…and 2020 is FINALLY over.
You can’t blame me for being relieved, even on my blog’s 7th Annyversary since the relaunch. It’s really been a long year. Too long. It’s been 366 months. This year has really been one of a kind. Yeah. I don’t want 2021 to be like that, but I’m not having high hopes.
So what’s been going on this year, aside from the obvious? Well, I’ve been sicker, but I also began sharing posts about writing. I expanded to audio dramas and books about fiction. I reviewed my first live-action show.
This reminds me of why the blog is named as it is. I wanted it to be able to evolve with me, and if the content changed over time, it was because I changed. And the blog has certainly changed in this past year, for better or for worse. This blog means the world to me, and I never want to just leave it behind because I changed or my interests changed. And that’s why it’s The Anny Blog. I could have named it many things, but I wanted it to reflect me. It’s the part of me who wants to share everything that interests me. It’s my interest blog, but because what interests me id fiction, it means it’s primarily a review blog.
So my blog continues to evolve with me. And after a year like this past one, a lot feels like it has changed, both in the world and on a personal plane.
Let’s go over my goal(s), which definitely did not account for a pandemic…
Just post
This was my only goal. Hence my point that it didn’t account for a pandemic. It still helped a lot, because it game me a lot of freedom. I did post, so we’re good. 2020 goal cleared.
But I still missed my blog a lot and as 2021 is my 15th bloggoversary, I decided to take requests. I’m very happy that there were people who gave me some, and I got an idea of what people like to see.
So what did I review?
- Novellas: 1
- Services: 1
- Audio drama episodes: 5
- Light novels: 2
- Anime: 1
- Novels: 2
- Live-action shows: 1
- Non-fiction: 2
- Mobile games: 1
Which total to 14 reviews, since Madou Soshi is in 3 posts. Surprisingly enough, I saw no batches when looking through this past year’s posts. I had planned on having a few more! But considering how 2021 looks like in terms of content, we may have a few more. I hope.
Requests
So, among those who’ve read my blog for a while, otome games are the things to write about. I kinda saw that one coming, not gonna lie. Otherwise games in general were popular in terms of general requests. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I’m just mentioning this in general, since this was about requests and not some survey for statistics. Genres requested were fantasy, dystopian and paranormal romance, so I’ll see what I can find to cover these.
2020 Rollovers
I still have a bit of a list to go through from last year, so I’ll be working on them first as much as possible.
- Love Unholyc season 2
- Collar x Malice
- Sweet Fuse
- Blazblue
- Madou Soshi episodes 6-12
- Three book analyses
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll get the Aksys localisations out of the way, which is why I have those three on my list. My obsession is definitely not over yet, so you’ll have to live with getting more Madou Soshi and Mo Dao Zu Shi reviews. And I had three book analyses I promised to do, but my health kept crashing, so I want to get those out of the way ASAP.
Note that my health is still not better. But I try, and I think my blog will be an excellent distraction now that I’ve made sure to set limits to when I work on fiction, which I didn’t before. So I got work hours now.
2021 Frontlog
This is the exciting part, isn’t it? Going through the frontlog and the rollovers frontlog will be my goal this year. I’ve listed them based on whether I need to get them or not, so I put what I don’t have (yet) in my 2021 backlog.
- Angels of Death
- Asagao Academy
- Chaos;Child
- Cinderella Phenomenon
- Dungeon Dogs
- Fruits Basket (anime)
- Persona 5 Royal
- Princess Mononoke
- Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly
- The Originals
Collar x Malice was listed as a request, but since that is in my front-frontlog, I didn’t list it. Hatoful Boyfriend was listed as well, but as I already reviewed it, I have no plans on doing another anytime soon. I might play Holiday Star, though. Inuyasha also got mentioned, which I reviewed in 2014. It’s been a few years, so maybe I could give it a try again and see if I managed to finish it this time.
2021 Backlog
I call this the backlog because these are lower priority because of the availability. If they’re not Wakanim, HiDive or Netflix, I can’t watch shows unless I buy them, and books and games I tend to need to buy because I can’t borrow them.
- 999*
- Children of the Outback
- Creativity Brewing
- Death Mark*
- Fruits Basket (manga)
- Geten no Hana
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Hybrid Empire
- I’m in love with the villainess
- Inubaka
- Naruto
- Obsession of an otome gamer
- Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho (anime & manga)
- Sandman
- Shadow-Stained
- Tell Me Why
- The Vial of Deziar
- Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
The * indicates I will only buy them in Japanese. I’m a bit picky with my localisation companies, as I’ve made clear in the past. It’s a different matter if I borrow them or so, though. The front- and backlogs together totals to 29, which I think I can manage. Some may be in a batch post — who knows? If not, I’m sure I can fit in some extra batches.
The Probably Not This Year List
This is not because I don’t want to, but rather that I can’t. It’s only because I don’t have a Switch yet and my blog account is really, really in the big negative numbers. (I’m working on looking through how bad it looks for when I declare taxes, but it’s like around 500-700 USD/EUR negative, so someone needs to give me a Switch at this point!)
- Animal Crossing?
- Bustafellows
One person wrote Animal Crossing without specifying which game, and I’m just guessing it’s New Horizons. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Extras
This is a list of titles I’ve chosen or look forward to review. It’s a mix of donated stuff, new titles and some that just have waited around for a long time to get a review.
- .hack//Mutation
- Black Wolves Saga –Last Hope–
- Granblue Fantasy
- Higurashi When They Cry: Onikakushi
- How the Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
- Mo Dao Zu Shi (donghua)
- Moujutsukai to Oujisama (+FD)
- Not Quite Out (which is not quite out—release in February)
- Ship It
- The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind
- Tian Guan Ci Fu (donghua)
- Uta no Prince-sama Shining Live
- Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond
So this is how the year should look like. If I check the entire list, rollovers and extras included we got an interesting mix of books and manga, anime and donghua, otome games and other visual novels, a variety of games, and this one literary science book primarily about BL.
I might roll a die to see what to pick something out of my lists as I work through them, or I might use a different system. Nonetheless, it looks like I have a really interesting year in front of me. Because, aside from all of these, there is a post I plan on getting out this year which is fiction related, but requires a lot of research, I will continue on my magical girl research, and I have a themed month planned out.
And I will also post Beyond the Horizon and When the World Falls, I’ll be Safe from the Wrath of God. The schedule hasn’t been decided on, but I will release it in time for the start. I plan to drop both online this month, but it may (read: probably will) be Patreon only until February. BtH will continue from where I left off, and WWFSFG will start from the beginning. You’ll also find I will post on more platforms than before.
Let’s make 2021 way better than 2020, and remember that whenever life throws a bunch of crap your way, my blog and my webnovels will always be around for you to read them.
I wish you the BESTEST year yet.
You all deserve anything better than 2020.
The Anny Blog 