Category: Special Articles

Okay, I sincerely apologize to anyone who came by here and tried to post a comment. It seems that everyone who made a comment on Star Crossed in the past is fine, but for some reason, people entirely new here are somehow blocked. This really explains why I didn’t get visits from any new commenters out there. Thanks A LOT to Ten for pointing this out. O_o

The story is like this: about a month ago, every anime blogger out there suffered from huge waves of comment spam (you know, the ones at which you got automatically generated comments who were praising your blog). Star Crossed was no other. And even though it managed to catch a lot of them, the spammers soon found a way to bypass the spam blocker: don’t include any links in the post, and keep your name cryptic. This way, tons of those little buggers came through, and I had to delete them manually (I swear, once this year is over and I have enough time for it, I’m going to move to something with Akismet). Of course, I became sick of this, so I started to search for a way for them to be automatically detected by the anti-spam-feature of blogsome. I messed with a couple of settings, and the spamming stopped. But now I see that I seemed to have turned off the entire traffic for newcomers, which SO was NOT supposed to happen.

I’m currently looking into some way to undo this. Let’s hope that the comment spammers won’t return after this. Agh, this is one of the reasons I dislike Blogsome. *kicks random item*

=Update=
Okay, I’ve managed to fix the problem. If you still have problems posting a comment, you can use the shoutbox on the right. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to start moving around the end of june.

Okay, so suddenly, Jason removed Star Crossed from BlogSuki. Why? I have no idea. He gave two reasons in his little post, about the criteria of blogs to be removed. The first one is that you make make too many off-topic posts. Well I don’t recall having made absolutely any offtopic posts at all, or maybe my entry about my exams, back in december suffices, though I doubt Blogsuki ever existed at that time, so that can’t be it. The second reason he gave, was that you do not get enough readership.

So far, in the month May, Star Crossed gained an average of about 500 unique visists a day. This number has been rising ever since I set up this blog (November: 55 pageviews, December: 1233 pageviews, January: 1808, February: 2795, March: 6369, April: 13811, judge yourself). In my opinion, this is a pretty large number, though it makes me wonder what number will be good enough. In fact, I’m wondering what is even defined with enough readership. Let’s take a look at the stats for this month, shall we? What are the two pages with the most people viewing it? Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 04 and 05. Ironically, the anime with one of the most people blogging it is still way ahead of the anime I’m the only one blogging (say, Popolocrois). I just know, that if I started to blog Haruhi, Mai Otome, Fate/Stay Night and Magikano, that these would also have the same amount of readership. Does that mean that I have to start blogging just the popular shows now? Or did Jason mean something different by readership?

To be clear, this post is definately not intended to bash Jason in any possible way. After all, it’s his site, he can do what he want with it. I do admit that I’m not pleased with him kicking me just out like that, without any message whatsoever. Though I realize that it was me who sent him an e-mail in the first place, not the other way around, so I’m the one to blame in this part, it was my own responsibility. Anyway, this post is more meant as a bit of self-reflection. What am I doing wrong? (I’m obviously doing something wrong) And what can I do to improve it?

I believe that the biggest problem people have with this blog is the writing-style. Yes, I’m friggin’ Dutch. Of course my writing-style couldn’t par any of the native guys and girls out there. Just add this to the fact that I haven’t had any interest in writing until about a year ago, and you have an even more horrifying writing-style. I’ve aquired most of the writing experience I have right now in that year. One of the reasons I started this blog was also to learn more about writing, and it definately provided enough material for me to write about. I’m also finding that I’m not the best comment whore out there. And yes, indeed. I should be commenting other blogs a lot more often, though that’s just my nature. I’m horribly shy in real life. On the internet, this is significantly less, though I still find myself unable to write giant-length comments about just anything. I’m still amazed about how people like kawai are able to write such behemoths of comments, they must have some kinds of superpowers…

Then there’s the issue that passed about a week ago on Blogsuki. About the content of blogs, and how bloggers should not only post summaries, but also some in-depth articles. And indeed, all about I’ve ever done is make posts about individual episodes, write series reviews and posting previews of the upcoming seasons (heh, I’m probably the blogger who posts the earliest first impressions of all the other bloggers out there ^^;). I have some ideas about articles, though. For example a rant against people bashing RPG-based games, or a little opinion about the Naruto-fillers. (Note to self: write these articles once you have a lot of free time on your hands) I indeed hate it how lazy I am concerning these things. Another thing I’m lazy about is keeping up my blogroll. I’ve been wanting to update it for a long while now, as there are so many new interesting blogs which caught my eye.

