guilty of one or two useless threads myself. I've been influenced by the mass. Shit!


Anyways I think it's time to wrap things up. It's been exactly two years since I've joined MAL. Woo. Awesome. I think I'm going to spend it drinking some scotch whisky and playing games. Probably read a manga or two and watch the latest episode of Sword Art Online (episode 25 for future references; it might be funny reading this blog a few months/years later).



Thanks to those who read this blog. Happy two years of anime/manga.