Congrats, and keep it going. :D

i’m still here! (is it june already? lol, i’m a month late on this reply)

here’s my take though - to me, your posts are extremely difficult to read. your prose is laboriously viscous and your concepts are… well, exhausting. gender roles in lucky star? string theory? oh man. how i read anime blogs is similar to how i watch anime - the easy to digest, instant gratification ones (aomm, kurogane, hsj) get read/watched first, leaving the thicker ones (well, one, considering yours is the only other one i read on a monthly basis) get backlogged to be marathoned at a later date. doesn’t really help my cause that you’re a monster when it comes to bi/tri/dodeca-weekly posts.

what makes it even harder is that i really try to read your posts, giving each sentence and each idea its deserved attention. it kills me that i’m not able to understand every bit of it; it’s like me eating a spoonful of caviar and wishing i was eating mango pudding instead - it’s high class stuff, so i should like it, right?

i’ll go so far as to say that’s the general sentiment of many, maybe even the majority of those who frequent anime blogs. just another daily stop on the bookmark toolbar, something quick and entertaining written about a recent episode. drop by a several blogs so there’s always something new to read every day. over at randomc we cater to a much larger, much more “casual” readership so it’s necessary for me to write things that people want to read, or just able to grab their attention quickly. we provide a service - summaries for those who can’t wait, and other random snippets to make work or CS class less boring.

on the other hand, the audience that i see you catering to is that little pocket of people who are truly passionate about anime and care to spend the time and intellectual investment to really read your posts and go “ohh naruhodo” around. your frequent referencing of other blogs and posts do indeed enrich your ideas but at the same time possibly alienate those who aren’t as in the loop. the way i see it, randomc is like the big news site, with mostly news and some smatterings of editorials; CAT is the academic journal that many know about and wish they could understand, but few actually do, or make the effort to.

but here’s the thing though - we need blogs like CAT to drive the intellectual movement in the english-speaking anime world. to show that anime isn’t just about kamehamehas or ogling animated underage girls (guilty), but has real quality and depth that appeals to an older, more intelligent audience. not trying to sound melodramatic or sappy, but that’s how i honestly see it.

the very first freezeframe i wrote i poured my heart into - spent hours crafting it, writing and rewriting it, and while i was quite satisfied with the end product, ultimately realized that it was too thick for the average randomc visitor to read. sure enough, it ended up with a paltry reply count. originally i had approached the new writing gig as a way to just keep my writing skills up as i worked on my science degree, but soon realized that i was more interested in how big of a response i could get. i’m really not a fan of academic writing so i changed my style to be more hard-hitting, straight to the point. injected as much humor (as dry as it may be) to keep the reader interested. and it worked. attention whore? yea. but a sellout? not at all - it was a matter of understanding my audience, and writing for their entertainment. it’s as Jay-Z so lyrically put it: “dumb down for my audience, double my dollars.”

should you dumb it down? god i hope not. your writing is distinct, not just because you use big words, but because it has personality. your personality. and the topics you attack with regularity are well… too big for me, and probably many other bloggers to handle. which is why we leave it to you. having famous guys like dannychoo (he was on tv!!!) and dont-give-a-shit-about-anime-blogs people like me as your readers should be enough to show you that you’re doing just fine.

don’t worry about the hits - your reputation as “that guy with the intelligent posts” is already spreading. my only suggestion is to not burn yourself out… 24 posts in 30 days is an insane amount, especially considering the length and weight of each post. but hey, if you’re not running out of ideas, more power to ya.

i’ll try to toss in more comments from time to time, but know that no matter how slow i may be, i do read all your posts, and they never fail to impress.

so keep at it. do what you do, because nobody else can do it like you. not with the consistency, creativity, and jounetsu that you have. keep writing, because your readers will keep reading.

Wow… just… wow. Okay. I saw your comment yesterday, decided to sleep on it to see if it’d disappear when I woke up, and it didn’t, so it wasn’t my imagination after all. Right. Let me clamp my jaw shut for a moment.

Thanks. I’m deeply honoured and humbled by what you said, and I don’t think I even deserve half of it. I don’t know whether to consider it a setback or a development that you actually “marathon” my posts instead of reading them daily, but I’m glad you even read them to begin with!

Oh, and a little explanation about the big words: they’re all about me being OCD to be honest. I have a background in creative writing and the nitpicking perfectionist in me screams every single time I repeat certain words or phrases — a stylistic matter, yet something of huge importance to me. I usually end up fishing through my vocab and sticking in the first word that comes to mind.

I’m in no danger of burning out just yet (thanks for the concern though) since I’ve learned to pace myself and not force an entry through if I don’t think I can give it the quality and time it deserves, which is why I haven’t done back-to-back entries that much as of late. It means a lot to me to have you say this, because your very first comment on that post of mine at the beginning encouraged me no end, and you’ve done it once more.

Thanks again. And don’t worry about the title.