As we come to the end of the year, it is always nice to provide some flashbacks to the year in review. 2008 has been a terrible year in reality, what with the economic recession, the horrid Mumbai blastings that killed many innocents including a Singaporean lady, the uneasy truce that just ended between Israel and Palestine and the escalating oil prices (though it dropped to 37 US dollars due to recession). However, THAT is not a political site. So, let’s screw that start and go into the topic we are actually discussing.

Anime Blogging in 2008 for THAT. It will not be that long an entry. Just in case you get really lazy to read whatever is below, please give us your feedback for these three questions.

1. Who are the bloggers you usually follow in THAT?
2. What do you like most about THAT?
3. What do you hope to see more often in THAT?

So, before I go into TL:DR territory here, I will go straight into the report. Enjoy! Also, get ready for tons of images that makes no sense at all in this post.

Status of THAT Bloggers

Just one of the many series that we blogged this year!

This year was a rather tumultuous year for THAT. THAT Bloggers came in with high spirits and fervor, before disappearing into the shadows, never to appear again. Calawain continuously told me about my futile attempts to recruit writers that stopped after a few entries. He also took over the Preview entries after saying that I generally make a mess of the html (he’s just a control freak, really!) Crusader obviously had a good year in the blog. His entries ranked among the most popular series covered in the blog. They include True Tears, Macross Frontier and currently Gundam00. However, it is the collaborations with Calawain on Code Geass that made Code Geass the most popular anime series blogged in THAT. Of course, our three consistent bloggers in the form of Lupus, RV and Shokkeru still churned out entries on their own pace. Of course, we also have the wandering minstrel Lelangir writing editorial posts in this hugely episodic summary blog to give us some variety.

Some bloggers of THAT also went on for greener pastures after a short stay in our blog. Riex and Itsubun. Jiff, Extrange and Maipeisu became busy with real life situations and started to write less …or more like nothing. Still, we will be patiently waiting for them to return when they get more free time on their hands. For now, you just have to make do with the few of us who are still around, kicking and trying to get your attention.

Growth of the Blog

Everything has to grow up, even THAT Anime Blog. But why….must they GROW UP!

Once a single red dot in the anime blogosphere, I can be proud to say that we have gone a long way from there. We are hardly in the league of elite anime bloggers such as Random Curiosity, DarkMirage or Moetron, but we do have our loyal readers out there who have been gracious to follow our blog.

In the past year (up to December 23rd, 2008), we have gotten close to 1.6 million visitors, and a total of 3.2 million pageviews. Of course, if we are going to go into the details, we only have 890,000 unique visitors in the past year. I must say that it is not too shabby because it meant that we have around 110,000 visitors every month. I can’t complain about that. Traffic also grew from around 2000 visitors at the start of January to an average of 5000-6000 monthly visitors in the last three months of the year.

Other trivia included Firefox being the preferred browser choice by users of THAT. In the search engine results, the top search words for the blog is “that anime blog” (gasp), “anime blog” and “that animeblog.” The top three popular entries for the year is the “Charlie Brown entry“, “Our fall anime preview for 2008” and of course the post that no one really cares, “Ranking the espada.”

If I said that I expected the blog to have some decent popularity when I first started this blog with three of my real life friends (who have since lost interest in anime, and left to other interests), I will be lying. Nonetheless, it is everyone who has contributed to the “success” of the blog. Without your support (yes, cliche time), we will not be where we are!

Blogs that brought us traffic

Go, Sheryl, Go!

Here are the top 10 blogs in order that brought the most traffic to us. We thank them for linking our humble site.

1. Random Curiosity
2. Minaidehazukashii.com (Now at wordpress!)
3. Kurogane Anime Blog
4. Riuva
5. Sea Slugs Team
6. Subculture Anime Blog
7. Star Crossed Anime Blog
8. Atarashii Prelude
9. Scrumptious Anime Blog
10. Anime Blog ga Arimasu

Thank you so much! In addition, I sincerely thank all other blogs who are kind enough to link our blog!

The future

We will usher the coming of the new year with a new blog template in January or February. It will be very drastically different from the current template, and is aimed to diversify our content to things other than episodic summaries. Other than that, we will just be here churning our usual stuff, and do come back often.

Thank you once again, and do comment for the feedback details. If you forgot, here are the details again!

1. Who are the bloggers you usually follow in THAT?
2. What do you like most about THAT?
3. What do you hope to see more often in THAT?

It’s always good to have a chance to laugh at your dumb girlfriend when you wake up in the morning. Here is the tale as re-accounted by my girlfriend on a private chat online. For some reason, she is speaking in the third person. A warning ahead of time: whatever sweet compliments she has subtly (well, not that subtle) implanted about her are hopelessly false and forced.

