Vibe Check #30 (March 2026)

Hello and welcome to the 30th edition of our Vibe Check (3rd edition for 2026) where we talk about anything and everything dealing with anime, Japan, Japanese culture, or anything that's on the top of our heads that happened in March 2026. Hope you have a happy reading!

Check #1: World Baseball Classic

As a fan of baseball, hearing about the World Baseball Classic has hyped me up a bit (not as much as the World Cup, but top 3). The one team I was rooting for overall was the Japanese national team. I predicted that the Japanese team would go for it all, but surprisingly, their luck ran out when the playoffs started.

Offensively, they weren't doing that bad, but the game against Venezuela, they did pull back at a bad time (in my opinion or they choked), whereas most players would've just made sure they never come back and just push the gas harder until the final 3 innings. After that, Venezuela upset Japan 8-5, and I just knew their loss crushed the entire country of Japan.

In Japan, baseball is king compared to soccer in Brazil. Baseball in Japan is their borderline religion, so losing to the quarterfinals is a huge heartbreak. I knew the moment the 3-run homerun hit to erase the deficit, I had to turn the channel because I knew it won't be good after that...

Overall, seeing Venezuela bulldozing Japan and the United States was a shocker because a ton of people predicted that the United States and Japan would face off again in the finals. One thing I am surprised by is how popular baseball is in countries like Italy and the Czech Republic. If they invest a little more time in their baseball development, then they might be dark horses for future tournaments to come.

Oh well,... better luck next time, Japan!

Check #2: HiAnime Gone

As someone who loves to watch anime, having HiAnime gone was just gut-wretching... The reason is HiAnime has something that Crunchyroll takes away: community and variety. Community was the reason that Crunchyroll was the site for anime fans, but because they took that away from it and made their membership a lot less affordable for the average anime fan, it does make sense for anime fans like me to go somewhere else.

When it comes to variety, HiAnime has a ton of anime series that Crunchyroll cannot even fathom at their peak. They have the original Japanese anime, Korean manhwa (which is good because of dokugaku kenka or Viral Hit), and even Chinese animation. 

I used HiAnime a lot to catch up on Viral Hit, BLUE LOCK, Ao Ashi, Inazuma Eleven, and others. However, having it completely shut down is a low thing to deal with because its community of anime fans and variety of anime to watch are the two main reasons it made people love the site as a whole.

Although HiAnime is gone completely, there will be another website to take it's place. So it's not all gloom and doom~

Check #3: VTubers Galore

Nowadays, when I go to YouTube, the algorithm constantly recommends VTubers from different parts of the world to me. Different VTubers from the US, Japan, and there was even one from Vietnam. However, the more times I've watched Korone from Japan, the more times YouTube recommended me other VTubers that are from Japan.

Out of all the VTubers I tend to watch, the top three VTubers are: SmugAlana, Kirsche, and honestly, ItsAGundam (even though he's the very first technical VTuber I've watched, and his collaboration with Kirsche made me watch hers). Every time I tend to turn on YouTube, I tend to watch their latest video on what's going on in the real world and the internet world.

The hilarious thing about it is this: maturing is realizing that you would watch VTubers more than reality TV shows. 

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That's all for this month's version of our Vibe Check. Tune in the end of April to see what's been going on for the entire month of April. Happy reading~!