2011 Winter Anime Season

So just about over two weeks into the new year, and along with the new year is a new set of anime shows to come out in Japan. So I've decided in a very typical Anime Blogger way to give my early impressions on some of the new shows.

I won't get into continuing shows, not that there are many. Aside from the usual big shonen shows - Naruto and Bleach - the continuing shows from last season is Star Driver and the second season of To Aru Majitsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index). I'm sure there are others, but the none come to mind of the top of my head. Continuing shows that is starting up again this season are Kimi no Todoke and Mitsudome, both starting second seasons as well as yet another incarnation of PreCure called "Suite PreCure."

Anyway, my thoughts on thirteen of the seventeen new shows to come out this season are past the jump.

Not another Top Ten!

Yeah yeah, so I'm doing a list of Ten Anime of 2010 that one should watch if they should so choose. Though, stuff like Hidamari Sketch, K-On!! and Trigun aren't on this list since they require having to watch previous seasons of stuff not in 2010. So ya... counting down after the jump.

Yes We Nyan!

Saimoe 2010 is down to three girls - if you have the ability to vote for Asuza - DO SO! :P

EDIT (10/16/10) - Azusa has won Saimoe! WOOHOO! :P

Taiga wins Saimoe

Congratulations to Taiga Aisaka for winning Saimoe. She is the first champion ever to complete the "MTmoe" Triple Crown of the MegaTokyo Anime Grand Prix, the Korean Best Moe (this link will probably change), and the crown jewel - Saimoe. This will probably be a feat that will never be repeated, quite frankly.

Also, Omedetou to Rie Kugimiya. It's been a long long time coming for her to finally get a character to the top - especially after what happened two years ago when Nagi came oh so close to winning it all.

AGP will be in half a year, and the early Saimoe winner predicting can begin once again.

SaiMoe 2009 Round 2

Hinagiku of Hayate no Gotoku - who led all girls in total votes for round 1 with 870.
((EDIT - Image blown up, sorry.))

Round 1 ended yesterday and Round 2 started this morning. So it's time to take account to what actually happened in Round 1 and analyze what may happen in round 2.

Round 1 Analysis - First off, make sure to click the link here to see the latest results from SaiMoe, including the action from round 1. The image is courtesy of AnimeSaimoe.org - awesome website and great work over there!

Okay, lets start off with the characters who saw first round exits, and there is two major ones. The one most obviously to get knocked out in surprise is Mio Akiyama of K-On! who got knocked out by Saimoe veteran Kana Minami of Minami-ke. First off, hats off to Kana for being able to knock out one of the most favored-to-win candidates to win it all this year. Though, you do have to wonder if Kana got her votes because of her actual Moe of if some other force was in play in the background looking to knock Mio out early before she got to the later rounds.(A match between her and Nagi of Kannagi would've been pretty epic.) Quite surprisingly, K-On! girls dropped to 3 after seeing Tsumugi lose to stealth Momoko of Saki, and Ui Hirasawa lose to Amu Hinamori. Sawako-sensei also lost but her loss was expected.

The other girl to get knocked out early is none other then defending champion Kagami Hiiragi, who received a first round bounce from Mikuru Asahina this year. This marks yet another year of Saimoe where the Defending champion has failed to defend her title the following year.

It was surprising to me to see Haruka Nogizaka take a first round exit as well despite being a very early Saimoe 2009 favorite. Her sister though did make the next round. Aside from that, the matches for the most part were pretty ho-hum. No major surprises, other then a almost knock-out by Izumi of Hayate no Gotoku over Koromo of Saki. Koromo got a VERY late 3 additional votes and managed to squeeze past Izumi - which would have been a major upset considering Koromo is probably going to be a favorite to get the title as well (though not so much as fellow Saki castmate, Nodoka).

How I fared in quessing round 1 this year:
Block A - 5 out of 12
Block B - 10 out of 12
Block C - 5 out of 12
Block D - 9 out of 12
Block E - 10 out of 12
Block F - 9 out of 12
Block G - 11 out of 12
Block H - 8 out of 12
Total - 67 out of 96 (.684 correct prediction)

After having a fairly rocky start in Block A and C, I came back pretty strong in the remaining blocks. Actually, I did better this year then I did last year. My combined Round 1 lifetime total is 129 out of 192, for a average of .672. Not bad, but not so good either. Hopefully next year I can up my total correct to above 75.

