You hear me right, A review of a friend website as I am working through a bunch of games that I will soon be posting for your pleasure. If you have been on the J-List website, which is basically all the people who are regular readers of any anime and manga blog, you will have seen the ads for J-List Friends.
They look a bit like this one:
Looks more like a dating site than a friends site, but it says friends, so it must be true.
The real question is, how good is it and is it worth joining?
So yeah, last week or the week before or whatever I finally decided to change the site’s name. I’d been wanting to do so since last March when I took over but couldn’t really think of anything. So now I have one, shamlessly ripped off from Blog of the North Star. But yeah, when I decided to change the name I pretty much knew I’d be naming it after something from Berserk. It was just a matter of coming up with something. For a while I was considering using Holy Purple Rhino Blog, but since I put Guts in the header it seemed better to use one based on the Band of the Hawk instead. Also ’cause I can’t imagine a lot of people even remember the Holy Purple Rhino Knights. They weren’t exactly a significant group in Berserk. Truthfully it would probably be better to use an image of Griffith in the header since it’s called Blog of the Hawk, but whatever.
Why is there a celebration you ask? Well it has been one year since I started writing for Janaiblog. It only feels like yesterday when I joined the site as a reviewer. Well just stating this would be a bit of a waste of a post so I am going to take a bit of a look back on last year. Looking back at last year I bought a lot of anime and manga over the course of last year. Last year was big for me since I was able to get a lot of titles that I did not have completed I was able to get completed. Shows like NANA, Honey and Clover, and Ranma ½ were all shows that I was able to get all of the sets and complete my collection of those shows. The big part of last year was that I was able to get my BD collection much larger since more shows are being released in the R1 land and get a BD release as a result.
I also did my share of reviews. Looking back at some of my early reviews, I question how I could made what I wrote sound good. I was also involved in the spring cleaning challenge that Mike Ferrira over at <Anime Herald> had. That was an interesting challenge as not only I was able to review different shows and some movies but I also learned about getting thrown for a loop with a show that I have never watched before and also different genres in my reviews. I also got a reviewing burnout from doing so many reviews in a row.
I should have done more opinion articles last year but I did not take the leap and give my thoughts on a lot of topics that occur in the anime industry.
So with a year under my belt for the site I have more expectations for myself. I’ve already done a few reviews so far this year and there is not a lot coming out right now that I want to buy, so I want to keep up with the reviews whenever I get stuff I want to review. I have already did a few articles on a different topic (sequels) and I do plan on a doing few more opinion pieces and editorials when I feel I need to go there.
Hopefully I will still be writing for the site for another year (that is assuming that the world does not end on December 22) and it brings me another year of talking about anime.
In a little less than five hours 2011 will come to an end and 2012 will start. 2011 has been an interesting year for me as a whole at least anime wise. Joining this site as a writer was the biggest thing for me this year and I could get my thoughts and reviews out to more people. So next year should be a lot different right? Well I sure as hell hope so. So what can you expect from me for next year.
First, you can expect to see more reviews from me next year. While my next review is up to the fans for me to do, I have two other shows that I plan to review for January. I also plan on doing more reviews for longer running shows instead of always just doing 12 and 13 episode shows all the time. Now that I own a Roku I do intend to review shows that are streaming on sites such as Hulu and CrunchyRoll.
Second, since I have many opinions I would like to do more opinion articles on anime fandom and topics in anime in general.
Third, I have some ideas for articles that I will attempt to try next year in order to do something different. I have a few ideas in my head but I need plan them out and get some prototypes worked out before I upload them to the site.
So everyone have a great New Years and see you next year.
Many of you who follow this blog are probably wondering what I have been up to lately. Here’s the short answer: Things have changed for me. Simply put, I’ve become less interested in anime and the fandom. I don’t expect my interest to ever die out completely, but I simply don’t have the passion that I once had to write about anime. As a result, Anthony Moores, otherwise known as “Antz”, will be taking over this blog. He has decided not to change the blog name for the time being. So it will still be JanaiBlog despite a distinct lack of Janai. Please give him a warm welcome.
The long answer:
First and foremost, anime has just been less interesting for me lately. I don’t think the quality of the shows coming out lately has decreased, but rather my standards have increased. Also, I’ve become more focused on video games, which I have always enjoyed more than anime. In fact, I just finished playing Mass Effect (which was amazing) and am starting the sequel very soon.
Personal life is also a factor. I need to focus more on work and social life, rather than talk on Twitter all day and blog about the latest controversy. This is also the reason I recently left the Otaku in Review Podcast, now co-hosted by Michael Camacho of The OtakuGamer. If you haven’t listened to this awesome show, you should definitely check it out.
The final factor in all this is the drama. I never realized what I was going into when I started blogging about anime. The amount of drama in the online anime fan community is just unbelievable. So many petty arguments (and I admit, I’m one to talk). I’d rather not be involved in all of that, as it’s just way too time-consuming. Time can be better spent on things other than arguing over whether or not moe is the cancer killing anime.
The time I spent in the anime fan community wasn’t all for naught though. I don’t regret the time I spent talking with fellow anime fans, even if sometimes it made me want to pull my hair out. It was definitely a learning experience. I even made some great new friends in the process, and I especially thank those people.
I don’t know if I’ll ever post on this blog again, but I will still remain on Twitter (@FattyJanai), albeit being much less active than before. You can contact me there.