Here’s her tale of epic proportions, her journey into a world unseen, untouched and unheard in her life.

Thirteensugars’ little adventure into the wild

One fine late afternoon, when 13sugars was about to go home after work, she decided to go to Borders Book Store and there she was, happily walking, thinking about the manga which she will use to pop her manga-reading cherry. 13sugars entered the book store, all smiles and rainbows in her aura. She walked and started looking for her beloved Vampire Hunter D manga by Hideyuki Kikuchi-san. And suddenly, she came to an abrupt halt, there it was, standing in the shelf in all it’s beautiful, steamy, hot and sexy glory; her first manga!

She reached for it with shaky hands, weakened knees and dry mouth; the first volume… with the sexy damphir on the cover. She gazed at it lovingly with adoring eyes. She gently touched the cover, her fingers light and silky. Then she sighed, and it sounded like the sweetest hum of an anime fangirl. She turned around to get the second volume, but to her shock, horror and dismay, there was none! She quickly scanned the shelves as thoroughly as she could have, but the second volume of VHD was not there.

She immediately ran to the counter and asked for help. The guy scanned their stock and told her a sad report, “We don’t have that volume here, but if you like, we can order it for you. We’re supposed to have a stock of it by now, but….” Perhaps it was the shock, perhaps it was the sorrow, but the sweet girl suddenly answered, “Well, I’m looking for it but it’s not really for me…” The guy at the counter smiled and said teasingly, “Yeah right, it’s for you.” But, the girl, so intent upon her lie, insisted that it was not for her, and left the bookstore without even getting the damned first volume.

Sadly, she then realized that she had failed. She failed as an anime fan for lying and denying that the VHD manga was for her. Her only excuse was that, at that moment, she felt like she was buying pornography, something she ought not to be buying at all.

The poor girl…. so poor thing.

Afterthoughts by Impz

Have you ever felt like that? I know that I was very embarrassed when I first bought my manga or anime. Well, it’s not in the same degree as Thirteensugars. Are you ever embarrassed about purchasing anime merchandise or resisted against it in common public areas? Tell us your tale, and vote in the poll!

P/s: In the end, I have to purchase the manga online for her, so that she can read her manga. What a silly girlfriend.

Dear Kaname Kuran…. Geez…

It’s high time the results are going to be posted. Because of WordPress I was stuck in a state of dilemma , trying to make a decision if I have to download FireFox to get my pictures done. And here I am, I got this simple-to-use but almost-gave-me-a-heart-attack program on my side. You know that I’m never a tech geek, always a no-tech geek.

Turning back to the votes, in mid-May, I can see that most people voted for Zero than Kaname and seeing that 7% of the people who visit THAT do not know who they are, it’s a pity. But I’m not blaming you if you have been sitting under the rock for the past 10 years and have no clue to the anime/manga world. But since I’m such a forgiving person I’ll put this issue aside.

Until then, I can see that Zero is leading up ahead from Kuran until I came back from my trip to Australia, telling Crusader to close the polls (Which is a little late, since I told him to close the poll officially at 31st May, which I was still in Australia. Don’t think of laptops in my trip.). I was expecting to see Zero winning the poll but the results proved me wrong, and with a close 44% compared to Kuran’s 49%.

Let’s move the differences aside and I’ll be writing on Chapter 40 of the manga, which is considered VERY late according to the calender and it’s already June. I still have holiday homework to do so maybe this will take a while. *sob* TT_TT

In case you find things rather boring lately, I’ve been thinking for a while to do this. Originally the vote of President in Cross Academy, now it’s the Fight of the Fans: Zero VS Kaname! (Now that Democracy Rules!)

If you like Zero, please vote for him. And if you like Kaname better, vote for him too. The poll will start now and will stop after 31 May 2008. Results will be mentioned in mid-June (Due to some reasons and I’m going off for a vacation.) But for Impz and I we prefer Zero but it’s up to you to decide. Their fate in in YOUR hands!

It’s your time to take off the hidden hood off your head as you enter the biggest battle of all time. It is the critical question.

Why do you like green hair lolis? Tell us now.

This is a question I always wanted to ask but I never have the chance. Some of my friends often tell me that they sleep through the new year, not bothering about any silly countdown. Some others are ready to hit the clubs, go for foam parties and drink themselves silly. For me, I am likely to go out with the “Quad”, my buddies who used to write for the blog (and no longer do so due to their lack of interest in anime now).

So, the poll and question is this: How are you going to spend your New Year?

