Sunshine Blogger Award: Music, Anime Duos, and the Community

Ads are displayed throughout this blog, please consider turning off Ad-blocks in order to help this weeb, thank you for the support!

What’s this? Am I going through my nominations backlog? Yes. Yes, I am! And along with the music tag I did yesterday, I also found this one…which I apparently also missed. But I think it’s the last one so we’ll be done with nominations, at least for the time being. I know they have a habit of returning every now and then. Also, this week (for Blaugust) is all about appreciating, and this sort of works??

Thank you Voyager for the nomination and what that means! I know it’s been three years since I was tagged but uh, that’s how I roll. And maybe my blog still has a bit of that positivity somewhere within its digital pages

The Sunshine Blogger Award is given to those who are creative, positive, and inspiring, while spreading sunshine to the blogging community.

The Rules

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you in the blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
3. Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

Now then, let’s get started with the questions!

Do you prefer seasonal anime coverage or full-series/topical deep dives and such?

I prefer reading and writing full-series and topical deep dives (and such). I don’t mind first impressions as well so things like here are my thoughts so far on the first couple of episodes, but I only read the ones of series that I have watched or have an interest in. Since many of these shows are not seasonal…well, I don’t really read seasonal coverage. I used to back when I followed anime a bit more closely but now that I don’t, I’ve stopped both reading and writing anything seasonal

What’s a question you’ve always wanted to ask the creator of one of your favorite anime/manga/games/etc.

Oh! So I have gotten a chance to interview a few authors before and that’s always fun, and I think the question I want to ask always changes. I mean, it depends on what they’re the creator of. I think a lot of times I just want to ask random questions, mostly personal ones like ‘so what foot gets you out of bed’ or ‘what’s your morning routine’. I don’t know, I just like asking fun questions like that.

I think this makes me a bad interviewer, lol. But, hmm, something more specific. Maybe I would ask Alexis Hall something like ‘how do you write vulnerability so well?’ or ‘do you think about the type of impact your work has on readers? is that something that you think about while writing?’. I guess stuff like that (after I ask some random fun questions)

What’s an anime whose music/soundtrack really stands out to you but you find to be overlooked or underappreciated?

I don’t think I’m particularly good at finding hidden gems, especially not in music. I just don’t feel very deeply about music. I think that if the beat/sound is nice, then I enjoy it. This also means that most of my musical choices are not overlooked or underappreciated. In fact, I’ve gotten a few raised brows, silences, and your music is trash soooo…

But maybe something Black Butler. I think this is partly because BB isn’t very popular? Or at least I haven’t heard much about it recently

What’s a Japanese musician or group that you first heard through an anime OP/ED and fell in love with their sound so had to check what else they’d done? For example, MYTH & ROID is one of mine.

Does ‘Do As Infinity’ count? Honestly, a lot of my firsts usually go back to Inuyasha! Others include Asian Kung-Fu Generation, SID, Yoko Kanno, and Hiroyuki Sawano. These are also some of the artists whom I’ve enjoyed multiple of their songs after looking them up

Name one of your favorite anime duos. It can be a romantic couple, best buddies, battle companions, whatever. And why?

Oh god. Are we talking about duos that are in my head or legit ones? LOL. And we’re talking anime so I guess the BL isekai is off the table. You guys can’t see me but I am currently looking around my room and all I see is JJK and Daiya merch…should I go with these?

Ok, I’ve decided to go with Miyuki and Sawamura! Aside from the fact that I SHIP THEM SO HARD, I just think they’re a really nice duo. I like how they tease each other, their battery dynamic is fire, and I think they both push each other to be better. Sawamura always wants to be better because he sees Miyuki as being this great catcher that he needs to catch up to and Miyuki (in turn) works hard to be this great catcher. Or maybe not because Sawamura sees him as that but I’ve always felt he’s inspired by Sawamura’s desire to be the Ace, to have everything, and that pushes him to be better too. A sort of if I don’t keep working hard I’m going to be swallowed up by the hungry pitcher. Also, I ship them so hard

What’s your favorite way to engage with the blogging community?

I used to visit people’s blogs and scream in their comments sections but I, very embarrassingly, don’t do that as much anymore. I’m trying to change that, so I guess my answer now is that I check what people are doing via Twitter or IG. Mostly Twitter since a lot of the IG bloggers I know don’t use IG that much. But if you do, feel free to share links!

