Cory of Renegade Anime Blog poses the interesting question of whether anime blog aggregators operating on ‘closed garden’ (blogsuki) versus ‘open acceptance’ (animenano) principles result in less episode summary/reviews and more editorial posts being showcased. Based on the data presented, the answer is somewhat inconclusive. He renews his call for less episode summaries/reviews and more editorials as well as more commenting and trackbacks. Meanwhile Michael of anime|otaku proposes economic and psychological reasons for the continued dominance of the episode summary/review style of anime blogging.
This post examines some research design issues related to Cory’s initial line of enquiry before considering the normative assumptions and prescription that underlies the study. It goes on to suggest an additional reason for the popularity of the episode summary/review style.