Report longevityvirus's Profile

The waiting is not technically much of a problem for me, especially since life in uni is so busy weeks go by crazy fast, but I've noticed that sometimes watching weekly can hinder my enjoyment when it comes to super plot heavy shows like thrillers or mysteries. If I know I'm going to like something, I want to ensure I get the best possible experience of the story! Still, this really is the case for mainly the aforementioned genres because of how heavily they rely on the suspenseful mood, which is harder to establish when the immersion keeps being broken after every episode. Genres like comedy, romance or slice of life are great in weekly doses, and in general I prefer the excitement of looking forward to new episodes and being able to discuss them each week. I had the manga of Takopii on my PTR but when I heard it was getting an anime, I decided to just wait for that instead, haha. I'm glad I did, because the adaptation was stunning!! I especially loved the way they visualized Azuma's infatuation with Shizuka through the use of the heart eyes and special effects. I've been in a sort of similar situation in his shoes and found the portrayal of being obsessed with another person to the point of compromising yourself and your common sense disturbingly accurate. (°⌓ °;)

Wow! Watching everything is something I've never even tried to try, haha. I know I won't enjoy everything, so I only watch the things that interest me I used to be a huge completionist/list-filling addict back around 2019-2022 though. My personal record might actually be the current season?! (O_o) The remaining stuff is mostly sequels which I'll start for sure, so my total for the season, unless I drop something midway through (a few things are on-trial...), will be 16 shows + JJBA part 7 airing way later in the season! ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

Haha, exactly! I have barely watched anything RPG-like, because I know it's not for me. Tonsuki is a somewhat RPG style fantasy that I enjoyed, but it's basically an iyashikei gourmet show dressed in an isekai cloak and the levelling aspect is only relevant when a joke calls for it, so I wouldn't really count that either. Do you watch a lot of YouTube nowadays? Who are your favorite youtubers?

Thanks for the recommendation, I put it on my wishlist! The Japanese voice acting is definitely a nice plus. It feels so illegal to read "2020" and "6 years ago" in the same sentence... I have actual sentience from that time!! What do you mean it was 6 years ago already?! ꉂ(T▽T) Speaking of the past, I also used to be big into Doki Doki Literature Club around when it was at the peak of its popularity. It was one of my first experiences with psychological horror and to this day the only piece of media that has caused me to be so disturbed I had a few sleepless nights because of it I couldn't get the more grotesque glitchcore images out of my head... but it's really good. I loved the concept of breaking the 4th wall being utilized for horror instead of comedy!

I'd estimate I attend somewhere between 4 to 8 cons per year. The convention culture in Finland is still thriving, so there are cons on an almost biweekly basis, haha. Nowadays, I usually work as part of the staff, which includes free entry, food and accommodation: one common activity in larger cons over here is tabletop games, so I work in the mahjong team to look after the equipment, fill in at tables that are missing players and assist with rules/teach new players when needed. When I don't have a shift, I'm free to roam the con as I please! It's a lot of fun and very convenient as well, since I'd spend a fair bit of time at the mahjong tables as a regular attendee regardless. („ᵕᴗᵕ„)

My need for plot has decreased lately... It feels like I'll watch anything, as long as it has one hot guy in it without being a total (male) incel fantasy. (,,¬﹏¬,,) Secret Night is my favorite!! It's a basic choice but it's hype as hell, so I get why it's a popular pick, haha. I also love anime karaoke btw! I like singing in general, but since I mostly listen to anisongs, anime karaoke is much more exciting than regular karaoke. What's your go-to Japanese karaoke song? Mine is uninstall by Chiaki Ishikawa.
♬ ♪ ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و

So cool! I'm not a big movie-goer either. I'm bad at watching movies in general because I can't focus on a single thing without distractions for that long, lol. However, if I do want to watch a film, I'd rather do it in theaters than at home. It's too bad anime films don't get screenings here that often, unless they're big franchise titles supported by Crunchyroll... My favorite anime movie is Look Back, because it's one of the few stories that have made me feel totally read, totally seen and totally understood, haha. I'm literally not a Fujimoto fan at all, but this movie just hit differently. It's such an accurate description of how the struggling part of creation feels like as a perfectionist. Without spoiling anything, I relate to Fujino's perspective and the portrayal of her artistic journey a lot. To me, she's one of the most realistic and relatable characters in... anything ever, and I suspect it's because it's likely for her to be at least somewhat based on Tatsuki Fujimoto's personal experiences. I doubt people without a creative hobby can get the same satisfaction out of it as I did I assume the people leaving negative reviews have never picked up a pencil to draw past their mandatory art lessons in childhood, but since you liked both Blue Period and Chainsaw Man, I feel like you'd love this one as well! If you ever watch it, I literally have an essay's worth of good things to say about it, so keep me updated!! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ What's your favorite anime movie?