Now, for that important round 2 analysis:

Block A's matches are pretty ho-hum non-exciting, with no major contenders in the block (not that there was any to begin with) but they should also prove to be some of the more closer matches since some of the characters are close overall in moeness. It'll be pretty much fan-block voting for the most part.

Block B should prove to be slightly interesting, if only to see Yuno and Fuuko go at it, which we'll see what will happen to Kana after knocking out Mio last round. Isumi did knock out her older sister last round as well, so a little bit of revenge for Kana and the Minami-ke folks.

Block C has a interesting 3-match starting off with Hisa, Louise, and Mio going at it. There is plenty of split votes going on with both the Haruhi faction and the Saki faction - though the Saki faction handled their last split vote pretty well. (Block H-01)

Block D should be intersting if only to see the Hayate no Gotoku folks go at Koromo again - this time with Sakuya. Koromo managed to Haitei Raoyue her way out of round 1, but can she do it again versus yet another Hayate character? Should be interesting to watch.

Block E might prove to have some surprises. We'll see top-vote getter Hinagiku push for top-vote getter for this round again against a To-Love-Ru split vote, while Yui of K-On! go at it against 2007 champion Rika Furude. Will Rika get knocked out in round 2 yet again? The match between Miyuki Takara, Teru Miyanaga, and Minori Kushieda should also prove to be entertaining. While it should be assumed that Minori should run away with the match, her round 1 total is only 7 votes over Teru (who has practically no screentime in her series, btw.) I also wouldn't expect the Lucky Star people to lay down as well and expect Miyuki to bottom-feed votes from both girls.

Block F should prove interesting as we'll see Taiga Aisaka go against fellow castmate Ami Kawashima - and they'll have to be careful with Mikuru in the match, who only got 736 votes to knock out last year's Saimoe champion. It'll be interesting to see if fans will abandon Mikuru, or if we'll even see the Toradora faction manage to push one of their two main stars in this matchup through to the third round. Should be some nice drama in that match.

Block G has a major match between Mikoto "Biribiri" Misaka versus Mihoko "CAPTAIN!" Fukuji and it should be a pretty good match going in. Not to be overlooked, but Ritsu and Ushio going at it on the other side of that part of the block should be interesting as well. This block should prove interesting next round where we might see a 2006 rematch between Yuki "Battleship" Nagato and Haruhi "God" Suzumiya. Yuki won that match, 1112 to 991.

Finally, Block H is the holder of this round's major matchup between Rena Ryuuguu and Nagi Senzenin - which is a rematch of their matchup back in the Semifinals of 2007 where Nagi defeated Rena, 1301-1209. Poor Yumiko has no chance in that matchup. We'll also see the first major test for AnimeSuki's favorite-to-win, Nodoka Haramura as she'll go against Yoshika Miyafuji of Strike Witches and Zange of Kannagi. It wouldn't be a surprise to see the block final become Saki versus Nodoka, though whoever wins between Nagi and Rena will have a say in that.

If you need some important match dates - the most important match date to circle is 9/13/09 (9/12/09 for us in America). That day has the match between Yui Hirasawa and Rika Furude, as well as the fatal three-way match between Mikuru, Taiga, and Ami. A close second should be 9/17 in a epic rematch between Rena and Nagi.

It may be quite too early to perhaps talk about Saimoe 2009, but the cutoff date for this year's eligibility is coming right up (June 30th) so why not talk about early favorites right now?

For those of you who simply don't know what Saimoe is, I suggest you stop reading this blog post and type in Saimoe into your Wikipedia search field and read up on it.

And for those who need a reminder (and because I didn't really give the results on my blog before) - last year's winner and current defending champion is Kagami Hiiragi of Lucky Star, who defeated her twin sister Tsukasa for the title. And pretty much it's a given that this year will not see a repeat champion. No champion since the start of Saimoe has ever gone on to repeat. As a matter of fact, only one girl (Nanoha Takamachi, 2005 Champion) has ever even gotten back to the top 8 after reaching the top 8 in any of the previous years. While that isn't a concern with the Bamboo Blade girls gone (cutting the top 8 by 2), I highly doubt we'll see three Clannad girls in the top 8 again, though they'll probably make a good run. With the major lack of new material, I wouldn't expect the Hiiragi sisters to do as well this year as well. That really leaves Hinagiku as the only one who has a outside shot of making it back into the top 8 - but like with all things in this tournament, it depends on who you face as you get to the top.

