Notaku: Video Killed the Radio Star

Lost in America going all Youtube-y?  It’s true – the moment has finally come.

A few of you know that I’ve been longing to take this website multimedia for a long time.  Vlogging (basically a video podcast) seemed like the natural extension of that idea.  Anime is, fundamentally, a visual medium.  Writing about it and even recording podcasts about it is great, but vlogging is both more personal and more dynamic.  For anime, it makes a whole lot of sense.

The problem, of course, is that I lack both the skills and the time to undertake such a project solo in a manner that would give it a chance to succeed.  Enter Setsuken, the owner of the superb Anime Evo and a friend.  As some of you know Setsuken was the one who helped me when the time finally came to transition LiA to WordPress.  He’s both far more hard-working and technically knowledgeable than me, and we decided to pool our efforts and make this dream a reality.  And out of that partnership, Notaku was born.

What is Notaku?  Well, you can get some idea from this intro video:

Notaku is a lot of things, among them brand new.  It’s a work in progress, and it will evolve over time.  We’re going to produce new videos every week, some of them “Anime Chats” where we talk about what’s happening in anime and how we feel about them.  As an example, our first full-length video (posted tomorrow) will be – naturally – a season preview.  Giving the timing how could it be anything else?

We’re also going to do “Ask Enzo” (and Ask Setsuken) segments, where we tackle specific questions about the industry and our lives as fans.  What else?  Well, lots of things are possible – guest appearances, industry interviews, live streaming with Setsuken and myself.  That’s the thing, with video there are exponentially more possibilities than with a simple blog.  I love writing, first and foremost, and LostinAnime.com will continue to be my home base and main creative outlet.  But Notaku is a full partner for LiA, and I hope the two will feed off each other.

What I also hope, of course, is that you’ll like the videos, and subscribe to the channel, support it down the line and do all that good stuff.  First things first though, I hope you’ll check out the first couple of videos.  More are coming, and I promise I’ll get better at it – better sound, better content, better variety.  And I think I’ll be a better writer by virtue of this too, and LiA will become a better website.  As always, my sincere thanks for your continued support!

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

28 comments

  1. this would be pretty cool. Nothing new and groundbreaking here, because there are already alot anime review channels on YT, but I always come here because there’s a certain polish and focus in the written reviews that freeflowing review channels don’t tend to have. And ofc with all the 3rd party content matches being taken down automatically on YT, the amount of clips that can be used straight from shows may probably be limited.

  2. Yes, that is a concern. We have some ideas on how to cope with that issue but it’s not going to be a cakewalk.

  3. M

    This is really great. Good with this new endeavor.

  4. M

    This sounds absolutely great!

  5. M
  6. Amazing that you’re taking the time to do this with the incoming new season load. Overall I’d say that the whole video felt like a podcast, the visuals weren’t interesting enough to keep me looking so I treated it that way too. Your insights were interesting as always and you bounce off quite well with Setsuken, I’d be waiting anxiously for the next one as well as for the new season to actually start.

    Arslan Senki was 24 episodes by the way, I remember hoping for it to be another Akatsuki no Yona but even though it didn’t reach those heights it was still pretty good.

  7. *correction it was 25, should have checked before I posted that comment.

  8. F

    Will we ever see your face?

  9. That sounds like a Kickstarter… ;-P

    In all seriousness, it’s an open topic. Is that something people would actually want?

  10. F

    Yes, please take a full advantage of the video medium!

  11. e

    @Enzo: seconding Fangirl’s wish of course. Unleash your inner Sakamoto on the unsuspecting masses. And you can also add hats for effect. And leather when winter is coming… :p

  12. e

    Congratulations and best wishes for this project, may it live long and prosper!
    Managed to listen to this and the season preview during lunch. The audio (your voices, the bgm was fine throughout) felt slighlty muffled at the beginning, can’t tell if it improved or rather I got used to it.
    Content-wise you are your consistent and oh-so-eloquent self so no issues on that front, Setsuken held his ground rather well. He does have margins of improvement… I think he could elaborate his views a bit more :). When it comes to animanga discussion there is a bit of a history in that regard imho. In RC’s podcasts for instance your partners seemed to shrink a bit from contributing or bring strong counterpoints to your opinions, save for Kairi :p. Back to Notaku Setsuken has a very understandable accent that is very welcome to this non-native-English speaker. One more reason to look forward to his speaking contributions to this endeavour!

  13. F

    “Content-wise you are your consistent and oh-so-eloquent self so no issues on that front”:

    Really nicely worded, I couldn’t have said that better and that sums up pretty well why I like reading Enzo’s posts in the first place. As a non-native-English speaker myself too while reading anime subtitles or going through anything anime-related on the net I rarely have unknown words that I have to look up in a dictionary but when reading Enzo’s blog I frequently (well depending on the covered series) stumble upon words or expressions with which I was not familiar before. So just a thumbs up for Enzo for having awesome vocabulary and writing style beside his great insight.

    And to Enzo, good luck with this new endeavor!

  14. s

    so glad to hear you have finally taken this direction. I always thought to myself that you could do more with your site if you went pursued this avenue so good job. The melding of posts and video podcast should keep things fresh and exciting

  15. o

    I have been a lurker for almost what, 5 years? Read all your articles with a female voice and was so surprised to hear your real voice XD.

  16. ROFL! Sorry to disappoint. I hope the real one wasn’t too terrible.

  17. O

    I never found an anime review channel on YT that really pleased me, but based on your articles on LiA and the Podcasts on RC, I feel pretty confident that it will be the first 🙂

    Instant subscribe from me anyway, even before actually watching the videos.

    Good luck with the channel !

  18. Thank you! We’ll try and justify that faith.

  19. G

    Love to hear you are doing a weekly show!

    Are you planning on making these available as audio files/podcasts on an RSS feed?

    That would help me be able to listen on the road and whatnot…

  20. I don’t know for sure – I would think it’s on tap but I’ll run it by Setsuken.

  21. R

    Congrats! Absolutely love it…! Am listening while writing this post. Excited for the launch and for you! Thank you Enzo for initiating this.

  22. Thanks! No moss growing here, I promise. We’ll keep trying to get better all the time.

  23. C

    Subscribed! Your input in RC’s podcasts was/is usually my favorite part so this is a no-brainer for me.

  24. Video killed the radio star? O.o

    Sir! Even if you are my ageyou are dating yourself!

    ._.

    I love it. XD

    P.S. Pls tell me you were among those who watched that video the first time it aired on the channel in question 😉

  25. Please – you insult me that you even think you need to ask!

  26. T

    As someone who listens to podcasts often, i’d say both of you need to get proper mics. This should be your #1 priority right now if you ask me.
    Don’t make your listeners sit through an hour of janky audio. I mean i can listen to it, and I wasn’t bothered by it with the occasional randomc podcasts, but if you want this channel to be a thing you should probably take a look into all this audio stuff.
    Good luck with the channel bro!

  27. S

    You guys need better mics, stat.

    and even though I seldom watch anime reviews on youtube, a conversation in video format without faces would probably not get a second listen, regardless of topic.

    Maybe you’ll prove me wrong though, I’ll check it out.

  28. BTW… Last night while watching Hunter X Hunter on Adult Swim they showed an advertisement for NEXT Sat night (7/16). In place of Samurai Champloo (that finished last night) they are gonna begin showing One Punch Man. So if anyone did not get to see OPM when it aired originally you can catch it on CN’s Adult Swim at 12:00AM. Most likely it will be dubbed instead of subbed but still a great anime to watch.

Leave a Comment