As I sat there, in my chair, in my house, on a Saturday afternoon, home after going out for lunch and buying some new guitar strings, I pondered about what I would write for my weekend feature. It’s too early for a First Impressions Spring 2016 feature, as I feel the need to watch at least three episodes of every show before having a somewhat firm opinion. I wasn’t prepared for any of my feature ideas in the backlog, like my Bioshock review. That would require me finishing Bioshock, and I just didn’t feel like being incredibly annoyed at the time. A list feature would be my last resort, had it come to that. “Top ten anime characters with glasses”, I thought. There’s just something so endearing about vision defects, and I’m sure there are people out there who feel the same way and would appreciate such a magnificent list feature of my favorite heroes and heroines that don the spectacles and then we could all bask in the glory of near sightedness. So I went onto MyAnimeList.net to look back on all the wonderful shows I had enjoyed over the years, all while trying to recall which ones had featured bespectacled beauties. And then I realized: MyAnimeList.net is awesome, I should write about that.

And so here we are now. MyAnimeList.net is awesome. It’s more than just awesome. It’s a fantastic utility, one that provides its users with a litany of resources, customization, social networking tools and etcetera to fulfil more needs than I could possibly have, all while being one (if not) the best database in the world for our most cherished form of entertainment: anime. Oh, and they have manga too. Most importantly, you can make a list of everything you watch/have watched/will watch/stopped watching, which is all it really needed to do.

Just in terms of sheer usefulness, MyAnimeList cannot be beaten. Never has it been so easy to find the anime I’m looking for, original and English title, with the character list, their voice actors, in any dubbing language, with the directors, and studios, and publishers, and PVs, and news, and discussions, and adaptations, and clubs relating to the show, and list goes on. What’s even better is that you can see what’s simulcasting right now in what regions (legally). Plus you can have friends and a profile and a list and stuff.

And that profile and a list and stuff? You can customize the shit out of it. You can also share the shit out of it. Check out my sick list, special thanks to user SylakentH. I sure as hell couldn’t have made that, but you might be able to with some knowledge of web design and a decent sense of style, something I also don’t have. You can also deck out your profile page with sweet gifs like this. Look at that. Isn’t that just adorable? Plus you have your comments, favorites list, progression bar and more!

Progression feels good. Real good. That’s why I like trophies and achievements in my games. Sure, it might be a shallow sense of accomplishment, but it’s still a sense of accomplishment, and when I see my trophy level go up it makes me just want to play more. And so when I see my number of hours spent watching anime go up, I want to keep increasing it, resulting in me watching more anime. And that’s a good thing, right? I mean, there’s certainly nothing better I should be doing with my life. Because anime is life. And love. And everything good in this world.

Moving on, let’s talk about clubs and discussions! They’re cool, and often helpful, like the custom list groups that share sweet looking list designs for everyone to enjoy. They even have tutorials. What a nice group of individuals, banded together for a fun and noble cause. There are also fan groups, like for those of us who really like anime characters with glasses. And of course, you can also make your own. Then there are discussions and a forum ripe for browsing. Spoiler threads for the episode you just watched conveniently on the page of the anime itself, for all to take part in. Plus other threads, for other things. I personally don’t visit forums very often, but when I do they seem nice enough.

Then there’s user reviews, which are a nice thing if you like hearing what other people have to say and can handle someone not having the same opinion as you. If you find a review you really agree with, you can friend that reviewer, or at least give their profile a visit. If you don’t agree with them, write your own review and then move on with your life. At least, that’s what I do.

I could go on for days about how fantastic MyAnimeList is, but what’s truly important is this: They don’t stop. MyAnimeList is always improving and adding new features to its beloved user base like news, streaming, private messaging, notifications, and etc. And hopefully it’ll keep doing so in the future.

This post has been sponsored by MyAnimeList. Go there, for all your anime listing needs. Just kidding. No one would ever pay me for anything I do. I just like giving credit where credit is due. MyAnimeList makes my life better. It didn’t save my life or pull me out of a crippling depression or anything. But it makes my day to day a little more enjoyable. Sometimes you just got to acknowledge the everyday things in life that you take for granted. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it’s a site where I’m comfortable turning my adblock off. I try to support whoever I can on the internet, but with ads these days being so gosh darn intrusive (and sometimes malicious) one’s gotta look out for oneself, ya know? Thankfully, MyAnimeList does not have intrusive or harmful ads (at least in my experience), so that’s another plus.

Thanks for reading this week’s feature, sorry for being a little late in the day. That part about me going out to lunch and buying guitar strings was true. As for that part about me having a glasses fetish, well, who knows? Find out next weekend here on There Goes My Kokoro.

And comment below if a list feature of characters with glasses is something you would totally want to read. Ciao.