1. As it seems now, most of you are in fact Dango lovers, and will be out there trying to get the latest Dango, be it small or big. In fact, I have to admit that I am one huge fan of Dango, even though I seldom have the chance to eat these mochi-like delicacy from our Japanese snack house. It’s a pity that mochi is more common around in our humid region. Why, is it those eyes that haunt us so?

2. I guess that is also why the next highest voted option is about the eyes. If you ask me, the eyes are a huge symbolization of the love that they have for Nagisa, our oblivious kind hearted girl who seems to be so docile that even living dangos are more tsundere than her. She has to pick up some good tips from our delicious Kyou, who has mastered the art of throwing a book so fast that it defeats Einstein’s law of gravity!

3. For those who chose Taiyaki, shame on you. Stop being one of those loyalists and worship something new. I mean, you already have a more retarded moe version of Ayu in Fuuko, who is fascinated with stupid stars (and did I say that I have a mild dislike of Fuuko?). Seriously, stop thinking about half-conscious loli-looking girls going starry-eyed or Taiyaki loving, find yourself a delicious Kyou, Tomoyo and Kotomi.

4. For the rest, I don’t care. HAH! No is like just ….not cool. Being lactose intolerant is just sad sometimes, even though I know a certain person who is as so. I love my milk, thank you.

We all know when poll participants say that their next trip to buy anime merchandise is soon, it means “ya, I cannot say I want to spend a single cent on merchandise, but I want to be seen as supportive”. Hence, it results in 142 people being the majority of the pack. 31 of you will have your friends, fathers and family dead due to Lupus’s prophesy that anime merchandise kill your family.

For the 130 of you, thank you for being honest. I have to add that I am one of the voters in this category. It’s always a good thing to be honest in life, and being a ARGGH is not that bad after all. You have fun going ARR ARRR ARRRR. 43 of you require immediate attention to the AVPAS (Anime Vile Purchasing Addictive Society). Please call 1800-NOARMPIT right now to get your advice on how to get rid of your addiction in order to stop servicing more stupid shows like this.

Lastly, for the 55 people who chose “anime merchandise kills your father”, lay off the crack for a while. It will be good for you.

P/s: New poll on DANGO!

For those who have helped in the anime survey, thank you so much. I am currently working on the data, and trying to manipulate, clean the data (for the overseas people who joined in and those who did not complete the study) and then conduct some descriptives and hierarchal multi-linear regression to find some results. You can tell that my effort in this study is not exactly the highest considering I am not that crazy over seeing it from various aspects, but it will be quite useful for everyone.

I also made a new poll about anime merchandise since Luppie (yes, I like calling my anime bloggers funny names such as …wait, Crusader doesn’t even sound cute. Sigh, you suck, Jihader) thinks that anime merchandise kills babies, your family, your life and your mental well being. Hence, enjoy the poll~

From the poll results, it seemed that the highest % goes to people who think that “tsunderes should stay in anime”. Here are some discussions on the results of this poll, summarized for your convenience.

1. Real life tsunderes tend to hurt you much more, and the average anime fan is not exactly the most physical person around. Unlike the impossible to die Keitaro, real life tends to be a more painful experience. We definitely do not like our flabby muscles to be blue black at the end of the day.

2. Unlike the spineless bastards that are generally gaining the attention of the tsundere, we are generally much more masculine and will probably say something really ridiculous and get the hell out of the way. For the uglier side of life, we might even fight back. No chance for me sadly even though my girlfriend is a tsundere. If I say anything more, she will ignore me. Sigh.

3. On the peculiarity that many people do not even know what a tsundere is, I believe it is the fact that they cannot even fathom the hell that a real life tsundere will cause to their psychological condition. Hence, those people are probably mumbling “….no, no, i do not know no real life tsunderes, I don’t wanna die!”.

4. For those who likes real life tsunderes, good job. You should love pain a hell lot

Stay tuned for the next poll!.

I’m so poor that I have to steal other people’s photos. Now if only I can steal the figure as well… wait, I mean no! I don’t want your damn merchandise!

Everyone loves anime merchandise, right? Wrong. Merchandise is evil. Consider these facts:

Fact: Merchandise ruins friendships.
Fact: Merchandise sucks out your soul and eats your spleen.
Fact: Merchandise turns 20,000 children into paraplegics every year.
Fact: Merchandise makes you impotent.
Fact: Merchandise kicks puppies.

Okay, so we’ve established that Merchandise is evil. But what IS Merchandise? According to Dictionary.com, merchandise is the “manufactured goods bought and sold in any business”. Well I say fuck dictionaries. Why be a blogger if I can’t even mis-define or make up words once in a while? Merchandise, for the purpose of this post, means the evil, evil things that are related to an anime, but isn’t the anime itself, that anime producers sell in order to feed their cocaine habits.

