2024 was a long year. I completed my second year of university, I made this website into something I'm finally proud of sharing, something that is wholly my own creation, and I consumed quite a bit of Japanese (and other) media.

Here are the raw numbers:
Manga Read: 75 Volumes (just barely meeting my goal for the year)
Anime Watched: 28,450 minutes (474 hours and 10 minutes)
Anime "things" Completed: 71 (includes movies and is episode agnostic, so a 50-episode saga counted as 1, a six-episode series counted as 1).
Books Read: 11 (clearing my goal of 8).

Second Year Grades:
Creative Advertising: DI
Contemporary Asian Modernities: DI
Client Management: HD
Professional Writing: HD
Asian Media and Communication: HD
Advertising Industry: DI
Interdisciplinary Communications: HD
Current GPA: 3.7

Vacations:
June-July: United States
Nov-Jan: United States

Other Noteworthy Things:
Read 2 books in English.
Drafted 2 game concepts, got back into pixel art, and learned LDTK.
Finished 1 Visual Novel/Dating Sim (Amagami)
Had a whole Robot arc including beating 3 Super Robot Wars games (SRW 1, 2, and 3) and starting SRW EX.
Played Monster Hunter World (again).
Finished 3 fun Videogames: Animal Well, Void Stranger, and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (for PlayStation 2).
Became addicted to Balatro, and then broke the addiction. Twice.

Below will be a month-by-month breakdown of some of these stats with my thoughts and reflections. Enjoy the cruise.

January

• Mobile Suit Gundam: Victory
• Getter Robo
• 血の轍
• アダルトメディア年鑑２０２４
• Super Robot Wars 1 and 2

January was the beginning of my massive goal to watch at least 60 minutes of anime every day. I started the month by resuming and finishing Zeta Gundam, and found it enjoyable enough to commit to watching what I could of Gundam while the fire still burned hot. Gundam ZZ was a disappointment but War in the Pocket was amazing. I initially thought Gundam Victory was pretty disappointing, but it quickly became my favourite Gundam anime and has yet to be dethroned.

After a disappointing episode of Fighter G Gundam I decided to pivot to Getter Robo to get some more robot anime history. Getter Robo was surprisingly good, and it gave me a window into a lot of the origins of robot anime (unfortunately I was never able to watch Mazinger, and Tetsujin 28 didn't really hold my interest).

In January I also read the bulk of Blood on the Tracks, a pretty good manga about a mother and son with a very abusive relationship. It's pretty heavy and went places I didn't expect but I liked the ending.

I also read Adult Media Yearbook 2024, a book by Kimi Rito, author of Eromanga Expressions. A not-so-guilty pleasure of mine is reading overly intellectual non-fiction about erotic subjects. I just think adult media forms are understudies and underappreciated considering how much influence they've had in all kinds of different art and media forms.

In my enthusiasm for robots, and because I had so much free time, I decided to also check out the 30-year-old tactics RPG series Super Robot Wars. This series mashes up robots and characters from all kinds of robot anime series. The original game features characters from Gundam, Getter Robo, and Mazinger, and those three series act as a core for all future games (that I've played).

I played SRW1 on the Game Boy. The systems were simple and the 説教 system was simply not worth using without gaming the other systems, but it was sort of fun to grind my way to the end with the Getter team. When I played the game I hadn't watched Getter Robo and didn't understand the relationship between Getter Robo and Getter Dragon, which lead me to picturing Dragon as a kind of father figure of the other team.

SRW2 is probably my favourite of the games I've beaten so far. I played the Famicom version. I enjoyed having colour and a light plot during levels. The ending was a bit forgettable but it felt like a really solid tactics game.

February

• Getter Robo Apocalypse
• Giant Robo
• 沈黙

In February I read Silence, a novel about a Christian monk who travels to Japan during the closed-off period when Japan was persecuting and killing Christians. I'm not a Christian, but I think the story was pretty interesting. My favourite character was Kichijirou, a low-class Japanese man who follows the main character around, ruining his life at several occassions.

I also continued my journey into Getter Robo. Apocalypse was definitely the best Getter Robo show, sporting extremely sharp art and animation, and a very fun, fast-paced story that "goes places". It really plays the Super Robo themes up. Definitely worth trying if you've ever been curious about robot anime but don't want to get heavy on technical stuff.

