Now that the month is coming to the end now that summer officially begun, it’s time to share what I have on my mind. Also, I also will share some thoughts on posts and anime-related news that I find interesting throughout the month.
Yes, I know that this post is early, but I will be away during 4th July weekend to visit my parents after being stuck mostly at home for months.
Continued Blogging Motivation Difficulties, But You Are Not Alone
Despite taking a break for two weeks before the beginning of June, I’m still frustrated by the number of comments still being stubbornly low. It has been really discouraging last few months, especially given the impact coronavirus had on the spring season. Since there are less titles, probably fewer people are reading blogs.
That said, despite the decline, I am grateful to still have some comments, even from those who don’t normally follow my blog. TPAB brings up a good point of this in one of the posts. Also, there are probably other blogs that are worse off than me going for months without comments on their recent posts. But I do notice this trend on my blog once in a while, and I am grateful for that.
In some cases, some blogs don’t receive any likes at all. It’s difficult out there, especially with new titles pushed back. Even covering old titles don’t give the amount of comments, likes and views I expect. Maybe with some people, especially extroverts are getting tired staring at a computer screen all day and wanting to go out after the lockdowns ends may be a cause. On the other hand, people might be focusing on other activities besides anime at the moment. This may begin to change once delayed shows start airing again.
Hopefully with summer bringing some delayed titles back and fall filled with a lot of anticipated titles, I am hopeful to see a rebound. Despite how horrible this year is going thanks to Covid19, hopefully I will have close to a little over 300 comments by year’s end.
For those who are still having trouble receiving likes and comments during this pandemic, one should really do the following. Create quality content and perhaps link to other people’s posts that is relevant to what you are writing. The blogger you link to might notice your post and might comment on your post. On the other hand, others might start noticing your content from the search results and sometimes leave a comment or a like.
Overall, I suggest taking a look at Crow’s suggestions on improving your blog’s SEO. It’s not that difficult as it seems, and it doesn’t require complex SEO techniques to achieve. He brings up a good point of not only linking to other posts, but also create good branding, make your site easy to navigate, and create quality content. If you do that, everything else should fall into place. Still, there are other things that can impact SEO as well, but I think I will focus on that another day.
In short, blogging is the long game and don’t focus too much on instant gratification. As they say, the readers, likes, and comments will eventually come if you have quality content. Hopefully, things will pick up as delayed shows start airing again.
More Animator Salary Insights – They are still Bad
With the focus on racial inequality in the spotlight, some people decide to share how much they earn. It’s meant to show the disparities in pay. As expected, few Japanese animators shared how much they earned and it’s pretty bad.
#AnimationPaidMe
— Pathmy (@hakuoishii) June 9, 2020
As freelancer in jp my approximate yearly wage:
2014 $4634
2015 $6489
2016 $9083
2017 $14830
2018 $26890
2019 quit n go military service
———————
Now I get roughly $9000 per month
#AnimationPaidMe
— りむ (@rimqqq) June 9, 2020
JAPAN 2D anime pro animator
key animation (genga) 1cut ＄20~＄40 USD
second key animation 1cut ＄20~＄25 USD
1 month salary ＄700～＄1400 USD
1years salary ＄10000~＄23000 USD
Unstable and hopeless
The Japanese anime industry is about to collapse pic.twitter.com/EZcw2DYQ16
It’s a known fact that animators do not earn much compared to other occupations, even less than a fast food worker. Still, it’s very unfortunate that they can’t earn a living wage while enjoying the work they are passionate about.
Obviously, this is not sustainable, even with all the outsourcing and the impacts of Covid19. With studios pushing titles back thanks to Covid19, animators don’t receive any work. In other words, this means earning no money at all. To make matters worse, voice actors and actresses are seeing a decline in income or earning nothing at all. Maybe the Japanese animation industry needs to reform itself so that not only animators earn a living wage, studios need to adjust themselves to improve working conditions and most importantly, be able to continue their work remotely.