I know that discord is very popular now and I used to be into discord but uh, I honestly can’t be bothered by it right now. I think it’s too much

What’s a word you just wish more people would say in day-to-day? Doesn’t even have to be in your native language.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexis Hall (@quicunquevult)

Oh god, I don’t know. My vocabulary isn’t very good and I don’t particularly have favorite unused words. BUT, I did recently read Boyfriend Material, which you all should read too, and wouldn’t it be super hot if more people spoke like Oliver? I’d have to carry around a dictionary to understand half the things people said but wow, the way he talks (he’s not snobby about it) is just Perfection

Favorite Taste: Sweet, Sour, Spicy, Bitter, Minty, etc.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by exploringotaku (@exploringotaku)

Oh man, this is tough. I think I will go with my default, which is spicy. I LOVE spicy food. I also miss spicy food. I think a lot of things can be spicy but I love a good tasting spicy and I can only get that back home. But now that you’ve mentioned minty…I also kind of really like minty. I even had mint tea recently! I also have a weakness for sweets but don’t especially enjoy sweet-tasting things. I don’t know if that makes sense

What’s your favorite blog post you’ve read, this week?

https://marinasauce.wordpress.com/2022/08/04/marina-eats-kura-revolving-sushi-bar/

I think I read this one this week, but Marina over at Anime B&B went out to a KNY sushi bar and it looked so cool!! I even bookmarked it on my maps. I kind of love reading food posts like this one

Does You Say Run go with everything?

I…am going to assume you mean the song from MHA because that is the first thing that came up in the search results. And I am just going to say that if you play it in the right way, then yeah. Lately, I’ve been listening to some of these song covers by henry (on TikTok) and just yeah, he can make this song for anything. As it is…well, I wouldn’t play if I’m trying to go to bed

Hi. How’s your day been? Great, I hope. Here. Just in case you forgot, I wanna remind you. You’re Awesome!

Ooooo, you’re so cute! My day has been…actually, I have no idea what day it is. But that’s how my whole summer has been soooo. Lol. But I hope everyone is having a great day too!!

---

Now then! For my 11 questions:

1. What is something that you’ve done recently/the last thing you did that brought you joy?
2. What is something that you want to buy but can’t (yet)?
3. If you were in a harem a) what would your character archetype be and b) who would your harem babes be?
4. Who in your harem would you marry? How long do you think the marriage would last?
5. If your life were an isekai, what would the title be?
6. What is something that you’ve tried doing because of anime/other weeb content? Alt, something you’d like to try
7. Who is (or are) the character(s) you’ve been obsessed with lately and why?
8. What is something you are very passionate about and why? It can be serious or nerdy (or both!)
9. Make a list of 5 nerdy things you like (ie. anime, manga, games, etc). Now, you must stop doing all but one of these things. What is your choice?
10. What show or reading material (or both) do you always revisit regularly and why? Regularly as in at least once a year (or more frequently)
11. Tell me something that you love about yourself!

---

And the people that I tag are:

1. Magi: While I’ve been out of the blogging community, Magi has been super cool and has kept up with me and I REALLY appreciate this. It’s sort of my own doing because I’ve been gone for a while, but sometimes I feel like I’m not really in the community anymore but Magi makes sure I’m included. In fact, he’s the reason I even heard about Blaugust!
2. Natalee: I haven’t really spoken with Natalee but I have been lurking in the shadows of her blog recently and it’s just super cute!! Going through her hauls and creative posts and pictures is just really relaxing
3. Al: I’ve been following Al for a bit now, not just on WordPress but IG too! And I am always amazed by how quickly she reads books and then reviews them!! And they’re always titles I am not expecting, I really enjoy the variety
4. Cameron: Another blogger I’ve been following for a while now, though I will be honest, I think I follow Cameron more via Twitter. Whenever I see a tweet by them, I always stop to check out what’s happening. I just really like how much depth there is to some of the things they talk about. Also, I only just found out you have an index and now I feel I must go check that out!
5. Crow: Crow, I’m not sure if you do nominations but I just want to say that I really like how much time you take to promote other people’s work. You really are out there posting episodic content and checking out people’s work. I think we all want to be you, or at least I do! I know that whenever I get a shoutout, I always feel appreciated and I like to think others do as well
6. Fred: I haven’t been by your blog in some time but I’m hoping to change that now that I’m blogging a bit more regularly. You’ve been around for a while and I always feel really happy whenever I see you interacting with my stuff. I don’t know, it’s like, I really pay attention to what you have to say, probably because I really feel like you pay attention to what I write. So thank you for always making me feel heard!
7. Rose: It looks like it’s been a while since you last posted but I definitely wanted to nominate you because no matter where you post, I always feel happy seeing your pictures. I don’t know, everything is so cute and wholesome and different. Maybe it’s because you don’t really have an anime focus but yeah, I like that personal touch!

---

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that! I know, my answers are not very good but I do always have fun doing these. Also, I didn’t tag 11 people, not because I can’t think of 11 bloggers who shine some positivity in the community, it’s more that I’ve been out for months, maybe one or two years, and don’t exactly know who is still around and who isn’t, and I’m getting reacquainted with everyone Orz

p.s. Also, please tell me if the videos are working. For some reason, I’m having trouble seeing them and IDK if that means you guys are too