Let’s try this again. Happy New year!

Time flies. 2011 came crashing in when I wasn’t paying attention and now it’s already going so fast that I even find it hard to wish you a happy new year. Suddenly it’s not even about 2011 anymore but about the rather random great revival of this blog! Youkoso!

I did neglect my blogging duties for a long time, although I never intended to, but I’m easily distracted and hard to motivate. But I’m back with ambition…
So get ready for Limited Insight, 2011 edition!
My goals this year include the study of all 2000something official japanese kanji, some frequency on this blog and most urgent; the finalisation of my blogposts about my trip to Japan almost a year ago. I have the written version in dutch and some thousands of photographs so it should’t be that hard. Wish me luck!

And so this begins with the official 2010 goodbye speech.

2010, year of the tiger, it was a pleasure being with you.
I’ll remember you for doubling the delicious noitaminA tv-block giving me anime that matters.
I’ll remember you for the 600th chapter of One Piece, still standing strong in it’s shonen leading position. May the time skip provide us with more awesomeness than ever before.
I’ll remember you for the first airing of original japanese spoken anime on Belgian television. Even with Bleach and Death Note it wasn’t a big succes, but a milestone whatsoever.
Personally I’ll remember the completion of my 200th anime series, A splendid trip to Japan,
And the long awaited purchase of a proper bookcase to hold my manga collection. Goodbye 2010!

Well, now that I’m filled with good intentions I’m off to work on new limited insightful content.
Welcome back!

All 50 Approved – Overview

Completing this top 50 made me realise I have watched a lot of anime by now and some of them were watched quite a while ago. It made me painfully aware that not only do I have a lot of series unwatched, I also forgot about a lot of series I did watch. More than a few times, I didn’t really remember what was so special about a particular anime in my list, although I knew I definitely liked it. For example: Ergo Proxy made a very good impression on me. I was completely fascinated by that show but due to its complexity I seem to have forgotten most details on who and how and what was going on.

Even anime that didn’t make the list suffered from my subjective memory. I was wondering why I apparently didn’t like Azumanga Daioh that much, so I decided to rewatch it and found it seriously awesome. Maybe it gets better the second time. Maybe I now get more of the references. But most likely I just remembered the few flaws more than the overall greatness. I now know this list isn’t even subjectively correct. Or is there no such thing?

Rewatching for better reviews sounds logical. And because I’m a list fanatic, I also think relisting is better for this top 50 that started 5 months ago. I’m slow so I need to compensate with clarity. Here is the complete overview of All 50 Approved.

3 Weeks Japan – Day 3

Someday in the Rain 24/03

It’s raining today. The prospect of a cold and wet day dampens our fresh morning spirit, but a rice ball breakfast takes care of the necessary energy to step outside the hotel onto the wet streets of Asakusa. Ofcourse a portion of rainy days was to be expected on a 3 week visit, so I shift my attention to the local rainy habbits; this wouldn’t be Japan if there wasn’t a well organised rain plan. While we are quickly surrounded by dozens of umbrellas (preferably the more practical transparant type or ones with a fashionable design), most stores place a little stand at the entrance with plastic disposable umbrella sackets, so customers won’t drip water all over the floor inside. Convenience stores quickly add cheap umbrellas to their assortment. And I finally understand the use of the miniature bicycle lockers outside musea and public buildings. All in all, life goes on in the big city, only slightly more wet.

The struggle of dutch manga publishers

A popular discussion in the dutch anime/manga community is the state of our local manga industry and more specifically the sometimes excruciating slow releases of new volumes of the translated series. While manga still hasn’t broken through to the general public, our publishers are sandwiched between the english and french market and until now they haven’t found the right momentum to change that.

All 50 Approved – All 5 Awarded – 5-1

Finally we’ve come to the final 5. They’re briljant and if you have the same great taste in anime as me, you knew they were coming. If you expected another show, I think I placed that one 51st or I might not have seen it yet. Well nobody reads these texts anyway. Scroll down and marvel at my top 5.