Of course, there are the seasoned veterans of Saimoe in much the same vein that we expect the same veterans to do well in Sasuke. Saimoe's "Makoto Nagano" is very much the aforementioned Nanoha Takamachi. With a return to loli-form, we'll see how well she does along with fellow friend/rival Fate Tessarossa, who also does well every year. Shana of Shakugan no Shana will also be back, along with fellow Kugimiya holy trinity members Louise of Zero no Tsukaima and Nagi Sennzen of Hayate no Gotoku. Also making their returns is the cast of Haruhi Suzumiya - and while Haruhi herself backdoored her way in via cameo in Lucky Star, this year is finally the year we see new episodes of Haruhi and I wouldn't expect this time around for Haruhi to get bounced in the first round. I expect as more of the new episodes come out, the bigger the boosts will be for Haruhi and her brigade. The Hidamari Sketch girls will be back as well - they had very strong showings last year despite being kept out of the top 8. To finally add on to the veteran list - I couldn't forget to mention Amu Hinamori. Amu had a great showing last year, and I expect her to build on that, depending on who she ends up facing in her particular brackets. Japan loves it's classical mahou shoujo heroines, as evidenced by the first Saimoe champion, Sakura Kinomoto. I would expect at least another good showing.

Now, every year there is the new blood that makes big waves. Bamboo Blade last year made a major impact, and many characters have won Saimoe before only to not even be around the next year when their eligibility is up. This year's list is quite impressive, perhaps even more so then last years. One of the casts to look out for is the Haruka Nogizaka cast - while I don't think all of them will advance very far, I would at least suspect Haruka herself to get pretty far. The Chaos Head cast should also be interesting to note. Two series stand out among the newcomers this year however, and should provide some really great runs this year. The first is the cast of Toradora - headlined by the Rie Kugimiya-voiced Taiga Aisaka (who just so happened to win this year's MegaTokyo AGP.) The main three girls - Taiga, Minori, and Ami should get very far this year, if not one or two of them reaching top 8. Especially Taiga, since generally new Kugimiya-tsundere characters reach the top 8 or higher in their first year of eligibility. The other cast to look out for is the K-On! cast, which just recently ended. Headlined by Yui Hirasawa and Mio Akiyama, I would expect much of this cast to do fairly well as the new KyoAni IP to come out. There are some hidden dark horses in this series as well with Ui and Azusa.

There is a lot of new names to pop up this year, and with a field of over 200 girls, we'll see how well some of these girls do this year. If I had to make a early prediction on who would win, I would probably go with Taiga Aisaka in a narrow victory.

Well, enough chatter of Saimoe tonight. There will be more talk when the Saimoe brackets come out.

K-On! is now over, sadly. Well, there is one more episode, but it's more a epilogue episode to this week's finale episode. Sadly, this series for a KyoAni series really underperformed - a lot of good potential moments got wasted. But at least it left some really good songs - here's a piano version of "My Love is a Stapler" by Josh Garrado that I've been listening to non-stop:



I hope the budget cuts that KyoAni pulled on K-On! make Haruhi a whole lot better.

EDIT - Made a mp3 out of the video above, for everyone's listening pleasure:
http://rapidshare.com/files/247587215/K-On_-_My_Love_is_a_Stapler__Piano_-_joshagarrado_.mp3.html

Posting this only to remind myself more then anything, though anyone else is welcome to copy-paste this elsewhere. Thanks to chevluh on the Megatokyo forums for posting this.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya air-dates in Japan (includes new second season episodes that are mixed in to the re-air of the first season.)

