Happy New Year, everyone! Another year has come to a close, so it’s time for a reflective post about my blog.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Life is weird. For me, 2017 was the year of freelance writing, 2018 was the year of professional writing, and 2019… took a u-turn and became the year of music. Why?

Because I attended a total of seven concerts this year, all of them Japanese or Korean. I enjoyed each one for different reasons and learned something from every one. I also wrote about some of them.

The concerts I went to were:

• Perfume
• BlackPink
• LeChat
• Aimi
• Twice
• BabyMetal
• Guilty Kiss (at Anime NYC)

But probably the most important thing to happen musically this year (at least for me) was the return of My Chemical Romance. I will talk more about this later in the post because that band is my life very important to me. But first, I am going to discuss my writing from this past year.

TL;DR – I plan to do at least one blog post a month in 2020. But you should keep reading to learn why :3

The Blog (Or Lack Of) In 2019

I admit that my blogging has been very slow recently. I apologize for that. 2019 was tumultuous to say the least. I originally planned to write a blog post once a week, and I was successful for a little while, but this goal never fully came to fruition. Two major, life-alternating things – as well as some other minor stuff – happened this year, and I became burnt out.

A good friend of mine left my job… and in turn, I was promoted to editor. I’m very honored to have this position, but it took a while for me to adjust. I have more responsibility, which equals more stress. I’ve gotten used to it by now, but it’s still a lot of work ^_^; Sometimes I just don’t want to look at a computer screen after staring at one for 8 to 9 hours a day.

The other major event was my fiance’s FTM top surgery. I was very nervous a couple weeks before the surgery because I’m a worrywart. I had trouble concentrating on anything. Then, the surgery itself happened which meant staying in a hospital and taking some time off to take care of my fiance. There was one point where I was working from home and taking care of him at the same time, which was hectic. But he is mostly healed now and is much happier with himself, so it was all worth it ❤

Of course, other stuff happened as well. Lots of overtime because of the Note10… my stomach condition getting constant flair ups… and more general life stuff. It also was really hard to find alone time to write because things were so busy. For anyone who kept up with my sporadic posts, I thank you endlessly.

Another reason blogging was slow is because I watched less anime this year. I still love anime with all my heart, but I’ve found that watching too many shows at once makes them all blur together. I’d rather watch them at my own pace and fully enjoy each one. But on the downside, this also meant fewer sources of inspiration for the blog. Hopefully whatever I watch in 2020 will get the gears turning.

Ah, and don’t forget that I started writing reviews for The OASG in 2019. Sometimes I would take a weekend to work on a review instead writing a blog post. There are only so many hours in a day.

Here Is Where I Babble About Music and MCR

It’s not something I talk much about on here, but I’m a huge music fan. There was a time in my life when everything revolved around music. This is where My Chemical Romance comes in. That band is everything to me. They helped me when I was in a very, very dark place. They’re also the reason I began writing. Yep, I was so inspired by The Black Parade’s concept and Gerard Way’s comics (the Umbrella Academy) that I began writing short stories and poems.

My creative writing was very well-received by friends, family, and teachers, and I kept writing more and more. I realized how much I enjoyed writing and that I had a talent for it. By my senior year of high school, I decided to make writing my career and ended up getting a degree in it.

Then came 2013, the year MCR broke up. I had been so obsessed with them for so long that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I needed something to obsess over – something to fill the void. And that’s where anime came in. I have been a big anime fan for a long time, since the days of Toonami. But it wasn’t an all-encompassing hobby. Around the time of the breakup is when I discovered anime simulcasts and streaming sites. I grew up having to wait months (sometimes even years) for an anime to appear on Cartoon Network or the Funimation channel.

With an entire library of shows at my fingertips, I began watching countless anime. I fell deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, eventually stumbling across the cute girl/slice of life genre. Before this, I just kind of watched whatever, but now I had my own niche to explore and enjoy. In time, I’d discover Love Live, other Japanese/Korean idol groups, and the rest is history…

2013 is also when I got heavily into vocaloid, including IA and Miku. By a strange twist of fate, I would end up seeing Miku live in 2016. That performance is what inspired me to start this blog. So… in a weird way, MCR breaking up had a hand in me creating this website. I’m kind of hesitantly grateful for their split because I’ve learned so much from my work on here.

