Ten top posts from 2010

11 years ago

Me blogging at Otakon in August 2010

If you just started visiting Otaku Journalist, you are really missing out.

I do try hard to keep up Otaku Journalist, but the truth is now that I have lots of jobs, I don’t spend as much time coming up with and writing posts as I once did. Back in 2010, when I had just finished graduate school and was underemployed at a gym, Otaku Journalist was my biggest priority and what I considered my primary job.

Lately I’ve been trying to think of ways to make Otaku Journalist better and the answer seems to lie in these archives. I spent a lot of time perfecting my posts back then and it’s too bad I had like, ten readers total at the time. Since a lot of my survey respondents say they just started reading Otaku Journalist, these oldies are worth resurfacing.

Here are 10 of my favorite posts from the 2010 archives, accompanied by horrible photos of me from the same time!

1) Sex sells but is blogging sex “selling out?”

I don’t think anyone cares about “selling out” anymore in a time when we’re all just trying to pay off our student loans as quickly as possible. At the time I wrote this, I was running Project Wonderful ads on Otaku Journalist for some extra cash, and a drawing of a busty warrior kept appearing on my site even when I thought I’d blocked it.

This post isn’t so much about the cover of the new Persona game as it is about me coming to terms with whether my new identity as a feminist meant I would have to take a stand against sexism when I saw it even when that wasn’t the topic I was asked to write about.

2) Here’s to you, Red Shirt Guy

In our day and age, it’s a lot more “cool” to act sarcastic and disinterested than it is to be earnestly infatuated with something. That’s probably why fandom in all its forms is such a big target—it’s easy to make fun of us because it’s so apparent we care about something.

Red Shirt Guy was a World of Warcraft fan who knew more about the game than some creators, and as a result was called a nerd. It’s paid off for him though; a quick Google search shows that since I wrote this, he got his own NPC (non-playable character) in the game!

3) Interview with Brian Raftery, freelance pop culture writer for Wired

Today there are a lot of people who do what I do, and run profitable blogs about fandom and subculture. But at the time, I thought the job I wanted didn’t exist. Brian was one of the people who inspired me to keep going, and graciously offered an interview to me, unknown and unemployed, because I wanted to write about him on my personal blog.

I love the way Brian treats all of his subjects, from the Insane Clown Posse to Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger, with enthusiasm and respect. His reporting style was certainly one that I looked at when devising my Otaku Journalism philosophy.

Getting my minimum wage on in October 2010

4) Welcome to the NHK, work, and life

I watched Welcome to the NHK while I was underemployed and very unsatisfied with the trajectory my life was taking. If you feel like you are at a similar point in your own life, I highly recommend you pick up the show right now.

I’ve said before that this is one of the anime that has changed my life. The most important line to me was Sato’s: “As long as I am working toward something I care about, I am not a NEET.” Whenever I am feeling complacent, this is what I think about to get back on track.

5) A squid comes to town, a squid leaves town

Squid Girl is an innocent romp about a literal squid girl, so this literary criticism of its season finale is definitely an overanalysis. But the finale was so self aware and introspective and almost mystical—such a dramatic change of pace for a light comedy.

I actually wrote this post for Japanator. Remember when I wrote for them?

6) My life as an otaku, my life as a journalist

Looking back, this is a real Bizarro world kind of post. I wrote about how I understated my geeky side when applying for jobs in order to be the right “fit” for as many companies as possible. Today, that is exactly what I advise NOT to do!

In the end, it was my geeky enthusiasm that has gotten me every single job I have ever been hired for in my life. So I wouldn’t take this post to heart.

7) Kaichou wa Maid Sama! and female strength

The only photo I actually like of me being a weeaboo from December 2010.

I watched some awesome shows in 2010. I remember discussing Kaichou wa Maid Sama! with Patches almost immediately after we met.

8) Anime USA Prospectus 2010

Fact you might not know about me: I also love graphic design, though I’m not very good at it. Fact number two: I did some graphic design for a local anime convention.

9) Thanks Jezebel!

Almost forgot I made Jezebel. This is my first major media mention ever and even though I was later on Boing Boing, Media Bistro and others, this one is close to my heart.

10) What’s the appeal of cat ears?

Still one of the top ten most popular posts on the site. People REALLY like cat ears.

Thanks for taking this trip into the past with me. Now get in your time machine and get back to 2014. Stay tuned for next Wednesday: 11 posts from 2011!

How I taught my old blog new tricks

Uncategorized

11 years ago

Things have been a little crazy in Otaku Journalist land. At one point two weeks ago, I counted that I had six different jobs. I was maintaining multiple WordPress sites, writing a curriculum for my WordPress course, putting the finishing touches on my next book, and of course reporting for ReadWrite, blogging, and maintaining my business as usual.

Last week, however, was just the opposite. It seemed like everything finished up at once. Now I’m back to normal and feel like I have way too much time on my hands.

