I think everyone who watches anime are suffering, to varying degrees, from what I’m suffering from now. There are simply too much anime, and too little time to watch said anime in, even for someone like me who don’t download all that much. Taking a glance at my anime folders, I have the following FINISHED series which I haven’t started watching:
and the following finished series which I haven’t finished watching:
totalling in at 86 episodes of anime, which, at 20 minutes each, is 1720 minutes, or 28.666 hours, or 1.166 days. At an average of 170MB per episode, that’s 14620MB, or 14.277GB of occupied harddrive space. And that isn’t including animes that I don’t have a complete season of, which are at least 6 series from this season and a few from the last. I estimate the total amount of unwatched anime I have on my harddrive to exceed 100 episodes, and that’s a conservative estimation. What’s really amazing is that some of those series have sat on my harddrive literally for months without being touched. Dual, for example, has it’s “Date last modified” as Tuesday, 15 November 2005, 8:02:47 PM. That’s almost a year ago. There’s just no motivation to watch them.
I know for a fact that I’m a light watcher/downloader. 3 episodes a week watched is a rough average for me, with more towards the beginning of the season, but dropping off to a measely 1 or 2 episode a week as the weaker shows stop being downloaded.
Just where do people find the time to watch so much anime? I can’t possibly fit more than an episode a day into my schedule without sacrificing more important things like picking my nose and stopping the subsequent nosebleed.
Anyway, I’m now making a resolution to cull the weak and the wicked from my anime backlog. There isn’t anything that I definitely want to delete, except maybe for Dual, but there must be a reason why I’ve kept it for so long. I’m considering deleting Demonbane, but what I’ve watched of it is so bad that I can’t help thinking that the later stuff will be equally bad. Not to mention I still haven’t watched the episode where Kurou goes all loli-rapist on Al Azif, so I can’t delete it yet.
A problem I have is that some shows begin quite excellently – Ergo Proxy for example – but as things drag on I find that it loses its appeal. Taking EP as an example again, starting from around episode 10 I find that all the existentialism or what-have-you-blah-blah-intellectual-masturbation just go right over my head. I don’t know if it’s because I switch my brain off when watching anime, or if I simply don’t have the mental capability to process it, but EP’s appeal has all but completely dissipated. The inconsistent art direction doesn’t help, either.
But there’s this little niggling imp in my mind that tells me, “Stick with it bud! What if it gets good again! Won’t you regret it then!”
All this is not including the older, classic anime that I want to download and watch.
In the end, this enormous backlog is something that I’ll have to deal with eventually. I can’t let it keep piling up, if for no other reason than that my harddrive won’t allow it. I’ve already burnt/deleted a lot of unworthy anime, as well as some TV series and movies to make space for my BEST anime collection.
I’m interested in hearing how/whether you got your backlog, and how you intend to deal with it.
16 Comments
lol jan,
ergo proxy is not a bad anime.
imho, it ranks up there with ghost in the shell, in terms of excellent artwork, storyline and underlying historical refrences.
but i guess it does get a little stale towards the middle, but trust me jan, stick with it, the ending was REALLY good ^__^
and btw, i prolly have a bigger backlog than you do. series which linger in my computer for months on end, stuff that my friends pass to me, my hugeass harddrive space, and my slight inclination towards watching more j-doramas than animes prolly adds to the backlog.
Well one problem I have when it comes to backlog is that I watch raws, but I also watch the subbed versions of the same show. Though there are a few things I stopped watching, e.g. Bleach, but I still keep downloading the episodes mainly for collecting purposes, and for trading with a friend of mine.
The thing about time is that I have plenty of time to sit and watch anime now, but my main problem is that I can’t sit in front of a computer and watch anime straight as I get tired easily.
How to deal with this backlog? Well technically I won’t ever clear my backlog. I still have stuff from 2 years ago that I haven’t watched yet and with the ever increasing amount of animes being released my backlog will keep growing.
ehhh, ah ben, that is lupus, not me ar.
Anyway, whenever I have a backlog, I will make sure i watch it on a nice afternoon when i have absolutely nothing to do and crash it completely. It always work for me since i hardly have any backlogs ever. It’s pretty shocking for an anime watcher to never have more than 10 episodes of backlog.
Let’s see, the backlog i have is…
- 3 episodes of shinigami no ballad
- 1 episode of Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~
That’s it. I cleared almost everything already.
wahahahahaha X_X
Oh wait, i do have a backlog that i refuse to watch but i still have it somehow.
