▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Interview 207 - @Gilrin ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬  The Golden ”There is no desperate art, Despair is only a lack of talent.” - Romain Gary Interview conducted by: @TuryuriOwO Reviewed by: @Skittles Could you tell us more about yourself? I was born in France in 1992 (no need to do the maths, I'm currently 27). I had a complicated childhood and a somewhat difficult background, which always made me see things a bit differently than most people. I originally wanted to pursue an artistic career, but after starting university in Paris (I studied literature, philosophy, and film), I was offered a career in a real estate firm and stayed there for about five to six years until I rose to a very important position. I always like to challenge myself and felt a bit trapped there, so I left my job to try something else. I'm now preparing for a bunch of new challenges in 2020, including music and starting my own company. I can speak five languages: French, English, Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew. I have the basics down in Arabic, too. I also took lessons in Greek and Russian, but I've mostly forgotten all about it. I am usually cheerful, good at making friends, and love talking with people. According to the MBTI test, my personality is ENFJ-T. Of course, this doesn't mean I don't have my downer times. I think I tend to have a critical view on a lot of things, and I can also be pretty annoying at times, haha. Another thing about me is that I have a terrible memory and I often forget even the most important things. A lot of people take it as me not caring, when in fact, it just doesn't stick with me no matter what (sorry friends). I do not own any black clothing and only wear pastel colors. I love Hello Kitty, unicorns, flamingos, and many other bright things. All in all, I often think I don't really fit my age, but it doesn't mean I can't be an adult when I have to. How did you choose your username? My username is taken from the second character I ever made on Dungeons and Dragons. She was an elf, and being a big Tolkien fan, it made sense for me to pick a name from his work. Gilraen is actually Aragorn's mother. Her name is Sindarin, one of the forms of elvish, a combination of gil (star) and raen (netted, enlaced), meaning “one adorned with a treasure set with small gems in its network." So basically, the lady crowned with stars. It worked fine since my character had very long blond hair and so do I, haha. I twisted it a bit so it would be shorter and replaced the aen with an "i." I've been using the name on other platforms for a while now. Could you give us a brief history of your time on MAL? I originally joined MAL because I picked up anime and manga again. Before that, I was using an app to track things I wanted to watch or read on my phone. The application required me to make a MAL account. I barely used any features in this site other than tracking my anime and manga history. A month later, I decided to post in the introduction thread and started to make friends. I eventually joined the site's Discord server and I've been on there ever since! Any users you like/dislike? Why? I've been on mal for over a year now and I'm lucky to have made many friends, including regular users as well as moderators. I've met a few of them in real life. I wish I could tag them all, but they know who they are and that I love miss them, haha. It's really hard to select only a few people. I wish I could cite them all and tell them how much I'm grateful to have met them, but here are some people I want to shout out: @Brandon was one of the first people I became friends with on MAL. He was the one who made me join the site's Discord server (so you can blame him, haha). @Sarroush and I bonded over a lot of things, including our love for flooffy puppies! She taught me a lot of stuff, be it as an admin, a friend, or a clan mentor, even if I drive her mad with how lightheaded I am when we play Destiny :D I love you! @Heddie is also my mentor and a fellow nerd. We can always count on each other for sending dumb memes or discussing sci-fi and much more! He also supported all my event ideas for the Discord server, haha! @Shempsy is one of my fellow moderators with crazy talent. I can always count on him to have super interesting convos about movies and any media. @cito has impecable music taste, and we also have similar tastes in anime. I sometimes check his list when I search for new things to watch! Also, all my Discord moderator friends who make the job always fun no matter what, haha. In particular: @8bit who made me discover a bunch of shows I probably wouldn't have watched on my own, and suffering with me through Franxx (forgive me one day please). @Yuna who also has very similar tastes to mine. I can always count on her for giving good recs. She is also a fellow piano fan! As for users I dislike, all I'll say is I don't really dislike anyone because I don't really care about any sort of negativity online. I would much rather focus on my friends :) How did you get into anime/manga? I live in France and when I was younger, anime and manga were the norm on TV and pretty much everywhere. I watched and read a bunch of classics and to be honest, I had no idea they were anime or manga until way later! I got very into western TV shows and fantasy/sci-fi literature, so I put the medium aside until I returned to it by watching Hunter x Hunter. It reignited my love for the medium and here I am! We are lucky to have access to a crazy ton of manga and anime, so it's easy to get our hands on anything we need! What are your hobbies outside of anime/manga and MAL? I've been playing the piano since I was five years old. I've also been singing for a while, so I like to make music sometimes or just randomly play. I love playing games, mostly things like World of Warcraft, The Witcher III, Destiny, Fire Emblem, and many more. I play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons. I