[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ1bKHgoN20[/youtube]
There’s been a recent trend in posts about jaded anime bloggers which has all-around rang quite true, and in response to it, drmchsr0 has also made a post asking the reader to really look at their beginnings as a fan and as a blogger and decide if they are really still into the fandom the way that they were, and whether or not they need to continue with it. But more than just figuring out if you should or shouldn’t still be watching anime and blogging, I’m interested in divining what you actually should be watching and what, exactly, you should be blogging.
It’s easy to loose sight of what you came here for when you enter the anime blogosphere. I think I can safely say that when you showed up, you were in a good place. You were obviously satisfied with being an anime fan, which is why you were interested enough to find out about anime blogs in the first place, and you must have been interested in the anime blogs that you read in order to keep you reading them. However, there is a point where you will have started to get influenced by the massive amounts of other bloggers in the ‘sphere, and this could effect your judgment in the wrong way.
Maybe you start watching shows just because everyone is talking about them, and you want to be a part of the conversation – shows you wouldn’t have necessarily liked. Maybe you start blogging shows just because they are big, with no real interest in blogging the show. Maybe you start watching and blogging episodically, even if you didn’t used to do either and don’t particularly like it. Hell, you could even end up forcing yourself to post on an episode of a show just because you did the last few episodes and felt an obligation to continue.
Somehow or another, a LOT of people have found themselves doing posts about and watching shows that they don’t really have their heart in, or aren’t even good at blogging. And this is what turns people into ‘jaded’ anime bloggers.
The essence of being a fan and having something to say is all about PASSION. The whole idea is that you watch something and you talk about it because you CARE about it. If it’s a current show that you love, a relic from the past, or just some kind of observation on the whole of fandom, it’s supposed to be something you were interested in and felt from the heart and poured out onto the blogosphere.
It doesn’t matter what it is. Maybe it’s an episode of your favorite show, or even it could be a rant about a show you completely hate. As long as your rant is completely passionate, honest, and you are genuinely interested in the material, than it is worth ranting about.
The problem I have with the ‘sphere is that there is WAY too much half-hearted posting. People who blog an episode of a show to say something like “I’m still not that interested in this show, nothing really excited happened in this ep, might drop soon.” A post like that is not worth reading, because it doesn’t do anything for the reader. There is nothing to take away. The writer has nothing to gain either, because they won’t be learning anything new from themselves and they won’t be getting any meaningful replies, because there is nothing to say.
I have been very effected both by positive and negative reviews. I will never forget when I had two albums by my favorite band, Agalloch, called ‘The Mantle’ and ‘Ashes Against the Grain’, and for a while, I’d liked ‘The Mantle’ more. Then I remember reading reviews for the Agalloch albums on the review site Satan Stole My Teddybear. The reviewer had pointed out his disappointment with ‘The Mantle’ because it was great music, but it didn’t really grab you and make you feel like you had to listen, whereas ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ he said was powerful and moving and forced you to listen to it more. When I thought about these things while listening to the music, I quickly saw what he meant, and Ashes Against the Grain became my favorite album of theirs, later my favorite album of all time.
The point is, both in good and bad, he wrote with insight and passion, and that’s what I want to see from anime bloggers. Don’t make a post when you have nothing to say. Don’t force yourself to watch a show that you have no interest in. Don’t try to keep up with everything that’s popular just because you don’t want to get left behind, because both your blogging and your fandom will suffer for it, and the more you force yourself into stuff you don’t care about, the more you’ll grow indifferent or opposed to the fandom as a whole. Start showing your passion in your posts again, and not only will your writing feel better, but it will be fun to read.
*Salutes* AYE, CAP’N. TO WRITE WITH PASSION, TO REVIEW WITH EMOTION, AND TO BLOG WITH LOVE; THAT IS THE CREEDO OF THE ANIBLOGGER.
MASSUGO, GO.
Yeah you asshole. Making me watch Canaan after I dropped it like a bomb… then you didn’t even finish it after hyping it to kingdom come. I’M NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE YOU. Now give me credit, I didn’t piss all over it in a hate post. I’ll hate on you instead. DAMN YOU TO HELL.
Btw I may start watching the Kindergarten show lol, maybe we can blog it later on ^_^
ROFL. What can I say, I lost the passion to blog Canaan ww. I am actually DLing the show now so that I can watch it, though, since I want to finish it before my Canaan figma shows up.
I’d love to blog Hanamaru with you. Maybe UEB can join in too since he’s so jizzed for the show ~_^
Write if you have something interesting to say. Don’t write if you don’t have anything interesting to say. The end.
This was supposed to have its own comment thread. Whatever.
Yeah, don’t waste your life on something you don’t care about. It seems like I see a lot of people making posts about things they clearly don’t care about. And burning out. Or just disappearing. Why have so many blogs been abandoned? (rhetorical) It’s just a little sad.
