Bless in a Small Barrel

Hi, I'm iblessall—also known as Bless to my friends.

I'm an aspiring artist with bad practice habits, writer of various things, and general lover of art. My online life started in the anime fandom and that's more or less where I still reside, although I've expanded the places I hang out and the things I do.

I'm still kind of working on figuring out how to integrate the various things I do and the ways they cross fandoms since I spent a long time keeping everything separate. Ahh, I wish I'd thought about the future more...

Anyways, if you'd like to get to know more about the various things I do, you can look through the rest of this site! Otherwise, the best place to find me is on Twitter @iblessall.

No tricks, no gimmicks.

Anime

If you really want a deep dive into what I think, feel, and talk about when it comes to anime, the best thing to do is visit my blog: Mage in a Barrel.

The blog is the biggest personal project I've ever embarked on and, although I post much more rarely on it now than I used to, I still occasionally return to it to share my thoughts on things I like.

But if you just want a quick summary of my likes, here they are...

  • Shows: Blast of Tempest, AKB0048, Macross, Chihayafuru, Star Driver, Scorching Ping Pong Girls, Kill Me Baby, Soul Eater, Toradora!, Kyousougiga, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta.

  • Elements: Idols, giant robots, childhood friend characters, sakuga, unique direction, characters who are in the arts, ponytails, round things, melancholy and angst.

  • Staff: Mari Okada (writer/director), Rie Matsumoto (director), Masahiro Ando (director), Kei Oikawa (director), Ryouma Ebata (animator), Michiru Oshima (composer), Wataru Uekusa (animator).

  • Seiyuu: Yui Horie, Nao Touyama, Mamoru Miyano, Chiaki Omigawa, Minori Suzuki.

By the way, I do read some manga and read light novels, but nowhere near as regularly or in as much volume as I watch anime.

Games

I don't really consider myself a gamer, but I play and talk about them frequently enough that they merit a mention. I grew up on Nintendo handhelds (Gameboy Color, then Gameboy Advance, then Gameboy Advance SP... all the way up to the 2DS I have today). Nowdays, I have a Nintendo Switch and an infrequently used PS4.

I play JRPGs almost exclusively, although on occasion I've tried others things (MMOs like Guild Wars 2 or well-liked platformers like Celeste). Some of my favorite games are: Pokémon Crystal, Golden Sun, Nier: Automata, and Labyrinth of Refain: Coven of Dusk.

I also play a mobile game called Girls Frontline that I really like, and ever write fan fiction about from time to time. You can find all my stories for GFL on Archive of Our Own.

Everything Else

As you might expect, I've got a fair number of other interests and types of media I'm into. Here are some of my favorites or just things that are emblematic of my general tastes.

  • Books: An Ember in the Ashes series, His Dark Materials trilogy, Shakespeare.

  • Movies: Baby Driver, Pacific Rim, Mad Max: Fury Road, Fast and Furious franchise, How to Train Your Dragon, Mary Poppins.

  • Music: The Naked and Famous, Relient K, Carly Rae Jepsen, Aimyon, the peggies, Regal Lily, Yorushika, MOSHIMO, A Crow is White, anything Macross (especially Walkure), BTS, Laboum, LOONA.