369 Thank Yous to My 200 Followers

Now, before you accuse me of being bad at math, I was just tallying up all the times I said thank you in this post, multiplying each thank you by the appropriate amount of people I thanked each time. I counted the arigatous. Undoubtedly, there are overlaps (and there are also people who aren’t followers in the mix), which is why the number ended up being 369.

This…really happened? It’s unreal to think about how “Moyatorium” has a significance beyond being a highly incomprehensible pun, or even how “Moyatori” is now a person that some of you have kindly acquainted yourselves with. It’s wild how this identity didn’t even exist in this world half a year ago.

I’ve been thinking about what to do for 200 followers (because I kind of skipped 100, sorry…), and I’ve gotten some great suggestions. However, I lack the incredible physical endurance of Arthifis (I mean, who other than him can do something so impressive?), and I don’t really want to do a Q&A session this time around. It’s a little underwhelming, but I…sang you a song!

I wanted a song with many “arigatous” in the lyrics, and the first one I thought of was this ED in Bleach. It’s pretty appropriate, considering that Bleach was the anime that got me into the anime world. You can ignore the “sayonara” part, because I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere anytime soon. I originally wanted to make English translyrics, but I honestly wasn’t expecting to hit 200 followers so soon and don’t really have the time to do a fully translated version.

As for my singing…you can probably tell I’m not super used to recording anything. I also did everything on my phone. I ran out of breath at one point because I didn’t know how to record multiple tracks. If anybody has audio recording pro tips, I’d be glad to learn from them! Also messed up on one little word (not gonna tell you which)… The “arigatous” were heartfelt though, believe me on that.

Here are the lyrics, which came from Bleach Wiki.

Cherry blossoms dance under the chilly spring sky
You walk away, with dreams and hopes upon your little shoulders

I want to send you off as you begin your journey
I should have done that seriously at least today
(I should have)
I placed all my smiles in a bouquet of flowers
That I am sending to you along with a message

Thank you for laughing with me
Thank you for crying with me
Don’t worry; you’ll be fine
Just keep going straight in the path you believe in

I opened my heart only to you
I’m telling you my secrets and all
(It’s a secret for you)
At times I can beat you
They are pseudo fights, though

Such merciful people are really rare, aren’t they?
(Aren’t they?)
When things get really hard, just give me a call

You’ll be okay, no matter how far apart we become
You’ll be okay because I will always be your friend

Even if you get married
Even if you grow old
No matter how much time passes
You’ll be the best friend I’m proud of

The overflowing fake tears you set free deceived me
On the other side of the moving window
Your figure gradually draws further away as you wave at me

Thank you for laughing with me
Thank you for crying with me

In the times that keep changing
You keep marching on without changing

Goodbye
It starts from now on
Goodbye
I will always be your friend

You will be fine
You’re not alone
You’ll always have a place to go back to, right here (x5)

Still wondering why those unimportant classmates appear in Bleach art

And now I thank some people, as Rose-senpai kindly suggested on Twitter! Note that many of you I’d put in multiple categories, but I didn’t because that would be too many links for me to deal with…

• Thanks to: the 200 people who for some reason, decided to follow me on WordPress. I keep expecting someone to unfollow at some point, but that never happened!!!
• Thanks to: the people who occasionally check my blog out through Twitter or Pinterest links. And thanks to the one mysterious email subscriber who actually reads my stuff! You must secretly be my mom or someone I know – who else would actually follow my content via email? (Jk…my mom probably wouldn’t either)
• Thanks to: nesha e’ for being the first follower and Ryuji Tatsuya for being the 200th. nesha’s follow made me feel both anxious and somewhat accomplished. It’s embarrassing to admit, but back then, I googled my blog from time to time, dreading the day it would actually show up as a search result.
• Thanks to: Remy, Irina, and Karandi for successively following my blog right after nesha. I can again testify to the popular claim that you have spying devices all over the place and will find someone even before they commit to blogging. On top of that, you’re great inspirations in the aniblogging community, and without you, there might not be a community at all.
• Thanks to: Elisabeth O’Neill for being the first person to link to one of my posts (!!! didn’t know it was a thing until then). You have an incredible eye for all sorts of anime posts to feature, and produce wonderful content that I never fail to enjoy.
• Thanks to: Raistlin, ospreyshire, and edgyanimeteen for leaving comments that I always look forward to, both on my blog and on yours. You always take the time to think about what I say and provide the most thoughtful responses.
• Thanks to: Rose for suggesting the idea of thanking people and for being a good senpai in general, both in blogging and in real life. I hope to see you around at school, and I hope we get to hang out some more!
• Thanks to: mirrorpurple 賢師, InfiniteZenith and Jon Spencer for being cool people on Twitter and in general. I have fun Tweeting nonsense (for the most part) to you, mirrorpurple, Tweeting things that make a little more sense to you, InfiniteZenith, and I hope to get to know you more, Jon!
• Thanks to: erin for the sincere comment section conversations we have. I’m really glad I got to know you (through one of Irina’s posts, possibly?), and I genuinely enjoy all our interactions.
• Thanks to: kawaiipaperpandas for doing a super fun collab with me on Koi wa Ameagari no You ni and for sending me an adorable Valentine’s card! You’re such a great neesan…
• Thanks to: Leap250, negativeprimes, and Chris for owning great blogs and for giving off an amazing senpai vibe. I aspire to write like you someday.
• Thanks to: Sean, Aldael, DerekL, and xenodude for your amazing episodic thoughts on the same series I happen to be reviewing. Many people review seasonal anime, but your posts stand out to me. I gain a lot of insight from reading them or from reading your comments on my posts!
• Thanks to: Merlin, melinanimeland, kingdylbag, Auri, Arthifis, alfredopasta, Keiko, tetraxberium, and thespookyredhead for being lovely friends I made pretty early on. You’re all such positive and supportive people and I always feel at ease talking to you guys.
• Thanks to: Plyasm, Shokamoka, Chizurue, biblionyan, rossiroad, It’s An Anime Thing, Angelica Destler, heyitszel, Lina, Jenn, and crimson613 for being friends I met further down the road. Don’t go thinking that you’re less important because I listed a bunch of you in a row. I really appreciate knowing you as people on top of knowing your blogs, and I hope we get to interact even more!
• Thanks to: Perlem, Ya Boy Jack, Kimchisama, magicconan14, and tanteikid94 for offering valuable opinions for the typically uninspiring articles I churn out for my internship. Special thanks to Marthaurion for the best grammatical guidance.

Ahh…feels good thanking so many people in one go. I hope I didn’t mess up any of the links. That being said, I know there are many, many people I’m still missing. I’d love to thank all of you individually, but there are some of you I know better than others as of right now, and I also don’t have enough time, sadly.

I’m considering doing all the award nominations I haven’t had the time to deal with in the past, as Irina did when she reached 500 followers. I genuinely love answering all your weird questions. I’m not sure if I have the time though, but I will try my best to make it happen weekend by weekend. If you nominated me and I didn’t comment, I definitely missed the post by accident (blame WordPress…). Feel free to comment below and I’ll add it to my list.

Thank you again for being my followers and I hope you’re all having a great day!