First epic raws, and now this!? Moyism (aka Santa Clause) recently held a giveaway on his blog that offered his extra copies of Nana Mizuki’s LIVE FIGHTER to lucky contestants. I entered at last minute just for fun, but to my surprise, I ended up winning the Blue Side of the dvd!

For those actually unfamiliar with the popular idol, Nana Mizuki is a renown and talented seiyu singer. Some of you may recognize her roles as:

• Oboro in Basilisk
• Fate in the Nanoha series
• Tsugumi in Jigoku Shoujo
• Hinata in Naruto
• Touma in Minami-ke
• Moka in Rosario + Vampire

And among several others, she also plays Rin in one of my recent favorites, Rideback, as well as Rina in the seemingly popular White Album this season. Aside from her impressive amount of voice acting roles, she is a spectacular singer to boot! Mizuki is easily among my top favorite seiyu because of this, and I listen to all of her albums on a fairly regular basis.

You can read the winning entries here, and to my knowledge, there should be a part 2 to tie things up in the near future!

(….I’ve also heard that if you act quickly, Moy will be giving away his entire figure collection!!!)

We’re all busy people. I mean, the path of the world warrior is a tough one. Cursing at the screen after the 20th attempt to beat Seth as a mexican wrestler…..trying to get the perfect triple whirlwind kick in time attack….it all takes passion and drive. But when that flaming dragon punch shows up on screen by the end of the day, it’s all worth it….

No, but seriously. Most people get more free time during holidays, but for me, spring break meant working the job I love so much as a waiter for hours on end. I love this job so much, that by the time I get home, I want to do nothing but sleep or play some mindless games all night. Anime blog? I forgot I had one. I’ve also got a ton of projects to work on for school as I return to campus this week. Many of you are probably familiar with the myth about art students having the most free time in college; I personally guarantee you that this is a lie. I’ll get back to this cute little blog when I get the chance, but I’ll obviously have to take some short cuts to make up for lost time. Don’t worry, I’m not quitting quite yet.

(…Rune Factory Frontier might cause a few more delays soon though. *wink*)

If you’re anything like me, you probably just took Subculture’s absence of posts to make due with some of the other fine alternatives around the blogsphere:

• Random Curiosity
• Tenka Seiha
• Sea Slugs!
• Star Crossed Anime Blog
• Minaide! Hitorigo- ….Hinano x JP sexxor baby blog

With the evil dictator of an editorial blogger Owen celebrating his anniversary only three days earlier, I suppose my anniversary had to come today to balance the world with great justice. I feel kind of awkward for releasing this when the new season is still pumping out a few shows, but what can I do? This was when I decided to start my blog. I almost held this off for awhile, but I ended up finding enough time between class to dish out a half way decent post for the occasion. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the major events that have happened during this past year!

Pre-subculture, the awakening of Totali

Totali is a regular punk in high school; sleeping through class, skateboarding, and wasting life on MMO games.

Totali’s interest in anime is revived by the likes of Bleach, Full Metal Panic, Samurai Champloo, and Beck.

Totali is Introduced to Random Curiosity through Blood+ in 2005; subconsciously becomes inspired.

Totali picks up Japanese as a hobby.

Totali realizes that other anime blogs actually exist, such as Cinnamon Ass, Memento, and Wakaranai.

Spring ‘07: The Beginning, and the Touka Gettan Era

Totali lurks in AB IRC; is disturbed.

Totali is granted the gift of blogging by Maestro, master of ABnet.

Viewers take interest in Subculture as one of the only blogs that was not confused and disgusted by Touka Gettan.

Totali meets hashihime, seiyu blogger with the power of AniSuki.

Through IRC and aggregators, Totali is introduced to many new blogs; isolationist mindset is broken. The stalker inside awakens.

Totali becomes a late AnimeNano Podcast dai fan.

Totali thinks Moyism is the coolest raw provider ever; sends fan mail.

Totali preaches the greatness of love power.

Totali meets Hinano through talk of mushroom cocks; becomes instant fan.

Totali meets Aroduc, unknowingly creating what would become the greatest gattai the world has ever known (T&A).

Summer ‘07: The Nice Boat Era

Totali takes Anime Blog ga Arimasu’s 2,000th comment and receives prize. C…..can I call you sempai??

Totali goes to college to learn how to make pretty things.

Totali is interviewed by Sea Slugs; life story is revealed.

Totali plays a part in inspiring; is shocked.

Kabitzin posts Subculture’s 1,000th comment.

Mermaid gagsters, suicidal teachers, and nice boats are all the rage.

Fall ‘07: The Rise of Slice of Life, The Fall of Fanservice Anime

Totali declares it slice of life season; introduces several of the genre.

Totali takes Sea Slugs’s 7,000th comment.

Totali is revealed to be a “Top 10 Babbler” on Ex-Fan.

Rentington posts Subculture’s 2,000th comment.

Totali takes Dangojoubu’s completely random 600th comment.

Zyl begins spamming Subculture with pingbacks. Totali fights back.

ef- a tale of memories is all the rage.

Totali joins the Anime Blogging Collective; pretends not to be a member by not participating.

Totali celebrates several blogger birthdays for the first time; in particular, everyone’s favorite trap Impz.

Totali hits in America. Subculture is transfered to the Minami server with older veterans. C….can I call you oneesan?

Goshusho-sama Ninomiya-kun single handedly ruins love comedies for Totali, resulting in a season of abstinence.

Winter ‘08: The Boku Boku Era

Totali falls in love.

Despair is brought back to needy souls.

Totali is declared High Warlord of commenting by Zyl; roars.

Subculture’s 3,000th comment is posted by Di Gi Kazune.

Totali receives dangojoujoubu gift art; cherrishes it.

Totali receives Sea Slugs gift art; wonders what science has done.

Kimikiss is all the rage.

Spring ‘08: The Ressurection of Love Comedy – present time

Totali returns to his roots. Love power reappears to overtake the blogsphere.

Hinano ruins Totali for marriage.

Totali participates in the first annual anime blog awards.

Totali becomes the apparent scapegoat of the blogsphere.

Hinano posts Subculture’s 4,000th comment…on this very post. (see comments.)

Blogs now on the stalking list: A hella lot.

I might have left out or forgot about some things during this past year, since I didn’t really have any notes to refer to while writing this post. With just a year of blogging, I’ve already seen a lot of community activities. Bloggers come and go, burnout happens, and drama is started. Subculture has grown tremendously, especially coming from something only meant to be a side hobby. But some things never change. I still go “kya~” when another blogger mentions me, I’m still too intimidated to post on blogs that get hundreds of comments on a regular basis, and I’m still in denial about the success this blog has received. As much as I love writing, I still see this website as a hobby. It’s impossible to deny that anime has taken a pretty big place in my life though. In my circle of friends, there are the movie buffs who have seen any film you can think of. I’m considered to be one of those, except for anime. The only problem is, it’s impossible to find others who watch current anime in the States! I guess that’s why I enjoy this so much. Being able to express my thoughts and interacting with people that have similar hobbies just makes my day.

And of course, it is that interaction that keeps me going. Even though I started this blog as a personal project, and still go into writing with this mindset, I probably wouldn’t have made it this far if it wasn’t for the community and those who have enjoyed my presence. From those I have met in IRC, to those who stand out in the blogsphere, and to those I have more recently interacted with in the ABC, I’ve had a ton of fun stalking everyone hanging out with everyone in the virtual community that is the internet. Then of course, there are the visitors that have stuck with my blog and enjoyed it throughout this past year. Some of you have even kept up since the beginning, which is just amazing to me. You all know who you are. This is a big shout out to everyone, so let’s hope for more fun in the years to come.

