Posted by Hello there! My name is Gabie. I am a self-employed Brazilian designer, social media strategist, copywriter and digital marketer. I am also the mother of two cats (a midget devil called Jupiter and an adventurer called Mago) and two lady dogs (a blind husky called Jerry Bonksalot—yes, she bonks in a lot of places—and a highly anxious mixed beagle called Pina).
My day to day life consists of working, cooking, baking, weight-lifting, watching anime with my boyfriend, reading manga, fanfics, trying to understand human behavior and drinking tea.
I recently binged One Piece starting on episode one all the way to the latest episode available, which I think was 964—in a total of two months and thirteen days. I had just taken a step back from overworking and was a bit lost regarding my professional career.
When going through periods like these some might take a sabbatical, go to a retreat or simply spend some time in nature away from everything. But given the current situation, me being an introvert, and the fact that I live in a tropical island in the middle of Southeast Asia where the only nature I get is either going to the garbage-littered tourist beaches or to the ass-sweat-snake-jungles, I decided to give this epic saga a go.
For me, watching One Piece felt like doing extremely intensive introspective practice while being on the best vacation of my life. At 27 years old I reconnected with my inner child in ways that I hadn’t in a long, long time. Needless to say, I got pretty aligned afterwards.
Why am I saying all of this? Because for the first time I critically looked at my relationship with anime and manga and understood that all along what really drew me into this world were the lack of deep personal values in my upbringing and my almost excruciating need of guidance from someone, or something.
I think most of us can connect with this. It wasn’t my father who taught me that I have to mean what I say and that my beliefs structure who I am. That was Kishimoto, Arakawa, Oda and many others. Consistency, diligence, integrity, bravery, honesty, honor, logic, the strength in silence, constructive conflict and critical thinking. What does it mean to live by these values? And what kind of life is led by doing so?
In the absence of a mentor, I found my teachings in anime and manga.
With all that said, I think it’s easy to see what type of stories are my favorites; the ones where the main protagonist and cast, including villains, are moved by their own purpose and values—or they develop these along the way—and also, stories where we see a lot of character growth.
Some of my personal favorites are: One Piece (if that wasn’t obvious), Vinland Saga, Shingeki no Kyojin, Mushoku Tensei and the oddball Hinamatsuri—probably the funniest series I have ever stumbled upon.
This also extends to the shoujo/josei demographic, where for me it’s become harder and harder to find series where I find myself as enthralled and inspired as with shounen/seinen. Glass Mask, Gakuen Alice, Full Moon Wo Sagashite and Fruits Basket, all manga versions, being at the top of my list.
The reason why I joined RandomC is because I want to become a better writer and professional whilst giving myself the chance to do something I’ve always wanted to. In my application I wrote that writing for a blog about a subject which I’m passionate about and dealing with deadlines sounded like an enticing opportunity for me to become better, and I meant it.
As for my relationship with the blog itself, I was an avid reader of Samu’s weekly Bleach chapter reviews. I remember the feeling of excitement of checking in for a new review every week and man, when the last chapter came out, what a journey!
With all that said, it is a pleasure to meet you all and I hope that we can have a great time unravelling some incredible stories! Many thanks for reading and I wish you all a great day or evening~
Welcome!
Thank you!
Hello. I can relate to your post so much. I am at a point in my career where I needed to re evaluate myself and what I really want for the future. Interestingly enough, as I grew older I became more of Manga fan rather than anime, but during the Pandemic I re started watching some new anime that brought back dear childhood memories. I came back to rad Random and realized how much it has change from way back and I am glad too see if had been for the better.
I’m so happy to hear that my story resonates with you! I totally feel you about becoming more of a manga fan as you matured, but then finding a sweet balance between both anime and manga thanks to reconnecting to your childhood #feels.
Going back to that place helps me reconnect with my purpose for doing the things I do!
Thank you so much for your message and I wish you the best of luck on your journey~
And also, welcome back aboard the RandomC community ^3^~
Welcome one and welcome all! This onslaught of hirings is wholesome.
Thank you so very much! Totally agreed! Our whole team and community is one big bowl of wholesome Ramen (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ
Welcome to RandomC.net
I hope you will find joy here
Thank you!
I already am ♡
welcome
Thank you!
