- It’s been a year since this groundbreaking interactive web comic ended. Let Gita Jackson tell you about Homestuck. For me, Homestuck led to my first big reporting win—my first time appearing in CNN, one of my best-known Daily Dot articles, and the first time I was listed as a source on a Wikipedia article.
- This weekend is the Small Press Expo, one of DC’s smaller, weirder comic cons. I go to find indie work I’ve never heard of before. I wrote about it once for Forbes (back when I had a lot less editorial control over what my articles were titled).
- I don’t run into people using the word “trap” maliciously (because I don’t associate with people like that). Instead, I see this word used all the time by people who have no idea that it’s a slur. Here’s why we should all quit using this word.
- I recently had one of the most difficult interviews of my career with Kore Yamazaki, author of The Ancient Magus Bride. Like many creators who have dealt with criticism, Yamazaki speaks in a careful, practiced neutrality. But Tony gleaned something from this interview that I didn’t see, when Yamazaki spoke about meeting her fans.
- Speaking of criticism, the irony of sending death threats to the Death Note director is not lost on me, but it’s an absolutely awful way to spend your time. At least it helped me set up a Boku no Pico joke.
- I love the Book Smugglers, two bookworms turned short fiction publishers, and they’re working on their first Kickstarter. They just published a post about lessons learned and the unexpected perks about turning a love of books into a company.
- I’m listening to 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back, a podcast by famed film critics Conor Lastowka and Michael J. Nelson, and it’s a hilarious skewering of Ready Player One.
Anime and the people we used to be
My little sister recognized Death Note’s Misa instantly from my Netflix queue.
“That’s the girl you used to draw all the time!” she exclaimed and darned if she wasn’t right. I was in my freshman year of college back then, but I was home for every break, doodling anime characters in the corners of my biology notes. Misa was especially iconic, a goth in pigtails who defined the next five years of lazy anime convention cosplay. She’s the crux of Death Note’s surprisingly sincere love letter to a specific era of Japanese goth-rock aesthetic.
After the train wreck that was the Netflix Death Note live action, I’m rewatching the anime again. So different to see it in high definition rather than pirated pixels on a bad DSL connection. I’m shocked at how little I remember. And after my sister’s comment, I realized I barely recognize the person I was when I first saw it, during my freshman year of college.
When I came home for winter break from college, I hardly recognized my own home; my parents had redone the kitchen in granite and put a pool in the backyard. My little sisters already looked different from the photos I had of them on my dorm room desk. At college I had been a little homesick, but back here I already missed my dorm and my new friends. I was in between homes and I didn’t know where I belonged anymore.
But anime has always been there for me during times like these. I remember watching Death Note because I used its labyrinthic, thriller plot to escape my problems. I related most to Light—not his sociopathology, but the way he increasingly isolated himself, drawing inward while slowly, the outside world become wholly uninhabitable to him, populated with people he couldn’t relate to or trust. An overdramatization of my own withdrawal, sure, but great TV for a girl who felt kind of lost.
Rewatching it now, the best moments are the scenes that prod my memory; that not only force a reaction, but the knowledge that I’m reacting differently to it now than I did 10 years ago. Back then I was as old as Light, L, and Misa are, and they seemed all the more intimidating for being my peers. Today, I feel so much more compassion for how young they are. Today, I feel so much more sympathy for my former self, watching this to escape her own loneliness.
I have these mental triggers for so many other shows. I’ve discussed how Welcome to the NHK helped me out of a depressive episode I went through while job hunting. I shared how The Devil is A Part Timer reflected my transition to freelance. Honey & Clover will always make me think of my budding relationship with John (it was the first anime he ever recommended to me), and though it wasn’t the first time I’d seen it, Nerima Daikon Brothers will always make me think of how I used to blast those peppy musical numbers after fights with my parents, tears still streaming down my face as I sang along. Less notably, Masamune-kun’s Revenge got me into weight-training (Masamune is a fitness nut).
This isn’t unique to anime. When we read a book or watch TV or look at art, ourselves come flooding into the experience. Anime is ostensibly an escape, but when we show up to process what we’re seeing, our own narratives are what help us put this story in context. Our surroundings as well. I was so surprised my sister remembered my drawings because until then, I didn’t consider the way my experience watching Death Note affected the people around me.
