Ahoge, iPod, Self-Masturbation, and Used Paper

Posted in zero thoughts by moyism on June 8th, 2006

Someone already beat me to this topic but I figure I may as well offer my view on the rise of anime RSS feed news sites. Let me warn you, don’t expect anything remotely thought provoking or meaningful unlike some other guys.

If this was a semi-serious blog or college essay, I would no doubt initially start off with some history on the subject to set the mood for the readers. I probably would also link to various wiki and other anime blogs to help strengthen the topic. Maybe even include some pretty charts, graphs, and images to further drive my point home.

I am so not doing that.

The real point is simply reflective, as I vaguely recall the beginnings of anime RSS feed news sites and their impact on the average anime fan like myself. To start off with, to my knowledge there are three to four major anime RSS news sites currently active (from oldest to youngest): Mainichi Planet, AnimeBlogger.net Antenna, blogsuki, and Anime Nano. All four sites do basically the same thing, take RSS feeds from various blogs and post them in one place, but each has its features that make them stand out on their own.

Now for a quick little skewed history lesson; around early 2005, anime blogging was still pretty grass roots. The be all place was Matthew’s Anime Blog and anime RSS news sites were unheard of. Around early spring of the year, some brave individual(s) decided “Hey, we need better organized anime blog readership” and thus Mainichi Planet was created. I am 85% positive Mainichi Planet was the first anime RSS news site around but if I am wrong, let me know. Anyway, Mainichi Planet rocked back in the day since it indexed all my favorite anime blogs (including mine) making it easy as hell to check when I wasn’t at my computer. I can say I honestly thought Mainichi Planet was the greatest idea comparable to sliced bread. Nothing could beat it. How wrong I was.

Ironically enough, around the same time, Maestro after years of being a successful Pimp Daddy decided to use his wealth to fund a new domain: AnimeBlogger.net. Getting Matthew onboard (after offering free hosting and women), the two quickly whored out animeblogger.net like no tomorrow. Unknown to the population at large, they were also working on their own version of a anime aggregator site and within weeks (or was it months?) AnimeBlogger.net Antenna was launched. In a span of a few months where there was once no anime RSS feed news sites, now there were two. Would there be a battle of the titans to see who would rain supreme?

Of course not. At least I think there wasn’t. Instead, with animeblogger.net becoming more popular, especially with Matthew and Omni there, Mainichi Planet slowly disappeared to a Seal Reality never to be seen again. Well, not really since the site is still active but with its very basic (which was fine at the time) functions not many people visit the site anymore. Mainichi Planet was the first of its kind and helped open the path for others to follow. But now… sad, isn’t it Mainichi Planet-chan?

With Mainichi Planet out of the way after becoming Ms Popular, Animeblogger.net Antenna was pretty kicking for awhile. A lot more robust than Mainichi Planet, AB.net Antenna offered better, simplier, and faster features. I think I used to check the Antenna frequently and with Matthew having a section of it on his anime blog, it made life easy. So with the Antenna enjoying a few months of being #1, much like Mainichi Planet did, one just knows something would happen right?

Blogsuki came about around summer/fall of 2005 by Jason if I am correct. And boy, was it a beautiful thing. Nice layout, pretty images, and a very easy to use interface instantly made blogsuki a fan favorite. I know I started to use blogsuki instead of the Antenna since I am simple minded individual that likes pretty colors. After Jason’s creation, one just knew blogsuki would be the new IT for anime aggregators.

And it still is, but after months of successfulness (is that a word?) blogsuki started growing into more of a monster than Jason originally thought. After much discussion by the anime blogging community, Jason finally laid down some rules Holy Grail War style. For some, it didn’t mean a change for their blogs being on blogsuki. For others, unfortunately they didn’t meet the cut. Would this lead to a backlack on blogsuki and maybe anime aggregators in general? Maybe. Maybe not. What, however, did create another change in the way anime aggregators work was blogsuki temporarily going down for a few days in May of 2006.

Thus, Anime Nano was born. The man behind it? Hung whom apparently created the whole thing with as much speed as Yuki hacking games! Offering similar features as the other anime aggregators, Hung upped the scales with the inclusion of personalized anime RSS feeds, which may become the defining point of the site. Also, as of writing, accepting all submissions of blogs doesn’t hurt the growing popularity either.

Back to the present; so which is the best? My answer: all of them. Life is about choices my friends. A year ago we never had any anime aggregators. Now? At least three popular ones and who knows if any more will be created in the coming days. It is like deciding which girl is your favorite in a harem; all of them have their strong and weak points, but at the end all are still smoking hot. Yes, I just compared anime aggregators to anime harems, do you think Jason would be proud?

I think James Crasta’s, of Anime My Ass, recent post sums the topic the best:

But I think, some people are missing the point. The reason AB antenna, AnimeNano, and BlogSuki exist is not just to provide a handy list of aggregate blogs. They’re for community building. The major effect BlogSuki and its predecessor, ABT had on the anime blogging community is it brought them together. There’s a personal feel to it, and the large result is that you frequently see the anime bloggers visiting each other’s site, and holding discussions. You get back and forth commentary either from posts on various blogs which reference each other, and you get comments. What bothers me is the blogs which are all about attracting “attention” for whatever reason. This isn’t about hit counts and links, people; this is about fostering a friendly environment.

I have now completed my one semi-serious post per year quota. Expect nothing ever serious from me again until next year. Brownie points to whoever can figure out my references to various anime series and aggregators.