Three Years later,

It recently hit me when I was in the middle of reviewing a game. It’s been three whole years (what the heck!?) since I first typed out my first anime review and hit publish. It’s insane to think about.

This train of thought snowballed. I started thinking about what had changed since the blog’s inception. When I looked around, it wasn’t hard to find. The first glaring thing is that I’ve fully given myself over to my other hobby – namely, gaming.

Three years ago, I could say with confidence that I was an anime fan. Now, I barely watch more than two series per month. I still enjoy anime and count myself as a fan, of course, but clearly my definition has changed.

Between my newfound vigor for writing and gaming, it’s kind of sad to realize anime has fallen to the sidelines. When people ask how I am and what I’ve been doing, where I would once said ‘watching anime’ it has become ‘gaming, what else?’

Three years and sixty seven blog posts later, I think it’s finally time I put this blog to rest. Not that I’d ever stop indulging in anime, but it’s not as predominant a force as it was before. Better to focus my energy on writing for something I’m excited to do than churn out a half-hearted review here.

Anifiction has had a good run, I think. A chapter has closed, and I look forward to what will happen next.

Black Lagoon Review – So a girl walks into a bar

There has never been an anime like Black Lagoon.

…alright fine, one similar anime I can think of is Jormungand. But for the sake of dramatization, just humour me for the rest of this review. Okay, now let’s start over.

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse – Close as you can get to perfection

I’m pretty sure Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse is going to be the movie kids of the future look back on, when they dig deep to find out what kickstarted their love of super hero animated movies.

Mirai Review – The Sister who Leapt Through Time

Mirai no Mirai, shortened to Mirai for western audiences, is a coming of age story of a four year old boy. This boy is named Kun, the first born of a newlywed couple. His first four years on earth is a wonderful experience as everybody fawns over him, spoiling him silly, but things begin to change when his new-born sister usurps his place as the apple of his family’s eye.

Barony Review – This Loot Be Mine

Barony is a first-person roguelike that brings back the difficulty and versatility of classic RPGs like System Shock, Ultima Underworld, and Daggerfall. It has roguelike mechanics fans of the genre should be familiar:  perma-death, randomly generated dungeons, secret areas, and most importantly, hundreds of unique collectible items and loot. Lore is present in the form of scrolls and books, the game is a well-realised world and those who stop to look will be richly rewarded. I was suitably chilled reading morbid tales and poems stolen off undead skeletons and trolls.

Overlord S2 – Ranting about Lizards

I don’t know if it’s a testament to my luck, but most anime I watch can be considered pretty good. Some might be completely average, but if I enjoy it, it’s time well spent. Looking at the number of series I’ve reviewed since the blog’s inception, it’s extremely rare to see a bad review. But I certainly didn’t expect Overlord of all anime to break that streak.

After the Rain – Love over a cup of coffee

If you watch anime or consume anything from movies to video games, you’d have realised romances portrayed in them aren’t very realistic. They pander to our fantasies and private daydreams. A handsome man, woman, or creature, with a perfect personality and supermodel looks attracted to a plain, faced, absolutely boring nobody who could disappear the next day and not turn up on the missing section of a newspaper until a month later. Wish fulfillment is thy name. Everyone is but a slave to its whims.

Casual Movie Review: The Incredibles 2

This is possibly the first movie from Pixar (excluding Cars 2, but we don’t talk about that) that I watched, and walked away feeling conflicted. After being bought out by Disney, I can’t say I had zero doubts that Pixar would have complete creative freedom taken away. But with how good Zootopia, Monster University and Coco turned out to be I hoped the studio would continue with their habit of producing brilliant, heart-warming movies.

Made in Abyss – An intimate, mind-blowing, and heart breaking affair

It’s been a long time since I binged an entire series. I can’t remember when I last did it, which is kind of alarming, but I’m glad I finally broke the dry spell. Gaming took up most of my time, as did writing, and going back to my roots, so to speak, has been quite rejuvenating. The anime under the spotlight this time is none other than the widely praised fantasy anime, Made in Abyss.