also hang out with my friends, often visiting exhibits or going to the movies together. I'm a huge nerd, so I spend also a lot of times on comics and fantasy things. I also do a bit of photography and editing for fun. I'm trying to perfect my Photoshop skills. How do you feel about how the site is run? Especially in regard to your fellow moderators and admins? I think everyone works really hard to keep the users happy. They work behind the scenes, even if only for the Discord server and site events. Sadly, many people don't realize how hard the staff works. Everyone is doing their best to the best of their abilities, even if people don't always see it, but I think that's part of the job, haha. Why did you study literature, philosophy, and film in university? I originally wanted to learn scriptwriting at some point. Anything related to cinema, really, but life decided otherwise, haha. Since you have shown interest in starting your own company, what would it be about? Himitsu! A piece of literature that you would recommend everybody to read and why? Oh, that's a HARD one! I guess I would recommend classics because they are obvious references that are still used nowadays. For fantasy, I would definitely say Lord of the Rings. As for sci-fi, I would say Dune and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because it's witty, fun, and really random! For poetry, it would be my favourite of all time, Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire. Bonus if you can actually read it in French. Big works would be War and Peace, Madame Bovary, The Red and the Black, and Anna Karenina. I know they are old and long books, but their writing is truly beautiful, meaning they are must-read even if just for a cultural point of view. Finally, for philosophy, I would suggest Symposium by Plato. I've always loved that text, and the theme it explores is one of my all-time favorites. Tell us a little about your pets! I've had a boa constrictor for several years now. She is cute and nice, around three meters long. She mostly chills in her vivarium. Many people often tell me this urban legend about a snake laying next to their owner while they sleep, which lowkey annoys me 'cause snakes aren't that scary as they are made out to be (plus, that story is dumb, lol). She never bit anyone and is okay with being handled. She's pretty low maintenance. I would love to have a ton of doggos and cats eventually! What do you like and dislike about living in Paris? I love the architecture a lot and all the history, museums, and food. I dislike how polluted the city is now and the mentality of the people here. Paris can be very gloomy and a lot of its people can be rude, hahaha. Still, I don't see myself living elsewhere in France. Could you tell us about the time you played for a band? I originally joined my school's music club to try and make some friends because I was a bit of weirdo at the time and I was pretty alone. I met my three other band members there; we weren't even friends at first, but we worked well music-wise. We spent a few years together making music and touring around Monaco and nearby towns. We got super lucky and won a big contest there, where we were awarded by a few artists who were judges, including John McLaughlin (for those of you who don't know him, he does a lot of things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpfUOlYtxWY). Being complimented by big artists for my music when I was just an awkward 15-year-old was pretty crazy. After that big contest, we got selected to play in the first part of a show led by the band Tokio Hotel, which was pretty big at the time (if you need a reminder, here it is xD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suRNNOeDIEA). We got to play in front of over 3000 people, which was pretty epic. Since the festival lasted over three days and we had passes, we got to spend some time with other artists such as Jamiroquai! It was pretty cool as a teen to experience all that. Soon enough, we were featured in a big French rock magazine and played a few more concerts and recorded a few more songs. I graduated at 17 and left for Paris, and we started to seek different things in terms of music. My guitarist travelled to Paris as well, and we did a few more songs and won a radio contest. I keep singing for friends when they need me to, but with my studies and life, I didn't pursue my music career any further. Have you ever thought about pursuing a professional singing career? from @Skittles Despite knowing many people in the industry and being able to sing, I always felt like I wasn't good enough, specifically lacking something that makes all the difference. I had a few IRL issues as well. My studies and then my job took a lot of my time, so it has stayed a latent dream. Who knows, though, haha. I'm actually slowly getting back to it! What are your best and worst experiences during your time as a Discord moderator? from @Skittles I think my best experience will always be during Discord events. I love organizing them and seeing the users participate and have fun. We also get to see new faces and it's pretty refreshing! I don't know if I have a bad experience. Even when there are some things we need to deal with, the team is always there, so it's never a burden... except maybe when we got invaded with all those fake robot accounts that were promoting lewd sites. I don't remember how many we had to ban, but they kept coming for a bit, hahah. Will you ever be interested in idols? from @Skittles I will probably check out an idol show out of curiosity, but I'm not sure how much I will like it. It depends on the music, I guess. One thing for sure, however, is that I absolutely love the design of the cards they make for those gacha games, haha. Best destination to travel to? Who would you take? from @Heddie A cruise around Greece with you and our friends, of course! To be honest, I'm not a passive traveller. I hate to stay idle on the beach for hours, so any destination