Every year, family and friends come together for a day of
togetherness that reflects the bonds of love we all share with each other. If you think about it, Thanksgiving could be
considered a prelude to Christmas, sharing the same themes only one holiday involves
actual gift giving. In any case, I
actually like Thanksgiving, gives me time to reflect on a long year and think
about the many things im grateful for in an otherwise hectic year (in more ways
than one). Naturally, since this is an
Anime Blog, I of course have a few things in the world of Anime im very
thankful for. I know I did one of these
last year and chances are it will just become an Anime Corner staple for years
to come. So here we go folks, the Top 5
Anime Things Im Thankful For in 2018.
#5-The Amazing
Spiral Anime Club and the Baltimore Anime Denizens
Althroughout my life, my father always told me that,
despite my thinking I was alone in the world as an Anime fan, there were
certainly people out there who enjoyed the same stuff I did, I just needed to
find them. Well conventions got me
started on that but this year I have to give a shout out to two Baltimore based
groups that I can never wait to see every chance I get. The first is the Amazing Spiral Anime Club,
of which I am one of the four original founders. We don’t really have a structure or a plan
for any kind of meeting…we just wing it, a small collection of Otaku that meets
the first Saturday of every month just to hang out and chat about Anime, Manga,
Video Games, personal projects, it’s kind of a convention on the tiniest scale
that still delivers all the feels. Then
there are the Baltimore Anime Denizens, who I met late last year. These guys hold various events throughout the
year but their biggest is arguably their two sets of Anime screenings during
the year at The Charles Theater. Thanks
to these guys, I got to see films like Ranma ½ The Movie and Ponyo and got to
see classics like Evangelion 1.11, Jin Roh and Memories again for the first
time in a long time (those last two were late last year but hey still mean
something). I never thought id find a
community of otaku in Baltimore. These
two groups are proof that they can exist and ill always encourage anyone to
seek them out, you might find a place to belong and feel welcome in too.
#4-The Return of
Old Anime Friends
I’ll have a Top 5 in a few weeks about the plethora of
Anime sequels we’ll be getting next year.
This year, however, saw the return of a couple of old friends with new
seasons. I’ll save my final praises for
Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory for the finale next week but the short
version: damn it can still deliver the goods after 13 years of silence. A personal favorite crew also resurfaced from
the water in the Summer of 2018. Free:
Dive to the Future saw the worlds of the Iwatobi Boys growing beyond anything
that’s come before…and ill actually get more into that later on this year
(secret-ish project). Point is,
characters ive grown to love over a long time got a new lease on life this year
and it was always exciting to tune into a new episode every week…speaking of
which.
#3-My Hero
Academia
If 2017 was the year My Hero Academia punched a hole in
the Anime stratosphere, 2018 was the year where it declared to the world it
wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. Not
only did we get a stellar third season that somehow managed to be just as
strong (if not stronger at times) than Season Two but we also got the series
first feature film, Two Heroes (which actually did very well in a limited US
release too). It didn’t matter if you
were watching Class 1-A on the big screen or on your cell phone, Hero Aca
delivered more feels than any of us knew what to do with for several months
straight with no breaks. Deku, Bakugo,
Todoroki, Ida, Uraraka, Tsuya, Kirishima and all the students, God I love them
all and All Might might be one of the most inspiring heavy hitters of all
time. If anyone is having a bad day,
pull up this series however you can. I
garuntee you, somehow…you’ll feel better by the end of an episode…and ready to
binge the rest right away (I recommend a lot of soda).
#2-Gundam is here
to stay
It is a pretty big time to be a Gundam fan this
year. As we count down to the franchises
big 40th birthday, we got two new Gundam stories in the form of
Gundam Build Divers and Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative. Not only that, we’ve got a new Anime film
trilogy based on the popular side story, Hathaway’s Flash, starting next year
AND the confirmation from Sunrise itself about a live action Gundam movie in
development with Legendary Pictures (the studio behind US Godzilla films and
Pacific Rim). Did I also mention we’re
getting more Gundam brought over here stateside than ever? We had Gundam Wing on Blu Ray late last year
and this year we’ve had Gundam 00, G Gundam and eventually we’ll even have
Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny with brand new dubs (I doubt that could
save Seed Destiny but I wont get into that).
For a series going on 40, im glad ive been able to geek out about it for
the last…18 years (jesus im old).
#1-The Year of the
Convention
Ive tried my hardest to keep Katsucon and Otakon in my
year round rotation of must do events every year. Not only do I love being in their respective
environments, I love being around the friends ive made throughout the
years. Not being able to go to Otakon
2017 hurt a lot and there was a very good chance I wouldntve been able to go to
2018 either. However, as I say regularly
about the crew I travel with, “I don’t have friends, ive got family.” And for both conventions, they came
through. As a result, I got to enjoy two
conventions that are pretty much at the top of my list of favorite conventions
ive ever been to. Katsucon 2018 pretty
much surpassed my all time favorite, Katsucon 2015, and Otakon 2018 showed me
that the move from Baltimore to Washington DC is well worth the extra
travel. Not only that but I got to go to
3 other smaller conventions over the course of the year (Animore, Baltimore
Comic Con and Four State Comic Con), seeing other geek culture attractions and
meeting new friends in the process. This
wasn’t just “The Year of the Convention”, it was a chance for me to be thankful
that evens like these are always around, big or small, and I can always find a
reason to be happy when I visit an Anime Convention.
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