The book manuscript is done, my work productivity is suffering, and I’m ready to just say “screw it” and move on to the next week.

• My friend Lawrence is having a much better week, as he just got picked to be a part of the Anime and Manga Studies Symposium at Anime Expo. I think it’s really cool that academia is going to be a part of the biggest U.S. convention.

• @Marower wrote about his decision to stop writing for Crunchyroll. He and I  exchanged emails over several weeks about journalism and the ethics of positive and negative reviews while he was making this choice. I am still a big fan and I would write for Crunchyroll again if asked. But when it comes to something as personal as writing, everyone needs to make their own decision.

• Remember print? Like, journalism in paper form? On this week’s episode of the Freelance Game podcast, Nathan interviewed former Official Xbox Magazine Editor in Chief Francesca Reyes all about it.

• Like so many of us right now, Annalyn is getting into sports anime. These are her favorites if you’re looking for some recommendations.

• Justin interviewed Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, a former Tokyopop editor, about scanlations, aggregators, and piracy. An especially powerful quote:

 “You hear a lot of criticism of ‘legitimate titles not being as good and the translations are awkward, fansubbers are more authentic, and etc, etc.’ Yeah, maybe sometimes, but the scans for Gakuen Alice were terrible… So it was incredibly frustrating to see that there was all these people enjoying an inferior and mediocre product and we have something that we really want them to enjoy and get excited about, and they weren’t doing it.”

• A somewhat horrifying article found within the above rant with a name that speaks for itself: “Manga comes in book form!?”

• Finally, Lifehacker posted a guide to preparing for convention season. I need to get me one of those portable chargers. Interested in a convention guide specific to journalists? I don’t mean to harp on it, but there IS an entire chapter on that in my book.

Photo via awxvn on Reddit.