Samurai 7. >_>
Meh, mecha sucks X_X
I was once THE total EP fanboy: I waxed lyrical about the show and its ensemble of producers and directors, but it slowly lost its appeal to me as the series seemed to drag on as it ‘progressed.’ Unlike you, however, I gave it up to 20 episodes – only three more episodes before its finale, but having seen ep20, I decided to drop the show once and for all – and this is from one who watched the raws of Ergo Proxy and sacrificed hours of his sleep just to properly blog episodes of it. In the end, it was just pseudo-intellectual masturbation, as you said, with no redeeming factor whatsoever. The random episodes didn’t help improve my appreciation for the said series as well. Take this comment with a grain of salt, however – your mileage with the different shows may vary according to your personal tastes, and I recognize that.
I do hope you would personally strive to finish Honey and Clover II and Shingetsutan Tsukihime, as I’ve found them among the most worthy anime to watch all time – they are among the top of my personal favorites, but not without reason: Tsukihime for me is like a Shakespearean love tragedy; it was so heart-wrenching that by the end of that series I stared at the wall in our house for at least 30 minutes: it was so hard hitting, a beautifully painful brushstroke of what extent can a sacrifice be for love. The same can be said about Honey and Clover II, although it tackled with more human and more mundane matters of the heart – it wasn’t less great for that matter, but it dealt with less universal ideas and concepts.
Do give Tsukihime and Honey and Clover II second chances. As for the others, I personally think you can cull them as you like, but I wish that you don’t miss some great anime by removing those titles as well.
Well everybody has a different way of using its time. I’m surprised that you can’t watch more than an episode a day, but then again I have no idea of what your situation (life, work, family, etc…) is. For me, anime (and other “live” series) have taken the place of movies at home (I only watch them in theaters now). And since nowadays movies tend to last 2 hours, and an anime episode 20 minutes, I can place 6 episodes easily in my schedule. Furthermore I tend to watch them late at night (after 10pm) when I don’t have any force left for anything except reading, listening to music, playing games or watching movies/anime/tv series etc… They are a perfect fit for my evening leisure time.
Concerning the backlogs, when I see that I can’t keep up with all the files I download, I choose a few series that I keep on watching regularly and let the weaker ones accumulate. When enough episodes have accumulated (or the series has ended) I try to find a timeframe to watch all of them in a row. Having a lot of episodes from a weaker series gives me more motivation to take the time to watch them. Plus it usually makes me enjoy them more.
I don’t count older shows to backlog because I only watch those when I have enough time, motivation AND no unwatched new episodes. Newer ones always have higher priority so practically I don’t have a backlog.
D:
YOU’RE GONNA CULL NANOHA AND NANOHA A’S
NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
*turns into a Poring.
negativezero: I’m not Impzie -_- Layouts that don’t give the poster’s name are bad for group blogs… >.<
Adun: 2 years…. O.o That’s crazy man. I can easily spend 10+ hours a day in front of a computer, but that’s not a desirable trait. I just spend most of my time not watching anime.
Impz: The thing with me is, like I said in my post, anime doesn’t rank very high on my priority list. Apart from Mushishi, Suzumiya and Ouran, none of the recent series warranted an immediate watch right after being downloaded. There are just a few other things I’d rather do than watch anime.
Michael: I will finish Honey & Clover, one way or another. I don’t know if I’ll watch the anime to the end – the way the characters are drawn really put me off when compared to the first season, and I feel like something has gone amiss for no particular reason – but I’ll definitely finish the manga.
elvyse: My life isn’t all that busy actually. I spend far less time than I should on my assignments, study and school work, and most of my time is probably spent doing, well, nothing. Ah, the life of a university student… tres bien, oui?
Anga: Should older shows count as backlog? They’re taking up my harddrive space when I can be burning them onto DVDs or something, so I count them as backlog. Newer shows don’t always have higher priority with me though. Just last week, I downloaded Shinobuden and marathoned it over 2 days.
When it comes down to it, a lot of the anime that I download just don’t have the pull for me to want to watch/finish watching. The lack of motivation is the largest factor in the pile-up of my backlog.
DRM: I said nothing about culling Nanoha’s. You can spend about at least 30 seconds reading the first two paragraph you know, instead of just scanning the list and thinking I’m culling everything that’s listed.
