Shooting Star Dreamer

This is the look a blogger usually has on their face! Almost anyone can have the chance to start anime blogging, or blogging of any kind, but I think it takes a lot to create and manage a good blog. When I first started blogging I expected many views in a short amount of time. I also expected a lot of guides on what to do and I thought these would pave the way to my success. Unfortunately, there weren't many. I realized as well that success is not always a straight path; simply reading a guide and following it word for word didn't shoot me straight to the stars, but it did help me get off the ground. I'm not sure if there will ever be a guide that can simply make anime blogging a quick success in such a way, as it's such an immensely wide topic, with many different things factoring in. A lot of it is in effort and working habits. Despite this, there's a lot that makes your blog a hit or a miss. Sometimes it can just be your opinions, sometimes it's the top...

Try to imagine a time where there were no such things as Crunchyroll, Funimation, or other internet providers of anime. It was an older era, where you could find various anime episode scattered on websites such as YouTube or Dailymotion. This was one of the times when many series were unknown to you, and most anime was seen on TV. With this in mind, in such a time we had little to no control of anime we watched. Sure, we could just change the channel and tune into what we wanted, but there was no way for us to pick and chose from a list of anime. We had Pokemon, we had Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Yugioh, and more. These anime are the ones that pretty much everyone knows, because that's what was given to us to begin with. Now what if we were given different series? What if Dragon Ball Z didn't air on TV? What if we had watched a completely different anime at the time? There's no telling how it would have affected our lives, as anime fans of course. Contr...

Have you been an avid Pokémon fan since childhood? If so, have you ever been involved in competitive play? Yes, there are online tournaments and such, but I'm talking about leagues and events in real life. If you haven't, keep reading. If you have, still take a glimpse. While you may or may not know, the Pokémon World Tournament took place last weekend. Pokémon fans from all around the world arrived at Washington D.C. in order to play the game they love the most. They come from all over world and aren't your normal run of the mill trainers. How did they get there? What story lies behind their feats? As a competitor myself, I'm not going to say hurry and participate before you grow old; as you're never too old for games. Instead, I'd like to share my experience as a fan who discovered the joy of Pokémon tournaments. Rewind the time back by four years or so. I was a 9th grader in high school, trying to find my way in a population of 3000. The school was...

People always say that we make blogs for ourselves and that the primary focus of a blog such as mine is our own thoughts and feelings. However, this thought never sat well with me. If we're all connected on this vast world through the internet and the little community known as the aniblogosphere, why would I spend my time only talking about myself? Even if it comes to simple editorials, spotlights, or more, my thought process when blogging is the exact same every time. I'm writing for my readers, and myself. For this reason, I encourage and even ask for people to comment and share their thoughts on anime. Why not get into heated discussions about your likes and dislikes? Just keep it calm and don't go overboard. You can even connect with people who enjoy the same things and discuss; that's the beauty of the Aniblogosphere. I think this is the only way to keep the community thriving and alive.  Otherwise, we'd just have a bunch of loudmouths. For example,...

Before I began to blog, I didn't really participate much in the anime community. I was a newbie at the whole "being an otaku thing," and didn't really know much. Eventually I started to wiggle my way into the different groups present on the internet and in real life. I attended conventions and had the time of my life, but I began to pick up certain things that weren't right. At the conventions I felt and saw discrimination based on people's likes and dislikes. One even resulted into an argument. In communities, at times it feels like you're being placed on constant watch of a judicial system. Say the wrong thing, or like the wrong thing, and you're guilty. I find this constantly on the internet as negativity and heavy criticism spread. It's gotten to the point where you can't view comments without feeling bad afterwards. The comments may not be directed at you or something you love, but negativity spreads easily. Once viewing something ...