I wonder what a post with one screencap, two lines of text, and no thoughts counts as.
Not much, unless it’s hilarious. Yeah, too many dead blogs, but at least it means that those people realized it wasn’t for them. I can’t see my blog dying, ever. Unless I finally croak.
I can’t see your blog dying either…you can even manage to get away with multiple relatively long posts in a day and without losing anything. :d
I personally think that if you don’t think you can keep up with it, you shouldn’t blog enough that I manage to find your blog in the first place. orz Because I definitely don’t search out new ones as much as I probably should.
lol. I can do several long posts on several blogs while posting on several forums and sending several tweets LOL. And yet the things I SHOULD be working on….
I started my blog because writing about what I’m watching helps me gain more appreciation for what I see — I’m the sort of person who thinks best about things by putting thoughts in writing, haha. Plus, I don’t want anything I publish to be shit, so I have to put in a good amount of passion and thought to whatever I write. :P
The trap of episodic blogging (“MUST COMPLETE EVERYTHING I START, EVEN WHEN IT SUCKS”) is something I particularly want to avoid as an episodic blogger. I’d rather have a shorter collection of interesting posts than a full collection of partly interesting and partly dull posts.
Bronze this sucker, because this is a great post dude. I don’t have any more to add to it, except to say I agree completely.
I don’t mind if bloggers love or hate something, as long as they do it with BURNING PASSION.
Well said. I do tend to watch the latest shows so I can see what everyone’s talking about, but I usually end up liking them anyway, since I’m not fussy at all when it comes to anime. I feel that watching things even if I’m not thrilled with them helps me become a more well-rounded fan. But I will drop a series if it really does nothing for me. I do try to watch older shows from time to time and rewatch ones that I really liked.
As for blogging, I write about my first and last impressions of a series and rarely episode-by-episode in between. I know I don’t have the motivation for that except for series I especially like, so I won’t even try. The reason the posts on my blog are kind of random is because I write out of passion; I’ll write about whatever topic I feel like blogging that day and I don’t want to feel confined by a schedule of what and when I should to blog. I agree that this makes you a jaded fan and I want to avoid that.
A few things…
First, are we sure that people doing the whole dispassionate “this show sort of sucks, thinking of dropping it” thing aren’t just trying to support/maintain their image? (i.e. Is being aloof/too cool for certain shows just a pass, like calling something a “guilty pleasure”?)
Second, are we even sure that all the people with anime blogs were ever truly “passionate anime fans” to begin with, never mind whether or not they still are? Could it be that some of them were always more passionate about blogging, the blogging community, or themselves to start with?
Third, and besides everything else, could these sorts of dispassionate posts just be a sign of “writer’s block”? I mean, I think many bloggers have realized that regular posting is one important means to keeping site visitors, and the nice thing about anime episodes is that they air every week. In such cases, blogging about the episodes could become a “to do” to keep the blog alive when they don’t know what else to write about. Of course, this is still sort of destructive over the long term (people just aren’t all that interested in dispassionate writing, and typically speaking neither is the writer after a while), but maybe some feel it’s better than not saying anything at all. I guess, just like people deride in anime, could we call these sorts of blog posts “filler”?
And I guess fourth, could it be that some people just don’t want to admit that it’s time to move on? At least from my perspective, it’s sort of tragic/sad watching someone lose their passion for their hobby and putting that whole embitterment process on display. But I think a lot of the people in the midst of that process somehow legitimately believe that it’s *the hobby* that’s getting worse/less interesting/more stale/whatever rather than just their own perspective that’s changing.
In the end, the danger is that people let watching anime or blogging about watching anime become a ritual — something they do out of habit for the sake of doing it because “that’s just what they do”. Because anime is so cyclical, I suppose it’s easy to be lured into that comfortable pattern — new season previews, first impressions, episode reviews, final impressions, on to the next season… But when something becomes just another ritual, it’s extremely easy to lose your passion for it, and to grow to resent it over time. So in the end, breaking up the routine and just following your passion does tend to preserve your overall interest in anything. I think it’s good advice all around.
All of those are very possible, and to anyone for whom such is the case, I would advise them to ammend their blogging or step out of the sphere altogether, because they bring nothing of worth to the table.
Well I agree with everything you said except the second paragraph. The reason I started blogging and my level as an anime fan were completely different to how I am now. Why I blog and what I blog about has completely changed. Passion is important but you must also evolve as you keep growing as a fan. Different things will catch your interest.
Otherwise yeah, manly passion and all that
This post spoke a lot. I do agree with you; really.
But the point is…yeah, even if it kills, DO NOT MAKE A BLOGGING SCHEDULE, it takes you into the obligatory routine, FAST.
…oops, mistyped the email. sorry
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