Anime Favorites A-Z Challenge

Shoutout to Rose from Wretched and Divine for the nomination!

THE RULES

1. Pick a favorite series/movie for each letter of the alphabet. For titles starting with “a” “an” or “the” use the first letter of the next word of the title.
2. Since many titles have multiple names based on the language that you are using please pick one language for the entire list (Use all English titles or all Japanese titles) and let the readers know which language you will be using. If a title has the same name regardless of the language then it can be used in any list.
3. If you don’t have a title that fits under a particular letter, you can name another favorite from a different letter in its place, just indicate which letter spot you are using for that series. This can be done up to three times. If you can’t fill a spot then you can leave it blank. No more than 26 total series are allowed.
4. Including a picture for each series is encouraged.
5. Share who tagged you for this challenge and nominate 3 more to try it themselves and include links to their blogs.
6. Just have fun with this challenge. I wanted to get everyone to share some favorite series and to spread the word about awesome blogs!

It’s a pretty fun challenge, so I recommend anybody that’s watched a lot of anime to try it out!

I mainly went with Japanese titles when applicable since that’s what MyAnimeList uses. I also somehow managed to get a title for each letter of the alphabet! Most of the titles listed are some of my favorite series or series that I really enjoyed, and I’ve included a little blurb with a tl;dr of why I like it so much! Hopefully this will inspire you to pick up some of these series~

A is for Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

This was one of the first romance anime I watched, and I really love all of the characters in it. It’s a really nice and slow story of a prince and a strong willed girl.

Positive Things That Have Happened During Quarantine

I got the idea to write about the good things that have happened to me during quarantine from my friend Rose, and encourage anybody reading this to do the same, or comment below! I think it’s nice to focus on the positives during times like these 😁 At the time of writing, I’ve been in quarantine for about 58 days (since March 16th or so), didn’t realize it’s been that long tho 😅

1. For the first half of quarantine, I had more time to work on my school projects. My major is more about creative hands-on learning opposed to learning in lecture, and this semester my major project was to create an animate short. My group was very ambitious with our project’s scope, and being able to work on it all day during quarantine really gave us the extra hours we needed to be able to get it done the way we imagined it. It ended up taking us 4 months to complete, I’m super happy with how the final product turned out!

Backyard Cherry Blossoms

Actually took these pics two weeks ago, but I wanted to capture the flowers with more of the sunset in the background. Tfw there wasn’t a clear sunset for the rest of that entire week LOL. By the time a nice sunset came the flowers were already all gone asdfghjkl; 🙃 I’m happy with how these turned out tho 😁

A VR Retrospective – Half-Life: Alyx Review

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE.

A little over a month ago, the long anticipated Half-Life: Alyx released to rave reviews, living up to the expectations built up from the 13 year gap since the release of the last Half-Life game in 2007, Half-Life 2: Episode 2. However, the game also has the burden of setting the new standard for Virtual Reality experiences going forward. As VR is still a relatively new and niche medium, Half-Life: Alyx is one of the few triple A titles releasing on the platform, and as it holds the Half-Life name, the entire gaming world’s eyes are looking at this game to determine if VR can really become the next big platform, or if it’s just another passing fad.

Chungking Express and the Works of Wong Kar-wai

Recently I’ve been wanting to immerse myself in Hong Kong cinema, and decided to start with the works of auteur Wong Kar-wai, whose filmography often involves itself with themes of romance, vivid colours, and atmospheric music. My absolute favorite Wong Kar-wai film, Chungking Express (1994), displays the director at his best, and consists of two love stories, each featuring lovesick cops going through breakups, only to encounter someone new. However, instead of going over story beats, I want to focus on the aspects of the director’s style that drew me to his films.

VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action Review

Glitch City, 207X A.D. A futuristic city full of peculiar characters where you play as Jill, a bartender that works at a small but respectable bar, VA-11 HA11-A, or Valhalla for short. I heard about VA-11 HA11-A years ago when it first came out, and many of my friends and people online had a lot of praise for it’s story and characters, with the game often being called a “waifu bartending sim” (lol). I attempted to play it on PC before, but never got too far since I just never had the time to sit down and play though a visual novel type game. However, I got a PS Vita last year, and I found it so much easier to play the game on a handheld during my commutes to school (it’s also on Nintendo Switch!). I quickly fell in love with the world of Glitch City, and VA-11 HA11-A eventually became the first game I completed on my Vita!

Eizouken – My Winter AOTS

Only 8 episodes have released at time of writing. This review is spoiler free.

While I usually pick up about 10-15 anime series to watch each season, there honestly hasn’t been that much that’s interested me this time around. However, there’s two series that I look forward to watching each week: ID: Invaded (maybe I’ll write a separate blog post about it someday) and Hands Off the Motion Pictures Club! or Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa (The Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong: The Animation, Night Is Short Walk on Girl, Devilman Crybaby), the basic premise follows 3 high school girls that have a desire to create an anime, and form the Motions Pictures Club in order to do so. What ensues is a charming and awe-inspiring Slice of Life anime as we watch the girls struggle with every step involved in the process of animation, from experiencing crunch time in order to compete their keyframes to dealing with society’s negative impression of anime and the animation industry. However, behind all of this we also get a glimpse into their life as youth; parental relationships, expectations, and the innocent world view of high schoolers that we all once experienced.

About Me

Hi~~~ Most people call me Ono, and I’m a media studies and design student at SFU, pursuing to become a Graphic Designer or VFX Artist. よろしく！ I’m fascinated by all forms of media, from books to film to anime, video games, music; the list goes on. I love how media is able to put you in a different state of mind, allowing you to escape from reality while expanding your world view and providing thought provoking scenarios. My goal with this blog is to share my many thoughts and convey my love of the media I experience! Thanks for reading ♡