It has been a while since I wrote a monthly post since I was very busy last month. With that, I want to share some interesting things from June and July. Also, I will also share some more details in the revival of the Kireina Yuri community.
Kireina Yuri Revival
While reviving Kireina Yuri is in the works for a while, but the community is now revived. There is a shift of focus with the community so it can grow in the long term. There is now a focus on user generated content such as reviews and a community blog, which allows users to contribute yuri and anime related content. In addition, there is now an anime blogging section to allow anime bloggers to discuss ideas for posts, ask for critique, receive WordPress support and more.
Here are some notable changes:
- Instead of promoting blog posts, the front page will focus on sharing news about Yuri related media. Users may submit news articles as long they follow a set format and is Yuri-media related.
- Users can now submit reviews of Yuri related media along with the usual anime episodic reviews and editorials. It will appear in a blog-like format. There is a possibility of having a community blog where users can contribute blog posts without creating their own blog. Note that any reviews users own the reviews they create. Whitelist will be granted after 5 contributions, meaning submissions won’t require prior approval.
- A focus on the Anime Blogosphere. It’s difficult to socialize with other bloggers without commenting on other blogs or through social media. There is an Anime Blogging forum, which allows users to brainstorm ideas for posts, critique blogs, ask for suggestions, and receive support for WordPress. Also, users are permitted to self-promote their blog posts as long it’s relevant to the discussion.
- Make registration/logging in more seamless with more single sign on options. Users can now register using Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Discord, Steam, and WordPress.com accounts.
- Inline replies to replies in threads are now possible, meaning threads will behave more like comment sections on a blog post or Reddit posts.
- A Progressive Web App is available, allowing mobile and desktop users to use the community as a dedicated app. The user can also receive notifications and read posts offline. This will only work on Android and Google Chrome/Microsoft Edge.
If there is a demand, I will add the ability for users to create their own user groups, or smaller communities.
The community is located at kireinayuri.com. With that, I hope to see everyone there and feel free to spread the word about this new anime community
Struggles Socializing in the Anime Blogosphere/Community and Feeling Increasingly Left Out
In recent years, after 2015, it has become difficult to socialize with others. I feel that I am feeling left out of the anime blogosphere. I have to admit that I can relate to Irina’s struggles socializing outside of the anime blogosphere as I am somewhat introverted. It has been very difficult for me to get comments on my posts as fewer readers leave comments in recent years. I kind of depend on my blog on being social.
Also, I come to hate likes as I have been receiving many comments lately. I do depend a good amount on comments for social needs. This of course driven some readers from unfollowing my blog and Twitter when I disabled it in February of this year. I feel it’s because they don’t like that I do not allow likes through WordPress and actively discourage it. I really want people to leave comments as likes do not give the same effect. With more comments, it gives me a sense of community on my blog, but also gain new ideas for future content.
I am still frustrated that my blog still doesn’t receive as many comments compared to other blogs. Believe it or not, I depend on it as a source of socialization nowadays. I feel that with social media, I am just shouting into a black void. While social networking is good for sharing stuff, for socializing, not so much. Not to mention, it has become toxic in recent years due to the polarization with politics and the division.
As for Discord, I just don’t feel comfortable as I probably will get ignored by most people in the chat. But with unfollows, it does make me feel somewhat isolated, even though I rarely if ever share any controversial views or say things that may upset people.
I feel the anime blogosphere is feeling a bit cliquish and not an adequate source for socializing by how fragmented it is. I want to create a bridge with the anime blogosphere with a community catering to them like with Kireina Yuri. Not sure it will become successful, but time will tell. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve this situation, feel free to share your suggestions in the comments.
Thoughts on Kadokawa Pro-Censorship Remark and Apology
As expected, I knew have a big backlash in Japan. One of the things that makes anime and manga popular is for the fact of its creative freedom. Sure, we can go into the rabbit hole of censorship again. However, I think going down this path can hurt what makes anime and manga successful not only in Japan, but overseas.
So, what exactly caused the backlash. In a television interview, Kadokawa president Takeshi Natsuno made a remark that the company may need to censor manga. It’s because he feels that many won’t pass review at Google and Apple and thus, standards need to change. Undeniably people got really upset that he had to apologize and return portion of his salary.
Nevertheless, this shows how much of a strangle hold that big tech has on everything. It’s also a reason why Sony is getting some backlash for its censorship. This is because they alienate the Japanese market that made PlayStation popular for the western market.
No Surprise, Crunchyroll Originals are a Disaster
I shared my thoughts on Crunchyroll’s decline. One of the big reasons is Crunchyroll Originals. It’s obvious that they want to create their own shows. Besides a few series, most of the titles received either mixed to negative reactions. The worst of the bunch is of course Ex-Arm. Besides the poor CG and overall production, they managed to mess up a yuri kiss. It caused people to think that the show is homophobic as they censored the kiss. No, the real reason for it being censored is because the animation studio couldn’t animate a kiss.
I think the Anime News Network put out a good article on why Crunchyroll Originals being a disaster. I believe that if Funimation successfully acquires Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll Originals will become a thing of the past. Still, I think this is one of the reasons for Crunchyroll’s declines beside the decreasing library in recent years.
