It’s time again for my personally indulgent look back on the past year. This is a part of a double post to mark JP’s 10th birthday.
Many people describe 2020 as a dumpster fire. It has been a year of self-inflicted wounds, a year that made me realize introverts truly are the minority. Otherwise, the virus would have not spread as much! And that is only a partial joke. I lost my grandmother to the virus in October. I also experienced some of the greatest peace and joy when my state locked down for several months. I enjoyed that time, that solitude, that writing time. The Great Pause allowed me to taste freedom from work, although I chose to work on my writing. That ability to choose, to not have to punch in for the day, made me realize how much I crave the ability to dictate my time.
Over the course of the year, I also drafted 6 projects: novels, novellas, and nonfiction. It’s been a great year for writers and artists. No social obligations! I feel sad that society will return to its exhausting socialness in 2021. As for JP, I covered my usual eclectic variety of topics from sex slavery to proposing using ichi as a gender neutral pronoun. This year I decided to make an official category about writing. Over the years, I’ve written about writing and blogging. Not only does the topic of writing interest me, I also receive questions from bloggers and young writers. However, I try to keep articles in this category few. Authors tend to write too much about writing; readers aren’t usually interested.
I also delved into psychology a bit more. I find neckbeards, incels, and other male psychological difficulties fascinating. As a straight demisexual (for lack of a better label), I find dating difficult in my area. Women around me aren’t usually into the intellectual type, preferring athletes and farmboys. Which is fine. Everyone has preferences. Because of this, I sympathize with neckbeards, incels, and weeaboo to a certain degree. However, their psychology quickly crosses into the destructive and the hateful. They objectify women and develop unreasonable expectations that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anime and manga become reinforcing escapes for such men, further encouraging their unreasonable views of women. I hope by writing about these problems, I can shock some men into changing their behavior and also rising awareness with my female readers. Women need to be aware of this unhealthy male psychology (while women suffer from such thinking too, it’s more common in men). Men need support when they finally take responsibility for their own thinking and behavior.
Each year, a few articles stand out to me as the most interesting. Of course, these articles usually aren’t the most popular. History doesn’t perform as well as anime-focused articles. For 2020, I enjoyed learning about Heian Period Sexual Politics and women’s central role in the system. Women owned property while men held income streams. Men needed a place to live; women needed income to keep the property maintained. The system surprised me, and it allowed women more independence from men. This fact of the Heian period surprised me. “Why are Harem Anime Popular?” is a question I’ve asked myself often. Finally finding an answer pleased me.
On an anime front, I spend most of 2020 revisiting anime I hadn’t seen in several years. As you can guess, I have articles where I discuss these revisits. You may see these in 2021. I renewed my appreciation for Kyoto Animation’s style, especially their backgrounds and cityscapes. I was also pleased to see Inuyasha continue with Yashahime anime debut. Mostly, I spent the year trying to dig out of my reading backlog. I managed to get my library put together, but that only made me realize how many books I have to read! I debate about writing articles about “The Tosa Journal” and “The Gossamer Journal” and other Japanese literature I’ve been reading. While important for understanding Japan, these articles do not perform well. My commentary about the Tale of Genji, after all, has seen few readers. However, long-tail articles like these are important for a healthy blog. Japanophiles should read Japanese literature, after all. It’s not like good English translations aren’t easily available.
This upcoming year, I plan on releasing my book “Stories from Old Japan: 177 Folktales and Legends from the Land of the Rising Sun.” However, I’m not certain when. Editing has been taking longer than originally planned, which is okay. After that, I need to do my own revision pass. The project takes 177 Japanese folktales and rewrites them to make them more accessible for casual readers. It was a difficult project to take on. I also have several other fiction projects waiting further revisions, including the sequel to Kanzashi and other several manuscripts I plan on shopping around to literary agents.
As for JP, I have a novella I may post chapter by chapter over the course of this year. Would that interest you? For the most part, I will write as I always had: chasing whatever history or cultural topic that grabs my interest. I’ve written 646 articles. The easy-access stuff has dried up, making me reach deeper into history, such as the heard-to-research Jomon period. I’ve also turned toward poetry and literature. Frankly, as I age, I find this more interesting than anime. Anime still focuses on high school and teen antics. I’m old enough that I could be a father to a teen (I don’t have kids, to be clear), and the distance will only become greater. I find myself wanting more mature stories or at least more creative ones like Dr. Stone. One day, I could well age out of regularly watching anime because the stories fail to appeal to me. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading for another year. I truly appreciate your questions, comments, support, and views. Thank you for purchasing my novels and other scribbles. May you have a healthy, safe, and content 2021.
