First things first, we need to announce this year's winner for our Holiday Review Giveaway! While I personally did not care for Duchess In the Attic, finalfuryk felt otherwise:
I've really enjoyed J-Novel Club's release of Duchess in the Attic which all four volumes translated released digitally in 2024.
Congratulations! We'll be getting in touch with you shortly to send you your $25 Bookshop.org gift certificate to buy whatever you wish, be it more J-Novel Club books or something else entirely.
2024 is a year that few people are going to look back upon fondly, myself included. In addition to the burning dumpster fire that is American politics, it was a year where I found myself struggling to maintain my own focus. While I managed to avoid out-and-out burnout, regular readers might have noticed that for much of the year the review schedule got a little irregular and that it only got straightened out in these last few months. It's also been a year spent trying to rebuild this site's social media presence on Bluesky, although that got a lot easier
Still, I managed to get a few other projects under my belt this year. This year saw my debut as a contributor to Anime Herald, where I posted two articles on two rather notorious Tokyopop-related projects: America's Greatest Otaku and Princess Ai. The first one was a request from Anime Herald's founder/EIC Samantha Ferreria, one that happened to coincide with my own watch-through of the series in the hopes of turning it into a Disaster Report. The second was one of my classic research projects, one that began with me falling down one of those classic internet rabbit holes and ended with me writing up the results for the sake of posterity. I enjoyed working with both Samantha and Alex as editors on these pieces, and I am incredibly pleased with their positive reception.
I also kept fairly busy with podcast appearances. This year also saw me returning to the Shojo And Tell podcast after a five year absence to talk about Juline and The Poe Clan. The former was a suggestion I had been meaning to make for years, as I wanted to expose more people to this unique and sadly forgotten series. The latter was easily one of the most delightful recordings I've done for any podcast, as my own knowledge of old shojo with Vrai's own expertise in vampire fiction and queer media to create a lively and engaging discussion. I also returned once more to Giant Robot FM to finally get my feelings about Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz out of my system alongside the hosts and my good friend Coop.
So what does 2025 hold for me? Well, there are a few more podcast appearances in the works waiting to be straightened out. I definitely have some big convention plans as not only will be returning once more to Otakon but making my first trip to Raleigh's Animazement. Will I be appearing as a panelist at either of these cons? Only time will tell. I also fully intend to return to Renaissance Josei with more new Disaster Reports. I was literally just reviewing some of my half-finished drafts last night and was impressed with what Past Me had written, which made me all the more determined to finish them, polish them up good, and put them out there for the world to see. There are other personal non-anime goals I have for next year, but mostly I just hope to keep this blog going steady as we head into year 13, whatever it may bring.
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