A graphical representation of the Review:Not-Review posts ratio.

In the anime blogsphere, it’s generally recognized that there are 4 types of posts:

• ‘The Editorials’, usually an opinion or commentary on some phenomenon or other happening within the community (orz specializes in these and in RAGE);

• ‘The Features’, an article taking an in-depth look on an issue in the community or an anime, or some phenomenon in animes (minaide! hazukashii is a good place to look for these);

• ‘The News Posts’, which are self-explanatory (I don’t think anyone would disagree when I say Ikimashou! and Heisei Democracy are the Kings of Anime News Blogs)

• ‘The Episode Summaries/Reviews’, which are usually episode based and reports on both the contents of and the blogger’s thoughts on the episode (Memento and Random Curiosity are the twin giants for this type of posts).

It’s this fourth and final type that makes up the majority of anime blog posts. At the moment of writing 11 out of 20 posts on the front page of Animenano, and 11 out of 20 on the second page are anime reviews. Because of the abundance of these types of posts a blog that focuses on them will usually have difficulty in distinguishing itself from its competitors [we’re all competitors in the market for readers - ours readers only have so much ‘currency’ (time) to ’spend’ (read) on our ‘products’ (posts). Whatever our intentions might be, we’re still competing for our readers’ precious time].

In this entry I’m going to ignore the first three types of posts and take an in-depth look into the last one, and discuss some possible strategies on how to distinguish your Kanon 14 review from the 10 other (that’s right, TEN) other ‘Kanon - 14′ that your readers might come across.

As mentioned above, the major components of a review post are the summary and the thoughts/opinions. When writing a summary, how should you structure your post? How much should be summary, and how much should be thoughts? What’s a good balance between the two? This depends, of course, entirely on what you’re trying to achieve, and who your target audience is, but there are some general tips that you should follow.

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Summary

If you have more than 30 screenshots but less than 100, you are doing it wrong.

Remember, you’re writing a summary, where you summarize an episode of anime. I stress, SUMMARISE, which means to reduce the length of the information being delivered without losing its essence. Not write out in excruciating detail everything that happened in the episode. I don’t want to know HOW Shinji looked at Asuka, or if Nobita is begging Doraemon for one of his tool on his knees or while sucking Doraemon’s dick; no sirree, I do not want to know. I don’t want to spend more time reading a ’summary’ than it takes to watch the episode itself.

If your summary is more than 3 paragraphs long, please refer to Suiseiseki’s instructions here on how to improve your summarisation skills. Unless, of course, you’re watching raws and so you watch everything a week and a half ahead of everyone else, then it’s all right to write a detailed description of anything and everything that happens in an episode. There are people who love to spoil themselves.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to write a summary, you can post enough screenshots to replay the episode if you scroll down fast enough. To accomplish this amazing feat you must have more than a hundred screenshots, preferably 300. Unless you’re trying to become the next Youtube, don’t use any more than 30 screenshots. Think of all those poor souls in Australia who have capped downloads!

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Thoughts

You don’t need to be intelligent or make a point to have people listen to you. Just make them laugh.

Arguably the more important part of a review, this is where you expound your thoughts. Generally you give your overall opinion on the episode, then if you feel that it is necessary, stress certain points. Anyone can write a summary (although not everyone can write a summary well), and the information that is received by the reader will be largely the same as if it was written by someone else. Your thoughts though, they can be completely and utterly unique, and that sets you apart as someone who’s worth reading, because your thoughts can’t be found on anyone else’s blog. Don’t try to be different just for the sake of being different though, it makes you look like an ass.

Another thing that you must take note of when writing your thoughts is what should you focus your thoughts on. Some people go in-depth on the story itself - Evangelion had a ton of fans throwing crackpot theory all over the place. Others like dissecting the cinematography of each and every episode, and noting the difference one director or another makes. Others focus on animation, music, production values and so on.

