Category: Secret Santa

Secret Santa 2012 Project Reveal

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In the world of the anime blogosphere Christmas happens a little differently than the normal Americana depiction of the 25th. Here the bloggers run downstairs as Tokyo Tower is in flames due to an alien invasion while sickly moe girls cling to life as they battle dramatic BS diseases and try to enjoy one last Christmas before they die.

Also in the anime blogosphere the writers don’t run downstairs to get their gifts. They already unwrapped those back in November. Some have thoroughly enjoyed their presents and learned to love anime again. Other have tried to return their foul gifts in hopes of getting back anything else in return. Even L/R: Licensed by Royalty will do. But everyone is richer for the experience (although sometimes richer due to tears of blood.)

But now is the time to learn which thoughtful Bodhisattva or wicked demon gave you your recommendations:

Gunslinger Girl: IT IS SO SAD

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 2011 lulled me into a false sense of security. Metal Fighter Miku was far from the best anime I ever watched but it was not horrible. In fact we loved episode ten. And we actually had to CHOOSE between that and Rune Soldier. It was so nice to participate in secret Santa and not make it into Sophie’s Choice when we decide what to watch. This year sadly was a return to the normal grind we have with secret Santa.

Our choices were Kaiba, Mysterious Girlfriend X, and Gunslinger Girl. There was a palpable sense of dread between Narutaki and I when we were trying to pick which of the three shows to watch. Kaiba was out because it would have meant the Kickheart diehards would have won and that is like letting the terrorists win (also WE watched an episode of the series in the past and were colossally turned off). Narutaki could not watch Mysterious Girlfriend X partially for personal reasons and partially BECAUSE PEOPLE LICKING EACH OTHERS SPIT IS DISGUSTING. So all we were left with was Gunslinger Girl. We had already read the first three volumes of the manga so in a way we were going over territory we had already crossed. But this let us see if the anime did anything different that might let us enjoy it more. Also we had already been bitten by this snake so we hoped we would be slightly more immune to its poison.

I had read a bit of the manga for Gunslinger Girl a while ago so it wasn’t too big of a deal to retread the ground with the anime. But I didn’t enjoy the manga so I wasn’t very enthusiastic.

Everything I said about the manga ends up going for the anime as well: some politics and plots are interesting but isn’t the focus enough of the time; the girls lives are so so so sad that I stop caring almost immediately; and it has a tendency to be quite talkie.

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Revenge of Sinterklaas: The 4th Annual Secret Santa Project

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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:

  • Mixing up what you watch and review on your blog.
  • Getting other people to watch things you feel deserve more attention.
  • 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 (secretsanta.rt [at] gmail [dot] com) with subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 10th. Make sure that your MAL (or whatever!) is updated as much as possible before you submit it. Also, if you will not watch fan-subs mention that in the e-mail, too.

We will send you back an e-mail that says we got your application. Please give us a couple of days to respond before sending queries about your application. 

After the deadline for participation, 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 list of the person they are the Secret Santa for. You will then suggest 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 list and whether they watch fan-subs then try to pick out something good but unexpected.

Once we get everyone’s picks 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.

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 to post your review on Christmas Eve but you can alter it as to the schedule of your blog. On 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 (secretsanta.rt [at] gmail [dot] com) with subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 10th.