Inspired by an old comment I gave Karandi.

Much like the reason I read manga changes over time, the nature of why I rewatch things has changed as well. My set of “‘why I rewatch things’ categories” differ to Karandi’s for the most part, so let’s begin:

The Rewatch to Experience Again

Well…the idea for this one lies in the name. After all, “rewatch” means “watch again”. As I say in the aforementioned comment, I’ll sometimes rewatch parts of episodes or single episodes simply because I love that part so much, or in cases where streaming became available long after the first distribution like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura, to refresh my memory on what happened in the storyline up until I finally hit new content.

This also accounts for things like checking details when writing posts up (such as Yomu’s collab) or hitting rewind after finishing the episode the first time to catch what someone said in either sub or dub formats.

Examples: that one Christmas where I rewatched Christmas episodes, rewatching part of the final episode of Classicaloid season 1 to psyche myself up for something (which I don’t remember, but it might’ve had something to do with public speaking), rewatching the debut episode of Cure Beat in Suite PreCure just because I was in the mood for it

The Rewatch to Cover the Content in the Episode in Some Blogging Capacity

I say this because sometimes I don’t analyse, I just go wherever the post idea takes me. For instance, I did a Samurai Flamenco rewatch somewhere in…I think it was either 2014 or 2015…using a format utilised by Skye-chan. (The blog’s gone now, so if you go looking you won’t find it.)

In fact, the most recent string of rewatches in 2016 – 7 were because I was trying to fill a gap in the notes I’d been making, which I’d been doing for every simulcast I’ve ever seen…and that basically burnt me out of rewatching whole series for a while, even though there was a small fraction of it that actually wasn’t watching again. (It was this particular period where I made peace with the fact I actually don’t like Osomatsu-san as much as I think I do, which is why I remember it with some clarity…because by not watching season 2, it saved me a bunch of time in the long run.)

Note that often I write posts after having watched the related episodes once (or maybe having gone back to check a few details), with the possible exception of the first episode due to the anime club, so my memory of the content needs to be good…hence one reason for the notes. Sometimes I write posts up while still watching for the first time, just to save time and keep my memory on what’s happening as fresh as possible.

Examples: aside from the aforementioned examples, there was also the mini Blue Exorcist rewatch I did as a pilot for the Samurai Flamenco rewatch

The Rewatch to Share

It’s basically Karandi’s reason, but with the added dimension of the anime club – because the club I’ve been with for the past few years only watches first episodes with the exception of anime marathons or movies, although this changed when the media manager for 2018 – 2019 decided to stream Gridman and Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii. This is why my memory of first episodes, especially those from the past few years, is so strong. It was especially fun seeing people’s reactions to Zombieland Saga this way…

Also, a common thing that Japanese classes do when the teacher doesn’t want to do some teaching is to watch Ghibli movies, Summer Wars or stuff like that. That’s the reason why I haven’t finished Wolf Children or The Wind Rises yet.

Examples: watching the first episode or so of Matantei Loki Ragnarok with an anime club circa 2013 (my choice, LOL)

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Funnily enough, I can read a book (including manga) and then leave it alone for some time, then read it again with a fresh perspective. It’s the same with my old writing pieces (which I’ve kept in Word documents ever since they were first typed)…but anime isn’t the same way, because I don’t forget anime as well as I do manga or books.

So, that’s all from me. What’s your main purposes for rewatching?