The March to Year 10

How the heck have we gone through two months of 2023 already?  It feels like yesterday that 2023 was just getting started and I was aching to get to Katsucon and see my friends.  And yet, here we are, another March.  Which means we’re in the countdown to another Anniversary mark for the Gundam Anime Corner, the 9^th Anniversary to be more precise.  And once we cross that threshold, we’ll reach a milestone I never even imagined, we’ll be in Year 10…YEAR FREAKING 10!!!!  There’s a lot of pressure hanging on my shoulders as to how I should celebrate such a momentous occasion.  But I’ll talk more about that in a month when we hit that Anniversary date.  For now, how about a sneak peak of what’s coming in the lead up to the 9^th Birthday of the Gundam Anime Corner.

 
Video Game Month

March 24, 2023 signals the arrival of my most anticipated game of the year: Resident Evil 4 Remake.  I’d always planned to look at the other two Resident Evil Anime films I hadn’t reviewed yet: Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation.  But I figured, why not turn this month into a mixed offering of Video Game Anime material?  (I like to make March more of a grab bag, stand alone feature kind of month anyway).  So this March we’re delving into Video Game Anime Adaptations past and present.  We kick things off with one of the biggest surprise hits from 2022, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, before going backwards a bit to enjoy some more classic (and slightly unknown) titles like Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom, Tekken: The Motion Picture and the Fatal Fury TV Specials: Legend of the Hungry Wolf and The New Battle).  All of this leads to my Resident Evil Double Feature and then my 9^th Anniversary Review but we’ll talk about that in a moment.

 
First Impression Friday

The first half of the 8^th Season of First Impression Friday will be drawing to a close towards the end of March.  A lot of titles I had planned for this first half have gotten moved to the second because a bunch of new suggestions and interests have popped up left and right (like last weeks Samurai Pizza Cats).  Heck, at this rate it wouldn’t shock me if FIF’s I wrote back in 2022 end up being pushed all the way into the 9^th Season of this little feature.  Once FIF wraps up on March 24^th, it’ll be taking an extended break until August after I get back from Otakon.  There might be a special feature popping in to take its place but again, I’ll wait until the 9^th Anniversary Celebration to talk more about that.
 

The 9^th Anniversary Review

Every year, I have to select a title for the prestigious Anniversary Review slot on March 31^st.  Every year there are at least 3 or 4 applicants worthy of the spot.  Personally, I really wanted to look at Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume…but it’s US run doesn’t start until mid April, well past the March 31^st deadline (I still have plans to review it later this year though).  Actually, before Suzume I’d wanted to review Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl before I decided to push that up to February along with another potential candidate, Sailor Moon R: The Movie (sort of like how I reviews Slayers: The Motion Picture when I did the Year of Slayers back in 2019).  With all of these very fitting titles in mind, who finally won the slot?  The answer is…Free.  Yep, on March 31, 2023, the 9^th Anniversary Review of the Gundam Anime Corner will be a special double feature review of Free: The Final Stroke (Parts 1&2).  I’d seen Part 1 of this a while back and hoped Part 2 would be somewhere to watch before the end of 2022 but that never worked out.  But now I have the opportunity to share my thoughts on the final chapter of one of my favorite Anime stories.  If, IF something doesn’t go right and I don’t get to it, I do have a Plan B ready to go and it’s a good one.  But I’m still sticking with Free for now, I just need to sit my butt down and watch the combined 3 hour feature.
 

That should about do it for the March Updates.  Like I said, I have other big announcements in the wind but that wont come until March 31, 2023 with the Anniversary Celebrations.  Til then, kick back, relax, catch up on some reviews and get ready for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners to kick off This Friday, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.