What is on My Mind
During my fourth of July weekend, I spent time with my family. I must admit that I needed some time to relax. Either way, my little sister is fully vaccinated. As usual, I did some IT related stuff such as installing new streaming boxes and setting up my mother’s computer monitor.
Also, in Uma Musume, I finally managed to pull Seiun Sky, which took about 42 rolls. Of course, Special Week ended up spooking me, but I managed to get it in the end. At least the rate up is not a lie, at least.
After 42 rolls and getting spooked by Special Week, Seiun Sky finally came home. At last, gacha rate up is not a lie, at least for now pic.twitter.com/0GVVmDVOgl
— James (@chikorita157) June 13, 2021
Lastly, I managed to track down an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, which are hard to find until recently. I decided to upgrade one of my home lab servers, which hosts my gaming PC in a virtual machine. Games noticeably runs faster through Steam streaming and the remote desktop client.
With that, feel free to share your thoughts on the topics I shared this month in the comments (please, don’t use the like button on WordPress Reader). As always, we have done these posts since June 2020. These posts come out towards the end of each month or beginning of the next. Feel free to check them out.
- June 2020 (Initial Start)
- July 2020
- August 2020
- September 2020
- October 2020
- November 2020
- December 2020
- January/February 2021
- March 2021
- April 2021
- May 2021
- June 2021
I can relate to the lack of comments being a bit of a bummer. I sort of started a blog myself not too long ago and can already see the issues in getting an audience. It is an uphill struggle I won’t lie.
I do wonder if doing allowing guest blogs would help. By cross posting you will have to interact with other people and that will get you an extra source of conversation. I know getting people onboard can be a tad tricky especially if you have to deal with big egos.
When I was part of a website the way we drew people in and get our voice out there was we ensured post were made regularly on the site. When those posts went out links were put on social media sites. Finally we just plugged the website on any related forum or blog. Can be tricky to dodge certain places as if you are too direct people will see you as a spammer. The big issue in all that is the legwork required will make this task exhausting.
You probably tried this already but would cross posting help with getting people in the blogosphere to comment on your blog? At the very least if you reach out to others that would be a form of interaction.
What I would say is you don’t actually need a huge community just a dedicated one. If only you could stir up enough attention to get 10 regular posters that would be enough to generate a decent number of comments. Anything more could actually eat into your time in making the actual blog posts.
A long time ago, in the early days of the internet, it was relatively easy to find small groups on-line with very special interests, like the left-wing of the Monarch Butterfly, but not the right-wing! But today, it is difficult to find these same kinds of special interest groups. I am not sure why. Perhaps the vast increase in the human race now on-line (over 50%) and most of them follow BTS or Blackpink. Also the increase in excellent blogging software has made setting up a blog rather easy. We set up our website and blog for only one reason which was to form a discussion group on certain artistic or cultural topics. The idea that about 10 people could form a very good discussion group is correct. Beyond that just managing the blog becomes time consuming. Also perhaps the search engines algorithms have become badly skewed. I know that duckduckgo can often find the odd duck that Google seems to know nothing about. I guess a combination of factors. User mondsta666 has some very good ideas. I am not so confident that I will ever figure it out!
Well Chikorita, I like your blog aesthetic, community driven attitude, and Pokémon taste so a shame we’re only crossing paths now. I understand your reasoning and the thought you’ve put into these channels of communication. Yet, that said if you haven’t come across Jon Spencer, I’d like to say we’re good friends and I think he’s done a really good job at fostering a really open and unique discord/twitter space for anibloggers to chat.
I feel like such a weenie kind of giving you such a sales pitch about it, but I’m genuinely just telling you as you might be interested in it. I feel like the discussion is there is very diverse that we talk about seasonal anime, games, films, what everyone is working on, and what have you and that might make it easier for the conversation to eventually hit something you’re interested in and more comfortable jumping into. Also kind of always doing certain initiatives and activities to sort of drive more involvement from anyone willing to participate; so I think even if you find this space not for you could problem pick up a few things to assist in your own goals with your forum site.
It tends to lean heavily to the US West Coast crowd, I hope it doesn’t appear cliquish just because we frequent participants engaging constantly but JS does a great job of making folks feel welcome and managing the space in a very orderly and fair manner. Of course this is maybe my bias showing because I don’t know all of WordPress aniblogging but it does seem decently central in a way, there’s a good chunk of a lot of recognizable faces Irina is there but doesn’t frequent often as she’s not a fan of Discord in general and has connections to some of the other community like Lita Kino has a Discord, some OWLS peeps, Lethargic Ramblings bunch and so on.
Here you said you wanted more comments and well, be careful what you wish for…mine just might never end and is probably doomed to have a couple errors if I know myself well enough. I can’t say anything is for everyone and no shame if it isn’t for you or anyone but it’s be pretty life changing and groovy to me.
Whelp, thought I would let you know if you were every looking for a social space, but seems like you’re doing some cool stuff here and I hope you keep up doing said stuff. Hope to read more of you in the future and best of luck with whatever future content you make.
Cheers,
K