There are a few goals for this post, so let’s jump right in…
First, if you have a moment to spare, please vote in the poll below – I’d appreciate your input. As LiA approaches its 10th Anniversary I’m considering ways of mixing things up a bit, and I’m curious as to what readers would most appreciate. The choices should be pretty self-explanatory – weekly manga reviews (I’m following more manga than anime these days), features on older anime from before the site launched, Top 5 lists, general pieces about the anime industry, or non-Japan entertainment (Picard, etc.). Or, of course, your own suggestions.
I’m also fishing for ideas about what to do to celebrate the site’s 10th Anniversary. I thought about doing a poll on this too, but it’s too hard for me to narrow down to specific choices at this stage so – dealer’s choice. Hit me with whatever ideas you have – I’ve considered an E-book, merch (T-shirts, mugs, whatever), but mainly I’m fishing for any ideas that catch my fancy.
Finally, I’m once more going to go before you and ask for any support you might offer to keep the site alive going forward. As you can see in the sidebar there are lots of ways to do it, and the need is greater than ever. My hosting costs keep going up as is and on top of that I’m probably looking at having to move the site again, as it keeps outgrowing its living quarters. Curiously the readership keeps growing, but the support levels don’t match that growth. I appreciate everyone who reads the site and all the more so everyone who comments – thank you. But even a Patreon or Paypal sponsorship of a couple bucks a month, a one-time pledge or an Amazon purchase can make a big difference.
As always thanks for being a part of the LiA community. It’s been an amazing decade, and it’s flown by – I’m humbled at the thought of how many pairs of eyes have read my scribblings over that time. Let’s make the future even better.
Toni
February 11, 2020 at 9:21 pmHi enzo, I think that the blog should benefit from the fact that you’re physically in Japan and thus able to give an overview of the current Japanese pop culture: What is hot right now in Japan? Which new manga is popular these days? Is there a movie o TV program that everybody’s talking about? Who’s the hottest pop star in Japan today? Was Game of Thrones big in Japan? Star Wars? etc
Also, I’d like to hear about the things you’re watching/reading beyond the ones that you cover regulary.
Guardian Enzo
February 11, 2020 at 9:31 pmThanks Toni. I touch on some of that stuff on my twitter a lot – just did a series of posts on the Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu manga having a boomlet in fact. I like your idea – how do you see it being part of LiA? What format would you like to see it take?
As to your last point, I suppose I could do some sort of monthly post with what I’m following in terms of manga and TV shows and such. It’s a lot of manga, not nearly so many with TV.
Stöt
February 11, 2020 at 10:09 pmI mean, I would love to pick your brains on Picard. It’s not exactly stellar (except in the very literal sense), but it has some promise. For every interesting character introduction, there are two that completely bombed. But in the end, I think you will produce the best content by doing and writing about the things you enjoy the most.
Toni
February 11, 2020 at 11:58 pmWell, I don’t think it needs be a fixed format (as your regular reviews) You could merge both things in a monthly digest maybe. Some themes will need only a line others may deserve an entire post by themselves.
Okuni
February 12, 2020 at 12:34 amI agree with Toni about having the blog benefit from you being in Japan. Other outlets can tell us about pop culture in Japan, but only you can tell us about Enzo in Japan. Your insights and enthusiasms have lead me to a deep appreciation: anime is art. I can’t sit beside you, eat popcorn, and binge watch ‘Jing King of Bandits’, but I bet we would have fun.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 7:35 amI have to be honest here. When I do Japan experience posts, they tend to have low view counts and few if any comments. So my assumption was that not many people were interested. I’m happy to do more of them but maybe I need to rethink thr format, subjects or both…
calantian
February 12, 2020 at 2:14 amI voted for ‘From the Vault’, because I would give up a kidney to have you do episode reviews of Seirei no Moribito.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 7:38 amSpoiler – if you dig deep into the series thread on ASF, you’ll find some of those!
If I do more of these types of features, I suspect they’d be akin to the “Series Review” pieces, as opposed to episodic reviews. Given how much time I already invest in the site the latter would be a mighty big ask.