Apr 02 ep01 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 1
Apr 09 ep02 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2
Apr 16 ep03 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 3
Apr 23 ep04 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 4
Apr 30 ep05 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 5
May 07 ep06 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 6
May 14 ep07 The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya
May 21 ep08 Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody (New)
May 28 ep09 Mysterique Sign
Jun 04 ep10 Remote Island Syndrome Part1
Jun 11 ep11 Remote Island Syndrome Part2
Jun 18 ep12 Endless Eight (New)
Jun 25 ep13 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 1 (New)
Jul 02 ep14 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 (New)
Jul 09 ep15 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 3 (New)
Jul 16 ep16 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya 4 (New)
Jul 23 ep17 The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru Episode 00
Jul 30 ep18 Live A Live
Aug 07 ep19 The Day of Sagittarius
Aug 14 ep20 Someday in the rain
Aug 21 ep21 The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya 1 (New)
Aug 28 ep22 The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 (New)
Sep 03 ep23 The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya 3 (New)
Sep 10 ep24 The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya 4 (New)
Sep 17 ep25 The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya 5 (New)
Sep 24 ep26 Charmed at First Sight Lover (New)
Oct 1 ep27 Snow Mountain Syndrome Pt 1 (New)
Oct 8 ep28 Snow Mountain Syndrome Pt 2 (New)

Getting into this issue via a MegaTokyo topic brought me back to making a blog post on this, because I feel strongly on this. I hope you people are prepared for a VERY long blog post.

First of all, Hulu is great. Visit it, and visit it often. Heck, drop by Crunchyroll while you are at it. Sorry Europe, you get the short end of the stick.

Anyway, let me requote all the things I have said on the topic of "Legal Online Distribution".

From Akihabana's comment section:

American anime distributors for a long time now have been trying to tackle the problem without alienating their own customers and have basically failed. Sadly, if Japan decides to finally crack down on fansubbers, the subbers that remain will go deeper underground and the international otaku community at large will eventually die off with it.

If anything, the solution is perhaps the answer that GONZO has come up with in subbing their own anime and putting it online for the community at large in a ad-revenue format.

I don't want to elaborate more because this is a very touchy issue everywhere; I just hope Japan can find a way to make anime and make a profit while doing it so we can get more quality anime.

-------------------------------------------------

That's good to hear that GONZO has done well with the experiment. I hope they continue to do that with ALL their future releases as well.

I'll get into my views of fansubbing, since it's possible that fans in Japan who speak and write English may read this.

I think the big next step for the Japanese Animation industry at large is to move into a "touchless product" formats such as ad-revenue streaming and pay-to-download torrents and begin to embrace the international community. If major studios such as Ghibli, Gainax, Sunrise, and even (and especially) Kyoto Animation begin doing offical subtitled streaming formats like GONZO has, the fansubbers will die off.

The mission of fansubbing back in the VHS (video cassettes) days (1980 - 1999) was meant to spread Anime outside of Japan. The system to receive fansubbed video tapes was archaic and cumbersome, usually having the fansubber ship the tape themselves and then it getting countlessly copied by friends until it was lost.

Fansubbing was never meant to actually make money or siphon off money revenue from the creators themselves. Fansubbing itself only came about because people were interested in Anime and wanted to know what was said and understand what is going on, and naturally with the rise of the Internet, fansubs just became easier to obtain. Many fansubbers are actually "honorable" - they stop subbing if a US Anime distribution company licenses the series. If the anime industry moves online with all their projects, fansubbers will stop subbing because they don't have to anymore. And to be quite honest, I think fansubbers will thank the Japanese for a possible move like that, because being a fansubber is a thankless job and if you are slow in subbing you are hated by the community at large for being slow.

There is a market for Japanese culture in the Internet world. All that needs to be done is to create the pricing models and the release formats to make it actually work.

And for those wondering about Japanese Manga as well as Korean Manhwa, those are doing well regardless of piracy due to the fact many American fans actually wish to hold Manga and Manhwa in their hands and the relatively cheap cost. There could be 10,000 different releases of Negima out there, but the Negima manga when it's printed and released by offical distributer Del Rey Manga will still do well because the product itself in print format is more desirable then a internet image format, and people are actually willing to pay $5-$12 for a book.

Various people around the world (and not of just this American who is writing this) have varying opinions relating to their region, but the Japanese Anime industry are the ones who are truly in control of it's own fate. I hope those who are in that industry read this and see the potential for not just for great success, but the possibility of great failure as well.

