(Edit: I see Baccano! and Seirei no Moribito at #1-2 in the poll. Neither seems to be streaming anywhere at the moment – if someone knows of a source for either, please let me know in the comments in case I decide to go in that direction, thanks.)
As you may remember, I posted a couple of months ago asking for your help as I considered ways to diversify content on the site as I approach my 10th anniversary. I even did a poll on the subject shortly thereafter. While none of this was hatched with the developing world situation in mind (I’d been mulling it over for a long time), that situation has made it more relevant, and sooner than I expected.
As of this moment, I have exactly three series on my “definitely blogging” list (and I’m expecting to lose two of those, unfortunately). There are a couple more which may stick around and I may cover partly because there are so few options, but this anime season is very nearly a washout. And summer may well be the same or even worse. This sucks, obviously. No sports, no travel, and every day an onslaught of anxiety – when do we need anime, if not now? But that’s beyond our control, and the safety of the hard-working people in the anime industry takes precedence over our convenience.
That brings us to the matter I mentioned above.
When I did that poll, “From the Vault” came out on top, closely followed by “Best of” lists, “Ongoing Manga Reviews” and “Editorials”. To be honest, my initial thinking on this was to test drive these as crowdfunding ideas – give readers a chance to support (via Patreon most likely) specific special projects in the above categories. I need to find a way to raise more money to keep the site operational, and that was one way to do it. That’s still in the hopper, long-term. But right now I need to create content, and there’s a COVID-19-sized hole in the source material I normally work with. So what better time to take these ideas for a spin?
Manga is tricky, for a number of reasons. I don’t follow a huge number of weekly manga to begin with, and some of them are being postponed too. And among the rest, many are not translated in real-time. But here’s the list of most of the manga I follow – if you see something here you’d like me to pick up that dodges all those bullets, let me know and I’ll see if it’s feasible.
“Best of” and “Editorials” are pretty easy. Hit me with what you want to see, and I’ll choose something that catches my fancy. Use the comments below to shoot me your ideas.
That leaves us with “From the Vault”, the narrow winner of the poll, and under the circumstances probably the most interesting concept. The pool of potential subjects is as deep as anime itself – with the caveat, of course, that there has to be a means for me to watch the series. I’m not talking about traditional weekly episodic posts here, but this would be something closer to what I normally do – maybe digest posts of a few episodes at a time with a couple of screenshots. I started this blog in 2010 so the vault in my mind is primarily series from earlier than that – but there are shows from the post-LiA period that I didn’t blog, or even watch – and those might be candidates too.
As it happens I did a poll on this too, and I did a write-up on the winner, Dennou Coil. But let’s take a broader look at the season that gave rise to it, Spring 2007. My God, it’s full of stars. If Spring 2020 is anime at its nadir (and to be blunt it was looking pretty mediocre even before the world went to Hell and cancelled most of it), Spring 2007 was anime at its acme. It was groaning with the weight of glorious possibility, much of which it delivered upon. If I was blogging anime then, I would probably have covered a bare minimum of 15 shows. The only season that comes close since LiA’s debut is Spring 2012 (the greatest anime season since Spring ’07), when I covered 18 series (and it almost killed me).
So, because I like the symmetry of it, I’m going to reach into the backlog and cover something from Spring 2007. Or who knows, maybe more than one something if time permits. So please head over to the sidebar (or below) and vote on what you’d like to see join the “Current Series” list. Just as a ringer, I’m going to throw in a couple of other series from 2007 too – because it was a phenomenal year altogether, not just the spring. I won’t promise to follow the results to the letter – logistics may intervene – but I will try my best to do so. And don’t forget – please use the comment section to weigh in on “Best of”, “Ongoing Manga” and Editorial” ideas.
Oh, and one last thing. Since you’re social distancing anyway and probably wanting to avoid brick & mortar shopping as much as possible, don’t forget that you can click on the LiA Amazon links to do your Amazon shopping and help out the site in the process. It’s 100% your usual Amazon experience and pricing – the only difference is you’re helping LiA survive in the process. As always, you have my everlasting gratitude.
Thanks as always for contributing! Please be good to each other and stay positive.
Stay Frosty,
Enzo
[democracy id=”3″]
Mus
April 27, 2020 at 11:35 pm“If you see something here that you’d like me to pick up that dodges all those bullets” I’m not quite sure what you mean, are you asking for a suggestion of manga to blog which you already follow or are you seeking a new manga that is similar to your manga list?
