Lessons learned from professional anime reviewing

Anime, Careers

nobunaga

Today marks the third week of my professional anime reviewing career. As you might have noticed, I’ve been reviewing Free!, Bakumatsu Rock, and Nobunaga Concerto every Wednesday on Anime News Network.

I hinted earlier that I’d share some lessons learned when I had them, and boy have they hit me like a ton of bricks in the last few weeks. Let’s take a look:

Practice makes perfect

I mentioned in my introduction that I’m not very experienced at reviewing, but I didn’t honestly think that meant I wasn’t any good. I’ve been getting paid to write for the majority of my 20s, and I guess I’ve kind of gotten a big head about it.

But I had to work hard to get my reviewing up to snuff. Did you know I had to rewrite my initial Free! Eternal Summer review THREE TIMES before it was ready to be published? Nobody likes a writer with an ego, so instead of balking I listened carefully to Zac and Jake’s suggestions and I haven’t made the same mistake twice.

It’s hard to learn a new skill in front of a huge new audience that doesn’t know a thing about you and isn’t likely to have any sympathy. That’s professional writing in a nutshell though. I’ve written down all of Zac and Jake’s suggestions in an effort to swim rather than sink.

You can be opinionated AND fair

When you look at the shows I’m watching, perhaps you notice a bit of “one of these things is not like the other.” It was kind of a long story how I ended up with two “manservice “shows and  Nobunaga Concerto, the one show none of the other reviewers wanted to touch.

Nevertheless, I’m really happy to have gotten picked to review anime for ANN, so I gamely picked it up and watched 6 episodes in a day. I don’t like it very much, but I’m working hard to explain exactly what my problems were, as well as give it the points it deserves for things like the power ballad ending song and beautiful backdrops. You might think I’m hate-watching if I give something a D; but that’s boring. Readers can tell when you’re nitpicking. But if you can back up a bad review with clear examples, that makes your opinion more reasonable.

However, Nobunaga Concerto has a small but loyal fanbase, and they made their disagreement very apparent in the comments. Which brings me to the third lesson:

Context is everything

I don’t know much about Nobunaga. Like, at all. I did some Wikipedia reading before starting the show. So to me, it looked like the show was just throwing random plotlines and characters at me with very little notice or development. Fans said I had it all wrong.

Well, I’ve done some research and they’re basically right. Nobunaga and his friends are so extremely well-known among Sengoku Era history buffs as to be personality tropes by now. If you’ve played Sengoku Basara, watched Nobunaga the Fool, etc. you need no introduction.

It’s like saying “I don’t get it, they should explain this better!” every time Gundam Build Fighters parodies the original Gundam material it is based on. The whole point is that they’re throwing in Easter Eggs for the diehard fans.

This is why Zac wanted us to choose our own shows; so we could pick anime we already had the necessary context for reviewing. And that’s very likely what I’ll end up doing in the fall.

Of course I won’t be dropping Nobunaga in the meantime. But I’ve learned that nothing exists in a vacuum—entertainment is dependent on its source material. I hope I’ve made that abundantly clear in the reviews that I’m putting up from now on.

Screenshot via Nobunaga Concerto

Gunpla 101 Updates

Figures and Toys

 

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There’s no good time to get sick, but Friday morning is probably one of the least opportune times to come down with something. Quarantined in my apartment, I made the best of it and made some serious updates to Gunpla 101.

So instead of a blog post here, have five new blog posts there:

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Gunpla for Girls

“Gundam for girls” and “gunpla for girls” are two of my site’s top Google search terms. I want to let girls know that ALL gunpla is for them. Includes a pretty politically incorrect paragraph from Bandai about how women prefer dress-like suits to “stand out on the battlefield.” Um, that’s kind of the chain mail bikini argument for mobile suits!

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How to Clean Your Gunpla

The best part about doing these site updates is getting my nails done for my close-up shots. As somebody who looks at a lot of gunpla tutorials myself, I think that properly manicured hands are something a lot of gunpla technicians overlook. And yes, I do use makeup brushes to clean my gunpla—they’re soft enough for skin, after all.

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How to Fix Broken Gunpla

True fact: my earliest gunpla are mainly held together with superglue by this point. (Now I build Master Grades, proof that anyone can improve!) I’d been meaning to put SD Gundam Unicorn back together after he took a spill, and this blog finally gave me a chance to do it and document the process.

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Gunpla Resource Spotlight: 2013 Gunpla Catalogue

This is sort of a shill but you would not believe how much fun we’ve been having with this catalogue. From the very first Gundam kit sold in 1980 to stuff from last year, it’s all photographed here, with an English title and a picture of the box art. Theoretically we could find any gunpla ever made, but I’ve just been drooling over the Perfect Grades…

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Version Ka 101

This post came out of a question I asked John, which we then figured is a question a lot of people have: What are Ver. Ka models and what makes them different? In fact, they get their name from their designer, Hajime Katoki, who conceptualizes more stylized renditions of iconic gunpla designs.

We also updated the store. I think it’s more personal to include our own photographs of our favorite kits and tools, but we’re not even halfway done photographing our collection! I need to get my latest, cutest model, Beargguy San III in there; I spent a particularly congested Saturday putting the finishing touches on him.

Otaku Links: Let’s review

Otaku Links

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  • Since there have been so many new readers lately, I wanted to plug Musehack again. Musehack is a career site for geeks that doesn’t just focus on writing like I do. If you’re interested in a geeky career field, check it out.
  • This #gamergate stuff still isn’t over and I’m wondering how long I should keep not mentioning it. It’s becoming the elephant in the room. One thing I’ve been referencing often is Leigh Alexander’s guide to actually doing something to help people who have been victims of online harassment.
  • I love sharing readers’ blogs, so here’s another: The Thin Black Line. Like me, Matthew reviews anime and the difference in our reviews shows how subjective anime watching is, and the review that should matter most to you is your own.

