Anime

Backlog Busting – My February 2023 Watches

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You know, it really feels great being able to just watch through shows on my backlog without worrying about keeping up with seasonal shows as well all the time. Although, because of being able to focus on watching one show at a time, I got on a little bit of an Initial D kick at the beginning of the month and I have a lot to say about it! I also finished some prior popular seasonal stuff that I missed out on as well, so I hope that either of those will be catching your interest in this post!

Also, I think it goes without saying at this point, but since I’ll be using these posts to talk about future seasons of shows as well, there will be mentions of spoilers throughout these posts. It’s hard to discuss nuances of the show when I have to avoid spoilers, so there will likely be some that crop up, and there definitely will be some in this post. 

I think we’ve mentioned on the blog before that our content typically isn’t spoiler free anyway, but I just wanted to give a brief reminder since we haven’t mentioned it in a while and our revival has been semi-recent!

Anyway, let’s talk about some anime!

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How Bad Could the 2023 Anime Awards Actually Be?

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It’s not exactly a bold stance to say that, while well-intentioned (probably?), Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards are, with clockwork consistency, spectacularly bad. January is never quite complete without looking at Twitter and seeing folks from all corners of the platform assembling to bemoan the nominees, the categories, and, eventually, what actually took home awards.

With the show itself looming, I was genuinely curious – The Anime Awards are pretty bad, yes, but just how bad are they? What got excluded from the running? Which shows did they stack with nominations while the others got scraps (or less)? How bad could this be, really?

While it depends on just how cynical you are about the current state of the industry, the reality? It’s probably even worse than you think.

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Backlog Busting – My January 2023 Watches

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Hey all, I’m back with another (hopefully) interesting post, and it wasn’t several months between the last one this time! it’s a Backlog Busting post this time, but with a little bit of a different, shorter format than before! 

I didn’t really have anything really thought-invoking this past month of anime watching, but that doesn’t mean that these shows weren’t talking about! Not everything has to be the next Evangelion of anime after all, plus I like sharing my thoughts about shows in a more open, fun way sometimes, so I thought this would be a great way to do it!

Thus, this format was born: a new form of Backlog Busting post! I hope that this format works a bit better for when I’m watching shows that I have a bit less to say about, but still want to give them a mention and talk a little about them, for better or for worse! 

So, let’s start diving into these shows then!

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A Backloggers ??? Year Anniversary – “Are We Dead?”

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“Uh-oh! The Backloggers have released a ‘we are finally quitting the blog’’ post after almost two years, they’re officially done-zo.”

…Or maybe that’s what we wanted you to think!

Well, we can talk about all that in a minute. Still, there’s a lot to own up to since we basically went the whole hog in releasing a bunch of content regularly and then just stopped dead in our tracks after a brief hiatus (which let’s be honest, we do tend to have a lot of) and announcing Mythos’ break from the blog for some time.

That brings us to why you’re probably reading this post to start with. Let’s sum up the next several paragraphs briefly: Tofu and Owningmatt (myself) will be the regular/primary contributors to this blog for the foreseeable future, even though the content might be less often than it was in previous years. Mythos is still going to be on hiatus until he wants to come back, as the reality of these times is that life stuff just happens, which is just the reality of the situation for all of us as things have obviously changed a lot since we created this blog seven years ago back when we had all the free time in the world in college.

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Log Time Podcast | Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches Discussion — A Harem, But Not! Witchcraft!

thebackloggers 1 Comment

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is a delightful non-harem harem that’s genuinely not actually a harem, and wow, it’s a great time! This is one of the few shows where you’ll hear us complain about the show, but it’s only because there wasn’t more of it.

In this installment, join us for hot topics such as Matt forcing Zack to make hot takes “for content” and then berating him, the pair talking about the importance of ample development for side characters, and the intriguing quandary of “meta-gaming” a series years after it’s been released.

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

This podcast was recorded August 19th, 2021.

Log Time Seasonal Podcast | Beginning of Summer 2021 — The Backlogger Deities Know Only Summer Anime

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The Winter 2021 anime season was, scientifically speaking, both the longest and shortest season of anime in recent history. We were with these shows for what felt like ages, and they were gone before we knew it. Parting with anime is After taking the Spring 2021 anime season off because it would have burnt us out beyond all repair, we’re back for the newly-minted (and much less densely-packed) Summer 2021 season! Although there is nowhere near the amount of must-watch absolute bangers as last season, take it from us – this season is going to still be delightful, and a lot less hard on your plan-to-watch lists.

