Wait, it’s already my birthday. While today I leave my early 30s as I turn 34, it has been an eventful year. Besides going into the office for a whole year, I did accomplish quite a bit.
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Editorials
Opinion pieces related to Anime in general
The Enshittification of Centralized Social Platforms and Implications on the Japanese Media Fandom, or Why You should Join Mastodon/the Fediverse
Since the mid-2010s, the Japanese media fandom, whether anime or manga, has moved away from blogs and forum communities to centralized platforms like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram.
However, in 2023, we are paying a massive price in abandoning user-run spaces and moving everything to centralized platforms. These platform owners realized they had to make money. This is because central banks worldwide are increasing interest rates and tightening the money supply to fight inflation. As a result, these platform owners realized the venture capital funding they receive has dried up, and now they must turn a profit. In fact, no centralized social planforms ever really turn a consistent profit that can sustain themselves.
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With Centralized Social Platforms in Turmoil, Another Reason to Leave Twitter and Join Mastodon at Sakurajima
Recently, it seems as if centralized platforms have been in turmoil. Besides, Twitter is becoming full-on “Truth Social” or 4chan/8chan and a cesspool of hate, including rampant racism and queerphobia. Now, there is turmoil at Reddit, where third-party applications are at risk of shutting down with people threatening to leave.
With interest rates rising, causing VC funding to dry up with persistent inflation, the negative moves made by corporate-run, centralized platforms will impact content creators and followers. Still, people are reluctant to join the Fediverse since it seems complicated. It doesn’t have to, and I will disprove this myth.
Note: I’m making yet another post since WordPress finally released Autosharing to Mastodon today. Therefore, I want the Aniblogosphere become aware of our instance at Sakurajima where a good number of Anime Bloggers are already there.
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Jumping Further Down the Anime Merchandise Rabbit Hole – More Thoughts about Anime Figures and More
Back in 2014, I shared my thoughts on collecting merchandise. Of course, a lot has happened since 2014, when I was in my second year working on my Master’s Degree. A lot has changed since I started working and can afford things.
As a result, since I last shared my thoughts on collecting anime merchandise, some views have changed. But, of course, there are some more things I want to go through, and there is more to this rabbit hole than what I shared last time.
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Anime Blogging after Leaving Twitter – Blogging Frustrations and Feeling Left out of the Community. The Case to Rebuild the Anime Blogging Community
It’s coming to a 1-month mark of finally leaving the dumpster fire known as Twitter. But, of course, interacting with other anime bloggers has been a challenging aspect through the transition. I still struggle to receive comments compared to other bloggers, as seen in the last four posts, although others have it even worse.
With Twitter possibly becoming a worse place and even perhaps becoming Myspace or shut down entirely in the future, what will life be for Anime fans without Twitter? Sure, people mention Mastodon as an alternative to Twitter, but aren’t people forgetting about Anime Blogging?
You might think people should also start anime blogs and revive the medium since there is a community there too. I will share some thoughts about the state of the anime blogging community and why you should get involved. Also, I share some ideas on how to revive the community.
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12 Days of Yuri Pairings – 2022 Edition
Like every year, I always do the 12 days of Christmas thing. Of course, I couldn’t finish it on time since I procrastinated during the holidays. Also, I needed a break after the chaos on that site. With that, while this came out very late, at least
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Top 5 Anime of 2022
With 2022 coming to an end, I should probably do the low-hanging fruit post before doing the most challenging post left, 12 days of Yuri pairings post. Of course, this list should be an easy one, although there were a lot of good shows that aired this year.
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2022 Year in Review, Future Plans, and Happy Holidays
With Christmas around the corner, it looks like I’m not going to get my 12 days of Yuri pairings posts out. I do this every year to share the yuri pairings from anime I watched during the year. However, it will come out during my holiday vacation. So I may just limit what I think about the pairing to 1-2 paragraphs and make it brief.
To make it up, I will focus on the year in review stuff and the plans for the future. But yes, 2023 will be a big year for obvious reasons.
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PSA: Now is the Time to Leave Twitter and Use The Great Tusk and Thoughts about Reviving the AniBlogosphere and Independent Web
Right on cue, I’m making another public service announcement about moving to alternative profiles. Last night, I witnessed the unthinkable with journalists getting banned for mentioning a particular account and banning links to alternative social networks like Mastodon, aka “The Great Tusk.”
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PSA: If You are on Twitter, Share your Alternative Social Accounts Now
Last week, I made a PSA to the AniBlogosphere to start looking for alternatives to Twitter. After all, Twitter has a significant possibility of going bankrupt with the FTC fining Twitter and possibly shutting it down for the decree they currently have. In other words, things are not looking great.
Now, there is news that 90% of the remaining employees have resigned. It’s because they don’t want to work 84 hours a week and be forced to work to their limit with no overtime pay. This will mean that Twitter can go down for long periods or indefinitely as there aren’t many people manning the ship.
With the recent news that Twitter closed all the buildings with badge access suspended, we are possibly seeing the endgame of Twitter or the speed run to kill a company/platform off. While some don’t believe that Twitter will end, the end of Twitter is now here, or close to it. So it’s time to prepare your alternate social accounts.
I know Mastodon, similar to Twitter but decentralized, is getting slammed. Still, it’s probably best to join a smaller server for most anime fans and content creators. I thought this would happen and set up a server called Sakurajima. Many bloggers and anime fans have already joined with a good amount of activity. If you need help getting around Mastodon or setting up Auto Post with WordPress, all is in this guide. If you are looking for other alternatives, see my previous post on why to think about alternatives. After all, I don’t want you to lose contact with your friends and followers.
