A look at the world of anime web logs

[blkmage]

Something that was instrumental in my return to and subsequent acquisition of knowledge of anime was the burgeoning community surrounding anime blogs. When I first got into currently airing anime, blogs were the first things that came up when looking for information about a show. As I dug deeper, I found a ton of content and I eventually became acquainted with a number of bloggers.

If you're interested in learning more about anime, then you should pick up some blogs. What sorts of things can you find?

Reviews
This is probably what most people are familiar with when it comes to anime blogs. It's not really what I look for though, especially now that I'm familiar with what I like or dislike.

News
There are a few anime blogs that are devoted to news. These sorts of things are usually Japan-centric, like new anime announcements and things about the Japanese industry. Usually, the interesting thing is when the bloggers inject some commentary as well. Also good for getting numbers.

Episodics
This is the thing that really built anime blogging. Episodic blogging with summaries and impressions are really useful for checking out new shows. I find that these are much more helpful than reviews in determining whether you want to watch a show. I used to read a lot of these when I was getting back into anime, but like I mentioned already, I know what I like now and am pretty good at choosing shows based on very little information. Reading these is useful to get a second opinion, especially once you get to understand the various bloggers' tastes.

Industry (Business)
Why is anime dying? How does anime make money? Why doesn't the industry do x? There are a bunch of bloggers who occasionally delve into the money-concerned side of the industry. Most of what I've read has to do with the Japanese side of things simply because that's ultimately where everything is affected, although there is sometimes some commentary about why licensors dance their dance the way they do.

Industry (Production)
This is about the people who make the shows you watch. There's some really good stuff about various directors and their influences or studios and their histories. There is also a lot of stuff about seiyuu and composers and mangaka and many people that you might be interested in. A lot of the time, it includes discussions about their works.

Analysis
And this is my favourite type of post. Basically, people talk about anime and a lot of them are very good at it. I'm sure there are more words typed than you would care to read about heroism and idealism in Fate/stay night. Or you could read the role of time and the use of symbols in Hidamari Sketch. How about the difference in the portrayal of violence and mankind between the UC and AU Gundams? There's a ton of great discussions like these, about things like the themes of a show and how a show is constructed, and there's likely something for almost any show you can think of.

So that was a lot of words, so I won't be going through my gigantic list of blog feeds to fish out and categorize all of my anime blogs. However, I'll gladly post some if someone asks for something specific. Also, this way, I can goad you into also talking about whatever blogs you follow so that there can be some kind of discussion going on. It's win/win!

[thejackal221]

Blogs are cool and all, but I found that you have to be VERY careful about them. Some have some stuff you really wish they didn't have and you don't notice it until you dig really deep. Now as for looking for up and coming anime, maybe some one should start a thread or something. I know that there is poster flying around the web. I may find it and post it in the forums here.

[Atria35]

My favorite type is the overall review. These have always appealed to me more merely because the episodic reviews can be a bit of a spoiler, and the overall impression can give you a better idea of whether it's all-around good or bad, or whether one part was good but the other part was something you'd want to skip. There's only one blog I really follow, and it has an extensive collection of reviews done by many different people (it's also not an amateur blog- you have to hone your writing skills a bit in order to be able to post up, and the posts can't be submitted anonymously). Those reviews have shown me that it's possible to do reviews that cover the entire series and everything that was important in those series, without being too spoileriffic.

Analysis are nice, but I really only want those when something has really made an impression on me, not if I watched something for fun. I've also never really read one for anime (though I've been thinking I should for Haibane Renmei), but I've seen some fantastic ones for LoTR. If these can hold up to the same standard, I'm sure I'll enjoy them in my free time.

[ShiroiHikari]

Blogs are cool and all, but I found that you have to be VERY careful about them. Some have some stuff you really wish they didn't have and you don't notice it until you dig really deep.

Examples?

I really should read more anime blogs.

[blkmage]

Blogs are cool and all, but I found that you have to be VERY careful about them. Some have some stuff you really wish they didn't have and you don't notice it until you dig really deep. Now as for looking for up and coming anime, maybe some one should start a thread or something. I know that there is poster flying around the web. I may find it and post it in the forums here.

Did you mean something like this?

