Let’s recap the 12 Days of Anime and the whirlwind year that was 2016.

This year…

I became a freelance translator.

I dived headfirst into sakuga fandom.

I cried over Space Battleship Yamato 2199.

I became “the light novel blogger”.

I fell head-over-heels for Re:ZERO.

I started writing for Crunchyroll.

I met a bunch of online friends.

My taste in anime changed.

Anime became even more international.

I became a very busy person.

I became friends with the staff of Anime Feminist.

All in all, it was a big year, for both me and for the world in general.

2017 should be even bigger, at least for me. I plan to go travelling. I plan to move to Japan. I plan to become independent. I’m twenty-two and fresh out of university, so it’s quite natural that this would be a very eventful time in my life. While I won’t deny that a part of me is nervous, I’m also hopeful and excited about the future. Hope will always overcome despair, right?

This has been a really great year for me, and in spite of all the negative and disturbing things that happened in the world, I hope you had positive experiences this year too.

There’s not much left to say anymore, so I just want to say thank you.

I met a lot of wonderful people this year, and if I started writing a list, it would be too long to fit into a single blog post. But I do want to give special thanks to the people at Crunchyroll, Anime News Network, Wave Motion Cannon and Anime Feminist who gave me so many opportunities this past year. You guys all know who you are. I’d also like to thank the people at Yen Press and J-Novel Club for stepping up their games and releasing more English light novels to the world than ever before. I’d also like to give a shout out to Cho and Melody at English Light Novels for cataloging and reviewing the new books despite being so busy with their own lives this year.

Speaking of light novels, I would never have become interested in light novels and translation if I didn’t have this blog in the first place. Getting into anime as a teenager sparked my interest in so many other topics, whether it was languages, sakuga, light novels, Japanese history and politics, world animation, and, of course, fantastic memes. I would never have gotten this deep into anime blogging if it weren’t for all the great writers who have inspired me over the years, so if you’re an anime blogger, thank you so much for all your hard work! I hope your work inspires another generation of young writers and content creators.

I’d also like to extend my thanks to all the dorks I talk to on Twitter and elsewhere. Through my anime hobby, I’ve encountered so many people around the world. Some of the conversations I’ve valued most have had nothing to do with anime and everything to do with the lives of these people as individuals. The deeper I’ve gotten into anime, the more I’ve realised that it’s connected to so many other things on so many different levels. It’s honestly the furthest thing you could get from escapism, and I hope that nobody ever feels ashamed of themselves for liking anime.

Over the years, this blog has become a sort of diary for me. It has been with me throughout my university years and the beginning of my working life, and it captures a moment in time that I’ll never live through again. I’m sure that I’ll look back on this period of my life with fond memories. At the very least, I don’t think I’ll regret anything.

So… thank you for everything. No matter how brief or incidental our interactions have been, I’m sure I learned a lot from you. Thank you for reading my writing and caring about what I think. Even if you never talked to me, even if you just read a few of my blog posts or tweets from time to time, I’m glad that I could share my passions with you.