Some examples of merchandise:

• Character songs;
• Figurines and plamos;
• Art/Character books;
• Dakimakuras;
• Cosplay costumes;
• Mugs, shirts, etc. with prints of anime characters on them;
• and those goddamn posters in Megami.

You’re probably thinking right now, “Wait Lupus, why the unjustified hatred against anime merchandises? What have they ever done to you?” Well I’ll tell you what. THEY KILLED MY FATHER. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Maybe only 70% true. Or less. Or not even true at all, but you don’t know that.

Anyway, Merchandise is evil. Notice how I’m using a proper noun? That’s how evil Merchandise is. It’s not the normal type of evil either. It’s one of those “Hey-ain’t-I-such-a-nice-guy-let-me-into-your-house!”,-then-turn-around-and-steal-all-your-stuff,-piss-on-your-toilet-seat-and-push-your-grandma-over evil.

Why does Merchandise exist? Apart from feeding the producers’ drug habits, I mean. Economists always run around touting their silly theories of supply and demand and the invisible hand (that’s crack working, right there), so presumably Merchandise only exist because there are people who want it.

You probably buy merchandise because you think you want it. Those of you who are already neck deep in the stuff probably even think that you need it. Did you buy all 9 different Haruhi character singles? Are you buying all the Lucky Star character boxes? Do all the figures you own together weigh more than you*?

You have already fallen into their trap! You don’t need merchandise, you don’t even want it! Stop buying merchandise today and help anime producers break their drug habits, and at the same time break your addiction to useless lumps of plastic! Look at me, I’ve watched anime since I was born and I don’t own any anime merchandise, and I feel absolutely fine.

So, the moral of the story (lulwut) is this: STOP BUYING ANIME MERCHANDISE, AND I DON’T HAVE TO BE SO DAMN JEALOUS.

*If you own figures and answered in the negative, you probably weigh more than a whale, and you’ve already lost at Life.

This pointless and meaningless post is brought to you by one sad, merchandiseless chump.

Wow, it is really rare to see a period where all bloggers of THAT Anime Blog are so busy, but I guess that this is the actual scenario right now. From my knowledge, Crusader is getting killed with gunshots with his real life endeavors (he’s the military man after all), I am getting swallowed by lolis passing tons of paperwork over my poor head, Briar hindered by news-chasing tabloid antics, while Lupus and Shokkeru are eaten up by the “I-cannot-write-to-save-my-life” metabug. So, that is the reason why the blog is rather quiet the past two days. That is, if you are wondering how these bloody lazy bloggers are not writing at all.

On a completely different (and non-depressing note), if there is any harem stereotype that is the fan favorite, it must be the tsundere. No, even though many of you might suspect this statement, my favorite harem stereotype is not loli simply because the tsundere possesses many endearing qualities that cannot be rivaled by a loli. It is also really logical to state that my girlfriend (despite separated by two continents) is a true blue real life tsundere. Hence, as a sit in for a post before my next post on Ookiku Furikabette episode 24, this is a short poll for you.

Do you like real life tsunderes?

P/S: To those who are wondering about what will happen to Satoko, my nephew took a liking for it. I gave it to him. Before you think I did a good deed, I like to remind all that the percentage of toys that my 6 year old nephew breaks within 3 weeks after playing with it (and figurines being a soft fragile thing) is close to 70%.

Have fun.

It is a simple question, and a simple poll. We will see what happens to her after the poll.

Note: The final decision might not dictate my eventual action. Let’s see and get ready to rumble!

Wow, it has been a long while since I changed the poll question. With that in mind, I decided to add in a new one just for the fun of it. Have fun voting in it, and please take it in a light hearted manner. We do not really want to see a lynching of lolicons in the blog. It might be …how should I say it, rather bloody. No, I am not talking about Higurashi Kai, the raving band of killer lolis that cannot wait to kill each other. To add a point, I think I will be doing a short thoughts post of Higurashi Episode 5, which has captured my attention completely.

All in all, I am somewhat back after quite a period of inactivity, but somehow having a severe case of writers’ block. I can finally feel Lupus’s pain.

Just a simple poll on whether you have found the recent comments sidebar plugin useful when you first came to the blog. If you have only visited the blog for the first time in your life, do tell us if seeing the five recent comments of the blog will be useful for you. For those who are returning visitors of the blog, did the recent comments help, or it is merely ornamental in nature?

If you look, we changed the recent comment type, so it is a bit more useful. To add on, our sidebar is changed tremendously. Tell us if you like the more cleaned up version!

Cheers!