hontou ni sou omou?

The recent retirements of Tensai11 and Jeff Lawson as well as the long hiatus announcement over at itsumo feels like the loss of Fujiwara no Sai and Touya Kouyo Meijin in the world of Hikaru no Go to this blogger and perhaps signals the beginning of the end of an era in anime blogging. While longstanding pillars of the community, like Matthew and the Sea Slugs Team, continue to be active, others like Miwa and Momotato Daioh have gone worryingly inactive. But as with Hikaru no Go, newcomers continue to appear and infuse new blood into the community.

A common theme is burnout after the demands of anime blogging assume assume the characteristics of regular drudgery work as the passion of the hobby fades. This post, spurred by Jason Miao and Moyism (Life Line by Line)’s recent enunciations of their blogging methods, argues that while the primary motivation of anime blogging should indeed be fun and enjoyment, academic methods (which is often associated with work or homework) do have a place in helping improve quality, save time and even enhance personal satisfaction.

Various approaches. Every anime blogger develops a style of blogging and it is this style that gives their blog their identity and niche in the community. Underlined below are some approaches. Obviously many blogs will feature a combination of approaches but it is also usually possible to identify one as a blog’s dominant style.

The most foundational is the comprehensive summary and screencap method e.g. Random Curiosity, Phoenix512. This is, in fact, a historian’s approach which preserves a rich amount of primary material for other bloggers to draw on for comment, speculation and analysis. Within this school also lies the massive orgy of screencaps approach, dominant in Life Line by Line’s earlier phase and which lolitron is the current epitome of.

The critical analysis school, paralleling political science, assumes a knowledge of the series thus dispensing with comprehensive summaries in its writings. Adherents of this school often comment extensively on technical aspects (such as quality of animation, music, voice acting etc.) and / or use the comparative method to situate the anime in question within its topic genre (e.g. action, romance, drama etc.), pedigree (studio or production house), the role of Japanese language, culture and symbolism in fully understanding the plot etc. Often implicitly build theories (E.g. What makes a series a harem series as opposed to merely a romance series? What factors determine a character’s chance of being killed off in Gundam series? etc.) Exponents of this very demanding style include the Memento duo of Garten and Mentar (who are justly famous for their insightful discussions of Mai HiME). A large sub-section of this school includes the witty commentary school which often employs humour (e.g. Sea Slugs, Life Line by Line and / or liberal use of biting wit and sarcasm (KarmaBurn, Cinnamon Ass).

Genre/series specialists, who are rather like regional/area specialists in the various strategic studies and international relations departments, concentrate on particular anime genres that appeal to their interests. A genre or number of series can be as widely (e.g. action adventure) or as narrowly defined (e.g. loli-nekomimi-gothic-maid), depending on the blogger’s specialisation. For example, Matthew is the undisputed King of Kawaii and Erica Friedman is the High Priestess of Yuri over at Okazu while others develop reputations for a penchant for, say, sis-con or being an advocate for an under-appreciated series. Within this is a sub-field of bloggers who focus on individual characters, rather than common themes, which draws on the fanboy/girl tradition on which character shrines and cosplay are a significant part of and parallels the academic tradition of biographical historians. Some emerging trends in this direction may include bloggers who follow a series based on a favourite seiyuu (no hard reference for this thusfar) e.g. Yui Horie, Ayako Kawasumi etc.

As the present author employs this method, here is the inevitable indulgent elaboration: One favourite character from a series is the impetus for blogging the series (E.g. Lunamaria Hawke in GSD, Asa Shigure in SHUFFLE! and Honoka Sakurai in Suzuka). Reporting and screencapping is, as a result, heavily slanted towards this single character and often limits its utility to other more general discussions of the anime. If the character is killed off or otherwise disappears from the series, then blog posts on it will very likely stop as well.

Common Principles. Despite the diversity of approaches, certain common principles may be discerned which can help to contribute to a sense of enjoyment, achievement and pride in one’s posts.

Making an original contribution to the body of fandom. Post-graduates among readers will probably whince at this suggestion while others may find this unnecessarily intimidating but it is simply a pompous way of saying that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Often, bloggers may feel compelled to write summaries or include screencaps when they find the writing or screencapping tedious. If one finds it a chore to do so, don’t. Hyperlink to others that already do so and who do it well, that leaves one free to write or screencap what interests oneself most. As one’s own perspective is unique, that will one’s original contribution to fandom. This reduces redunancy and ensures that one’s own voice is as clear as possible.

Citations and references. The very social and interlinked nature of the web, and consequently, the web-based anime blogging community provides the infrastructure for knowledge-sharing.The basis of all good writing, in literature and the humanities especially, is a lot of reading. It often helps to know what other people are blogging about so as to avoid repetition and sharpen focus. If one likes having hits, comments or citations, doing unto others what one wishes others would render unto to you is a good start. Acknowledgement of debts of reference, inspiration or ideas may not always go reciprocated but it is good etiquette which builds up one’s own awareness of the diversity of views. This is also a useful tool to reduce the amount of work especially when doing comparisons, e.g. Blogger A has speculated on this outcome (link a) and Blogger B disagrees (link b). I feel that it is somewhere in between / both have completely missed the point blah blah. Being social also means making friends and accepting mentoring. Some bloggers will leave friendly and encouraging comments which can be very morale boosting. Others will offer advice and criticisms or set implicit standards, these are often extremely valuable. It’s like how Hikaru grows under the influence of rivalry with Akira, Sai’s tutelage, the patronage of Ogata and Kuwabara and interaction with fellow aspiring go professionals. For myself, Stripey acted as my chief motivator to start blogging and to continue by being a regular reader. Later I found myself strongly influenced by Moyism and Sea Slugs with respect to blog platforms, design, organization and writing style especially for my decision to split the personal and anime blogs into two separate entities.

Identify constants/variable and recurrent patterns. One often only realises what one’s predominant style is after writing a number of entries. One will also realise that your personal style can evolve. Reflecting on constants and variables within one’s own writing (and comparing those to the writings of others) can give oneself some insight into how one wishes to blog, which style one enjoys most and how best to continue writing. For example, one may aim to write short, witty summaries but lately find that blogging is a chore with entries becoming longer and more comprehensive? Is it because the series no longer lends itself to the original blogging style due to a change in plot direction or characterisation? Is one’s natural inclination or talent is in comprehensive reporting rather than short commentary? This mental template or set of heuristics can also be applied what one concentrates on when watching so that a rough outline of what one wants to blog about emerges in the course of watching - it is like having an essay question in your mind as one ploughs through the materials in the reading list. After all, rewatching an episode already takes up an additional 25 minutes.

Know when to cut and run. Resources, especially time and energy, are finite. It is a good thing to be able to perserve but one should not feel pressure to complete blogging a series especially if one has lost interest. Often, our own expectations combined with an evergrowing backlog can be crushing - resulting in paralysis and procrastination. Worrying about one’s homework, work or chores is quite enough without adding on worrying about catching up on one’s hobby. Dropping a few or many episodes or entire series should never be a taboo. It’s not like you’re missing out on tenure or a performance bonus if you do, you know. (Interestingly, this is also an important ability to have when doing social science research - whether or not to keep going in a particular research direction. There are few things as deadly as constantly being stuck in an unproductive line of enquiry.) Write a short note briefly explaining one’s decision to close the loop and move on.

Conclusion. Retiring or taking breaks from anime blogging is part and parcel of how individuals manage time and priorities. This post hopes to have offered some rough methods of saving time and improving personal satisfaction with blogging so as to help maintain the balance in favour of continued anime blogging.