So this past week I found out about a little something called the Liebster Awards, because two lovely people, krystallina at Daiyamanga and crimson613 at My Fujoshi Life, were kind enough to nominate me for it. Which, first and foremost: THANK YOU! I’m super flattered and seriously grateful that you both thought of me.
The thing is… I’m not sure I’m actually eligible for it.
Caution: This post contains, like, personal feelings and stuff. Also minor character relationship spoilers for My Love Story (Ore Monogatari). You have been warned.
As a Millennial growing up in Midwest America, I was fortunate to live in a community and among friends who were relatively sex-positive and accepting of different lifestyle choices, even at school. While our health teachers still pushed abstinence as the best form of birth control, they also covered the other “safe sex” options and made it clear that it was “perfectly normal” to have “those urges.” Which is great, and a damn sight better than shaming or ignoring adolescent sexuality entirely.
Looking back, though, I sorta wish they’d also mentioned that it was perfectly normal to not have those feelings, too.
Ever wanted an inside look into the hows, whys, and wherefores of aniblogging? Well, Lauren Orsini of Otaku Journalist has just released a brand-spanking new book, Build Your Anime Blog, which explores the process from creation to maintenance to (hopefully) Interweb sensation. It also includes interviews with eleven hardworking, long-time anibloggers and one tenderfoot upstart.
And yes, the upstart is me.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the Otaku Journalist herself to give you the skinny:
Tearing off the blogger mask to reveal the grinning, giddy, arms-flailing anime nerd within.
Long-time online friend tsundemerica tagged me to list my top 10 anime/manga crushes a while back (she technically tagged me from my personal account but hey, it’s anime-related, so I might as well give you guys a good giggle, too). At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to have time to do it… and then I realized my Utena off-week was the same weekend as Valentine’s Day, and I knew we had ourselves a holiday post. Oh, this is gonna be fun.
In which the Josei waxes nostalgic about the five anime that impacted her the most.
Fellow blogger Foxy Lady Ayame invited me to take part in my first ever “blog carnival,” and I thought it would be a fun way to get involved with the anime blogging community and give everyone a little glimpse into my personal anime history.
The goal of this list isn’t to discuss favorites or “best” series, but to talk about the anime or manga that had the biggest impact on us. I opted to just do anime since I’m notoriously long-winded and these got a little wordy. What surprised me was how varied the impact of these shows was – some of them I listed because of how they affected my involvement with the anime community (both IRL and online), some because of how they affected my own writing, and others because they changed the way I viewed art and fiction in general.
And oh, look, I’m being long-winded again. I’ll stop preamblin’ and get to the list. Hit the jump for the shows that (in roughly chronological order) made me the nerdy, over analyzing lady writer I am today.
The Josei Next Door 