When I look back to my earliest posts, I can see a lot of differences. At May 22nd, I’ll be celebrating the half-year aniversary of this blog, and since November, a lot has changed. First of all, my writing style was even more horrible than it is now. I think that that’s the worst thing about my posts back then. Another thing is that it really surprises me how short my posts were at that time. Most of them were as big as my individual quick first impressions right now. If you compare this with my recent posts that average about 500 words, alongside some entries which even manage to get as far as 1500, it really is interesting to notice. Though, I do have to say that I had something back when this blog was just fresh, and which I don’t have right now: my fanboyism. In the past, I used to get all giddly about some episodes, while currently, I’ve taken a way more objective look at things. Though, I’m not even good enough to say objective. I’m too happy with almost each episode I watch. Every episode is good in my standards, with only Bleach being a healthy change. I especially noted this when comparing my own entries of Ayakashi to Hopeless Sensei’s. I just had the same opinion I always have. And still, I seem to have lost my inner-fanboy. This makes me wonder whether I should pick up a show like Gintama… Anyway, I’ll try to find ways to counter this.

Another good aspect which I did have back in the old days, but don’t have right now is a simple one: Mahou Shoujotai. This is simply the best anime ever. No discussion possible. It was also one of my biggest sources of fanboyism, and one of the reasons I started up this blog in the first place. Now that I’ve finished it, I’ve ever since been searching for an anime which would be able to call Mahou Shoujotai its equal. I haven’t succeeded yet. I’ve seen a lot of amazing series, though, but they’re all just a bit below the awesomeness Mahou Shoujotai managed to create.

Though, when I look at my recieved comments, I indeed realize that this is one of the lesser sites out there. My maximum number of comments on one post remains six, while other people somehow manage to bring in fifteen comments for each one of their posts. Even if it was something as simple as a visit to the bathroom, they will be swarmed with at least ten comments, while I have to hope to get any comments at all. The comments I do get, however, are greatly inspiring. I especially love Hopeless Sensei, along with lolikitsune, Anga and Mina. I’m also incredibly glad with the people who keep pointing out mistakes I made in some of my posts, even though I don’t always show it. Believe me, I might be making the most mistakes of anyone in the blogging community.

The final flawed aspect of this blog that I can think of right now is the fact that I’m a post whore. At times, I really make four or five posts a day, because of the fact that I reserve one post per episode. When you have a day at which five episodes come in, the numbers pile up. I also keep thinking that I’m blogging way too many series at the moment. There are fourteen of them at the moment, which will soon be twelve when Noein and Jigoku Shoujo have their final episodes subbed. Then again, it will be thirteen again when Mushishi comes back into action, which could be any moment now. It’ll be most likely to come sooner than Noein and Jigoku Shoujo can finish, so I’ll eventually end up with fifteen blogged series at one moment. I might be experimenting with multi-episode posts in the future, though for organizational purposes, that would be horrible again. Still, I have been worse at times in the past. For the last couple of months, my maximum number of posts per day has been at april 1st and 2nd, after the combination of my exams and a sudden tidal-wave of new Jigoku-Shoujo and Utena-episodes coming in caused me to fall behind, and forcing me to catch up an incredible lot. Though, when you look at my christmas update, there appear to be even more posts made in one day (12, to be exact, in comparison to the 10 of april 1st).

Ah well, this event certainly won’t be keeping me away from blogging. It’s not like I needed Blogsuki anyway. Yeah, ok. It’s good and convienient for bringing in visitors, though I managed to survive for more than three months without it anyway. Also: if you’ve got a suggestion, or if you’ve got some critizism for this site, by all means, do not be afraid to post about it. I read all my comments. I’m an active member in a game-design community, so I KNOW that constructive critizism is extremely valuable. And for anyone actually bothering to get to this point of finishing the article: thanks for actually reading this little rant of mine. ^_^

Okay then, I finally managed to get everything over, although it didn’t come without sacrifices, as I lost every comment that has been made. Okay, there may have been only ten of them, but I do feel that I lost a small part of the sitewith this.

Anyway, The past week gave me a good chance to evaluate the pros and cons of Blogsome when compared to Blogspot.

Pros:
– So many possibilities to customize. You aren’t limited to html-only anymore.
– The template is much easier to edit, and it comes with some good documentation.
– Categories. <3
– Custom fields are also possible with Blogsome. I’ll probably use them to rate individual episodes and anime, because then I’ll be able to sort anime and episodes by their ratings. I know something like that’s possible, but I’m still working on it, though.
– The possibility for custom pages. I have no idea what to use it for, but it’ll surely come in handy someday.
– A decent in-site Search Function.
– A Calendar, the most popular posts and links to posts I made a month ago. Always useful.
– Creating a blogroll made easier. No longer do I have to edit the template in order to add a new link.
– Better statistics. Okay, it may not seem useful, but who knows.