Oh my god, that's awesome!! They're my favorite Japanese band! My ultimate favourite song from them is Chase the Light!, but since that coincidentally happens to be an anime opening, let me shout out Love at First Sight, Rave-up Tonight and Return to Zero as well. How about yours?

Sounds like a good strategy! I usually try to watch as much stuff seasonally as I can, because for some reason watching 1 episode of 12 anime per week as opposed to 12 episodes of 1 anime is easier for me. Although, there have been a few seasonals I've deliberately waited to air in their entirety in order to binge them, if it's something more plot-heavy that I'm almost certain I'm going to like, such as HikaNatsu and Takopii no Genzai from last year, but other than that, if I miss something good, it's likely to just fall off my radar because I'll already be busy with the next season. I just love the excitement of a fresh season and getting to be surprised by all the underhyped bangers! ⁽⁽`o(≧ᗜ≦)o´⁾⁾

I also check that extension sometimes – it's a big help in the matching process of Secret Santa! However, one of its downsides is the fact that the statistics get easily warped by bigger franchises. For instance, just me having all seasons of Mob Psycho 100 and Mushoku Tensei rated relatively high already makes me seem like a bigger action/adventure fan than I actually am: I much prefer realistic settings, either modern or futuristic (dystopian). Urban fantasy is cool, especially when it's something like a select few humans in the cast having supernatural abilities or supernatural beings existing alongside humans in a regular environment, but I very rarely enjoy high fantasy with intricately built magic systems, made-up species and whatnot. Do you have a favorite/least favorite type of setting? Also, people are obviously more likely to watch shows from genres they prefer, which can make certain nicher genres fall lower due to having watched more series thus a clearer preference of what is good and what is not. It's pretty great at determining what an user doesn't like though, haha.

I wish I did! Otome games/dating sims are totally up my alley, but somehow I never got further into them than Mystic Messenger. I suppose I haven't really found a good place to start. Besides, I already get overwhelmed by decision paralysis regarding all of my other hobbies. (╥﹏╥) But I do want to get into them still, so if you have any recommendations that are preferably on Steam, I'd love to hear them. I'd also prefer one with no supernatural elements, because those are easier to relate to, but supernatural recommendations are fine too. Especially if they have a dateable ヤンチャ with a soft side, I'll play anything!! (∩˃ᴗ˂∩)♡

There are indeed. I'm not sure where you're from, but I recommend taking a peek at Google – who knows what luck might strike your way! Though, it might be hard to find one within a reasonable distance if you live somewhere like North America.
(๑•́ -•̀) I'm actually going to an anime convention in a few weeks which will likely have one (they've had it available on previous years), so now that I got a lot of good Vocaloid recommendations from you, I can put them to test on the button mashing machine, haha. There's also a Japanese rhythm game arcade a bit under an hour from where I currently live, so I occassionally go there to play as well. ദ്ദി ˊ ᗜ ˋ ) -☆

If you enjoyed IDOLiSH7, another idol anime that might be up your alley is Technoroid Overmind. I don't think it's nearly as well done or convincingly written, especially the characters are quite dull compared to IDOLiSH7, but Technoroid Overmind has elements that separate it from many other idol anime... such as the existence of an actual plot, which actually kind of mirrors the nature of developments in IDOLiSH7 at times. I don't really know who my favorite in IDOLiSH7 would be (maybe Gaku or Ryuunosuke?), but Trigger is definitely my favorite unit! Their songs are so good.

I guess it's different for the people that enjoy them, lol. I mean, I sure wouldn't mind if we had five Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan rip-offs airing each season! ᕕ( ՞ ᗜ ՞ )ᕗ

Yup! Syudou in 1st, Kanaria in 2nd and TK in 3rd I'd say. Though, I also really liked Vaundy and Queen Bee's efforts. The Reze arc movie was amazing!! I went to see it in theaters as part of an excursion organized by the university's anime club and it was a great film to experience in the cinema. Reze arc was overall my favorite part of the manga, which I otherwise didn't really care for, so I'm glad it got a separate entry, haha. I guess Fujimoto's work is really just better suited for the film format!

