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This is the wallpaper I use for my laptop screensaver.
Just kidding.
This is a simple post about one of the simple little things a lot of us do as anime fans: download wallpapers of our favourite anime. I know I do it – what about you?
In my experience, having an anime wallpaper as my screensaver is one of those little things that makes me remember my fondness for anime every time I turn my computer on. Even if I’m not consciously thinking about anime or concentrating on the image, it does brighten up my day a little bit every time I see it. It’s one of those seemingly inconsequential things we do that can get us more engaged with this hobby of ours, but it can certainly add to our enjoyment of anime as a whole. Appreciating anime isn’t always just typing up walls of text analysing themes and motifs and whatnot – sometimes it shows simply in what we do.
So I’m going to talk about my current wallpaper, why I picked it and why it helps improve my appreciation of the anime, even if it’s just a tiny little bit. Here it is below:
Anyone know what series this picture is from? Yep, it’s Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai!
What would this picture say about the owner of this wallpaper? First of all, most obviously, it says that I am an OreImo fan. This is very true. Second of all, it indicates my favourite part of the series – the sibling relationship between the two main characters when they were children.
It’s a picture steeped in childhood innocence and nostalgia. I remember being fascinated with bubbles as a kid and not to mention I still remain pretty attached to my childhood years even at my ripe old age of nineteen. So I can relate a lot to the image. I think it’s pretty sweet.
Now imagine being confronted with this image on a day-to-day basis. What sort of message would that reinforce upon you? It’s heartwarming, so it should make you smile. It also conjures up the atmosphere of some of the sweetest, most emotionally genuine scenes in OreImo. If you were not an OreImo fan, you would not be looking at these sorts of pictures constantly, but as a fan, this exposure regularly enhances a rather underplayed aspect of the series. So it makes me love it all the more. It’s not entertainment from within the series but entertainment from outside it, and it helps bolster my appreciation for what I have in front of me.
Simple but effective, isn’t it?
Another quick example. Here is my previous wallpaper:
This wallpaper is from Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, another series I am really, really into. This picture made me laugh every time I saw it. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for Ryuunosuke (the trap in the middle) or to envy him. By the way, the Japanese writing there says “Who is the cutest?” and I would have to say, for my money, that Ryuunosuke is the cutest.
What this wallpaper does is serve up a quick reminder of the type of humour Sakurasou has as a series. And yes, yes it’s sort of one of those ecchi fanservice shows as well. (But only kind of.) But it’s not an embarrassing picture to look at in terms of its risque quality, so I had no guilt using this as a screensaver. It still made me look like a dork, though.
To cap, fans pick their wallpapers to help them relive their favourite aspects of a series – and it’s effective, because every time I look at a wallpaper I used I smile a little to myself. Wallpapers often capture a “micro narrative”, whether it’s a particular scene or an action. A good wallpaper captures the essence of the series in one single image and that’s what often draws us to them. So every time we positively appraise a wallpaper, our appreciation for the aspect of the anime that it captures often increases subtly as well.
Do you have an anime wallpaper too? If so, let’s remember love. Let’s appreciate what we usually don’t appreciate. What kind of anime wallpaper do you use and what made you pick it?
I’m planning my next post to be about some pretty heady topics, so for now let’s sit back and talk about something easy and simple. Love should be simple, right? And it’s the simple things we do that make our appreciation for anime that much stronger!
Frogkun.com 
Oh man – I absolutely adore both your wallpapers! Enough so that I’m considering trying to find a similar OreImo one myself…
First, let me say this is a great post about some of the little things we all tend to do to stay connected/involved with our fandom. And a nice story :)
As for me, I have a nice picture Haruhi and Yuki from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I’ve always been fond of bright colors (I never grew out of that phase) and more “artsy” types of drawings (from more angular/layered to swirly impressionist), and the picture of the two has both in spades. It also has the clothes in a perfect position of “just revealing enough” but not too much, which is one of the things I love about “classy” ecchi (less is more man!). And it has some yuri undertones, which, although I’m not crazy about, in that case is pretty hot.
But that’s just in terms of aesthetics. I really keep it up because Haruhi and Yuki were my first real anime “waifus”, and the show was my first real blind obsession. When I discovered it back in high school, I converted to Haruhi-ism, bought only Haruhi merchandise, and developed a huge thing to tsunderes that still has survived to this day. And when I finally started growing out of that phase (thank god haha), my next big thing was for the quiet, mysterious, contemplative Yuki. I also had a thing for a petite girl at the time, and Yuki to me was sort of my 2D extension of that.
So when I look at that my background, I’m reminded not only of my first experience “falling madly in love” with both anime and characters, but also memories of my high school days – both the good and the bad. So quite nostalgic ;)
Awww, thanks for sharing your story! I saw the picture you had of it on your blog; didn’t know there was a sentimental reason for having it, but then, aren’t we all like that?
Also, for some reason, when you talked about liking tsunderes and then switching to the quiet, mysterious girl, I felt like that was you switching camp from “Asuka” to “Rei”, Shame on you, I’m an Asuka fan forever <3
My first anime wallpaper was a fanart of Aikatsu! comprising of the first five members of the main cast wearing their outfits, but I changed that to the second to last image of Kin-iro Mosaic’s first episode a few days earlier. I choose them because seeing them lightens me up from heavy mood from my work load, especially at this point of my life.
I agree. A cute, heartwarming image is always the best thing to look at after a hard day at work. Sort of puts you at ease, doesn’t it?