I watched about 5 episodes of Nanoha and I actually think it’s pretty good. Just not good enough for me to want to keep watching yet. I’ll get around to finishing it eventually, probably over my 3 month long summer holiday.
This is a good topic. My strategy is similar to Impz, I wait for a lazy weekend and blast though an entire series. That’s the only way to clear out a backlog. But I have a huge backlog and not enough weekends
key: (next to watch/# downloaded)
Currently airing series I’m watching:
Death Note 4/3
Hataraki Man 2/1
NHK ni Youkoso 14/15
Saiunkoku Monogatari 21/24
Sumomo mo Momo mo 2/2
Currently airing series, downloaded some episodes but haven’t started yet:
Chevalier 1/2
D.Gray-man 1/1
Kanon (2006) 1/1
Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru 1/2
Tenpo Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi 1/1
Currently airing series I download but don’t watch:
Bleach 63/95
Naruto 89.5/201
Currently airing series I’ve given up on:
KIBA 10/16
Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge 2/1
Aired series I’m in the middle of watching:
Ah My Goddess 19.3/all
Chrno Crusade 11/all
Kashimashi 6/all
Fushigi Yuugi 9/all
Mai Hime 7/all
Monster 8/26
Ouran High School Host Club 7/all
R.O.D OVA 3/all
Trigun 6/all
Trinity Blood 11/all
Zegapain 8/21
Aired series, completely downloaded and not started:
Excel Saga 1/all
Jubei-chan the Ninja Girl 1/all
Weiss Kreuz 1/all
Wolf’s Rain 1/all
Aired, some episodes downloaded and none watched:
Battle Programmer Shirase 1/1
Card Captor Sakura 1/26
Ergo Proxy 1/7
Honey and Clover 1/1
Genshiken 1/1
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 1/6
Completed series I’m rewatching:
Rurouni Kenshin 6
OK I’m going to go bang my head against a wall a few times… too much anime!
You’re watching…
NHK ni Youkoso 14/15
Mai Hime 7/all
R.O.D OVA 3/all
… over…
Excel Saga 1/all
Honey and Clover 1/1
Genshiken 1/1
…???
You fail at picking anime to watch.
Sounds like my problem, lol. This is what happens when you love downloading, but never have time to finish what you downloaded (school).
In terms of anime, I have the following full complete series that I have yet to start:
Blood+ (50)
Wolf’s Rain (30)
Last Exile (24)
Black Lagoon (12)
Gundam SEED (50)
Eureka seveN (50)
Ghost in the Shell (26)
That’s like. . 242 episodes I have to watch. .
Assuming that each episode is about 20 minutes without the intro and ending. . that’s a total of. . .
4840 minutes
80+ 2/3 hours
3.36 days
Oh man. .
Not to mention, I’ve ::coughpiratedcough:: some PS2 games. . Over the last two weeks, I think I’ve burned around 20 games.
Yeah, I know I’m busy a lot. . which is why I wonder I still do mass downloading, lol.
WOW, I figured the backlogs would be massive.
Probably the best way to deal with things needing mass watchin is to do it in nice 100 minute blocks.
I find myself getting caught up in stuff between episodes, which stalls me out, but when I’m relaxed the episodes just float by.
Hope you get to unbacklog soon ^^
Dan Dan: Only reason I’m not in your position is because I stay away from long series with more than 26 episodes. I already know my backlog is too large, not to mention my harddrive too small, to house all these long series.
I’ve also downloaded heaps of PS2 games. I got all the Nipponichi S-RPGS, KHII, a few Tales games and some other random stuff, none of which I’ve finished. I’ve left my PS2 controller at my friend’s house, so I can’t play any of these games lol.
Ryan: I think many shows probably aren’t worth watching though… which is why I’m dropping them instead of forcing myself to watch them. I’m hoping that I don’t drop anything worth watching.
Ah, the life of a university student… tres bien, oui? I never went to university, so I wouldn’t know
. Though I actually have more time to watch anime now than when I was a student. But yeah, motivation is the key point here: it’s no good if you have to force yourself into watching something. But motivation can come and go, so who knows maybe in a few months you’ll be watching 10~20 episodes a week… 
I haven’t done by culling for this season’s show yet. I got a few older shows I want to blog, so this season I will keep my list to about 3-6. After I’ve blog the older shows, I will start some new ones.
I pretty much just create a weekly backlog of the series I am watching then I watch them daily over the week. By the time the next week’s episodes come around, I’d have cleared last week’s backlog