As with any disaster, studios really need to have a business continuity plan in case of something like a pandemic happening. That way, they wouldn’t have to delay titles and potentially lose money since they can’t sell merchandise and physical discs.
There is no doubt that some studios will go bankrupt thanks to Covid19. It’s unfortunate, but hopefully Japanese animation studios will make changes so something like this won’t happen again in the future.
More Delays and the Packed Fall Season
Sadly, Ochikobore Fruit Tart is the latest that announced that it will delay the airing until fall. Did we see this coming thanks to Covid19? This leaves us with a season without a Kirara title once again. This makes me wonder, with so many shows I can cover. While there is a good possibility that I will still work at home.
Even so, at most, I feel that I can only cover at most 4 titles. This makes you wonder what titles I will cover in full. Either way, I will probably bring back weekly anime impressions summary, so I won’t get lost when I write a full review. When I don’t write episodic reviews for currently airing titles, I tend to forget what I watched when I start to write a full review.
Magia Record English Turns 1 Year Old – Some Thoughts
It’s surprising that time go by so quickly, but believe it or not, the English version of Magia Record turned 1 year old on June 25th. While I have played the Japanese version since February of 2019 and I knew like half the story from translating it, I also decided to play the English version. Eventually, an English localized release of the game came out last June. I spent $49 on the game alone, mostly on monthly gem packs, which is $3.99.
Sure, it had a rocky start, but the game is still very much alive. The game developers gave a number of free rolls, especially during the anime’s premiere last winter and the anniversary. While it’s amazing that they finally finished the first season and close to starting the second, where the Japanese version is now. I think in about another year, the game will probably be very close to where the Japanese release is now, just probably a few months behind.
Sure, the warp speed of events is overwhelming since it’s hard to save those gems, although the game is pretty generous with them, I ended up having to skip the scenes. This is mostly because I do not have the time to read through it thanks to limited free time after work.
Still looking forward to possibly getting 4 slots for Iroha and Yachiyo as long Momoko doesn’t spook me. She spooked me when I tried to roll for Ultimate Madoka in February. At least I managed to get her. Aside from that, I look forward to the second season of the game in the near future.
Against all odds, I managed to receive all the limited characters I want so far. This includes Tart/Darc, Haregi Mitama, Uwasa Tsuruno, and Ultimate Madoka.
Future of Kirei Yuri
Someone recently asked what happened to the yuri community? The thing is that it seems that nobody was using it and the installation is out of date.
The project wasn’t successful as I hoped it was, but I am not giving up yet. I plan to reboot this in the near future with its own domain name, a blog that will allow users to contribute reviews and opinion pieces about Yuri, and a forum. There will not be a reset for the forums. Once it’s relaunched, you will be able to comment on the blog using the same account. I will make an announcement when I am ready to bring the project back online. After all, I’m aware there is a demand for one.
You can always ask questions by going to our “Ask Me Anything” website. If I find the question interesting enough, I will mention it in an editorial or one of these monthly posts.
What Have I Been Up to Lately and Plans for This Month?
Besides some blog motivation woes, mostly thanks to Covid19, there is not much going on. I ultimately decided against getting a Mac Pro, which I was saving up for to replace my Hackintosh desktop system. Last Monday, Apple decided to ditch Intel for their own processors. Instead of a Mac Pro, I am waiting for them to release a Mac mini with Apple’s silicon. I intend to use it for software development, and as a new system for my home office, which I have been using on weekdays for working at home.
Overall, the transition is not a huge impact since I do not really rely on Windows only software, except for games. In fact, I converted my Hackintosh to just being a dedicated gaming computer. I will eventually build a low powered server for my virtualization needs.
Even so, I hope the Macs with the new chips will support Thunderbolt 3 since I invested quite a good amount of money on these devices. I think they will since the standard is now open and loyalty free.
