One Year Down …

. . . who knows how many more to go?

OK, as tempted as I am to make the above my simple, self-congratulatory one-year anniversary post, I suppose I should write a bit more, huh? :p

It has been a fun first year for me. I got into this blogging business because I enjoy writing about anime, sharing my thoughts and people bouncing their ideas back at me. I’m far from the biggest dog on the block, but I think enough people read and comment on my dinky posts to make this a genuinely rewarding experience for me. (Of course, I don’t want to devalue those who simply read the posts — I like all of you, too! All five of you. :p) I’d still write even if I got nothing, just because I like how much writing forces me to think about each series, but knowing there are a decent amount of people who get something out of all this makes it much easier for me to continue on.

When I started this site, I made the same mistake many others make — I pushed myself too hard and too fast because I didn’t know my limits, nor what the hell I was really doing at the time. Summer ’09 was an unusually good season, and I had no qualms about jumping in on shows in the middle of their runs, so I took on five (!!!) shows at once, which seems insane to me now. (And it wouldn’t be much longer until my brief stints blogging Genshiken, Kare Kano and Monster.) I didn’t have a job at the time, so time wasn’t an issue, but still, that’s a shitload of writing. Unless you are a true madman, then that pace is a difficult task to say the least!

But, hey, I know my limits now, and with every day that passes, I have a clearer idea of just what the hell is up with this UNMEI KAIHEN business. Really, my philosophy is simple: I take what the episode (or series, or whatever) gives to me and work with that. I have my filters and biases, of course, but I try my best not to shoehorn anime into the type of writing I do; rather, I try to keep my writing fluid enough to adapt to the anime. It’s like Spike Spiegel says — you have to be like water. If an episode is serious, I’m serious. If an episode is humorous, I try to be funny. Take High School of the Dead please: I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to write something really serious about it (but more power to those who have) every week, so I adapted and tried something different. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. But that’s the fun of keeping things loose.

Above all, I’ve tried to be smart and fun in how I go about this crazy blogging. I want people to think, but more than that, I want people to enjoy the process of thinking. If someone gets through one of my posts and thinks for even one second, “I didn’t enjoy reading and thinking about this” then I’ve failed. Period. Not everything I pump out is going to be a winner, of course, but I’d much rather people enjoy the experience than not. Hopefully I get closer to that every time I write.

One final thought: There has been a lot said about how closed off the blogging community is, and while there is definite truth to that, the community has been nothing but good to me. I approach it less as an exclusive club and more as just another way to wring an extra bit of enjoyment out of this hobby I love so dearly. Writing about anime and reading other people’s thoughts on anime has helped me love and appreciate this medium more than I did before. I would have liked shows like SDF Macross, Berserk and Simoun plenty on my own, but it’s through reading other people’s thoughts and reflecting them against my own that I love them that much more. I can only hope that I do the same for other people.

Thank you to everyone who has read and supported me through this first year, and I’ll stick with this as long as humanly possible!