I decided to put that time to good use by doing some maintenance around my blog. Otaku Journalist is nearly five and I’ve had a list of things I’ve needed to update and fix.

Anyone who’s been running a blog for a awhile can relate to how upkeep slips through the cracks. So I’m sharing some tips for keeping an old blog running like new:

Update the user experience

You might notice some ever-so-slight changes to the look and feel of Otaku Journalist. That’s because I finally set up a child theme for it.

WordPress sites get their appearance information from themes, templates designed by developers all over the world. If you know a little HTML and CSS, you can customize your theme’s design. But when the original developer spots a bug or a security issue, you need to update your theme and lose all those custom design changes. So as a result of doing this, I hadn’t been updating my theme and it’s been getting slowly buggier.

The alternative is to create a child theme, a theme that inherits the functions of the developer’s theme, but can host its own custom design. This is so easy, it’s something I taught my WordPress bootcamp how to do in one weekend. But I had been putting it off until now. Now the site is running Purple Pro Child so I can update Purple Pro whenever its developer does.

Another user experience change? I’ve finally added Disqus comments. I’ve been meaning to do this since the reader survey in May. Not everyone likes Disqus, but let’s try them out for a bit and see if they make commenting less of an ordeal. You can finally edit your own comments!

But seriously, I wish I had installed Disqus for WordPress much earlier. It took almost 24 hours to migrate my existing 2,500+ comments to the new system!

Optimize your site speed

With five years of posts, images, and data, Otaku Journalist is getting bulky. I’ve started to notice page loading speeds suffer as a result.

The first thing I did was go to Page Speed Grader to see what was taking so long. Before I did anything, it was taking nearly 6 seconds to load, which is noticeably slow. And after assessing the issues, I installed a couple useful WordPress plugins:

W3 Total Cache, a plug-in that caches elements on your page to improve loading time.
EWWW Image Optimizer, a bulk image lossless compressor. It took an hour for it to go through every image ever seen on Otaku Journalist and compress it.
Leverage Browser Caching Ninjas, a one-hit wonder that does for free what W3 Total Cache will only do in the paid upgrade.

Now each page comes up in about 3 seconds, cutting load time in two with just a few installs.

Update static pages

I (usually) update my blog once a week, but when’s the last time I even looked at my About pages? And these are the vital first links on my site that new visitors click!

Two of them, About the Site and About the Author, were still linking to my non-existent digital journalism guides instead of my new book. Tiny missteps like that can keep new readers from even realizing I have a book out there at all.

Most of the changes, however, I made to my portfolio site. It was so out of date it didn’t even list my business name on my resume or display any portfolio pieces later than February, which probably makes it look to potential employers like I’ve been out of work that whole time.

Maybe this tip seems obvious to you. But I always forget that even though these static pages seem old to me, they’re brand new to first-time readers and absolutely essential to keep up.

I hope you’re enjoying the new and improved Otaku Journalist! What are some regular maintenance you do to keep up your blog?

Otaku Links: Moral panic of the day

Otaku Links

11 years ago

I always promised myself I wouldn’t become one of those bloggers who are always apologizing for not posting instead of just getting out a damn post, but I do have to say sorry for not posting this week. I taught my aforementioned WordPress bootcamp all weekend long and that’s usually when I write my posts.

Expect a return to normal next week and until then, enjoy some links!

CNN reported on Japan’s new child pornography law, criticizing it for being harsher on photos of actual children than it is on how young the women in hentai manga appear to be. Anime fans are mad because policing moe drawings is unlikely to make children in Japan any safer.

The most outrageous part of the article, as Otaku USA Magazine observes, is that the illustration blurs out a PG-rated cover (unblurred version here) to imply that something explicit is occurring on it.

In response, Anime Maru put up some timely satire of the article. “The article admitted that there was no reported link between manga and child abuse, and then inexplicably continued for 472 more words.”

I don’t care what kind of pervy manga anyone reads, so long as they do it legally. Justin of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses asked three manga experts, “Why are people so open about the fact that they read licensed manga illegally?”

Did you notice the Daily Dot launched its new Geek section this week? Aja and Gavia kicked it off with a guide to fanfiction for journalists who can’t stop writing horrified think pieces about how fanfics are corrupting our children.

Old but great—why your 600 word armchair treatise on how you’d improve video games doesn’t apply at all to the struggles of real professional game developers.

Finally, Charles Dunbar has put together a really fascinating Tumblr that compiles all of his research on yokai, or Japanese legendary monsters. It’s like an “at your own pace” version of one of his panels, and just as informative.

Photo via CNN.

Otaku Links: Actual news for a change

Otaku Links

11 years ago

Geekosystem and The Mary Sue are merging into one big mega nerd news site. I’ve been reading Geekosystem since it launched in 2010, and The Mary Sue was how I first found my friend Aja. I’m excited to see where they take this.

