Category: Secret Santa

Dead Leaves: Even a Psychedelic Explosion Can Be Banal

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Last year’s Secret Santa went over so well (though not for us, thank you Texhnolyze!), that here we are again. And once again, we have failed. Someday I know we will get a Secret Santa recommendation that I don’t loath. I swear this is possible.

hisuiconFor the second time a row we have spun the roulette wheel of fortune and the result has been the same. This time we disliked our Secret Santa pick for complete different reasons than why we disliked Texhnolyze. On some level I have to say that is impressive. But our other two choices we far worse. While we had never seen the animeI know the Hell Girl manga was always filled with utterly unlikable characters in a formula neither of us liked. On the other hand while I had heard some good things about Koi Kaze I can almost guarantee, that especially after this season, Narutaki wanted nothing to do with an incest show no matter how tasteful. So we were once again left with a show that was an unknown quantity to Narutaki and something I had vaguely avoided. My prediction is next year we are going to have to watch Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg and then Narutaki will never participate in Secret Santa again.

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Calling bloggers for Secret Santa!

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This cross-blogging game was a blast year, so it is back again!

Here: Just in case someone does not know what traditional Secret Santa is.

The idea of this project is for everyone who participates to be reviewing a show that they might not normally watch or might have overlooked. Everyone will get someone else in the project to review a series of their choice and in return review something picked by one of their fellow bloggers. The goal is threefold for everyone involved:

  1. Mixing up what you watch and review on your blog.
  2. Getting other people to watch things you feel deserve more attention.
  3. A way to interact with other bloggers thus creating possibilities for cross blog readership, also it fosters an environment to try other cross blog experiments.

Here is how this little experiment will work: If you want to participate send us your Name, Blog, and My Anime List (or some other equivalent listing) page via e-mail (reversethieves [at] gmail.com) subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 13th. Make sure that your MAL is updated as much as possible before you submit it. Also, if you are uncomfortable with watching certain types of shows or will not watch fan-subs mention that in the e-mail, too.

We will then make a circular list of everyone involved in the project that only we will know the order of. The order of the list will be made completely at random. Everyone will then receive the name, blog, and My Anime List of the person they are the Secret Santa for. You will then suggested three shows for the person all of which must be 26 episodes or less (yes, you can suggest movies, too). The shows must be subtitled in some fashion. Remember that you are picking shows that you hope the other person will like and give an honest chance. Look over their My Anime List and their restrictions then try to pick out something good but unexpected.

Once we get everyone’s lists we will then pass on the shows to the recipients. No one except us will know the names of the person who gave you your choices. You then pick the show your are going to watch. Everyone is responsible for getting their own material for the review. If for some reason you absolutely cannot abide any of the shows you are given, we will allow 1 and only 1 mulligan.

You then have until late December to watch the show you were assigned and write a review. On the week of Christmas everyone will post their reviews for the Secret Santa Project. We would prefer you post your review on Christmas Eve but you can alter it as to the schedule of your blog. On the Christmas Day we will reveal the name of who had who as a Secret Santa along with a small post about the project.

Again: If you want to participate send us your Name, Blog, and My Anime List (or some other equivalent listing) page via e-mail (reversethieves [at] gmail.com) subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 13th.

Secret Santa Project Reveal

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Let us all gather around the tree and see what gifts Santa has left us. For all those who do not know we sent out the word last month that we were doing a fun little cross blog collaboration called the Secret Santa Project. Everyone in the project would secretly pick three titles for someone else in the project that they hoped the other person would enjoy. Everyone would pick from the three shows they received and review one of them during the week of Christmas. On Christmas Eve we posted all the reviews so now everyone can see who their Secret Santa was. Hopefully everyone picked shows they liked and maybe a few people discovered a show they would have normally overlooked. You may notice that a few people got recommendations from us. Life hit some of the participants hard as it is want to do so they did not get their picks in on time. We gave them picks so everyone had enough time to get up their reviews. Just click the name of the show to see what each of our fine bloggers thought of the show they got. We will continue to update this list if people finish their reviews a little late so check back often.

hisuiconI’m really surprised by the turn out and overall positive reception for the Secret Santa Project. Most everyone picked innovative shows for the people they got. I was impressed by the shows most people selected for the project. They were almost all shows I enjoyed. I hope that people enjoyed the shows they watched and maybe will try something new again after their eyes have been opened by this project. I was only expecting to see half the reviews to be completed by the 25th but I have received all but 5 by the time this was initially posted. That fills my heart with goodness and hope. Also I’d love for someone to figure out a way to do this type of project with manga. I think it would go over well.  If they do you know you can count Narutaki and I in as participants. And finally, if nothing else the project got me interested in Vertical’s release of Twin Spica and made we want to go back and finish Bartender.

narutakiI was more than happy by the response we had for this fun little project. We could also do this project evil style in which everyone tries to pick a show the other person would completely hate just to fulfill any latent (or active) sadistic desires of people. But that is for another time. As for this project, I had a good time with it, even if we were less than thrilled with our show. It really seemed to get people chatting and I even had a few people lamenting that they didn’t find out about it in time. Don’t worry folks, this will certainly be brought back for 2010! Good thinkin’ Hisui!