In short, I took out most of the hard drives from the desktop. I will be putting them in another OWC Thunderbay 4 attached to my Mac mini server. My AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is now my main external GPU for my MacBook Pro.
That said, in the near future, I plan to upgrade my network. Despite having gigabit fiber internet and use ethernet for my computers, the wireless at my home sucks. It’s because I live in a three-story townhome. Also, the Verizon provided router sits on the floor is garbage. Yes, it’s already a disaster waiting to happen.
In short, I really don’t like the router Verizon provides (G3100) despite being free since the reception is weak and there is too much restrictions. Yes, the rental is free, and it has the latest WIFI 6 standard.
Eventually, I’m going to replace it with a Unifi Dream Machine Pro and a dedicated access point. It’s getting very annoying that my wireless internet drops out on the third floor, where I spend most of my free time. But that is coming after I come back from my short vacation. Eventually, I want to upgrade everything to 10-gigabit sometime in 2021 and have all the big files stored on disks attached to my Mac mini. I think this is possible since my house has CAT-6a ethernet wired up already.
As for vacation, I am planning to drive back to my parent’s house in New Jersey. Sure, people will say this is a risk as I would bring back Covid19. Not really since I spend most of my time at home since I am somewhat an introvert. I don’t really socialize with people outside of work nor I don’t go to crowded places. Also, I don’t go out to public places without wearing a mask. But during that time, I plan to come out with at least one or two posts during 4th July weekend. Otherwise, I will be playing video games or reading manga.
Lastly, there are the goals. While I have completed Hidamari Sketch and enjoyed it, I still haven’t got to all the manga. I will eventually get it to it soon. What is distracting me is of course the new expansion pack for Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield that came out the middle of June.
So far, it’s a fun addition to the game and brought back a good number of favorites. I won’t be reviewing it since it’s an expansion pack after all. One can sum it up as this: a big wild area to explore with some trials, more returning Pokémon, and quality of life improvements.
With that, feel free to share your thoughts on the topics I shared. In case you missed it, I have written a similar post for June including the picks for this summer. I highly suggest checking that out and possibly sharing what you plan to watch this season.
Thanks for the mention!
As far as the Apple hardware goes, I was hoping to justify an iMac Pro, but now my plans are on hold, too. I like your idea of waiting for the Mac Mini. Add that to a 3440×1440 high-quality monitor, and that’d be a pretty sweet creative workstation!
At first, I was really bummed, because I use VMware Fusion alot. But not as much as I used to, and if I’m honest with myself, I wouldn’t miss it as long as I have my gaming machine. Most of my purely software development work I prefer to do on Linux anyway, and Apple talked about Linux emulation with the their new silicon.
I’m cautiously optimistic!
Yes, it’s probably for the best since I don’t quite want to bust my savings, but the performance is pretty impressive for Rosetta so far considering the development machine uses the same processor as my iPad Pro 2018 (the A12Z is just a souped up A12X), but I am cautiously optimistic.
I in fact built a Intel Nuc Frost Canyon ESXI server for my virtualization need, so I probably don’t need virtualization locally. The NUC I choose was a Core i7 model and I transferred off a Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 VM and it’s fast, even connecting from my parents home to my gigabit connection at my home. Since my job involves both Windows Server and Linux, I need to know both. Also, it’s nice to have a dedicated environment to learn and experiment with new software such as Splunk. I intend to also use it as my development environment for developing my web apis for my software.
But it’s not too surprising to see this change since there is the shift to the cloud and software largely being processor architecture independent. Even Microsoft is sort of moving in the direction of ARM. Maybe this change will push them to make it even better.
As for me, I spend the majority of last month and now watching One Piece and I reached a little over 300 episodes because there really wasn’t much to watch in terms of current spring and summer anime. Like some stuff like SAO and Gundam Build Divers Rerise are pushed for this month and outside of that, I had been playing games like The Wonderful 101 Remastered and Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2 as part of my backlog of games to play. I do wish more people chat about these articles on this blog.