Nova’s 12 Anime Moments – Using This Post to Exemplify My Nonconformity

Author: nova

I guess this is my official Anime 2008 Face. I’m overusing it, I know.

As you can see on the topic, I too did end up spreading the cancer of 12 Days of Animu Moments or whatever it was called. This damn thing has grown popular as both posting topic and a flaming target as any even remotely similar happening does. And since there’s plenty of posts and bitching around about it, I will refrain from going into that. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t find doing these kinds of posts interesting – at least it would get me almost two week’s worth of posting every day, kicking the pageviews through the roof. Hur dur. But as I said, since there’s plenty of this stuff going around already and I’m enough of a badass to express my refusal to conform to the norm. Wait, wasn’t I the one defending generic episodic blogging when arguing with my Finnish colleagues? Oh snaps. So I am not going to write about 12 moments, or even 5. Top 3? Sounds better, but no. I’m going to write about one single moment – and as you can see it’s not even the Christmas day yet! Doing this makes me feel so special, oh yeah. Watch me.

Okay – fuck it, I lied. In the end when I started thinking about 12 memorable moments, I must honestly say that I couldn’t think of that many. In fact just trying to come up with top 3 proved rather difficult. This might have something to do with my lousy memory but whatever the reason is, it is clear that I simply have nothing to write about. Except one thing that is a cut above the rest. As for timing – well, it would indeed make sense if I was posting this on 25th, since it’s going to be the last one. But honestly speaking I believe I have better things to do on a national holiday than writing a lousy blog post about how I’m badass enough to write up just one article instead of 12. Yeah yeah, there’s the publish scheduling and stuff but please don’t ruin my personal moment of bein diffarent.

So what was my moment then? The grand CGI-battles of Macross Frontier? The second best anime of all time (according to ANN statistics and ANN nevar lies amirite)? The mind-blowing cuteness and innocence of Hidamari Sketch x365? All close, but not quite enough for a cigar, although I have to admit that Rocket Charles was very, very close to making it. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: Nova’s anime moment of 2008!

What you see here is a guy watching Kino no Tabi. He’s been three weeks straight on the road (out of seven and a half) on a job that takes 10 hours a day and ended up roaming around the Finnish Lapland, where roadside motels aren’t something every town has (the few of them that even exist up there). Thankfully camping sites are plenty thanks to certain obnoxious and fat creatures known as tourists and the barely mobile road blocks some people call recreational vehicles, and so our man decided to spend the night at one of them. After parking his van on a tent zone, he takes off for bath in a nearby lake (you wouldn’t believe what the shower stalls in these places look like). He returns to his car, whips out a power inverter, grabs a sandwich, pops a can of Strongbow and lets the laptop do what it does best. He’s hundreds of kilometers away from home, with little idea on when he gets even close to that place again. And he’s watching Kino no Tabi. And I tell you, if that wasn’t The One Moment, then I sure as hell don’t know what is. Traveling and going through literally every part of the country except the farthest reaches of Enontekiö and Ahvenanmaa (although I got halfway there too, made a stop in Brändö) with all my critical possessions stuffed in a large van was an experience in itself and there simply is no other thing that crowns it better than Kino no Tabi. What happened in the anime is of a secondary concern. Sure I could talk anyone to death about the happenings in all the high-profile shows this year but it all seems like little business compared to this one moment last summer.

I understand this must have been rather shocking, seeing my hairy legs and all. Nova posting 3D isn’t an everyday happening after all. But hey, what can I do? Compared to this nothing else that happened regarding anime this year is anything worth writing about. Also, yes, I did have to sleep in the damned car every now and then thanks to tourists being too noisy on a camping site (I did have a tent with me but its sound-proofing properties are rather poor) or flocking all the hotels. Oh well, it wasn’t much but it was a home.

I felt bad for torturing your minds with nasty legs, so have a bit of Tsugumi as compensation.

To conclude this post I’d like to clarify an issue someone apparently had with my comment on Sankaku, on their post about Finnish cosplay and its allegedly poor standards. Yes, I posted that comment and I fully stand by my words of attending only for the laughs and making me feel good about myself (link not provided since it’s Sankaku we’re talking about). Now, someone said I don’t know shit and I’m just all talk with no experience. So fear not as I am going to work just on that and attend the upcoming Desucon. You heard it right folks, now you have a chance to line up and punch me in the face for being a pretentious little shit. Don’t miss the party!