Jon’s Creator Showcase | December Edition

Hello everyone and welcome to our place! 🙂

First of all, happy new year! Hope that you had a nice new year’s eve (is that how you call it… Probably not) and that you entered 2019 with your right foot! Oh, and also with new underwear… Or is that a Portuguese thing? Well, no matter. I hope you had fun and that this year will be better than 2018! 🙂

It’s an honor to be showcasing the last showcase of 2018… I mean, it’s already 2019, but it has been going on throughout December… I think you understand what I mean! 😀 We got 23 intros and I decided to talk more deeply about 10 of them. However, since you are all so freaking good writers I will be sharing all the entries we got! I do hope that I didn’t miss any of them, but I read all the answers to my tweet and then went to the hashtag to see if there was any that I missed. So… I did everything I could! If you had an entry and it’s not here, I’m truly sorry and please send me a message on Twitter so I can include it 🙂

If this is your first time hearing about this project, here’s a little info about it (I’d also check out Jon’s official post):

The Jon Creator Showcase was created by Jon over at Jon Spencer Reviews at the beginning of the year. His goal for this project was to have content creators share their work in an interactive way regardless of skill or following. However hosting the showcase gives more work than what one could expect and, as a way to not let the project die, Raistlin suggested having multiple hosts.

October was hosted by Crimson, and just in case there was a month you missed, the full list of stops can be found right here. There are tons of great posts on there so be sure to check out a couple (or all of them)!

If anyone is interested in hosting this showcase for 2019, here is the signup sheet!

The reason I never asked to be the host of the Showcase was because I had this idea that it is something really difficult to do. Now that I have hosted it I can tell you, I was right! Going through your awesome posts and decide which ones should feature the showcase is probably the most difficult thing I did during my blogging life 😀 You are all just amazing! But, heck, here it is!

My Hero Academia s3 – The Peculiar Strength of Accepting Weakness – Irina @Drunkenanimeblog

Irina always knows what she is doing… Ok, maybe she doesn’t know what she is doing, but she always delivers very interesting and easy to read posts… Like, almost every single day! How she is able to do that, I don’t really know. This time she goes into giving her thoughts in season 3 of My Hero Academia. Although at the beginning of the post she does say that every time she writes about My Hero Academia things don’t go as well, the truth is she was able to deliver a wonderful post which of course culminates in a drinking game!

Why Does Teamwork Serve as an Excellent Story Cornerstone? – Karandi @100WordAnime.blog

Another writer of huge weight. Karandi is another one of those bloggers who I just can’t understand how she is able to write so much on a daily basis while maintaining quality. This time, Karandi presents us an opinion post about teamwork, using Tsurune and Run With The Wind as examples of using teamwork for plot reasons. I don’t want to give much, but the post is very well written and made me think about the theme, which is always good, right?

Is Nostalgia Killing The Media Industry- Discussion – Joe @AverageJoeReviews

We are living in an era where media is recycling more and more of the older shows, games, movies, etc. Remaster is a word that we are used to and end up believing. I mean, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot are sitting at my shelf just waiting to be played and I’m patiently waiting for the Final Fantasy 7 remaster to come out. The industry is using nostalgia in a way to increase sales and it’s working! Joe knows that and goes if this nostalgia is killing or not the media industry. Because let’s face it, there are some of them that just didn’t work at all.

The Problem with FLCL’s Sequels – Scott @MechanicalAnimeReviews

Under the same light as Joe, Scott also exposes this problem of using nostalgia to drive sales. In his words: “A huge complaint that I and many other people have for our media these days are the ridiculous number of reboots, extensions and/or sequels, or reimagining’s that have been coming out for a while now.” However, contrary to Joe, Scott goes into depth about FLCL franchize. A very intriguing and interesting post to read, even if you do not follow FLCL.

“Band Of Brothers: This Is Going To Take Me Like 17 Years.” (Or, A Sane Person’s Commentary on “Brothers Conflict” – Dub) – Shoujo Thoughts @ShoujoRamblings

I just love how Shoujo Thoughts writes! They are so freaking funny and this review just made me chuckle several times. This time, Shouko Thoughts reviews Brothers Conflict, a reverse harem Anime where a 17-year old girl moves to her new house… Where her new 13 step siblings live… The thing is, most of them end up falling for her. Shoujo Thoughts goes on and about the problems of the Anime and she even goes and writes what she thinks about each one of the siblings… That’s why it took her 17 years!

Run With The Wind – Passion Vs. Practicality – Ty-chama @WatashiWaBucho

A very nice post (and close to home) about Run With The Wind. Ty-Chama takes episode 5 to write a brilliant piece about how Anime tens to show passion vs. practicality. Meaning, go for your dream at all costs versus not being able to do it because life ends up punching you in the face and it just becomes impossible to reach your dream. I especially love how Ty-Chama is able to somewhat be impartial and give props to both ideas.

Top 10 Tragic Romances in Anime – Nesha @#Moe404

We all know Nesha and his really deep Anime reviews, so, of course, that when he is doing a top it will come out as an article that could be in a magazine! A very insightful top 10 where most, if not all Anime shows have links to his/guest reviews. Basically, if you want to try a new tragic romance, read this!

