As evey blog fanatic knows, there are two main types of anime blogs that exist, being editorial and episodic blogs. Though there are a large amount of sites that have a sublime blending of the two, as well as some randomness thrown in, what interests me is the innate attraction most blog readers have towards editorial blogs, though that’s not to say that episodic blogs don’t have their own charm. But what really makes one type of blog preferable over the other?
Cookie-cutter episodic blogs are old news. We want entertainment and innovation!
Me being the young whippersnapper I am, I haven’t really been around long enough to judge the awesomness of episodic blogs, but from what I’ve seen, they can either be extremely popular or… not so much. One of the main strengths of episodic articles is one of it’s main weaknesses: predicatablity. Sure, it’s always interesting to read someone’s (preferably, someone you respect and/or like) thoughts on an episode, but after a certain point some could believe it becomes an exercise in repetitveness and tedium. You could, if you were particularly skeptical (and a bitter, bitter person) even consider episodic blogging a crutch for the uninventive.
There is also the fact that they’re everywhere. You need only throw a Taiga 5 feet in front of you and you’ll most likely hit an episodic blog. Not many people can tolerate essentialy reading the same thing over and over again; however, each person being different from the next, you won’t come across the same approach to the episode either, and the beauty of episodic blogging lies in the variation that can be applied towards something that’s seemingly completely stock. Shin would approach Code Geass in a different way than me, who would approach it in a very different way to biankita. Each post has its own merit and entertianment value and you gain a melding of insights (or in CG’s case, ridicule) that creates a veritable melting pot of lulz and/or thought-provoking speculation.
You never know what’ll happen with an editorial.
This is in no way meant to ingratiate ghostlightning, but We Remeber Love is one of the best blogs I’ve read in a while. One of the most interesting things about his and mechafetish’s blog is that, other than the fact it’s going to have some reference and/or terminology concerning mecha in every post (I defy thee to prove me wrong!) you never know what’s coming next. He went from anime acquaintances to liabilities and lawsuits, just as IKnight of The Animanachronism can go from Aeneid references on epic series (haven’t seen LoGH yet but it’s reputation more than precedes itself) to delicious VN puns and analysis. The thought-provoking nature of such blogs means you’re always left with some food for thought to either comment on or simply take away an ponder to you’re hearts content.
Perhaps that’s the main difference between primarily episodic blogs and editorial blogs; whereas as one is confined within the anime show or genre and as such only urges the reader to think about plot or character developements, foreboding messages of the future or what relation that show in particular has to RL (messages, philosophical queries and all that jazz), the other is left almost completely open to interpretation: you take whatever you, as a person, want to take from it.
Who cares? It all depends on the the strength and style of the writer.
Then again, no blog would be popular or interesting unless the writer themselves had something unique. something that defined them as an individual in the rapidly growing sea of ranters to bring to the table. I know of very few blogs which have an overall lack of quality, and even some of these are based in a foreign country so can’t really be held accountable (damn them, for their amazing english in comparison to my horrible -insert foreign language here-). But be you an episodic or editorial blogger, if you’ve got something of an “X” Factor, you’re going to draw a crowd no matter what you write about. There’s also the case of the raw delusion bloggers who are able to get out lightning-fast impressions (be they bitter/satirical, simply sublime or filled with the fiery rage of a thousand suns) and appeal to a wider range of readers standing on their pedestals of godly raw h4x.
However, I still believe editorials are and will continue to be more popular.
Why? Simply because not everyone watches every anime show currently airing. People have different tastes, and aren’t very likely to read about and comment on shows they haven’t seen. But if you see an article with a general question or statement about anime, you’re most likely going to check it out.
Every blog has it’s own unique identity and there are many, many others which can’t be easily grouped into these categories. But for those blogs which can be seperated into episodic and editorial, the latter will always have an advantage of being unpredictale and almost effortlessly intriguing.
But, once again, that’s not to say episodic blogs aren’t needed. We all love to go on emotional journeys while watching anime and having fellow travellers on such a journey, even if they are simply internet personalities, is always welcome. It’s just interesting to have as many differing opinions as there are anime.
“We all love to go on emotional journeys while watching anime and having fellow travellers on such a journey…”
Interestingly, it reminds me – episodic blogs, that is – of Jakobson’s notion of different communicative functions, particularly the phatic mode, which emphasizes simple contact instead of content. Kind of like the obligatory “hey how are you?” We don’t really care how you really are, it’s just a way of acknowledging someone’s presence, but that’s taking it far.
Editorials may be more popular, but they’re also more difficult to write. I don’t even know where my own style falls, I just try to make my writing interesting and let the reader categorize it afterwards.