I always use anime fanarts as wallpaper, be it on my laptop or my phone. It just feels right, you know. I even want to customize my gadgets to fit my anime tastes! Right now, my wallpaper is Rivaille from Shingeki no Kyojin. It is kinda random because I just feel the need for a change. But previously, it was Sinbad and his 8 Generals in chibi forms [Magi]. I love cute things, you see.
Anyway, I might as well change my wallpaper because it feels kinda dark and gloomy. I need something to brighten up the atmosphere whenever I open my laptop.
Oh, I’m using Hyouka wallpaper for my phone. Just wanted to share ;)
Anime fanart as wallpaper because we are anime fans. Whoa! That does sound majorly appropriate, come to think of it.
Ooooooh Hyouka! I had a Hyouka wallpaper just before my Sakurasou one. And yeah, I prefer the ones that feel cheerful over the dark and gloomy ones, too. Don’t know how you’d find a cheerful and peppy Shingeki no Kyojin pic, though. Good luck with that, lol!
You never know! I’ve already seen a really cheerful SnK fanarts. Don’t underestimate those artists, their imaginations are without limit! xD
You would if you were looking up Levi x Eren fanarts, you know? ;)
Heh, I make all kinds of images I find wallpapers, even if they’re not quite the right pixel dimensions. As long as they fit well on my screen (which is my 40″ HD TV :3) and don’t look too distorted, I’ll make all of my favorite pictures wallpapers at some point. I’m always changing them around since I have so many XD The ones I tend to use the most are group images with a lot of characters, pretty and/or detailed pictures such as well made fan art, or sometimes I feel like a simple one that just has one character or isn’t particularly detailed. There’s just so many I’ve been using over the past 12 years I’ve been an anime fan and also had my own computer XD
I’m jealous. You use a 40″ HD TV as your computer screen.
Switching images often feels refreshing, I think. Every time you open up your computer it’s got a completely different mood. I get too lazy to change up my screensaver that often, though.
One of the things I used to do is customize the heck out of my desktop such as changing the system fonts, icons and stuff. But nowadays, I don’t have the free time to do that. But generally, I use wallpapers that look pretty and pleasing to the eye from series I have watched and enjoy. Examples include Ore no Imouto, Clannad, Madoka, Nanoha, Idolmaster, etc. But most of the wallpapers I use have cute girls rather than males.
While I don’t use anime screensavers, I do name my computers, phones, etc after Anime Characters from shows I watched since I own a lot of computers. I named my Macbook Pros that I currently use as Takamachi Nanoha and Takanashi Rikka. But yes, I kind of show it already if someone looks at my screen.
Cute girls ftw!
Naming your gadgetry after anime characters? That’s the first time I’ve heard about someone doing that. Suddenly makes me think of all the potential in this world. I hereby dub my computer Jacuzzi Splot.
At the moment I use my favourite JPop/Rock groups as my wallpaper. But when I do have anime wallpapers, I usually use silly screenshots from in the anime of characters looking stupid or in undignified positions lol. Or I’m a bit of a sucker for Evangelion pictures.
Haha, no one’s better at looking stupid or undignified than an anime character. Their expressions can be pretty priceless.
Currently I’m using some fan art from Mushishi. Been using it for quite a while now (I rarely change wallpaper). Here it is: http://i.minus.com/iOhzZ7BuLqtMb.png
Before that I used one from Sora no Woto which I really liked. Might switch back to it one day: http://i.minus.com/idZIqBNM6rwek.jpg (this is a mirrored version, since I got icons and stuff on the left side of my desktop).
As for the ones I’ve used before that… I had one from Xenoblade: http://i.minus.com/iktImWAna3SnD.png
That’s it for my current computer~
If we go back to my older one, I had a Touhou one (http://i.minus.com/iC1yjQCDhXXD4.jpg), Lucky Star one (http://i.minus.com/i8LZFcNmgBh08.png) and another Sora no Woto one (http://i.minus.com/i6VonPBDcNFbK.jpg). Sadly the latter doesn’t look good when I add blue color to make it 1920×1080, but I loved it on my smaller screen.
I’m noticing a trend here: the focus of the wallpapers is to the right. And they should be fairly clean without much going on (the Xenoblade one works despite being that for some reason (due to the coloring, perhaps?). Therefore I can’t say I like yours, especially the Sakurasou one despite liking the series ^^”
You bring up a good observation about the wallpapers. I used to use simple ones like yours with a focus to the right, back when I had a lot of icons on my desktop. Now that I’ve cleared most of them out, it leaves a lot of room for the desktop image, so I’ve been using more intricate ones as of late.
I think you’ve got a good eye for art, though. Shows in your taste. I really liked your Xenoblade one myself!
While I love using anime wallpapers, it’s a little hard for me to properly think about what they’d mean – I can’t choose just one, so I’ve got a folder of around two hundred, scrolling randomly every ten minutes or so. I’ve used Photoshop to properly resize every one for my screen resolution, which took me quite a while, I have a folder with another few hundred that I need to get around to resizing, and I’m currently making a list of newer shows that I need to look up wallpapers for…
This makes me think I may have some form of mild OCD. But hey, at least my desktop looks pretty!
Oh wow, that’s some dedication, man!
I agree, wallpapers are hard to choose between. They’re like waifus, the more the merrier!
I usually switch between a picture full of sexy bikini babes from a show I like to a shot of omega kawaii girls. So, sexy or cute are my two picks for monitor decoration.