I watched Giant Robo. Another great, short series with killer animation. The music and characters were also extremely charming. It really evokes an era of animation that don't come by very often. If you like anything by Studio Ghibli, definitely watch this!

March

• Mobile Fighter G Gundam
• Martian Successor Nadeshiko
• 機動戦士ガンダム ウェアヴォルフ
• Super Robot Wars 3

Supporting my robot-watching endeavours, my boyfriend joined me in watching Martian Successor Nadeshiko. He thought it was in the Gundam universe until I told him otherwise... aha. I thought the comedy writing for it was pretty good, but was more surprised to find that the moments of pathos were really well done. I definitely felt rewarded for dedicating about 200 episodes of anime to Getter Robo when I watched Nadeshiko. The series has its own in-universe Getter Robo parody called Gekiganger 3 (it also draws inspiration from other Go Nagai anime) which was very amusing to watch.

I finally returned to Fighter G Gundam. I still think it's one of the worst Gundam things made. Ah well. The ending was kind of hype at least, and it had some pretty cool characters.

I also played SRW3 this month. This was on the Super Famicom. The systems were expanded a little more, and my understanding is that this game (and the next one, SRW EX) is sort of the foundation for a lot of the systems that have remained for a long time. I thought the story was quite enjoyable, and I liked the diverging paths system, but the combat was kind of stressful at times. Getter Robo and Nu Gundam were MVPs for the true ending.

April

• Gundam Wing
• Full Metal Alchemist

In April Semester 1 of university was in full swing, so I was quite busy. I still watched Gundam Wing, which I felt was okay and had some great characters, but went on a bit too long.

I also watched Full Metal Alchemist. This series has been hyped up around me since my teenage years. I am sorry to say that I didn't really enjoy it. I think some of the characters were interesting, and some of the themes were good. I also think the concept of "equivalent exchange" is really cool, but I just kept feeling let down by choices made through the story. The ending basically giving everyone what they wanted with no downside also felt like a huge cop out.

May

• Aura Battler Dunbine
• The Big O
• Escaflowne
• 本当にあった！世界の〝機動戦士ガンダム〟計画

I watched a variety of shorter robot series in May.

Aura Battler Dunbine was pretty cool. I kind of hate isekai, but this is an 80s-era isekai without death and rebirth. The robots are super cool. They're all insectoid and semi-organic. It's a great setting and definitely evokes early Gundam with the political intrigue. Unfortunately the ending was a little bit disappointing.

The Big O season 1 was one of my favourites shows of the year. I loved the unique art style, music, setting, and characters. It sort of felt like a Batman animation (not something I would immediately leap at, to be honest, but it works really well here) with the classy suits and ties, gothic night city, and countless gadgets. Season 1 sort of ends on a cliffhanger but it was just well done from start to finish.

Season 2 of The Big O was a bit of a let down. I wasn't totally sold on the explanation for the world or the resolution at the end (this is a big theme for a lot of anime. Finishing stories is hard...) but I still think The Big O is a worthwhile watch.

Escaflowne is sort of Dunbine-like in that it's also a robot anime isekai from before isekai was a named genre. It's also similar in that it has a unique take on robots by making them suits of armour. I loved the art and theming, including the use of tarot cards for episodes (I am a sucker for using the aesthetics of esotericisms). And you know what? The ending wasn't so bad.
The remake/movie was not very good, though.

I also read a book all about the technology and concepts used in the Gundam universe (mostly the early Universal Century). It was pretty interesting and covered a lot of theoretical space technology as well as a lot of failed German WWII technologies.

June

• ∀ Gundam
• オーデュボンの祈り
• Monster Hunter World

In June I finished my first semester of the school year and travelled to the United States for the first time in my life. The flight was exhausting but well worth it.

