How I Started Reviewing (Plus Why Some of my MAL Reviews Are Now Gone)
As few of you are aware, I have a review blog. On this blog, I review anime, manga, novels, shows, movies, and eventually video games (once I finish playing If My Heart Had Wings). I bet all of you are wondering, "How did this review blog start?" Well, since I'm getting close to having posted 50 reviews on that blog, as well as it being over a year since I started it, I think the time has come to reveal the origins of my reviewing self.
It all goes back to sometime in 2013. I don't remember what anime it was (I think it was Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan), but I saw an anime review written by a MyAnimeList user (that user's username is for me to know and for you to investigate) that kind of piqued my interest. Since I joined, I had written a few reviews myself, but they were all short and stupid, as well as most of them having been written months after actually watching them. (One of them was actually written after watching only 5 episodes of said anime!) By reading this user's reviews, I gradually became inspired to write my own anime reviews, and this time, I was going to write them seriously.
My first attempt at writing a serious review was for "To Heart: Remember My Memories"; I'm pretty much the only person who likes it, and I wrote it when I finished it in December 2013 in an attempt to get someone to see someone praising it. Unfortunately, it seemed that I wasn't too clear, and the review was soon taken down. I don't remember whether it was a moderator or myself who took it down, but I was told that the review seemed more like a blog post than a review on MAL. After that, I didn't write reviews for a while, but five months later, that changed.
In March 2014, I gave into my ever-growing temptation to watch "Kotoura-san", and I ended up finishing it two months later. (What took me so long? Well, I was watching plenty of other anime, and there was school I had to deal with.) That night, I thought, "Hey, maybe I should write a review for this anime." Thus, the last thing I did before going to bed was type out a review and post it on MyAnimeList. It's been up ever since, and a few months later, I wrote a review of the worst anime on the face of this planet, "Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo". (Funny how my first two real reviews were for anime that started with "K", huh?) Soon after, I deleted all of my reviews before "Kotoura-san" and started to really get serious about writing reviews.
Since then, I continued to write anime reviews every time I felt like it. In those days, perhaps my best review was for "Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete", although I took it down last year when MAL's review system changed for reasons I'm not proud of. (I'll get to those reasons later.) My policy was, "Only when you complete an anime can you write a review for it." As you can tell, all of my reviews were for anime (and one manga one-shot before May), and they could only be read on MyAnimeList. In May last year, however, all of that changed.
Earlier, I had written a review of a graphic novel in my school's library, "Level Up" (at least I think that was what it was called), just for fits and giggles. I showed it to my school's librarian, and she said she liked it. Sometime later, I was in a bad mood (for reasons I prefer not to explain), and in an effort to keep myself distracted from what had happened, I finished reading The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, as I had started reading it just the day before. (I'm a fast reader, especially for books I like.) All of a sudden, I thought of these words.
"As much as I would like to go on a rampage right now, I need to relax."
As quickly as I could, I grabbed a piece of paper and, as I rode the bus home, started writing my review for The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya. Soon, I decided I would not let this go unseen, so I got on Blogger, started a blog other than the one I had, and typed it all out. Then, I thought, "Hey, if I'm going to have a review blog, I might as well include all of my reviews, right?" Thus, I transferred all of the reviews I had written at that time to my review blog. Since then, for all of my anime and manga reviews, I would first type it on MyAnimeList and then transfer it to my blog. If I had something of a different medium to review, it would immediately go to my blog. Of course, I wouldn't review everything I would lay my eyes on; if I felt that reviewing spark, I would do it.
Now, about the reason why my reviews of "Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo", "Eiken", "Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete" and "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" are no longer on MAL. I didn't want to reveal this, but if I'm going to reveal why I started writing reviews, I need to tell you something that affected my ability to review anime. In August 2015, the administration team on MAL removed the "Not Helpful" button from reviews and moved the "Helpful" button to below the "read more" button, meaning that no one can vote "Helpful" unless they actually read the review. It was part of an effort to improve MAL's review system and combat troll accounts that only exist to up-vote or down-vote reviews. In other words, there could be users who create hundreds of accounts to up-vote their own reviews. I would never create hundreds of accounts, much less to do that, but I have done something I'm not proud of; I up-voted my own reviews. Of course, this wasn't for all of my reviews; it was just the four I mentioned earlier. It was because I was so proud of myself for writing those reviews that I ended up up-voting them. Of course, I only used my own account to do that; all other "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" votes, whether it was for those reviews or all of my others, were fairly received. However, the administration team had plans to not only take away the "Not Helpful" button (which I was actually opposed to, as the helpful-not helpful ratio personally helped me determine what I could do better in future reviews), but they also planned to display which users had clicked the "Helpful" button. This hasn't actually happened yet, but I was still scared. What if my username was displayed, and I wasn't able to convince the MAL administration team that I hadn't created any troll accounts? Thus, when the "Not Helpful" button got taken down, so did my four reviews. Fortunately, those reviews are still on my blog, but unfortunately, they'll never be seen on MAL again.
