This is a weekly report on activities we’ve been taking part in during the week. It’ll generally revolve around some aspect of Japanese Culture, but usually not stray from it. These are also usually quick thoughts, so we hope you enjoy our quick take on a few of things we’ve been up to so far. You can feel free to share what you all have been up to as well.

I started The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki, City Hunter, Hoshizora no Memoria, and Muv-Luv Unlimited .
I finished HeartCatch Precure (9/10) and Phoenix Drive (1/10).
I dropped Tari Tari and Natsuyuki Rendezvous because I have amazing anime taste.

Mahou shoujo is the best genre and Summer 2012 still sucks.

Well, school has started again. I like most of my classes, and most of my teachers make learning not as painful. I’m definitely not looking forward to the return of homework, though.

This week a friend of mine sent me a little Chopper key chain that I absolutely love. The only other anime related merchandise I own is a Fullmetal Alchemist necklace, so getting this was a pleasant surprise. Another exciting event of the week is that I finally managed to finish the first season of Bakuman, which is an unexpected plus. I’m also starting to work on doing some much needed catch up in terms of airing stuff.

You know, we’re called Anti-Social Geniuses for a reason. Generally that means I need to spend some time not socializing. This is apparently why I’m getting some bloggers tagging me in the Aniblogger Interrogation game. Yes, you don’t know how bad this is. So far, I’ve had 4 bloggers 5 bloggers tag me, with 4 I’m going to miraculously answer in next week’s Sunday Spotlight. Why not this week’s? Because I have a guest blogger stopping by to write in the column this week. Stop by and I hope you like the themes presented in the column. By the way, praying I don’t get any more questions to answer from today to next Sunday.

But another thing is that I have a ton of shows to finish and check out since Funimation likes to send me a bunch of anime. Anime I need to watch and review: Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt, Shiki, Fractale, Technolyze, Shakugan No Shana S1, Ergo Proxy, and Freezing. I also have a few Digital Manga titles in the review queue. Let’s keep things short: it’s time to embrace the inner anti-social person inside me and avoid Twitter. I can only guess I won’t.

Well, at least I have a picture of Penguinbear to keep me sane. Or is it insane?

I spent a good chunk of my week catching up on my anime/manga podcast backlog. Podcasts are perfect for a shy lurker-type like me; I get to listen to interesting conversations without the pressure to contribute. A lot of the podcasts I caught up on focused on Otakon, so I feel like I get to live vicariously through them. I mainly listen to ANNcast and Manga Out Loud with the occasional Reverse Thieves’ The Speakeasy, but is there anything else I should pick up? There aren’t a lot of manga-focused podcasts though, which I prefer.

I’ve also noticed that despite liking mostly everything I gave impressions on this season, I’m only actually watching Natsuyuki Rendezvous. SAO has an interesting premise, but the second episode didn’t compel me much. Binbougami-ga! is funny, but I don’t feel an urge to keep up with it weekly. And given that Tari Tari bored me in the first episode, I’m not surprised that I haven’t watched another episode. At least I’m learning more about my own tastes…

I did watch an episode of Macross though, so I’ll keep up with that. And Rose of Versailles continues to keep me entertained though it’s a little more violent than I expected (someone gets WHIPPED~). I also made my first in-store anime purchase in years: both seasons of Code Geass. I figured you couldn’t beat 30 bucks a season. So all in all, a decent week.

I’ve spent most of this last week catching up on my blogs. This means finishing up my first-time ever viewing of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I also started on Story of Saiunkoku, am 2/3rds through Heroic Age (God help me I hate it), and marathoned Black Lagoon because that is one FRICKIN AWESOME anime! ^.^ I don’t -do- action anime, but Black Lagoon is the happy exception to the rule. And to finish off a great week, my copy of the first season of Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl came in the mail yesterday! The moment that set came down to $23, I was on it like syrup on pancakes. Or hot fudge on ice cream. Whatever.

I’ve also come to the end of Hatoful Boyfriend, the pigeon dating sim I’d heard so much about and bought with more than a few reservations. I honestly think this is one of the most hilarious (yet awesome) things I’ve played recently.

I’m also attempting to expand my blogroll, and have discovered that the blogging community is shockingly close-knit, and see the same 10-15 blogs come up over, and over, and over. Is it awesome? Yes. Is it frustrating? Yes, that too. Those blogs are big for a reason. I’d love to see some smaller and less well-known ones come up. Ones that aren’t dead at this point.

I finally got over my jetlag from China (I think) and I’m playing Star Ocean for a short and easy breather after the lengthy Ao no Kiseki. I’ve started up Rewrite Harvest Festa! after finishing Dengeki Stryker, so far it’s alright. I admit I don’t play fandisks of visual novels much since they’re usually just fluff, but for Rewrite I happened to want more fluff because the original game lacked it and I managed to like the characters a lot.

I admit I haven’t really kept up with summer 2012 anime. Ever since I began to play visual novels and got really into games for story, I can only marathon anime. The last time I actually watched new episodes weekly was…back during Madoka, I think.