ワハハ、いいぞう！Join the Azakami cult, in which yours truly may be the sole member for now... but I've been persistently advocating for the agenda among the elf team, haha. There are a lot of fellow seiyuu enjoyers ඞmong us! ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

That's exactly why I love it! It's such shameless, unapologetic wish fulfillment and I'm here for it. ( ͡° з ͡°) Still, I definitely get that it's not for everyone, haha. Toumei Otoko is super laid back, I wouldn't even consider it that comedic, so if you don't like that kind of simple workplace fluff, it probably won't be for you. Its charm is basically getting heart palpitations and cavities because of how cute and wholesome it is. (づ> v <)づ♡ It's a seinen, but it certainly feels more like a shoujo... maybe they have an ace up their sleeve? It's only the first episode, after all. The closest thing on your list would probably be something like Atarashii Joushi wa Dotennen, but even that is slightly too humorous to be a perfect comparison.

Oh wow, I thought you would've been familiar with them as a horror enjoyer! I feel like the game drew in a lot of fans exactly because of its messed up, dramatic nature. Yoosung's bad endings are probably the most infamous for being disturbing... I feel like this yandere one is the creepiest but this one is pretty unsettling too. There's even a video talking about and ranking all of the original dateable characters' bad endings if you need something to put on the background while doing something else, haha. Or of course, you could just watch it if you're the type to rawdog hour-long video essays, but I usually prefer them in the background whenever I need to do something else but want the feeling of being kept company.

Yeah, the in-game downloads of ever-growing resources such as songs, beatmaps and MVs are what takes up all that space. However, I don't want to clear any caches because I'm too afraid of accidentally losing my account... (lll╥_╥⁠) I've also played the arcade version of Project Diva a few times, but I'm not very good at it. I'd say I'm a bit above an intermediate level at rhythm games overall, but it really depends on which game I'm playing! I can never full combo the really challenging difficulties in any game though, so I'm not one of those crazy impressive button mashers, haha.

I'm kind of the same actually: I adore 2D idols, but a lot of the adaptations are just so uneventful and dull, which is why I mostly listen to the soundtracks from both adapted and game-only idol franchises. IDOLiSH7 is definitely the best adaptation out there and it's something that I'd say works even for someone who's generally opposed to watching idol anime, as long as they enjoy drama. I feel like it's actually more of a showbiz drama, kind of like Oshi no Ko. However, it's been too long since I watched it to confidently evaluate whether I liked it or not, because I'm sure my opinion would be different if I rewatched it. All I remember is that it's suuuper extra with the drama, almost like a soap opera, but in a way that is more engaging than the average idol show. ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵) Do you have a favorite character in IDOLiSH7?

Same! Sometimes it's kind of a relief, especially in a stacked season as this one, to have a hard dislike to immediately rule out a few entries. Though, I also tend to insta-skip anything tagged action/fantasy/isekai with a bunch of girls on the cover, which is also approximately 10 shows per season, lol.

Ah, I get that! Because, once again, my journey has been very similar. (˶˃𐃷˂˶) I've only started what can be considered studying Japanese in uni, but before that I've also been learning a lot through pop culture and Japanese learning channels on YouTube for years without actually putting in much conscious effort to study the language (aside from teaching myself kana), so it's hard to pinpoint when I started. Even with kanji, at some point I just gradually started picking up reoccurring ones from stuff like anime thumbnails, song titles and playing games in Japanese – Enstars has taught me so much kanji!! The game is actually quite infamous in Japan for having a lot of complicated words, kanji and readings for even native speakers, haha. Also, because the kanji system is so intriguing to me, I've memorized a lot from just that: for example, I somehow realized for the first time just the other day that "youth" is literally written as "blue spring" in Japanese and I was just so mesmerized to realize that because of how intricately spring is associated with youth in Japanese culture in general! Honestly, it's kind of double impressive, because "being green at [noun]" in English means to be inexperienced or new to something. I don't remember if an equivalent exists in Japanese, my native language is Finnish and we don't have that expression, but blue in Japan is culturally similar to green in English.

What you said about JLPT makes sense. I had to take some general linguistics courses as a part of my degree in the language department and they always emphasized the fact that measuring skill or knowledge of a language through a set standard isn't very functional because of how different actual communication is and how much variation there is even among native speakers.

I know right! It's always so hype to play. Would probably work as gym music too... if I ever went. ( ≖▽≖ ) Though, Chunithm has a lot of high energy songs in general. In the Back Room is great!! I was really excited when I heard Syudou was doing one of the endings for Chainsaw Man, because it was (and still is) kind of a big deal anime in the West, haha.

