It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost four years to the day since I first started anime blogging. Back then, you could count the members of the anime blog community on one hand. For that matter, a community didn’t even exist. It’s impressive how much the community has grown since then.
Of course, just as the community has grown in size, it has also evolved. In the beginning, episode by episode blogging was the standard model most every anime blogger adhered to. Now, editorial style blogging is growing in popularity. I’m thankful for having had experience with both models. In all honesty, I can’t say which model I prefer; episode by episode blogging requires a lot of time and effort, no doubt, but editorial style blogging requires a lot of inspiration. With proper motivation, hard work and guts is easy to come by, but when it comes to inspiration, the well does occasionally run dry. In retrospect, it’s funny how I thought I’d have an easier time of things when I first launched Hop Step Jump a year and a half ago. Chalk that one up as a lesson learned.
But, hey, I’m having fun nonetheless. Sure, I gripe about the responsibility of maintaining a popular blog from time to time, and I often wonder how much more time I’d have for my other hobbies (or watching anime, for that matter) if I just logged in to WordPress one day and deleted the whole kit and kaboodle. But, if I were serious, I would have done something by now. There are occasions on which I have trouble writing, of course, and there are times when I find it necessary to take a break, but I always seem to bounce back. And you guys put up with it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. I’m not so in love with my own voice that I’d keep writing if I had no audience. “Blog for yourself,” be damned… I wouldn’t keep doing this if it weren’t for the fact my writing brightens your day as much as it does mine.
Seriously, thank you so much.
Navel-gazing aside, do I have anything to say that might help new anime bloggers find their place in this continually evolving community? Perhaps. The best advice I can offer, I suppose, is to take things as seriously as you wish to take them. If you want to overthink a plate of beans, go for it. If you want to post nothing but photos of Hirano Aya drinking milkshakes, go for it. If you want to do episode by episode blogging, go for it. A diverse community makes for a more interesting community.
At the same time, remember that, as part of a community, respect is something that must be earned. No one likes an asshole. Picking fights may seem like a quick and easy way to get attention, but when all is said and done, what are you left with? A bad reputation, that’s what. I know I don’t suffer fools gladly, and I suspect most anime fans feel the same way (we’re a bunch of know-it-all geeks, after all), but tolerance and friendliness go a long way in forging relationships with people. I know I’m much more likely to agree to disagree with someone when they treat me with kindness and respect. But I can’t expect to be treated with kindness and respect if I don’t extend others the very same courtesy.
And, no, I’m not perfect. When you inject your own voice into your writing, you’re guaranteed to piss someone off at some point. You’re going to put your foot in your mouth at some point. You’re going to eventually say something so horribly wrong that, upon looking back, you won’t understand why you even said it in the first place. Sometimes, you’re right, and sometimes, you’re wrong. That’s life. We learn by screwing up. Hence, there’s nothing shameful about saying, “Hey, I was wrong,” or, “Sorry I said something stupid.” You might learn something from it. I know I often do. After all, a lot of you guys know more about certain topics than I could ever dream to know.
Finally, do inject your own voice into your writing. You’re a human being, not an anime watching and critiquing machine.
So… anyone got photos of Hirano Aya drinking milkshakes?
I am going to build a small shrine to you one day.
Really, I am.
Grats on the latest milestone Jeff! Glad to hear the well hasn’t run dry =D.
No milkshake photos; at least none that I can locate right off the bat. But I do have one of her drinking water through a straw, which was snapped by yours truly. It is quite sexy~
I should really get to those AX photos and put ‘em up on the next update.
Oh ho~
A smoothie, actually, but who gives a hoot…
Congrats on the milestone too. Has it really been 4 years? I thought it was longer. I’ve been a reader of your blog since the old days of you doing episodic entries, and I kinda miss those days.
I’ll agree that we all need a little bit of respect and tolerance around the community. While many claim to “express their opinion”, but when they do so without having the slightest amout of respect and manners towards others, they just instantly lose my attention.
“No one likes an asshole. Picking fights may seem like a quick and easy way to get attention, but when all is said and done, what are you left with? A bad reputation, that’s what.”
It might just be in my case but, im just an asshole because its how i am, its got nothing to do with getting attention. If i wanted attention id be ubar nice and talk to everyone about how cheery my day was on irc and how the new episode of some shitty show was awesome. That or atleast comment on other blogs once and awhile, which i rarely ever do. O:
But i guess thats really not ‘picking fights’ rather its just dealing with ones that people start with me, meh…so this was actually a pointless comment in the end, my bad.
4 years! Was the internet in existence back then?
irony is clear: you only post retrospectives when the well is dry
i make a conscious attempt to not do that. meta-meta blogging is bad form–but we all do it here and there. Then again Jeff’s got like 2-3 years ahead of me~~
To beerman,
So Hirano doesn’t have the shakes then?
