The Sunshine Award Nomination (Part 2) by LitaKino, ChibiMajo and The Animeted Critics + Personal Update

So… I was nominated for the Sunshine Award by three amazing bloggers (or four, since the folks at The Animeted Critics are a pair). I would like to give my thanks to you guys as well as the blogging community in WordPress, for being so supportive of my posts thus far 🙂 This is actually a way overdue post ever since the first slew of Sunshine Awards on WordPress Reader, which I apologise for.

And it also seems the time has come for me to return my award nomination posts debts, so to speak! I was really saving up these posts for a rainy day i.e. when I am so busy that I have no time to blog any new content. And the rainy day has come: I am saddened as a self-proclaimed anime lover to say that I have yet to have any time to check out the current Summer Lineup at all! *anticipates a round of gasps across the room* I feel like I am missing out a lot by seeing the number of episode impressions of my fellow aniblogger friends on WordPress, but my schedule has really been catching up to me in the most frantic way possible. I hope this state of things would change soon, but it seems unlikely till the 25th of this month, for I have two upcoming exams so I am studying for them, and I am also working at the same time. What a way to spend my summer holidays -sigh- (though I guess, I am totally asking for it because I didn’t actually have to take those exams, oops.)

But anyways, enough of that! Let the curtains raise and the questions begin!

LitaKino’s Questions:

1. What have you found blogging has bought to you?

Blogging has brought me a bunch of friends – is the first thought that comes to mind. Yes, I started blogging here because I wanted a platform to air my thoughts. Having people who read what I write is a plus. Having people who periodically read what I write is a double plus. Having people who comment meaningfully is a triple plus. But most of all, meeting people over here who have spilled on to getting to know each other in person and being friends beyond the confines of this platform .. that’s something that I am always always thankful for. You know who you are when you read this :>

As for the rest of my readers and followers, I really appreciate it that you are giving me a reason to write, and you have enabled me to find joy and motivation to write where I never thought it was possible. 🙂 Incidentally, I am open to getting to know blogger friends offline so just drop a comment if you want to do that! 😀 (though yes, I don’t have Twitter haha)
2. What was your favorite childhood show growing up?

Can I say Teletubbies? They are the adorable chubby little things ever 😀 I think they still make me smile when I see them. (I don’t actually know which country they originate from lol, but they were my favourite evening show!)
3. Ramen or Sushi?

I am absolutely in love with authentic Ramen; though I have tasted two of the top ramen in Singapore (recommended by a plethora of online food blogs and critics) and my palette can’t really accept anything lesser nowadays. Its a beautiful mistake, really. *stomach rumbles*

Having said that, high quality sushi is heavenly, though I have had close to zero opportunity to try these things, for obvious reasons. Maybe if I am rich I would eat it once a week. (That is an ‘if’, not a ‘when’.)
4. What is the most typical anime genre you end up watching a lot?

Going by my anime list, I would have to say psychological. No particular reason, I just like most of my anime more towards the intellectual side. Another possible one is mecha, though in recent months I haven’t been watching too much of those.
5. What anime character do you feel you relate to a lot?

Ah well, that would be Kaori Miyazono from Shigatsu no Kimi no Uso. It has to do with her attitude and motivation towards the way she behaves, which I find really hard to elaborate on here without going into spoilers. Having said that, I will be writing a commentary (or review) on it soon, so look out for that! 🙂
6. What ending of an anime would you change if you had the chance to?

Nothing actually comes to mind at the moment, oops. I am probably more accepting than I thought. But ask me this another day, and I would probably have a better answer than this 🙂

7. What do you love to see in a blog?

I love seeing and reading personal posts. Ironic really, when I don’t actually write too much about myself though more about what I think about certain topics. But it all boils down to the principle that I believe that writing is a form of art and self-expression, so its impossible to think of segregating who you are as a person from the content of what you write. You are inevitably bound to leave a little piece of you somewhere in your content, especially if you are particularly passionate about writing 🙂 Personal posts offer a snapshot into a little piece of the blogger’s soul, which is really precious because you and I know that the soul tends to be buried if we were having a real-life conversation instead of an online one.

ChibiMajo’s Questions:

1. What got you interested in the things you blog about?

Hmm well, what got me interested in anime was the way that it had the ability to flesh out so many imaginative, creative ideas which I had always dreamt of but have never seen in most other entertainment medium. I had always known anime existed for a long time; but I never got attracted to it even when it was a fad amongst my peers, classmates and friends. It was after trying all kinds of other things that I chanced upon anime and realised this was the thing I was looking for all my life.