Honestly? A better question would be what I'm not enjoying, haha. Aside from Eris no Seihai, which felt very cringy and directionless based on the first episode but I'm sticking with it for now, waiting for Azakami's character to appear, I've liked every seasonal in my watchlist so far. But if I had to choose some favorites, I've been looking forward to Tamon-kun Ima Docchi!? ever since the adaptation was announced, and it has been delivering so far! It's pretty relatable as a fellow oshi enthusiast. The manga has been on my PTR for a while because I don't like to read ongoing stuff, so might as well check out the anime while I wait for it to finish. (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ Also, out of the other things I started for Azakami besides Eris (he's in 4 non-sequels this season, 3 of which are main roles!), Yuusha-kei ni Shosu managed to catch me off-guard with some of the most impressive art direction and sakuga I've seen in a seasonal show in a while, and then I really loved the first episode of Toumei Otoko to Ningen Onna, which aired yesterday. The anime seems really cozy and cute so far, and Azakami's voice work as Tounome is just pure ASMR!! It feels like my ears are melting whenever he speaks. (๑´>᎑<)~* The female MC describes his voice and manner of speech as soothing (言葉や声が穏やかで is what she says in the anime) and I'm just like "ah, I definitely see why Azakami got the role". His acting range is seriously impressive: he can go from that gentle princely voice all the way to the roughed-up bitter soldier type like the protagonist of Yuusha-kei. Although, I heard that Tounome was voiced by Yuuichirō Umehara in the official comic dub, whom I can also see fitting the calm and collected gentleman archetype. He's probably my favorite seiyuu after Azakami, so it's funny to think that the same character was voiced by both of my top 2 seiyuus, haha.

I see! I actually wanted to play Zen's route first, but ended up getting Yoosung's instead when answering all chats as just myself, lol. My favorites back in the game's glory days were Zen and Saeran, but I'm sure that if I were to replay it, I would be an absolute 707 fiend, hahaha. He's kind of within the reign of jerk with a heart of gold™ (my favorite character archetype) with how he's a mischievous prankster on the surface yet a really kind-hearted and caring guy behind his facade. I've played every route's good ending and after story, but I never had the heart to venture into the bad ones. I've watched a few on YouTube though, and some of them are pretty disturbing, lol. Did you ever get any bad/normal endings?

Score! I figured you seemed like a Proseka fan. (˵• ̀⩊•́˵) I would love to play it, since it has a lot of great songs and the rhythm game mechanic is very similar to Chunithm, but my phone is practically exploding just from me having Enstars on it, so I don't have enough storage space to download it. I've been thinking about investing in a separate rhythm game tablet for a while now, but it's just such a commitment and would also require relearning the screen size for Enstars... (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) Are you good at rhythm games?

Oh yeah, I totally get that. One visual anomality I still can't get over is shows being in full 3D-CGI. I've conquered a lot of other well-known anime with a non-conventional art style (e.g. Kaiji, Ping Pong), but most 3D-CGI is just... so ugly. (ㆆࡇㆆ") It's not like I'm one of those who starts complaining from seeing a single frame of CGI: I don't mind it being used occassionally to cut budget costs, fill in a repertitive scene or animate something difficult like large vehicles or dance sequences. However, if the whole anime is that, it's pretty alienating. I'd literally rather watch something "animated" like One Punch Man S3 or Blue Lock S2 than watch an anime that's fully done in 3D-CGI.

N1?? That's amazing!! How long have you been studying consciously to get there? (✧O✧) I don't have an official certification, but I'd say I'm probably somewhere between N4–N3 myself. And I know what you mean by difficult! The opportunity to practice speaking was one of the main reasons I wanted to start learning Japanese in an academic environment with other learners.

Really? Whenever I go to Japan I definitely want to visit Akihabara regardless, so maybe I'll go check the café out as well, haha.

Thank you for the song recommendations! They were all good, but I enjoyed Abnormality Dancing Girl and Abstract Nonsense in particular. The classics I was already familiar with, but I just now found out that Roshin Yuukai has a Divela remix!! They have some great stuff too. B100d Hunter is one of my go-to songs in Chunithm whenever I come across an edition where it's available. Also, since I didn't list anything from my goat™ Syudou in the last message (I wasn't sure if these specific songs count as Vocaloid or not, haha), some of my favorites from him include Gambling, Bakushou and Love Trip Summer. I just love the way he rolls his R's and emphasizes certain syllables either in sync or in contrast with the instrumental!! It creates a really unique flow to his songs where the vocals almost become another instrument.

Yeah! I'm also not too keen on buying manga blind, since it's expensive and hard to resell at retail price if you end up not liking it after all. I have some volumes I want to get rid of, but have no place to sell them. I used to dream of having a really large manga collection because of how aesthetic it looks, but nowadays I just invest in my absolute favorites which I already know are good, haha.

