an introduction

about this blog

you can call me tobipa or toby.

i started this blog because i found myself writing thoughts after completing an anime on my notes app, then i felt like sharing them on the internet as well.

i am from hong kong, i speak chinese, cantonese (native), english and some japanese, and in most cases i watch my anime in chinese subtitles, as well as remembering japanese names in kanji instead of romaji. and no, i do not watch anime dubbed, neither in cantonese nor english.

normally, i would only post when i have completed an anime. i also follow seasonal anime releases, so i would also post my predictions, interests and after thoughts for every season as well.

feel free to follow me on myanimelist and/or anilist, where i update my anime progress on both sites almost every day. however, i only add anime to my plan to watch list on myanimelist. please also ignore the 80+ entries on that plan to watch list as well, as that's exactly why i made an account lol.

me & anime

i was 12-ish when i first came across with anime. although as a kid i did watch some kids anime (e.g. pokemon, precure) as they were airing on tv. my very first non-kids anime was date a live, and i was a really big fan over it. some other anime that became a part of my childhood include sword art online, accel world, problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?, a certain scientific railgun, etc etc (which you can probably guess my age by now lol).

then i guess everyone went through this "i want to grow up" phase during middle school, so did myself, that i left this rabbit hole for some years until covid hit at 2020 that i got very bored at home. at the same time, before i realized, anime had already become something mainstream and not so embarrassing to bring up in a conversation comparing to my middle school days. therefore i revisited some of my childhood favourites, finding out that they have released sequel seasons that i had to catch up with (meanwhile there's still no accel world s2 :/).

somehow, finding new anime and watching anime that i had missed in this few years' gap has become a new habit for me.

my general taste in anime

• anything not set before the shouwa era in japan, i.e. historical setting;
• low fantasy, i.e. fanatsy set in our current world;
• features human-like living beings (e.g. vampires, demons, gods), or;
  
• battle shounen with remarkable character development, or;
  
• iyashikei / healing-type slice of life with light comedy, or;
• surreal / absurdist / dark comedy with parody / netas from other shows, or;
• anything with a well-explained world view / (battle) system;
• anything not exceeding 26 episodes (2-cour) in a single season.
  

some of my notable favourites that fits any of the above include noragami, toaru series (i.e. a certain magical index / a certain scientific railgun), strike the blood, shirokuma cafe, osomatsu-san (i.e. mr. osomatsu), sayonara zetsubou sensei (i.e. goodbye mr. despair), pop team epic, etc.

but honestly i have a favourite in almost every genre, so i am always open to new exciting anime rides. i also have a voice actor bias when picking anime to watch (especially for boys love / otome / reverse harems / fujoshi-baits) but i try to keep myself impartial when actually going into it.

normally i avoid isekai / reincarnation / narou-kei anime (i.e. light novel adaptations originating from the site 小説家になろう (shousetsuka ni narou, i.e. become a novelist) that have extremely long titles and share pretty much the same content), but there are few exceptions that i would give if they have an abnormally expensive cast list, or something that is clearly a parody of this genre (e.g. konosuba, the eminence in shadow, the executioner and her way of life)

you've finally reached the end of this post

enjoy your time. please remember that this blog is 100% biased and partial. if you see me not liking your favourite anime, please just take it as an intended personal attack towards you and leave this blog.

this introduction post is last updated at 13/12/2022.