2. Favorite food?

Bread and cake. Despite being Asian, I can survive on bread the whole day while my family and friends have to consume rice or noodles at least once a day (or they would complain. A lot.)  They often tell me that its best that I marry a Westerner and migrate to the West because of this.

3. What are your hobbies outside of blogging?

Reading. My entire being revolves around words, especially with the degree I am doing. And of course, watching anime and certain other random entertainment as well (like TV series, movies). Thinking about random content, some of which you see on this blog and some of which you have yet to see, because me being me I often too busy to do more than two or three posts in a week.

4. Random fact about you?

Uhhhhhhhhh. I decided to take said exams (see above) because I was bored. My friends said I was crazy to do this to myself when it was the summer HOLIDAYS and when people all over Facebook and Instagram are flying everywhere around the world. Maybe I am.

5. Favorite animal?

Ooooooh chipmunks. Cos of Disney’s Chip and Dale, they are my favourite.

6. Ice cream or cake?

This is tough. Really tough. Its a dilemma. But answer goes to cake. 😀

7. What got you into anime?

Code Geass got me into anime. I actually watched a few before that but I wasn’t interested enough. And for the record, I have never watched a single series in my childhood (with the exception of Pokemon, which my pea-sized brain registered as a cartoon so I have to honour my five-year-old self and go with that definition). I only watched my first anime when I was about 18. Code Geass happened a year after. I was so overly stimulated that I decided this was what I have been looking for my entire life. I can’t really explain it without writing a full length post on this, but I am pretty sure this is a very watered-down version of how exactly I got into anime (i.e. after trying literally everything else).

The Animeted Critics‘ Questions:

1. When did you get into anime and what was your first anime?

See answers above for ChibiMajo’s numbers 1 and 7 🙂

2. If you could travel anywhere with no restrictions (money, time etc.), where would it be and why?

Are you kidding me? Japan of course! In fact, I would be in Hokkaido for a month at least, and if I felt more adventurous instead of lazing around in the heaven that is Hokkaido, I will travel south slowly. Why? I have been in love in Japan waaaaayyyyy before I even knew anime existed.

3. What do you like most about blogging?

I like having a place to air my thoughts, and the fact that people actually read them. I have realised that, even though this may appear rather shallow, its really important to have people reading my thoughts given that just liking to write isn’t nearly sufficient at times.

4. Do you prefer subs or dubs?

Never watched dubs in my life, haha. I love the sound of the Japanese language too much. xD Besides, English is not very pretty a language (though too bad for me; its the language I am most proficient in xD)

5. Do you have any hobbies besides blogging/anime/manga?

My hobbies include playing the piano & violin, running and eating. Yep, eating. What? Don’t judge me.

6. What’s your favorite anime genre?

If its a favourite I would have to go with psychological for sure. I love the intellectual stuff, and that actually applies beyond anime to any other thing in general: books, movies, TV series.

7. What type of music do you listen to and what is your favorite song?

Well damn, music is another area where I have loads to gush about. In fact, I am more open-minded about music than my visual entertainment. I listen to all kinds of genres: pop, rock, instrumental, classical, some metal, acoustic just to name some. Nowadays though, I mostly listen to Japanese songs (anime and non anime related, ONE OK ROCK and Kalafina are my favourite bands ever) because I find that out of everything, they have the most creative melodies and richer harmonic texture even for their pop songs. I listen to Chinese songs mostly for emotion and the most beautiful lyrics ever to grace music.

As for favourite song, let me see if I can put up an AMV here – I don’t think its possible for anybody who generally loves music to have a favourite, but this is currently what I am listening a lot to now 🙂 this also contains a lot of romance anime recommendations which are worth checking out.

I am aware I still have a few award nomination posts to do for now, but all those will come in due time 🙂 I don’t have anybody to nominate for this award, but rest assured that I will be doing some nominations if I find that there are still some worthy candidates not nominated yet when the time I get to those posts 🙂

Thank you for reading, and do check out LitaKino, ChibiMajo and The Animeted Critics if you haven’t; LitaKino is already a well known name in the community I believe, ChibiMajo really deserves more followers because her very direct way of blogging is certainly refreshing to the eye and she is also very humourous ^^ The Animeted Critics are relatively new to the scene but they have some awesome content already put up by the blogger pair running it 😀

And that’s all for now! Thank you for reading, and leave a comment or like if you have dropped by! 🙂