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Old 2011-02-06, 21:38   Link #12
Ichihara Asako
Horoist
 
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
I think it's a fairly complex issue, not a simple yes/no question, as Vexx states. The decline of some of the "big" blogs that ran for a few years is just normal. Things come and go all the time (same can be said for fansub groups, scanlators, even entire anime sites). It's always happened and always will. Well, this goes well beyond anime and happens in everything, but let's keep it to anime examples.

Lord of Fire mentioned it may have something to do with people being students when they start, which is quite likely. Fansub groups are the same, many people being in school when they start out but after they graduate and get jobs/have families they lack the time for it. They may also just tire of doing it, unless they're very dedicated to what they do, and without much "competition" (maybe a niche not well covered elsewhere, etc.) whereas something many people do will be easier to drop as there are many alternatives for the readers to go to.

It may also just be due to changes in the fandom as a whole, with more fans just sticking to the streaming sites they watch stuff on, as they tend to have their own relevant communities which doesn't leave as much room for the blog type media to be worth people's time.

Again, as Vexx pointed out, there are many blogs by all sorts of people that may only get a handful of readers, but nobody notices them starting up and closing down. They only pay attention to the big popular ones. . . none of which I can name because I've never followed any, because as a whole I'm not a fan of opinion pieces that are the very heart of blogs. Also I quite dislike people over-analysing and breaking down series in to tiny pieces instead of just enjoying the story, which is really the bread and butter of most bloggers.

If you feel there's a void that isn't sufficiently filled, why don't you start your own blog/site?

I really don't think it's anything to do with the state of the industry at all. People constantly cry doom and gloom of anime, and claim the "golden age" is over and all sorts, yet more and more anime is made every year -- which is exactly the problem, there isn't less great stuff being made, there's just more mediocre fluff and absolute tripe being made, that tends to drown it out. This has been the case for over thirty years I've been watching anime, and I'm sure it will be the case forever more.
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