As a general rule I’m not much of a maker of New Year’s resolutions. I really like the idea…for other people. For me, my impatience isn’t going to let me wait until New Year to bring a positive change in my life once I think of it and my completionist streak makes it hard to drop some silly resolution I picked on a whim. It’s a recipe for disaster…. Besides I already made a resolution his year😅
I do really like the idea of starting out the year this way though so instead of resolutions I like to makes wishes and set goals. That’s basically the weak lazy version of resolutions. Wishes are things I would like to happen next year but are outside of my control (so there’s no point in me putting any effort into it) and goals are general things I want to accomplish but I don’t really have a specific way to go about it and also it’s o.k. if I don’t accomplish them! Yay!!!
5) Learn how to properly drop Anime
I’ve logged over 340 shows in AniList since I’ve started tracking my watching. Of those I’ve dropped about 5. I’m not good at dropping shows and whenever I do I feel kind of bad about it. (Yes I know I’m nuts, I’m working on it). However a few months ago I’ve given myself permission to drop shows and it’s been wonderful.
Not only do I get to spend my time watching series I’m actually enjoying, but I’m also more willing to give shows a chance since there’s no big commitment that goes with it. But if I’m not careful I fall right back into my old habits…
In 2019, I want to get better at dropping shows. I’m not sure how. I thought of having sampler evenings at the start of new seasons where I watch 2 to 5 minutes of every show and decide from there.. Right now I’m deciding from box art so really it would also be refining my selection process…
4) Better industry conditions
I’m one of the few people out there who does not see a marked decline in anime quality. Maybe it’s because I watch a wide range so that if any particular genre or demo is sort of lagging the rest make up for it. Maybe I’m easy to please. In any case. I don’t think there’s a pressing need for anime itself to improve or cater to my tastes.
However the conditions for the amazingly talented people behind these works of art and joy desperately need to get better. Much better. I’m not entirely sure how they can but I would even be willing to accept a bit less anime to make that happen, and that’s a huge sacrifice. I really do hope the tragedies of 2019 will eventually yield a little bit of good for an industry that has made me so happy for so long.
3) Figuring out what I like
In many respects, I am not a very suitable reviewer. For instance, even after many years of Anime enjoyment, I’ve yet to properly establish my anime tastes. By that I mean I’m sort of an “I like what I like in the moment” sort of person. Not only is this attitude entirely unhelpful when it comes to reviewing shows, but it’s also pretty counter productive to my long term goal of learning to drop Anime.
Whoa I tied two points together! Synergy. That’s probably not what that word means…
Anywho, I know there are certain tropes and elements I enjoy more in anime because I’m thrilled whenever I see them in a show, but somehow I never bothered actually pin pointing what those are. I just have very general notions like traditional romances tend to bore me and I have no patience for melodrama. But nothing beyond that. It could be useful for me to figure it out.
2.Can we get some new drama already
When I started this blog a few years ago, I also started to pay attention to Anime fans on various social platforms. It was a bit jarring. The gist of hundreds of *conversations was either “This Anime is Sexist -STFU you don’t understand anime, vague insult or threat” – ” A person is not a real fan if….” And ” People who say less than positive things about the anime I like are bad!”. I’ve cleaned these up a lot!
As the years have gone by and Anime has become more mainstream and gets to be enjoyed by a much wider array of fans we finally get different voices and varying points of view. This is naturally going on widen our discourse, bring on new and more interesting debates, normalize said *conversations…..or not!
Honestly at this point I’m just sort of bored by it. Can’t we just pick a different largely pointless thing to argue vehemently about. Not many anime characters are handicapped… that’s a thing. How about the fact that so many people in anime have red eyes. It’s kinda weird… Maybe we could get really mad about that next year?
1) Share more Anime
I’ve actually written about this before. I don’t really talk about Anime much (or at all) outside of this blog. But in 2019 I’ve slowly started letting people in on it a bit.
***Funny story, no one I directly know is interested in anime but I often get people asking me about my blog because their partners or children love Anime. I usually share it and so far the Results have been rather unanimous. They report back with, who’s ok, you watch way more anime than they thought. They’re not there yet…” I’m not sure anyone has actually read anything I’ve written since they say stuff like you know way more about anime than I do, which is unlikely…
Now that was a tangent! Point is, I still don’t have anyone to talk anime with real time which is a shame but despite my failed attempts, I’m gonna keep trying. And even if I fail again, it’s o.k. because I have you guys an that’s already way awesome!
Ok, this was a super fun list to write. Low pressure wishes and goals for 2020 are the way to go! Do you have any anime related resolutions this year. Or wishes 😁
I’m inspired. It’s time to start a 30 part series on why anime needs more beards.
Can’t wait!!! It’s going to be so brilliant!!!!
A self help writer I especially like, Louise Hay, says that resolutions are setting yourself up to fail. I found I quite agreed with that – so I don’t do resolutions. That said, I’ve set some overall life intentions and affirmations for the new year, and decade. I like your idea of wishes and general goals. I can get behind that. Learning to quit things, and when to quit them, is really hard for some of us. I used to force myself to finish every book I started, no matter how horrible it was or how much I disliked it. It’s only been a few years since I realized, really realized, so many books, so little time – and gave myself permission to set a book aside if I either instantly detest it (every now and then by accident I pick up a romance disguised as a mystery or something else) or read an entire chapter or two and realize I couldn’t possibly care less about the rest of the story or any of the characters. So I applaud and support your quest to learn how to drop something. I know it is hard, but it really will improve you life more than you realize.
If I had an anime resolution I suppose it would be to actually finish entire animes. I’ve recently noticed I’ve gotten especially bad about watching a few episodes of something on one day, watching something else the next, and so on until a month later I’m thinking, whatever ever happened to those kids who were going camping? Also some animes I really liked have gotten second and third seasons that I haven’t watched yet. I don’t even have a good excuse for that. My anime watching has been really sporadic of late. Part of the problem is my ongoing electronics disaster, and part of it is I suspect strongly that my ISP is throttling CR and VRV so that all they do is sit and buffer. Watching a 25 min anime takes about an hour and a lot of patience with waiting five minutes for a sentence to end. Other streaming sites like Netflix stream in HD with no problem at all, same device, same connection so yeah, I’m getting suspicious. So I think I may have to find a solution to that problem.
I’d give you my number, we can talk anime real time. 😀 Of course, that would be the end of me getting anything else done… 😛
It’s oddly poetic that I want to learn to drop anime while you want to stop doing so. It’s an equilibrium!
My resolution next year is to finally dedicate more time to blogging. I plan on quitting my part time job (which takes up about 4 hours of my time and mental stamina) and putting more time into my writing career. I wish you luck in your endeavors as well!
Mine ar significantly less grand. And I don’t plan on quitting my job anytime soon. The again, maybe I’ll go train seeing eye dogs this year…why not
Seeing eye dog trainer is already a great conversation starter
I guess so…
Just make your own Blog Award next year. You pick a blogger and argue their opinion on a little thing. And make your blog on why they are completely wrong, than you tag people who should tell you why you are wrong on something xD
That will certainly create drama 😉
We could also make a protest group that anime characters always look amazing and like teens. As a 33 year all my anime peers are depicted with great skin, full hair and big boobs. This shall not stand in 2020 I demand to be represented in anime , as well as be depicted properly. There is plenty of anime’s of teens it’s time for us adults from mid 20’s to mid 30’s to get our series and we shall not be drawn as chibi’s or teens!
Preach – Adult women in anime are like an endangered animal