I remember that I saved ∀ Gundam to watch with my boyfriend because I had heard it was one of the best in the greater Gundam series. The setting is pretty great. Fittingly it's very America-focused, but is strongly influenced by an Antebellum America in a post-technology world. Apart from the Gundam and a handful of Zeon-type MS found in ruins, most technology beyond "flying machines" comes from the invading "Moon People" and has a unique, alien aesthetic which is totally unique for the series. The main character being an invading Moon person who falls in with the Earth people is also an interesting concept. I even like all of the main characters. UNFORTUNATELY the actual moment-to-moment storytelling is boring, exhausting, and just regularly unengaging. So many conflicts amount to fly-bys, the main character easily outguns opponents but none of the other human heroes are any use, the villains are even more comically toothless than ZZ, and several times the stakes are raised and then quietly forgotten about later on. I feel it was a huge missed opportunity. A series where the concept is just a lot better than the execution for me.

I also read オーデュボンの祈り, a fun mystery novel about a man who "visits" an island and solves the murder of a famous "talking" scarecrow. While the story spends a little bit too much time with characters wandering around, the end of the story wrapped up every open question while also adding some mystery to the world. A good, solid story.

I also played a bunch of Monster Hunter World with my boyfriend. We played it in Japanese but, to be honest, Monster Hunter games don't have much language to focus on, so it was mostly just a nice game to share.

July

• Gundam SEED
• 違国日記
• Vampeerz

July was full of Gundam SEED and a revival of manga reading (I read manga in mini arcs in 2024, opting to focus on novels in my spare time while studying).

Gundam SEED is such a weird show. While the concept, characters, art style, mobile suits, and plot were all worse than ∀ Gundam, I can't help but say that it was just more fun. I wish that wasn't that case because I do feel that Gundam SEED is somewhat soulless. It basically just cuts and pastes elements of better series and feels a bit like the product of a committee whose sole interest was making money.

違国日記 was pretty good. A very human story about two people experiencing a shared loss forming a found family. Vampeerz was also quite good but took a few volumes to really "get good" for me. I think it was a bit too short and wasn't able to cook all of the ideas, but flashbacks for some of the key characters were quite good.

August

• Gundam SEED Destiny
• Code Geass
• エロゲー文化研究概論 増補改訂版

Aside from returning from America the theme of August was watching Gundam SEED Destiny and Code Geass and reading エロゲー文化研究概論.

Destiny is basically the same as SEED. The story continues and does manage to find some unique stories to tell, but it still definitely comes across as a bit soulless at times.

Code Geass is such a weird series for me. After I finished watching it I rated it extremely high on Anilist. Then after a few days I went back and dropped the rating to about an average score. I think the ending is quite well done, and the concept is pretty fun - the main character is more of a commanding officer than a pilot, giving the combat scenes an interesting twist, but to be honest it just didn't leave me thinking much about it and I'm not sure I would recommend it without reservations.

This was also the month that I started reading エロゲー文化研究概論. This book consumed me for over a month and I ended up watching, reading, and playing a bunch of things throughout the year based on media mentioned in the book. I love books that dive into the history of erotic media and this is another one of those. Very cool.

September

• SCHOOL DAYS
• Amagami
• Your Lie in April
• Toradora!
• White Album 1 & 2

September was the start of my exploration of romance in Japanese media, spurred on by reading エロゲー文化研究概論. I asked my local Japanese-learning Discord server what my first romance anime should be and they kindly (cruelly?) suggested SCHOOL DAYS. To be honest I think it's probably still my favourite romance anime to date, which was kind of unfortunate for everything that came after it.

Your Lie in April was very beautiful and had some nice musical elements, though I didn't really connect with it until later in the show when the main character starts tutoring another pianist. The main romance didn't really hit for me. Toradora was pretty fun, I loved the chemistry between the main characters, though I found the depth of the side characters was really the strength of the show. White Album 1 and 2 were interesting. Both are very focused on cheating as a core element, but I think White Album 2 spends a bit too much time messing around while the first basically establishes the disconnection between the main character and his idol girlfriend immediately.

I also played Amagami, a romance game that was not mentioned in the prior book (though I did play some 同級生 and some other erotic games because of it) but which I found recommended in a blog post about entering into the world of romance games. I found Amagami thrilling and extremely engaging. There were several moments that felt like I was really trying to know human beings, and I loved my time with it. Unfortunately I didn't end up finishing my second play through, getting distracted with other things, and my time with Tokimeki Memorial was not as engaging. Maybe the remake will make a stronger impression.

