Automated commit @ 2026-01-03 01:06:29 JST

Author: Morgawr

Diary.md

@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Since 2022 I started keeping track of what media I consume in Japanese and how
 my progress is going. Here is a list of articles in decreasing chronological
 order:
 
+ - [[Japanese-2025-in-Review]]
  - [[Japanese-2024-in-Review]]
  - [[Japanese-2023-in-Review]]
  - [[Japanese-2022-in-Review]]

Japanese-2025-in-Review.md

@@ -0,0 +1,229 @@
+---
+date: 2026-01-02T10:53
+tags:
+ - personal
+ - japanese
+ - reddit
+ - timeline
+---
+
+# Japanese 2025 in Review
+
+Discussion post on [reddit](TODO).
+
+(Long) Video on [youtube](https://youtu.be/45l0hyvuDYg).
+
+## Summary (tl;dr)
+
+In 2025, I spent 1265 hours and 6 minutes doing the following:
+
+
+Media | Time
+-|------------------------
+Videogames | 693 hours and 8 minutes
+Visual Novels | 219 hours and 32 minutes
+Light Novels | 224 hours and 33 minutes
+Manga | 76 hours and 54 minutes
+Anime | 34 hours and 58 minutes
+Anki | 15 hours and 59 minutes
+
+Seeing the trend from the last two years (2024 and 2023), where I averaged
+pretty consistently at ~1700 hours, this year was significantly lower.
+
+However, at the end of last year I had told myself I would limit my content
+consumption to about 1200 hours, so I could invest some of the extra time on new
+hobbies and activities. While I ended up going above that limit by about 50
+hours (if we do not consider anki), I'd like to believe I managed to stick to a
+pretty consistent pace as can be seen by this
+[moyase burndown chart](static/moyase_2025_immersion.png).
+
+You can see a more accurate graph breakdown by month and activity by looking at
+[this picture](static/2025-review-graph1.png) and a total cumulative view from
+[this picture](static/2025-review-graph2.png).
+
+As always, I also track all my content consumption activities on
+[my lingotrack account](https://lingotrack.com/profile/Morg).
+
+A few highlights and comments I want to make about this year as a whole:
+
+ - I tried to reduce my Japanese consumption to prioritize other hobbies. I will
+   admit this didn't work as well as I hoped. I just love spending all my free
+   time on Japanese media and it's hard to cut back. This said, I did start some
+   cool new projects like the [yokubi grammar guide](https://yoku.bi/) and a new
+   [youtube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPbx0BirO2go_Diw7unXOCQ).
+ - I did a manga-volume-a-day reading challenge for the month of July, which is
+   why my manga consumption time went up during that period. I also did a light
+   novel reading challenge (20,000 characters per day) in August and it shows.
+ - The month of August and November were my most "active" months. August is
+   definitely because of the reading challenge. For November I don't have a
+   specific reason. I guess I just had some extra time on hand.
+ - Early in the year I moved into my new house in what some would consider the
+   "countryside", and since then I've been interacting a lot more with both my
+   Japanese family and other local businesses/activities. Having to deal with
+   kindergarten stuff for my kid, talking to teachers every day, interacting
+   with the local neighborhood association, etc. I do not track my output but
+   I can confidently say that compared to last year I've been using Japanese way
+   more in my every day life too.
+
+I go in more details about each media type in the following sections, or you can
+watch my [summary youtube video](https://youtu.be/45l0hyvuDYg) although it's
+kinda long.
+
+## Manga
+
+Just like in 2024, 2025 also was a relatively slow year for manga. I read most
+of my manga in burst in July as I did my one volume a day challenge. Throughout
+the year I also read a bit of shounen jump series (mostly ルリドラゴン and
+ケントゥリア).
+
+In total, I have read 55 manga volumes (+ a lot of shounen jump).
+
+Some of my favorite series I have read, with no particular order:
+
+ - あさドラ！
+ - MUJINA INTO THE DEEP
+ - エリオと電気人形
+ - 魔女と傭兵
+ - 終の退魔師 ―エンダーガイスター―
+
+## Videogames
+
+As usual, videogames are my main media choice of consumption and I really cannot
+get away from them. As I said last year, I was going to branch out to also some
+non-Japanese content, and I can say I have thoroughly enjoyed Expedition 33 and
+Silksong. Both amazing games. But we're talking about Japanese here so let's
+stay on track.
+
+In 2025 I played a total of 14 videogames to completion, with one carry over
+into 2026 (Octopath Traveler 0).
+
+Title | Playtime
+-|------------------------
+Yakuza Ishin! | 34h28m
+Atelier Ryza 1 | 44h16m
+Fantasian Neo Dimension | 59h16m
+Granblue Fantasy: Relink | 24h47m
+Persona 3 Reload | 75h06m
+Yakuza Pirates in Hawaii | 47h58m
+Lunar 1 Remake | 20h35m
+Lunar 2 Remake | 23h18m
+Lost Odyssey | 59h07m
+Dragon Quest 3 HD Remake | 32h52m
+Pokemon Violet | 36h41m
+Bravely Default HD Remaster | 50h27m
+Trails in the Sky 1st Remake | 67h43m
+Ghost of Tsushima | 41h38m
+
+Since 2023 I have been accurately tracking my currently played games in a
+spreadsheet and I only try to make myself play one game at a time. This year I
+am afraid I kinda slipped a bit as I started to play a few games in parallel and
+that made me drop and stop playing a bunch of them, to much of my shame. Some
+notable examples: Final Fantasy 13, Dragon Quest 11, Valkyrie Elysium. I just
+did not enjoy them as much to continue playing them, but I need to be more
