Keith Palmer's Multi-Purpose Journal

For the third season in a row, I was attracted enough by the first descriptions of and reports on several new anime series being streamed on official services I already have subscriptions for to watch "with everyone else." By now, though, with that good fortune a little more familiar I was conscious first that all of the series I'd settled on had the leg up of connections to existing franchises (a little too resonant of certain rhetoric weighing on merely "domestic" productions these days) and second that the message board I follow has slowed down a great deal these days, with two or at the most three people commenting on new episodes. Presumably, seeing positive reactions from other people is a major point of watching things one episode a week.
( Taking things my way: V Gundam and Chihayafuru 2 )
( Continuations: Lupin the Third series 5 and Yamato 2202 )
( A different revival: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These )
( Mecha multiplication: DARLING in the FRANXX, Full Metal Panic IV, and Gundam Build Divers )
( Finishing off: Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Girls und Panzer das Finale, and Star Gunman Bismarck )

Three months ago, as one more "quarterly review" of anime viewed meant working out one more explanation why I'd more or less missed out on what seems the modern game of watching new series on a weekly schedule through official streaming, I was at least thinking things might be different in the summer. In those three months I wasn't away on a long vacation, and yet in just their first week or two I realised I'd once more sit out the game.
( The latest explanation, and RWBY )
( Starting off at last: Little Witch Academia )
( Getting around to it: Ano Hana )
( Mirror experiences: Zeta Gundam and Gundam Double Zeta )
( One conclusion: Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack )
( A peculiar experience: Chargeman Ken )
( Again at last: Love Live Sunshine )
( A nostalgic discovery: Star Gunman Bismark )
( Another conclusion: Gundam Unicorn )

The start of a new year meant, among many other things, the start of another season of anime series, but in the first days of the year I watched the list of streaming announcements accumulate without quite seeming grabbed by any of it. (Exclusive licenses to streaming services I don't have subscriptions to or which hold episodes back until they're good and ready to pull in "binge-watchers" were a side note, but not quite a crisis in themselves.) This might have bothered me more than it did given I'd had the same problem for most of last year, but in its last three months I'd managed not just to start but to stick with a fair handful of streaming series. I could watch other people muttering about how thin the new season seemed while thinking my own anxieties had somehow reset; in any case, I still wasn't lacking for things to go back to.
( Returning to start off: Planetes and Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans )
( Two different catch-ups: Princess Tutu and Sound! Euphonium )
( A standout catch-up: Flip Flappers )
( More getting around to things: Full Metal Panic! and Lupin the Third series 2 )
( Finishing up: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU )

I've led off my last few "quarterly reviews" of anime watched by dwelling on how few brand new series of late I've managed to even start viewing, much less stuck with, but in the three months just past I suppose I hit rock bottom, not watching any brand new series at all. One weak defence I could offer was that I knew I'd be going on a vacation in the middle of those three months; to be oppressed by memories of other vacations that had meant not just enforced breaks from watching weekly series but dwelling on how negative the opinions of everyone else on them had become until I'd convinced myself to abandon them seems to have its own small problems, though.

Being oppressed by that did at least point out how I wasn't quite facing "no capsule descriptions even appealed to me," however. It was a bit of a surprise to see the anime adaptation of a manga called "orange" had begun, but it just so happened I had started buying the manga itself without thinking about the upcoming anime, and hadn't quite finished it yet. "Starting with the manga" does seem to get in the way of "getting to the anime" for me these days; I at least wound up hearing the adaptation had hit some pretty rough patches along the way, and the "a future tries to help the present" manga had wound up more appealing to me than, say, Erased's "the present tries to change the past." It was that much more of a surprise to hear Funimation had licensed the new Love Live spinoff. That might have overcome the general uneasiness already mentioned and provided the push for me to sign up for their own streaming service at last, except for one more bit of casual contempt from someone else towards that service run into at the exact wrong moment adding to the nagging, half-irrational fear that since the animation studio Sunrise produced both Love Live and Gundam, the mere fact of Love Live Sunshine being a "spinoff" meant it would end up under the precise cloud of opprobrium most of the Gundam "alternative universes" seem weighed down by. A few months after that, though, the sudden announcement that Funimation and the streaming service Crunchyroll would start cooperating was a somewhat more pleasant surprise, if one I had scarcely even conceived of before with the impression Crunchyroll was where "everyone else" promoted their content. Whether this will mean in turn "everyone else" will start striking exclusive deals with still other services I don't have subscriptions for either is another question, however, and I suppose I don't even know if Love Live Sunshine (which seemed to be received with at least some positive reactions) will wind up part of the shared content before it's available for sale on discs over here anyway.
( Continuing: Turn A Gundam and Giant Gorg )
( Manga preparation: High School DxD New and Nichijou )
( Short efforts: She and Her Cat and Inferno Cop )
( One-shots: Girls und Panzer, Under the Dog, The Ancient Magus' Bride )
( Revisiting: Iria and Shirobako )

