I know I’ve been conspicuously quiet about “Anime Blogs in Crisis ‘06″, and as much as I would have liked to have remained so, I keep seeing my name pop up in related discussions. So, I suppose I should say something - even if my initial reaction is to simply shrug my shoulders.
It’s easy for me to shrug my shoulders, though, because I already have an audience. And it’s an audience I didn’t have to work all that hard for. Right place, right time, all that jazz. And, it’s easy for me to shrug my shoulders, because, well… it’s just my nature. Obviously, I’m happy that so many people drop by here every day to read what I have to say, but, even if my audience were reduced to nothing but a few close friends and an army of spambots, I’d still be content. I guess you could say I’m a bit self-absorbed.
But, you know, I kind of like self-absorbed bloggers. The anime blogs I enjoy most are the ones where I come away thinking, “Man, I would love to sit down face to face with this person someday and shoot the shit until sunrise.” If I had some sort of hard-on for disembodied voices, I’d sit around reading press releases all day long. If I’m interested in what someone has to say, it’s because I’m interested in who they are. I like the sound of their voice. And, to me, that’s what blogging is all about: it gives interesting people the opportunity to share the sound of their voice with people like me.
So, when I read these “How to Win Friends and Influence People” posts on other blogs, complete with a laundry list of steps necessary to reach anime blog nirvana, it kind of pains me. Producing interesting content ain’t rocket science. If you have passion for something, and you have the will and desire to communicate that passion, you’re half way there. All the gimmicks and clever tricks in the world won’t substitute for passion. There’s a lot more to building an audience than just attracting eyeballs.
And that’s why Blogsuki isn’t the absolute marker of anime blog success. Do you think I read every single blog listed there? Of course not! I have minimal interest in half of them. But, if I stumbled upon some blog that spoke to me in some way, be it through Blogsuki, someone’s blogroll, a random link dropped into an e-mail, whatever… I’m going to keep coming back. How I got there was inconsequential. All that matters is that I did get there, and plan to return in the future.
I think the anime blog community is full of a lot of fascinating people with a lot of fascinating ideas floating around in their heads, and I don’t think those thoughts and ideas should play second fiddle to a bunch of pointless shit that doesn’t really matter.
If we’re gonna stay up all night talking, let’s talk anime.
Nice picture of Akari. Why does almost all character’s name in ‘Aria’ start with letter ‘A’?
All names starting with A should have some sort ‘healing effect’ towards viewer, that’s what someone in Animesuki’s forum said.
You’re completely right. The only thing that I’m concerned about when blogging is to get my thoughts and opinions across to the reader. As long as there are people who are receiving my thoughts, even if it’s a little as two or three of them, I’ll be happy to continue ranting and raving my time away.
Those people who are obsessed with traffic and all that jazz has the wrong idea.
Let’s get to burning! Follow our dreams, go our days and grow up! This is the only course we can take. Otherwise the coal of our frustration will become diamonds if we kick them.
Sorry to spoil things but, the reason I didn’t understand the “blog crisis” posts is because, especially since the advent of blog??, I don’t read blogs but posts. My RSS reader is set up to display posts from all feeds at once and first show a group (like Anime- or Mac-related), then the title and then (for some folders) the name of the blog. Usually I can’t remember where I read something, anyway.
Interestingly… I just started watching Aria the Animation(AtA) today, so the image was immediately familiar, but it was lacking the clothing symbols, so it left me wondering whether it was Aria-related or not.
I have seen Aria the Natural( second season) pop up in discussions here and there, but no substantial thoughts about it. So it was pretty much under my radar all this time. It was not until I read this post from Satoshi’s Corner that my interest perked up.
I am a very big fan of Venice and the culture that revolves around it, so it was only natural that I started watching the first season. To put it mildly, I am very glad that I did.
The artistic direction in AtA is top-notch, and by artistic direction, I do not mean the quality of the animation, but rather, the feel of the anime. I am very bad in describing artsy-putsy stuff, but suffice to say, AtA has managed to memerise me.
The pacing is neither fast nor slow, but relaxed. Just like the Undines in AtA, the viewer goes with the flow of Aria’s storytelling. It is not an action anime. It is not a dramafest. At its’ very heart, it is simply an anime that one watches to feel good and feel that all is right with the world.
However, it is a double-sided sword. Due to the sedative nature of the storytelling, it is not easy to marathon AtA. Like sugar, it tastes best in moderate amounts( it helps that it is mostly episodic in nature, with one main recurring plotline being the little girl from the first episode communicating with Akari through EMail). I am currently at episode six of AtA. I intend to watch the rest tomorrow, with future plans to catch up with the second season. :)
Pros: Good storytelling. Adorable female characters. A sweet balm for cynical hearts and minds.
Cons: Lack of ‘excitement’ for action junkies. No strong male characters for female fans. May be off-putting for overly-bitter souls.
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Finally… can anybody point me to blogs that have covered AtA and/or covering Aria the Natural?
