Hey everyone, welcome to the final post of the 2018 Winter Games collab. What a ride this has been. From the initial conception, to the chaotic start of the collab, the life difficulties I had to press through to make my posts even get out relatively on time, to the insane finish with our points running neck-to-neck, I can confidently say that this has been one of the most challenging, interesting, and rewarding group projects i’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of.
Big thanks need to go out here to everyone that has followed the collab from start to finish, but more importantly, to the absolutely incredible folks that were a part of the collab with me.
First off, a round of applause to The Pantless Anime Blogger, otherwise known as TPAB, for organizing this and coming up with the idea. Our blogger senpai by quite a bit, it was a pleasure for all of us to be able to work alongside such a pleasant and fun individual for an entire season of Anime.
Next up, our ultimate winner, Irina, from I Drink and Watch Anime. With her wacky ideas and worldview, yet somehow spot-on predictions, she kept us all on our toes, and definitely managed to keep things interesting! Reading her take on each show was entertaining every single week, and it was a pleasure to work with her.
Finally, Leap250, a blogger I hadn’t really gotten to associate with much before this collab. For those of you who haven’t gotten a chance to talk to Leap, he’s about the most pleasant, level-headed person i’ve ever met. Acting as our scorekeeper, Leap helped keep us all in line and made sure the collab stayed together from the start to the finish.
With thank-yous out of the way, it’s time to wrap this thing up with a smile and a wave. But before that, we decided to ask each other some questions about our experience, to gauge how the collab went… and have a bit of extra fun on top. So, I guess i’ll start with my own questions first, and move down the list from there.
Do you believe that the prediction game helped or hindered your viewing experience, and why?
I asked this question because I was actually unsure myself where I stood, at the time. After all, with the prediction game looming in the background, couldn’t that be cause for losing some focus on the show and the enjoyment of the show, in order to better analyze and predict where the plot was headed? Thinking back on it, though, I can say that, overall, the predictions game actually contributed a net positive to my experience watching the shows.
Having to think of predictions made me think more about what I was watching. That led me to the discovery and analysis of more plot holes, more criticism of the shows in general, without really hindering my emotional attachment to the shows and the characters themselves. It was also fun every week to look forward to see what i’d gotten right and what I got wrong… and when a show took a sudden left-turn, I could only laugh as it swept me along.
Which show was your favorite/least favorite/most surprising out of our picks?
This one’s easy for me. Yuru Camp was by far my favorite of the three shows. Almost everything about it pushed my buttons in just the right way, and honestly, it was the one show I truly looked forward to each week. Without Yuru Camp, I don’t know if I’d have actually made it to the end.
Grancrest and Sanrio both were on my naughty list for a long time, making stupid mistakes and being full of issues. In the end, however, I think they ended up being somewhat positive, though I still enjoyed Grancrest more. Sanrio was pretty much a trainwreck.
Irina asks: Has the experience taught you anything?
Why yes, Irina, this experience definitely has taught me a few things. First off, Moe is superior to every other genre. Secondly, I shouldn’t trust your picks in Anime, especially if they involve a gaggle of guys and a big-brand merchandising scheme!!!
Just kidding. One thing that I really learned from this collab is that even a terrible show can be enjoyed, if taken in in the right way, and with the right company. I had a lot of fun ranting about the awfulness of some of the shows we had to watch, and being obligated to watch them just compounded that frustration, leading to some hilarious venting moments!!!
Leap asks: Did the thought of having to make predictions influence your watching of the show?
Indeed it did, Leap. Not only was I obligated to watch all the shows, no matter how rubbish they were, I had to focus more on the plot and the characters than I might otherwise have done. I couldn’t afford to tune out, or i’d lose in the games!! I think that helped me develop some rather unique opinions and observations about the shows, and it was just a blast in the end.
TPAB asks: Who is your fave character during the winter games?
Probably Rin, from Yuru Camp. I’m a big fan of the Hinedere trope, the semi-expressionless face going to vastly over-exaggerated emotion. Rin was a character that evolved enormously from the start of the show to the finish, her tough, stubborn outer shell slowly breaking away to let in the other girls and experience true friendship along with them.
Rin was just a constant high point in the show… every time she came on screen, the show was just that much more fun for me. I enjoyed Nadeshiko as well, in Yuru Camp, but for me, Rin still takes the bacon.
Irina asks: How did you train in preparation for the games?
Training? Who needs training? Training is for noobs and tryhards. I’m not like some phoney saiyan who needs to train in a gravity-pod for years in order to be good at what I do… I just let the ideas flow, all-naturale. Maybe my lack of training is why I only took second place, though…
Leap asks: How do you come up with your predictions?
A lot of my writing is done on a spur-of-the-moment basis, and the predictions game was no different. Though I combined all my episode reviews into a single post each week, i’d write each section directly after watching the corresponding episode, so the info would be all fresh in my mind. From there, while I was writing up the summary of the episode, i’d basically be trying to trace the logical route the plot might take in progression. It sounds silly and kinda not very flashy, but it seemed to work all right for me.
TPAB asks: What moment in the winter games completely caught you off guard, good or bad?
I’m not sure if this is referring to the games themselves, or the shows we were watching… But i’m gonna assume the latter. I think the moment that caught me by surprise, and probably the others as well, was that moment in Grancrest when Marrine submitted to Milza. It was such a shocking, jarring scene that kind of came out of nowhere, I don’t think any of us were expecting it. I personally wrote about twice as much as usual that week, just trying to wrap my head around what the heck just happened.
And that’s about it! As sad as it is to say, it’s about time to let this Collab go. However, worry not, my lovelies, because due to how much fun we all had on this project, we may be doing another something similar relatively soon!! Hopefully with a new, larger cast of bloggers, and maybe with some extra twists to keep it interesting!
Anyways, thank you all so much for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey as much as I definitely have, and are looking forward to the next time we give this a try.
The Zodiac Room 
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Lovely post dear ☺️☺️ x x
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