Were we too quick at times to slam slow starting series such as the classic Gunslinger girl?
This post is by full part inspired by Jeff Lawson, who has managed to strike a chord in me on the very realistic narration of “giving anime a chance”. This entry is not meant to be structured since I feel that I have somewhat forgotten the roots of why I actually started blogging: To spread the love of anime to fans all around the world. As much as that sounds really silly and idealistic, I started off with that idea, and decided to prowl on every single opportunity to spread love to series that are left untouched by the general public.
However, after a while, I seem to lose my way in terms of merely trying to be different and create some silly hatred of things that I dislike. From the “read more” click, do not expect a very structured comment about what I believe should be the purpose of anime bloggers and why I feel that way. Nevertheless, these are my thoughts after reading what Jeff said. Give anime a chance.
I personally always believe that anime bloggers are an odd mix. You have the parody masters, the episode summarizers, the flamers and the fanboys of Aya Hirano. However, we all write because we care about anime, and more so for those who try to blog series that are more alternative and different from the usual mix of Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. That is how I sometimes see the anime blogosphere: a diverse group of people with a lot of thoughts and opinions about their favorite entertainment event.
I remember that one of my purpose to start on T.H.A.T Anime blog is that there are too few blogs out there trying to find the hidden gems of a season and telling everyone how good it is. We usually have people telling us how bad the first episode is, or how everything is getting worse and that we are better off watching old anime. I feel that as anime bloggers, we have the purpose of trying to tell everyone the good shows, rather than telling everyone the bad ones. What is the point of people reading how bad something is? Many just follow the wildly popular series, and the rest with a quirk or something non-mainstream is discarded without a trace.
I guess I do feel the same way with Jeff that I can be quite a pollyanna in my behavior toward anime. I generally do not go out to diss an anime completely. Even though I remember I hate Sketchbook a lot, I know that it has quite a lot of redeeming points in the characters and it is simply my complete dislike for the main character, Sora. However, I feel that others will be ready to pull the knives on her within the first episode. I do not deny I have stopped watching it, but I have never attempted to deter anyone else from watching it. I believe that every anime has some merit unless it has horribly gone wrong. Even Crescent Moon had a rather decent, if not generic start. That is how I feel anime blogging should be: to positively evaluate series that are good, and to see who will be interested in a series even if it’s just not compatible to your liking.
It is painful sometimes for me when I see many new anime bloggers happy to slam the crazy shit out of a series in the very first episode without trying to see anything objectively. As I have said before, anime bloggers are fans, but we are always somewhat attempting to tell the world out here about the fresh impressions. Yes, I am saying that we are perhaps the gatekeepers for readers to decide whether to watch something or not. Premature death of series by reviewers often cause huge repercussions, as can be seen from prominent reviewers.
Of course, by slamming something so hard, you also cause people to watch it but those people are few. Sometimes, I find myself suck into the confusion whether to be a bit sensational, or to use the jargon bloggers like to use, dorama in order to create more news around. However, I stop myself most of the time because I always revisit my motivations of initiating a blog.
Are you perhaps guilty of slamming a series without giving it any merit? Are you always trying to find the most nity gritty things to criticize about a series because you dislike it, and wish to make sure that everyone hates it as well?
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I was once guilty of that last paragraph, but then I started noticing the exact same thing you mentioned in this post, and I started to look at things more objectively. The only time when I throw away my objectivity with these kinds of posts is with shows like Ninomiya-kun or Koharu Biyori, but overall, I try to view both the good and the bad points for my first impressions.
(PS, Ah, not again! WordPress hates blogsome, for some strange reason. Check your spamfilter, because I just got flagged as spam)
I think that criticising a series from the first episode shows a short-sightedness and lack of objectivity which is unfortunately endemic in the “episode by episode” blogs. I think only covering the good anime would create a kind of “yes men” atmosphere, and as long as the detractions from the anime are worthwhile and not just simply “he sucks” and “she’s whiny” then there’s no problem saying when a series is bad.
If your blog is simply to gush about the series you like then there seems little point in covering ones you don’t watch; but like you say, very series are without merit, just as very few series are perfect.