I know what you mean. Long series are too much of a commitment for me, unless they're divided into smaller seasons like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I also just drop things that don't immediately strike my fancy. For instance, I tried out the new BL isekai airing this season because I was curious about how the two themes blend together, but the pilot episode was such a snoozefest I already gave up a few minutes before the episode ended (after checking that there was no major last-minute twist or anything, lol).

I know right! I never set alarms for night chats, but I do remember secretly reading the daytime ones in class in order to not miss any when I was awake. I was also sometimes slightly late to class because of grinding through all the missed night chats with the power of hourglasses... Oops. ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭ The game playing out 24/7 in real time was such a creative mechanic! It's one of the most immersive visual novel style games I've played. Who was your favorite character?

Interesting! I was also a nightcore enthusiast way before I got into anime – finding my way to the source of all those thumbnails was honestly just a matter of time, haha. Although, I do often wonder if I would've gotten so deep into the hobby if my first anime had been a worse experience. I've rewatched Yuri!!! on Ice twice and still think it's a great time even without the nostalgia aspect. Had I started from something like Eromanga-sensei instead it was one of the trashy seasonals I mentioned, I might not have ever even signed up for this site. Wild.

Very true! I loved the character dynamics in Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia so much I went on to read the manga, which was even better. However, there are also things like Monster or Aku no Hana, which I was driven to consume in manga form instead of the anime for one reason or another: Monster has a slow pacing and even though I tend to appreciate the visual effect of rotoscoping in moderation, I much prefer looking at Shuuzou Oshimi's art instead of the rather uncanny adaptation of Aku no Hana. The story itself was great though! I feel like I have a bit of a soft spot for edgy, somewhat depressing coming-of-age stories like it, lol.

Wow, you have an amazing collection!! I love the acrylic stands so much. ♡(˃͈ ˂͈ ) Even though I'd say he's among the more popular characters in the franchise, it's still pretty difficult finding any reasonably priced merch even though I'd probably forfeit all my mortal possessions to my oshi on the spot if he were real. Imports are expensive and the official merch from resellers that ship overseas is mostly things like pins or cards, since there are basically no other types of merch from the series to begin with. I've acquired most of my stuff from con flea markets and artist alleys, but even then coming across anything of my oshi specifically is extremely rare, which is why I always grab anything I can get. I'm currently waiting on a package from a friend who managed to find some pashas (small illustration cards) of my oshi from an online auction but once I get that, I can show my updated collection as well!

マジ？ 僕も！ ヴィルスさんと僕はすごく似ている、ちょっと怖いかもwww 翻訳家になりたかったので英語の学生として始まりました。しかし、勉強のが全然面白くなくてそしてこの職業はおそらく僕らしくじゃないと気づきました。でもまだ言語の分野で仕事をしたいから、現在編集者とか校正者になることを目指しています。就活に健闘を祈ります！ Vocabulary is probably the main thing that I have accumulated from all these years of watching anime. (–⩊–) I'm not confident enough to converse with a native speaker though: since the Japanese I produce is fairly intuitive, I'm still pretty green with all the politeness registers and such... There are some people who speak pretty good Japanese at my university's anime club, but I've never dared to join their Japanese conversations.
(ᵕ ´ ∇ ˋ ˶) I know pride is a language learner's worst enemy, but it's still a tough hurdle to overcome.

Steins;Gate has quite good rewatch value, since there's so much foreshadowing in the series. I can't believe I didn't catch Suzuha being a time traveler on my first watch... it's so on the nose when you know the twist!! Although, back when I first watched it, I binged the whole thing in its 2-cour glory in practically one sitting, because I was so hooked. Even to this day, it holds the record of my longest binge watch ever, haha. There are multiple theories on which building the lab was based on, but at least one of them got demolished last year.

I don't know if any of my recommendations will be new to you since I feel like most of my favorites are relatively well known, but some of my most listened songs from Vocaloid producers include BUG, Telepathy, Salamander, Roki, Matryoshka, this specific version of Plus Danshi that I haven't been able to find on YouTube and of course Tetoris – feel free to click on anything unfamiliar, if there are any, haha. Also, even though it's not technically Vocaloid, it's Vocaloid-adjacent so I'm going to include the Enstars x ProSeka collab cover of KING for an opportunity to showcase the brilliance of my oshi: especially his first line at 0:16 is just 神すぎるよおおお!! ଘ( ≧♡≦ )ଓ the most replayed part of the video for a good reason In general, I tend to learn towards the more upbeat songs with packed instrumentals. How about your favorites?

I see! I also mostly sail the seven seas, so no worries about that. ദ്ദി (¬ ₃ ͡¬) In fact, I feel like the fact that anime is so accessible is what contributed to me getting into it, since I've never had access to any legal streaming services. Manga is already much harder to find in comparison.