Welcome! Firstly i need to say that i fell in love in your instagram. Hope you didnt mind me checking this out. Also you made me feel nonstalgic, not only by mentioning such classics like gakuen alice, fruits basket (manga), but also posts about manga on RandomC. It would be so cool to see them here again! Still im curious what series you will pick, bc somehow you seem to have similar taste to mine. If you also dont mind me asking – what fanfics do you like? Last, but not least your family sounds lovely!
Oh my! You’re making me blush Shiro-chan~
Of course I don’t mind, I really put a lot of love and care on my instagram, so hearing this feedback makes my day!
I might have some great news for you; I’ll be taking in the job of writing manga posts (as well as anime and some special articles) for this lovely community, so I’ll be in your care *bow* and I’m so happy that you specifically mentioned Gakuen Alice (≧◡≦) ♡ I feel like this manga is so underrated.
Regarding fanfics, I call them my *romance/fujoshi* outlet hahaha. So that’s where I get all the drama I need. Pairings like GaaraxHinata, SanjixZoro, LuffyxLaw and my latest obsession ShanksxBuggy are some of my guilty pleasures (sorry to anyone that feels offended by this fujoshi aunty lol). What about you?!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment ♡ I hope to see you around!
Sorry for late reply!That’s great news. From your post I already have theory which manga you might pick 😀 Yeah, its shame that when someone mentions shoujo, Gakuen Alice is rarely listed… Also I’m happy to find fellow fujoshi 🙂 SanjixZoro i remember had plenty of doujinshi, which i read without even watching one piece, but if there are fanfics too, then maybe i need to get back into that ship lol. As for me I recently got into Cloud x Sephiroth thanks to ff7 remake and MegumixSukuna (JJK), since latter is the biggest simp 😀 tbh reading fanfics on ao3 is quite addictive… Do you mind also sharing your MAL? 😀
No worries about that! I think there’s a charm to these comment sections since we don’t get notifications (っ˘ω˘ς )
There’s great content on AO3 for SanjixZoro! I absolutely recommend if you liked the doujinshi (I’ve read many of them, but I’m still surprised that Zoro ends up being Uke hahaha, there’s more nuance in the fics regarding SemexUke dynamics). You just opened up a new door for me, our race (Fujoshi) is so precious, I can’t express how much I appreciate us, MegumixSukuna, here I come.
Speaking about FF7 remake, I’ve been meaning to borrow it from my brother! You also just reminded me of that! Cloud x Sephiroth is such a classic, I remember my Fujoshi cosplay friends were madly crazy about them.
Absolutely! Here’s MAL
As for the manga I’ll be covering: it wasn’t mentioned on this post! hehe~
Your cats & dogs sound lovely.
Welcome!
Thank you very much!
They are a great happiness in my life!
Welcome aboard…
Thank you!
I also binged One Piece at a difficult time, which was what got me into anime in the first place. Granted, it was only slightly over 500 episodes at the time, but I did finish it in about a month. It gave me something to sort of enjoy and obsess over, find some happiness in, in a time everything was very boring and empty. It filled a void.
I’m so happy to see Gakuen Alice mentioned too! I really loved reading it, but it’s always hard to recommend to the average person because it is about children, and people just want their high school shows (not that I don’t understand the draw of an older cast of characters though). A show where children were forced to mature too early (which makes sense in that isolated setting) yet still acted like children was really enjoyable.
I really enjoy your writing style and will look forward to whatever you bring us!
Hey ZJ! It’s so incredible how many of us have found comfort, inspiration, strength and a safe space in anime. One Piece is definitely a very very special show, what Oda has done and continues to do is just masterful! Did you, by any chance, watch the Youtube video that was released by the official OP channel in celebration of chapter 1000? I got super emotional watching it!
I can definitely see how the average person can be fooled by the apparent premise of Gakuen Alice! But if they get past the first chapters, they soon can start seeing what all of us big time fans of the series saw. I think Higuchi-sensei is a brilliant writer, she can deliver darkness in one page and naturally transition to wholesome feels in the next one quite flawlessly. Every single character is full of personality and depth (remember Hosshan?!). I absolutely agree with your take on it and maybe that can be a way to get people interested on it…
Maybe we can bring this incredible series to the spotlight in the future, it definitely deserves more attention!
And thank you so much, I’m beyond happy to hear that you enjoyed my writing, it means the world to me ♡
Thank you!! I never knew there was that One Piece video, and I smiled so much while watching it I thought my face would fall right off. It reminded me of the old times where I would browse forums like “what is your favourite OP quote?” and relive all the memories of the key moments again.
