Category: Random Musings

In just seven months, Random Curiosity has been graced by another 10 million visits, so I’d like to once again thank all our readers for continuing to make this site one of your regular stops on the Internet. It simply wouldn’t be what it is today without its readership, which motivates me to continue on to the best of my ability. The five-year history that was about to come to a close has officially become six, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of things under my tenure. Both Kiiragi and Prooof are approaching their first full year as writers as well, so I’d like to thank them for all they’ve contributed. The same goes for Takaii, who’s taken on a fair number of shows in the past six months and handled them very well.

This isn’t the same Random Curiosity that Omni left behind, but I hope the changes made in the past year are seen as positive ones. This includes the ever-so-popular season previews that I’ve tried to improve by making them more comprehensive than in years past. A goal of mine has always been to promote a more open-minded view on anime, so hopefully the fairly objective coverage on a diverse range of shows has achieved that to a certain degree too. For me, one of the most satisfying aspects about blogging anime is helping people discover new shows that they would have never considered and sharing in the discussion of them. After all, it’s about being a fan first and foremost, and our mutual interest in anime.

Since August, the site has seen 600 new posts, 32,000 new comments, 18 million new page views, and of course 10 million new visits. We’re quickly approaching the 5,000 post mark and have already past the 205,000 comment mark. Again, thank you all for helping Random Curiosity grow, not only as an anime blog but as a bit of a community as well. This one’s for you guys!

Japan clearly has much more pressing concerns in the wake of the horrific earthquake and tsunami that it suffered, but I just want to provide a quick overview on what’s happening with each of the shows broadcast-wise. As you can probably imagine, most shows are being postponed for a week, some of which go back to last Friday. For most stations, the tentative plan is to resume broadcasts the next week, but don’t be surprised if some are delayed longer. It’s very likely the April 1st start of the new season will get pushed out as a result (and understandably so).

* Information is care of syoboi and official websites.

…more after the break.

The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun published an interesting article (translated) just over a week ago on an interview with Ordet studio founder and director Yamamoto Yutata, whom most people are probably aware is behind the original series FRACTALE airing this season. In the interview, he talks about the declining state of the anime industry and how business practices have driven down wages and hampered creativity, which Wall Street Journal also looked into over a year ago. While outsourcing to China and South Korea is nothing new, Yamamoto makes an eye-opening point about how it’s not necessarily for cost reasons, but because they’re short-staffed in Japan due to lack of interest. Given the dire working conditions and dismal pay of animators, I can’t say I’m surprised when I can easily picture young bright-eyed individuals with visions of a lucrative career in anime get disillusioned once they actually get into the industry. The benefits, even if it’s simply personal gratification in seeing one’s work come to life, can only take most people so far and hardly offset the corporate politics that surely go on. There’s no denying that the anime medium has fallen into the trap of recycling character stereotypes and rehashing similar premises in slightly different settings, which may retain most of its current audience but clearly doesn’t reach out to new ones. Recently, there’s also been a growing trend towards using the “moe” aspect, which Yamamoto admits being guilty of. However, as someone who’s seen a fair share of corporate politics and business practices that don’t encourage creativity, I get the feeling that the problem lies more in the people who get the final say in what goes into an anime, as they’re often afraid of breaking outside of their comfort zone and trying something new.

Director Yamamoto Yutaka posing with a FRACTALE poster. A Black Rock Shooter one can be seen behind.

* More after the break…

Since taking over Random Curiosity, various generous individuals have e-mailed me asking if they could show some financial support for the site. While I had thanked them for their kind gesture at the time, I was intent on keeping the blog self-sustainable as a fan site, regardless of how much my double-edged personal standards made it feel like a second job. What’s more, it just wasn’t in my “style” to accept donations even in light of some trying times when I was forced to change web hosting earlier this month. However, I admit the thought of just dropping all the extra work that goes into maintaining the site and looking forward to days of an abundance of free-time did cross my mind at one point. I found myself working tirelessly for four days straight exploring options to configuring software to get things back up, and ran into one problem after another both in setting up the new server and in real life, and seriously started questioning why I’m working as hard as I am — almost always at the expense of sleep.

* More after the jump…

It felt like a milestone of sorts, so I just want to stop and take a moment to thank all our readers for checking back regularly and making this site what it is today. Founded by Omni back in November 2004, Random Curiosity has grown tremendously over the years and now has over 4,140 posts, 173,000 comments, 60 million visits, and 120 million page views since its inception. Timely posts, regular updates, and fairly objective views make up the direction that took site to where it is now, but none of that would have mattered if you the readers didn’t keep coming back to hear what we have to say about the latest anime.

It wasn’t too long ago that Omni announced his retirement from blogging and I decided to pick things up where he left off under the new domain, randomc.net; however, our readership has grown significantly since then (~25%) so I’d like to thank all the new people who have either stumbled across the site or heard about it from a friend and made it one of their regular stops on the Internet. It might be a bit intimidating at first, but I encourage you all to join in on the discussions and share your own thoughts and impressions on anything and everything anime related. I promise I’ll do whatever is in my power to keep the trolls at bay. 🙂 It’s my hope that this will become a more inviting place for anime fans old and new, where anyone can easily relate to the impressions written here. If you have friends who are into anime but haven’t heard of the site, please do tell them, because just like you and all our other readers, we’re fans of anime first and foremost and just want to talk about it with people who have similar interests.

Once again, thank you all for reading and getting accustomed to things under my wing. Hopefully the changeover from dedicated summaries to more in-depth impressions wasn’t too alienating at first. I’ve enjoyed blogging a lot more ever since I started focusing on talking about anime and their plot lines rather than simply summing it up, so that’s a change in writing style that I’d like to continue improving on in an attempt to make episodic blogging a more interesting and worthwhile read. I’ll still have lots of high definition screen captures of course, for those who just can’t get enough of them. I probably won’t have another milestone post until 70 million visitors, but we may just see that before the end of the year at this rate — just in time for the site’s sixth anniversary.

* Yuri and Otonashi are snacking on some Pizza Hut pizza for those wondering. The full-size image can be seen here.