The Future of The Anime Review: Part Three
So what does this mean for The Anime Review? You might be expecting me to announce that I'm closing. That is not, in fact, the case. I just paid for another year of my service and domain name, so I've decided to stick around. However, what I'm going to be doing is in a few ways very different from the past.
First, I'm not going to keep up with the grind. When I've watched something in its entirety, I'll review it. I'm going to stop throwing movies into the mix just to have something to write on a weekly basis. That doesn't mean I don't like movies; it just means that there aren't a ton of interest to me that I haven't seen, and I'm not going to sit through something that doesn't interest me just to meet some obligation I placed on myself years ago. When the review is done, it will be posted.
Second, I'm pretty much going to stop trying to keep up with new anime. NIS America has been extremely kind to send me their discs, just as once upon a time AD Vision, Media Blasters, and Central Park Media (all RIP) did. I will eventually get to them. Some of them look very good. But I have shows that have sat on my shelf for years. These shows I have wanted to see for a very long time - classics like Dirty Pair, Escaflowne, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and others alongside newer titles that intrigue me like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Bokurano - are waiting for me. If anything, some of those classics need reviews just to bring them back to light again, as many of them are still unsurpassed and deserve to be seen by a new generation. Trying to stay current wouldn't allow that to happen. And while I have reviewed newer shows recently, stuff like FMA Brotherhood and Durarara!! and Garden of Sinners, it's not as if ever had the finger on the pulse of what's new and cool anyway.
Third, my reviews for middling titles will get short. Any reviewer can tell you that it's the stuff that's just OK that's hard to review. I've written reams of these. Frankly, while I enjoyed Lupin III: Seven Days Rhapsody recently - it's a standard Lupin telefilm, and I like those well enough - I realized four weeks after watching it, having composed nothing, that I really have nothing to say about it. Many of the Lupin films are placeholders, entertaining for what they are but in no way unique or special. That kind of program doesn't need 1000 words. It might barely get a couple hundred.
Fourth, I'm going to review the things I want to watch. I expect that my reviews might be surprisingly positive. For a long time, I've taken the tagline of THEMAnime to heart: life is too short for bad anime. I've realized that it applies to me as well. If it doesn't interest me, it ain't happening. And hopefully, this selfishness on my part will actually lead to your gain. If all I post are reviews of great series, all that means is that you might find a couple that could really work for you. If you've been around for a while, you know I can write bad reviews with the rest of them. They may be fun to write, but the shows they describe aren't worth the time they take.
So what does this mean for you, dear loyal reader? My encouragement to you is to hook up to my RSS feed. Whenever I update, I post the link there. If I don't post for three months and then have a review, you'll know about it immediately. I wouldn't trouble yourself with coming by looking for updates. They will probably be infrequent. I believe they will be worth coming back by to read, but that's just me.
The other thing you could do for me is let me know how the site has been helpful to you. I did get a great fan letter the other day, but I honestly don't know how many folks are even reading it. I can tell you that I have not sold an item through my ads in months. It would be good to know if The Anime Review is still worth your time - so I don't waste mine.
In the meantime, what I can say is this: thanks. While I've loved having this as a personal pseudo-blog of my anime exploits over the last fifteen years, the best part has been knowing that it's helped a few people choose better anime. Hopefully, the changes around here will benefit you as well as me...and might make this a place to visit far into the future.