10 Comedy Anime You Should Watch to Boost Your Mood: Kurumi’s Recommendation – Kurumi Shim @kurumishim

Not a top, but a list. Kurumi Sim knows that laughter is the best medicine and they are here with 10 Anime shows to make us laugh. Kurumi Shim gives us a small glimpse of each Anime they think we should watch and, without being too extensive, gives us a good idea of what each Anime is about. More than that, there are many shows that I still haven’t watched, so my watch list just got even bigger!

Let’s NOT Talk About Mental Health – The Mental Illness Stigma – Lina @TinyUglyAnimal

I just love when Lina writes about mental illness. She just goes and writes everything from a very strong person perspective. She clearly does not want us to feel pity for her, and to be honest, for someone who has to have his problems with depression and anxiety, I give huge props to people like her. This time, Lina talks about how saying mental illness is just being mentally unhealthy is not a good way to go, creating a stigma around mental illness.

Although it is true that if you live a healthy life you will have a healthy mind, that’s true for “normal” people. People who suffer from mental illness have to go to a doctor and be treated as they would if they had a physical disease. Talking about this as a “mental health” kind of problem just makes seems the problem is something easy to fix, which never is. Having a mother who has chronic depression and will never be healthy, I appreciate (a lot) this personal post. Thank you Lina!

Sakura Quest & the Impact of Dying Small Towns on the Japanese Social & Cultural Economy – Anime Review – Biblio Nyan @BiblioNyan

Biblio always write very well written reviews. Her writing skills are just way too good and something that I could not even dream to achieve. Being like that, Biblio writes a very well written review of Sakura Quest with all the facts you need and giving her personal opinion. As usual, she goes into detail about the Anime and how it is a very good one for one to watch if they want to get some intel about Japanese culture,

BONUS: Finding a Balance… (A Personal Post) – Raistlin @raistlin0903

Of course, this post had to be here! I’m one of the lucky persons in the world to have Raistlin as a friend. Without a doubt, one of the bloggers who has given more to the community in existence. So, of course, it is a bummer that we see him leave, even if it’s not forever… I think you all probably have read this post, but, well, it is a very personal post and one that I loved (and hated for obvious reasons) reading.

Other Good Stuff!

Hyouka – A Legitimate Mystery Series by Jon Spencer @jonspencerreviews – A very well written review about Hyouka and how it follows the guidelines for a good mystery.

Haikyuu!!–The Interhigh (Why is this arc important?) by Alex @Alex’sArena – Sometimes it’s not simple to understand why an arc is important to the overall story happening. Alex comes and tells us why is the Interhigh arc important to Haikyuu!! in detail.

Goblin Slayer Episode 7: A Dependable Fellow and a Disturbing Off-Hand Prophecy by The Crow @CrowsWorldOfAnime – Our fellow Crow goes and tells us what he liked the most from episode 7, it even has time snippets so you can find the scenes easily! Hard worker right here, you guys!

Top Ten Bleach Endings by Winter Reverie @winterreverie – Winter Reverie tells us they top 10 endings from the big Anime Bleach with explanation and video to each one of it!

The Story of how I became a Really Neat Blogger!!! by Lynn Sheridan @lynnsheridan – Why just answer questions when you are tagged when you can just create a story about it? A very original way to answer the real neat award!

K-On! The Movie (Eiga Keion!): A Review, Recommendation and Revisitation after Seven Years by infinitezenith @InfiniteMirai – The title says it all (almost)! What it doesn’t say is that you have very nice screenshots with commentary attached to it which makes all the difference! 🙂

The Ultimate Gore Fest (Corpse Party: Tortured Souls Review) by Sam @ANerdyPerspective – Sam reviews Corpse Party while having the perspective of someone who knew and watched Pewdipie playing the games… Which made me want to play the games LOL

The Top 5 Most Mediocre Action Series by Ya Boy Jack @theaniwriter – Not all Anime shows can be masterpieces and Jack knows that and decided to write about the 5 Most Mediocre Action series in his opinion. To be honest, I’m with him! However, I do have to say that it was a risky move to put Noragami there! Props for the courage 😀

Toxicity in Spirited Away’s Bathhouse by Rose @WretchedAndDivine – This is a very good post where Rose takes No Face from Spirited Away and explains its meaning in human society. The only problem I have with it is that it’s not longer xD

The Typical Viewing: The Troubled Life of Miss Kotoura by One Side of Makhail @makhailrehman – A very good review of a not so good Anime. One Side of Makhail talks about Plot, characters, art style, and entertainment value. Basically, everything you need to know if an Anime is for you or not.

700 Blog Posts! Top 10 Passion Projects! by Rossiroad @MyBrainIsCompletelyEmpty – Rossiroad takes an introspective side and writes about his top post/series he has ever written! Rossi is an extremely good blogger, so the post is full of reading gems!

Going Behind the Scenes (!!) by Aria @AnimangaSpellBook – Aria goes and reviews the first volume of Going Behind The Scenes. As always, they know what they are talking about and you will end the post knowing if it’s something you should go for or not.

And that’s all for today! Thank you for making part of this month Showcase and I hope you the best for 2019! 🙂