that has some historical grounds and things to do is fine for me. I even travel alone a lot just to visit places. Otherwise, as long as I'm with friends, I know I'll have fun! What anime—and for that matter—any piece of media has had the most significant emotional impact on you? from @Shempsy My favourite anime of all time is Mononoke. I fell in love with the art, direction, storytelling, and not to mention the amazing OST. It's a very unique piece that looks like no other and it will always have a special place in my heart. It opened me to a bunch of other atypical anime such as Kuchuu Buranko and made me enjoy unconventional art and beauty like XXXHolic. I also love old animation and I collect celluloids. My favourite one is of Hisoka from the first Hunter x Hunter anime. I'm a huge nerd as stated above, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favourite sci-fi movies. I have also seen the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars films more times than I can count! Another one of my favourite movies is the Boat That Rocked for reviving all those great forgotten tunes! If you need to cheer up, I strongly advise watching it! I watch a lot of movies, from classics to popular stuff, so it's hard to pinpoint a particular piece. I like watching stuff from Clockwork Orange, Call Me By Your Name, and Melancholia to things like Rock'n'Rolla, Equilibrium, Constantine, and Welcome to Gattaca, so it's a bit all over the place, haha. For books, I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. Lord of the Rings is basically a bible to me, and so is Dune and many more. I also used to read a lot of detective stories. I enjoy poetry a lot. Beaudelaire is one of my favourite poets. French literature is beautiful, and I hold many classics close to my heart. I wish I could read and understand Russian so I could read the classics in their intended language. One of the reasons why I learned so many languages was because I've always been adamant in reading literature in their original language. I studied literature and philosophy in university, and all of the figures of style and so on are often lost in translation. I wish I was strong enough to read Japanese poetry by learning the language, but I probably never will, haha. For music, I come from a classic base, and I can actually sing opera too. Over the years, I've discovered many genres: rock, metal, electro, and jazz. I still listen to many many things depending on my mood. My most listened artists lately are FKJ and Madeon. My tastes are generally all over the place, so it's hard for me to pinpoint anything in particular because I take influence from literally anything that resonates with me no matter how different they can be. Is there anything that you wish MAL had? I really wish I could add things and delete them from my activity tab. Sometimes I remember super old anime I watched and want to add them, but seeing them in my activity bothers me for some reason, hahaha. I also would love to see even more activities from my friends. Do you see yourself leaving MAL in the near future? I don't have a reason to leave for now. My memory is bad, so how would I keep track of everything if I did :') Is there something unasked that you would like to talk about? Not really, but I would love to encourage more people to check out MAL's Discord server and join us! Any feedback on the interview format? I've read a few interviews here so I was familiar with the outline, but I think it would be fun in the future to maybe do a "live" interview. Maybe using voice chat where you can't really think so much about your answers. I love to see spontaneous things sometimes. Can you recommend us three members who we can choose from to interview next and briefly explain why you would like to read their interviews? @Shempsy - Because I just love his output on art. @Heddie for an updated interview. @yuna since she's super cool and our new vice admin!  |
  Life has no meaning, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't live it  |
| Great interview! Was a really nice read! @Gilrin I love you too <3. Let's get married and have 50 puppies. P.S: It's almost time for Crimson Doubles. Are you ready? >:D |
| That was a great interview! Thanks, TuryuriOwO and Skittles. I learned a lot of things about Gil that I didn't know before. Hope you'll stay with us for a while longer! Thanks for all your hard work on Discord! |
 staff.applications ▼ guidelines.faq ▼ report.abuse ▼ thx.skittles ▼ thx.kina ▼ [H+] ³ ▼ |
sarroush said: Great interview! Was a really nice read! @Gilrin I love you too <3. Let's get married and have 50 puppies. P.S: It's almost time for Crimson Doubles. Are you ready? >:D Yesss yesss :D *cries in chocolate shells* yes yes i'm ready T_T <3 |
 She felt that her whole life was some kind of dream she sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. |
cyruz said: That was a great interview! Thanks, TuryuriOwO and Skittles. I learned a lot of things about Gil that I didn't know before. Hope you'll stay with us for a while longer! Thanks for all your hard work on Discord! Ty ty, I'll try my best :D |
She felt that her whole life was some kind of dream she sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. |
| My favorite The Voice finalist on MAL. Good interview. |
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Heh? Was she actually on The Voice? |
Life has no meaning, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't live it |
TuryuriOwO said: Heh? Was she actually on The Voice Yeah, I witnessed her sing the Mushishi opening there @Gilrin |
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Skittles said: TuryuriOwO said: Heh? Was she actually on The Voice Yeah, I witnessed her sing the Mushishi opening there @Gilrin I won the star of Skitlandia, that was my greatest achievement ᘳ◔ᴥ◔ᘰ |
She felt that her whole life was some kind of dream she sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. |
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