Cheers.
I *do* remember seeing the name “Skane” above some lengthy comments in different blogs. Why don’t you start one of your own?
BTW does that trackback thing still exist or did everybody close down because of spam?
‘course I didn’t mean lengthy but long, and not “go away” but that it’d be nice to have all of Skane’s opinions in one place and see connections. Not my mother tongue.
Since we are also talking about Aria, I like to mention that I like how they composed a new Barcarole for Athena and used some festival music reminiscent of Monteverdi.
iblog because pop culture tells me so. I get that confused with the voice inside my head sometimes, but for the sake of comprehensibility we’ll just say that who gives a damn? I sure don’t.
I only look at three anime blogs and so I have no idea what this Crisis is. My blog only has one reader I know of and the occasional surprise comments by people I don’t know. ^^;
And, on the other subject, I heart Aria. ^^
The crisis is basically that some anime blogs are worried about losing readership since their blog was dropped from Blogsuki. So they worried about if they need to change their posting style along with other things to try to increase the people who read the blog and get comments. They need to realize that they should not worry the number of people who read their blog or the number of comments they get. Readers and comments will come over time. Just write what you want to write not what others want you to write.
Wow, yeah. People need to not worry about that sort of thing.
Or they could just make something similar to Blogsuki…
I loved the comment about press releases, and my favorite part about most blogs is also the voice of the author. Still, I can understand why newer blogs may be concerned about getting their voice heard for the first time.
Well, I blog, but most of the time it’s not about anime, and I don’t care if people read it or not I guess. Comments aren’t everything though. :/
The landscape has sure changed from two years ago, huh Jeff? ;)
You make many relevant comments but I think alot of what you’re saying also stems from your, “A Time to Blog” post. Bloggers can’t simply smash a bunch of screencaps and horribly written sentances together and expect that people will comment (intelligently or otherwise) and/or reciprocate their opinions. Granted that anime blogs are a dime-a-dozen, but strong writing and intelligent critical thought will always attract and keep an audience over blogs which aren’t content driven or focused. This problem definitely isn’t limited to the anime blogosphere but hopefully this so-called “crisis” will wake up some authors and drive them to improve what they’re currently offering.
I don’t follow all of the anime blogs, or the blog aggregators, so I’m probably missing something essential here. But, in the spirit of the Internet, I’ll say something anyway! :-)
Blogs employ a new medium, but they’re not a new form. Meaning, you guys haven’t invented something new in terms of what you’re fundimentally doing: which I think is writing about anime. You’re merely employing a relatively new medium — the Internet. We could have done this by letter, photocopied multiple times, and sent to a certain snail-mail distro, for example. Or we could have recorded what you said and sent out an 800 number that told a certain community that they could call that number and listen to what you said about anime. Or . . . you get the idea. Anime blogs write about anime on the Internet. I suspect that the same qualities that make certain magazines and television shows annual successes will also make certain anime blogs annual successes.
To erdpilz:
I am under the impression that maintaining an animeblog requires time and commitment. Something which I cannot guarantee. Anime is one of my passions, but it is by far, not my main passion. I spend faaaar more money and time on my model kit hobby( specifically ZOIDS) than my anime DVDs.
My heart has been put through the wringer a lot of times, because it has always been so tempting to buy stuff like anime figurines, but considering that I have spent thousands of dollars already on model kits( since 1989), to spend an equal amount on figurines and DVDs would kill me.
Unless I strike the lottery or something… but wait… I don’t gamble at all…
I like to talk about anime, because most good anime lends itself well to discussion, and I like to discuss stuff. Perhaps when I settle down more in the future, I will consider the idea of having an animeblog, but as it is, I am pretty contented just participating as a reader.
Cheers.
Jeff, you’ll find this to be true in every circle of blogging. In the tech community there are people who we like to call traffic whores. They’re only concerned with the ammount of site hits they get and aren’t really looking at the quality of their site hits.
I completely agree with you. I would rather have 10 good dedicated readers than 100,000 hits a day with 50% of my pages leading to ads.
I would like to add a hearty “Amen!” to the sentiment you’ve expressed, Jeff. Christ on a pogo stick, my so-called “anime blog” gets actual writing love from me once in a blue moon or so (if you don’t count my failed attempt to “blog” Mai Otome), and yet my server stats show that there are still a few readers out there who drop by from time to time. The fact that anybody at all shows an interest is already enough of an ego-boost; I certainly don’t need to reel in the masses.
(Which reminds me… I really should crank out those series-review entries I’ve had stewing in my brain lately… bah.)
The moment a blogger worries more about his public image and site hits rather than the actual content he produces into the blog, is the moment he should stop, take two steps back, and reflect on why he started blogging in the first place.
Is it realy that bad for anime blog owners to care about trafic ? I thought having anime blogs with a lot of reader are good for the community. Especially if those readers then go to a shop and actually buy more anime.