Can you separate a show from the person you were when you watched it? I don’t think I can. Rewatching a show is less about revisiting a storyline than looking for glimpses of that girl who watched it first, the person I used to be.
Misa in disguise, Death Note episode 13.
Otaku Links: Everybody take five
- I wrote about my experience at Crunchyroll Expo—along with several other Anime Feminist editors. My pal Tony was there as well, and wrote a great reflection on the future of anime.
- Remember when I co-edited a special edition of Otaku USA? The magazine is now going on its 10th year of existence. This oral history is great—and includes an Otaku USA wedding!
- How Mari Okada Went From Shut-In to Anime Director. Fellow Anime Feminist editor Frog-kun researched this emotional feature with a happy ending.
- Shirobako, New Game, and anime about cute girls working geeky dream jobs. Punished Hag had a lot of insightful and witty things to say on the subject.
- Mage in a Barrel Says “Goodbye,” and To Each Their Own Story. I finally got to meet Isaac at CRX. Best of luck in your new endeavors!
- The Anime Boston blog is back! Tune in every Wednesday to see what the editors think is interesting in the anime world (I post mine every other week).
- The author of infamous Harry Potter fanfic ‘My Immortal’ is releasing a memoir about her time in the foster care system. Sounds like her writing has gotten a LOT better.
- What journalists can do better to cover the disability beat. Stories about disabilities sometimes toe the line into “inspiration porn.” Here’s how to be better.
- The Secret Sexual World Of America’s Renaissance Faires. Old but news to me. Though I’ve always thought it was odd that the leather shops sell floggers and stuff.
- Finally: I see you working hard despite all the horrible stuff going on in the world right now, possibly extremely close to home. You need a break, and my writer inspiration Alex Franzen shows you just how to do it.
Screenshot from my review of Fastest Finger First. Fukami is gorgeous.
Taking Inventory
On a cold November day eight years ago, I pressed publish for the first time on Otaku Journalist. It was a terrifying moment, but also an exhilarating one. From then on, I had a voice on the internet in a place I alone governed, where I could say and share whatever I wanted.
Starting a blog is difficult. But restarting a blog after a long break, like I’m doing now, can be almost as tough. Most of the time over these eight years, I saw this blog in one-month chunks when I sat down on the 1st with my monthly planner and penciled in a few potential article ideas. Rarely did I stand back to look at the bigger picture. Reader surveys have helped me do this, as have complete redesigns, but usually I operate my blog on autopilot.
After this break, I want to take inventory and share with you how Otaku Journalist fits into my work and my life. Here are all the projects I’m working on right now:
Work
OK, let’s put everything I get paid for in one place. Since quitting my income reports, I have taken on two new clients—one fairly time-intensive at that. The pie chart of my activities has skewed more toward WordPress development once again.
On the ghostwriting side, I’ve got one steady client and recently “tried out” for a second. Increasingly, I have to do (paid) writing exercises for clients so they can see if they want to keep me around. I got rejected last time I did one and even though I regularly get articles spiked and edited it still shook my confidence a bit. We’ll see if this one goes better.
Aside from that, still doing weekly reviews for Anime News Network—Clean Freak! Aoyama Kun and Fastest Finger First this season, and I like the second one best. Still writing five posts a month for Forbes, and I am really proud of the Johnny Weir CRX interview I just put up.
Affiliate Sites
This is the time of year when my affiliate earnings start to pick up, but I haven’t seen that happen yet. I made $450 in August, which is fairly low. You know about my big earners: Gunpla 101, plus my infamous, cheesy candle blog. Generally I work on these around the first of the month and then let them go, but it’s time to get more serious about Gunpla content again.
Anime Origin Stories
Technically an affiliate blog, it deserves its own section. Before one seriously rough summer, this was the most important passion project on my plate. I was planning not only to finish out my backlog, but to self-publish a companion book on anime fandom throughout the decades. Now, I’m taking this one day at a time. Parsing through Origin Stories whenever I have a spare moment. Honestly, these interviews always make me feel better.