My favorite type is the overall review. These have always appealed to me more merely because the episodic reviews can be a bit of a spoiler, and the overall impression can give you a better idea of whether it's all-around good or bad, or whether one part was good but the other part was something you'd want to skip. There's only one blog I really follow, and it has an extensive collection of reviews done by many different people (it's also not an amateur blog- you have to hone your writing skills a bit in order to be able to post up, and the posts can't be submitted anonymously). Those reviews have shown me that it's possible to do reviews that cover the entire series and everything that was important in those series, without being too spoileriffic.

Analysis are nice, but I really only want those when something has really made an impression on me, not if I watched something for fun. I've also never really read one for anime (though I've been thinking I should for Haibane Renmei), but I've seen some fantastic ones for LoTR. If these can hold up to the same standard, I'm sure I'll enjoy them in my free time.

My problem with reviews is that the reviewer is not me. The reviewer tends not to have the same tastes or value the same things in a show as I do. I enjoy episodic impressions and recommendations from friends and more informal reviews because I understand that person's personal tastes more and am able to better judge whether it's a show for me, rather than an impersonal, objective, comprehensive review. The other reason is that I want to make up my own mind about shows and reviews poison the well for that sort of thing. I really only need maybe one or two episodes of impressions to make up my mind on whether to watch a show or not, even if it is bad.

For instance, I know a few people around here are familiar with psgels. I used to read his blog because he watches a lot of stuff and has perspective. But I stopped reading it when I realized my tastes often diverge from mine. There are things he doesn't tolerate in a show that I often enjoy and vice-versa. It's interesting to read for a second perspective, but I don't base my watching on his word alone.

The reason I enjoy analysis is that it makes you think and it generates discussion. And it's the sort of discussion I can really get into. I mean, the posts in the DRRR thread are the sort of thing that I enjoy reading and we recently had a string of 5 Centimeters per Second posts that's buried in the What Anime Are You Watching? thread.

I mean, we've got stuff like a thematic analysis of Fate/stay night, a discussion on pseudoscience and FMA, a survey of slice of life anime, a look at the masculinity of Nanoha, a spoiler-free comparison of UC Gundam to Gundam Unicorn, a brief comparison of Summer Wars to TokiKake, symbolism in Hidamari Sketch, and initial impressions and analysis of Bakemonogatari. This is a brief list, that I just scraped out of my feed reader.

Is this depth of analysis and discussion unnecessary? Probably, but it's also much more fun and much more interesting than simply passively consuming these shows. And what's great about the blogging community is that the comments sections are also filled with this sort of stuff and it's really easy to find more blogs, whether through following commentors or blogroll links, that contain the same kinds of discourse.

Also when I said talk about the blogs you read, I also meant link to them so we might have something new to read as well.

[ShiroiHikari]

a spoiler-free comparison of UC Gundam to Gundam Unicorn

I've been to that blog before, and while sometimes it's an interesting read, the author's sensibilities don't really line up with my own (particularly in his hatred of Double Zeta) so I don't read it often. Does that make me closed-minded? XD

[Atria35]

My problem with reviews is that the reviewer is not me. The reviewer tends not to have the same tastes or value the same things in a show as I do. I enjoy episodic impressions and recommendations from friends and more informal reviews because I understand that person's personal tastes more and am able to better judge whether it's a show for me, rather than an impersonal, objective, comprehensive review. The other reason is that I want to make up my own mind about shows and reviews poison the well for that sort of thing. I really only need maybe one or two episodes of impressions to make up my mind on whether to watch a show or not, even if it is bad.

I get what you're saying about the reviews. Personal taste is personal taste- I know of one guy on a forum I was on that was really into ecchi/hentai, and had a dislike of anything that wasn't. Troll? Didn't seem to be- but at the same time, I wouldn't have trusted his recommendations for any anime. It's also impossible to have an objective, impersonal review, though- there's no absolute baseline for 'good' and 'bad'. For me, an overview gives me an idea of what the show is about (if I'd never heard about Gundam, I'd drop it from the overview because I know I don't care for mecha). And impressions are again, opinions, just on a more micro-scale of the anime, which is why I prefer overall- because those impressions can have decent spoilers. I don't like going into a first episode knowing pretty much what exactly is going to happen- that's the bit that gets me. Reviews give me general expectations for an anime, and if I decide to watch it, and the anime exceeds them, then I'm thrilled. That's what I do even if I ask my friends for a recommendation and small review. My friends may know my tastes, but they have different tastes than mine. Even though they may recommend a show they don't like, I may like it anyway. And they've recommended shows I've hated but they liked.

