I had some spare time yesterday so I decided to go to one of my favorite sites, http://randomc.animeblogger.net/, or "Random Curiosity". Random Curiosity is an anime blogging site where recent anime from Japan is reviewed. I discovered the site at about this time last year, and have since read the vast backlog of anime reviews and previews the site contains.
Much to my shock, I found that the site was shutting down in this post:
The head blogger of the site, Omni, basically discusses how his life has become too complicated for him to run the site with him graduating from school and obtaining a job, and how over the years it has become a chore rather than a pleasure to keep the site up and running. It seems multiple contributors joined the site over the years, alleviating some of his workload, but even this could not save the website.
The point I'm getting at is that it made me sad that the site was shutting down. But why did this make me so sentimental? It's just an internet site, right?
In this era where many of the websites we visit are comprised of user generated content, there's a much deeper, personal connection. Even though many of the postings on Random Curiosity were objective anime reviews, the bloggers sometimes gave us glimpses of their personal lives. If one of the bloggers was sick, there would sometimes be a quick blog about how they were feeling. Sometimes, bloggers on the site would quickly write about the intense workload they were under from college courses. It was these tiny snippets of the blogger's lives that contributed to me visiting Random Curiosity so often, as well as their in-depth discussions of current anime programming.
The anime reviews Random Curiosity featured were extensive. They would review episodes of anime that had aired during the week, and would take stills of key moments in the anime in high-resolution. They would break down everything that happened in the episode, and then discuss their thoughts on it. Another feature I liked on Random Curiosity was their seasonal Anime preview sections. At the beginning of the season (i.e. spring, summer, fall, winter) they would list all the shows that would be airing in the season. This gave me a good outline of shows I would like to watch as well as shows to avoid.
Anime is a medium I enjoy greatly, and you will no doubt see many posts discussing anime I am watching or looking forward to. Ever since I watched "Pokemon" at 11 years old, I have been hooked on anime, and there looks to be no signs of me tiring of it.
Goodbye Random Curiosity, you will be missed!
P.S. You may be wondering what the heck "Angel Beats" is. The show is a venture between the anime studios KEY (Clannad, Air TV) and PA works (True Tears, Canaan). The show looks fantastic, and I usually love anything by KEY. Here is a preview:
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