Fiction
Nobody knows how much time we have left to live. (Yes, I’m that guy now.) So even though I’m training for a 10k race, even though I’m working my way through a strict studying schedule ahead of the N4 Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December, even though I’ve never had the drive or follow-through and have been making excuses about how this isn’t the “right year” since junior year of high school, I’m going to accomplish a longtime goal and finish NaNoWriMo.
Previously, I didn’t do the legwork. But this year, I’m structuring an outline, and more importantly, I’m fucking sick of my own excuses. I’m not promising any content for readers because last time I did that (in 2015, ugh!) I was just too worried about people’s reactions to the final piece to write my messy first draft. This novel will be for me, for now, if that’s what it takes to actually write it.
Otaku Journalist
That brings us back here. I have such clear plans and to-do lists for everything else. Where does Otaku Journalist fit into all that? At this point, I want to revive the blog by using it to share writing that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Stuff like:
Essays about fandom. It’s not anime that changes so much as the community around it. I love observing how our identities shift and writing it up. Just like Anime Origin Stories is a time capsule for individual’s entrances into fandom, I want my essays here to capture what it was like to be part of our fandom in a particular moment.
Career advice. Specifically for journalists, freelancers, and fandom industry professionals. I skew old in the fandom demographics now, and I have a lot I want to share. Presenting on Otaku Journalism at Crunchyroll Expo made me feel so useful, like I had something of value to offer fellow attendees. I want more of that, here.
Personal development. Why are we alive? Ideally, to learn lots and grow into increasingly better versions of ourselves. This is a personal blog, and I want to share my successes and failures as I work on myself, in the hopes that it could help you, too. Of course this will often intersect with lessons from anime and fandom, because that’s such a big part of who I am.
As I relaunch Otaku Journalist, it helps to have a road map of where I’m going with this. Whether you’ve been reading for years, months, or days, it’s great to have you along for the ride.
Free stock photo via Pexels.
Super Otaku Links
It’s been a while. And in that time I’ve gone to two conventions on opposite sides of the country. I’ve also done a lot of grieving and private journaling. Now though, I think it’s time to bring my writing back in public, right here on the blog.
But first: old habits die hard and I never did quit collecting Otaku Links every week. Here’s what I read over the past… month.
- I love it when normie film critics are made to review anime films, like with this review of the JoJo’s movie: “Enter a dude who looks like he drives a sketchy ice cream truck that parents keep their kids away from. This is Jotaro Kujo.”
- Why does Welcome to the Ballroom look so weird? Maybe because its director passed away mid-production, Sakugabooru observes.
- Streaming Stumbles: How each major anime service can improve. Everyone has room for improvement. Great suggestions for Netflix, Crunchyroll, Anime Strike and more.
- Been looking at a lot of old memes lately, because nostalgia. I always wondered why this one gamer had been duct-taped to the ceiling. Now I know.
- Honestly, $124 and shipping does sound like a fair price for custom cat samurai armor. (HT @Dormouse42)
- Why the heck isn’t Macross legal in the United States? It’s a long story that involves corporate greed at the expense of anime fans, mostly.
- My pal Serdar, author of possibly the only novel set at Otakon ever, just published his latest book, Welcome to the Fold. It’s about a LARP game that gets dangerous!
- Spent some time scratching my head over Geek Girl Con, which experienced an internal schism due to accusations of discrimination against white men. Couldn’t happen to a less-deserving con. This is the most level-headed explainer I’ve seen for it.
- I watched JAM Project and TM Revolution at Otakon and it was incredible. No photos or recording allowed, but this Medium post does a great job capturing it all.
- If blog ads, digital products, or affiliate links don’t feel good to you, here’s a great primer on funding your creative pursuits with a Patreon page.
- What does the color purple mean in anime? I love Otaku She Wrote’s discussion of what lavender, violet, and mauve mean in My Hero Academia and more.
- Sayo Yamamoto will save anime (for me). Me too, Caitlin.
Illustration by Rideth Mochi, who I met at CRX. I bought this print on a shirt!