In 2014 I was hit with a depression harder than I had ever felt. I was drinking more. Sleeping more. I stopped caring about everything. The passion that I felt for my studies was no longer strong enough to distract me from what was happening in my head. I began skipping class and putting minimal effort into my homework assignments. Graduating with a perfect report card no longer mattered to me. My behavior didn’t go unnoticed. Teachers that once praised me, started calling me out in front of the class. And things only got worse when I graduated and couldn’t find a job. Despite everything going wrong, there was still a light of hope that got me through even the worst of days — anime. Just kidding. It was alcohol and porn. With an introduction...

When I look at the list of anime that aired in 2013 and I only recognize a few titles it tells me that I was either very busy, very depressed, or both. Of the entire year, I’ve only seen three shows. One of which, I watched last week. My podcasting output was also low, with a seven month gap between episodes at one point. My memory is hazy, but I know this was a tough year for me. Dropping out of college and changing majors at 25 after completing most of a degree wasn’t something I took lightly. I became motivated to a fault, pushing myself away from friends so I could focus on studying. They didn’t much care for that. On top of my full-time college schedule, I was also working at Domino’s and a radio station. Most of the...

I’ve always looked back fondly on 2012. It was a peak year for my creativity. More people were listening and interacting with my podcast than ever. I was collaborating with people on new projects. It was also when I started learning more about the sound equipment that I went into debt for. But when I look at the year of anime, I’m grossly underwhelmed. For such an important year of an anime podcast, I expected more shows to stand out. My memory was so fuzzy that I had to turn on "English Titles" on AniChart before I started to recognize things. In a way, this is a metaphor for how we interact with life. No matter how good the present is, we still find ourselves yearning for the past. Esteemed scholar and poet, Conor Oberst once said, “That summer never stopped, I still pretend I'm there.” But we must be Grateful For...

If you read my article on Anime That I Vaguely Remember from 2010, which, statically, you probably didn’t, you may have noticed that I never followed up with 2011. Did they stop making anime in 2011? Yes. Not maybe people talk about it anymore, but the prime minister at the time, Yoshihiko Noda, signed a bill canceling all anime that took affect on January 1, 2011. I’m not sure what collective hallucinations everyone on Twitter has been experiencing since then, but it’s been really uncomfortable to witness it transpire. Anyway, here’s a mess of personal anecdotes of shows that may or may not have been produced in 2011. The year comes in hot with a litany of shows I still tell myself that I’m going to finish. Dragon Crisis! is something that I liked enough...

With 2020 around the corner, I wanted to do something that every other hack anime blogger is going to do -- write about the last decade of anime. The key difference with my series of articles is that it's named after an emo song, which makes it objectively better. Before I get started, I want to make something abundantly clear -- this is not meant to be a comprehensive portrait of the last ten year. This is how I experienced anime over the decade; not the fandom as a whole. I will also not be covering every major news story that happened. If I remember something, I'll bring it up. But this will mostly be about the shows that came out and my reaction to them. You can skim the Anime News Network archive on your own time.

In an attempt to force myself to write about anime again, I chose to participate in Anime Secret Santa for the first time since 2011. For the uninitiated, it’s the same thing you play at work but with anime recommendations instead of gifts. It was started by The Reverse Thieves in 2009, but it’s current incarnation is run by All Geeks Considered. The anime I was tasked with reviewing back then was Now and Then, Here and There. If there was an award for Best Anime About Torturing Children, Now and Then would be a top contender. I had so much fun with my review that I returned for a second dance with Anime Santa in 2012, but I gave up before the deadline. Halfway through Sarazanmai, I considered doing this again. Sarazanmai is an 11-episode series that...