The Otakusphere: A long line of dead blogs

So recently I was checking through my backlog of stuff and stumbled across an old Otakusphere column that I wrote back in February. Mostly because I wanted to find out what had happened to Only the Bitch Knows.

What I found was a fairly long post about how she’d had her identity stolen. Honestly it was one of those posts where even a crusty curmudgeon like me finds myself unexpectedly feeling a pang of something in my chest.

But it got me thinking about last posts on blogs. I mean CCY had brought up Like Water earlier in the year, and that was another really good last post. But what I found kind of went like this. There are two types of “dead” blogs. Those that just fade away and those that march into that good night.

So, I’ve decided to try and find some actual good posts on those blogs. So I’m going to take a step back into the way back machine and look at some blogs that either are on indefinite hiatus, or are, well, dead.

First up we have Equivocal Resolution, who really did suffer from the slow death. But it was her last post that I think is her best post. She did a review of Touch and brought up a complaint that I honestly haven’t heard much these days. That 70s and 80s animation seemed old and dated. I mean granted, it probably is old and dated, but really, I don’t hear that complaint much. Especially with the spate of people who have reviewed Legend of the Galactic Heroes in the past few months. (On a site note, she does have bateszi listed as “an interesting NEW blog.”)

Now Kimagure may not really be dead. I mean he (or she) might just be resting. The blog has only been inactive for about five months. But I do like his (or her) second to last post about the controversy surrounding Kodomo no Jikan. Personally, I don’t have any feelings about the title one way or the other (read: there’s stuff I want to read/see more). But I think it’s a pretty good opinion about why pulling was probably the best thing to do for Seven Seas, but that it was still a good title.

Die Fanboys! has arguably the best name of any anime blog that I’ve seen to date. Okay, maybe not the best one. But this was definitely a case of going out on a last hurrah, but not one that said, “So long and thanks for all of the fish.” Matrim posted a fairly long rant about the decision to yank the twelfth episode of Higurashi off of the air. To be honest, a lot of it’s common sense. But on the other hand, I still am not sure whether Higurashi is actually any good and worth getting all that worked up over (I’ve got it cued up to watch at some point.)

And just for flavor, I’m going to throw in Pretty Scythe’s review of Paradise Kiss ep 6. Mostly because I like that show.

Just one final note, a green haired loli trap sent me an e-mail to let me know that the voting for the anime blog awards has started, so go vote. And by some random trick of fate, I did manage to secure a spot in the Rookie of the Year category which is nice. So thank you for everyone who nominated me. I do appreciate it.

So in the spirit of Drmchsr0: Go out and get your vote on!