I haven’t really animeblogged in a while, so I thought I might do so today while I’m sick at home. K-ON! is the only spring 2009 show I have started, and I find it magically delicious. I could blog about the winter shows that I’m finishing up (like the horrible roller coaster that Toradora! 21-25 was or the lame ending of Skip Beat!), but why not discuss KyoAni’s latest offering? So I decided to see what other bloggers had to say about this explosion of moe.
An Anime Nano search for K-ON! produced a whopping twenty-nine or so results for the second episode alone. I didn’t bother to count the amount of posts for the first episode and impressions posts. Some of these second episode posts were useful in pointing out errors, one was delightfully informative, and the others were boring repeats of each other (although one mixed it up, and I actually enjoyed reading hers).
This overwhelming response to K-ON! almost deterred me from posting at all; the blogosphere doesn’t need another post on this moefest. But hey, it’s interesting to note the increasing number of anime blogs in the past six months. Unfortunately, they’re more or less all episodic summary blogs. Despite the arrogance that Owen oozes, at least he doesn’t straight up regurgitate the show into text form. It’s nice to hear what an episode is about, but not twenty or so times.
I suppose this isn’t really their fault as new anime bloggers. Perhaps it’s just a hint to finally use an RSS aggregator for anime blogs again instead of relying on Anime Nano (I could log into Anime Nano and subscribe to blogs, but I’m far too lazy). It’d be nice to see these newer blogs offer something new or a different perspective on a show. Episodic summary blogging isn’t bad, it’s just kinda repetitive and boring after the first few posts (unless you’re hilarious, like Shin or something). I’m not asking for an analysis of how time and aging work (when it’s clear that the author somewhat overlooked it), but something like this is nice.
Hm, I originally planned to write about K-ON! itself… now I’m talking about anime blogs. Well the show itself can be a topic for another day.
(Home page/archive image taken from Pixiv via Danbooru)
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Well, that’s how the dime rolls nowadays. Episodic summaries can be good; however new anibloggers, trying to imitate the big ones, usually don’t get the interest because, as you say, it gets boring after the first few posts – and usually, everyone follows the big ones first.
And not every new blogger can write something up in an interesting, original way. I’ve been through there myself, and I know how hard it is to get the point of my tl;dr stuff across, especially if not many people seem to read it for all the reasons above.
Oh yeah this was about K-ON. Not gonna watch it, just like I never watched any KyoAni show, I don’t really want to be a part of a fanwhore bandwagon. I’m probably just delightfully repellent to overrated, overpopular shows. :D
You don’t have to… you can just… watch the show.
What IcyStorm said. Just don’t pay attention to what others say about it then? :P
Shit, my big secret plan to get e-peen has been found out!
Though in all actuality, I blogged about K-ON! 02 because I just didn’t like the art in some scenes, though the jump in people repeatedly refreshing my page (aka hits) has been a nice side effect.
This is almost as a bad as an ani-nouto post. Almost. Good try though.
:[ Now what on Earth is that supposed to mean?
Envy, obviously. He’s bitter at Owen declaring him lacking stamina, comparatively. ^_^
Content-free rhetoric that doesn’t really add anything onto the posts being linked.
Thanks for being my tsundere fanboy, btw–I daresay I’m accumulating quite the fanclub over here.
W-what?
I-I’m not your f-fanboy or anything!
he allows for comments.
i..i,,,i…iit’s not like behind-your-back google reader comments are fun or anything!
OR, in your case it’s sekrit comment bloggery amirite.
And then there are posts designed only to worship Mio in all her glory :3
Why does Mio gets all the love anyway?!
orz, I need to improve myself then. I guess I’m not the exactly a funny guy yet. I suck pretty badly at making people laugh! D:
Two words to describe K-On….mediocrity defined.
Being new to blogging I am not surprised to see my blog among the boring ones xD
I guess I need to improve………and improve a lot.
@Netto and @Fara7: I don’t think it’s a matter of improving. It’s just a matter of differentiating yourself from the pack. It kinda sucks when you follow the bigger name blogs like Random Curiosity, Sea Slugs!, Subculture, etc.
I think differentiation comes with time as you become more familiar with your writing style and get a better idea of what you want to say.
As a relative noob, I’ve found there’s a few things I struggle with:
a.) Content layout – how to lay things out in a way that makes sense? I’ve experimented with different styles, but when I want to cut the summary out of the post, but I’ve noticed doing so can hurt my post’s continuity. Relevant references can suddenly become strange non-sequitors. And so on.
b.) Design – What makes sense visually? What looks good? Where’s the balance between too many images vs. huge walls of text? etc.
c.) Voice – What’s do I really think? How am I gonna get those words out? How do I say it in a way that’s really interesting?
I’d like to think that my writing and my focus has improved over the past few months, but I’ll be the first to admit it hasn’t all clicked yet. And personally, I’ve found “differentiating” is difficult while you’re “figuring it out” at the same time.
Besides, I like to think there’s more diversity in the aniblogosphere than there is in the professional news networks. So that’s a start, no?
Everyone has a story to tell, so bloggers don’t give up. We all started somewhere. Icy, I know what you’re trying to say, but you are totally being a hater.
I don’t understand. You enjoyed a show and then went to see what other people said about it and were disappointed to find more than a handful of responses? The posts you linked as “boring repeats” all approached the episode from different directions and yet you didn’t seem to notice that. Basically, you are railing against more choices because you are too lazy to check all the choices out to see which you like, and it seems like you’d prefer to be told what is good and be presented with only 2-3 choices. Yes, I am totally paraphrasing.
This response kinda pisses me off. Let’s say I am a huge Minimum Tempo fan and now you are not posting about K-ON! when I might want to hear what you have to say. And it’s not because like, say, Aroduc or psgels, you are blogging a billion shows and so you decide to cover the lesser known series based on principle. This is reminiscent of railing against a show like Haruhi simply because of its audience and/or popularity. I cannot help but to consider this an inability to think critically and tune out noise. You enjoy the one show you are watching this season and you let yourself get intimidated out of posting about it and having discussions on your blog. Even worse, you take the step of criticizing other bloggers who did post about the show (and I suspect you did not even read their posts very carefully).
Also, in response to your criticism of episodic blogs, consider this: it is great to hear some amazing 9000 word discourse about how X anime is like Y piece of literature, but sometimes I just want to talk about what I just watched and I want to discuss it right after I watched that episode. Many of my favorite posts are where I know that the author’s tastes are similar to (or dissimilar from) my own and I get to discuss with the author and other like-minded (or dissenting) readers about simple aspects of an episode.
I always find these posts about “too many blogs” silly. 29? There is a reason why so many sperm cells are released at the same time during copulation! Also, originality is overrated, and vanilla content pays the bills.
Oops, my rage got the best of me and I forgot to close an em tag. Italics are the new capslock.
How to reply to this…
I feel like a total douchebag for writing this post. Instead of offering real constructive criticism (and what right do I have to give that?), I simply pointed and said they’re doing it wrong. A lot of these newer blogs can produce good stuff, but it’s more of the wish that they would just skip over the summaries so I can read what they actually have to say. Do I want to sit through twenty K-ON! 02 posts and sift through repeated content over and over just to hear their opinions? No, I don’t, because there’s always so much information coming through that I don’t want to read that Yui bought the Les Paul about twenty times. I love what you do: cover the episode’s content in two or three paragraphs and then write reactions in another two or three paragraphs. The best part is that these two sections are clearly separated so that I can skip directly to what you think about a particular episode.
In response to what you have to say about me possibly not posting about K-ON!, that’s because I don’t feel I have much to contribute. I skimmed through most of the posts, yeah (many of the posts insert way too many pictures between text, and it makes for an aggravating read), but that’s because I go through an unreasonable amount of new stuff to read every day (something I need to work on downsizing). An inability to think critically and tune out noise? I go through Digg, two Twitter accounts that follow over 80 people each, over thirty blogs excluding anime blogs, and then Anime Nano every day. I call it mental exhaustion more than anything.
And why post something if I’m just going to squeal about how cute Yui’s “untan untan” scene was or how Mio is so deliciously moe? What’s the point of adding noise to the blogosphere when it would work so much better on a MAL blog or a forum? Wy not take it to an existing blog post and comment on there? If you want to discuss it right after you watch an episode, there’s Twitter, IRC, message boards, IM; tons of other avenues for discussion that allow for much quicker responses.
So on one hand, yeah, I’m stupid for criticizing these other blogs and posting, in Owen’s words, “content-free rhetoric that doesn’t really add anything onto the posts being linked.” On the other hand, I still stand by most of what I said.
While I still disagree with your basic premise, this comment is a whole lot more reasonable than your post. You have valid points in your suggestions on post layout and content vehicles. I was mostly nonplussed by your original decision to simply list a ton of posts as bad.
I think kabitzin is just trolling you.
The problem is, what you said in your blog is how some people feel! And there’s nothing wrong with expressing that. I feel the same way about K-ON and its coverage on the net in a general sense. K-ON a fine show and all, but I’d rather go rewatch the ED a few more times than to read 5 different image-laden (all caps from the show) posts trying to express “[insert thing] is [insert superlative]” when in the end I’d rather just experience said superlative thing. If we are actually 12 episodes deep into the series maybe more than 30% of the K-ON posts out there would have something substantive to say.
This is your blog, post whatever you want. It’s better to be honest (even if it’s laziness) than to offend some people to take this too seriously.
Dude, you didn’t produce anything linkable in ages, and now that you did, you let silly haters get to you? Please!
Hey, I’m one of those people that think that the blogosphere has left a lot to be desired these past couple of weeks, though mostly in the area of first impressions being carbon copies of each other. Not that I really gauge what shows I’m going to watch or how I am going to watch and think about them based off of reading your average blog (in my opinion that would be lending the blogosphere to much credit and importance), but would it kill a few more people to try and tell us all something we don’t know. I’m not getting that independent opinion feeling that is supposed to have been the driving force behind blogs in the first place when it comes to spring 2009 first impressions. Very very disappointed…..
Go tell them Icy. Generic summary blogs are a total waste of everyone’s time and bandwidth! I fucking hate THAT Anime Blog!
Your reply to Kabitzin is indeed a way different from the post itself. And nevertheless, the large variety of blogs and opinions is a thing to thank for. You choose the blog you like and read it – voilá, you can forget about other blogs and posts. Or sometimes you just read a random episodic, or a couple of them, if you want to know others’ opinion. Why criticising?
In one point I agree with you though – plain summaries are otiose if the reader watched the episode on his own.
Why not? Do people put down the anime they don’t like? All the time. Blogs and fans are no more or less entitled or immune to the same. Do people feel thankful for the large amount of crappy anime out there? /shrug
I think YOU should be thankful there are those who are like Icy and post things you don’t agree with, in a way that isn’t prickly like a certain sort of fangirl nergrage approach that doesn’t entertain dissents.
For the large amount of crappy anime? I think you misunderstood me. Thankful for the variety, for so many different blogs, there are good and there are bad and you have choice. With anime it’s the same.
Yes, I’m thankful I have this opportunity to comment, discuss etcetera. But that’s not the point here.
Sorry for the flood of -s.
I dunno, it IS the point here. You got some guy who dissents, and you complain about that? Isn’t that like whining about people who whine?
[...] why put Episodics up for discussion? There are two reasons: (1) a response to Icystorm’s lists of ‘boring repeats’ of K-ON bloggers (where boring is something I wholeheartedly agree with…and yes. I’m one of them) and [...]
I feel like I dont wanna make a K-ON! episode reviews anymore. ;__;
Lol. I don’t mind critics, they let me see where I should improve. Even if it isn’t constructive criticism.
[...] topic was trivially touched by Icystorm earlier, when he complained about how many K-ON! posts are flooding the web and his feed [...]
I made a editorial regarding this issue several weeks ago since I saw this article and one other article. Also, I have changed my blogging style to avoid having my blog posts look similar to thousands of anime blogs that only summarize the episode which is too overdone… I just sum it up in a few sentences unless it’s something really obscure or a series that noone fully blogged about. In addition, I write several editorial blog posts on some things that bother me… but otherwise, my writing style is okay for right now.