*wonders if anybody will get it*
Cheers.
Fie on you, Omo. Jeff’s writing is a wonder no matter what the topic — it didn’t even cross my mind that this was “meta-blogging” (and even if it is, I think Jeff has some valuable insights into that whole blogging phenomenon, because….).
I don’t read very many blogs, Jeff, but yours is one of the first anime blogs I look at, and one of the few that I read with any regularity.
as insightful as this post may be, I don’t think you really can appreciate what he says unless you have done it. Those of us who have walked the way for a while (either the typical anime blog or the editorial style) will walk away with these feelings and this is something that’s suitable for a con panel on the subject as warning for noobs, for example.
And what separates from some random anime blog and this one is that people like to read it! It’s irrespective of who, but more of a respect of what. I think all the really popular old-timer blogs all respect the different stuff they focus their blogs around very much.
And to lay the matter down to rest, I promised someone that I’d do that fateful angry post. So there.
I got my bag of laughs out of that, and more.
Man, I should do more Lewis Black-style posts.
Congrats Jeff. I’ve only followed the Hop Step Jump! incarnation of your blog, but it’s always the first I read when Blogbridge brings up the day’s latest posts.
Congrats, this in one of the anime blogs I like to read.
I was just looking at your AIR entries from ‘nowhere anime blog’ and had a good laugh under episode 1 where you wrote “It’s a shame Kanon didn’t get this treatment.”
While watching Kanon I kept thinking what if Kyoto redid AIR to be 26 episodes.
A wise man once said “Without assholes everyone’s life would be a pain in the butt”.
Thanks for all the comments, guys (well, except for that awfully bizarre one I deleted… I don’t know what that was all about). I decided to commemorate this joyous occasion yesterday by buying a new car. As you can see, I even color coordinated it with the blog. All it needs now is a giant “?”.
Seriously, though, thanks again. Hopefully, we can do this again in a couple of years (a retrospective blog post, that is… not buying a car).
“I decided to commemorate this joyous occasion yesterday by buying a new car.”
…because the five-minute commute to work was so hard on your old one? *chuckle*
Congrats on the anniversary, Jeff!!!
Well, storm chasing is tough on the vehicles.
Jeff really should mod his car into a moe car.
ZOMG we need to get commemorative cars when our blog turns 4 years old! What a great idea!
It would be awesome if you put a HSJ logo on it, because very few people would know what it was.
Hot Sexy Jeff.
Cheers.
On that note, you should probably also invest in a searchlight with the HSJ logo too, so people can shine it into the sky during times of need.
I might need a permit for that.
Congrats on the milestone. You’re one of the reasons why I actually decided to start an anime blog instead of continuing to just read them, for better or for worse. :P Hopefully I can last as long in my own way.
And the pic at the top suits this post so well. Alpha
Congratulations on your milestone and your car! Like TheBigN, you and your writing inspired me to blog - even if I could use some more work on writing in either model. And that’s what I’ll continue to do: strive to improve my blogging, but at the same time, have fun doing it.
Oh, and in regards to that ?, if you end up doing it, that’s already enough material for a blog post right there. XD
Hello again Sir,
Well, Mister, seems you have a long way to go, first of all seeing allt hese comments, all the readers, including me, wel expect something of you and nomatter what, we don’t get disapointed, if I can be so honest to say what I think.
Also, as the above Spiritsnare said, I also get inspired by your writing, inspired to pick up a pen and start writing myself. I need to think on that more. But if you keep at what you do now (better is always welcome :P) I’ll be sure to make up my mind, and perhaps you know the answer already, or maybe you don’t, or maybe you don’t even come to read this, who knows?
About the four years, I can’t remember when I started watching anime, though I still like what I saw first, first anime I saw was “Ah: My goddess” and not even the first episode. I thought I’d try something new, and AMG had a lot of seeds back then, I think it was a year or two. And as it stands now, I can’t imagine my life without anime anymore. Try to imagine it, what would you have left?
Doesn’t sometimes writing make you feel like crying? It does so for me, writing your feelings out. It’s like music, only in words, and often words aren’t enough. Wouldn’t your creativity be usefull on other arts but writing? Have you ever played an instrument before?
Despite the fact this was an odd post I did what I had done and done with it.
Jeff, if I can call you like that so freely, Keep that spirit.
Sincerely,
Jasper
(PS: don’t you have any photographs from your surroundings? or the background you use? and, it may not be intentional, but, you do affect peoples’ opinions and that alone makes you a good writer)
Actually, I do have a musical background (I almost studied music in college… common sense got the better of me). So, yeah, I do have experience playing an instrument.
As for photographs of my surroundings… if you’re referring to my living space, I’ve posted photos in the past, but I should probably do it again as I’ve recently moved.