Three months ago, I suppose I was thinking not just of the latest season of anime series starting up to be officially streamed, but also how in the past few seasons I'd had trouble watching new series that way. Any possibility of making more of an effort to join the crowd this time, though, might have gone by the wayside when I got sick just a few days into April; recovering I didn't seem to have the motivation or opportunity to at least take in lots of first episodes the way so many seem to. While a few series had sounded more interesting than others, exclusive licensing deals and the sudden promise of English subtitles on the expensive Macross Delta Blu-Rays leaving me with the feeling that to watch the show "fansubbed" would somehow obligate me to shell out for importing it (an obligation, I fear to admit, that seems much more broken when it comes to series being sold for premium prices over here, even if those seemingly steep costs are less than in Japan) chewed away at them. With all of that I did pick up a few shows and stick with them a bit longer than with some others from seasons just past, but further developments just a little later on took their own peculiar tolls until I was once more hardly following any discussion threads.

Despite that accumulation of small misfortunes, though, I didn't lack for anime to watch and grow interested in as I watched it. While a good number of series I was watching were older ones, the newer series I did watch seemed to fit in. While I did think at times how I wasn't watching quite as much anime even that way as I had been at the start of the year, I was also aware I'd added an additional competition to assorted long-running hobby projects by putting a fair bit of time into the Love Live School Idol Festival mobile game, which does have a definite connection to anime.
( Efforts made: Gundam Unicorn re: 0096, Kiznaiver, and Space Patrol Luluco )
( Finishing up: Lupin the 3rd Part 4 and Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact )
( On the weekends: Creamy Mami, Gyrozetter, and Sally the Witch )
( From days gone by at last: Turn A Gundam and Giant Gorg )

Three months ago, even as I made up my second "quarterly summary" of anime watched in what's for me a multifold "anniversary year," I did dwell a bit more on one continuing development. While I'd pretty much liked the shifting mix of older and recent shows I'd just seen, I'd also sat out altogether the modern game of watching that season's new series week-by-week streaming. A complex mix of feelings had gone into that, and while they might all have been plain irrational, I suppose I could wonder where straight lines might point.

Straight lines can also bend, though, and just like in last year's summer I did manage to pick back up on streaming. While I wound up seeing a few people complaining the season felt thin for them, starting from zero makes anything more a plus. I suppose it helped that some sequels to series I'd seen were showing up: that's good for avoiding "not getting grabbed by the initial summaries" and at least did a bit to hold down the fear of "starting to watch something the discussion of turns to condemnation." I even managed to avoid being completely discouraged from beginning some series at all by thoughts that, despite even sounding sort of interesting, they'd only be available for later purchase as take-it-or-leave-it "quasi-imports" twice the price or more of any seemingly comparable amount of video sold on this side of the Pacific. With all of that, though, I was still watching plenty of "older and recent" series, taking them at my own pace and perhaps freer to let my reactions be my own with the majority opinions already set and not discouraging, at least in some cases.
( An odyssey again completed: Gundam Seed )
( Rounding out the anniversary: Psycho-Pass and Mazinger Z )
( Back to streaming: Knights of Sidonia, Gatchaman Crowds Insight, Wagnaria 3, and Classroom Crisis )
( A progression of sorts: Princess Jellyfish, Genshiken Second Generation, and Outbreak Company )
( One-shot experiences: Little Witch Academia 2, Shirobako OVAs, Robot Carnival, and Mighty Atom )
( One more to finish things: Symphogear )

