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Writer's pictureKristina Elyse Butke

Anime Check-in: One Year Home


A giant Gundam statue stands tall in a partly cloudy blue sky. ANIME CHECK-IN: ONE YEAR HOME
Photo by Bruce Tang on Unsplash

I think my one-year anniversary of returning home to the US from Japan was August 3rd. One of the things I set out to do while coming back was catch up on all the anime I missed while I was out.


You see, Japan has tons of anime, but finding dubs and subtitled anime was really, really hard. I briefly had a VPN to try to get around the region blocks but the streaming was slow, often stopping and starting every few seconds. I didn't want to bother with it anymore, so I dropped the VPN and watched Netflix Japan, which had a few original series I could watch in English or with English subtitles, and then I bought DVDs from the UK to play on my region 2 DVD player.


In no particular order, here's what I have watched for the first time since coming back to the States. I am caught up on all available seasons that have aired, or have watched the series in their entirety:


  • Made in Abyss (Japanese and English) S1 Review Movie Review S2 Review

  • Dororo (Japanese and English) Review

  • Banana Fish (Japanese)

  • Hitorijime My Hero (Japanese)

  • Kabukibu! (Japanese)

  • Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Japanese)

  • My Hero Academia (English)

  • Haikyuu! (Japanese)

  • Run With the Wind (Japanese)

  • Given (English)

  • Tsurune (English)

  • Chainsaw Man (English) Review

  • Attack on Titan (Japanese)

  • Ranking of Kings (English)

  • Demon Slayer (English)

  • Hell's Paradise (English)

  • Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (English)

  • Yuri On Ice!! (English)

  • Heaven Official's Blessing (Mandarin and English) Review

  • Sasaki and Miyano (English)

  • Ai no Kusabi (English)

  • Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather (Japanese)

  • SK8 The Infinity (English)

  • Stranger by the Shore (English)

  • Buddy Daddies (English)

  • The Devil is A Part Timer (English)

  • Life Lessons with Uramachi Oniisan (English)

  • Junji Ito MANIAC (English) Review

  • Josee, The Tiger, and the Fish (English)

  • Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (English)


You'll notice that I've only reviewed some of the anime I've watched for the blog...I'm particular about what goes on here, in that they have to be anime in the speculative genres (sci fi, fantasy, or horror). So as much as I adored SK8 the Infinity or Sasaki and Miyano, they're not going up on the blog. Forgive me!


I'm pretty sure that's all I've watched in the one year since coming home, give or take a couple weeks. There were some series I started but abandoned, but I didn't list them here--only completed stuff!


How many of these have you seen or heard of?


In the meantime, I'm watching season two of Jujutsu Kaisen in Japanese and season one of Horimiya in English. I also plan on watching the English dub of Berserk (2016) soon. I watched it in Japanese in Japan before my VPN died, and since I learned Kaiji Tang played Guts, I'm now interested in the English.


I hope you enjoyed my little list...and I'll keep watching anime as long as I can! Thanks for reading!




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