I can't believe I just revealed the truth; I'm now scared that if someone sees this, I'm going to get in trouble. Getting my MAL account removed is the last thing I want, as to me, it is the most efficient way to keep track of what anime I've watched. Either way, now, you all know the origins of my review blog. No one would have cared to know, I'm sure, but I just wanted to say it, anyway.
It all goes back to sometime in 2013. I don't remember what anime it was (I think it was Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan), but I saw an anime review written by a MyAnimeList user (that user's username is for me to know and for you to investigate) that kind of piqued my interest. Since I joined, I had written a few reviews myself, but they were all short and stupid, as well as most of them having been written months after actually watching them. (One of them was actually written after watching only 5 episodes of said anime!) By reading this user's reviews, I gradually became inspired to write my own anime reviews, and this time, I was going to write them seriously.
My first attempt at writing a serious review was for "To Heart: Remember My Memories"; I'm pretty much the only person who likes it, and I wrote it when I finished it in December 2013 in an attempt to get someone to see someone praising it. Unfortunately, it seemed that I wasn't too clear, and the review was soon taken down. I don't remember whether it was a moderator or myself who took it down, but I was told that the review seemed more like a blog post than a review on MAL. After that, I didn't write reviews for a while, but five months later, that changed.
In March 2014, I gave into my ever-growing temptation to watch "Kotoura-san", and I ended up finishing it two months later. (What took me so long? Well, I was watching plenty of other anime, and there was school I had to deal with.) That night, I thought, "Hey, maybe I should write a review for this anime." Thus, the last thing I did before going to bed was type out a review and post it on MyAnimeList. It's been up ever since, and a few months later, I wrote a review of the worst anime on the face of this planet, "Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo". (Funny how my first two real reviews were for anime that started with "K", huh?) Soon after, I deleted all of my reviews before "Kotoura-san" and started to really get serious about writing reviews.
Since then, I continued to write anime reviews every time I felt like it. In those days, perhaps my best review was for "Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete", although I took it down last year when MAL's review system changed for reasons I'm not proud of. (I'll get to those reasons later.) My policy was, "Only when you complete an anime can you write a review for it." As you can tell, all of my reviews were for anime (and one manga one-shot before May), and they could only be read on MyAnimeList. In May last year, however, all of that changed.
Earlier, I had written a review of a graphic novel in my school's library, "Level Up" (at least I think that was what it was called), just for fits and giggles. I showed it to my school's librarian, and she said she liked it. Sometime later, I was in a bad mood (for reasons I prefer not to explain), and in an effort to keep myself distracted from what had happened, I finished reading The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, as I had started reading it just the day before. (I'm a fast reader, especially for books I like.) All of a sudden, I thought of these words.
"As much as I would like to go on a rampage right now, I need to relax."
As quickly as I could, I grabbed a piece of paper and, as I rode the bus home, started writing my review for The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya. Soon, I decided I would not let this go unseen, so I got on Blogger, started a blog other than the one I had, and typed it all out. Then, I thought, "Hey, if I'm going to have a review blog, I might as well include all of my reviews, right?" Thus, I transferred all of the reviews I had written at that time to my review blog. Since then, for all of my anime and manga reviews, I would first type it on MyAnimeList and then transfer it to my blog. If I had something of a different medium to review, it would immediately go to my blog. Of course, I wouldn't review everything I would lay my eyes on; if I felt that reviewing spark, I would do it.
Now, about the reason why my reviews of "Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo", "Eiken", "Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete" and "Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt" are no longer on MAL. I didn't want to reveal this, but if I'm going to reveal why I started writing reviews, I need to tell you something that affected my ability to review anime. In August 2015, the administration team on MAL removed the "Not Helpful" button from reviews and moved the "Helpful" button to below the "read more" button, meaning that no one can vote "Helpful" unless they actually read the review. It was part of an effort to improve MAL's review system and combat troll accounts that only exist to up-vote or down-vote reviews. In other words, there could be users who create hundreds of accounts to up-vote their own reviews. I would never create hundreds of accounts, much less to do that, but I have done something I'm not proud of; I up-voted my own reviews. Of course, this wasn't for all of my reviews; it was just the four I mentioned earlier. It was because I was so proud of myself for writing those reviews that I ended up up-voting them. Of course, I only used my own account to do that; all other "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" votes, whether it was for those reviews or all of my others, were fairly received. However, the administration team had plans to not only take away the "Not Helpful" button (which I was actually opposed to, as the helpful-not helpful ratio personally helped me determine what I could do better in future reviews), but they also planned to display which users had clicked the "Helpful" button. This hasn't actually happened yet, but I was still scared. What if my username was displayed, and I wasn't able to convince the MAL administration team that I hadn't created any troll accounts? Thus, when the "Not Helpful" button got taken down, so did my four reviews. Fortunately, those reviews are still on my blog, but unfortunately, they'll never be seen on MAL again.
I can't believe I just revealed the truth; I'm now scared that if someone sees this, I'm going to get in trouble. Getting my MAL account removed is the last thing I want, as to me, it is the most efficient way to keep track of what anime I've watched. Either way, now, you all know the origins of my review blog. No one would have cared to know, I'm sure, but I just wanted to say it, anyway.
Comments
Post a Comment