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 lately 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 nest year are the way to go! Do you have any anime related resolutions this year. Or wishes 😁
Well, how was your 2019, anyway? 😛
I don’t really have any anime goals for the new year, other than trying to keep up this my podcast. But I’ve been meaning to do that for a while. I totally agree that social media really isn’t fun any more. I’m just so over the drama on most SM sites. I’m all for creative people getting treated better, but creatives have been treated badly for a long while now and it seems unlikely that’s going to change in the near future. But you never know, maybe 2022 will be the year for artsy people! As for sharing anime in real life, I don’t really have anyone that I can talk to about anime either. I found that I can just talk AT friends or family about anime and they can listen or not, but at least I can share my anime thoughts. One of my brothers is the most resilient to my anime banter, so I usually talk at him. He has no idea what I’m talking about, but he smiles and nods politely.
That’s a huge goal! Keeping up with a podcast is hard work.
I hope 2022 will be better online. I get that people are tired and all but you’re right, it’s not as fun as it was, I think
Watch more anime! No, really, this is a thing for me this year and into the future as I am dropping two categories of media that have taken up entirely too much of my life – true crime, and “reality” contest shows (like The Voice, AGT, etc.) and I do indeedy plan to replace those slots with anime. And back to my roots of mainly slice of life, and warm fuzzy feel good type anime. I need some warm fuzzy in my life right now, I think.
I have so thoroughly dumped all forms of social media, I don’t even really keep up with real life friends any more. It all just got too toxic and too commercial for me. I can’t even stand to watch “regular” TV with ads any more Incredible amounts of propaganda in the U.S.A. now 😛
While I agree that industry standards for treatment of the creative people are terrible, as a creative person who tried to make it a profession more than once, I can tell you that is throughout our world now and for all time. The people who actually create get fucked and treated like dirt while someone above them who does the all important marketing end of things and “the investors” (those anonymouse eight or so people who run the Universe) get 99% of the profit. With a few exceptions, that’s just how it is and always has been for creative people. Your work comes out of your head, and thus it is “worthless” until that marketing person assigns it value and resells it (having bought it from you for next to nothing because hell you are starving). That said, there is a little GoFundMe sort of crowd funding thing that woks specifically with anime/mange artists you can contribute to and when I find the link again I’ll send it. Can’t recall the name right now. I hate to say, that’s just how it is but yeah, that’s pretty much just how it is. Maybe you young folk can figure out some way to change it. I’m too old and tired of fighting.
You know, watch more anime is a very good one and it’s way harder than peole think! I am rooting for you Foovay!
Wholesome as always (˵╹⌣╹˵)
This reminds me of all the times I wished I could stop the time for the rest of the world but myself. If I could do that, I’d read all the manga on my “to read later list” and watch all the anime on my “to watch later”.
There’s so much content and sooo little time… (◕‸◕ )
Maybe when I’ll be old and unable to do anything else I’ll catch up…