Requiem for Random Curiosity

It is with great sadness that I've read Omni's announcement of his retirement at the end of the Winter 2010 season.

All good things must come to an end.

My sadness is tempered by how Omni is leaving us while he is still at the top of his game. Not for him is the slow agonizing end of fewer, later posts of deteriorating quality, followed by a hiatus announcement and then a "I'm alive!" post which ends up being famous last words.

For me, RC still remains the gold standard of raw episodic anime blogging in the screencap/summary/reaction format. Here's why:

1. Posts appeared, hot on the heels of episodes airing, with clockwork regularity.
2. The summaries had great balance - succinctly covering all the major points, reporting both visual and dialogue information, setting an episode in series context while carefully avoiding source material spoilers.

I rely on these kind of anime blogging particularly when my internet connection is flaky, when I can't endure the wait for a fansub, when I don't actually watch a series but want to know what's going on because everyone else is talking about it. Aroduc is probably the only other blogger I read regularly who produces this type of post with this level of quality and consistency.

My advice for any aspiring writers or bloggers is to be creative and innovative - do something or write about something that others aren’t.

Which brings me to my disagreement, somewhat, with Omni's parting advice. I agree that each post should aim to be different, to broadcast one's unique voice but one can also add a lot value by being able to write raw summaries on a timely and regular manner. Or summaries of subbed episode. Or reporting the antics of your favourite character. Or the performance of the voice cast. Or with a comparative method and so on. Writing about something consistently over a sustained period of time is the necessary condition for building up an audience. It's really much harder than it sounds.

It's been a great five years reading Random Curiosity. I also deeply appreciate how Divine will be maintaining a copy of this treasure of aniblogging. All the best, Omni, and thank you for everything.

Related posts:

1. Random Rant ~ Journal of Applied Anime
2. Random Rant: Black Tuesday
3. Phantom ~ Requiem for the Phantom 1-10