Why I Don’t Cover Seasonal Anime

Well, let’s hop right into this one–who needs a long introduction? Not me!

Why do I not cover seasonal anime? That answer is actually simple in my book: it’s stressful and I don’t have the attention span.

For the summer 2018 anime season I thought I would try covering a few shows weekly, like most blogs I follow, and I realized a few things: 1) my attention span isn’t good enough to watch a show every week and then write a post about it; 2) even if I were able to watch a show weekly, I’d probably not have much to say about a show because I usually have a hard time articulating what I want to say in a short enough manner for people to read (and yes, this did get my into some problems at my university, which added extra anxiety to my life…I’ve since stopped going to school to reduce said stress from multiple areas–which most of you know); and 3) there are so many other bloggers out there that are better at covering shows weekly than I am that I figure anyone could get more out of reading their reviews than mine, so why bog myself down doing what they’re doing?

I figured I wasn’t going to do what others are doing and instead I would write what I want to write when I want to write it, so screw it if I don’t get any views or if people don’t like what I post–I do it for me, to be completely honest, and that’s good enough for me. (Is that shallow? Meh, whatever, it is what it is and I am who I am…)

Anyway….yeah, I don’t do seasonal anime stuff because I have a hard time watching shows and then writing about them every single week. I tried it, but with my work schedule the way it is, and my life in general, it was extremely difficult to get posts drafted, revised, and scheduled on a weekly basis covering upwards of even five or six shows depending on what I enjoyed or didn’t enjoy. All in all, I figured going my own route was the best option…and here we are!

I think when I first started actually blogging about anime in general back in the summer of 2018 I had a solid six week span of writing reviews for shows, but after that my juices died off…I had to watch, take notes, formulate a post, attempt to say why I liked it or didn’t like it, and not get too long winded in my explanations because I didn’t think people would want to read 2,000-3,000 words worth in one review covering every single aspect that I either had a problem with or thoroughly enjoyed about an episode. Honestly, I think Karandi does it best (I love all of you, don’t worry!) trying to keep her reviews to as small a word count as possible–her blog is called 100 Word Anime after all–while getting the pertinent information in every single review she does (and she does plenty…so so so many reviews that I always enjoy reading). Am I gushing about that blog? Sorry, I just love it. It’s informative, concise, and wonderful.

But, if I want to stretch my brain with the people I follow, I’ll head over to Irina’s blog (I drink and watch anime) because her longer posts have so much information packed into them with a solid sense of what she wants to say and get through to her readers that it’s practically a fountain of easy-to-digest information (depending on how she breaks things down…)!!

Okay, I’m pretty much gushing over two blogs now. Dammit. Anyway, back to why I don’t do seasonal anime.

The simplest answer is this: attention. I don’t pay enough attention to seasonal anime week by week to write reviews on them. I’m usually busy with my annoyingly stressful job at a grocery store (yeah, there’s a lot that goes into working there behind the scenes), and then, when I get home, I’m hopping on Netflix or my Xbox to play games with my brother and friends, or reading one of the many novels I still need to get through from Christmas–I’m half way done and currently reading On Writing by Stephen King, but also have Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan to complete. I also started a novel…

So, with that, I realized my priorities and interests weren’t up for reviewing seasonal anime in a way that’s long winded and bogged down by useless information when there are a plethora of blogs out there doing what I thought would be enjoyable, but turned into what felt like a chore. Why do something if it feels like a chore? Also, the people who do seasonal stuff do it better than me. That’s simply a fact. They do seasonal anime better than me, and their reviews are/were better than mine. Am I upset about that? No, not at all. What I’m saying is if you want to get the most out of a review, don’t read mine: read someone else’s work.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don’t do seasonal anime reviews. I’m not good at it. I’m simply too long winded to do seasonal reviews and people do it better than me. Go for the people who know how to do it, the people who’ve been doing it for years. They’re your fountain of information, your source for concise episodic content. Don’t look toward me, I’ll drop the ball.

Hopefully I didn’t ramble and this makes sense! I’ll catch you all later!

 

Some amazing bloggers (both seasonal and non-seasonal) that I follow are here:

The Goddess of seasonal anime reviewing: Karandi

The Great One and a joyous person to follow: Irina

The one I always associate with Haikyuu!! because of the name: Crow

The Scribbler: Xenodude

The Amazing Person: Yomu

The one who reminds me of Fire Emblem: Marthaurion

Leader of the Panda Gang and an all-around sweet person: Ayano ………#pandagang

There are so many amazing seasonal blogs, and blogs in general, that I follow that listing every person would be a fucking nightmare, so I’ll leave it at those few… Also, since I feel like everyone who’ll read this already follows most, if not all, of those blogs I won’t link them at all. I’m also too lazy to link them. Not sorry.

 

Thanks for reading!

Alexie 🙂