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 8:55 amA manga which is weekly, which I’m already covering, is not suspended, and is available in English in more or less real-time.
slazer
April 28, 2020 at 12:24 amIf anyone’s asking, Toradora’s still fantastic!
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 8:56 amSeen it, like it a decent bit, don’t love it. I blogged the OVA, in fact.
Collectr
April 28, 2020 at 1:53 amI voted for Seirei (because it’s one of your favorites) and Nodame (because it’s one of mine). Both are well known and popular. I’d also like to see you promote series that are unknown or less popular. Hidamari no Ki springs to mind, but you know that already.
On a different tack: how about “vertical cuts” through anime, focusing on a specific creator, such as Tezuka Osamu or Oshii Mamoru? Or a director, such as Sugii Gisaburou or Yamamoto Eiichi or Dezaki Osamu? Or a neglected genre, such as josei or (to some extent) seinen?
Finally, perhaps “time slices”: the evolution of mecha, or the evolution of the OVA form?
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 9:00 amInteresting idea on the verticals. I’ll take that under consideration.
Red
April 28, 2020 at 10:10 amWell, it’s not from 2007 but the avatar last airbender can be a great ‘from the vault’ show to blog. Would love to hear your thoughts or digest posts about it. For manga, are you caught up with vinland saga and berserk? Vinland saga seems to be consistent in releasing monthly and berserk just has its latest chapter released though it is mostly in hiatus. Also, this isn’t animanga but if you like basketball or just need a dose of sports goodness, you can also cover the weekly documentary series about Jordan’s Chicago Bulls ”The Last Dance”.
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 10:20 amAvatar… I did blog “Korra” and shared some thoughts on TOS at that time (shorthand – way better than Korra). Odd you mention it though, I did just watch a documentary on the making of AtLA and had been thinking about re-watching it.
VS – I was planning on waiting for S2 of the anime. There’s a point past which I’ll give up waiting and turn to the manga, but I’m not there yet.
I’m watching and loving The Last Dance, but hadn’t thought about writing about it. Would any readers here be interested? As a Chicagoan I was wholly immersed in the Jordan era.
Proto
April 28, 2020 at 10:38 amI voted for series I haven’t watched on the basis that I need people to convince me I go and, well, watch them. Good luck! 😀
Marty
April 28, 2020 at 11:14 amI would definitely be interested in your opinions if The Last Dance and more overall sports content (that’s just me tho)
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but now wouldn’t be the worst of times to ponder finishing up Devilman Crybaby
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 11:26 amNo on DC, I dropped it rather than stopped it. It simply didn’t work for me.
Duly noted on the sports content. There’s nothing happening live atm of course, but The Last Dance is definitely must-see TV.
Panino Manino
April 28, 2020 at 11:27 amMORIBITO! Seriously!
Man, take this opportunity to watch this gen. The only thing possible of criticism is… that’s it’s so good that it’ll never have another season.
Let me explain.
When the anime was made the author joined the project and worked together with the director in the script. The anime is version 2.0 of the story. Because they knew they could do that series only one time they improved and stretched the original book and inserted in the middle stories of some of the other books. It’s very well adapted and the definitive version of that part of the story (when Chagum is young because there are other books when he is an adult).
And the studio put money and effort on the project.
It’s a great anime and I would be very happy to see it getting some attention nowadays.
(a shame the other books were never published here, I waited so long…)
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 11:45 amYou don’t need to explain or sell Moribito to me, believe me! It’s literally my #1 anime of all time and I know the back story backwards and forwards.
While the remainder of the books were never translated out of Japanese, the live-action dorama was subbed, and it covers the entire story. It’s very good too, imho.
Mus
April 28, 2020 at 7:39 pmI don’t know if it fits your criteria, but I loved Ping Pong the Animation. An 11 episode show that aired in 2011. Would love to see your thoughts about it.
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 8:09 pmI blogged every episode and wrote a series review post!
Mus
April 28, 2020 at 11:26 pmIs it uncategorized? I don’t see it anywhere in the category bar. I ended up searching for the article through google, maybe I’m just not used to navigating in this blog (I’m new here).
