For blogger FuyuMaiden, “Simplicity” not only defines her site but also captures her take on all things anime. “If I enjoy it, it’s good. If I don’t enjoy it, it’s bad,” she writes in her site description. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and hopes her readers don’t’ either.

A self-proclaimed fangirl, FuyuMaiden resides in New England. In fact it was her love of winter, as well as fairytales, that she combined to create her blogging alias. With aspirations to one day be a writer herself her site features anime and manga reviews and news along with her own personal ramblings and writing excerpts. “Simplicity” is our featured blog of the week so enjoy her posts as they pop up on our homepage.

AnimeBlips: How long have you been blogging?

FuyuMaiden: My first blog anniversary passed sometime in spring, so I guess it would be getting close to a year and a half now. But I was doing really casual blogging on livejournal before that.

AnimeBlips: What makes your site unique?

FuyuMaiden: Well, it might be unique because I say just about everything that comes to mind. Like...absolutely everything. Even if I think it's better left unsaid because it's embarrassing. Even when it changes tone from light-hearted fangirling to legitimate criticisms in the very next paragraph. Even if it's entirely unnecessary and makes the post too long. Apparently some people like it or it's easy enough to skim so I guess it works well enough. It's really just a place where I post my truest opinions so I guess it would be anything that makes me unique as a fan makes my blog unique as well.

AnimeBlips: What anime story lines or themes do you prefer?

FuyuMaiden: I prefer anything with romance and cute girls (usually the two go hand in hand), though the cute girls designation doesn't really narrow down anime at all. So I prefer "cute" romance stories as opposed to ones with...well fanservice. But I make special exceptions for things that have a really good story, but in those cases if the story doesn't involve romance, I don't get really into any romance aspects at all.
 
What I'm not into...well I usually like to try everything, but lately all female casts that aren't out and out yuri have been getting to me...Even though I can watch a yuri series. I think it's more the fandom that these shows attract and how they're all so popular that it sucks all the fun out of it because there's nothing left to talk about. I'm not too fond of all male casts (and most male harems) either though, so it might be an anti-archetype lack of variety thing. But the only thing I never watch though is yaoi. Don't care for it at all. Apparently this makes me a dysfunctional fangirl, but I just don't get the appeal of it. Maybe because it lacks the cute girls?

AnimeBlips: Do you find your taste in anime as a fangirl differs from male anime fans?

FuyuMaiden: Oh yeah, loads of times. Even if I'm more interest in female characters than male characters, I still usually like a different character than all of the guys like in the series. Especially when it comes to harem-type situations. Even when guys do the rare thing and enter into a shoujo fandom they usually want the girl to end up with a different guy. It's quite annoying. (I take vindictive solace in often choosing the "winner" in all these cases though XD) So uh...shipping in general I guess?

There are also some more stereotypical differences like guys preferring action and me preferring romance. So the same series can be awful to them (because the action sucks) but be awesome to me because "omg shipping!!!" and I kind of just look at it as a fangirl and they don't see what I see. The same goes for those all-bishoujo shows I talked about before. I don't get it, but apparently they do.

AnimeBlips: What’s the best experience that has come from having your blog?

FuyuMaiden: Best experience, eh? I'm not sure if there's just one. I always cite the thing I love most about my blog as being the discussions and the different people I end up getting to know. But I guess with that in mind my single best experience would be moving my blog to a host off of wordpress.com with a lot of other bloggers. The beginning of the kokidokom "family/harem"! Though it feels like we were more of a "family" when it was new, it's still a lot of fun.

AnimeBlips: If you were stranded on a desert island what one anime or manga series would you want to have with you?

FuyuMaiden: I'd have to say "Skip Beat!" It's not my favorite manga overall, but it seems to be the manga I go back and read the most often. The comedy still makes me laugh and the story still keeps me engaged even though it's gotten incredibly long. Of course the length is a plus for keeping me entertained through rereads as well. Sometimes I even forget smaller stuff and discover something new each time. Though the fact that it's not finished yet would probably drive me crazy. Hopefully I don't end up on that island until it is finished.