Happy (Belated) Holidays, Happy Black History Month, and welcome to the first Gatebreaker Updater of 2026!

Yeah, I know it’s been a minute since I last updated. I kinda took an impromptu mental vacation after finishing up the Samurai Streaming Survey, and on top of that, things got a little hectic offline, so I wasn’t in the mental space to do any creative writing. But thankfully, everything is stabilized now, so I’m able to offer up an update on a lot of things that’ve been going on as well as a kind of roadmap for where I wanna take this blog in 2026. TL;DR: I’m gonna wing it and see what happens. That’s just how I roll, baby.

To start off, I want to thank you guys so much for reading the Samurai Streaming Survey! Since this was the first project I’ve taken on for the blog, I wanted to make sure it was pitch-perfect, and judging by the feedback and the views I’ve gotten, I think I did a good job! The fact that one of the companies I covered reached out to me, retweeted my commentary, and used it as a basis to improve their services was just awesome and a big encouraging sign that I was on the right path. Not bad for my first project.

While on the subject of projects, another one I was involved in went live a few days ago! Back in July, I was approached by 0215MADman, who started a website compiling 100 Essential Anime that every fan should watch! Since I’m always game to introduce people to anime and provide recommendations to newcomers, I took on the task and, over the course of a couple of months, contributed my brand of Cajun Wisdom alongside fellow contributors akasinan, Sketch, CCharmanderK, and Pemulis. It was REALLY fun, a lot of hard work, and I hope to get the opportunity to collab with more writers in 2026!

On the subject of collabs, I’m still doing my regular duties over at Beneath the Tangles. If you’ve ever seen a very weird Digimon tweet on our Twitter page, it’s probably from me. Don’t judge. We’re finished up with the First Impressions of the Winter 2025 anime season and…well…while there are a few good shows out there, for the most part, you have your typical Isekai offerings, your typical K-Pop inspired shows(now with VAMPIRES!), and even a few high school rom-coms. A few standouts for me are You and I Are Polar Opposites and The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife. Yes, I’m a sucker for RomComs; any escapism from the headlines of the day is welcome.

Speaking of welcoming things, earlier this month, I welcomed my original Twitter account back! Since my account was suspended in October, I have been chasing leads on Reddit about people with similar issues who also had their accounts suspended, all while submitting and resubmitting appeals. I had all but given up, until one day I got an email from Twitter Support saying, in short, “Hey, your account has been suspended. These are the rules you MAY have broken, don’t do it again.” So…yeah, good news there! First thing I did was request and then download my Twitter Archive. It came in at over 20GB…Compressed. Yeah, that sounds like a lot, but remember, I’ve been active on there for 16 years! Thousands of pics, videos, and GIFs, along with hundreds of thousands of tweets and commentaries. Life? What is that? Seriously, though, the most upsetting thing about losing my account was the idea of permanently losing this sizeable chunk of my online life. Now that I have my up-to-date archive, if I go down again, I can pick up where I left off with my data and one of several backup accounts, just in case. Let my adventure be a lesson to you from your Uncle Josh, my niblings—always stay prepared.  

So, now that we’ve caught up, what’s up next for Samurai Gatebreaker? Well…I have a few ideas floating in my head. I know what you’re thinking—“Cajun Samurai, when are you getting around to the If/Then Articles? You’ve been promising them for the last few months!” to which I say “I know, I know…I’m gonna get around to it…and call me Josh, we’re all friends here.” I’m totally going to work on that article and get it out later once my brain starts churning, and I have some time set aside to sit down and focus on it. That said, this blog thrives on reader feedback from YOU, dearest gentle readers, so please, if you have any suggestions on articles or any comments/critiques, please don’t hesitate to hit the comment section below!  While things might get a little busy on my end due to some…interesting decision being made at my job, I am still confident that I will be able to hammer out quite a few new projects and articles that will further our goal of breaking down the walls and gates of the anime fandom and welcoming it to everybody!

That being said…I think I need to offer some commentary on a certain Orange Colored Anime Company making some…crazy, and some might say GREEDY, moves.

Stay tuned. Samurai Out!