Screenshot via Bakumatsu Rock. I keep giving it Cs, but not because of the visuals.

How I became the Otaku Journalist

Journalism

Every now and then, students and aspiring journalists write to me for advice about entering the field. Here’s an email I sent recently, published with permission.

I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about how you became a journalist and blogger. I often write my thoughts and little journal entries, but I want to make the transition from something personal that would only be of interest to me, something that is more appealing to people that are not me. Any pointers you may want to offer me would be greatly appreciated!

I really like the phrasing of this question. I am often asked how I became a writer, but I think today just about everyone is a writer. We tweet and text and update Facebook all the time. We write a novel’s worth of email every year. We’re all writers now.

It’s not enough to have a blog, either. As of 2013, there are 152 million blogs online. Just because you’ve started a blog doesn’t mean anyone has to listen to you.

So in a world where everyone’s a writer and a blogger already, what can you do to stand out?

In my experience, the answer is persistence. Making a habit of updating your blog on a regular schedule. I became a journalist and blogger by yelling loudly about how much I wanted to do it day after day and year after year.

For nearly five years, I’ve more or less stuck to a strict Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting regimen. I’ve always thought of my blog as a job. I honestly think my blog has gone downhill now that I write professionally elsewhere. In 2010 and 2011 when this blog was my only writing outlet, I did more interviews, nuanced opinions based on current events, and even mini-documentaries.

Think of a blog as a hub to showcase your writing. Nobody cares where you got your degree when they see expertly reported articles on your blog right in front of them. And don’t forget to write about the potential career skills you’re picking up, whether you’re sharing an interesting anecdote while teaching college or learning a new language.

Your blog isn’t the end goal. Instead, it’s to broadcast loudly what it is you want to do for a living to anyone that will listen. It’s not to grow your blog to thousands of readers or make money off of it (though after half a decade that’s been a pretty neat side effect), but to show off your best work while also showing how prolific you can be.

Longtime readers already know that I’ve gotten every writing job I’ve ever had because of my blog. I referenced articles on my blog when I entered a contest for female journalists under 25 on Forbes—and I won. That’s how Owen Thomas found out about me and offered me a job at the Daily Dot, and later at ReadWrite where we both work now. Don’t forget that I just started reviewing at Anime News Network because I submitted a blog post as a writing sample.

In fact, last week I just signed my first solo book deal. I’ll be working with Carlton Publishing to write a book about cosplay. Why’d they ask me? They liked my articles on cosplay, which they’d seen on the Daily Dot, my portfolio, and of course, my blog. That’s worth stating again: if I had never started a blog, I would never have gotten a book deal.

You mentioned that you’re concerned about branching out your topic space from stuff you care about to stuff that appeals to other people. However, I think that’s the wrong way to go about it. A successful blogger isn’t you thinking, “What will make other people like my blog?” They’re writing about what they care about. If you don’t care about your blog, nobody will. I’ve written before about being a niche writer and how it’s your biggest asset.

“But nobody cares about what I like!” you’re thinking. Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. People who like anime are not a global majority, and people who like anime and want to be writers are an even smaller group. When I came up with the name Otaku Journalist, a lot of well-meaning friends urged me to go with something more general. But here I am, and here you are, and you’re asking me this question instead of another blogger for a reason.

If action points are more your style, here’s a checklist:

√ Start a blog

√ Pick a few days a week to update

√ Blog about what you want to be paid to write about

√ Share it with your friends and family

√ Share it on social media

√ Share it with people you admire

√ Enter contests and apply for jobs and use your posts as a portfolio

I am not guaranteeing overnight results. And if you find yourself giving up, maybe that’s a sign you weren’t that enamoured with writing as a career in the first place. I blogged through a retail job, an office job, and now several writing jobs. I’m not saying this to pat myself on the back, but to demonstrate how important I think blogging continues to be to any writing career.

I know, I know, I’ve been harping on this for years. I hope this inspires you to just go for it. Don’t wait until the “perfect” moment. Your writing style will improve and change and that’s the point. My only regret is that I didn’t start my blog sooner.

Do you have a question you’d like to ask? Drop me an email or visit my Tumblr Ask box.

Otaku Links: The silver lining

Otaku Links

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The Internet, especially our little otaku/gamer/geek corner of it, has been terrible this week. I don’t blame you if you’d rather go outside. But if you’re stuck at your screen, I’ve collected some inspiriting links to remind you it’s not ALL bad.

  • Free! Eternal Summer is the best anime of the season and everyone in Japan agrees. Even if you don’t agree, what this confirms is that women are a much bigger part of the anime audience than the stereotypes would have you think.
  • I went to a Magic: The Gathering tournament in DC last weekend mainly to cheer on my husband. The Washington Post was there too, and they profiled Feline Longmore, a trans woman who happens to be ridiculously good.
  • Never heard of Anime Sols before this week, but it’s a really neat idea. People crowdfund classic DVD box sets, and then everyone gets to watch them streaming. And it’s all done in partnership with Japanese studios, too.
  • MC Melody Doll, the world’s only Elegant Gothic Lolita rapper, has a new single out. If you’re into My Little Pony fandom, you might recognize the song’s composer, electronica master The Living Tombstone.
  • Finally, I was on Beneath The Tangles’ very first podcast talking about anime and religion, writing for a living, and my new ANN gig! I’ve been reading Beneath The Tangles for four years now, and I was glad to be their first guest.

Screenshot via Gravity Falls.