From Eternal:
Opinion is what fuels any good blog, and opinion is something that both an editorial and an episodic blogger can have.
I often see this statement, especially from anime bloggers. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s completely wrong, I think Eternal underestimates the power of cold, hard content. Sure sometimes I want to come home, draw a warm bath, light some candles, pour a glass of wine, and indulge in a 10-page essay comparing Clannad to a famous piece of literature, but other times I just want to know whether or not Naruto formed a rasengan on his crotch and used it to hump his way to victory.
I don’t usually think this way when I am writing posts, but I search anime blogs differently when I want to chat about anime series/episodes and when I am searching for specific information about a series/episode. This is especially true when I am crafting a post on an episode that was mysterious or complicated. I know I’m not the only one who goes to anime blogs looking for very specific content, and this theory is backed up by a sexy snapshot of 2-years of referral data:
I have an episode of Clannad sitting on my desktop, and the thought of screencapping and reviewing it sounds considerably less pleasant than writing another post like my last one.
I’ve noticed that many essays about episodic summaries and editorials mention that it is not fun to summarize an episode. However, just because most people don’t like to summarize doesn’t mean that visitors aren’t looking for summaries.
One of the reasons why there are so many episodic blogs out there is that there is a demand for the content and different viewers like to have this content presented in different ways. If I am reading posts about a popular series like Kannagi, then I usually skip the summary portion of the post and pay more attention to the opinion section. However, there are times when I am reading a post about a less popular series and oftentimes I wish the author would include more summary and less opinion.
But once I started following the editorial blogs, I came to realize that I could share my thoughts a lot more efficiently if I waited for something to impress me than if I posted religiously on a show every week.
Personally, I think opinion is not as important as passion. Everyone can have an opinion about an episode/series, but my favorite authors are the ones with a passion for anime, whether it is manifested in regular and thorough content or irregular brilliant analysis.
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12 Comments
I think the format over at Random Curiosity is perfect. You got your summary (omni’s are very detailed) and then the impressions. you can skip one, or read both. With stuff like Ghost Hound this a lifesaver, even watching it subbed.
I mostly read blogs for the thoughts / impressions of the blogger and other readers. But I always skip the summary sections. If I’m interested in an anime I will see it (or already seen it), so I don’t need a summary.
I’m speaking for myself here, but its not that I hate summarizing… rather, its just so hard to summarize! I don’t have the ability to shorten (hurr hurr) any content, because I think even the crap-scenes are important. To put it in real life situations, it would go something like this:
Either way, I like both the summary and opinion sections, but more towards opinion. Add some low fat cheese and tofu on dat shi and i’m sold! :3 :4
It’s not what you say, but how you say it! At the same time, I wouldn’t think that opinion and passion are too mutually exclusive. :P
Often during mid-season when an anime’s momentum slows down, I like to read summaries first to find out whether it’s worth downloading an episode or not. For Fall 2008, that included Index and Ga Rei.
Also good summaries are still essential for me to follow less popular series that are being not being subbed quickly or at all. For Fall 2008, I’ve been in agony over Mouryou no Hako – the dialog was pretty damned complicated – Star Crossed and Cute Proxy did their best but it was still fragmentary.
Well the traffic directed to blogs from search engines is indeed usually the biggest percentage of traffic for the blog as a whole, so it can be agreed that people still always look for episodic summaries or stuff like that (or just the anime name, though we have no idea based on that info alone if they were looking for summaries or opinions) or at least something on that anime series.
I would also agree that passion is slightly more important than opinion now that you mention it, but everyone may look for something different in talking about a series, whether an episodic summary or impressions I mean. So for example, person A might look for summaries while person B for impressions of the same episode, then it leaves up to how many people are talking about the series they are looking for. I just do not feel like I should write much about anime though since, as I mentioned on Eternal’s blog, there are so many out there that do better than me. I would also prefer doing impressions since there are way better blogs that do summaries, like Random C. Unique content I hope to bring people in with. Of course, that is up to readers to judge.