Never guilty. I say this with a clean conscience, knowing that I sleep at night all the better for it. I do take potshots at retarded bloggers going “LOL THIS SUX! ROFL THIS SCKZ!”, though.
Hehe, I never slam a series based on the first episode alone. But then again, I don’t write about first eps anyway…
I can say with absolute confidence that I have never slammed a series from the first episode.
I have, however, expressed misgivings about a series from the first episode (see: Musashi Gundou), and I’ve also started ranting about series from the third episode (see: Crescent Love).
I’m pretty much of the opinion that if I’m not enjoying a series, there’s no reason for me to continue watching it. If I’m not watching it, I can’t blog about it. So in effect, the only thing I can actually blog about without going into generalities are the series which I actually like.
Besides, I’m keeping my blog, at base, to remind myself of What Happened In Which Episode of series I presumably want to rewatch. This limits the blog-worthy anime list quite a lot.
Moe is about love, not hate. I suppose this makes me the next step up (or perhaps down) from a Pollyanna: the Love Freak.
The quality of the beginning of any story is vitally important, and this is as true for anime as any other storytelling medium. The beginning should be designed to swiftly captivate its target audience, introduce its plot and characters, and give a strong sense of direction or foreboding. So I think people are in their full right to dismiss a series, or certainly to speak negatively of it, from the very beginning. It is a serious flaw for any first episode to not be able to grab its viewers and make them want to see more. Any well-written series should be able to achieve this.
That said, most people have the rationale to expect a story to improve as it gains momentum and develops, and patience is as much a virtue as ever.
As for the whole ‘purpose of an anime blog’ notion, I find it all a bit much. I prefer to rant infrequently and inanely to a non-existent readership. However, I approve of your advocating of objectivity. I’ll have none of this “it sucks because it only has 2 mecha in it”, or “the female characters were clothed an unacceptable 75% of the episode”.
In before obligatory mention of Lucky Star, btw. lol.
If I truly loathe a series, I’ll just stop watching it with a simple note that the series just doesn’t agree with me. Although I am attempting a slow episode by episode kind of ordeal, I don’t see the point in nitpicking details…less time for watching, writing, and sleeping if I spend that much time analyzing ONE episode, right?
I did like Lucky Star a great deal. This is probably useful in psychoanalysis of some sort regarding why I prefer to praise rather than bash.
I think it also helps to try and put your own spin on things if you slam something quickly. At least explain why you don’t like it in a way that people can respond to critically.
And on Sketchbook Impz, you might want to take a look at my post about it. I think it might throw Sora in a different light than before.
“In before obligatory mention of Lucky Star, btw. lol.”
In before Kafuka?
The purpose of anime blogs is to have fun, leading to a fun community atmosphere! Massugo go~!
THANK YOU FOR BLOGGING!
Unfortunately, my aim in blogging is to make people laugh. Nothing to do with promoting anime. I’m not an animeblogger, I’m an animecomedian.
I don’t think there is a real purpose for anime blogging other than fun and a way to share the experience. My main content is figure reviews. Most people who read a figure review have already ordered or decided to pass on a figure, but they visit anyway because it’s like show and tell time and everyone kind of liked that in grade school. That’s sort of how I approach those.
The purpose of the reason why I blog is to simply get my opinion out which I think applies to almost all of anime blogging (except for the plain summarizers).
I admit I’m horribly biased on first episodes but I find that usually if I can’t even sit through something without falling asleep from the first episode I probably won’t be able to stomach the series. My life comes before giving “anime a chance”. Did I miss out on series that may have gotten better? Well yeah, duh. But I don’t regret it.
While I may complain if something is horribly animated or blah blah blah, the only real merit I use is “does it entertain me?” If it doesn’t entertain me, I usually just say this is boring I hate it and I’m dropping it. And also, I don’t care if people like series that I think are a bunch of crap. We all have different opinions and tastes, now let us coincide in peace. Well that’s my philosophy anyways.
