2 Neat 2 Curious (Real Neat Blog Award) – Untold Questions

Hey-o! Another award! Two in fact! That’s right, hence the ridiculously lame blog title… this time I was nominated by Aldael and Shaddowcat99!

So what are the rules for this award tag?

1. Display the award logo.

2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to their blog.

3. Answer their questions.

4. Nominate 5 to 10 bloggers.

5. Ask 7 questions.

Great! So let’s get on with the questions since there’s twice as many this time! Right! First off Aldael’s questions.

• How and when do you usually watch anime?
  Always on the television, through the PS4’s various anime apps (Crunchyroll, AnimeLab, Funimation Now) and usually in the evening. Except on the weekends when it’s usually most of the day and night.
• How many people know about anime being your hobby? How do they react to it?
  I don’t know that many people irl (sad I know right) but I don’t hide it, I’m proud of my geeky hobby. And whenever somebody I don’t know asks about it, I’ll go ahead and tell them that anime is my hobby until their eyes glaze over and they lose interest entirely.
• Which two anime series you would choose to make a crossover of?
  This is a difficult question, so many to pick from! I guess I’ll go for the one that’d make the most interesting show and say a crossover between Steins;Gate and Assassination Classroom, for reasons I won’t get into lest I spoil the latter…
• Which anime portrays food in the tastiest way?
  Probably Food Wars! Gotta love attractive anime girls in close proximity to food, wait that’s not what you meant by ‘tasty’ is it?
• What’s the tastiest vegetable?
  My initial reaction was to say Potato, because I love potatoes (specifically chips) but thinking about potatoes aren’t actually tasty by themselves you usually have to add fats and salt and seasoning to add to the effect. So strictly based on the vegetable itself without adding anything extra, my answer would be a chilli pepper.
• What’s the tallest place you’ve ever been at?
  Landmark Tower in Yokohama, Japan, I actually stayed in a hotel room on the 54th floor—its the second tallest building in Japan.
• You find yourself in a middle of a desert with a lion, a jaguar, a puma and a tiger surrounding you from all the sides. Which way do you go?
  I dig down so they can’t find me and then hopefully wake up from this nightmare!

So that’s one batch of questions down, next lot please! The second lot is a bit different, Shaddowcat was inspired by the questions given to her by Lina and so they are… well you’ll catch on soon enough.

Hats?
I like the idea of hats, but hats don’t like the idea of me. Apparently my head is too big and they just look weird on me. Everyone says so… Oh well!

Dolls?
Like blow-up dolls? That’s where my head went first… but no thank you… I’ll take my dakimakura over those cheap plastic creations any day!

Pyramids?
The first thing I think of is Pyramid Song by Radiohead. One of my favourite non-anime songs of all time.

Birds?
We’ve got a pet bird, it’s a cockatiel named Bella and it’s noisy and hateful.

Dentists?
I actually like the dentists, weird huh? I never used to, I had a super bad experience when I was a teenager where the dentist was actually standing on the chair trying to rip a particularly stubborn tooth out of my mouth. Ever since then whenever I go to the dentist I just kind of think ‘nothing could be as bad as that’ and just kind of mellow out and enjoy all the attention.

Burritos?
I prefer tacos, or nachos, or enchiladas, or taquitos. But they’re okay I guess!

This Video?

I have that exact image on a t-shirt, does that answer your question? 

Well that was different, but good different! Yeah that was a lot of fun, in fact for my set of questions I’m going to do the same, mostly because it’s a lot easier than coming up with original questions, but also because it might be fun for some others to partake! But first the nominees, as always there’s no obligation to participate if you’ve already done it or are too busy or just don’t feel like it!

Slice of Alfredo
KAWAIIPAPERPANDAS
Ayappi’s Room
Biblionyan
The Animanga Spellbook

Cool, and you’re questions? All one word questions, this oughta be fun!
Square?
Lemon?
Vampire?
Minecraft?
Ice?
Disneyland?
Bones?

Suitably vague, terrific. All done then? Yep, thanks everyone for reading and thanks again to Aldael and Shaddowcat99 for the nominations!

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Site Update May 9th 2018 – Untold Questions

Site news, huh? Yup, nothing too serious, just more letting you know what you can come to expect from the site going forward!

Right, so go on then! So basically, I’m going to be doing less of the week-to-week single episode reviews, while they’re pretty easy to write—especially compared to the 20 Question Reviews—I’m ultimately not 100% happy with the quality of them. I think I can do better, but at the same time writing as many as I’m writing and improving the quality isn’t really an option as I want to be able to spend more of my time doing creative writing (i.e. working on my novels) as well as working on better blog content like lists, essays and manga reviews (which take a lot more time).

