2012: My Fourth Quarter in Anime

Every time I start one of these quarterly looks back at the anime I've watched in the past three months, I seem to wind up dwelling on some fear of being cut off from it in the future, if only to make a show of geting over that concern. As soon as I wasn't worrying quite so much about losing interest in anime the way so many other fans on certain message boards made a great deal of, I replaced that worry with the uncertain future of all the companies that translate it for consumption over here. I may not be dwelling quite so much on that right now, but after thinking about that for so long something I hadn't quite been expecting (but perhaps should have) did happen. I had got into the habit a while ago now of ordering from one particular online store, in large part because everyone else on a notable message board talked about it. To save a bit of money with free shipping across the border (which at least compensated for never quite facing up to what the exchange rates and cash-on-delivery fees added up to), I had to make what seemed very considerable orders, and while I wouldn't say certain titles in my "backlog" wound up there just to get free shipping, my interest in getting to them might have been somewhat less strong than other series. At last, though, faced with rising shipping costs, the store had to raise its free shipping threshold still further. After toying with the idea of ordering "just what I really want to see" and dealing with the shipping fees as they come, the thought of waiting for the end-of-year sales also happened to me, and I made some still larger orders at the end of this year with the thought that they, and of course my "backlog," would have to serve me for quite a while to come.

There was one interesting new thing I managed to do in the past three months, though. Happening to learn the anime club at my university was holding a special twentieth-anniversary showing, that there would be a "flea market" to sell DVDs and other merchandise at, and that alumni were welcome, I decided to make the journey back with a fair load of old DVDs, most of them series I had since bought newer releases said to be at least somewhat upgraded in video, but a few (alas) ones I was reasonably sure about being not that interested in going back to. While I spent most of my time at the showing behind a sales table, there was indeed something interesting about being among "fellow fans," seeing those in costume and talking a bit to some of them. I wound up selling quite a bit of what I'd brought, and despite some uneasy feeling at first about standing out as an alumni, I did notice some people who'd been in the fandom for a while, and talked with them a bit about how the club had changed over the years. (Things definitely seem more social now than they once were in the days when it wasn't so easy to come by anime...)
( Once more, now with more: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya )

( Finishing something off: Strawberry Panic )

( Up to the minute: From the New World, Bakemonogatari, and Space Brothers )

( Something old anew: Lupin the Third, first series )

( A rare find (thankfully, perhaps): Strike Witches )

( An evaluation: Angel Beats! )

( Another visit: Martian Successor Nadesico )

( In at the last minute: Children Who Chase Lost Voices and Alien Nine )

2012: This Journal in Review

As another year comes to an end, once more I'm trying to summarize it by taking the first sentence from the first post for each month from this journal. This year, of course, was the one I finished my project of rewatching all the episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the project that kept me posting to this journal on a regular basis. I suppose that in the weeks since then, I've still managed to keep posting, but anything could happen in the future.
( A year in twelve sentences )

See you in the new year!