Inspired by this comment. (If you’re new around these parts, part 1 is here, but that’s not related to this post except for them both being update posts that came out at similar times of the year.)

So, if you didn’t look at that first link for whatever reason, I haven’t totally gone off the map after the Cowboy Bebop post – I just started cramming like crazy for the JLPT and dedicated myself to my class for the last 2 months (…and will probably end up doing that for the final half a month as well…although, ironically enough, I was typing this update post instead of working on my final assignment, LOL). I’ve been reading manga, but I just haven’t had the heart to blog about anime, or even do my usual simulcast commentary, for a while. That said, after that last half month, I’ve got another half month to wrap up some “work experience” (I put it in quotation marks because I just did online volunteer translation work and watching professional development videos for it, as opposed to the socially active budding translator, who would’ve found an internship or few for this sort of thing)…and then a big fat space of nothing, except for working, graduating in May and otherwise letting my life go on beyond my Master’s.

The post I’ve been promising for Kekkai Sensen and Beyond is about half finished. I’ve finished the series itself, but I’m not happy with the post because you can tell my heart isn’t in it. That said, it seems what I was promising was interpreted as a review by a commenter and that could be a potential outcome…at the expense of actually needing to pay attention to some of the episodes…and more time…

After that, I have yet to look at many of the recent Shonen Jump debuts, like Ginka and Gluna, and I’ve been wanting to get around to it so I might do a rapid-fire impressions thing for them (no promises if it falls through, though!). I also owe the rest of the TBR/W, although it may have to be realigned with what’s available on Crunchyroll and HiDive first.

(…Oh! Speaking of which, Dororo (the 2019 version) will be available on HiDive with the dub this month! I didn’t like the 15th episode – which is the one I saw in Japan when I went – but I do otherwise love it, which is why it’s on my AniList favourites despite my not finishing it yet. I might blog about that too if I remember to do so.)

Aside from that, I’ve been thinking I should do more translations akin to this one with my newly-acquired spare time and I’ve been collecting articles I find around the internet towards that end. Not only will that diversify traffic, but it will handily combine all my objectives into a project I can keep working on for a while.

Another option is to post more about the JLPT and translation as a career. The former category is well documented around the internet, due to its potential application on resumes at the N1 – 3 levels, the test’s global reach and so on (…there’s an entire blog about it, natch), but the latter, I find, is not covered very well despite having similar arguments for people who love anime, manga and Japanese culture in general. That’s because how to apply for translation degrees and jobs can vary between regions and positions, so it’s hard to recommend things to someone who doesn’t know if they want to be a translator that badly. However, for someone who wants to take the same path or a similar one as me, the best advice is from someone who’s actually been there and done that, right?

On this front, I have a very lengthy post (as in, it will be multiple parts – there’s basically no doubt about that) about how to learn Japanese with HypMic in the works written with the JLPT in mind (…no, it won’t stop you from the ol’ rote learning, but it will give you a goal to work towards), which is meant to be specific to that fandom, but some of the techniques could be applied to other franchises or even other languages.

Anyways, what do you think? Is what I’ve suggested too far off the current brand of content?