For instance, I know a few people around here are familiar with psgels. I used to read his blog because he watches a lot of stuff and has perspective. But I stopped reading it when I realized my tastes often diverge from mine. There are things he doesn't tolerate in a show that I often enjoy and vice-versa. It's interesting to read for a second perspective, but I don't base my watching on his word alone.

No one should think they'll like a show based on one person's word alone. Again, different people have different tastes. But if a majority of people don't like a show, then there might be some basis for it.

The reason I enjoy analysis is that it makes you think and it generates discussion. And it's the sort of discussion I can really get into. I mean, the posts in the DRRR thread are the sort of thing that I enjoy reading and we recently had a string of 5 Centimeters per Second posts that's buried in the What Anime Are You Watching? thread.

.....

Is this depth of analysis and discussion unnecessary? Probably, but it's also much more fun and much more interesting than simply passively consuming these shows. And what's great about the blogging community is that the comments sections are also filled with this sort of stuff and it's really easy to find more blogs, whether through following commentors or blogroll links, that contain the same kinds of discourse.

Also when I said talk about the blogs you read, I also meant link to them so we might have something new to read as well.

I'll admit, I'm not much into discussing anime and the symbiology in it, but with analysis, I enjoy the different perspective it grants me into a piece of work. Again, if I feel that the show made an impression on me, or made me think, then I'll go looking for analysis on it, but there are some shows that I like just for what they are, and reading an analysis on anything about them would sorta ruin them for me.

Oh, and my favorite blogs? http://www.themanime.org and http://www.theanimereview.com
Not really blogs, but they are good review sites nonetheless. I haven't found any personal ones that I really jive with yet, but I'm still looking. I didn't start looking for review sites until the beginning of last year when I really started getting into anime, and when I find a review site, I tend to stick with it and not go looking for much else

[blkmage]

I've been to that blog before, and while sometimes it's an interesting read, the author's sensibilities don't really line up with my own (particularly in his hatred of Double Zeta) so I don't read it often. Does that make me closed-minded? XD

He talks about a variety of stuff that's not mecha and he's also way more of a Macross fan than a Gundam fan, so I don't think he talks about ZZ that much anyway. I actually like his non-mecha posts more. Anyhow, I find that interests and stuff don't really matter as much as for episodic blogs, which he doesn't really do much of.

I get what you're saying about the reviews. Personal taste is personal taste- I know of one guy on a forum I was on that was really into ecchi/hentai, and had a dislike of anything that wasn't. Troll? Didn't seem to be- but at the same time, I wouldn't have trusted his recommendations for any anime. It's also impossible to have an objective, impersonal review, though- there's no absolute baseline for 'good' and 'bad'. For me, an overview gives me an idea of what the show is about (if I'd never heard about Gundam, I'd drop it from the overview because I know I don't care for mecha). And impressions are again, opinions, just on a more micro-scale of the anime, which is why I prefer overall- because those impressions can have decent spoilers. I don't like going into a first episode knowing pretty much what exactly is going to happen- that's the bit that gets me. Reviews give me general expectations for an anime, and if I decide to watch it, and the anime exceeds them, then I'm thrilled. That's what I do even if I ask my friends for a recommendation and small review. My friends may know my tastes, but they have different tastes than mine. Even though they may recommend a show they don't like, I may like it anyway. And they've recommended shows I've hated but they liked.

I'm aware that it's impossible for there to be a completely neutral review, but I've found that reviews tend to strive for objectivity and authority. There's no such pretense from episodic reviews.

I also prefer the micro-level impressions of episodics over more general reviews because even if impressions tell too much about the first episode, it's only the first episode; you'll be finished in half an hour anyway, so there's not much to spoil. I've found that reviews tend to be too vague for me to get a good handle on the show. The detail in first-episode impressions are also much more specific about the technical construction of the show, which is something that I'm more interested in.

Another thing I guess is that the majority of shows I watch are new shows that are currently airing. There are no reviews for those. I'm watching right along with most people, treading into unexplored territory. Since I've done a lot of that, I guess I've picked up a sense of what shows hold promise and what shows don't just by going through the first episode.

I guess what it comes down to is that I don't mind if I watch a bad show. I can see why people who do mind would want reviews, because it can help them determine whether, say, the second half of a show goes down the drain or something. If I watch a bad show, then oh well, I guess I'll have something to talk about anyway. For me, half the fun is exploring new things that I otherwise wouldn't have given the chance.