In short, you should all thank My Chemical Romance! Not just for inspiring this blog but also inspiring me to write in general.

Plans for 2020

I want to talk a little bit about my plans for the blog next. I’m not going anywhere. However, I think 2020 is going to be another slow year. Mostly because I really, really miss creative writing. I used to write toooooons of poems and short stories. I haven’t written anything like that since 2016 – I lost the spark ever since that teaching job almost killed me.

I’m starting to feel the need to write creatively again, but unfortunately none of my poem or story ideas are anime-related (though, it would be nice to return to some of my fanfiction!). I want to split my writing time up between blog writing and creative writing. However, the creative writing pieces will probably all go on a separate website. Would you guys like to see some of my creative writing once it’s up? :3

That being said, doing more creative writing means I want to read more novels. I’m a bookworm, but I’ve haven’t been reading much other than manga and comics. My brain has been so fried – it can’t focus on novels of the time. But since I’m used to my editing job, I think I’ll have more brain energy now to read novels in my spare time. I’ve also realized that I wasted way too much time playing video games this past year. Games are a great escape and stress reliever for me, but there were times I played for hours on end.

It prevented me from reading, writing, and watching anime – at least to the degree I wanted. But now that I finished Breath of the Wild and completed my Living Dex in Ultra Moon, I’m taking a break from games and plan to focus on other things: writing, reading, anime, yoga, etc. I want to split up my time more wisely and be more organized. (Gods help me, I’m so unorganized >.<)

So… I guess what I’m getting at is… unless I get an enormous burst of geeky inspiration, I think one or two blog posts a month is what I’ll be capable of in 2020. One at the very least. I love this blog to death, but I believe in quality over quantity. I’d rather take my time and write at my own pace, instead of getting stuff out for the sake of it. Oh, and maybe I’ll post every review I write for The OASG from now on, so the blog doesn’t seem so dead. What do you guys think?

Let’s go back to the theme of this post: music. I think I want to start focusing more on music in this blog. It won’t be all the time, but I definitely want to touch on it. Music is where my inspiration has been coming from lately, so I think it will help me with this blog. It would mostly be Japanese music, but maybe I can even throw in some stuff about MCR or Gerard Way.

My Favorite (Cute) Anime Of 2019

The truth is that I did watch a lot of well-known anime this year, such as Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, etc. Many of them were excellent and deserve praise, but… I am going to point out my favorite cute girl anime because they need some attention. These are in no particular order:

Hitori Bocchi No Marumaruseikatsu

Bocchi is me. I related to this anime so much because I know the struggles of being shy and nervous all the time. I couldn’t stop laughing as adorable little Bocchi awkwardly tried her best to make friends.

The Demon Girl Next Door (Machikado Mazoku)

Machikado was a bizarre take on magical girls and demons. And I loved it. The quirky humor and lovable characters stole my heart. Shamiko is my daughter, and she must be protected.

Endro!

The creator of Yuru Yuri helped with this anime, so I was bound to love it. Endro has a familiar mix of randomness and yuri undertones but also has more of a story than Yuri Yuri. It’s really freaking great.

Chidori RSC (Rifle Is Beautiful)

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like this anime because I’m not a fan of guns. However, I absolutely loved it. I’m not sure how to even explain why. All I can say is that each episode gave me life.

Sarazanmai

This doesn’t really count as cute girl anime, but Sarazanmai needs a shout out because it’s a queer wonderland.

A Round Up I Guess?

What the hell? I guess I will do a 2019 roundup. This post is already very long, so I won’t list out each one – I’ll provide a link. Here’s everything I wrote for the blog in 2019. There are some I am very proud of, so please check them out.

Thanks again for everyone who reads this blog, whether it was only one time or often. I’ll try to be more organized this year – in both writing posts and replying to comments. I’m the worst at replying. I’m sorry for that. But I want you all to know that, even if I don’t reply, I appreciate every nice comment on here. I’ll see you guys around soon!

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2020 with lots of new anime and music to enjoy~