Otaku, No Video

By nekozumi. Used by permission.

Let’s get one thing straight: I think Naruto and Bleach are fine anime series in their own ways.

I’ve read fair chunks of the manga for both Naruto and Bleach. Enjoyed them; there was some interesting depth in both.

But they didn’t fully grab me.   And here’s the problem:  each has hundreds of episodes.  That’s time I could spend watching dozens of other anime series.  It’s not that I’d hate to watch Naruto; it’s that there are so many other anime to watch. Practically speaking, I have to choose.

I also have the problem of being an anime reviewer who’s posting two reviews a week. I simply don’t have the time to watch Bleach and other anime.

So, to all you Naruto and Bleach fans, have fun! All the best. Unfortunately, I won’t be joining you.

So, to summarize: post a comment here or on YouTube by 11:59:59pm GMT on Monday, 15 February 2010, and you’ll be entered to win one of the three posters shown. I’ll choose one commenter randomly, and offer a choice of one of the three posters.  I’ll then pick another commenter, who will choose from the two remaining; a third random commenter will get the final one. Make sure to leave some way for me to contact you; if you win, I’ll get your mailing address and send it out to you, wherever you live.

Consider this my own little Valentine to you.

A special, introspective post!  I want to make Otaku, No Video better, so I have two questions:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being awesome), how would you rate Otaku, No Video?
2. What would you like to see changed that would make Otaku, No Video a 10?

Post your feedback below, or email me. Thanks!

The U.S. FTC now requires blogs that accept free product for review — or that otherwise receive compensation for providing a review — to have a blog disclosure policy.

This is easy for me.  I don’t get free anime, manga, or light novels to review.

I’d like that.  Free anime?  Sign me up.

If I did receive a ”reviewer copy” from Funimation or Section23 or whatever, I’d definitely let you know.  In big letters.  Because that would mean I’ve arrived.

Until then:  I buy everything I review.  Heck, I even have a paid subscription to Crunchyroll.

Image appears to be by Oyashiro-sama on Konachan; thanks to Matt below. Can anyone confirm?

Haven’t been posting here much, mainly because our YouTube channel is going so well.  Each video gets about 200 views now.  I’m really enjoying the new multi-segment format, and am now getting used to the production schedule it requires.

Which leaves this blog in a bit of an unfortunate position.  I’m already pumping out about 24 minutes’ worth of video every week, so all my reviews, anime primers, and rants end up going there.  There’s not much left for this blog, and producing both a video and a blog post about the same topic is just too much work, really.

I have no plans to abandon this blog, of course.  I just don’t know what to write about here.

Do you have any suggestions?  What would you do?

Note:  Everything I write in this post applies equally to manga and light novel reviews. I’m only going to mention anime to simplify this post’s grammar.

I have a problem.

I’ve been reading a lot of anime reviews lately, and I’ve noticed that a lot of them suck. My own reviews are very much included. They don’t tell me anything about a show I couldn’t get from Wikipedia, and the opinions are the mental equivalent of Jell-O; very little of substance. They’re basically “This is a show about characters X and Y, who are trying to find Z. I thought this was a great show.” Um, okay.

Which begs the question: what makes a good anime review?

Well, let’s look at the bad anime review, and figure out what it does wrong. The reviews I’ve been reading are usually divided into two parts: a summary of the show’s premise, and a personal reaction.

Here’s the problem I have with summarizing a show’s premise:  I can get that from many places.  I can get it from Wikipedia, or Amazon.com, or ANN, or MyAnimeList, or the back of the DVD box.

I think reviewers forget that they exist within an ecosystem. When I want to learn about a show, I don’t read a review and stop there. I don’t say “XxSesshomaru138xX said it was good, so I’m going to buy it!”  I’ll check out a few other reviews and the Wikipedia entry and the ANN ratings to get a feel for the show.  There are other places to go for anime information.

Now, yes, to review a show one needs to talk about it. But that should be integrated into the review; not a dry recitation of an episode’s events.

Then we get to the personal reaction; the actual review part of the review. And while I recognize that reviews are inherently subjective, too many reviews boil down to, “I like it.” Or, at best, “I liked this aspect of it.”

Well, that’s nice, but all it tells me is that one person liked the show (or an aspect of the show). How useful is that, really? Is that the best a review can do? At that point, the review can be completely binary: Aoi Hana: Yes. Queen’s Blade: No.

I’m tired of value words. Shows have “good action” or a ”terrible dub” or a ”great plot.” What exactly is a great plot? Is it a plot that’s complex? Clear? Deep? Entertaining? Dramatic? Evenly keeled? Always keeping you guessing? I might like a deep plot; the reviewer might like a clear, simple one. I usually don’t know the reviewer’s preference, so how will I know what the reviewer means by ”great?”

Here’s the thing: I want to know why.

If you liked the characters, great! But why? What about the characters did you like? Were they realistic? Oddball? Surprising? Unsurprising? Memorable? Did they have chemistry?

Every time I see a value word, I want to know what it was about that thing that the reviewer liked. If you love the story, okay, tell us what it was in the story that you loved.

So, I propose a ban on the following words in a review: good, bad, great, fantastic, excellent, horrible, terrible, awesome, and sucks.  I just tried to define a few cases where those words actually help the reader in a review, but I honestly couldn’t think of one.

I also propose a ban on summaries of the work’s premise.

As reviewers, value words and bland recitations of a work’s premise add nothing to the review. Our readers deserve better. They deserve specificity. They deserve our full reaction to a work; not a lazy simplification.

I recently completed a series of videos on the history of anime, as part of the ”Anime Primer” series on the Otaku, No Video YouTube channel. This is a look back at the major trends in anime from World War II up to the modern day, created so that anime fans would know where their fandom came from, and what influences their favorite anime creators.  I honestly think it’s pretty important.

In any event, for your convenience, I’ve created a quick playlist of all the Anime Primer history videos, which you can watch here:

Hope you enjoy!

First off, thanks to everyone who commented on the “Getting Past” post. Lots of interesting thoughts there. I’m surprised at how many folks basically agree that the solution to the weak anime market is for fans to actually buy anime.

Secondly, I came down with something after the New York Anime Festival, so I’ve been laying ill in bed for the past two days. Thus the late news video, and lack of other content around here.  I do want to push forward with more content soon; I watched a few bits of anime recently, and have a few things to talk about relating to NYAF (rather amazing number of manga licenses, for example…perhaps that’ll be the next growth market within the American anime/manga industry?).

Thirdly, here’s the latest news video: