The Best New Years Parties Start on the 29th!

Hi Guys! How has you December been? Yeah, mine was super busy too! But hey, at least we got it done, right!? I hope you all had wonderful Holidays or at least not completely horrible ones. Next year will be (even) better, I promise. We could all do a Christmas anime marathon together, that’ll be fun! I hope you’ll get the chance to rest up a little at least because 2018 is just around the corner and you will need your strength. There’s going to be a lot of work and a lot of partying to be done. I’m certainly looking forward to it. I have an idea, let’s start the partying right now, the work’ll get done eventually.

Even though I haven’t checked this time (super busy and all) I’m hoping Karandi from 100 Word Anime and Remy from The Lily Garden will agree to once again share these posts with their readers as well. They have both been so sweet in helping with this project. I really hope they realize how much I appreciate it. As always, if any of you also want to spread the word, you will have my sincerest gratitude.

Not that I want to make anyone feel obligated but I do want to point out that without being asked, Raistlin always does his best to promote not just these blogwarming posts but really to help out and make everyone feel welcomed around the wordpress community. Of course you all already know Raist but please, go thank him, he apparently hasn’t realized he’s awesome yet and that just seems wrong. Also I want to remind you all that Arthifis has created a wonderful little space for us to come together and share a bit of our experience and community on Facebook. It’s a really lovely initiative and you should take a second to check it out if you haven’t had the chance yet. And really just thank you so much to everyone that’s been reaching out and helping spread the love around with weekly roundups or shout outs, you guys are why we happen to be the best! The best what? The best EVERYTHING!

But all of us promoting people out there would be pretty hard pressed if it wasn’t for those bloggers that are creating wonderful content to begin with. Those authors you happen to chance upon and (after the initial shock of awe and jealousy wears off) are driven by to create and do better yourself. So, for the last time this year, let me bring you a couple of posts to get inspired by and aspire to:

In order of submission

MagicConan14 has been blogging for some time but The Animanga Spellbook has only taken on its current form fairly recently to focus on anime and manga. Since these happen to be interests of mine, I am very happy about this turn of events! I know I usually try to add some humour to my writing but this anime and subject mean something very personal to me and I would really just like to be earnest with you all for a second.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is brilliant. It is a slow, masterful anime that gets almost painfully good in its second season. The reason I have not reviewed it (and probably never will) is that it left me speechless. I don’t have the words to explain what this show did to me and I want to leave it at that. Seeing other bloggers tackle the monumental task of discussing the series has impressed me to no ends but seeing MagicConan14 take on the even more gargantuan issue of gender identity and politics within has earned my respect. I don’t know how many of you have read this post but you ALL should. You should read it and reread it and point to it when people try to denigrate anime as devoid of substance or irrelevant.

And once you’ve done that, you can talk to them about Prison School!

I’ve talked a few times about the difficulties of crafting a truly good review. Not just a simple recap of the events of a show with a generic “I liked it” or “I did not like it” (yes I realize that’s half my reviews), or a so deeply subjective write-up that it’s completely useless to anyone else, not to mention hard to follow (yes yes, I know that’s the other half). A well written review will give you feelings about a series. It will make you desperately want to see a show you’ve never even heard of before or give up on a hotly anticipated title before even starting it. It’s really a delicate balance of raw information, visceral opinion and just plain good writing, and very few people (amateur or otherwise) are really skilled at it.

Purposefully Lackluster is a fairly new blog (with a great name) that might not have come across your radar yet. Bookmark it. Per knows how to write. After carefully going through all his posts I now find myself actively waiting for the next one. Not only are they just really good (there’s no better way of putting it folks, I wish professional reviewers would take notes) but Per picks media that I for one am not necessarily familiar with, making me discover new games, shows and books that I am now really looking forward to. With Prison School, Per had to somehow make his point about this very ecchi and somewhat controversial show, without getting overshadowed by his subject. A tricky task handled brilliantly. I will definitely be checking the show out now.

Please go read MagicConan14’s deeply insightful post here:

https://animangaspellbook.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/showa-genroku-rakugo-shinjuu-and-gender/

And Per’s fantastically written review of Prison School here:

https://purposefullylackluster.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/prison-school-is-oddly-relatable-obscene-and-hilarious/

Did I do it again? Huh, huh. I found awesome posts for you guys, right!? Yeah, I’m wonderful….

But seriously guys, I am thrilled to have been able to keep this up for a second month. There were some truly wonderful posts submitted and like last time, I am keeping them all and will definitely go back to them for future features. In the meantime though,  I really can’t exagerate how happy it makes me when anyone sends me a post so please do so here or use my contact page. In fact, just use my contact page to say hi or Let me know if you want to do a collab. I’m not lying when I say spontaneous contacts make my day. (Thank you so much those of you who have – you know who you are! I luvs you)

Well two more days to go until we bid 2017 goodbye. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I also hope we keep getting such fantastic posts! Big hugs to all of you – i