While that is the case, there’s still a good few shows that Matt and Zack have picked out that you should absolutely be watching this season. Strap in for Matt’s undying love of continued Love Live! franchise entries with Superstar!!, the desperate hope that Girlfriend, Girlfriend could be the next Gamers!, talking different anime tastes via The Case Study of Vanitas and The Detective Is Already Dead, and the reveal of sleeper hits of the season, such as Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan and The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace. Get yourself a nice boat drink and set your sails, because The Backloggers are driftwood for the summer season, baby!

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

This podcast was recorded July 22nd, 2021.

Spring 2021 in Review

generaltofu 1 Comment

This past anime season, counting holdovers from the Winter 2021 season, I watched 26 anime. Of those, I completed 22. Normally, we at the Backloggers would do an end-of-season podcast covering a select few shows in the hopes that we can get some good discussion for those handful of titles and not have a days-long episode on our hands. However, with our sort-of-official-but-not-really-announced two-month-long anti-burnout blog hiatus, we didn’t exactly have that structured outlet for putting our seasonal thoughts out in the open.

For everyone involved except for me, this was a mistake. Without the set three-to-five-ish shows per end-of-season podcast restriction holding me back, there is nothing that can stop me from talking about 26 anime from this season, which I will do, in no particular order, starting RIGHT NOW.

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Log Time Seasonal Podcast | End of Winter 2021 — It’s Still Good!

thebackloggers 4 Comments

The Winter 2021 anime season was, scientifically speaking, both the longest and shortest season of anime in recent history. We were with these shows for what felt like ages, and they were gone before we knew it. Parting with anime is always so bittersweet, y’know?

This go-around, Zack and Matt narrow down the huge field of anime from this season to just a select few Backloggers’ Choice Shows™ for you to chew on (along with some honorable mentions and a real stinker). Join them as they talk some big ideas of the season, like what makes Re:Zero so good, season after season, why does the high school setting work so well for Horimiya while it feels stagnant for others, and what on EARTH happened to The Promised Neverland? You’ll just have to hop on in to hear about these and more!

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

This podcast was recorded April 10th, 2021.

Berserk (1997) is a Masterpiece

generaltofu 5 Comments

In the past month, I have experienced the events of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk’s most widely-adapted arc, “The Golden Age,” no less than four separate times through three entirely different adaptations of the series. You might ask, “hey Tofu, what the hell?”, to which I would also say, “yeah, I know, what the hell?” When it comes to media consumption, I’m not exactly a person who frequently revisits series that I love, and I don’t really fixate on thinking about them once I have finished them. I’ve watched what might arguably be my favorite anime, Yu Yu Hakusho, in its 112-episode entirety about three times, though each watchthrough was separated by a few years. I’ve done the same for Psycho-Pass, as well – many watches, but it’s a series that I come back to every now and then. For these and some of my other favorite series, I have watched them, loved them, and been satisfied with simply the experience of doing so. But, for some reason, Berserk is different. Ever since watching the 1997 anime adaptation a month ago, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, and frankly, I doubt I will be able to any time soon.

Let’s just skip the preamble and get to the bottom line – Berserk is a masterpiece, and you owe it to yourself to experience the series for yourself.

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Log Time Podcast | Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Discussion — Demon Dumb-Dumbs Galore

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Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun is a bit of a weird pick – weird number of episodes, weird cast of characters, and a lot of weird, questionable directing choices. Somehow, despite all of that, we have come out of watching it…pretty pleased, overall?

In all seriousness, Iruma-kun is a heartwarming school comedy about a bunch of demon dumb-dumbs (and their secretly human protagonist buddy), and coming hot off the heels of White Album 2, this was, overall, a pretty refreshing little break. Hop on in as we talk about cozy, nice protagonists, some delightful goofs, and a surprising amount of “who thought this was a good idea”s.

Audio Links: iTunes | SoundCloud

Intro/Outro Music: The Elephant by A Shell in the Pit

This podcast was recorded March 19th, 2021.