Liebster Awards / Questions From Other Bloggers

Hey there folks! Christmas is fast approaching and i’m desperately looking forward to Wednesday’s music spotlight so I can finally show off a holiday-themed song I really love. In the mean time, however, 123 over at Tsukiyo no Hikari was nice enough to nominate me for something much like blogger chain mail called the Liebster Awards. I have to answer questions and stuff, then pass on the award. Here we go!

The Liebster Award was originally intended to give some exposure to small blogs, but let’s not worry about that. The rules are as follows:

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you
3. Nominate 11 6 other bloggers
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

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My 11 questions as provided by 123:

1. What do you most enjoy about blogging?

The thing I enjoy most about blogging is being able to share my opinions in a way that makes them look official with others and discuss the various GSNs that we love. Whether it be reviews and comments on a specific title or broader fictional ideas and concepts, it’s all about connecting with other people and sharing what I and they think.

2. What do you find hardest about blogging?

I would have to say the hardest part is the blogging itself XD Trying to keep to weekly deadlines can be pretty stressful and it’s so very easy to tell yourself to just take a week off. I have a backlog of about 19 articles for weeks where i’m just too swamped to write anything intelligible and keeping that stocked up is really quite difficult.

3. Do you play a musical instrument? Or if you don’t, is there one that you would like to play?

Music is something I regret not getting into. I can play the guitar a tiny bit but not enough to brag about. If I had the time and money I would love to learn to violin – the sounds you can make come out of those things are amazing. Other possibilities include the piano and electric guitar.

4. Was there a subject at school/uni which sounded really cool, but you never got around to taking?

Japanese =P Of course, when I was back in college I wasn’t into the things I like now so I did 5 years of French and promptly forgot all of it. Unfortunately my university course doesn’t have room for extra papers so it’s not something i’ll ever get to take. I’m slowly teaching it to myself, though.

5. Can you speak another language?

I can speak small amounts of German, French and Japanese. I mentioned the latter two earlier, but I lived in Switzerland for 2 years of my primary school life which is where I learnt German. I’m not fluent in any of those languages, though i’m sure i’d pick up the first two pretty quick if I ever went to Germany or France.

6. Give yourself a geekiness rating from 1 to 10, where 1 is totally non-geek, and 10 is 100% geek from head to toe.

This is a tough one. I’d give myself an 8. I don’t eat, sleep and breathe my hobbies but all of them could be considered geeky in their own right. A good number of my friends aren’t into that stuff at all so I have to be able to hang out with them too!

7. Is there an anime/manga/other that you think is underrated, or you want to let more people know about?

I think visual novels in general are underrated, but that’s not really answering the question. There are a great many series I think are overrated…though underrated is a bit harder.

As far as anime goes The .Hack//SERIES in general needs more attention; I really enjoyed the .Hack//SIGN anime and related PS2 games.

For visual novels I don’t see nearly enough people talking about Dengeki Stryker. It may not be a masterpiece or particularly deep but it was a lot of fun to read.

8. Who is your most hated anime/fiction character?

This is much harder to answer than I would have expected. I guess I tend to forget about the characters I hate. I’m going to have to take the easy way out and say any character that takes advantage of another character’s innocence. The saddest stories are of the poor people that don’t even realize they’re being treated terribly.

Second prize goes to characters abusing their power to further themselves while hurting others. I’m talking about nobility and politicians here. The people who have a responsibility to fulfill but are more focused on themselves.

Thirdly, though I certainly don’t hate her, Angel (Kanade Tachibana) from Angel Beats! really ticks me off. I can’t say anything about it here due to spoiler issues, but feel free to ask me elsewhere!

9. Suddenly, you get to be the Supreme Ruler of the World. What changes would you make?

I know this is meant to be a fun question but due to what I said in the last one i’ll have to take it seriously >.<

As a ruler it would be my responsibility to make the world a better place. I would work to eliminate prejudice as well as improve quality of living for everyone (easier said than done, I realize).

Of course, this includes removing compulsory English classes as we know them and replacing them with useful courses where kids can learn important things like spelling, grammar and how to read visual novels >.>

10. Suppose you had to live on two foods/dishes for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

This is just mean. Devilled Sausages and Breakfast Cereals (specifically Weetbix). Not my favorite foods but the ones I could put up with for the longest.