So this might be just a bit early or just a bit late, depending on what part of the world you are in. Like some of you knew, I actually celebrated my New Years festivities last week with my rents at their restaurant. Pictured is one of the events that took place, but I forgot what it was it was actually called because I’m a failure of an azn. We basically watched a lion come and own a piece of lettuce and steal kid’s monies. Yea, it was pretty much awesome. Anyways, HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope you all got lots of delicious red packets from all of your relatives that you hardly know!

Just a few random things:

I’ll be in Vegas chillin all this week, but because of all the anime broadcast delays, I won’t be missing much anyways. That basically means I’ll just be late in replying to any discussion you guys bring up. What’s new, right? Oh, and no stalking the blogsphere for awhile! If you guys want some fun, why not check out some of the stuff that new fangled “ABC” is doing….the 12 Days of Xmas or something silly like that.

I won’t be doing a season preview for the Winter season. It’s not usually my style to do so, and last season was an exception because of all the new stuff I had to pick up. For those of you wondering what I’ll be blogging though: Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei is guaranteed, Aria the Origination and Minami-ke Okawari are highly likely, and I have somewhat high hopes for Rosario + Vampire. I’ll have to check out everything else before making any final decisions. If you want a season preview, see Aroduc, Hashihime, or Impz and his army of green haired lolis. A few others will probably pop up during the week as well.

I finally got converted to MyAnimeList like everyone else and their pet dango. Some of you have already found me like a bunch of Facebook stalkers.

Maestro’s recently moved me to a different server, so I’m now neighbors with Danny, Kurogane, Nee-sama, and well…..nee-sama. My RSS feed got fixed in the process as well, for those of you who were having trouble with that.

Usagijen’s not the only one enjoying a new wii. I’ve been playing Zelda a lot, and I can’t wait to Brawl. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Galaxies, so I might just give that a spin too.

I’m secretly a Ayumi Hamasaki fanboy, so I’ve been listening to her new album GUILTY lately. It’s a bit better than Secret in my opinion, but the tracks that stand out the most remain to be the singles that have dominated the oricon recently. Her style doesn’t change as much as say, Utada Hikaru’s.

Merry Xmas!

EDIT: I’m back if you can tell. Happy New Year! It’ll take me awhile to reply to you guys, if ever. If I don’t, don’t worry. I’ve read all of your stuff and um…I love you. Now to wait for the seasonal overload of anime…

It’s a good time of the year for anime blogger birthdays isn’t it? Impz’s celebration wasn’t too long ago, Nomadotto’s happened around the same time, JP Meyer’s kind of went under the table, aura-berry’s happened at the end of last month, and Moyism’s seems to be just around the corner.

Today happens to be my 18th birthday and the release of OSX Leopard. I’m so ready to put it on Mai iMac. Thanks Steve Jobs!

Well, if you do, you might be happy to know that Impz’s birthday is on October 14th! As a celebration, Impz has asked that we all donate to ABnet. Now, I’m sure you’ve all noticed things like the ads on my site and the donation buttons before. All of the funds from these go straight to ABnet, and help to keep our community alive. Any amount helps, and that means any. I encourage anyone that can to donate, so that we can make this a spectacular Birthday for our favorite trap idol.

The donation page is right here.

This actually happened a couple days ago, but I was too busy with school and writing the Fall Preview. Writing this now also makes it my 200th post. I can’t believe It’s been half a year since I started blogging. I still feel like a newbie! I’ve completed two seasons now, and I’m very excited to start blogging in the Fall season with a clean slate. This is a big shout out to everyone who has commented, whether it be regulars or those just stopping by. I love the conversations we get into!

The 1,000th comment went to Kabitzin of Sea Slugs! on my Zero no Tsukaima 2 – 12 post. Ironic?

One of my favorite anime blogs, Sea Slugs!, does monthly interviews on interesting characters of the anime blogging community. When Kabitzin asked me to participate, I was overjoyed. Check the interview out here, and maybe you’ll learn a bit more about your favorite (or maybe not so favorite) blog author!

PS: The interview actually came out like last night, but I couldn’t really find a chance to plug it until now. University takes a lot of time!