A New Name and A New Chapter
Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations
It has once again been approximately 20 years since I have bothered giving any kind of update on this blog. Well, guess I should probably do that, huh?
Hey friends, hope everyone reading has been well. So…the last couple of months have been kinda…weird. On the one hand, my motivation to do anything creative has largely been MIA. I say largely because there are a couple of things I have been working on that will hopefully show some kind of results in the coming months. On the other, My assuredness in my own identity has only become more solidified, to the point that I have confidence in making another announcement.
I Changed My Name
Not legally…at least not yet, but as my gender identity becomes a bit more clear to me, my old name is one I have become less and less comfortable with and don’t feel a strong need to hold on to. With that being said, allow me to reintroduce myself:
Hi, my name is Vivian. Nice to meet everyone. they/them. (not so)avid writer, gamer, and creative. I am currently working in the restaurant industry as a server but eventually, I would like to work in publishing or a related field and help other writers achieve their goals. Honestly, though, anything that pays a livable wage would also be nice haha.
While I understand some people might still end up calling me by my old name for a little while, I am going to avoid posting it here as well as taking it down from various social media and website pages in an attempt to speed along the process. Thanks in advance for the understanding.
My First Ever Fanfiction
One of the things I have been spending a lot of time on is thinking about the universe of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Its idyllic yet somehow still very sober view of humanity’s near end is one that has become endlessly fascinating to me, so much so that at this point I would consider it among my favorite manga despite having not finished the series. Though it has little in the way of a direct plotline, its picturesque landscape panels make it an incredible visual experience.
All of this has inspired me to write my first-ever fanfiction set in the series’ universe. As of writing this post, I have about 3700 words worth of a pretty rough first draft. Still, it has been a lot of fun just putting whatever comes to mind on paper and letting the words kinda flow out for a change. Can’t promise I will have anything worth reading anytime soon, but it has been giving me the opportunity to break out of my creative funk and actually work on something I enjoy for a change.
The End of Attack on Titan
Another project I hope to start working on soon is a probably-on-the-longer-side retrospective of Attack on Titan. The series has had me wrapped around its finger ever since getting back into it a couple of summers ago. And wow, what an ending that last episode was, huh?
AOT has been marred in a lot of internet discourse since its later half, largely because of its rather drastic change in direction that English manga readers were talking about as far back as 2017/2018. That “drastic change” for those who are unaware involves invoking a WW2-esque relationship between the Eldians, those who can turn into Titans, and the Marleyans, the nation who was most responsible for oppressing them.
While I won’t get into all of it here, the implied comparison between Jewish people and a group who can literally turn into monsters maybe wasn’t the most well-thought-out on Isayama’s part. The discourse was interesting and rich enough that I ended up doing a research project on it in my final semester of college, and while I would not call any of said research definitive, having now finished the series along with reading the perspectives of the manga readers on AOT’s ending has given me a lot to think about.
Bringing Back Old Series
One other thing I have been thinking about is bringing back some columns that used to appear regularly on the site, specifically What Else Should You Watch. This was a series about recommending other shows based on the series I was watching at the time. As fun as these posts were to write, it got a bit old after a while because more often than not the same series would pop up in my thought process.
However, considering it has been over four years since the last iteration and with just how much has changed about both my knowledge of media and identity, it feels as good a time as any to revisit and rebrand it for something else. Ultimately this is still kinda of just in the ideas stage, but it felt worth throwing out and gauging whether there would be any interest.
Thanks for reading to the end, what have you all been up to recently? Let me know down in the comments.
If you are interested in reading more from me, check under blog to read my most recent stuff, or look below for some related posts. Also, if you would like to support Animated Observations, consider donating on Ko-fi or through paypal, or pledging on Patreon. You can even support by just liking and sharing this post.
As always, special thanks to Jenn for the support!
If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!
Originally published at http://animatedobservations.com on November 6, 2023.