So basically breaking the promise you made to review every show you’re watching this anime season? Listen, it’s a learning experience for me, I’d never reviewed seasonal anime on this scale before! Okay?

I don’t actually care, means less work for me… It’s not like it’s going to stop reviewing week-to-week entirely, there’s still quite a few shows I want to review each week. I’m just going to stop reviewing the show’s that a) aren’t getting many views/interaction and b) the shows I don’t enjoy writing reviews for.

Okay, so which of the show’s you’re watching are going to continue to review and which are not? Anime with a strikethrough are no longer being reviewed week-to-week but will have a 20 Question Anime Review at the end of the season.

Butlers x Battlers
Caligula
Comic Girls
Food Wars! The Third Plate
High School DxD Hero
Hinamatsuri
Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World
Kakuriyo -Bed and Breakfast for Spirits
Last Period: the journey to the end of the despair
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These
Magical Girl Ore
My Hero Academia 3rd Season
PERSONA 5 the Animation
Space Battleship Tiramisu
Steins;Gate 0
Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
Tokyo Ghoul:re
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby!

That’s a lot. Well, I’m still reviewing nine shows week-to-week, also because I am still watching all these shows I reserve the right to occasionally review episodes that I find something worthwhile to talk about like how last anime season I did occasional reviews of particularly noteworthy episodes.

And what if people want to know your thoughts on an episode of a show that you’re no longer reviewing week-to-week? They can just ask me on Twitter!

Fair enough, anything else? Not really, I just hope nobody is too disappointed by this decision, but I ultimately think it’s going to prove for the best for the blog as there will be a lot more unique content on the site! I’d like to have weekly essays along the lines of my recent “Dying For Nothing” essay. As well as multiple anime related Top 10 lists and more 20 Question Anime and Manga reviews!

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TBR/W (To Be Read/Watched) Tag – Untold Questions

What’s this? A tag? TBR/W? I’m so confused… Irina nominated me to do this fun little tag where you get to use your name and pick a book (and in this case an anime as well) for each letter of your name that’s on your ‘To Be Read’ list. It’s a fun way of letting people know what kind of stuff you’re wanting to read or watch in the future and maybe a little on the why it’s on your list and why you haven’t gotten to it yet (or maybe that last part is just because Irina likes to talk a lot…)

Right, so it’s normally a book tag but because you’re such a giant weeb you’re doing it about anime too. You betcha! Ain’t gonna make me feel bad calling me names, I know what I am. Also books can include manga anyway!

Whatever. So what books are on your ‘To Read List’? Bare in mind, I don’t read a lot of non-manga fiction so this list might be kinda lame!

M – The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Always wanted to read Kafka but I’ve always hastened to delve into the kind of literature a lot of people label as ‘pretentious’, I don’t need to end up being the kind of guy who quotes Kafka at people in my every day life! Nevertheless, I am still interested in reading this one day.

A – A Sister’s All You Need (LN) by Yomi Hirasaka

I really enjoyed how simultaneously mature and immature this anime was, so naturally I was curious about the Light Novel, it comes out in English very soon and I’m keen to read it, even if it’ll probably end up being super similar to the anime. Plus it means I’ll be able to find out what happens with the rest of the story which is the real reason I want to start on this.

T – Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

The plot synopsis doesn’t particularly interest me but I’m always curious about books that were controversial or even banned. This one seems to get mentioned a lot and while I’m sure the content will be pretty tame by today’s standards it’d still be interesting to see what courted such controversy back in the day!

T – To Love-Ru Darkness (Manga) by Saki Hasemi & Art by Kentaro Yabuki

(From Wikipedia) “In 2012, To Love-Ru Darkness was reviewed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to see if it violated their newly passed controversial Bill 156. This was after they had received a phone call from a parent who discovered a To Love-Ru Darkness book while cleaning a son’s room. The parent did not like that there was frontal nudity of a female character, including her lower body. At the meeting on April 9, 2012, they decided that while the book did include the aforementioned nudity, it did not violate the new ordinance.”

*thumbs up emoji*

H – House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

I’ve owned this book for about, oh, 6 years maybe and I’ve still only ever cracked the first chapter(?) or so and it’s not that it’s bad or anything (from what I’ve read) it’s just kind of intimidating and overwhelming. One of these days…

E – The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria (LN) by Eiji Mikage

Just because something’s popular doesn’t mean it’s good. And sometimes it does. I don’t know much about this Light Novel but I am intrigued nonetheless.

W – The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind, the first in The Kingkiller Chronicles is one of my favourite fantasy books of all time, in fact it’s the only full length novel I’ve read more than once. So why haven’t I read the second book in the trilogy? Well, a part of it is because it’s been 7 years since the second one came out and we still don’t have the third part! I’m not one of those people who criticise authors for taking a long time but at the same time there is an increasingly large chance we’ll never see Book 3 and I don’t want to commit to Book 2 until the third one is actually out.

