The Blogging Panel @ AnimeNext 2009
I’m running a panel along with Super Rats, Moy, and SDS at AnimeNext this year. The date for the con is June 12-14. The panel is currently slated for 2pm on Sunday, but that is subject to change. I’ll try to note it on the blog if that becomes the case.
AnimeNext is this anime convention that is located in NJ. It has been around for a while now, but somehow I never got around to go. Which is funny; I’ve literally walked/driven past conventions like Onnafest/Shoujocon/Yuricon and I was always in easy driving distance of AnimeNext (and I guess MangaNext, too). Never set foot in any one of them. It’s also the only other con where a notable number of my non-internet acquaintances and friends know about (the other being Otakon–and by the way it is totally awkward to see RL friends you don’t expect at those places).
Why have I not visited these cons? Maybe because they don’t interest me? I could go to those cons for the social (???) aspects and the panels. And I guess that is why I’m going to be there this time. It also might be that I use cons nowadays as a means to “get away” from the mundane, and a local con just doesn’t do the trick. It’s definitely an odd way to celebrate flag day… It doesn’t behoove me to be too critical of a con that I’ve never been to and is hosting my panel, so let’s stop here.
I do want to tell you about the panel in brief, and maybe you can let me know if that sounds interesting to you. If not, please share what else would sound like stuff you want to hear…
One obvious thing about blogging that I’ve stumbled upon on my own is its transformative nature in context of a subcultural scene. In other words, I sort of see how blogging change the way fans behave and interact. Along the same lines, would costume play in America take off without cons? Fanfiction without internet? Web comics without…the web? You get the idea. It’s a strange thought, but how did my life change over time since I started blogging anime in earnest? OK, I actually blog mostly about anime-related meta crap to be specific, but I think just through the social network aspect of this blog I’ve run into all sorts of cool people, all over the place.
More importantly, the way I write has also transformed partly thanks to blogging. I’ve written a lot more than I would have otherwise written if I was just a normal guy watching his anime. I might have gotten a chance to populate my MyAnimeList anime list (say that three times fast). I might even had the opportunity to watch more anime because I wouldn’t have to spend time maintaining (LOL like I do that) this blog. But wait, isn’t MAL the same kind of thing like a blogosphere? But more of a walled garden like Facebook etc., yes, but clubs like this are fun.
And that’s really what blogging does on an individual level. And it’s not just “blogs” but internet social networking on the whole. But blogs have their own style of influence. And if you put a lot of effort into your blog, it will yield appropriate fruit–presumably you play nice with everyone else.
This is how all of us can party, and don’t have to pay (much). And I mean all of us. Like the other 40% of the English-language internet users out there that are in my torrents and subbing Queen’s Blade, or whatever. And plus, we can surf Japanese sites just as much as anyone! And make news blogs that die on impact. Understanding this fact, and I mean truly so, makes you feel sympathetic to China’s pathetic attempts to control their intarwebs. It’s a scary (but no risk no rewards amirite) place out here.
However, if you attend our panel in a couple weeks, you might get to see our co-authored fanfiction on how a certain man, modeled after this guy, gets a “HAPPY END.” Or “BAD END” if our cohorts choose to go that way instead. Or neither if it gets canned!
I realized I just told you barely anything about our panel. Maybe that’s for the best.
Will we get some kind of report or video of this panel? I WANT TO SEE IT.
And thanks again for the Veronica Belmont autograph :D
Is it MioXAjikan on the picture ?
Yerp
Icystorm: no plans for video recording
wot
Too bad I’m not on the good coast and won’t be able to go there. ~
I hope there will be a record of this panel somehow.
I was hoping that that MAL club was either going to be that anti-claim club club or that extremely refined taste in anime only review club.
wah: It’s epic. You’d appreciate it.
jpmeyer: We can’t always be cynical. :P
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