Cons:
– Uploading Images will be a hell.
– Blogsome’s pretty difficult to understand.
– The Wysiwyg-editor needs a lot of improvement. For some reason, it doesn’t really give me the freedom in posting, furthermore, it creates nasty extra space for new paragraphs. Something I’d like to do myself. Thank god there’s a way to turn this off.
– I have to be careful with using smilies from now on. This is because in the template, I defined each image to have a small border (as you can see when looking at some random screenshots). This looks great with screenshots. But for some reason, the all of the smilies also got a border. The result is this: 🙁
– Transferring posts was horrible, as I had to do it completely manually. That wasn’t really fun.
– Although the categories are great. You have to have a default category.

Yay! Over the past three months, I managed to make a massive one hundred posts in this blog. *does a happy dance*

Anyway, this seemed a good moment to announce that I’ll be moving from blogspot to wordpress (or at least, a variation of wordpress). I should have it done round march 1st. Most likely sooner, but it takes a while to fully set up everything. Plus, converting the entries I already made doesn’t go automatically. ^^;;;

Ah well. Every anime blogger suffering from an inferiority complex can breathe easily again. I just compared Jason’s newest masterpiece of Anime Blog support, the anime blog quality rating, with Star Crossed. You can see the results below. Let’s just say that you’re currently reading on the worst Anime Blog yet, as I don’t think that anyone will have a lower score.

+1 point for viewable on small (i.e. 1024 x 768) monitors.
+1 point for using good HTML techniques, i.e. specifying width and height tags for images and description tags for links.
+1 point for using e-mail address.
+1 point for about page. (If you count the puny page I have…)
+1 point for at least ten posts a month.
-1 point for any day with more than five posts. (What can I say? I almost always reserve one post per episode. And at some days, I watch a lot of anime ^^;)
+1 point for keeping a blogroll.
+1 point for lack of comment spam.
+1 point for RSS or Atom feed available.
+1 point for valid and Magpie parsable RSS or Atom feed.
+1 point if posts are categorized by series or some other system that makes some sense.
+1 point for screenshots.
+1 point for punctuation.
+1 point for spoiler warnings.
+3 points for not being afraid to go against popular opinion.
+3 points for bringing something new to the table.
+3 points for blogging about shows no one else is at the moment.

This makes a total of 21, otherwise known as a horribly low score. But ah well, you know what they say: the more mistakes you make, the more you learn. 🙂

Willuknight did an amazing job again in finding as much info about the upcoming spring anime season. I’m very enthusiastic about it, as there are some pretty good series among them. But then again… there’s also a lot of garbage coming up.

2006 Spring Anime Season – AnimeBlogger.net Wiki

Anyway, here will follow a small preview of each of the new series:

Ah! My Goddess 2nd season

The Second season of Ah! My Goddess. I’ve never seen the first part, so I can’t really say anything about this one. Apparently it’s the same old formula again: a guy who is nothing suddenly gets to be with a beautiful girl. I’m not really interested…

Air Gear

A rollerskating anime. And of course, the rollerskates have all kinds of technical tweaks, such as engines, etc. And of course, this anime follows a young boy who will eventually be the best of all. Exciting.

Shibawanko no Wa no Kokoro

A show which teaches little children about manners…

Aria The Animation, Second Season

The second season of Aria The Animation (we apparently have an aweful lot of second seasons this season). I’ve seen the first episode of the first season, but it was just a bit too peaceful, if that’s even possible.

Fushigiboshi no Futagohime Gyu!

Second season of Futago Hime. Note to self: watch first season.

Kirarin Revolution

Not another idol-anime… I have a bad feeling about this.

Finalist

Of course, I could have known. This season, of course, isn’t complete without a harem anime [/sarcasm] Anyway, I don’t have much hope for this, but who knows. After all, MagiKano turned out to be interesting, so why shouldn’t this series be as well?

NANA

I don’t know if I’ll watch this. The summary doesn’t really sound like a good premisse…

Love GeCHU – Miracle Seiyuu Hakusho

The only clue about the story I have is the title. Apparently this will be focused around voice-actors, with of course some love. I’m too much reminded about REC…

Ohran High School Host Club

Yaoi, shounen-ai, and all with a female main character. Well, well, well… I really don’t know whether I’ll watch this or not…

Digimon Savers

Well, well, well, what have we here? Another digimon series. I hope they learned from their mistakes in the past, because the concept remains interesting.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu

I have no idea what this show is about. The only thing I can say is that it will feature a girl in some weird uniform (maid?)

Kishin Houkou Demon Bane
Another Mecha show. I’m not a huge fan of mechas, but we’ll see how this ends up.

Gintama

So, science fiction combined with history. I’m somehow reminded of Samurai 7. I don’t know if I’ll like this, but that will depend on the first episode.

Saiunkoku Monogatari
This one sounds like a very serious harem show. That or it will just be a horrible harem show. If it’s going to be the former, then I’ll be interested.

Sasami -Mahou Shoujo Club-

Apparently this show was postponed a few months. It’s another mahou shoujo-series, but I really don’t like the art of this.

