While I am a bit late with the yearly posts today, I guess it’s time to share what I plan to watch in the upcoming season, along with a year in review and plans for this year.
As always, this list is subject to change.
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anime fandom
2023 Year in Review and Plans for 2024 (Including Winter 2024 Anime Season Preview)
Well, it’s finally the last day of 2023, so I will share what I plan to watch in 2024, my thoughts on 2023 and my goals for next year.
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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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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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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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Another Dark Side of the Anime Fandumb – The Toxic Purity Culture
Last fall, I have focused on the voice acting industry in a similar way I did with the animation production industry. Believe it or not, voice acting is not only very difficult to break into unless you are very talented along with low pay, especially for those who are not as popular, there is a dark side to the fandom that creeps from the idol fandom. This is what many refer to as the purity culture, a very toxic aspect of the fandom, which I will explain.
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Fandom Rivalries and Fanboys – Are They Harmful to the Anime Fandom?
In the past, I shared my thoughts about the Anime Fandumb where fans become obsessive to the point where they berate people. Of course, there is another ugly aspect of the fandom that I haven’t touched upon: fandom rivalry and fanboys.
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Remembering the Fansites Era – Looking back at my Experiences of Creating One
Before I started blogging about Anime during a cold winter day back in 2009, there is a part of my past that I haven’t touched upon yet. Previously, I used to maintain a fansite, a type of website that was popular back in the day. While some older fans might remember this, I think newer fans should know how it was like back then. (Image Source)
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Examining the Dark Side of the Anime Fandom – The Anime Fan Dumb
If you look at any fandom, you will bound to find obsessive fans that take things seriously and start berating people for not having the true fans or going on the rampage when the couple he/she wanted doesn’t happen. Or maybe you might come across an elitist anime fan that says your taste in Anime is crap. To me, I think an Anime Fan Dumb exists for the fact that a small percentage of the fans in the whole fandom are obsessive. (Image Source)
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