This year will mark thirty years since I first happened on Robotech on TV and became so interested in one story (even if certain people might put quotation marks around "one") told through animation that I eventually (if not nearly as fast as some) pieced together it hadn't been just a singular achievement from a vanished time and indistinct place; it'll also be twenty years since I went off to university and started going to the anime club showings there, primed by that old interest (even if I hadn't had the cash or the courage to seek out and watch more animation from Japan in my last years at high school) and ten years since the tempo of my purchasing anime DVDs picked up to where I wasn't taking breaks in between watching series. I know there are anime fans older than I am, and certainly fans who know much more than I do, but I do still feel like there's a certain patina of experience on me by now. That longevity still surprises me at times, though, and all I can say is that I got over realising how the "limited animation" gets parcelled out among "standing around and talking," "stock sequences," and "things that do look pretty good," and then got over what a lot of other people seemed to wind up fixating on as "fixed settings" and "fixed characters," to contemplate the possibility that after everything the character styles appeal to me and that's a good part of that. I've also wondered if coasting on memories of Robotech until I got to university might have helped in its own way, too: I might have avoided the feeling that something picked up in the teenaged years would be left behind with them.
( Starting off way back when: Mazinger Z )
( The continuation: Clannad After Story )
( More revisiting: Cat's Eye and Sailor Moon )
( Continuing on: Ace of the Diamond, Gundam Build Fighters Try, Parasyte, and Shirobako )
( Challenges and responses: Aldnoah Zero, KanColle, and Strike Witches )
( Finishing off: Steins;Gate and Hidamari Sketch SP )

I continued to watch a considerable amount of anime in the past three months, but as it seems I always have to find something to be concerned about somewhere with respect to it, I was aware in the first days of April that while new series were being announced for release through official streaming, I would look at those announcements and not feel compelled to watch them. This divergence from "the way things have worked out now" could get to me; for all that I have stacks and stacks of things still to watch I suppose I was projecting ahead to the future when the series now streaming were available for sale on disc over here and wondering. For the moment, however, I didn't seem to be lacking for interest in the things I was watching.
( The *other* dose of nostalgia: Dairugger XV )
( Hopeful impulses rewarded for once: Haganai )
( Not quite out of the loop: Captain Earth and Ace of the Diamond )
( Spun off and spinning up: A Certain Scientific Railgun )
( On to a sequel: Wagnaria 2 )
( The whole thing now: Mardock Scramble )
( Preparation: Macross Frontier )
( Another whole thing: Gundam Unicorn )
( A sequel speedily arrived at: Haganai Next )
( Conclusion: the Macross Frontier movies )

As the new year started, I had a new plan for how to keep chipping away at the heap of anime DVDs and Blu-Rays I've managed to pile up. Where I'd spent most of last year picking out "sequels" and "spinoffs," now I was beginning to think of how I'd bought some series on disc and then, before getting to them, also begun picking up their manga versions with the thought they'd continue the story beyond what had been animated. However, also thinking manga might look "better drawn" or be "less toned down" than the anime does keep me from reading it until I've put in the more considerable investment of time necessary to watch the anime, and as volumes piled up I did get to feeling the stakes of finding out I didn't quite care for a story in the first place were rising. I therefore decided that this year I'd start off concentrating on the series I had both anime and manga for. Then, though, the conviction also hit me I can't let all the things still to be opened quite defeat me when it comes to going back to things every once in a while.
( An imposed nostalgic return: Golion )
( Starting to work towards manga: Highschool of the Dead )
( A theatrical side note: Evangelion 3.0 )
( More on its own: Sweet Blue Flowers )
( More manga preparation: The Sacred Blacksmith and A Certain Magical Index )
( Continued streaming: Golden Time, Space Brothers, and Ace of the Diamond )
( Continued personal standouts: Gundam Build Fighters and Kill la Kill )
( A discovery: Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions )
( Wrapping up with movies: K-ON! and Wolf Children )

As this year rolled to a close I was still watching a good number of new anime series through online streaming and still chipping away at the discs I've piled up. Along with that routine, I also had the chance to try a strategy I've been waiting a while for, ordering anime from the end-of-year sales of the online store I've long frequented in quantities grandiose enough to meet their raised free shipping threshold. All of a sudden, I wasn't lacking for "shows I wanted to get," even if some part of that might have either having forgotten or plain managing to ignore the reasons tossed out on the message board I frequent to disdain an assortment of domestic releases.
( Leading off: El Cazador de la Bruja and The Rose of Versailles )
( Adventures in streaming: Beyond the Boundary, Golden Time, and Ace of the Diamond )
( Fallen by the wayside: Infinite Stratos 2 and Galilei Donna )
( Personal standouts: Gundam Build Fighters and Kill la Kill )
( Along the way: Space Brothers and My Otome )
( Rounding things out: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and Lupin the Third )