Eh I usually don’t slam a show unless I feel it was just a disgrace…if a show I don’t like because it’s not up my alley, I’ll let it be. But you gotta admit a lot of Fall Shows are pretty god damn awful. While I DO watch a 2nd episode, I have a disclaimed on my blog to never take it SERIOUSLY and in no way do I consider my blog a “replacement” for watching the actual episode (which is why I try to do brief summaries with as little screenshots as possible.)
I have never blogged and will never blog because I’m never ‘consistent’ with interests- one day you might want to write loads and the next few months- deadly silence XD
However I know I absolutely HATE Naruto- mainly due to the style of art *grr* and all the killing methods T_T Lets just say I’m a violent person that doesn’t like watching violent things XD I have said to people GARRRH NARUTO IS RUBBISH try such and such et cetera but of course people have different tastes so I would alter it and say IN MY OPINION- naruto is rubbish but a load of people watch it so I guess there must be something attractive about it… but too be honest… I think the second one I do is more insulting that the first XD
In the end. I say. WATCH STUDIO GHIBLI XD because not only is the answer to every question = 32…. it is also GHIBLI ^0^
But yeah- I find it difficult to truly dislike a anime entirely unless of course there is an excess of gore and horror…. which well for my weak stomach is impossible for me to watch XD I don’t usually feel something is ‘rubbish’ immediately because I didn’t take liking to it in the 1st episode- however I must say first impressions are important so its difficult to be long sighted- I think things that alter my opinion are reading anime blogds like THAT anime blog
so I would give it ‘another’ swing at the anime XD
And I am spamming your blog WHOOO
“Yes, I am saying that we are perhaps the gatekeepers for readers to decide whether to watch something or not. Premature death of series by reviewers often cause huge repercussions, as can be seen from prominent reviewers.”
That’s very true. You’ve gotten that point exactly. I usually only try to watch anime I have heard good reviews about. THAT animeblog’s usual going over of new series each season has helped me decide what looks like it might interest me or looks good to watch. I simply don’t have enough time to watch all the anime I want, and have to limit it to just 1 or 2 shows a season, so blogs do have a lot of affect on what I watch.
I try to avoid the newest, latest series, because everyone and their brother will already be blogging about them. I try to dig up gems from the past that aired way before blogging became popular.
Also, I don’t slam a series based on the first episode. If I hate the first episode, I won’t be blogging about the series. I give every show three episodes to impress me. If that happens, then I’ll start writing about it.
We blog coz we want to say something, hence on Anime.
We also write to get noticed, just like Lord Crusader (strikingly, uniquely, original way of writing. truly exceptional).
Also, we love (the viewers) to comment.
I’m also thinking that a lot of the angst over slamming shows comes mostly from the way the slamming is presented.
There is, I feel, a large difference between “I hate the show” and “The show is total rubbish”. The first is an obvious opinion on subjective taste. The latter is a statement which implies objective fact.
I have, on occasion, asked bloggers who bashed a show using the faux-objective phrasing why they did so. I seldom get any actual useful responses with an analysis on the faults of the show, but instead phrases like “because I say so” or some such, which borders quite close to outright trolling. I feel I can call it “trolling” because it becomes somewhat clear that the blogger is not looking for an honest, calm, and rational discussion, but merely to display one’s own opinion in the most garish and uncouth manner possible for no reason other than, well, attention. This is, I believe, the very definition of “trolling”.
This, to me, is saddening. In my opinion, bloggers should have the courtesy and professionalism to answer any honest and serious queries directed at them with an equal amount of honesty and seriousness. There is a sort of unspoken responsibility here: we put our words out in the open for all to see, and I think that it is only appropriate that we should have the means to back them up.
I will be making my individual replies in a spoiler since there is a lot of people I have to reply to
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^^
People who read my blog or listen to my podcast probably know by now that I very rarely make judgements about a series about it’s first episode – or even it’s first volume if I’m renting it to watch it. I try to keep in mind that a series is the sum of all it’s episodes, and that the first episode doesn’t make a break a series.
This is also a reason why, if I start a series, I always want to finish, even if halfway through I’m 95% sure I’ll want to incinerate it’s remains.
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Regards
You have good content in the site, good reviews. Venture into hentai review and you’ll get more traffic probably.
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