Anime Viking has a new blog

Hello all! Long story short, I’ve been feeling the itch to keep on writing from time to time for a while. Since this blog is finished, I’ve decided to create a new one. The content will be similar to Anime Viking, but also expanded to include other aspects the interests me. So do expect some more posts on video games, especially as I might want to help highlight some smaller titles I enjoy. It’ll be a sporadic blog, but I’d love it if you decided to follow me on to my new blog:

Fun Makes Right

Thank you for having read my content for all these years, both new and old.

Those Final Steps – 10 Years of Anime Blogging

Here I am, finally taking my final steps in the blogosphere on Anime Viking. And I have been okay with it for a long time, no longer trembling as I did when I first set out on my journey a decade ago.

10 years?

Yes, it’s been that long.

Unlike beginnings, I have a tendency to find it far easier to write about the endings. I can still feel incredibly tense when writing the very first words, whereas near the end I often know exactly what I want to write down. But enough of that! In case you didn’t catch on – and I don’t blame you, after all this blog has not been regularly active in a long time – I was mirroring my very first post just now. It’s hard to pass up the chance!

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is all the goofy, but intense, fun I ever wanted

Premiering earlier this spring season was Umamusume: Pretty Derby, an anime series featuring horse girls – “human” girls with horse characteristics such as tails and ears, not to mention speed – competing against each other in horse races to become the fastest runner in Japan.

Made in Abyss and the Importance of a Believable Setting

Made in Abyss. What a beautiful series unlike any other in recent memory and one of a kind I doubt we’ll see again in a very long time. For my lack of ability to convey how absolutely special it is, I’ll leave you with this simple description: it is one of those series where everyone involved in its creation – whether the original manga creator or the anime adaptation staff should be valued the most I don’t know, nor does it matter – just get “it”. This intangible “it” here represents what one could call a wondrous sense of adventure and discovery, loneliness and friendship, beauty and horror of the world. Together with its sublime soundtrack, one that might be one of my favorite in all of anime only rivaling my eternal favorite ARIA the Animation, it on a whole to me felt something much more than a short series. One month after having finished it, it still lingers fresh in my memories as if it has never left me. Truly, if time is scarce and you only have enough to watch one series in 2017, this would be my recommendation.

Yet, for all the praises I sing there was a time when I almost turned it off to never once more continue.

The Nisekoi Appreciation Day – Of Fanfiction and Fanart

Last year there was an anime-related creative contest online. In it, you could enter up to three different categories including things such as holiday cards, confections or shorter stories. Normally I never enter these types of competitions as I often lack the creativity and skill required, often resulting in never actually giving it a chance in the first place. This time, however, I did decide to give it a go.

It was a lot more fun than I had anticipated!

Four Years of Anime Blogging and at a Crossroads

It has been four years since Anime Viking was created. With each passing year it becomes harder and harder to believe that I was once eighteen years old, still in high school and wet behind my years when this blog came to life. Looking through my older texts I realize that I may in fact have actually grown as a person whether I want it or not – the I from today is not the same as I from the past. Change is in itself a frightening aspect of life, but something one must come to accept in order to move forward however difficult it may be at times. The last year in particular has been a turbulent one on a personal level, but I hope and wish to have come out as a stronger person thanks to it.

Similarly, it hasn’t been a kind year to the blog itself. In 2015 it has only been updated once and even before that it was sparsely updated. There is no doubt that Anime Viking can be seen as an inactive, or possibly dead, blog at this point. This is an aspect I have reflected upon a lot lately in regards as to what should become of it.

My Favorite Anime of 2014

It has been quite a while since a post appeared on the blog, hasn’t it? Hopefully there are still some readers out there eager for some more stuff! Feeling a bit stiff when it comes to writing, I figured the best way to get it all started is to revisit my favorite anime of 2014! After this, I hope to slowly return to form.

Truth is, I haven’t seen a lot of anime lately. We’re a few months into the new year and I have only seen two new series, which is a new record for me. Instead, the time has been spent watching older, completed, anime whenever the urge has kicked in. As a result, it has made me feel rather distant to the anime community.

When it comes to the year 2014 in anime, my stance is that it has been a fine year.

12 Days of Christmas 2014 #01 – Hunter x Hunter

Thank you for the past three years.

12 Days of Christmas 2014 #02 – Yama no Susume 2 and a Dream to Climb Mount Fuji

Climbing, hiking and camping. These are all things I have not really done outside of more casual occasions, yet those times live on as warm memories inside of me. Despite being years ago since I last did any of these, my fondness remains the same as if it was yesterday. If possible, I would like to give them a try again – especially in the case of climbing or hiking.

12 Days of Christmas 2014 #03 – Welcome to the NHK and Facing Reality

Welcome to the NHK is a special anime. It follows the university dropout Satou as he is forced to face the reality of having become a hikikomori – a shut-in. With neither job nor employment, Satou is living off his parents’ allowance and is slowly growing more out of touch with reality by each day.