11. If you had to choose one, what fictional world would you want to live in?

Anything with virtual reality MMOs. Those things are like my fetish.

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My nominated blogs:

Deluscar: Talks about pretty much everything I do and is one of the major reasons I started blogging.

Annalyn’s Thoughts: Mostly anime with a sometimes religious twist. Always very nice to talk to.

Black Ragdoll: A Norwegian anime lover currently abroad in France.

Sometimes Clever: Anime, video games and visual novels as told by some of the awesome guys that frequent the Fuwaforums.

Curry Curry Chronicles: Mostly Japanese games, of which I am forever jealous.

Moonlitasteria: Mostly anime and some JRPGs. May or may not be on hiatus >.>

Eleven questions for those blogs (any anyone else that feels like participating in the comments!):

1. If you were no longer able to blog about what you do now, what would you blog about?

2. What is your favorite quote from an anime/visual novel/other?

3. If you could gather everyone on your blogroll in one place, where would it be and why?

4. A 2-way dimensional rift has opened outside your house. Which fictional universe would you want it to connect to? 

5. What is the story behind your avatar name?

6. Do you have any phobias, fictional or otherwise?

7. If you could conquer any one country, which one would it be?

8. Which super power would you like to have?

9. If you could be any other fictional race, which would you be?

10. Which 3 animals would you most like as pets?

11. You find yourself in the waiting room at The Geek Clinic. Why are you there?

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Since posting this i’ve received another set of questions from Chikorita157 who has in turn answered my questions on their blog.

So here they are along with my answers!

1. What is your opinion about Anime streaming services like Crunchyroll? Do you find yourself using them?

I think it’s a wonderful idea for people who wouldn’t otherwise pay for their anime. From what i’ve read Crunchyroll gives a large portion of their subscription fees back to the creators of the anime they feature, which is great. I personally would not use them, however, because I love owning the anime I enjoy and plan on buying the DVDs anyway (despite the ridiculous pricing >.<).

2. What is your favorite Japanese Singer?

This is where leaving the “artist” column in my itunes blank comes back to bite me. LiSa seems to be the singer that pops up again and again though. Oath Sign, Crossing Field and all of Yui’s songs in Angel Beats! are sung by her and I love them all.

3. If you have to choose between a smartphone, tablet (excluding convertible laptops like the Surface Pro) or a ChromeBook, which one would you use to blog with?

I don’t even know what a Chromebook is >.< I have a weird prejudice against tablets but i’d rather use one of those than a smart phone.

4. Which next generation video game console (Wii U, Xbox One, Playstation 4) do you buy?

I won’t be buying any for a while, but when I do i’ll be getting s PS4.

5. If you can change the ending for an Anime, which show would you do this to and why?

Ao no Exorcist. I want it to go on and on and on XD

Seriously, though, I would change Death Note’s ending…and middle. I don’t care if it’s L or Kira that wins but it has to be one of those two rather than a cheap L substitute.

6. What Japan-exclusive game would you like to play if you knew Japanese?

So very many, though most of them are visual novels. I desperately want to read the extra Muv-Luv fan disks now, and Dies Irae is another that I keep seeing and want to be able to read. Little Busters! EX is another candidate.

If it has to be a video game, then i’d go for Super Dangan Ronpa 2.

7. If Kyubey appeared in front of your window and asks you to make a contract in order to become a magical girl, would you go for it?

I have seen Madoka Magica, so no XD. Also, considering i’m male…

8. Which do you prefer to listen to, Korean Pop or Japanese Pop?

Japanese pop, because i’ve never listened to Korean pop =P

9. If you managed an idol group, what name would you call it?

Fuwafriends, because I desperately want that to catch on.

10. If you can date an Anime character, which one would you choose?

That’s pretty tough. There are a lot of characters that I like but I can’t really see them as partner material. Let’s go with Shimada Minami from Baka to Test

11. What source material would you like to see an Anime for and which animation studio would you pick?

I don’t have a lot of source material to choose from, since I haven’t read many manga, but I would like to see a decent Negima anime, preferably with less focus on the fan service. Let’s go with UFOtable for the studio.

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My questions have also been answered by OG-Man over at The G-Empire along with Chikorita’s.