That's a good resolution. My resolution last year was to watch one episode of Gintama every day... I lasted like two months, and this year I didn't come up with any resolutions, lol. I do love Gintama so far though, so I'll keep watching it at my own pace – I'm glad the resolution gave me the push I needed to finally start it. (*´▽`*) ♡ I used to watch seasonals very actively around 2018-2021, but nowadays I tend to pile up a lot of shows in winter and burn out for the rest of the seasons, watching like 5 shows at best, usually less. I actually started out as a seasonal watcher through Yuri!!! on Ice I'm a certified victim of the Mystic Messenger to Yuri on Ice to fully fledged weeb pipeline, which was the first anime I intentionally sought out. After that, I watched mostly random seasonals that just sounded interesting most of them were really bad but somehow I still got hooked on the hobby eventually??, since I didn't really have any sources for recommendations at the time. Do you remember how you first got introduced to anime?

Ogata Megumi is so cool! I love voice actors with androgynous voices and her masculine register is super convincing. I'm also definitely a sub enjoyer, since I'm such a huge seiyuu fan, haha. The Japanese voice acting is practically half the enjoyment for me at this point!! Furthermore, I also use it as a learning tool. Sometimes I might rewatch an anime in dub out of curiosity and there are a few older classic comedies like Golden Boy which I initially watched in dub, but that's about it.

Welcome aboard whenever! I used to collect all the badges too, but lately I've been slacking on the interest stack challenges. The matching is done in a way that everyone has something to recommend, but I understand wanting to build up a little catalogue at first, haha~

That sounds dope!! If you're comfortable showing, I'd love to see your collection. ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ I'm an oshikatsu hobbyist, so I have about a single shelf space's worth of merch (both official and fanmade) of my oshi , but it would definitely be nice to grow the collection with some local goodies and maybe even find stuff from series I like that are more niche in the West *cough* Boukyaku Battery *cough*. いいなあ〜 僕もこれを欲しかったんだけれども「こんな学位で仕事を絶対見つからないよ」いう思ったんだので別のプログラムに応募しました。今やっぱり夢を追いかけないでの僕はちょっと悲しい。でも日本語は僕の副専攻そして専攻はあまり面倒じゃないですだから勉強以外にも趣味に費やす時間はかなりあるのでこのほうがいいのかもしれません。しかし、僕はまだかなり初心者だから間違いに許してください。(⁠人⁠ ⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠) So yeah, I'm mostly self-taught through anime, manga and games as well as some actual independent study resources for now, but I'm currently polishing my kanji and grammar skills in university. I love Steins;Gate too! Never got around to the original VN though, but I've watched the anime twice, which is very rare for me since I'm not a big rewatcher in general. May the original lab building rest in peace. </3 Did you get to see it in person before it was demolished?

Thank you! I enjoyed all of the ones you linked, but Snowman was probably my favorite. Berserk is some great Mafumafu too!

I'm definitely a sucker for a good time travel schtick... Even in stories that don't quite land otherwise, a time loop always spices things up, haha. 40 chapters isn't that long, so I might check it out if I can find it! Where do you usually read light novels, or do you buy the physical copies?

Haha, indeed. All of his characters are so tropey! I feel like Nagisa and Tomoya are the extend of character depth that man is capable of, but it's not like the bar is very high to begin with... I liked their dynamic, their contrasting personalities compliment each other nicely while still staying on around the same wavelength regarding their values (e.g. both are kind at heart and incapable of leaving someone in trouble, but they show that kindness in different ways), but the romance itself does feel a bit unnatural at times with how fidgety they are around each other all the time. I actually just watched the first season in December as an anime advent calendar. It's a tradition of mine where I watch a well-known 2-cour show I'm unlikely to get to otherwise over the course of December: approximately 25 episodes, one episode per day, like an advent calendar! That's why I'm still in the process of watching After Story, but since I haven't really been enjoying it so far, I've found myself prioritizing seasonals more... There's so much interesting stuff coming out this season! It's unlikely I'll ever get to it, but I'll keep in mind what you said about Charlotte.

