And that’s that. Welcome to 2008, everyone.

Now before I pass out and take a break from blogging for a few days (or just go light on the posting), it’s time to talk a walk on the meta side and have a little reflection on the blogging part of the ‘anime blogging’ concept now.

Through 150+ entries and nine months, my posting schedule and content has changed a few times to settle on the plan of posts every other day, about anything and everything, as long as I can rant about it at sufficient length.

I’m self-centered and so I blog about whatever the heck I want - which usually entails a lot of complex deconstructing of simple shows - but I’m curious as to what the people on the other side of the glass think.

What features did you enjoy this year? What would you want to see more of? Less of? Please do note that I’m referring mainly to things that went on this year - I, too, think it would be something fresh and new to drop everything and start writing yaoi dango lemons, or something equally non-sequitor, but chances are that visual novel shows are going to remain the forte of this blog for times to come.

How are the non-post aspects of the blog? Is the layout too blue? Too wordy? Too Blogger?

Any other thoughts? Don’t feel obligated to answer this like a questionnaire - answer what you feel about the most. If you want to spend your comment criticizing my irrational Nagato fandom, so be it.

(But don’t be surprised if you see men in black suits at your door the next day.)

All input is appreciated, and I hope that both I, the writer, and you, the readers, can continue to enjoy your time spent at Eternity for many…eternities to come.

-CCY
(And you always wondered why the doors were locked behind you.)

And in case you were wondering about the guards…
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I’d like to hear a song put to the Eighteen Days of Christmas, especially with a random smorgasboard of themes like this.

Unfortunately, like all features, this one has to eventually come to an end, especially with a growing list of harem (among other) shows begging to be put to the microscope.

Oddly enough, blogging an average of 1,300 words a day for eighteen straight days has not been as incredibly exhausting as I imagined, partly because of the raw fanboy adrenaline that drives these posts. It’s certainly been a fun experience to go over all the shows and moments of my first year of serious anime fandom, especially since I uncovered a few shows again that were beginning to fade into the mists of time. Hopefully it’s been the same enjoyable, sentimental experience for the readers as well.

And now it’s time to point the fancannon towards the future, as we take a look at what next year has in store - at least from the perspective of a relatively new romance/harem fan. There are promising shows from the fall season, the winter season, and even beyond, with intriguing releases on both sides of the Pacific.

No doubt, though, that some of the most interesting things to happen haven’t been revealed yet - perhaps another random show will blindside its way to a top spot on the list, or maybe some exciting news involving an old favorite. You never know.

And so, here are some of my resolutions for the year 2008 in anime…
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‘Rooting for the underdog’ is something that a lot of people can sympathize with. There’s something enchanting about watching a scrappy little fighter defy all the odds to come out on top - no one likes a winner, winning.

This is highly applicable to anime as well - take a look at the premise to nearly any shonen action anime out there. One boy sets out to be the Master of X. But he’s just a kid, how possibly could he defeat the established professionals at whatever creature phenonema / children’s card game / etc. has enraptured the world? The answer, of course, is through many, many episodes.

Or in harem anime, the same concept pops up. Quite often the fans will rally behind the girls who seem to be ‘losing’ - the girl who gathers the largest fanbase is often the one who doesn’t get the guy at the end.

If you’ve been here a while, it should be no surprise that I subscribe to this theory as well. I enjoy fighting for the shows I think are underrated, for the characters I think are underloved. Are they? Maybe not. When great amounts of like-minded people like me come together you end up with something resembling Sacchin’s (Tsukihime) fanbase. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if her arc ever actually gets released.

Still, there are quite a few characters out there who truly have gotten the shaft in their anime, and today I hope to bring to light some of the characters with a lot of potential and not half as much screentime, or development, as they deserved.

(Spoilers: Myself;Yourself, sola, Da Capo, Code-E, Tokimeki Memorial…kind of)
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“I have no idea if Hisui is saying anything relevant, but she looks angry…and hey, it’s Hisui.”

Now that the last fifteen days have convinced you that that the last year in anime has been nothing but pure awesome, let me bring some concepts slightly closer to Earth.

On the whole I’m still pretty optomistic about anime as a whole, for sure, but there never fail to be moments where I just wonder…what were they thinking?

And so, I’ve picked out a few of the moments over the course of the last year that deserved a nice hearty facepalm. Thankfully, it was a bit harder than coming up with enough moments to fill the twelve-best list.

Let me note that these moments of annoyance don’t often reflect on an anime as a whole; as always, the greatest dissapointments come from the things you expect the most from, and as such many of these moments come from shows that are otherwise fantastic…except for one little pet peeve that gets to me every time.

(Spoilers: Tsukihime, School Days, Code-E, Tokimeki - oh, who I am I kidding - Memorial)
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“Yes, I was really frustrated they took Nagato’s SG out of Guitar Hero III. And Eddie Knox.”

I like to rant a lot about music in anime, first because I’ve been a Dance Dance Revolution addict since the original PSX port, and second because I can’t play it with any resemblance of much more than a cacophony that could have come from Kotomi Ichinose’s violin itself.

And while I’ve said a few times in the 12 (and running) Days countdown that insert songs, or background music can really make a moment in an anime, equally important to a show is the opening and ending themes.

It may not be as important as the in-show music, but the fact is you’re going to hear these themes at least twelve times over the course of a show’s run, and so they better be good. Sometimes it’s all right to get away with skipping a show’s ending theme, but to jump over the opening seems almost heretical.

This is because the the OP / ED animations, and the songs themselves, do a lot for setting the mood of a show. A contemplative, deep-thinking show might have a slow, mood-filled theme, while a action-packed comedy might have a more hyperactive, high-energy song.

Thusly I’ve picked out ten of my favorite songs for bookending anime I’ve seen this year. They range from the fast-paced to the melancholy, from the lyrical to the instrumental, but they’re all songs that I wouldn’t sniff twice at putting on my MP3 player.

Y’know, because anime fans like me were born with no shame.
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