I agree that passion is probably the most important thing, but I kind of wonder whether most search referrals are because people are looking for summaries. Personally, I never look up summaries because if I’ve seen the episode, then I don’t need it, and if I haven’t, I don’t want to read about it until I have. My own blog might be skewed since it’s relatively new, but a majority of my search referrals are via not-really-related search terms that just happen to match, like people searching for scanlations for a translation for a particular phrase. A majority of my hits currently come from referring sites. Then again, I don’t do episode blogging at all. :3
animekritik: Omni does a fantastic job with his detailed summaries, and he really caters to his audience. I also try to provide both summary and impressions. The summary helps me to remember what happened and provides a framework for my impressions.
Staberinde: I know a lot of readers do the exact same thing. I was reading a game recap on ESPN today and I realized that this is not so different from anime blogging. Sure you could just watch the game yourself, but on the other hand it only takes 1-2 minutes to read a summary. And there are plenty of people who do both.
Jesus159159159: It can actually be quite difficult to condense an entire episode down to just two paragraphs (depending on the complexity of the episode). Also can’t believe how bad Dumbledore wanted Grindenwald’s magic stick…
TheBigN: They aren’t mutually exclusive at all, but I believe people can sense the passion you have and that makes your opinion carry more weight. Just look at how many people respond to SVS’s postings (not in comments, obviously…) in spite of everything.
Zyl: I do the same thing, especially if I am on the fence about a series. I like summaries better than commentary for this purpose because many authors tend to be overly hot or cool towards series without explaining why. It’s easier to read a quick summary and make a decision myself. I also find myself in the same situation over unpopular or unsubbed series, and in those cases it can actually be very frustrating to find opinion with no summary.
Panther: I think it is too easy to get caught up in not being the best at something and thus giving up. Think about how many spice blends there are out there. It’s all the same ingredients, and even if spice blend 1 has superior quality ingredients, maybe spice blend 2 has a better ratio of ingredients (for certain consumers). Find a blogging approach that is effective for you (as Eternity mentions), and you’ll be sure to connect with readers who like the mix that you bring.
Kiri: It’s true that not all search referrals are for summaries; from the search terms log, however, I do know that this forms a significant portion of our hits and that was my point. In our case, it might be because SS!AB has been around for a long time and has amassed a large collection of content about many different anime series, and thus comes up higher in search results for summaries now.
The fact that you have an anime blog already shows some sort of passion. I believe the key is really motivation.
Whether you are motivated to write something will be the driving force in what you write. No matter what kind of post you do, what kind of opinion you have, if there is no motivation it won’t be written or published.
And Random Curiosity will probably get the Platinum award for this year’s ABA.
Well, I already posted on my opinion for the most part, but I think it should also be said that not all bloggers write for their readers. True, if all you want are hits then summaries might be the way to go – just look at RC – but even if it gives more hits, that doesn’t necessarily make it a better form of blogging. It doesn’t make it a worse form, either, though, so I still think it comes down to preference in the end.
This + one of the posts generated by the Related Posts list dated 2 years ago = WIN.
There’s more to passion than just making “your opinion carry more weight”, of course. It’s the fuel to creativity, gives you ’strength’ to continue blogging despite whatever hurdles, basically the “mother of great blogging” (great is subjective, but oh well).
I’ve also noticed that I become influential when I’m being my Passionate Fangirl self, so gah! Must relive the passion!
I am personally not so big on summaries. There was a time when I attempted to blog summaries for real, and it was just more annoying than anything else.
The most important part about summaries in a blog post of blogs I read are that I get the proper spelling of names/places for when I comment on a post.
For me, I feel that if I’m reading a blog, I’m just reading it for opinions and added content (i.e. seiyuu info, or other interesting tidbits I don’t know from just watching). If I wanted to actually know what happens in an anime I will either watch the episode and not be spoiled (i.e. by reading Random Curiosity too early before the subs come out), or just resort to the ‘preview’ summaries or the ‘end of show’ summaries which gives a better impression of what the series is about.
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