Remember that whatever you might choose to be your focus, don’t force it. Pick something that you’re genuinely interested in, so that you can write thoughts that are well and truly yours. But of course, regardless of what you’re writing about, the quality of the thoughts have to be of a high standard to draw readers. Or you can write a lot of very silly nothings and still draw readers, as long as you write well.

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Summary vs Thoughts

A good balance is needed - having Anna & Matsuri on one side is just mega-imba and needs nerfage.

So what summary to thoughts ratio should a good post have? That depends on, once again, what your target audience is. (It’s time to stop lying to yourself - if you are writing a blog, you want people to read what you’re writing. Otherwise just write in a notebook or save a lot of *.docs on your computer.) Are you a raw watcher who wants to spoil the story as soon as possible? If yes, then write a summary - the people who are going to read your blog probably don’t care too much for thoughts. They wouldn’t have seen the episode, anyway.

If you’re writing an article on a subbed episode, and you want a little more lively discussion of what happened in that episode, you would want to place more focus on the thoughts section. After all, if it’s already subbed, there’s really not much need to talk about what happened in that episode, since most people can just go watch it themselves. Alternately, since they’ve already watched it, they might have thoughts of their own, or having read your entry, it might inspire their own thoughts on some issues that you raise. In such a case, you’d want to write more about what you think about what happened rather than the happenings themselves.

Some series are light on anything thought provoking, such as Hidamari Sketch and Manabi Straight, so the best way to review those is to just dump a whole lot of screen shots on your readers.

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Other considerations

To earn your chance of a harem, you have to consider everything. EVERYTHING.

Batch reviews or a post for each episode?

A single post helps in creating comment discussion, more in-depth analysis and a longer review in the body. The problem is that it can be too long and time consuming. It will probably be unsuitable for people who would only spend a little time on reading anime blogs.

On the other hand, batch reviews gives a one-shop-stop for a number of shows for a specific time-frame and it’s good for users who don’t spend much time reading blogs or don’t want to read long, essay style posts. However, the big question comes. What if they do not watch some of the show syou’re blogging? How do you try to attract them or using a journalistic term, to hook them into the story? Do you start with a dramatic catch line, a rating system, sensational screenshots, unique style of writing or something that will surprise us?

Who is your target audience?

Timeliness

If you’re summarising an episode already subbed in the English community, it is better to pay more attention to thoughts, and to encourage discussion amongst/between/with your readers. If you’re summarizing an episode that is not widely available in your target audience’s language, how much discussion can be done with the episode summary that you have created? Since they haven’t watched the episode, they can’t discuss with you. If this is the case, how do you compete with RC and Memento who blog an episode right after airing? If anything, do remember that RC and Memento often gets their entries out within the day or the next day. As they have a way bigger audience, how do you differentiate yourself so that you are more timely than them?

How do you serve a different “dish”?

Differentiation

Everyone has thoughts. However, why would anyone want to read your thoughts compared to someone that is established? For example, the thoughts of AoMM is more of humor, luring the audience in with his quirky references and interesting jokes and parodies along the way. Some people might not agree with him, but the fact that he has a very good audience means that it is appreciated. How about Cinnamon Ass style, a very in depth analysis of each episode? He deciphers each episode with a blade more clinical than a surgeon, making sure that the main point is driven through.

What is the style that you think you will be comfortable with? This is perhaps the hardest question that no one can answer for you. Are you able to find a slant that can make yourself different?

Just a brief look at Animenano and the AB antenna should tell you that there has been an over saturation of new blogs coming out in the last 3 months. Hence, thoughts will be essential because only your thoughts will differentiate you from the others.

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Last thoughts

1. How much time should you spend on summaries and thoughs, what balance is good for what you’re trying to achieve?

2. For summaries, how in-depth should it be, how much detail should you go into?

3. How do you compete against established sites?

4. How to break out and make yourself stand out?

Think you have the answer? You are on your way then.

P.S. Special thanks to Impz for helping me write (writing for me, actually) the last part of this post.
P.P.S. You might notice that this post is a bit dated… that’s because I wrote part of it then got really busy with work. I apologise for the state in which you find this post.

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