I was quite surprised that it didn’t make it into your top 20, but I also see that your top 20 are well deserved too. I just love it too much, maybe above rakugo in terms of pulling my heartstring on the right notes.
Good to know that you enjoyed it too.
Guardian Enzo
April 29, 2020 at 2:04 pmStuff from the old Blogger days is listed by tag, not category. Here’s the link, though if you’re ever looking for something you can also just use the search function at the top of the page.
https://lostinanime.com/tag/ping-pong/
Alonom
April 28, 2020 at 6:36 pmspeaking of Netflix content and beating a dead horse, I would love to read your thoughts on Bojack Horseman. don’t know if this suggestion is at all relevant, but I know you’re an animation enthusiast and I adore this show.
Guardian Enzo
April 28, 2020 at 6:48 pmI’ve watched some episodes and enjoyed it, and always mean to get around to watching the whole series. I know others who feel the way you do – I must confess it hasn’t quite enraptured me to that extent, but it’s definitely something I want to get back to.
Alonom
April 28, 2020 at 7:04 pmI can’t recommend it enough. I started watching it as background noise and was really unimpressed at first. but it evolves into something great. each season surpasses the one that came before.
elianthos
April 29, 2020 at 11:40 ami would have voted for 4 titles, alas. Moribito of course, and Ghost Hound as I feel is rather underappreciated. Lovely Complex on the other hand while inferior to the manga on the whole (because they condensed whole volumes in the 2nd half of the series. i happen to adore the manga and is one of foolproof cheer-up readings XDD ) is still one of best shoujo comedies around :,> . Baccano would have been my #4 because ‘objectively’ is a very well done series. I just have less affection/attachment for its characters compared to the other three.
—
Vertical cuts, oh yey. I would LOVE for you to do an Osamu Dezaki one (the man really worked on quite a range of works across genres and demographics + his stylistic legacy… could make for some juicy journey 😀 ).
yastin
April 29, 2020 at 6:53 pmHi Enzo. Do you play video games?
Guardian Enzo
April 29, 2020 at 7:49 pmVery rarely!
yastin
April 30, 2020 at 12:43 amWell, there is Persona 5 Royal on PS4. It is really amazing and far better than Persona 5 anime.
One of the best games all the time.
Elia
April 30, 2020 at 6:04 amI was in a Baccano! mood earlier this month so that’s where one of my votes went. It’s a shame that it can’t be streamed legally right now. The DVD/blurays have been out of print for years too. I got my fill by rewatching some scenes on YouTube but it’s not the same as a good marathon of the entire series. It hurt reading the news about Fujiwara-san’s passing right after watching a compilation of Ladd’s scenes. ;(
Choosing between Moribito and Nodame for the second vote was tough because I love both series but I gave it to Nodame in the end.
Just wondering, did you give Honzuki/Bookworm a try? I actually recommend reading the LN instead and would love to hear your thoughts on it but I’m not sure what are the chances of you covering a LN.. xD The anime is fine too but the character development and world building in the source is just leagues better.
Guardian Enzo
April 30, 2020 at 8:24 amI’ve covered plenty of LN adaptations over the years, and a couple of them have ended up being quite good. It is rare though.
I’ve tried Bookworm on multiple occasions, both seasons. Actually have watched up through episode 17, but I finally had to admit it just doesn’t work for me. Good heart, but it’s manipulative and saccharine and very broad. Certainly not the worst LN adaptation I’ve seen by a long shot, but to me, it’s just not that good.
Yukie
April 30, 2020 at 2:11 pmVoted for Nodame and Baccano in the end (I’m surprised that Seirei is included, I’ve always thought you’ve covered it before), but all of these have so much rewatch value. I actually watched them all around 2009 and 2010, when I started watching a ton of anime. I have so much nostalgia for Nodame, Baccano, and Seirei especially, as they’ve stayed with me the way good books do after you’ve closed them. This is a good list to reference now that so many anime are on pause.
As for manga, I’d love to see you cover Akatsuki no Yona.
Guardian Enzo
April 30, 2020 at 2:17 pmYona makes sense, even as a semi-monthly. It’s phenomenal, unlikely to every get an anime sequel, and popular. Sometimes the translations can take a while though.
I did a short post on Moribitio way back when, and have mentioned it any number of times. But as far as a full rewatch, nothing like that. If I can find a source for it I might give it a try.