- Two fan filmmakers are attempting to crowd-fund a documentary on the subject of “anime and its misunderstood fandom.” It’s nowhere close to meeting its goal, but I’m curious about how they might tackle the “misunderstood” part. Are anime fans still at the stage where we have to explain ourselves to outsiders? Watch their pitch video and see for yourself.
- Aja writes about how a commercial for a nonexistent swimming anime amassed an enormous fan following.
- Over at Sexy Videogame Land, Leigh Alexander writes about the short-lived security gamers find through playing life simulations:
They call some large-scale simulations “god games” because you play god – but maybe they take a role in our lives like religion, a repetitive ritual that makes us feel less afraid, like success is always attainable because the system is fair.
- Heard about this through Manga Therapy: How Crunchyroll built up a marketing strategy that hinges on the cosplay elite. What do you think about the practice of using fans as voluntary or paid PR?
- Sad times: first Google Reader announced it was shutting down, and then JManga just a few hours later! My guess as to why the 1.5-year-old digital manga experiment is ending? The subscription service doesn’t allow you to download manga once you buy it, something that illegal scanlations offer easily.
- Steven Savage writes about yet another perk to blogging: it accelerates your writing and editing feedback loop.
- Finally, here’s a catchy soundtrack to your weekend—Chrono Jigga, a mashup CD of Chrono Trigger and Jay-Z. I’m amazed by how well these two sounds work together!
(Photo via Victoria Holden, social media marketing manager at Crunchyroll.)