The headline is obvious without me stating it. OK, we didn’t meet the target and that’s not ideal. We just pipped it last year, but I’m aware that I have to reach a little bit higher in the tree every time I do this. That’s why growing the site in terms of readership is so important.

But I’m not going to gloss over the fact that on the whole, I’m moved by this outpouring of support. I did set a more ambitious target this year – 50 new patrons/supports/subscribers. On the other hand, I included one-time pledges over $25 this time. And I also factored in existing monthly supporters who increased their subscription amount. Nevertheless, the math is easy to do and tells a clear story – 40 new supporters (and existing supporters who raised their level) stepped up for LiA during this campaign. And yeah, I’m humbled by that. Each and every one of you have my everlasting gratitude.

Thank you. We done good. Not good enough in the big picture, but still a noble effort. And in the face of that, I think I owe it to all of you who stepped up to keep the site going. You voted with your pledges, and made it clear to me that LiA means something to you. I could hit the red button – make this a tiered content site. Others have done it, and I don’t judge them for it – and one could say that would be rewarding the site’s patrons even more. I’m going to mull that, but for now, I believe I’m going to maintain the status quo. Supporters will still get to participate in the Patron Pick selection,  and I have another exciting reward in that vein which I’ll be talking more about soon. But for now I’m going to hold off on a paywall.

I also want to note that the last day was one of the biggest of the pledge drive – we really finished on a high note. And just because the drive is officially ending, that doesn’t mean LiA’s need for financial support is any less urgent. Anyone who steps up, anytime and any place, is a hero to me. And hey, if we have a huge rush of pledges in the next few days (we only need 10 more people), I’ll update that thermometer and declare victory. Because it would feel damn good to do it.

As to the “The Week in Anime Newsletter”, well – well,  we didn’t hit the number. But I still want to offer as much to my patrons and supporters as I can. So bear with me and even though we didn’t achieve the goal for the pledge drive, I will experiment on that front. It won’t be a regular release but I’ll get something out to you from time to time. It’s a good opportunity to get your feedback and develop the concept as a possible regular piece of premium content for the site.

Finally, a huge thank you to this most recent group of LiA MVPs new, repeat, and upgraded! My gratitude to Krize, Gilby, Adrian, Linnea, Stephan, Ryan, and Robert S.!

Thanks again to everyone who supported LiA, and everyone who visits the site and comments!  As ever, please share any ideas you have for helping keep the site alive and growing.

Stay frosty,

Enzo

 

 

August 19. 2024 Update – Every man will be a king? Well, that might be an overreach. So might hitting the fundraising target of 50 new subscribers, if I’m honest. But looking at where we are, I’m still impressed. So many of you have stepped up, and my gratitude knows no bounds.

There’s time for one last push. And every new supporter makes a big difference – not hitting the goal will force some hard decisions on me, but those decisions will be guided by the overall state of LiA’s support base. So I just want to express my thanks and get as close to the target as we possibly can.

The new LiA MVPs since our last update (again, many of them repeat supporters): Alonom, Catterbu, SOGormanGames, Eugene, Kaylith, John, H., Rob B., and Darten. I’m profoundly grateful to all of you!

If you haven’t checked it, a reminder that I did a video appeal this time around.

 

 

August 15, 2024 Update: – I won’t sugarcoat it – in terms of the goal (50 new patrons/supporters), it’s not looking great.

With less than a week to go now, the campaign is just about halfway there. That’s not good, but hey – it does mean 24 LiA readers have stepped up to try and keep the site alive. And needless to say, that fills me with a gratitude I can hardly express in words. You guys are all awesome, and your pledges of support mean a lot to me personally, never mind to the  challenge of running LiA as a paywall-free service.

Honestly, these things get tougher every time. You have to reach higher in the tree to find new supporters every year. In that light I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy challenge. But I want to keep this site going, and I want to do so without resorting to paywalls. I’m willing to work hard to achieve that, as uphill a battle as it feels like sometimes. I don’t want to talk (or think) about the alternative – not with several days still to go in the campaign. I’m going to give this every chance because I think LiA is worth giving every chance. It’s a genuine piece of anime history and that means something to me (and, I hope, to you).

So – whatever happens, let’s see the fight through to the end. And my sincerest thanks to this week’s new LiA MVPs (many of them repeat supporters): Steven, Razzmudge, Stephen, Denis, Nicc, John S., and Dark Flame Master. Your contributions were extremely generous and I’m very grateful!

If you haven’t checked it, a reminder that I did a video appeal this time around.

 

August 06, 2024 Update: – We’re one week into the campaign, and… We’ve hit one-third of the goal, 34% to be precise. 1/3 in a week, a 3 week campaign – so right on target, no? Well, not exactly. These things always tend to start faster and then slow down, so we’re really lagging in terms of meeting the goal of 50 new subscribers and one-time $25 or more supporters.

That said, seventeen LiA readers have stepped up this past week, and that’s something to celebrate. I’m immensely grateful to all of you. And for the record, I’m including those existing Patrons and Ko-Fi/Paypal monthly subscribers who raised their monthly support level because, in a sense, that’s like adding a new subscriber. We still have a long ways to go to reach the goal (and the launch of the LiA weekly newsletter) but I’m hoping we can make it happen. And as ever, if you have other ideas for supporter benefits, please let me know! I’m always looking for new ways to reward supporters.