I didn’t know your name was Matthew, I just assumed it was just Matt. Don’t get used to it, I don’t like ‘Matthew’, makes me feel like I’m getting in trouble! Besides, Matt was too short, and ‘Cactus Matt’ had too many repeating letters.

Fine, whatever Matthew, what anime are on your ‘To Watch List’? Grr~.

M – My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (or My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU)

I don’t know, I just hear a lot of “good” things about this show and so it’s become a fixture of my ‘To Watch List’. The whole ‘romantic’ part is I think what’s kept me from diving in already.

A – Angel Beats

I hear really good things about this show but for some reason it’s quite hard to get a hold of ‘legitimately’ in Australia.

T – Texhnolyze

An older title but one I remember seeing on DVD back in the early 00’s and being intrigued about!

T – Tsugumomo

I don’t know anything about this but it’s been steadily moving up the To Watch List as I hear more people mentioning it favourably. Or maybe it’s just that girl on the poster artwork…

H – Harukana Recieve

Does it count if it’s an anime that’s not even out yet? Probably not, but I’m really looking forward to this show. Like, as much as I complained about Haikyuu I do admit it made the sport of volleyball entertaining and kinetic and exciting! So with Harukana Receive; a female beach volleyball anime we have that plus cute anime girl’s in bikini’s? Only one thing to say to that… “nice receive”.

E – ERASED

This show seems dark, I’ll have to wait ’til I’m in the right frame of mind to watch something like this!

W – World Conquest Zvezda Plot

Don’t know anything about it but the character designs on the poster pretty much sold me!

And that’s it then! Nope, have to nominated some people for this too!

Oh, okay, well who do you nominate? Right, so as always if you’ve already done this or just don’t want to no obligations to do so!
Kingdylbag
TheAnimessenger
DerekL
thebookworkdrinketh

All done then? Indeed! Thanks so much for reading, hope it was illuminating, or interesting, or at the very least not a complete waste of your time!

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Site News April 11th 2018 – Untold Questions

Site news in a question format? Well it’s more interesting to read than a wall of text.

Wow, way to insult 99% of your fellow anime bloggers and bloggers in general! I didn’t mean it like that! I was just meaning people are more likely to read a post as boring as site news for my site if it’s structured in my QandA format! Geez!

Well this post is already off to a great start. Yeah, no thanks to you!

So what was so important that you couldn’t just tweet about it? Not all the people who read my blog follow me on Twitter…

Just get on with it! Fine… so first bit of site news is in regard to Spring 2018 anime and how I intend to review them. Originally, the plan was to do a review post for every episode of the 25~ shows I’m watching, every week until the end. And while I think I’ve been managing to do it fine so far, the reality is I will run out of things to talk about, not every episode will have enough content for a full review and the last thing I want to do is make posts of a lower quality as that will annoy not only you but me as well. So basically, going forward the episodes of some shows will be bundled together, so with some shows you might not see a review of a new episode for a couple of weeks and then once there’s enough for me to talk about you might get a bundled, ‘*insert anime name here* Episode 2 – 4 Anime QandA Review’. But if a show has enough to talk about week-to-week then you’ll see a Review for every episode, it will just depend on the show and how much I have to talk about.

Makes sense. Glad you agree, me.

Any other news? Yes, some of you may have already noticed (or probably not) but there was no ’20 Question Weekly Review’ post this Monday, you know the ones where I run down everything I watched and read and bought in the previous calendar week. Well that’s because I’ve cancelled them, I never really enjoyed writing them as much as my other content which would have been fine except they took the most time out of any of my blogs, so in other words too much effort for too little personal reward. Sorry if you enjoyed them but I kind of dreaded them each week!

Anything else? I forgot to do a manga review last week! They also take a little more time than normal reviews, but they are definitely NOT cancelled, just on hiatus until I can sort my shit out.

And what’s this collaboration business? You been stepping out on me with another question asker?! Quiet you, we were never exclusive! Yes, every week until the show is done Irina and I will be reviewing Uma Musume: Pretty Derby together, alternating styles between each week between my question format and her more conversational blog style. Last week it was Question format on my blog, and this week is on her blog, make sure to check it out!

Hmm, this Irina person is nothing but trouble! She’s a bad influence I just know it! Oohh~ someone’s jealous!

I am not! Sure sure. Anyway that’s all for this site update thingo, hopefully it wasn’t too boring to read. Here, have a gif for your troubles!

 

The Unique Blogger Award & The Real Neat Blog Award – Untold Questions

Hey guess what?! What?

You got nominated for an award again! No way!

Guess what? Err, what?

I lied! You got nominated for TWO awards! Man, you guys are the best!

