General Discussion

Aping the idea @sotyfan16 started in his blog post, I thought it'd be interesting to see the who, whats, whens, wheres, and whys that defined 2011 in anime and anime related stuff for everyone, whether it was watching, buying, making, or writing? Pics and vids are welcome!

Watching

Well, you can check out my top 5 in the official article about it on the site. One thing I will say is that hmm, around September I took Sotyfan's method of not really following currently airing shows in favor of catching up on series that I missed from earlier in the year. I can only actively follow about 4 currently airing shows in a season before I start to fall way behind on one. Two of those will forever be Bleach and Naruto so that only leaves two new series. Needless to say, there's a lot of content that I would end up missing. But, I really enjoyed taking the more laid back approach of not really worrying about currently airing shows. I got to watch and complete way more shows than I normally do and because they were all completed, I could marathon them in a 2 or 3 days, which is my preferred method for watching shows.

Buying

My collection at the start of 2011 (You can actually see my manga back there) You, know when I look at my shelf, it's always slowly and slowly getting filled but I think because everything is in slim boxes, I never notice how much of it is actually getting filled up. Buy a little here, buy a little there and it eventually adds up. When I look at the picture to the right I can actually see my manga collection (which isn't half bad, even though I haven't added any titles in over a year), which is hidden away now. Rightstuf definitely was an accomplice. I a lot of ways, they are my pusherman, especially when I started getting into collecting art boxes for some of my saves or full full series releases like Paniponi Dash, Hell Girl, Darker than Black, and FMA. All those sales for all those series for so little money. I also got really deep into importing this year... probably too deep. I got some some series from Japan but I also started importing from Australia. I've been waiting for Kaiba to come out in the US since 2008 but it doesn't seem like it's coming so I grabbed the AU release which has English subtitles. It came with a little demo disc with an episode from other shows (why don't US companies do this?) and I ended purchasing a show from that disc that I never would have heard of otherwise.

Going

For the first time, I went to AWA for the entire convention length (in the past I only went 1 out of 3 days) and got a hotel room with a friend as well. That was a lot of fun and I wrote a blog about it ( AWA2011: A Tale of Zombies, Hentai, and Body Pillows ) and I definitely plan on doing it again this year. I think I might even cosplay for one of the days.

Making

I kicked off the year with a few video blogs about 2011 shows but the thing I really enjoyed making the most and put the most effort into was my Kageroza Inaba dedication/compilation video. I've slacked off of video blogs and still need to edit a Dunce Cap with sotyfan16 but I do want to get back to doing these things at least every now and then in 2012. It was a of work but a labor of love.

So that was 2011 in an anime nutshell. I hope 2012 brings even more and better stuff... and now I need to buy a new shelf which is both awesome and shell shocking when I check out how much stores charge for book shelves.

2011 was quite a year for me in terms of watching anime and buying up what I could afford for my collection.
 
Watching
Plenty to explain here. Between my Netflix subscription, my anime stockpile and anything I downloaded, I watched quite a number of titles last year. In terms of new stuff from Japan, 2011 proved to be one of the better years of quality I seen from anime titles in quite a while with hits like Mawaru Penguindrum, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/ Zero and Wandering Son. I also got to see quite a number of titles via Netflix that I enjoyed to a good extent such as Hikaru no Go, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Ghost in the Shell: 2nd GIG and Macross. Overall, it was quite the plentiful year for me to watch anime.
 
Buying
2011 was the year where I chose to ditch buying titles I've seen already all together and choose to stockpile titles that I thought would provide me some worthwhile viewing or time to kill. What I call the "rainy day pile" is my backup reserve for anime in the event I am about to run into the monthly data cap from my ISP and if I don't have anything delivered to me from Netflix. To give you a good idea of what I've gotten for the pile over the past year, here's what I have gotten since I first started it up:
Samurai 7
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Kaleido Star
Red Garden
Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Requiem from the Darkness
Magic Knight Rayearth (both seasons)
Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror
Silent Mobius
Neo Ranga
Orphen (both seasons)
The Third: Girl with the Blue Eye
Gunparade March
DNA-2
Shigofumi
Princess Nine
Blue Seed (TV series and OAV)
Antique Bakery
Nanaka 6/17
Macross II
Macross Plus
Lost Universe
Heat Guy J
Legend of Black Heaven
Mermaid Forest
Patlabor: The Mobile Police
Gundam: Char's Counterattack
Utawarerumono
Mobile Suit Gundam Film Trilogy
Zeta Gundam
Gakuen Alice
Gravitation
Vampire Princess Miyu
Ghost Stories
Armored Trooper Votoms
Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars
Human Crossing
Ramen Fighter Miki
Ghost Hunt
Scryed
Bamboo Blade
Ga-Rei Zero
You're Under Arrest (everything licensed essentially [all 3 TV shows, OAV, movie, mini-specials])
Rozen Maiden (both seasons and OAV)
A Little Snow Fairy Sugar
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
 
Won/ Received as Gifts:
2011 was also a year where I was able to get some additions to my collection via alternative means. From getting Christmas gifts from my family to winning giveaways/ mini-games on Anime News Network, here are the goods I didn't have to bother even buying:
Patlabor II: The Movie
Patlabor WXIII
Gantz
Casshern Sins
Animation Runner Kuromi
Super GALS
Romeo x Juliet
Pani Poni Dash
 
Moving Forward into 2012
In 2012, I'm hoping that the year will offer up as much reasonable quality from its anime from the latest Japanese titles as last year and I plan to continue making more additions to my stockpile that interest me. Sadly, this year could mark the swan song where I milk use of Netflix as the number of anime titles that catch my interest from them are running thin and I've already seen a good number of what they have to offer for anime. As of this post, I have 225 DVDs left over in my Netflix queue. Unless they offer up anything big to hook me in, I won't be too surprised if I jump ship from them sometime this year.

Summer 2011 - I bought some volumes such as Fairy Tail and Rosario Vampire II. (I get some pictures). Then, I completed Avatar: The Last Airbender during July. I didn't buy manga or anime for Fall 2011. I just borrowed from the library. I needed to save some money.

Manga Titles Borrowed

• Ultimo
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
• Black Butler for lil sister (somehow I read it and liked it)
• Daniel X for lil sister
• Fairy Tail
• Hyde and Close for my lil brother
• Two Flowers for The Dragon
• Nightmare Inspector
• Library Wars
• Samurai Champloo

I loved Ultimo, Sayonara Zetsubou, Fairy Tail, Samurai Champloo, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

Animes Watched during 2011

• Blue Exorcist
• Fairy Tail
• Beelzebub
• Sket Dance
• Fate Zero
• Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi
• Case Closed
• Guilty Crown
• Durarara!!!

The only things I watched for pleasure and not for wiki editing were Case Closed, Fate Zero, and Durarara!. I wasn't happy with Blue Exorcist with how it ended. I hope Guilty Crown gets it momentum back up.

I didnt purchased any anime, manga or merchandazing (Is pretty damn expensive here down under of America) But I read and watched a shitload of series, and cosplayed Nappa