Omisyth, you’re very self-effacing, that was elegantly put. Lelangir, just from reading that Wikipedia link, I’d say some bloggers are also going for the emotive function. Tai, ultimately “interesting” is what it’s all about, isn’t it.
I am a episodic blogger. I’m not sure how I ended up going in that direction, I think it’s because there is so much anime I haven’t seen, so I figure that if I’m going to watch a series episode by episode, then I might as well blog about it. Long series like Naruto and Bleach may be difficult to keep up with, but I realize that I don’t have to blog about every single episode that I see. Great article by the way.
I’m so flattered it’s not even funny. Iknight is still one of my idols (should post more often), coburn is another, and lelangir is yet another (lelangir makes me work to stay in the conversation in his posts). It’s also interesting that coburn is doing episodes of Michiko to Hatchin and he’s doing a splendid job.
Lelangir in one of our exchanges gave me the impression that a new blog could do more than just redirect traffic from the popular ones; that they could actually build the community by adding new readers, or creating new anime fans. I won’t pretend that this is already the case with We Remember Love, but it’s something that I want to do.
I really enjoy meta posts like this one, and I’ll contribute some in We Remember Love in its own way. You’re providing perspective on what’s available out there, and assisting the reader in determining what has value for herself.
It’s too easy to break blogs into editorial and episodic, but they are by far the most noticeable of the two. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive at the same time as well. And despite how it seems as if the world is much more expansive for editorial writers, it takes ingenuity to come up with something that hasn’t been mentioned before. It was interesting when I felt like I was the first person to write about the power of the afro in anime, then to feel humbled when someone else showed that they had done it beforehand, for example. 😛
To continue where TheBigN left off, there’s also a danger in taking on large themes in editorial writing, because taking these on requires a broader awareness of related literature/shows. For example:
The moment I felt Coburn’s post on Oh re Smacking the wussy shounen to make him a men seriously overlooked Gundam’s ‘Bright Slap’ I felt we’re all vulnerable.
True enough, just yesterday I posted on the lack of anime within anime (outside of comedy and slice of life shows) and how it could be read as a non-endorsement of the characters who are awesome. It was immediately pointed out to me that I shouldn’t have written the post without watching Nadesico first.
While editorials appeal to a more general audience compared to episodic posts, we can’t really say that it has higher chances of being “popular” over the other. Like most commentators before me have mentioned (or implied), both editorial and episodic blogs require dedication, creativity (to some extent), ingenuity, or most importantly, PERSONALITY (I refuse to say “X factor”, because it would be implying that you’re looking down on yourself, and sort of building this ‘barrier’ between people who have it and not. Bloggers whose personality shines through in their writing should be qualified to have that “X” factor. You might not have it yet, but you can surely get there)
Generally I prefer editorials to episodic because just like what you have mentioned, not everyone (including me) watch anime. Even if I do catch an episode or two that does not mean that I will follow the series through. I’ll also be more interested in editorial posts instead of episodic reviews of anime that I have dropped because I have already somewhat formed an opinion of the rotten anime that I have dropped and reading a review on it will only “inspire” me to troll the post. =_=
@lelangir
I’m probably misinterpreting what you’re saying, but I think it goes deeper than that. Episodic blogs seem to be more about a connection with one’s readership; why else would there exist regular commenters rather than random people coming and going as they please?
@tai
That’s a great doctrine to follow and I applaud you for it. Hell, it took me a couple of hours just to round out my ideas and get this post done 😛
@animekritik
Thanks for the compliment
to fuel my EGO.@Ria
Thanks and I wasn’t trying to put down episodic bloggers (I’m supposed to be doing that (- -)). You follow your interests and thats what leads you to blog.
@ghostlightning
I’m flattered you’re flattered. I’m supposed to be bloggin M+H at Yukan!. Must catch up.
Every blog has a chance to inspire readers and fans, it’s just something about learning that you have a passion for something that other people have. As for creating new fans outright. Tis a lofty goal, and I shall follow you to the finish line 😛
@TheBigN
It’s not always about originality; just with episode reviews, an editorial on the same subject (Like the Round Robins that popped up and disappeared every now and again) can still be really interesting to read.
@ghostlightning
People can’t really chastise you for posting about a subject based on the anime you’ve seen; hell, the next time I do a list post at OH! there’ll probably be a few people who think I’ve missed something out. You take your knowledge, write a post and it is what it is. If someone seeks to point out something that would be informative in regards to that subject matter then all the better, it’s part of what being an anime fan is about, you’re always discovering new things.
