hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

DEATH TO EDITORIALS, EPISODE SUMMARIES BANZAI!!!

LOL, not again!

Of course I enjoy a good editorial once and a while. But I strongly believe that blogs are like the ideal-type sovereign state, vide Article 2(7), no one has the right to interfere in the internal activities of another's blog. Persuasion and strong advocacy are fine but I'd really like to see more leadership by example (i.e. anime blogging in the editorial style) rather than blogging about blogging (of which this post is guilty of and makes me feel so dirty oh it won't come off.. whywon'titcomeoff... Out, damned spot! Out, I say!).

It's been repeatedly pointed out that not all episode summaries are created equal, I'd like to disaggregate the category of 'episode summaries' (not another sub-species post LOL) for great justice.

Random Curiosity no waza. One of the Sacred Treasures of animeblogging IMNSHO. I find RC's work invaluable because (1) it helps me to understand raws when there's an episode I just can't wait for the subs - because not Everyone Can Haz A JLPT1; (2) the screencaps and summaries are comprehensive enough (but also not too lengthy) that makes for ease of reference re: who said/did what which episode? For example, since I am only interested in the Hinagiku aspect of Hayate no Gotoku!, I used RC to check (pre-episode 25) if Hinagiku appears in an episode or not. If she does, I'll watch it. If not, I'll just read the summary to maintain my series situational awareness. It's also a great cheat sheet for keeping in touch with popular series that I can't be bothered to watch but which everyone else talks about.

But RC does not blog everything. Fortunately there are others who practice a similar waza. I depended on Tenka Seiha for Nanoha StrikerS coverage and currently I depend on Subculture Anime Blog to improve my understanding of the non-speed-subbed series of ARIA The Origination, Minami Ke Okawari and Bamboo Blade.

The downsides of this waza are (1) you need to speakada the moon language reasonably well, (2) you need to be consistently prompt with your posts, and (3) have a good sense of balance between sparseness and over-saturation of information. As such, I do agree that this waza depends on first mover advantage. After the first few summaries appear on the aggregators, marginal utility diminishes rapidly.

I usually don't read episode summaries once I've watched a subbed episode. But episode summaries of subs can still be very useful especially when no one else has done already has done one - with that latter qualification, it's valuable for archival purposes and/or series evangelism. And even if it does reinvent the wheel, at the very least, it creates redundancy in the extreme cases of blogs disappearing for various reasons.

Sea Slug no jutsu~~ (is funnier if you say it in an Onsokumaru voice) looks like episode summary but it really isn't. The practice of this jutsu~~, particularly by Kabitzin, usually involves two paragraphs of summary and two paragraphs of impressions. The mouse over captions are a killer too; I feel the lineage of Momotato there.

But the summary paragraphs actually transcend summarization as they normally involve in-jokes based on the content of the episode, making 'getting the joke' dependent on already knowing what's happened. As such, I always watch an episode before reading a Sea Slug! entry. I enjoy this type of entry very much because of its clear expression of fun, joie de vivre and enjoyment (even really bad episodes are made fun of in such a fun way).

This jutsu~~ is very hard to learn. I think you've either got it or you don't as it depends on having a razor sharp wit, sense of humour or just the chou-rare skill of being able to make orz-inducing puns.

Life Line By Line Stance. The powerful stance takes the Random Curiosity no Waza to new heights and new extremes. In my mind, it's a byword for screen capture mania. It's rarely practiced for the reason that it's time and bandwidth consuming; to my knowledge, Lolitron is one of those few remaining practitioners of this Stance though abq has, of course, given it his own errr... unique flavour. I've been particularly influenced by this school when it comes to blogging series where I indulge in chara worship (e.g. Lunamaria Hawke of GSD which was the reason why this blog got started, Asa Shigure of SHUFFLE! which consolidated my onee complex, and my current obsession, Hinagikuism.)

Of course there are many other episode-based posting styles that do not do much episode summarization. Derailed by Darry's thin-slicing technique is a great use of the comparative method while I always enjoy 'the straight to the point' of 'what I loved and hated about this episode NIPAAA~~ / AAAARGH!!' of Kurogane's Anime Blog.

In conclusion, I sayeth unto you: DEATH TO EDITORIALS, EPISODE SUMMARIES BANZAI! *commits seppuku for having written a meta editorial-like thing* From each according to their ability, to each according to their fetish.

Related posts:

1. On the consideration of the similarities and dissimilarities between the Malus and Citrus genera
2. Death by Harem
3. Requiem for Random Curiosity