Witch Blade

I have no idea what this is, but I don’t really like the art…

Black Lagoon

An action series, featuring
some kind of international spy who gets captured, an then betrayed by the company he works for. Hmm, this has some interesting drama potential. I think I’ll watch this.

Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle

A… gargoyle… A living gargoyle. A living gargoyle won in a contest. A living gargoyle won in a contest and who appears to be the gatekeeper of Yoshinaga. It’ll probably be some kind of comedy. I have no idea whether it will work out or not.

Ju Oh Sei

This looks like the most serious anime of the season. I’m expecting lots of pain and suffering. It depends on how well the creators manage to execute this whether I’ll like it or not.

Inukami!

A slapstick comedy featuring a boy who thinks of nothing but women and money and a girl who likes to destroy things. I think I’ll hate the fantasies the boy will have, but the premisse of a girl who likes to destroy things makes me interested.

Dai Mahou Touge

Aww, another Mahou Shoujo. This can either be a total disaster, or a very cute series. What will it be?

RAY The Animation

Raycan see through objects, and apparently she has to fulfill some very dangerous assignments. I’ll wai for the first episode in order to check the overall tone of this anime.

Renkin 3kyuu Magical? Poka~n

Another mahou shoujo. I like the art of this. I’ll definately see it.

Kamisama Kazoku

Okay, if the creators manage to include lots of puns in this, it will become a great anime. But then again, it can also become horribly boring.

Tokko

Hmm, a guy joins a special force to revenge his parents who were ripped to pieces. I’m feeling 50:50 about this one.

Hime-Sama Goyoujin

The spiritual successor of rozen maiden, hun? It could turn out to be pretty interesting.

Simoun

Okay, interesting concept. People are born as girls, and on their fifteenth, they get to decide which sex they will be. This offers lots of possibilities for success, but then again… it also offers lots of possibilities for failure.

School Rumble 2nd Semester

Okay, note to self: finish the second half of the first season before this starts.

Yume Tsukai

A show about dreams. Has some definate potential.

Joshikousei GIRLS-HIGH

An all-girls high school, in which the absence of boys creates a total chaos. This has some serious potential.

KIBA

A fantasy action series. I’m a huge fan of fantasy, so I’ll be waiting for this. I’m just a bit worried about the sword-wielding male protagonist.

Soul Link

Interesting. Fourty years into the future, a space ship, which serves as an acadamy gets attacked by terrorists, and our main character, a student in this ship, has to find a way out. I’m also a big fan of the art.

Himawari

The mood of this anime seems very chaotic, judging from the picture and the description. This definately has some potential.

Good witch of the west: Astrea Testament

This sounds like a very cool series. I’ll definately watch this.

Utawarerumono

"The main character was helped when he was wounded lying on the ground in woods. When he woke up, he didn’t remember who he was. Furthermore, he had a mask that he couldn’t put off. By favor of the people in the village, who had animal ears and tails by the way, he began to live in the village." I just LOVE the art of this anime. I was a bit reluctant at first when I heard about this series, but I’m getting more enthusiastic by the minute.

Makai Senki Disgaea

So, this is about the conquest of the netherworld. This certainly is on my to-watch list. The art also looks too cute.

Tsubasa Chronicle Second Season

Finally, the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle I’ve been waiting for. I really can’t wait for this.

Higurashi no Naku koro ni

Murder mystery in a small mountain village which is about to be destroyed by the construction of a dam. I like it. The art also looks very cute, so I will be following this.

Shoujo Changguem no Yume
Oooh! This will be some kind of Japanese-Medieval-Fantasy story. The art looks great, I’ll certainly be following this gem.

XXXHoLiC

I am SO waiting for this. This will certainly be an awesome series.

Shinigami no Ballad

In march, this awesome-looking series will arrive. I can’t wait! 🙂

The Third

Damn you for delaying this awesome show for another season! *gets excited*

Because of my exams this week, I’ve been a bit busy, which means that I had a very large queue of anime goodness waiting for me. I’ll probably be able to catch up to them tomorrow, so be expecting a huge christmas update. 😉

Oh, and P.S. If you have anything to say, feel free to use the comment option. I don’t care if I’ve never seen you or anything, everyone’s welcome to comment. It’s always nice to see some opinions of other people. ^_^

Okay, I just finished a marathon of the anime called Fantastic Children, and I have only one thing to say:

WATCH IT!

It’s a bit late now at the time I’m posting it, I’m also too lazy to put up some screenshots, but seriously, you should watch this. The pacing may be a bit slow, and the art of the characters looks really old-school, but believe me, you will be captivated by the story.

Okay then, finally I set my own anime blog up.

Some series I’ll be following:
– Mahou Shoujotai
– Jigoku Shoujo
– Bleach
– Noein
– The Law of Ueki
– And some other, but I forgot.