So first is the Unique Blogger Award. I guess that’s the nice way of saying you’re weird… Thanks to Arthifis for the nomination! I’m so unique I got nominated for this twice now!

Don’t let it go to your head! Too late!

So what are the rules?

1. Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nomination you.
2. Answer the questions.
3. In the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family, nominate 8-13 people for the same award!
4. Ask them three questions.

Seems straightforward enough! So on with the questions!

Question 1: What kind of show/book/anime/videogame (basically anything from the entertainment industry) are you into right now?

Oh, this is a tough one! I’ve always got my fingers in many pies (to borrow a totally innocent but crude sounding euphemism!) Right now though I’m really into Amanchu! I’m only halfway through the first season but I love it. It’s not my favourite of all time, just what I’m into right now.

Question 2: Is there anything you would change about yourself?

My crippling levels of anxiety! I’m always afraid people have ulterior motives and are out to get me, yay paranoia!

Question 3: If you only could use 3 words to describe your blog which ones would they be?

Blanket Fuck Vampire. Oh? To describe my blog? Um… Anime Question Answer?

I—I—Okay… Moving on… Something on your mind?

“Blanket Fuck Vampire”? What on earth?! It was the first 3 words that came to mind in the moment…

So now nominate some peeps. Right, so I don’t think I’ll be able to nominate as many as the award wants, so I’m just going to nominate people I don’t think I’ve seen awards blogs from(?), and mostly new followers of mine, also as per usual, if you don’t want to participate there’s no obligation!

Sirius
Zboudrie
Kingdylbag

Great, and now you have to be creative and come up with questions to ask them! So much pressure to be funny or good!

Question 1:If you had to get a tattoo of an anime character who would it be and where on your body?

Question 2: If you could do anything as a job and get paid for it, what would it be?

Question 3: Have you ever had an ‘encounter’ with an unexplained or supernatural phenomena? (UFO, ghost, etc.)

Great, and now on to the second award for this post The Real Neat Blog Award! Thank you to Moyatori for the nomination!

And the rules for this award?

1. Display The Award Logo
2. Thank The Blogger Who Nominated You
3. Answer The Questions of The One Who Nominated You
4. Nomination 5-10 Bloggers
5. Ask Them 7 Questions

And what questions did they ask you? Some really dark ones! So prepare yourselves!

1. When you get bored at work or in class, what do you do to pass the time?

Well I’m currently unemployed, but when I was working I’d just peruse Twitter. If I had a lot of time to kill I’d work on whatever novel I was writing, just jotting down ideas on my phone. Mobile phones are the best, aren’t they?

2. What’s your go-to insult?

I’m fond of calling people ‘dingus’ or ‘dangus’ or some variant on it.

3. What song is really relatable to you (at the moment or just in general)?

It’s always ‘Ordinary World’ by Duran Duran.

4. How do you feel about small talk?

Nice weather we’re having, huh? Yeah small talk kinda sucks but I understand the need for it, sometimes it’s better than hearing strangers talk about politics and other triggering conversations.

5. Do you have a recurring nightmare/dream? (The plot doesn’t have to be the same. General themes, formats, feelings?)

I’ve been having chronic nightmares since childhood, they generally change though depending on what’s going on in my real life. Like the worst my real life is the more gentle the nightmares and vice versa. But I’ve consistently had nightmares about being in the last few weeks of high school and not having done any of my final assignments. Either that or plane crashes.

6. When you have a nightmare about being chased, what’s your usual method of escape? (Do you fly/fall/leap/run/freeze? If you fly, I’m especially curious about how flying feels for you)

Funnily enough, despite all my nightmares I don’t ever seem to have the ones about being chased. But to answer that second part I used to have dreams about flying, but it was always uncontrollable, like I’d suddenly start floating and kinda get stuck on the ceiling like a rogue helium balloon, it was fun but pretty useless.

7. Borrowed from my last award post: if you must murder someone, how would you commit the perfect murder?

Compiling tips and tricks, huh? I don’t know to be honest, I really don’t think about these kinds of things. Sorry!

You chickened out with the last answer didn’t you. Shut up.

So who are you nominating? Like the first one, I’m only picking a few, not the amount it said to, also as always no obligation to complete it yourself!

Kay Tea
Iki
Ka Chan

Great, and what are your seven questions you want them to answer. It was hard enough coming up with the three from the first award so I’m going to re-use those three and add four more.

Question 1: If you had to get a tattoo of an anime character who would it be and where on your body?

Question 2: If you could do anything as a job and get paid for it, what would it be?

Question 3: Have you ever had an ‘encounter’ with an unexplained or supernatural phenomena? (UFO, ghost, etc.)

Question 4: Who do you think is the cutest non-human anime character? (Animal/creature/etc.)

Question 5: Where’s your favourite place in your house to relax?