Ah, it's not strictly because of the voice actor not fitting my image of the character, although I have to admit it's a part of it for sure. I know what you mean though. I've seen clips of the anime on YouTube, and I just feel like the original work has more to offer, so I'd rather spend my time with anime discovering new stories instead. On the contrary, I often watch things just because my favorite voice actors are in them! If a show has Youhei Azakami doing an even slightly relevant role (meaning the character appears in more than one episode), I'm always the first one on the scene. ( • ̀ω•́ )✧ You might know him from Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri if you watched it in sub, since he voiced the main character. Back then, it was his first role in a Shounen Jump adaptation, so I was very excited for it when it aired! He also recently got casted as Gyro Zeppeli in JJBA Part 7 and that is quite frankly one of the biggest roles a seiyuu could land from a western perspective, given how popular Steel Ball Run is on a global level. I'm really proud of how far he has come! He's really talented and deserves all the recognition!!
٩( ˃♡˂ )۶

Yeah, I've been one since 2023. It's really fun seeing all kinds of gifts and profiles in the process! Also, it makes me feel good to know I'm being useful and contributing to the community by essentially just browsing MAL and sitting front of an Excel sheet for hours on end, haha. The labor is not that taxing, at least not for me, but it does take up a good chunk of time, so it's not an easy job by any means. Especially when balancing it with the university end of semester crunch as well as making gifts for your own recipients as a participant of the event. I did the manga event this year and got an adorable, fluffy shoujo romance with a male lead who aligns pretty well with the type of guy I tend to like. I loved it so much I decided to put it in my favorites, but it doesn't look like my santa himself has even read it, unless he forgot to add it on his list. (○´―`)ゞ How about you?

That's awesome! Did you hoard a lot of merch there? I haven't been to Japan myself, but I really want to visit one day. There are so many things I want to do there. Like shopping, arcades and karaoke! I'd also love to go check out a local mahjong parlor and visit a host club, but I have a long way to go before my Japanese is sufficient for either of those. I don't know if you speak Japanese, but 理解は大丈夫ですから話すのや書くのにはあまり自信がないだからもっと練習しなきゃ。Also, one of my more recent dreams that doesn't require language skills is going on a Yakuza game pilgrimage to Kamurocho and Sotenbori!! ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

Neru is nice too. I've never listened to halyosy, so feel free to recommend some of your favorites! As for the Mafumafu question, I like many, but my favorites besides his anisongs (I love Seishun Kippu from Cool Doji Danshi, I was so stoked to hear BOTH Mafumafu and Syudou in the same series!! ◝(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) ◜♡) are probably Issho Fukou de Kamawanai, Rinne Tensei and Super Nuko ni Narenkatta. I also love the stuff he's done as a collab with other utaites, like RPG! There are way too many others I want to mention, but I'll cut myself short here. Any in common?

Wow, you're a light novel reader! I haven't quite ventured there on my decade-long animanga journey yet, haha.

Yeah, I feel like I was just as surprised as you! My initial thought when seeing the gift was along the lines of "isn't Solo Leveling basically the epitome of zero substance action?" but as I started watching it, I was quickly proven wrong on that, so no worries. I'm actually glad it went as it did, because I can assure you I probably wouldn't have liked Charlotte at all, since I tend to dislike Jun Maeda's works in general. (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠) The first season of Clannad had some decent parts but even that I disliked more than enjoyed... His way of writing melodrama with hollow characters is just so frustrating to me. Blue Period is absolutely amazing, but I never watched the anime because Yatora's voice doesn't sound at all like how I imagine it when reading the manga, haha. He will forever have the voice of Junya Enoki in my heart!

I know right! Jin-Woo was a genuinely kind person from start to end, so it was fulfilling to see him grow and get the recognition he deserved. (⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝) If he became conceited or mean after receiving his powers in a more vengeful revenge story manner, I don't know if I would've liked the show as much. I tend to reserve time for finishing at least one of my Santa's recommendations before the reveal so that I can give proper feedback on it, but I think as long as you watch a few episodes and take the time to thank your santa for their efforts afterwards, you've done more than enough! As someone who also works as an elf in the event behind the scenes, it's always sad to see how many recipients just ignore their santa's gift completely. It's more common than you'd think – especially since we've got our fair share of badge hunters nowadays.

Wow, I didn't know Teto did the opening for Gnosia?? That's cool! I actually listen to a fair bit of Vocaloid/Utaite as well. I enjoy playing arcade rhythm games (e.g. WACCA, Chunithm, Dance Dance Revolution) and the soundtracks of those have a lot of Vocaloid especially. My favorite producers are DECO*27 and Syudou. I see you have Mafumafu in your favorites, I also like him a lot!

Oh, I've actually seen both Kino's Journey and Majo no Tabitabi and I definitely think they're similar! I liked Kino better though, since I felt like the philosophical exploration of it was more credible and thought-provoking compared to Majo no Tabitabi, which sometimes felt a bit surface-level. It's been a while since I watched it though, since I kept up with it weekly back when it was airing in 2020.

