Otaku Links: These are your Otaku Links

Otaku Links

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  • From Steve: How to Write About Japan. Just in time for NaNoWriMo, a scathing critique of the way writers sometimes fall into tropes that exoticize and stereotype Japan while underserving their readers.
  • From Bill: Come to your terms. This is a little about programming and a lot about cognitive behavioral therapy—a great read for anyone who struggles with anxiety. It’s especially relevant to me right now because I’m teaching myself jQuery and second-guessing every moment of it.
  • From Joe: Japan urged to ban manga child abuse images. The UN wants Japan to ban cartoon child porn, but some Japanese artists see this as a slippery slope that would curb free speech. We can all agree that child porn is bad, but I also see where those artists are coming from.
  • From Steven and I: Did you hear we’re holding a free webinar for geek careerists? I’m extremely excited about it. We’ve got 40 sign-ups and counting, but space is limited, so register now!

Photo via Alamy, the Guardian

Announcing 7 Ways To Build Your Geek Dream Job!

Careers, Journalism

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A few weeks ago, I did 10 one-on-one consultations with newsletter subscribers. It showed me that there’s only so much you can convey with a blog post. Sometimes the best way to share advice and ideas is actually speaking about them.

But since I’d wear myself out doing endless individual chats, I got together with my geek mentor, Steven Savage, to devise a happy medium. What if we joined forces to share our geek knowledge with a group? During our live webinar, visitors will be able to instant-message us questions in real time.

At 7 Ways To Build Your Geek Dream Job, Steven and I will discuss our seven-module blueprint for turning your hobby into your career—something both of us have done successfully. We come from different generations of geeks, so we’re hoping this webinar proves this is a process that works for all ages.

Sign up now!

The webinar is free, but we’re having people sign up for it since the chat function does have a limit. Reserve your space as soon as you can! When you submit your email, you will also be signed up to hear about a special offering for viewers from Steven and I. Also, that course I’ve been hinting at? Show up to find out more about it.

I decided to follow my otaku journalist dreams while reading Steven’s book, Fan to Pro, during my hour-and-a-half commute to a job I wasn’t that interested in. Just a few years later, Steven wrote the introduction to my first book, Otaku Journalism. There’s nobody out there who has had a bigger effect on my decision to pursue a geeky career than him, and nobody else I’d rather give this webinar with.

Our webinar will be on Sunday, November 8th at 9am Pacific, 12pm Eastern. Hope to see you there!

Otaku Links: Big eyes, small business

Otaku Links

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  • I’ve written for Forbes and CNN but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten as much feedback on an article as I have on this assessment of which Gundam shows are worth watching. Every Gundam show has a redeeming element, but some are a MUCH tougher sell than others.
  • Speaking of Crunchyroll, the anime-streaming site is branching out into anime production. This would allow Crunchyroll to immediately acquire foreign distribution rights, which currently are pretty tough to get. This move appears to be purely about distribution, and I doubt anything like “Crunchyroll: The Anime” is on the horizon.
  • Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku weighs in on the big anime eyes of Kyoto Animation. It’s part of the art style that drew me into anime in the first place, not only because it’s cute but because big eyes are more expressive. Thanks to Zoe for the link!

Photo via Unsplash

My Biggest Weakness: Grading Reviews

Journalism, Writing

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What’s the first thing your eye goes toward when you click on a media review? A lot of people would say the overall rating—and a lot of reviews are designed to display it prominently.

Whether it takes the form of “out of five stars” or X out of 10 or a letter grade, the review grade is the ultimate TL;DR of a review. I’m not denying that this is extremely helpful to readers who are pressed for time. But as a reviewer, I find it almost impossible to condense my myriad impressions about a piece of media into just. one. letter.

For sixteen weeks, I have been reviewing Ushio & Tora. I write at least 500 words every week, which means that so far, there are about 8,000 words total containing my feelings on Ushio & Tora. But how many people have only read 16 of those letters: the letter grade I assign at the end of each review? The thought worries me. Not just because I put 99% of the work into the actual review, but because I’m admittedly terrible at giving grades.

When I write week-to-week episodic reviews, my brain is like a sieve. I’m pretty good at recalling what happened in the last five or so weeks, but not the nuances of Episode 4 back in July. Each grade refers only to this week’s episode and how effective I found it. So even if I’d give Ushio & Tora an A overall as a show (and I really would), I gave last week’s episode a B-. It was poorly paced, started and ended in media res, and introduced too many new characters.

And yet, I ran that review on Anime News Network side-by-side with my first impressions of a so-so new show I’m watching, Attack on Titan Junior High. Titan is OK, I guess. I thought the strong second episode deserved a B+, even. Think about that. I rated my favorite show airing right now lower than a newcomer I’m not even sure about. If you just took a look at my reviews this week with no context, you’d think Ushio & Tora is the show I like less.

My stance on reviews is always evolving. Previous thoughts include How to write anime reviews people actually want to read and Want to write a helpful anime review? Answer these 7 questions first. Both times, I suggested starting from a grade and writing from there. You can call me a hypocrite for changing my mind, but I think it’s a natural result of giving lots of reviews. So I decided to ask some fellow anime bloggers what they thought.

Mike Ferreira of Anime Herald has stopped giving them entirely. “Grades on reviews are a distraction, pure and simple. They allow people to look at something, make an immediate judgment, and ignore the nuances or reasoning that led to the grade,” he said.

L.B. Bryant of Otaku Review feels the opposite. “Including a final letter grade helps me as a reviewer. It helps me truly give something my stamp of approval or disapproval. If my readers just scroll down to see what letter grade I give it, at the very least they are seeing just how strongly I feel about something in either direction,” he said.

One thing we can all agree on: review grades are not going away. Just about every media outlet that publishes reviews includes grades—from the Washington Post to the A.V. Club. This is not a post about doing away with them, but getting more comfortable with them (and just a teensy bit about getting more slack from my readers about the grades I choose). As long as Anime News Network allows me to review for them, I’ll be getting more comfortable with grades out of necessity. Here are some of the ways I plan to do that:

Grade first. And then consider, “Why does this arbitrary letter immediately come to mind?” A good review presents an opinion, and then backs it up. A well-chosen grade does that, too.

Re-read old reviews. I don’t have time to re-watch all 16 episodes, but I can do something as quick as reading old reviews before writing new ones. This will keep me from grading something down that I praised in an earlier review, and other lapses of memory.

Avoid the forums. I used to force myself to read the comments on my reviews because I thought it’d give me a thicker skin and force me to embrace my shortcomings as a reviewer. But no matter how much I backed up my opinions with examples from the show, there’s always somebody who isn’t happy. Now I realize that unhappy fans does not mean the review is poorly written—it just means that differing opinions exist. It’s time to stop worrying about pleasing everybody.

How do you feel about review grades? Do they make or break your decision to watch a show/read a book/buy a product? How do you grade reviews yourself?

Otaku Links: New New Geek Geek Journalism

Otaku Links

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  • There’s New Journalism, there’s New New Journalism, and now there’s New Geeky Journalism. I wish I had gone to this New York Comic-Con panel about geek reporting and the positives of sharing the reporter’s own opinions in articles.
  • Also, as previously mentioned, I’m taking the JLPT, easiest level, in December. Now that I’ve told basically everyone, I really don’t want to fail and look like an idiot. The most helpful resources I’ve found so far: a free JLPT practice test, the complete list of N5 kanji, and this great Android app that offers timed drills that make studying kanji and vocabulary feel like a game.
  • Apparently World Sake Day was this month and I missed it. Thanks to @AnimatedInk for recommending this introduction to sake especially for Otaku Links.

Photo via Unsplash