==================================================
From the above linked MegaTokyo topic:

I see the only way around this is that the Japanese Anime industry buckles up and finally expands itself outside of Japan and cut out the middle man (ie, ADV, Funimation, etc.). At least then, there isn't a issue with who has what license in what country, and can do across the board digital releases of their anime without some company wanting to sue because they have distribution rights.

The whole concept of distribution rights is flawed and stupid - and I hope the Japanese see this and loophole around it by just doing it themselves or finding someone who can do across the board distribution instead of just being able to do it in one country.

--------------------------------------------

I think the big issue here is that companies want to sell something "tangible", like DVD's, CD's, and what not. The thing is, as time goes on, those markets are shrinking little by little.

Anime fans used to buy DVDs at $35 a pop, but that takes a toll on a wallet. It forces what we see now, where instead of 4-5 episodes a disc, we get entire boxsets of shows now in order to turn a profit.

The reality is that anime fans are not looking to buy DVD's anymore. They're just too expensive to license, sub, dub (if dubbed), print, and distribute, and force higher prices. Not only that, we have fans now who feel that fansubs give better quality then DVDs. So many of these anime distribution companies have been about the DVD for so long, that they just couldn't adapt to a changing market spearheaded by YouTube and BitTorrent. They're trying to rake in that same amount of cash that they got from the beginning from the DVD age, but that's just not there anymore.

Lets not forget that the turnaround time for online distribution can be up to mere hours after airing, compared to a DVD which at best can show up in two months in a US store.

Legal online distribution is the best bet for a lot of these anime companies. It's just too bad they all have cold feet about it, because there is potential to make money off it.

It's better off then filing for Chapter 5 bankruptcy like ADV might soon.

QUOTE
1. Digital distribution doesn't make much money compared to pretty much every other means of distribution

Sure, it doesn't. Heck, Ad-revenue streams aren't DVDs or what not. Still, it's money worth getting if you can setup a system to do it relatively cheap. Money is money, and money is what helps you make more money.

QUOTE
2. Selling DVDs and merchandise does make money.

Sure, if it's selling. The thing is, if it's selling. The fact is, currently it is not. It's not moving, and that's bad. Which leads to...

QUOTE
3. You need local publishers to sell DVDs and merchandise. Think "Best Buy" and "Wal-mart" and "LOL Topic"

No mention of Suncoast? Oh wait, they filed for Chapter 5. Suncoast is just a victim of bad upper management (who put too much eggs in one basket) and a shrinking US anime DVD market. You sell local if people are willing to buy - the thing is, fansubs as they are, are just better products that you can obtain fairly quickly. Thus, product is not moving, and these companies are losing money because no one is buying anymore due to rampant piracy. And we all know what could happen if you go after your own fans...

QUOTE
4. So when the local publisher wants to do the digital rights, you have to yield (much like how Funi isn't going to license anything that they can't get the digital rights for).

Funimation is smart. They know where the market is headed. It's just sucks because Funimation is being slow about transitioning right now. They understand where they need to go now, it's just sucks that they're slow getting to it somewhat and that only US fans get to benefit. There's money in Europe too (isn't the Euro more then the Dollar?), and apparently the legal work is so bad to get a broad digital license for EU countries that Europe may never get the same services as Americans will from places like Crunchyroll and Hulu. Perhaps that's not Funimations fault, but the European Union's fault for not getting something like that universally squared away yet.

QUOTE
5. It's also hard to enforce your rights globally without local help

It's hard enough to enforce it with local help. What I would think legal global distribution would do is phase out fansubbers (either by hiring them or C&Ding them). Trying to eliminate fansubbers right now would only bring about more fansubbers, because there is a demand for a particular series. However, if the company decides to sub it themselves, there is no incentive for a fansubber to sub it (less drama, less work, more enjoyability for a fansubber for a series) and if they do, the company can go after them and tout their legal alternative (compared to right now, where there really isn't one.)

I don't think the industry can get the money pull it used to, but at least with online distribution it can survive and turn a profit for when markets are better, and something comes a long that is better then online alternatives that is even cheaper, and better.

-------------------------------------------------------

QUOTE (omoikane @ Sep 23 2008, 03:16 PM)
Believe this and you have no credibility.

THe only thing that has much weight as I quoted is that yes, the physical medium market is changing and probably growing smaller by % of population. But that isn't important because the revenue from those sales puts the pissant amount of money companies get from digital distribution to shame.

