Otaku, No Video

lain (c) Yoshitoshi ABe, Geneon

I’m changing a few elements of Otaku, No Video based on user feedback and observations over the past few months. So, forgive a post full of ”inside baseball,” but I want to at least get this documented.

New Live Shows

Otaku News Live! is now splitting into three shows:

1. Brent’s Anime News Corner is coming back! This will be a short, weekly live show during which I run through the latest anime and manga news. No tangents here, unless they illuminate the story. This will be much more like the evening news. After recording it, I’ll post the video to YouTube.
2. Otalku is an upcoming talk show devoted to intelligent discussion about big issues facing otaku: Are fansubs ethical? What should we do about lolicon? Is it better to buy discs or watch legal streams? How has moe changed storytelling in anime? Matt, miniman, and I are still discussing this and working out a good time to do it.
3. Otaku News Live! will remain as it is, with one exception: During the show, we’ll cherry-pick interesting news stories and talk about them, instead of running through every single news story.

I’m also thinking of doing an informal live Q&A session once a month. Just a chat with everyone.

The YouTube Videos

When I asked The Ultimate Question a few months ago, I received a broad list of suggestions. Very little in the way of consistent feedback. However, one of the most common suggestions was a request for more reviews.

I think I’ve resolved that. I’m now regularly posting two reviews per week, one anime and one manga. I’m also posting primers regularly, with a one-week gap between each set of primer videos.

One note on that: 2011 will be the year of Gundam. I plan to review just about every piece of Gundam animation ever made by the end of 2011.

However, I know that some of you aren’t big mecha fans, so I’ll be careful to intersperse that with review of non-mecha series.

StreamSuki

A few weeks ago, I launched StreamSuki, an index of free, legal anime streams. This really excites me. This lists of all the anime streaming on all the major anime streaming sites out there (Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation.com, official YouTube channels, etc.). You can search for shows and browse by title, genre, and year released.

Even better, it works automatically. It will remain up-to-date without any human intervention.

Not sure how this fits in with O, NV, but it’s really cool.

The Chat Room

I’ve given up on this. While the text chat room on the main page of O, NV saw several visitors per day, they’d rarely speak.  When they did, nobody else was around to continue the conversation.

So, I’ve replaced that chat room with Justin.tv’s chat room. You’ll have to log in using Justin.tv or Twitter. I’ve no idea if this is a good idea, but it’s better than the stasis of the old chat room.

The Blog

I wrestle with the blog. I have a goal to write three short posts per week: a ”snap review” on Monday, a response to an aniblogger on Wednesday, and whatever I want (anime/manga/light novel-related) on Friday. This supplements the automatic video posts.

My actual output has averaged two posts per week. So, I think I’m going to switch to two posts per week, dropping the weekly snap review. The snap reviews tended to mirror my YouTube reviews, so they’re not of much interest.

The Forum

The forum’s quiet. I’ve wrestled with this, too. I’d like to galvanize the forum, but I can’t think of interesting things to post.

I like the forum, and I want it to continue, but it needs a jump start. I’m lost here. Suggestions, anyone?

Twitter

Yes, I’m on Twitter! But I don’t use it much. I resolve to fix that.

I am thinking about how best to approach Twitter. Much of the interesting otaku debate I saw on Twitter 6–12 months ago has evaporated.

So, that’s the state of things. Feedback is always welcome.

serial experiments lain (c) Yoshitoshi ABe, Geneon

As is so often the case, Cutfilm Tovent gives me things to think about. Specifically, daydreaming, in a post where he quotes a report correlating daydreaming with depression, then goes on to write:

…anime is never very far from my mind, whether it’s thoughts of a recent episode that I watched, a blog entry I just read, or a favorite character. What does this mean for myself, or for anyone else who frequently thinks about anime? And what effect does it have on us?

…When we think about anime, we devote our mental energies to recalling and exploring worlds we can never visit, characters we can never meet, and events we can never experience or affect….does thinking about anime really differ from daydreaming, or the effects it might ultimately have on one’s mood?

This touches on a larger topic: that which we do changes us. But that’s another post.

If we spend a large percentage of our time thinking about worlds we can never set foot in, 1) that’s unproductive, and 2) we will eventually feel frustrated at our inability to actually inhabit those worlds. Nothing is free, not even daydreaming.

One might call daydreaming about anime “simple escapism.” It’s escapsim, yes. Escape from what? Reality? Is that really the most healthy reaction to reality: running away?

What’s most ironic about this is anime’s constant focus on the need to accept reality. Anime is full of heroes who “mustn’t run away.” We honor heroes who face impossible odds instead of running from them.

Anime’s heroes (and manga’s heroes) live very much in their real worlds, not escaping into fantasies at every opportunity.

So, what should we do? Well, look around you. Find something in your life that you dislike and can change, and change it.

Anime can be relaxing and recharging and challenging. Great! May it never die. But never forget that a life well-lived is one full of shuffling through autumn leaves, quiet chats with friends, dusty book shops, dinners you can remember, and the smell of sea air.

Let’s do a little more.