Overview of my Anime March Madness

With the end of March, my Anime March Madness challenge is officially over. Calling this challenge madness is not an exaggeration. Completing the anime in this challenge meant the entirety of the title that is available. So if it has multiple seasons, OVA’s or movies, the entirety of the title needed to be completed.

The anime I started and completed for this challenge:

My anime March madness challenge experience:

This challenge has shown me that I am not entirely sane. I completed 94% of my challenge by actually completing 29 anime. I had 2 anime to go for full completion – I am amazed. My aim for the challenge was obviously to complete all 31 anime. However, my more realistic goal was to beat the number of anime completed during 2021’s Anime March Madness. Which I have done. So I feel like this year’s challenge was a resounding success.

I approached the challenge with a different mindset compared to last year. Last year I was determined to take this challenge on as a ‘1 anime per day’ challenge whereas this year I looked at it as ‘31 anime in 1 month’. While they are technically the same thing, looking at it differently meant I could breathe and not spend the month overly stressed.

I found the main challenge was taking on too many challenges this month. Between Conan, keeping updated with the seasonal releases and daily manga updates and an anime a day it was intense. Here’s how the month of March went with Detective Conan if you are curious. Even though I was already spread thin I was still starting new manga and webtoons.

The anime I watched during March hit me emotionally. Quite a number of them had me either near tears or in tears. I became really emotionally attached to many of the characters and severely dislike some of the others. I am glad that I watched all of the anime that I did during the challenge, however, some of them just did not leave any impression on me and will probably remain as ‘I watched it’ and nothing more.

I watched anime that had been sitting on my to-watch list for years as well as picked up anime that had recently been suggested to me. I looked to my planned anime list for the challenge and watched a lot of them but also found others to watch.

I will be repeating this challenge next year as well. I think this challenge will be an annual thing for me going forward. My current goal is to do better than the years before. I did not stick to my planned list, but the list did provide the initial guidance I needed and gave me suggestions for when I did not have a specific anime I was in the mood to watch.

I am glad that I actively make a list to track what I watch in March Madness. Otherwise, I would have no idea. Watching so many anime in this way leaves very little time to reflect on and mentally take in all the titles.

A few of the anime I watched in this challenge I had started before but for one reason or another, I put it on hold. However, it was my first time completing the series for all of the titles. I had learnt from 2021’s March Madness Challenge, that it is better to watch anime that are not overly intense and to stick to shorter series. So one season, 12 episodes, that kind of length. I had been too ambitious last year.