I had not written an manga review since September 23. I finally wrote about two last week, and you’ll be getting a few more manga reviews from me soon enough. I had not written an anime review since September 18. You got one from me this week, and more coming from me next week as well. So…what exactly happened that allowed me to skip Oct? Well, NYCC was one. Taking the time to critique a form of entertainment is another. It definitely is not something that’s easy. But there’s something I did to change that for the most part.
I usually follow a set process when it came to reviews: for manga, I’d read it twice (unless it’s unspeakably bad), have some notes taken down, and then I’d get to writing. For anime (or more specifically, those with a dub and sub), I’d watch it twice, first subbed then dubbed (unless unbearably terrible), with notes taken down of the story/things I liked/etc, and then I get to writing. All of these I wrote in Word (google docs). For anime, that usually takes a few days; manga can take less, but it depends on the material. (Like a review for Thermae Romae is slightly different from reviewing something like Eat For Your Life!). But there’s a problem with doing this: it forced me to get technical. While delaying getting back into writing reviews, I had to ask myself, “I’m doing too much with some of this aren’t I?” And that’s when I decided I needed to strip things down slightly, and just get to writing.
What does that mean? Well, for my manga reviews, I read them once. I go into it looking to impress me, and hopefully it’ll do just that. If there are names I have to remember, I’ll just take a look again if I have to. Otherwise, I shouldn’t have to read it again, unless it’s unspeakably wonderful. Anime however, I’ll still attempt to watch a show twice. I’ll just take less notes. Names I’ll be liable to write down (especially if it’s an obscure one), but I’ll no longer attempt to take notes on every single plot point. At some point, I just have to go trust my memory, or trust the anime has impressed me enough to make me not necessarily care about the story. That means all of its other elements (characters, animation, visuals, sound, etc) are good enough to stand out. If I make a mistake, correct me, although I expect to not make one. I write these in WordPress. So all in all, while thinking about how to approach stuff I want to review, it basically revolves around not stalling. Just get to it.
Ok, really, this is honestly all it comes down to, and it’s actually something extremely simple:
I took this picture with my 3G Phone. Clearly, I’m showing everyone how serious I’m taking this post
…Or maybe I’m being completely over dramatic by wasting paper with this headline for this post. Whatever the case, just write already, and worry about things later.
(Side note: I’ve recently been writing reviews in advance, then have people look it over. The power of a team blog on display. I think!)
