I don’t really have much to say on anime currently, which is probably the result of my anime consumption taking a rather dramatic dip as of late, but I do have something to say on anime blogs, specifically my anime blog, and that is that I fear I have been pigeonholed. For those of you out there who need to rather urgently expand your vocabulary, that means to be assigned a particular role, a role that is much too restrictive for your liking. It’s the reason so many actors jack in such fantastic roles (I’m thinking David Tennant as Dr. Who here), they don’t want to be seen as being exclusively that character throughout their acting careers. I too view it in a negative light after having suffered from it: I believe that due to my writing very little but episodic posts for just a couple of months, I have now been assigned the role of episodic blogger, which was never my intention. And also, as I’ve predominantly written about anime, I feel as though it would be almost wrong to write about anything else. But is being pigeonholed really so bad? Let me enlighten you…
One of the negative consequences of being undeservedly pigeonholed is that you’re bound to attract far less readers, which is bad for obvious reasons. Take the role I’ve had bestowed upon me for example: Watashi wa bucho is an episodic blog that covers roughly two shows per season. Its writer, Ty, has developed the preference of avoiding shows that already have a lot of coverage both because she enjoys to discover and promote hidden gems and because she’s slightly intimidated by other, more established, episodic bloggers and, therefore, is hesitant to stress her inferiority by covering the same shows as them. Now, if you were to tell that to a potential reader, you will, quite likely, deter them away from my blog- there are plenty of more casual anime fans out there who do not watch shows as they air every season and the people that do might not necessarily bother watching the more obscure shows I prefer to cover. However, if you were to say something along the lines of: Ty writes a lot of episodic posts, but also some corking editorials and informative reviews, not to mention some great lists, all of which cover a range of anime, new and old, mainstream and little-known (which I don’t believe would be unfair to say, fyi), they’re 10 times more likely to give reading my blog a shot as these are the types of posts that are far more inclusive of the average anime viewer.
Another reason I’m not particularly desirous of being pigeonholed is that you begin to feel as though you’ve got to play up to readers’ expectations of you, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. In other words, I do not feel able to write about my other nerdy interests, e.g. manga, video-games and Western cartoons as freely as I’d like as I am an anime blog that will have only garnered the interest of anime fans, fans who will quite happily pass over anything not of the anime medium. This, very much self-inflicted, curbing of my freedom of expression sickens me as the whole reason I set up Watashi wa bucho was to give myself an outlet in which to express myself on anything I wanted (I am boss), sure, I’d mostly write about anime, but I’d still allow for others things that caught my eye- this summer I was dying to write a post on my favourite survival horror games, but regrettably bailed at the last second! Now I acknowledge I have no one else to blame for being pigeonholed but myself, so is there anything I can do about it? Let’s see…
Well I think it’s important to continue to write a variety of different types of post so I’m not seen as being simply an episodic blogger, obviously, something which will be much easier to do now that I’m only covering one show this season rather than two, as I did during spring. And I guess I’m also going to have to try to care a little bit less about what people think about my blog to enable myself to write about whatever I want, fearless of the possibility it may go ignored by the large majority of my readers. The only other solutions I can come up with are relying on you guys to choose your words selectively when describing my blog to others- here, I’ll copy/paste my earlier introduction for ease of reference:
Ty writes a lot of episodic posts, but also some corking editorials and informative reviews, not to mention some great lists, all of which cover a range of anime, new and old, mainstream and little-known.
– or promoting myself a bit differently. Perhaps under the title ‘Watashi wa bucho!’ I should add the sub-heading: a blog not just about anime, but whatever the hell I want! Catchy, no?
So I’ve done a lot of complaining about pigeonholing during this post, but can it ever actually be a good thing? What do you guys think?
Watashi Wa Bucho!! 
Pidgeonholing is not a good thing, but fulfilling a niche can be. There’s also the plus side of keeping your “core content” very focused so people know to come to your blog for that kind of content.
That said, I’m all for bloggers expanding their horizons. If it doesn’t work out, okay (just look at my attempt at episodics). And if it does, you’ve opened doors to possibly a whole other audience, plus you get to show your expertise in varied topics, plus you get to express your thoughts about more than just anime! The possibilities are practically endless! I think I’ve said this before, but whatever you do end up choosing to do, I’m interested in reading it (within reason).
Also, I feel like that blogroll note is directed in part at me. . .guess I should get on that.
I suppose I wouldn’t mind being pigeonholed if it were for something unique, that only I’ve dared to do, like finding my own niche- something I’m yet to do…
Really, you felt that way? That was entirely unintentional, promise.
On another note, I liked your Binbougami-ga! episodic.
I know what you mean. I recently felt that I limited myself by only writing reviews (even the episodic ones), so I started up my own editorial stuff. It lefts me explore different facets of why I’m a fan. I’m going to be making a point of doing them so I don’t pigeonhole myself again.
I definitely need to check out some of your editorial stuff sometime- I’ve only read your reviews as it stands…
Another one of the reasons I’m not so keen to be pigeonholed as an episodic blogger is that episodic posts aren’t even what I enjoy writing the most, it’s my editorials. And as I enjoy writing editorials more, I feel as though they are of a much higher quality than my episodic posts- I’d much rather be associated with the kind of post I feel I’m better at writing! : p
I personally don’t mind seeing editorials on anime blogs that are not about anime. Just that they aren’t prevalent over the focus of the blog that any blogger defines for himself. If someone posts something unrelated to anime I will either be interested and read/skim through it or I will ignore it.
Funny thing is that same applies to anime episodic or editorial posts. Either you find it interesting or you don’t. I don’t see how anyone could detest that you are posting more stuff even if they are unrelated to anime. You are only broadening the possible reading audience.
Of course being too broad has it’s perils too. If you don’t met up with the level of content produced for someone’s particular tastes you might lose a reader. So in the end I would say that you shouldn’t be afraid of stepping out of your comfort zone but don’t overdo it. That being said as long as your post are 50(?)% or more focused on anime you are going to be probably fine.
But hell what do I know. That is just an assessment of a naive fool that is I. That is just how I see it. Hope that my post is not un-helpful.
In the end I would say that you should do what you want. If you are not enjoying your blog then what is ultimately the point of having it? (Not that I know. I will never ever forever understand the mindset of people that have blogs and stuff. =P)