Crunchyroll just acquired a video discovery site you’ve never heard of called Redux. Why should you care? Redux’s technology is designed to make accurate “watch this next” recommendations. With Crunchy’s growing title list, this might help us pinpoint the handful of anime we actually want to watch.

Gundam fans rejoice! Gundam Build Fighters just got a tentative launch estimate for its Season 2: Fall 2014.

They’re remaking everyone’s favorite pigeon ~~murder~~ dating sim, Hatoful Boyfriend, for English speakers. I just learned the word “hato,” or pigeon, in Japanese class and couldn’t stop thinking about this. It was better then the class when we learned how to pronounce “senpai” (with an “m” sound.)

Terrifying children’s show clip of the day via Viga: Don’t bake me I’m scared.

If you haven’t filled out the International Anime Research Project’s survey yet, consider this your final reminder! The more of us who fill it out, the more accurate and useful the results will be.

And finally, some real news from Anime Maru: Police Bust Underground Mushi Smuggling Operation.

Photo via plumgirl of Tumblr user whiteislandvalkyrie‘s mom.

A World Alone: Isolation in Natsume’s Book of Friends and Mushi-shi

Anime

11 years ago

I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately, and my recent anime choices have reflected that. I’ve been dividing my viewing time between two calming, spirit-filled if not spiritual, shows.

First I was rewatching my 2013 favorite, Natsume’s Book of Friends, a staple I always turn to when I need a pick-me-up. Then, a friend recommended I check out the similar Mushi-shi.

I mistakenly thought the OVA and second season, both on Crunchyroll, were all of the show that existed. It was pretty exciting when I discovered the Season 1 S.A.V.E. DVD on Amazon. Now I’ve watched both shows in full—several times if you count some of the episodes.

Mushi-shi is like a creepy Natsume’s Book of Friends without any of the warmth.

— Lauren Orsini (@laureninspace) April 28, 2014

This is what I tweeted after my first episode of Mushi-shi. They’re so similar, so I decided to write down my feelings and figure out why I see them so differently.

Both series center on a young man who has the unique ability to see spirits that inhabit our world. In Natsume’s case, those are ayakashi straight out of Japanese folklore; in Ginko’s, they are mushi, a fictional form of life somewhere between plant and animal. It is unusual for Ginko finds a mushi human enough to talk to, and very rare that Natsume finds a yokai who can’t.

Natsume’s Book of Friends is all about the problems of the yokai themselves, and Natsume does his best to help them find solutions. Ginko, on the other hand, assists people who have fallen on disaster by accidentally crossing paths with mushi. In Natsume’s world, ayakashi can be good or evil or a mix of the two. In Ginko’s, mushi aren’t good or bad, just trying to survive. Mushi aren’t governed by morality, just the often harsh laws of nature.

Sometimes, Natsume crosses paths with other people who can see what he sees—the exorcist Natori, the antagonistic Matoba clan. Other times he spends time with friends who have a touch of his gift, or can only sympathize, like Taki and Tanuma.

Meanwhile, Ginko interacts with somebody who can see mushi almost every episode. The human victim of a mushi is able to temporarily see the mushi that plagues them. It’s apparent that other mushi-shi, people who do what Ginko does, also have the gift. However, Adashino, who is portrayed as Ginko’s old friend, is fascinated by but unable to see mushi.

What makes Natsume so charming and Mushi-shi so dark? Natsume’s tragedies lie in the past while Ginko’s are always looming, ever-present and ready to consume the show.

Natsume focuses on the tragedy of Natsume’s lonely past, made dim by the close friends and family he has in the present. There are clear antagonists with clear motives, and it’s obvious who the good guys are, too. Every episode has a happy, or at least bittersweet, ending.

On the other hand, death and loss are not glossed over in Mushi-shi. The worst part is that, because mushi are rarely sentient, there’s nobody to blame for the tragedies. Ginko visits the occasional friend, but mostly he is alone, a traveler. And because of his unique tendency to attract mushi, he is condemned to wander forever.

Natsume is portrayed as a formerly very lonely person. But in the show, Natsume is always talking to people who love him—family, friends, and yokai. For him, loneliness is something that can be overcome. For Ginko, never. The people Ginko meets need him, but he can never stay in one place long enough for them to get to know him or—of all impossibilities—love him.

Natsume has grown adept at putting up walls around himself, but the people around him have grown adept at breaking through. Ginko doesn’t need to try to keep himself aloof; his lifestyle guarantees it. Loneliness pervades both shows to be sure, but the difference for me is how permanent it remains in Mushi-shi.

These are both great shows to watch quietly before bed. The pastoral, sylvan atmosphere and gentle music makes each one strangely calming. Supernatural intrigue takes the stage, but the real theme shows through the cracks—how isolation can mold and change a person.

Screenshots in order via Natsume’s Book of Friends, Mushi-shi.