Otcho_Shogun
February 12, 2020 at 2:26 amI would love to read reviews of older show by you. It doesn’t need to be all the time, but I think it would be a really nice change of pace, especially in seasons that are not that strong.
Apart from that it would be pretty awesome if you could occasionally mention what non-shonen jump manga are particularly popular or well regarded in Japan right now in your experience.
smoso
February 12, 2020 at 2:44 amMaybe you could have an option somewhere to pay for a particular article to be written? Like a certain series to be reviewed or a topic we’d like to see you write on. Some kind of request system would be nice, and you could decline ones you aren’t interested in.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 7:39 amIndeed… Artists do commissions so I suppose there’s no reason writers shouldn’t as well. I have thought about that, maybe it’s time to make it happen.
Dauntingoverlord
February 12, 2020 at 6:33 amHonestly, I would never have watched Xam’d and Eureka Seven if you hadn’t mentioned them in your top 5 Mecha anime list. I would love you to go back and talk about past shows along side your seasonal anime. I do enjoy your journeys in Japan posts that you occasionally do as well, grounding a lot of your content and reviews with places you’ve been to yourself. I think the blog should focus on japanese focused content (anime, manga, etc.) but I didn’t mind your Game of Thrones stuff even though I never watched the show. For manga reviews, maybe you can do check ins for them? You wouldn’t then have to do a constant chapter post for every manga you were reading except for the ones you really do enjoy each chapter of (maybe every ten chapters or so, or an arc review?) Those could pad out a small/declining seasonal anime blogging list that inevitably happens half way through each season. But yeah, I think we all agree that we’d like to see more in depth reviews on your past favorite/interesting shows.
Tim
February 12, 2020 at 6:48 amwhatever you do, plz don’t do a comicbook.com and make a bunch of “5 things x can do that y can’t, and vice versa”. thx keep up the great work
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 7:41 amROFL, I don’t really know what that’s referring to, but thanks very much for your kind words.
Tim
February 12, 2020 at 8:16 amyea this site is my favorite to visit in terms of anime. sites like comicbook.com like to recycle boring article formats to make things like “five anime protagonists who could beat Saitama, and five who can’t”. main idea: keep it thoughtful and I’ll be happy.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 8:34 amOh! Well, rest easy – that sort of thing isn’t really my jam.
Setsuken
February 12, 2020 at 11:04 amJust wanted to drop my congrats on making it to 10 years! That’s a huge achievement and something that I think definitely merits celebrating. I’m also glad to see that your enthusiasm for writing about anime and entertainment hasn’t waned over the decade, as mine unfortunately has (I hit the Tenth anniversary of my site two years ago).
I always likened my writing about anime to “playing anime critic/reviewer” while I think you actually were made to do this stuff. In a different world, LiA would be the biggest anime blog on the internet, and the place where a lot of people would go to get coverage. There would also be a solid business model or monetization strategy that I could present or suggest to help you keep the site going strong, but I’m not entirely sure what to do there.
If nothing else, however, I wish you the best of luck for the future, and while I myself don’t read or interact with anime in the same way I used to, I’ll always be rooting for you and LiA! Best of luck, and here’s to another 10 years!
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 11:54 amWhere is that world and how would I get there? ;-P
Thanks as always – your support has meant a lot to me. I don’t remember – did you do anything big for your 10th at AnimeEvo?
10 year reader
February 12, 2020 at 1:42 pmI would very much enjoy posts on series that came before this site’s creation. There is not enough thoughtful analysis on underrated shows of the past. This should definitely include ones from the late 2000s period (and there are plenty to pick from). Your collective readers will appreciate this!
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 1:46 pmThanks! That’s definitely an option.
One thing I’m considering is crowdsourcing posts like that. Give folks a few choices, and whichever one meets the funding threshold I write it. The people who funded it get exclusive access to it for a set period of time before it goes public.
Rita
February 12, 2020 at 1:47 pmHoly shit it’s been 10 years.
