Best of Anime / Miscellaneous

The Best of Anime 2012


Now that 2012 is over, it’s time for our yearly diversion into the ranking of things, the Best of Anime 2012 post! This year we’re doing things a little different, not the least because it’s not Divine’s name at the top of this post. As with the season previews, where once one man was enough, now multiple writers are teaming up. Divine was legendary for completing upwards to 3/4ths of the anime airing in a year by himself, which left him uniquely able to identify the best that year had to offer. Alas, his hiatus from blogging also hit his time for watching anime, so the three active writers who watched the most anime this past year are stepping in to take up the torch.

…more after the jump

Disclaimer: As always, disclaimers abound! Please keep in mind that “best” is subjective. What’s best for us isn’t necessarily best for you, and that’s okay. This list shouldn’t be taken as some kind of inviolable truth, but rather the opinions of three guys after a lot of anime watching and about eight hours of arguing, which are naturally influenced by our own tastes, experiences, and personal impressions. Before you go bashing one of our choices, please make sure that you’ve at least seen it and know where we’re coming from. Finally, all we ask is that you respect our opinions, just like we respect yours. Thank you.

Disclaimer #2: The choices in this post are not necessarily reflective of the opinions of all RandomC writers. They are solely the opinions of Moomba, Zephyr, and I (Stilts), and no one else. Thank you for your understanding.

* This post will be kept at the top for the next while, so be sure to scroll past it or check the Recent Entries on your right for new posts.

Miscellaneous / Poll

Reader’s Choice – Best Anime 2012 Poll

It’s that time of year again – welcome, one and all, to the Seventh Annual Reader’s Choice poll! Do you have a favorite series you’d like to see win? Or perhaps you’re just curious what everyone else enjoyed this year? Well either way, this is the time to cast your vote and make your voices heard!

As has become our habit, there will be two polls for you to vote on this year – one for regularly broadcast TV series, and another for OVA/movies. We’re asking you for your top 5 picks in each poll, which should stop the results from being heavily skewed towards the mega-popular shows. This year we have an astounding 132 TV series and 71 OVA/movies for you to choose from, so make sure you look over the entire list before deciding. Also, please respect other people’s choices in the comments, and keep in mind that entertainment is subjective. People like what they like, so even if you might think they have terrible taste (ooo, ooo, ooo, that’s me!!), please try to respect their opinions.

More after the jump.

Note: The polls will close on Tuesday, January 1st at 8:00 AM GMT. Results will be posted in the Best of Anime 2012 post, which will be written by the three active writers who have watched the most anime this year.

Update: Polls closed. Thank you for taking the time to vote!

Miscellaneous / Random Musings

As You’ve Probably Noticed…

…the site’s been down for the past couple of days. I managed to put up a maintenance message for a good part of time, but for those who missed it, the server had a hardware issue that required some emergency maintenance. The short story is that the hard drive was failing. To make matters worse, the RAID-1 mirrored drive that’s supposed to have me covered in this situation actually failed back in July without my knowledge, which left the site running on a single faulty drive that needed to be backed up and swapped out immediately so that both drives could be replaced.

With the help of Mentar and his friend Fruit, I managed to get a full up-to-date backup of the site, so nothing was lost — not even a single comment — unlike the crash we had back in the day on Aniblogger. It took me longer than I would’ve liked to reconfigure the server with a new Debian (Squeeze) distro, but everything should be up and running now. I expect there to be some hiccups, so please let me know if you encounter any issues (performance or otherwise). Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Note: Expect a flurry of posts to be published, as the writers have been staying on top of things during the downtime.

Miscellaneous

RC Contest – Guess That Chibi!

Random Curiosity has a new banner – this time, it’s not from an anime. This banner is a collaboration project between me and Prooof. I’ve drawn the RC crew (current writers) as chibis while Prooof did the amazing equalizer background.

When I finished my drawings, the other writers suggested that we should make you – our dear readers – guess which writer each chibi represents. I thought I’d make a little contest out of this.

Hints so far: 6 (inside the post)

Note: This is a sticky post. Scroll past this for the regular posts! This post will be probably be stickied until someone wins. We have a winner!

Miscellaneous

Looking for Graphic Artists in Our Community

She Needs Your Help!


The guidelines are simple — design a RandomC T-shirt for use at Anime Expo!

  • Design the Whole T-Shirt.
  • One-Sided or Two-Sided.
  • Design a Character! I attached one that my friend drew for me but they can be tall, short, skinny, or skinny Rihoko Size — be creative!
  • Deadline is May 31st, 2012! Gotta get the shirt made in time for the convention!
  • Please submit your creations to takaii @ randomc.net.

    • More Details after the Jump!

    Miscellaneous

    Podcast – “Is this mic on?”


    Many of you probably remember and greatly enjoyed the old Monthly Retrospectives, but unfortunately, they became too much work to put together because they were almost as time consuming as the season previews, except every month instead of every three. Then, I had a brilliant idea! What if Random Curiosity turned the written retrospectives into podcasts instead?

    And so I set off to learn about podcasting. One of my friends introduced me to her friends at METANORN, another excellent anime blog who have graciously allowed me to be a guest on their METAVERSE podcasts. The fine people there were a lot of fun, and I learned a great deal about podcasting too – so please support me, RandomC, and METANORN by listening to their 15th podcast and let me know what you think!

    The facepalm is because now you all know what I sound like, haha!
    Podcast Link