October

• Kimi ni Todoke
• Fruits Basket
• あなた
• 絶対にラブコメしてはいけない学園生活２４時

October was fairly unremarkable. I read two novels in a fairly short amount of time, though the page number of one of those books was only in the double digits. This month also marked the start of my journey to watch all of Fruits Basket. Weirdly the original anime, which was maligned by everyone I discussed the series with, ended up being my favourite version of the show just because it was succinct and had a strong ending.

I also watched Kimi ni Todoke, another romance anime that was highly recommended but which didn't really hit for me.

November

• Angel Beats
• Look Back
• Lolita (JP and EN)
• The Enchanter (EN)

I spent the greater portion of November relaxing after the end of university, challenging myself with Lolita (first in Japanese and then in English), and then travelling to America for the second time.

Lolita was a really engaging book to read, and the mess of reading reports I wrote around the time are testament to that. I was inspired and challenged by the Japanese translation, and while the English version was a much more approachable book, it was very also very humbling to see how much I had missed in the labyrinth of the Japanese version.

I also read Nabokov's The Enchanter. It's a much shorter story, but was also one I enjoyed quite a lot. Described by some as a prototype of Lolita, it covers some similar themes and even has some near-identical story beats, but the style and approach to the "problem" raised is quite different.

In November I also watched the anime adaptation of Look Back. Look Back is one of my favourite one-shot manga, and single-handedly convinced me to give Fujimoto Tatsuki's other works a chance. Thanks to that I enjoyed supremely good stories such as Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man.
The anime adaptation of Look Back was very good. The story is more or less what you'd expect reading the manga, but the art and animations are absolutely gorgeous. Maybe the only aspect that I don't have strong feelings about was the music.

Lastly in November I watched a two anime series by Maeda Jun, a writer whose name came up a few times in エロゲー文化研究概論 増補改訂版. Those series were Angel Beats and Charlotte. I've heard it said that Angel Beats was sort of a proto-Charlotte, and I can see some shared themes, but the stories are different enough that I didn't feel like I was just watching the same show twice. Both series were funnier than I expected, and both had fairly strong emotional highs towards the end, but I didn't really feel like the target audience, and had a hard time connecting to the motivations of the main characters. I also found the romantic angle of both to be fairly weak. Certainly not bad shows, though.

December

• Gundam Unicorn
• MONSTER
• 痴人の愛

December was the month of the "last push". I pushed to finish my last novel of the year, and I pushed to read over a dozen volumes of manga before the year ended. I managed to complete all my goals by the skin of my teeth, and I wish that I had a more balanced approach to my goals for the year.

痴人の愛 was an interesting book, and a highlight of the month. Thematically it sort of followed from Lolita since it was recommended by a Japanese friend for its similarities. Despite being written quite a while before Lolita it was surprising to see story parallels once again, and it was also surprising to see how contemporary the writing was despite being over 100 years old.

MONSTER was also a highlight of the month. I could have made my manga sprint at the end a bit easier if I chose a different series to read in December, but I was just enjoying it too much to want to pivot away. While the ending didn't hit super hard for me, I loved the basic themes, the pacing of the story, and the personalities of many of the main characters. It was a really fun series.

2025

So what's next?

Well, you probably already noticed that this was published over a month since the year rolled over. I started composing this post in early January but it kept getting postponed and delayed until I decided to finally just get it done after I came home from America.

My goals for 2025 are a lot more relaxed than 2024, which is partially because I would like to give myself the flexibility to explore areas of my development in addition to my Japanese.
I would still like to watch about 60 minutes of Japanese audiovisual media each day, though I'm being a bit more flexible about doing a bit more on some days and a bit less on others. I have no formal goal for manga, and just plan to read anything I want as it comes out. I'm currently reading Billy Bat, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
I have no current goal for novels, though once I start reading my first of the year I will probably set a soft goal, just because I would like to pace those out through the year.

Other goals I have for the year are of course: Complete my final year of university, read at least a handful of non-Japanese books, and work on actualising some other creative projects I started around the turn of the year (more on that in another post some time, perhaps).

If you really read all the way to the bottom of this, then thank you, and good luck with your own 2025. Try to spread love in your communities, and take care of yourselves.