Hello Santa,

It's nice to meet you at last! Thank you for an extremely unexpected gift!! I was honestly quite shocked to receive it, because I never anticipated someone would look at my list and make the assumption that I enjoy action. =͟͟͞͞(꒪ᗜ꒪‧̣̥̇)

I'm actually not too keen on action purely for the sake of action, which is also the reason why I skipped Solo Leveling without a second thought back when it aired despite usually giving highly hyped shows a chance. However, upon a closer second look after your suggestion, I did notice a lot of the male character designs are very pretty, which was the reason I eventually decided it's worth a try at least. And to my surprise... I'm delighted to report that I finished both seasons in the span of just a few days AND enjoyed them VERY MUCH!!! Like, to the point where I'm actually lowkey obsessed with this series now, even thinking about starting the Webtoon, and questioning my life because of how much it captivated me. ⁄⁠(⁠⁄⁠ ⁠⁄⁠•⁠⁄⛛⁄⁠•⁠⁄⁠ ⁠⁄⁠)⁠⁄ I've been participating in the anime edition of MAL's Secret Santa for 6 years, and Solo Leveling is my favorite of the gifts I've ever received so far out of all of them, because it's something I both enjoyed and would have never watched if it wasn't recommended to me.

First of all, the show was very bingeable and entertaining, which is ultimately everything I wished for. I don't remember the last time I would've watched an anime where I was just dying to see what happens next, unable to resist moving on to the next episode. The whole first season went by in a flash! I liked it a little more compared to the first season, likely because of the shocking pilot episodes, and we seem to agree on that as well based on your ratings. Furthermore, even if I'm not necessarily a fan of action by itself, I do tend to like the utilization of gore for shock value (and now that I'm seeing your favorites, I assume you might do too XD), so the fairly excessive violence was a nice change of pace from the usual industry standard of more sterilized fight scenes clearly aimed for a broader audience. They worked especially well when combined with the above-average production values of the series. In particular, I liked some of the more stylized animation shots (that did indeed remind me of Mob Psycho 100!) as well as the creative sound design. Additionally, I don't know if you had this in mind when writing your recommendation since you didn't mention it in your gift, but I was both pleasantly surprised and thoroughly charmed by the amount of screentime dedicated to showing the fruits of Jin-Woo's training... if you catch my drift. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵) I feel like one thing the anime industry suffers from is a serious lack of male fanservice. Who would've thought I'd find so much of it in a series I initially thought couldn't be further from my tastes? Life always finds a way! (ゝ؎ •́)ᕤ☆

However, contrary to the general anime community's habit of watering the contents of Solo Leveling down to the aura farming memes that are still accurate and even more hilarious with context, but have had me underestimating the ACTUAL impact of this story for years, I thought the series had a respectable amount of substance even beyond its polished, well-directed visuals. The urban fantasy worldbuilding is interesting and the mystery of "the system" as well as its gradual effect on Jin-Woo's psyche and even his personality was very intriguing! In a way, I feel like the difference in how Jin-Woo is treated by his peers at different levels can be equated to the real-world phenomenon known as "pretty privilege" (which is also indirectly addressed in the series itself as Jin-Woo becomes more conventionally attractive through the stat buffs). Sure, it isn't the most in-depth exploration of the topic and I may have enjoyed the show even more if it delved further into the psychological aspects of becoming a "Player", but it's plenty satisfying as it is. And although I have to admit that Jin-Woo is a prime example of the Gary Stu trope, an invincible and good-looking character with no relevant flaws to speak of, I personally don't mind it in this series for one simple reason: he is simultaneously written in a way that makes him easy to like and root for. Even after receiving the power to do practically whatever he wants, he stays humble, uses it to protect others and keeps giving back to those who care about him. I mean, why would I not enjoy seeing the sympathetic underdog succeed? (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡ And speaking of sympathetic... the scene in S2 where he gave his mom the elixir in tears and was like "everything I went through was all worth it for this moment" had me absolutely bawling my eyes out because of the voice actor's spectacular performance. It was so touching!! ｡⁠:ﾟ⁠(⁠;⁠´ O `⁠;⁠)ﾟ⁠:⁠｡

As for Gnosia, I've had my eye on it, but hadn't started it yet, because I thought about buying the game on Steam. Still, I'm realistically never going to get that far, so I'll probably take a look at the anime after it has finished airing – especially since your main gift was such a banger! ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ᗜ<)

That's all from me for now. What gifts did you get from your Santa(s)? What did you think of them?

Happy New Year 2026!! (๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪

Thanks for participating in Cringe Da Cringe: Anime memes and funny screenshots! Here's your participation ticket:

Thanks for playing Sharo's Anime Intro Entrance Exam 🎵! Here's your participation ticket: