In the past few weeks, there has been some discussion on why fans decide to blog about Anime. It’s true that blogging takes time and dedication, but there are many reasons why people continue to do it.
For me, I have been blogging for nearly 2 years and a half now and I have my own reasons for blog. I decide to do it not for popularity, but to enhance my experience as a fan of Anime. (Image Source)
My progression since I started to blog Anime back in early 2009 to present has changed drastically over time. Back when I started blogging about Anime, I originally intended it as a place where I practice my writing skills while sharing my thoughts about Anime. Back then; I focused primarily on synopsis/thoughts posts and uploading a lot of screenshots. As time went on, I decided to share only my thoughts and analyze some of the interesting parts of the episodes since I assumed that most people would have already watched the episode. In addition to episodic posts, I have written editorials and full reviews of series as an outlet to share my thoughts on a broader scale to allow for discussion. Furthermore, my writing has become more polished after the first year as I become more aware in catching grammar/spelling mistakes before publishing the post.
In a way, I have always considered Anime blogging as a social experience. Like a forum, blogging has a similar effect since you are essentially sharing your thoughts and other people makes comments to add to the discussion. I believe that through this social interaction from blogging has influenced me to become more open. When I attended high school several years ago, I did not socialize with many people since I was in a hostile environment. Sure I had many friends, but there were some that bullied me. This has changed during my first year of blogging when I started to use Twitter to interact with other bloggers and commented on other people’s post to add my thoughts. From there, I got to know other bloggers and made some friends.
During the second and third year of blogging, I became involved with the AniBlog Tourney and eventually the SCCSAV. While I didn’t win, the tournament was one of the most important milestones as I got introduced to other blogs, got to know more bloggers and it paved the way to further improve my blog for the future. Additionally, I have joined an Anime live watch group called the SCCSAV back in winter earlier this year. I find the discussion with other people in the live watch rather enjoyable and interesting, especially with Madoka Magica. While this is not flawless since there are a few unruly people, the social interaction with others through voice was a more engaging experience compared to just text. Hopefully in a few years, I will get a chance to meet other bloggers in person at Anime conventions.
Lastly, my tastes for Anime has grown since I started blogging. I have admitted in the past that I used to be very picky. I usually complained with each passing season with no shows to watch, even though it’s ironic. Shortly after, I started to grow out of it when I started to explore other shows of other genres that I haven’t watched before. I used Twitter and other bloggers impressions to sway my decision on what to watch. Even though there are some genres I don’t like such as shouen action, mecha and shows with excessive fanservice, I watch with an open mind and tend to enjoy them.
As I finally hit my third year of blogging in another 6-7 months, I feel optimistic with my outlook of Anime blogging. Even though blogging does take a considerable amount of effort and ambition to keep going, it has a positive influence on myself being an Anime fan and being more open to people. Therefore, I will certainly continue watching and blogging well into the future, even if there will be time constraints.
I agree with most parts of your post! Keep it up old man!
We young are following your steps!
I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but wanted to highlight something. For me, besides having others with which to discuss anime, blogging is mostly because thinking about what to say, or which screenshots to include, helps me to think about the shows deeper, and thus deepens my appreciation for the anime I watch.
I agree with this, but it’s not necessary to dump 50 screenshots in a post without any purpose. I use screenshots to show what I am discussing. However, if one use too many, the thoughts would be overshadowed. This is a common mistake that most new bloggers face since they try to follow the format Random Curosity is using.
I’m relatively new here but I find that I blog since it lets me rant a little bit about the episodes I just watched (I’m prone to it)
I noticed that you are a new blogger and it seems great that you have an interest. Sadly, blogging fatigue is a big problem for new bloggers that most people quit in the first year sadly… Spreading posts apart and posting a certain amount per week is usually the best strategy to attack this.
This is one of the reasons I don’t push myself to make more than one post a day at a minimum. If I need more time to gather my thoughts, I delay the post to the next day so my mind can be fresh. Usually reviews and editorials take 3-5 hours and episodics 2 hours to write/revise/publish. It’s time consuming, but I managed to pull it off during the college semester. Don’t know how it’s going to be when I start my masters and eventually get a job of my own.
Yeah I think everyone blogs for various reasons, some like to take apart a show and get really deep into detail which is great too nothing wrong with that. I just love to watch and sometimes poke fun through screen cap comments, SCCSAV is so much fun! Even thou we don’t do stuff every week it’s still a great way to meet up with other bloggers over skype. Not just anime! Minecraft, Msn, Twitter, Steam and other stuffs.
Keep at it man! I do enjoy visiting 😉
Yeah, live watching was fun when it lasted. Sadly, not much have been happening for several months, but I hope we can do some for the Fall anime next month or so.
Hey, thanks for sharing, this was a lovely read. I’ve only been blogging for just over a year, but I a lot of my experiences seem to mirror your own, e.g.: re: the Tourney and the live-watches. I particularly like what you said about the interaction with others leading to you broadening your own anime tastes, as this is something that I’ve found too, exp. through groups such as the Old Anime gang. As I’ve said elsewhere, getting to know other bloggers has been a weird and very wonderful experience, and I also hope that you get to meet more of them in person too – let me know if you’re ever in London! 😉
Thank you very much for the input. I don’t really have much to say, but sharing your experiences was facinating… The interaction with other bloggers have definitely became one of the important parts in the anime fandom, not just blogging. Hopefully in down the line I will get the chance to watch more stuff with other people. 🙂