I’ve been writing about anime on AniTAY for almost three years now, though I’ve been watching anime and reading about it online for much longer. The one site I’ve read most often, for the longest time (almost since its inception in 1998), is definitely Anime News Network (ANN). I’ve written before about how their former editor-in-chief Zac Bertschy was one of my major inspirations for finally deciding to stop only watching and start writing. One day I’d hoped to be able to write for him, unfortunately since his tragic death in 2020 that’s now impossible.
Recently, I plucked up the courage to pitch some articles to the current editorial team at ANN, and much to my surprise, they accepted them. As an older-than-average anime fan, I have certain perspectives and memories that are perhaps a little different to the majority of current seasonal anime viewers, so why not capitalise on that?
My very first freelance article for ANN was published recently, and it takes the form of a retrospective on Winter 2012’s seasonal anime. It was only ten years ago, but already many of those popular shows are difficult to stream or buy legally. This is disappointing but perhaps predictable. It’s hard enough to keep up with all the new things, let alone dip into the bottomless anime backlog.
As this is paid work, I can’t go and repost the words here, but anyone interested is very welcome to go read the article on ANN at the link below.
In 2012, streaming wasn’t quite as developed then as it is now. Many shows took a while to be released in the West. For the sake of convenience, I’ve ignored that and focused on what was released in Japan during that 3-month time period. Here’s a brief summary of the shows you’ll find discussed:
Shonen anime:
Bleach’s 16th (final) season
Naruto Shippuden’s 12th season
Gintama’s 5th season
Fairy Tail’s 5th season
Detective Conan’s 21st season
One Piece’s Fishman Island Arc
Shows ongoing from 2011:
Mirai Nikki (The Future Diary)
Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing
Chihayafuru
Bakuman
Persona 4 The Animation
New Shows:
Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Bodacious Space Pirates
Another
Sequels:
Nisemonogatari
There were so many other shows from Winter 2012 I could have written about, however I didn’t watch them, and don’t have the time to do so now. The comments on the article point out plenty of other interesting shows I missed, so please give them a read too.
I’ve had several other pitches accepted by ANN, so when those articles are eventually published, I’ll post a link to them here so you can go read them on the ANN site. Of course, I’ll continue to write regularly for AniTAY as it gives me an outlet to write about whatever random things I want to, without having to meet the requirements of a commercial business!