The bottom line is that until we start paying ~DVD prices for digital downloads, DVDs will always make more money for companies.

The potential to make money in today's market is greatly exaggerated. It will take a large effort (like Hulu, for example) to even begin.

I don't have credibility. The closest I've been to any of these Anime distribution companies is attending their Comic-Con panels in years past. However, this isn't a credibility issue here.

Still, the market is in bad shape right now. Sure, it's a victim of what is turning out to be the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. But what is important is not the fact that "DVD's make more money", but the fact of "are we turning a profit with DVD's." Perhaps right now, they are, marginally.

The thing with companies is that you always look to turn a profit. There is money out there for legal online distribution. Sure, it's chump change. Yet, why is major American television companies like NBC, ABC, CBS, and others putting their stuff online in ad-revenue formats? Because there is profit there for them just for people watching.

It's a matter of getting a system up, and being able to turn a profit while at the same time dealing with illegal online piracy with a legal alternative.

Is there a better solution to bad markets and rampant piracy? Maybe. But at least it's a solution.

The mangled mess that is the Anime industry in the global market is marred by archaic rules, regulations, and laws. Why are anime studios or companies not doing legalized digital subs on a quick release format like fansubs are? Like Omoikane (who I have great respect for) said (he provided the questions and the mini-counter point in the quotes), perhaps the funding or the massive amounts of money from DVD's are just not there. What is there, is that there is profit in Legal Online Distribution if you get a system out there that works. Legal Online Distribution helps to do three things - to get companies profit so they can use that profit to make more anime and get more profit, to stop and prevent fansubbing and illegal pirating, and most of all - provide a legal, industry and fan supported system where fans are happy because they pay for a product that everyone gets a cut out of to encourage them to make more product (AKA anime) to consume, in a short amount of time. Legal Online Distribution is not meant to replace DVD's, as probably as I first thought.

However, there is potential there to do great things with Online Distribution - and perhaps with things like Crunchyroll and Hulu, the industry may be on the right track.

Anyone remember some posts back about the Japanese doing a crazy medley of various anime and game music? Well, it's starting to get worse - I'll just leave these here.

合唱 CLANNAD 「だんご大家族」 Full-Mix


(21名合唱)武装錬金『真赤な誓い』裏表Mix


MIX 合唱　ひぐらしのなく頃に 『you』～ver.Ⅱ～


合唱　『JOINT』　Part-Selected ver


And lastly...

(合唱+合奏)God knows/セッション3


Yes, that's a dude drumming with pencils on the bottom. And multiple singers (as seen on top). And even has a rapper, I kid you not.

Saimoe Block B coming tomorrow. And results of Block A as well.

Yikes, it's been months since I have posted here. Anyway, let me recap my life from March until June.

March and April were pretty much same as usual; working, school, anime, games, eat, sleep.

May saw me finally graduate from San Diego State University with a degree in English. Woot! Also, more work. One of my Canadian cousins also graduated, so grats to him. Sadly, the last subbed episode of ARIA The Animation came out, and I was quite sad, depressed, and wanted more older Akari and Ai. ARIA is easily one of my top 5 non-violent animes and also one of the gateway animes I would use to introduce someone into anime.

June is more and more work (nineteen days of it, actually.) Also, digging the new D&D 4th edition and actually running my own campaign with me being DM. Had a cousin graduate High School, so grats to her.

So now you're caught up in my life. Now the things I hope to do sometime soon:

1) Move my Comic-Con experiences onto this blog (not likely as I will probably keep it at the MegaTokyo forums, but I want to move it here someday.)
2) Go to BlizzCon and record my experiences here.
3) Write more blog posts.
4) Write more stories on fanfiction.net and fictionpress. Particularly, finally finishing off a old Card Captor Sakura fanfic that never got finished and writing some new material for fictionpress.
5) Find a job. Not a part-time, but a actual "bread-winner" job that will get me set for years to come.
6) Work on my health, since it's steadily getting worse.
7) Update the blog to a new look - perhaps time to move to a entirely new template.


I hope with the less work I'll have next month in July (sans Comic-Con time) I'll be able to work on some of these objectives.


Mood: Pretty good, actually.