@usagijen
Generally, blogging does require all those facets in a person, but I just think that editorial blogging appeals to a wider range of audiences than episodic blogging for the reasons I mentioned in the post. However, I completely agree in you saying what facets it requires to be your own kind of blogger. I’m not bragging or anything but I think I’ve already found my niche in my little corner of the internet, and through perseverance others will too.
@Hynavian
Be there a spiteful side to the warm and charming Hynavian I know :P?
Of all the things you could have said about MoMM, and of all the posts you could have linked, that was in exceptionally bad taste.
@lolikitsune
That was thoughtless of me. Sorry if it offended you.
lololol np np 🙂
I mean, it didn’t offend me. I should probably delete that post, though.
I couldn’t even imagine writing episodically, it just feels like it would limit my freedom as a writer, and I’d probably enjoy whatever I was watching a lot less.
AHEM.
This post has seriously got me thinking about the structure of my own infant (if i may put it so) blog and what to do about it when i come back from hiatus next week. Great wakeup call dude.
I think one thing that interests me is how both types of blogging are, if not plain DOING IT WRONG, at least deviations from the classic use of a (we)blog, which seems to be a place to dump stuff about the blogger’s life, or links to interesting sites. I can see how episodic blogging may have developed out of that, though I don’t know if that’s how it actually happened.
And one thing that amuses me is the persistence of the word ‘editorial’. I assume the word comes from a newspaper analogy, editorial content being separate and different from the ‘news’ (= the episodic posts, I guess?). Faced with a blog which doesn’t have any ‘news’ to separate its editorial content from, we still use the word.
I don’t know how anime blog popularity works, or indeed how it should really be measured. Apparently (and this is only anecdotal) THAT and the ‘Badass Raw-Bloggers’ easily pull more hits than any editorial blog, but there are lots of smaller episodic blogs which might pull less than a popular, well-established editorialiser. All anecdotal, and the distinction isn’t watertight in the first place.
I’m quite glad, in some ways, that the otakusphere as a whole has a comparatively small readership. If you comment on one of Crusader’s posts at THAT you’ve a good chance he’ll reply to what you, you personally, said. Compare the comment threads on big American political blogs like Daily Kos or Little Green Footballs. (For that matter, I think anime bloggers get better, more interesting comments than political bloggers, and it’s the political bloggers who write about things that are important, which makes you wonder about the ‘net, really.)
@ The Animanachronism:
With political bloggers, there is so much written on important topics that it becomes hard to really distinguish what is worth commenting on, and what isn’t. You probably see interesting comments on the more fringe blogs, but as it’s way out of the mainstream, no one notices.
@Emperor J
Yuo don’t necessarily have to blog solely episodically, but doing so may keep you writing, thinking and critiquing anime in general. If you ever run out of ideas for editorials, you can do what I did yesterday *points at Toradora! and To Aru*.
@drmchrs0
?
@revolemina
Don’t feel you have to subscribe solely to these two types of blogs; write what you want and let the chips fall as they may.
@The Animanachronism
I just find it interesting how no matter what type of blog the anime (we)blog is, we love deconstructing things to discover what lies beneath the surface of pretty moving pictures.
I never really thought about the use of the word “editorial”. It’s just one of those words that has somewhat shifted away from its original meaning, as most words in any language do over time (even moreso due to the freedom of the internet).
I was mostly saying that (without Raw h4x) if you created a blog from scratch, you’d probably be more “successful” as an editorialiser than a episodialiser <— fake words ftw. Or perhaps it’s all bout the circumstances of the blogs conception. Too many variables to take into consideration when you consider team blogs like THAT.
I always believe that a blogger, if they have the facility to do so, should reply to comments. It just seems kind of pointless to have a commnetay box if you don’t demonstrate that you’re reading and thinking about what your readers have said, but that’s just me.
@Emperor J
Politics make my head hurt ;_;
Short of the horrid “25 pictures of this new figure I bought” post, I struggle to think of a blogging approach more uninteresting than trying to analyze individual episodes of an anime series, especially when they’re the kind of terrible dreck that most anime is today.
Considering that anime rarely changes that much from episode to episode, it’s far more interesting to analyze the series as a complete entity rather than little tiny pieces. Although I’d imagine the motivation for doing so is similar to the motivation behind five different fansub groups subtitling the same series.
@ Sean: I’ve seen people productively focus on a single episode, or even a single sequence or scene, as the object of very close analysis. It’s rare, though, and I think it’s best done once the series as a whole is finished, so it’s not suited to the rhythms of fansub life.
@Sean
Well, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
I generally like the editorial style more. Makes me think. I visit episodic blogs to see if there’s an anime I might want to watch. ^_^
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