Gakuen Alice definitely had a cast of lovable characters and a lot of heart! Maybe it is time for a reread…
You’re very welcome! That video is a wholesome arrow shot straight to your heart #feels
omg, anime forums, so much nostalgia~
Definitely do a re-read! I’ve been meaning to as well, but unfortunately the scans available online are terrible quality translation (another reason why I wanted to reconnect with this series), so I’m looking for a way to get my hands on the official English printed manga!
Welcome to the RandomC family, Gabie! As long as you aren’t killing people’s favourite characters like that Gabi, then we’re good to go.
I’m never going to live this down (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)
I want everyone to know that she *no spoilers* was also my favorite character, and that she’s even listed on my MAL favorite character’s list (ಥ﹏ಥ)
I promise that the only things I’ve killed myself were mosquitos, spiders, cockroaches and ants.
Holy cow they really been ramping up the new recruits! Welcome!
Thank you! This crew is incredibly talented (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ (senpais and fellow new recruits!)
Welcome, welcome!
It’s great to have another One Piece fan on board! Are you going to cover the manga? It would be nice to have some One Piece coverage on RC again 🙂 The latest chapters have been on fire! If you don’t mind me asking does that picture mean you are a Zoro fan? Hope you have a great time here!
Thank you very much for such a warm welcome!
Yes! I am a huge Zoro fan! What an inspiring character he is, one of my main inspirations for lifting heavy weights haha! In my opinion Wano has been an INCREDIBLE arc for him. And I couldn’t agree more with you, the latest chapters have been on fire, I was completely fooled by *that drawing* (no spoilers)
Who are your favorite characters?! (I also love Crocodile and Doflamingo, amazing villains).
As for covering OP, I feel that this comes with a huge weight and responsibility… So it’s a not yet from me, but who knows what the future holds!
Good to hear! Yeah, the weights that Zoro trains with are ridiculous 😀 If you train with the same you’ll have severe back problems, LOL.
As for my favorite characters, you may have guessed Zoro is my absolute favorite, not just in One Piece but all of anime. I’ve been reading One Piece since 2004 and I’ve been following him and rooting for him ever since he was introduced. Man is just so hardcore, I could never be like him but still inspire to be. I’ve been loving the focus he’s been getting in Wano (best arc post time-skip, maybe ever).
Other favorites are Mihawk, Cavendish, Katakuri, Robin and Ace and Law…there are too many to list. One Piece has too many great characters 🙂 Favorite villain is definitely Kaido (if you don’t count Katakuri, which I kind of do not think of as a villain anymore).
I understand One Piece will be hard to cover, it’s the Behemoth of manga after all. Have fun whatever you decide!
HAHAHA OMG. I don’t even know if it’s humanly possible to lift Zoro’s weights 🤣🤣
Last year the guy who played The Mountain in GoT broke the world record for deadlifting at 501kg. By what Oda draws, Zoro’s lifting even higher than that! I’d say he’s close to the tons. My personal best is a mere 80kg x 2 LOL (but inside of my head I’m like “santoryuu ONI GIRI”)
Oh! You’re a long-timer in the fandom *bows down*. Zoro’s such an incredibly honest and straightforward character right? I also love how observant he is and how Oda portrays that in the smallest glances. I couldn’t agree more with you! Wano has been an amazing arc. Summit War has been my number one, but Wano might take up that spot!
I love your list of favorites and that Cabbage-kun is in it 🥺 Kaido is a GREAT villain indeed and I also agree with you. I don’t see Katakuri as a villain. Man, I’m so looking forward to him making another appearance. I have hopes that one day him and Pudding will ally with the Mugiwara-tachi (maybe for the Paramount War).
And also Bon-chan!
Hahaha, thank you so much for the support! Once I’m more confident in myself as a writer I can see that happening 😎
Welcome Gabie! Saudações de terras tupiniquins! 😀
Você não sabe o quanto que eu esperei por esse comentário, já estava quase desistindo das esperanças de também estarmos por aqui (já que estamos em todos os lugares) #emoção
Obrigada Mars! Espero te ver mais por aqui!
kkkk Fico feliz em sanar essa espera! 😀
Sendo sincero eu tinha praticamente certeza que não seria o primeiro ou o único a faz esse comentário. Acabou sendo uma surpresa para mim.
Pode deixar, estarei por aqui! Abração.