Question 6: What token/piece did you play in Monopoly?

Question 7: What is currently your phone’s wallpaper? (Attach an image if you like otherwise just naming it is fine too.)

Man, hard hitting questions… Quiet! It’s harder than it looks… besides my brain kept coming up with dirty questions and it was distracting!

You’re terrible. Thanks all for reading, I hope you enjoyed my answers and thanks again to Arthifis and Moyatori for the nominations!

One Lovely Blog Award and 50 Followers! – Untold Questions

What’s crackin’? Excuse me?

I’m trying to bring it back… “what’s crackin’?” Please don’t.

Fine, so what’s going on? DING! DING! DING! Announcement! Anime Q and A has hit 50 Followers! Well, 51 as of this morning, but wow! I’m so grateful to all the people who’ve followed, commented and liked my content, it means so much to me!

Congrats! And so I take it there’s more to this post then that an announcement? Indeed! We’ve won another award! The ‘One Lovely Blog Award’!

“Lovely” huh? I never thought I’d see someone describe your site as that but I guess it takes all sorts… Don’t be mean! Keiko’s Anime Blog was lovely enough to nominate me!

Fine, fine… so what are the rules?

1. Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nominating you.
2. Answer the 11 questions they ask.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers for the same award in the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family.
4. Ask them 11 questions that you are dying for the answer to!

Geez, 11! So many 11’s. Coincidentally 11 is my favourite number so #themoreyoukno.

So let’s get on with answering these questions! Yes, let’s!

1. Do you share your birthday with one of your favourite anime characters? (If you don’t know, use this link to check. It is in Japanese but its easy to navigate. The green box with the numbers are the months so that’s where you start. The days will appear once you choose your month and then you’ll get a list of characters.)

Nope! I know my birthday is close to a few of my favourites, but no favourites on the actual day.

2. Following on from that, do you share your birthday with a character you dislike?

Well, seems like most of the characters I share a birthday with are from anime I don’t watch or who are boring side characters, so if I had to pick the most disliked out of the bunch it’d be Ishida Keigo from My First Girlfriend is a Gal, very forgettable and boring character.

3. If you could be the protagonist of an anime, what type of protagonist would you be and what would you call yourself?

I’d be a super nice guy at the centre of a harem, and I’d be called Saboten-kun.

4. If you were a pirate, what would you be called?

Arrrgh! I be Cap’n Weeb-beard the Pervy! (Sorry that was terrible…)

5. You have been transported to the times of King Arthur. Who would you be?

Was King Arthur fictional? I know so little about this particular period… um, can I be Merlin? Magic seems pretty OP.

6. Following on from that question, what would your choice of weapon and horse be called?

A magic wand, 10¾” long, made of vine wood, and possessing a dragon heartstring core (NERD) and my horse would be Centorea (PERV).

7. If you were caught outside in a snowstorm, what would you do?

Well I know what I’d do if I was caught in a Sandstorm. *dances*

8. What one thing are you proud to own?

I had to think about this for a long time, because while I own a lot of things I’ve never really thought about being ‘proud’ of any of said things, I mean I like the things I own, but proud? Huh… this kind of gave me the (sad?) realisation that there’s nothing I’m proud of that I own. Nothing physical or tangible at least.

9. What’s the weirdest song you’ve ever heard?

I guess it depends what the individual deems as weird, I like weird stuff so something that’s pretty normal for me might be weird to you. Ummm…

10. Have you ever started watching/reading something and forced yourself to finish it despite it being terrible? If so, what was it?

Well I have a rule about not dropping shows so yes, I’ve watched some pretty bad shows. None of I reviewed on the site before though because I tend to prefer writing about things I like as it makes me happy, but I should probably get around to some more negative reviews lest everyone think I like everything I watch. The worst anime I’ve watched all the way through is ‘Wanna Be The Strongest In The World’.

11. What anime are you planning to watch from the spring season?

My Hero Academia 3, Steins;Gate 0, Tokyo Ghoul:re, Food Wars 3 (part 2), Gun Gale Online, High School DxD Hero, Persona 5 the Animation, Devils Line, Mahou Shoujo Site, The Caligula Effect, Jikken-hin Kazoku: Creatures Family Days, Dorei-ku the Animation, Lostorage Conflated WIXOSS, Mahou Shoujo Ore, Comic Girls, Uma Masume: Pretty Derby, Tachibanakan Triangle, Alice or Alice, Hisone to Maso-tan. Plus some more probably…

Phew! We made it through… wait how many shows are you watching next season?! A lot. At least that’s the plan anyway!

Yikes! Oh wait, that effects me too, doesn’t it! That’s right! More work for you buddy!