New (and improved) LiA supporters so far (let me know if I missed you by mistake): Karen, Cheryl, Nick, Nickk(!), Belle, Red, Steph, Cat, Guy, Raleigh, “Reader Since 2013”, Ana, Casey. Thank you! I’d also like to note than many of these $25 and over one-time supporters have actually supported LiA multiple times in the past, so needless to say I’m especially appreciate of this group of long-standing MVPs.

 

“If you don’t like sad kittens, I hope you’ll step up.”

You know why we’re here. I’m going to ask for support for LiA, which by now is part of an annual cycle. I ask, some folks step up, a sizable percentage of them eventually drop off as subscribers, I ask again. Tale as old as time. I do it not because I want to, but because I have to if I want to keep the site going (which I do want). I don’t like being a downer, but I’m just being realistic. Unless LiA is able to generate substantially more income, I can’t justify continuing to devote so much of my life to it. So let’s talk about what that means, in practical terms.

Incidentally, for the first time I’ve produced a fundraising video – with free (public domain) kittens! I wanted to talk in more detail – and in a more personal way – about why this site means so much to me, and hopefully to some of you as well.

But if I may digress, a thought recently crept into my head, planted roots, and flourished. I started to wonder, has anyone – in history – written as many words about anime as I have? In English, at least?

Think about it. I’ve been running LiA for more than 13 years now. I think my blogging longevity is probably at the top of the anime pile by now, or close. But I’m darn sure that during that time nobody has been providing the amount of weekly content that I have. And while it has ranged occasionally, the overwhelming majority of it is anime-related. If it’s not me, who would it be? I’ve racked my brain on that question and can’t come up with anybody. The guys who were blogging anime when I started have all long since left the field (and none of them were doing the volume of pieces I was before they did).

In the final analysis this is almost certainly not verifiable. But I’m pretty confident it’s the case. And in a weird way it does make me proud. I mean, nobody else can say that, right? Nobody in the whole world. I think to be able to provide the volume of content I have and do so with basically no breaks and – if I may be so bold – consistent quality is quite an accomplishment. It makes LiA and Guardian Enzo notable in a tangible way.

So to tie all this together, all of you who contribute or have contributed to the site over the years (especially subscribers/patrons and participants in the Bespoke projects) are a part of that notable achievement. It’s one more reason to be grateful to you. And if you choose to sign on now, you become a part of it. The legacy gets the chance to grow because you’re stepping up to help that happen.

Of course the converse is also true – if people don’t step up, there’s only one inevitable outcome. And that would make me incredibly sad, in spite of the extensive, exhausting amount of work I put into LiA and its side projects. To be brutally frank, this all comes as a reminder to me that I work incredibly cheap. Considering how much of my life I give to this effort, it really should be my primary means of support – and it’s not even close. And it makes it harder for me to justify the status quo, as painful as that is to say.

So where does that leave us? Well – in the usual place. I’m asking for those of you who appreciate the service I provide with LiA, who enjoy the YouTube content and podcasts, to step up and join the cause (and if you already are, to keep doing so). I’ve learned that these campaigns need a goal, so here’s a nice easy one to wrap our heads around – 50 new subscribers or $25 or higher one-time contributors.  A nice round number, at the low end of what I really need for all this to make sense, and a drop in the bucket compared to the overall viewer base LiA and the LiA YouTube channel command. And since these goals need a target date, let’s set one – three weeks from now, August 20. I’ll post progress reports to this space periodically.

 

Part of the goal here, as ever, is to avoid paywalls and tiered content. I do however offer some incentives for those who help out. I’m continuing to offer the following supporters:

• Existing monthly patrons
• New monthly supporters (Patreon, Ko-fi, PayPal) who sign up in the next 21 days
• Supporters who give a one-time pledge of $25 or more who sign up in the next 21 days

The following:

• The right to vote for one series for me to pick up for the Fall season (and future seasons) – the “Patron Pick”.  This can be anything from the schedule that I don’t decide to cover on my own – whatever wins your vote, I’ll pick up.  So far that’s included Koukyuu no Karasu, Mononogatari, Jigokuraku, Helck, Dosanko Gal wa Namara Menkoi, and Bartender: Kami no Glass.
• Recognition at the end of future YouTube videos (and possibly posts too).

And, starting now, I’m offering a new perk (the suggestion comes from Princess Usagi): If we reach the 50 supporter target, I will start sending out “The Week in Anime Newsletter” to current and new subscribers and patrons. Exactly what form this will take will evolve some, but I’m imagining something like a digest version of the big animanga news on twitter, plus some reflection on the week’s anime.

I’m always very interested in new ways to reward supporters, so if you have suggestions by all means please share them in the comments.

How can you support LiA? As always, the links are in the sidebar. The most obvious methods are as follows:

• Patreon – Monthly Patron support (you set an amount per post, with whatever monthly cap you like).
• Ko-fi – Monthly subscription support at a level of your choosing. Ko-fi also offers the option of one-time pledges of support.
• PayPal – Monthly subscriptions or one-time pledges at a level of your choosing.
• Commissions – The LiA Bespoke program allows you to commission works ranging from haiku or top 5 lists to larger “best of” projects, editorials, and anime/manga reviews. General price levels are here, but you can reach out to me directly for case-by-case discussions.

I would also add that subscribing  to the LiA YouTube channel, as well as liking and commenting on videos, is very helpful towards the long-term goal of making the channel a means of additional financial support for LiA (and is of course free).

As always, I’m very grateful to everyone who reads, watches, listens and comments – and most of all, those of you who support LiA financially. Here’s hoping we can keep making history together.