I’m not quite sure how to feel about that because I’ve been lurking around since 2011 on your site and it’s only dawned on me how long I’ve been, well, lurking. I’m definitely guilty of being the sort of reader that tends to consume all your posts but doesn’t comment nearly as often. I count that as a plus on your end though, I usually don’t comment because you’ve more or less said it all. I feel most compelled to comment if I feel there’s been an observation or cool thing someone’s missed in the episode (or I disagree vehemently with their post, which really hasn’t happened much here), but when there isn’t, I mostly just like reading reviews in the same way people scroll through instagram to pass time. Maybe that makes me not the ideal reader in hindsight.
That being said, I’m throwing my hat in for a sort of ‘review digest post’ of series that you continued watching but dropped blogging. There’s quite a couple of shows I like quite a bit and I think you continued watching for a while (Iruma-kun being the most recent one) but didn’t really lend themselves to blogging. It would be neat to see a short, sort of wrap up of your final thoughts of those series if you managed to follow any of them to the end.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 2:15 pmI feel like you comment a fair bit, actually!
Specifically as to Iruma-kun, I plan to do a series review post. I already regret dropping it a lot (Ep 19 was especially spectacular). It’s in the running for shows I most regret dropping (along with Ronja and Nekogami Yaoyorazu, probably).
Harucchi
February 12, 2020 at 5:56 pmCongrats on the ten years!!
I used to watch anime regularly for several years, and came here to read reviews after every episode of any show I was watching that you were also covering. I’ve stopped watching anime regularly now, but I still watch the occasional show here and there based on what you’re covering (I don’t have time to filter through stuff myself anymore), since whatever you cover is probably worth watching. So you were a significant part of my experience watching anime, to say the least.
I’d love to see editorials and more general opinion pieces around anime culture, especially since you’ve been around long enough to see macro trends in anime. You talk about it from time to time in your reviews, but it would be interesting to see these topics covered in a more dedicated and focused way. You also have a lot of opinions on directors, sound directors, writers, etc, so maybe you could consider doing a series/miniseries profiling them or something like that? It would also be interesting to hear more about living in Japan and how Japanese culture is reflected (or not) in anime.
These are just things that I think would be cool to see!
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2020 at 6:04 pmAwesome suggestions, thank you. And thanks for being a reader all these years.
raikou
February 13, 2020 at 11:02 am10 years? wow that’s a long time. I’ve only been here for a few years, I got recommended from Randomc. Man time sure passes…
I don’t always comment, but I love your insights on anime, especially when you talked about characters.
As per your best 5 mecha posts, I finished Xamdou and Ryvius, I’m pretty enjoying it. Both of them are enjoyable anime, even though for Xamdou I need to read between the lines more carefully, because it’s like Gundam G no reconguista, the type of anime that really need focus when watching it. Ryvius, is a very interesting take of survival in space. I am pretty satisfied with the overall story, although the main character took too much of a beating along the story for my tastes. But overall, both of them are pretty amazing. Your taste in anime doesn’t disappoint me.
My suggestion is maybe kind of old anime reviews, since I’m currently looking for good anime that went off my radar. By your taste, I think I can get satisfied from your recommendation. Anime best of lists is also fun. Maybe you can make posts about anime industry players like anime director. I’m sure you got a lot to tell about your favorite director. Or maybe X seiyuu best/most favorite role list.
Keep up the good work Enzo. I’m looking forward to what you cover in the next 10 years!
Guardian Enzo
February 13, 2020 at 11:28 amThanks!
Yes, that MC does get abused too much. I appreciate the series in spite of that.
Nadavu
February 15, 2020 at 1:05 amHere’s another well-deserved congratz for pulling off an entire decade of this hard labor of love! I haven’t been around since the start of this season due to RL, but I’m looking forward to catching up in a week or so.
I have a pretty sadistic idea: “From the Inbred Vault” segment, where you visit shows you would normally never watch and explain in detail why they suck so much (or, hopefully but less likely, why they’re actually better than you expected).
Guardian Enzo
February 15, 2020 at 11:52 amHmm. I normally feel like intentionally writing about stuff I don’t like is bad mojo. Maybe that one would be a kickstarter!