+attentive to the time I dedicate to each of them rather than jump from game to
+game like I used to do in the past.
+
+This said, back in August I ended up buying a "retro" Xbox One X so I could play
+some older Xbox 360 RPGs like Lost Odyssey, and I'm looking forward to playing
+Blue Dragon and Infinite Undiscovery next year.
+
+Likewise, I got nerd sniped into some retro stuff and toward the end of the year
+I bought an old Dreamcast console. I've always been interested in some of the
+retro JRPGs and VNs on that console and I stocked up with some of my backlog
+touching games like Sakura Wars, Skies of Arcadia, and a bunch of other games
+which I hope to tackle next year.
+
+## Visual Novels
+
+Continuing the trend from last year, I feel like I have finally grown into the
+Visual Novel genre as I enjoyed quite a bit of them this year too. I read a
+total of 5 VNs to completion (I did drop a couple along the way though):
+
+Title | Playtime
+-|------------------------
+Kanade | 13h47m
+千の刃濤、桃花染の皇姫 | 47h12m
+時計仕掛けのレイライン －黄昏時の境界線－ | 27h41m
+白昼夢の青写真 | 61h34m
+岩倉アリア | 26h26m
+
+I go in more details on a few of them in my youtube video, but basically I can
+say I have thoroughly enjoyed most of them, aside from one specific side story
+in 白昼夢の青写真 which was insanely creepy to the point of almost souring the
+whole VN for me.
+
+As for the rest, in 2024 I had read EVE: Burst Error and now with a new
+dreamcast waiting for me, I am planning to pick up some of the other VNs in the
+same franchise. I already bought EVE: The Lost One on PC which is a fairly
+controversial "sequel", and I also got EVE: Zero on Dreamcast which is the
+prequel. I'm really looking forward to reading them, but that's a story for next
+year.
+
+## Light Novels / Books
+
+Back in 2024 I had a few novel series that I was in the middle of reading.
+Majorly the 星界の紋章 and ある魔女が死ぬまで series. In 2025 I finished both,
+and some more of others. I have read a total of 12 books, and here they are:
+
+- 星界の紋章 2 and 3
+- ある魔女が死ぬまで 3 and 4
+- Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear volume 21
+- レーエンデ国物語
+- 火狩りの王 main series (vol 1~4) and side story (vol 5)
+- 転生吸血鬼さんはお昼寝がしたい 1 (yeah... we don't talk about this slop)
+
+Overall I'd say my highlights of the year were the ある魔女が死ぬまで series
+which I really enjoyed the end, and 星界の紋章 which was... fairly hard but
+ended on a note that made me want to get into the main sequel 星界の戦旗.
+
+The レーエンデ国物語 book was also very good from the point of view of someone
+who likes "proper" western-style fantasy series (not isekai). I plan to read the
+next books in the series too, once I get the time.
+
+## Anime
+
+I don't really have much to say about anime anymore, unfortunately. I have been
+watching a bunch of stuff here and there, mostly one or two episodes a week
+during lunch break. I don't actively look super deep into new anime releases,
+unless there's something major coming out. I can say from recent memory I really
+enjoyed the Ranma 1/2 remake though. That was a very pleasant surprise that
+brought me back to my childhood. I'm also really looking forward to the new
+Madoka movie in 2026, but that's a story for next year.
+
+## Plans for 2026 and the future ahead
+
+As I mentioned, I ended 2024 with the idea of trying to hold back my Japanese
+time so I could dedicate more of my free time to other hobbies.
+
+While I'd say the plan kinda worked, at the same time it made me realize that I
+would rather not do that and instead continue with more Japanese for 2026, so
+that's where I stand right now. I have a fairly extensive backlog of games and
+novels I want to go through, so I think I will try to tackle that. I need to
+tackle my Dreamcast and Xbox backlog, while also keep up with new releases too.
+
+This year taught me that it's okay to also do stuff not in Japanese (like
+playing Expedition 33) so I might look into exploring new media and non-Japanese
+stuff, but I won't force myself to do that via fake guardrails (like "no more
+than 1200 hours of Japanese" or whatever). I think last year's challenge was fun
+and gave me some more strict discipline, but at the same time I can now move on
+from that.
+
+From a personal project perspective, I want to refine and continue working on
+my yokubi grammar guide, maybe even introduce more special grammar points that I
+rarely hear talked about in other resources (We could call it yokuyokubi /
+翌々日!) but first I need to finish the main guide.
+
+I also want to work on my Youtube channel more. I've been using it as a way to
+build new skills both in public speaking and video editing because it sounds
+fun. I have no expectations to become a popular youtuber or even make stuff that
+people find interesting, necessarily, I just like talking in front of a camera
+and discuss various things that I am into, like when I write on this site.
+Ideally I'd like to post a minimum of one video a month, but I can't make
+promises. I'd also like to start streaming on twitch more regularly again,
+ideally Japanese-related or Japanese-teaching related content, but with the way
+my life is structured now, streaming at home with a family and a young kid is
+difficult. I have also a couple of "secret" projects that I don't feel ready to
+talk about yet. Maybe I'll get to them next year, maybe not. They hang on a
+couple of fairly volatile variables in my life so I cannot make promises.
+
+皆さん、今年もよろしくおねがいします