Breaking: Twitter could go down at any time now.
With that, here are my alternative profiles you can follow:
- Blog – https://chikorita157.com
- Mastodon – https://sakurajima.moe/@chikorita157
- Tumblr – https://tumblr.chikorita157.com
- WordPress Reader – https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/50814868
- Discord – chikorita157#2077
Be sure to have a backup of your Twitter account and remove all connections with Twitter before leaving.
If you need assistance joining the Sakurajima Mastodon server or help using it, use the comment section on this post.
PSA: Start Thinking about Alternatives to Twitter and Migrate Now, Here’s Why
With Twitter doing a speed run for killing its platform for good, I’m surprised that nobody mentioned Twitter alternatives besides the Anime Feminist back when a certain billionaire decided to buy the platform in April.
From what I am experiencing, very few posted alternate profiles. From this, I fear that most will get caught flatfooted when Twitter goes bankrupt or suddenly shutdown by regulators, probably sooner than we expect.
Given that most anime fans and bloggers use Twitter to socialize, there is a huge possibility that many will lose contact with friends or connections made on the platform. I want to bring attention to this in the anime blogosphere to start thinking about your escape plan. Then, I will explain one alternative most people are switching to.
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The AI Anime Generated Art Controversy – My Take
Earlier this year, AI advancements were made as DALLE was revealed to the public, making compelling images. It allows users to generate images from a text prompt. However, the latest version is not open to the public.That all changed this month.
Earlier this month, NovelAI released their image generator that uses similar methods as DALLE to generate anime-themed images. While it’s impressive how decent the images are, they caused much controversy in the anime fanart and V-Tuber community. So, you might wonder what my opinion is on this whole thing. I decided to try the image generator on NovelAI, and no, it will not replace fan art and anime art commissions for various reasons, which I will go into.
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Happy 33rd Birthday
Oh wait, I am already 33 years old. Well, I certainly don’t feel or look like it. Even so, I want to briefly reflect on the past year of my life along with some plans.
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The Reasons You Should Start an Anime Blog
With the talk of Elon Musk buying Twitter and the adverse effects, people wonder what the alternative places to talk about anime are? After all, Musk has a history of silencing his critics, and I can see why some are concerned. However, the question remains on who owns the platform and if some egotistical millionaire will come in and ruin the platform to allow hate speech and harassment.
Starting your anime blog may be a worthwhile experience for those looking for an alternative to Twitter. Irina and Jacob have shared their own reasons for creating one. Still, it’s always good to share other perspectives, especially from someone who has done it for 13 years straight.
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My Experiences on Learning Japanese for 10 Years and Why You Should Do It
Last time, I shared some of the tools I use to solve the remember the Kanji problem and what I use as my dictionary. It’s been a little over 10 years since I started my quest to learn Japanese.
As expected, I learned some things during the past 10 years. So, with that, should you learn the language?
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Mid-Season Impressions: Birdie Wing and Sachiku-san and Blogging Fustrations
With spring being halfway over and since this week’s episode of Machikado Mazoku 2-Choume is delayed until next week due to golf for some reason, I want to share my short mid-season impressions of the other two shows I’m currently not covering. They are Birdie Wing and Shachiku-san wa Youjo Yuurei ni Iyasaretai. Also, I will be sharing some thoughts on the state of the blog, which has been a bit rough.
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What is on My Mind – Winter/Spring 2022 – Sony Pulls a Monopolistic Move, Sentai Gets Bought, Dealing with Content Thieves and More
With Winter coming to an end, it’s time to share some things I found interesting throughout the last three months. Yes, I will talk about Sony’s new monopoly on anime, at least in the west.
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State of Japanese Study – Solution to Studying the Kanji, Thoughts on Denshi Jisho, and What I’m Doing for Immersion
Now that we are in 2022, this marks little over 10 years trying to learn Japanese. While I gotten a bit lazy in the past few years, I felt I am not progressing at all, although I still know most of the Japanese grammar. The Kanji remains an area that I am still struggling.
However, with a new year, I want to do things differently. With that, I want to share what I am up to in my Japanese studies and the change in approach I’m taking.
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Top Anime of 2021 and Year in Review
With the year finally come to an end, it’s time to take a glance of some of the top shows I enjoyed and share some thoughts on blogging this year as well.
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12 Days of Yuri Pairings – 2021 Edition
Almost every year, I do the 12 days of Anime thing every year. With that, we will focus on more yuri pairings of course. As expected, they are in no order.
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What is on My Mind – Fall 2021 (September-December 2021)
Since I have been so busy with work related and swamped with anime coverage, I plan to do these posts whenever I feel like it in the future. With that, it’s time to share some thoughts on some interesting topics from the past few months.
Also, Merry Christmas for those who celebrate. I couldn’t get the 12 Days of Anime post up on time since I was busy, but it will be out before the year ends.
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What is on My Mind – August 2021 – Kireina Yuri Revival, Feeling Left Out of the Anime Blogosphere, Kadokawa Censorship Remarks and More
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.
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What is on My Mind – June 2021
At least, we have reached the halfway point of this year. With that, it’s time to share some interesting things that happened in May.
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What is on My Mind – May 2021 – Kadokawa’s Unsustainable Goal, Interest in Seiyuu Live Performances, Madoka Magica 4th Movie Announcement and More
While we are heading to the halfway point of this year, it’s time to share some interesting things from the last month.
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