Right, so back to the awards post, you have to nominate 11 people now! ‘Kay, so by now I’ve probably nominated everybody I follow for one of these types of awards, so sorry if there’s a double up! Also, there’s no obligation to do this yourself if you don’t have the time!
Auri
Jiraiyan
NegativePrimes (curiouslydeadcat)
Moyatorium
Ameithyst
TheSpookyRedhead
Nesha e
Lindsey
Shokamoka
ChaoticLass
Tessa Who was officially my 50th Follower! Thank you!

Okay and now 11 questions! Okay then! Forgive me if these questions are a bit lacking, this has been a long post to write!

1. What’s your favourite thing to drink on a cold Winter’s day?
2. What’s something that you used to love as a child (food, show, anything) that you don’t like now?
3. Where do you watch the majority of your anime? (TV, computer, smart phone)
4. If you could have any item from an anime be real and only you’re allowed to have it, what would it be?
5. Do you collect anything? If so what?
6. If you had to describe yourself in a song lyric (or whole song) what would it be?
7. Do you own any anime figurines? If not, what character would you like to have as an anime figurine?
8. Say something negative about something you love.
9. Say something positive about something you hate.
10. What’s one anime you wish would get another season?
11. You’re having a dream where you’re walking down a path across a field and the path forks off. One path goes into a grove, the other goes into a forest. Do you 1) Go to the grove, 2) Go to the forest, 3) Turn back.

That last question was a little weird… I’ve been reading ‘No Matter How I Look At It It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular’ and so it got stuck in my head.

Right, well that’s it then, all criteria fulfilled! Yay! Thanks again to Keiko for the nomination and thanks all for reading!

Mandarake Merch Madness: Part 2 – Untold Questions

And now we continue the merch post with figurines, yeah? Indeed, if you’re reading this and you haven’t read Part 1, you really probably should. Unless you don’t want to! That’s fine too. But yes, this second part of my Mandarake Merch Madness will be focusing on figurines that I got with my most recent order.

Right, let’s see ’em then! Well first, there’s a couple of things kinda figurine adjacent, well one’s an acrylic stand which is not a figurine but the second are Banpresto chibi-style figurines. The reason the pictures look different to the others is because the irl waifu took these to work to sit on her desk before I could take photos!

Sleepy Umaru acrylic stand from Himouto! Umaru-Chan.

Kageyama and Hinata Banpresto mini figurines.

Hey look! Things that aren’t cute girls! What a pleasant change of pace for this merch post! If you’re trying to make me feel bad for my cute girl obsession, it won’t work. And while on the subject of Banpresto mini figurines, we also have the four main girls from Yuru Yuri. Still in their boxes as I haven’t decided where to put them.

I swear it was just a coincidence that Akari’s face got obscured! Even real life is trying to make her disappear!

And now the main event as it were? The figurines? Well, let’s get one thing out of the way first, these aren’t the expensive bishoujo figurines that you see going for prices upwards of 10,000 yen. These are what are called ‘prize figurines’ called that because they’re usually used as prizes in UFO/crane games in arcades around Japan. It’s always funny because on the boxes they say ‘for use as prize in Japan only, not to be resold’, and yet there’s dozens of stores in Akihabara that sell them with impunity. Because they are prize figurines their prices are lower, but of course so is the level of detail. While I would love to be able buy proper expensive bishoujo figures, I personally can’t justify the price. I’d rather have 5 or 10 prize figures then 1 bishoujo figure, besides they’re all bishoujo’s to me 😉

…and what does bishoujo mean? Argh! don’t you ever listen! It means ‘beautiful girl’.

Right, okay, I get it now. So um pictures please?! Oh right! I won’t put much commentary between these pictures (just captions), as there weren’t any “surprises” like there was with some of the other merch from the previous post, these all came as expected and I’m happy with them all!

Rize from Is The Order A Rabbit?

Not sure on her name but she’s from the Monogatari series, which is a personal favourite, haven’t seen the season she is in yet but the price was exceptionally low on this one and I couldn’t pass it up.

Sengoku Nadeko from Nisemonogatari (Monogatari series).

Best girl Hitagi Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari (Monogatari series)

Mayoi Hatchukuji from Bakemonogatari (Monogatari series)

And last but certainly not least, a very familiar face, Kuroneko from OreImo.

Well that wasn’t nearly as troublesome as I thought it might be, I have expected some lewd figurines in their. Oh my no… the Yayoi Barnard Lutwidge figure I want is far too expensive for my budget.

*google Yayoi Barnard Lutwidge* Oh… oh my god what is she doing to that carrot! Why do you do this to me?! I didn’t make you Google it.

Tsk. Anyway that was the merch post, how do we want to go about wrapping these things up? I hope you enjoyed reading about all this lovely merch I got from Mandarake. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask me, I’d love to hear what you think! Thanks for reading!

