As any self-respecting anime fan would tell you, seasonal anime are pretty important to the experience. By no means are they a necessary part of enjoying the medium, and in fact, some people would probably suggest not watching them to max out your enjoyment, but everyone knows they’re still a big part of what makes anime what it is.

People really enjoy watching weekly series, getting in on the hype together, and seeing what the hit shows will be and what series we will wish to forget and most likely will forget, depending on how many you watch each month. In a way, watching a lot of seasonals has almost become this pointless badge of honor. Like only “real” anime fans watch seasonals, similarly to how only “real” fans watch things with subtitles. Hate to break it to you, but neither of those things matter.

While I do think gatekeeping certain aspects of a community can be a good thing, these kinds of debates are pointless and only serve to divide people further for arbitrary reasons. How much anime you’ve watched will certainly affect how you see things and possibly even give your opinion more weight to some, but it doesn’t mean you’re more of a fan than people who happen to watch less for one reason or another.

With that being said, I do feel like watching season anime, especially a lot of them, can make you more informed about certain things in the anime industry than other people. What is popular, what isn’t. How people will react. You can usually pick out what series will and won’t get big if you train your eye enough, and it’s just fun to join in on the fun with everyone else, I think.

So to me, it’s a nice way to learn some things and have some fun as I’m doing it. Also, as a blog that talks about anime, I do feel somewhat responsible for staying on top of things, and I’ve gradually improved on that. Episode reviews have just been one way, but I am trying even harder. Last season, for spring, I watched like 15 seasonals. This time will probably be about the same.

While I do enjoy that and watching seasonals, it takes a lot of time. It becomes a bit of a chore, to be honest. Let’s say I watch 15 seasonals to completion, right? Not counting any extra episodes or series I may drop. Let’s say one episode takes 23 minutes on average, and each series has 12 episodes. Roughly, that should be around 70 hours of watching anime. I’m pretty sure my math was off, but that’s about right.

Now, obviously, I don’t watch 70 hours of anime straight. I get to split it up over three months. But I’m always struggling to keep up on that 70 hours of seasonal time, and that’s not counting any of the time it takes me to write about them or watch other anime that isn’t seasonal. That’s just one part of the probably hundreds of hours I put into the website every month. It’s a lot of work and takes up just as much time. I want you to remember I’m a one-man team. I do everything. Everything except some of the artwork, which I obviously don’t do.

How I deal with this is the same way I deal with every aspect of the blog. You need good time management. It’s the most important thing. To run this blog, I need to watch anime, write, edit images, proofread, and work on things behind the scenes. The most important thing is that I space things out in such a way that I don’t get burned out on one specific aspect, and if I do, I change gears and do something else.

There are always different things to work on, and doing things in such a way that I’m still allowed to do what I want when I want helps stop me from feeling burned out. Also, I just make sure to allow myself me time to have fun or play with friends. There’s no reason to try and kill yourself with this. Have a good time, and you really won’t get burned out. I’m like 19 months strong every day straight, and I’m doing great. More excited than ever. Do your thing!

Thank you very much for reading

Manage your time, people!