Two years later…

Image source - http://boards.4chan.org/e/res/1446369

It’s only been a year and change since I last posted anything, but it’s been two years since Japan made my heart go doki-doki. Heck, I barely even used or studied my nihongo during that time. I didn’t know why, but I lost interest in everything Japan. What happened?

I think it had to do with the fear of being labeled as an otaku. Honestly speaking, I became too worried about my reputation as a “normal” person; this slowly built up after attending my first anime con back in 2009.  Since then, I realized that I wanted to be normal, which meant normal enough to have a girlfriend, and anime fangirls just turned me off. So I cut myself off from Japan.

Almost. I had very faint ties to it still. I still bought games from NIS, though I didn’t play them. I occasionally listened to Hamasaki Ayumi’s classic songs. I continued to collect Yotsuba manga.

On the flipside, I stopped keeping up with the latest anime. I didn’t buy new figures or JPop music. I even tolerated watching dubbed anime when friends requested. It was crazy. I turned my back on a hobby that inspired me from high school into adolescence.

And all for what? Normalcy? a girlfriend?

I got what I wanted last year: normalcy and a girlfriend. Was it everything I dreamed it would be? Nope. I was still miserable.

However, I learned a few things. I don’t have to be a hikikomori. I don’t have to commit social suicide. I don’t even have to sing along to cute anime theme songs. But I can enjoy freely. I can say that I like Japan and not be weird about it. And if Japan makes something like BABYMETAL, I can allow myself to just shrug and say, “sho ga nai.”

Tadaima, Nihon. Hisashiburi desu ne. I missed the tsunami. I wasn’t there when the government passed the law on anime censorship. I wasn’t very vocal when Tokyopop closed shop. I was a very negligent “otaku” who turned his back on his life. But I’m here now. I paid for a subscription to Crunchyroll. I made two pre-orders for a couple figures. I’ve started buying manga again. However, I’m scaling back and limiting myself to a budget so that I can’t blame my lack of money on this hobby and leave again.

Additional Resources

The one with all the Lesson Reviews.

I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with this blog ever since I started using Hummingbird last fall. So, I decided to try an idea of mine called Lesson Reviews. Essentially, it’s more of a “what I learned from X anime” than a review, but the thing is, there will be good and […]

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