Mandarake Merch Madness: Part 1 – Untold Questions

Okay, what’s this then? It’s a merch post!

“Merch”, “Post”, is this some kind of weird ritual? Yes.

No, but seriously what’s going on. Don’t be difficult, ‘merch’ means ‘merchandise’ and post is what this is.

—kay, but what’s a “Mandarake”? Well it’s got nothing to with Harry Potter if you’re wondering.

I wasn’t but do go on… It’s a second-hand anime goods chain in Japan, it’s like a treasure trove of anime related goodies for otakus like me! Also, second-hand for Japan is basically like new, 90% of the things they sell have never been taken out of the box!

And I presume this means you bought some goods from them? A whole BOX of ‘em!

You could fit a person in this box!

That’s a big box! Ahem…

Always well protected, the more delicate items are individually bubble wrapped too.

Right-o, so get into it then! Full disclosure, a lot of these pictures will be of the items out of their boxes because, well, I was too impatient to take pictures of them in their respective box. I don’t know if this breaks some rules of unboxing/merch posts but give me a break, okay? I’m new here after all…

Fine, fine. Just get on with it! Okay, so prepare for a lot of photos, also I’m not really sure what order to display the merch in so I’ll leave the figurines ’til the end [edit: figurines in seperate post], and everything else before.

GET ON WITH IT! Right, so first off I wanted to get a new wallet. I’ve already got a re:zero one but it’s due for a replacement soon.

From: Is the Order a Rabbit?? Still in packaging because i’ll leave it in til I’m ready to change over from the old wallet.

What’s up next? Next is a couple of CD soundtracks! I have most of my music digitally but it’s sometimes nice to get the physical thing, plus the Amagi Brilliant Park one comes with a bonus DVD. Unfortunatley, Mandarake’s website isn’t the best about giving detailed information on the content of some of their products, and some things are just poorly translated, so as it turns out the DVD is of just one, 4-minute music video. But whatever it was cheap enough anyway!

Yuru Yuri Season 1 OST and Amagi Brilliant Park Character Song Collection + Bonus DVD.

4 minute long DVD, that’s got to be some kind of record for shortest DVD. Haha I doubt it, but yeah… Anyway while we’re on the subject of Amagi Brilliant Park. I got a stylus and a poster. I was a bit disappointed the poster was just a paper one as the site said ‘image board’ but again it comes down to translation issues and not very good pictures on their website. It’s certainly not a perfect system, but it kind of adds to the excitement of opening the items!

Amagi Brilliant Park, Isuzu Sento Stylus.

Amagi Brilliant Park full cast poster.

Buyer beware I suppose! It’s fine! Next up is a COSPA pillowcase for New Game! I’ve already got a bunch of COSPA brand pillow cases from the actual COSPA store in Akihabara when I went last year and I was so impressed with the quality when I got them home I bought another one! They don’t have a wide range of shows unfortunately, but they are double-sided with different images on each side!

New Game! Pillowcase, still in packaging until I buy a new pillow insert for it but you can see the two sides of the design on the paper beneath. Also it was a lot cheaper than the RRP, as some Mandarake items usually are.

When you said pillowcase I thought it was going to be something lewd… thankfully it’s only partially so with those bikinis… Did someone say lewd?! This next purchase was just because of how much it amused me, it’s an oppai drink bottle holder. It’s also from a series I’ve never watched before which I don’t normally do, but it was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, and I feel like I’m saying that a lot, but the hole to the bottle in the top is too small for most if not all water bottles, it might be able to fit a small coke can or bottle or beer, but I don’t drink either! Oh well, might have to just repurpose it into a pen holder or something!

Too late to say NSFW?

Yeah… why am I not surprised you bought something like that… My browsing habits on Mandarake generally just result in me putting in the titles of shows I or the irl waifu likes and seeing what comes up. A show we both like, but not love is Persona 4: The Animation, ordinarily I wouldn’t bother with merch for a show I just ‘like’ and not ‘love’, but when I showed her this she had to have it.

Teddy plush thing from Persona 4. And yes it’s a working zip and you can put things in it! Not much though it is very small.

Well that’s cute and wholesome! And now back to our regularly scheduled smut! Well, not the item itself, but rather the show (or visual novel, it could be from either). I was searching ‘We Without Wings’ and this item came up, it was vague in the description, it translated something to ‘towel’ and I assumed beach towel, but it’s not, it’s more like a velour (or microfibre?) throw blanket. And it’s very big, it takes up most of the single bed in my office.

Is Naru best girl? I don’t even know, that show’s so confusing. Regardless I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and size especially considering the relatively low price.

Mmm-hmm. Moving on… I broke one of my rules twice this shop, that rule being never buy things for show’s you don’t watch/haven’t watched yet. But I think this one’s forgivable, because apparently it’s a really good show? Also, who can say no to a cheap, brand new t-shirt!

Angel Beats t-shirt. Really good quality print, really poor quality photo. It’s pristine white irl but the photo makes it look worn.

I wouldn’t have thought Japanese sizes would fit you… WOW. I mean it is a little snug around the belly, but it’s fine. I’ll probably only wear it at home, and only once I’ve watched the show too. Anyway, next it’s time for Interviews With Monster Girls merch! I got 3 phone charms and a really cute phone case. One I thing I quickly learned while in Japan is that while they have a LOT of anime phone cases, only about 5% of them come in the Large size for iPhone plus sized devices. So of course while browsing the site I was thrilled to find one for Interviews With Monster Girls that fits my phone!

Bad lighting strikes again!

Kawaii!

Well this post has gotten longer than I thought it would be, should we maybe take a break? You don’t get breaks, but yes I see what you mean, it probably is a bit much for one post. Alright, take five and we’ll continue with figurines in part two!

Real Neat Blog Award – Untold Questions

Guess what? What!

Someone thinks you’re ‘real neat’ enough to get an award. Do they think I’m hip and happening and far out and outta sight, too?

Or maybe they just think you’re ‘neat’ as in ‘tidy’? I will also accept that.

But seriously you were nominated for another award ‘The Real Neat Blog Award’ (again)! Somehow I feel like that should read the ‘Real NEET Blog Award’ seems more appropriate all things considered.

I don’t know what that means. Quiet, normie!

Anyway… The Spooky Red Head nominated you! Truly the spookiest of redheads! Thanks for the nomination!

You know the drill, rules plz. Right, 1. Display The Award Logo, 2. Thank The Blogger Who Nominated You, 3. Answer The Questions Of The One Who Nominated You, 4. Nomination 5-10 Bloggers, 5. Ask Them 7 Questions.

Thems the rules! “Thems?”

Shut up, let’s just get to the questions…

1. Do you have a favourite Care Bear?

That’s like asking if I favourite child! No, I have no children and I have no care bears that I care for, NEXT QUESTION!

2. What about a favourite My Little Pony?

Why do I feel like I’m being interrogated here? No I’ve never masturbated to MLP hentai, no matter how much you torture me I’ll never admit to it in a court of law! But seriously, no, I do not partake of the “pony”.

3. Who’s your favourite sailor scout?

Whichever one was gay with the other one, the one where in the English dub they made them sister’s because… “we shan’t dare have something as debauched as same sex relations on this cartoon!” Yeah but I never watched much Sailor Moon either! Talk about the trifecta of animated shows I’ve never watched! 

4. What genre of music do you like?

I like all genres, except country. Literally, just a look at my iTunes playlist it’s 8000+ tracks of the most random musical choices. But if I had to pick one genre it would be ~alternative~

5. Do you have a favourite animal?

Do monster girls count? Because I’m partial to a snake girl, bird girl, horse girl and spider girl from Monster Musume… if not and you mean actual boring ass non-anime animal, then I dunno, a flamingo I guess…

6. Favourite subject in school?

English, because I got to be a smart ass. And Japanese because I am become weeb.

7. What’s your favourite Disney movie?

What makes you think this ‘Frozen Heart’ of mine likes Disney movies? Just ‘Let it Go’ already… ‘For The First Time In Forever’ I don’t have an answer, okay?

And that’s all the questions now? Yup.

So now you have to nominate 5-10 bloggers! So I heard… right so I nominate:

@negativeprimes (Curiously Dead Cat)

@wdbox (YahariBento)

@jiraiyan (Otaku Orbit)

@keikosanimeblog (Keiko’s Anime Blog)

@magicconan14 (Animanga Spellbook)

To those nominated just know there’s no obligation to make a post, I know things are busy for everyone, just take it in your stride. And to those I’ve neglected to nominate, SORRY! It’s hard to keep track!

And now you have to come up with 7 questions to ask them, no pressure to be interesting and funny FYI… FFFFFFFFFFFUUUU…

Questions? Right, so the questions are:

1. If you had a BILLION money (currency of your choosing), how much of it would you spend on anime/manga?
2. What’s your favourite Pokemon!?
3. Do you play video games? If so what’s your favourite? (Or one of your favourites)
4. If you could go back and time and tell your child self one thing, what would it be?
5. How much money would it take for you to walk around the streets of your country’s biggest city holding a dakimakura (body pillow) of your favourite anime character?
6. What do you like to put on your ice cream?
7. What’s the meaning of your life? #toodeepforme

And that’s it is it? I think so! Man these award blogs are too much fun! At this point I think I’ve nominated nearly every one of my followers so from here out expect some repetition in who I nominate! Time to sleep now!

Goodnight. ‘Night.