Afterimage

I’m enjoying something of a break from anime at the moment, but then again, I’ve never been particularly good at following episodes of anything on a weekly basis anyway. Rather, I’ve been procrastinating a lot, wearily dragging myself to YouTube and skipping through certain scenes from anime like Gurren Lagann and Kaiba, allowing myself, if just for a measly five minutes, to revive my attachment to an old favourite. I suppose I’m like some tired junkie craving after his next fix, but taking the cheap option because I can’t be bothered to walk much further than a few paces down the street. Because new anime is tiring. New faces, new names, new places. New things aren’t relaxing or cathartic, they are hard work. Or, at least, that’s how I feel before I press ‘play’, after that, new things are wonderful and refreshing, but like I said, I’ve been procrastinating a lot.

Decision time.

I’ve decided to end Afterimage. There are a few reasons for this decision, the most glaringly obvious being that I barely have the time to write one anime blog, let alone two. I started Afterimage at a time when I needed to write for myself, outside of the (imagined) pressures of constantly striving to write something good, I just wanted to remember how it was to blog for (or to) myself again, to toil in relative anonymity and experiment with blogging. Basically, I needed a break. Afterimage offered that fresh start and for a while, it felt good to be writing somewhere new and exciting, but once that “new car smell” faded, I’ve admittedly found it hard to split my energies in so many different directions and feel bad that I haven’t been able to update as much as I would like. Afterimage was supposed to be concise, ‘episodic’ and experimental, but it hasn’t worked out that way, it’s now more like an extension of “Bateszi“, so I may as well just stop deluding myself and totally focus on that “main” blog. Even still, I’m absolutely fucking determined to write something about every episode of Kaiba.

Anyway, I loathe giving up on anything, but at this point, I’m fairly sure this is for the best. A massive thanks goes out to the following people, all of whom have supported me on Afterimage, some by dropping more than a few comments, others by linking via their blog-roll. Thank you, guys. I hate to think I’ve wasted your time.

berkles, Brack, Cameron Probert, Celeste, coburn, Hige, IKnight, itsubun, Lelangir, Martin, OGT, Owen S, usagijen and Xerox.

Have you seen the new look animeondvd.com? Earlier in the year, Chris Beveridge sold his site to this rather generic entertainment brand called “Mania.com” and just last night, their engagement was finally ‘consummated’ with… less than satisfactory results. Basically, the site looks abysmal.

When I started reading anime websites around 2002, mostly for reviews (and explanations!) of hard to fathom series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, AnimeOnDVD was the first website I really liked. Their style was never flashy or loaded with PR-speak, it was down to Earth and easy to digest. All that, and with their constant stream of updates, they were a pillar of the anime community, but looking at the site now, one feels that this “sell-out” might be the beginning of the end. I don’t blame Chris Beveridge for taking the money, we’d all love to write about anime for a living (and in relative comfort too, not out of a cardboard box on a street corner), but I wish he had been a little bit more discerning before deciding to cash-in.

Batman: Gotham Knight will be released on Tuesday, though naturally, a DVD-rip has already hit the internet. I’m one of those guys that loved the Animatrix (after the first Matrix movie, it’s the best thing contributed to that franchise) and Gotham Knight is looking like more of the same. If you need a deal clincher, just know that Studio 4°C has animated one of the segments (”Have I Got A Story For You”). Their Beyond short for the Animatrix was wonderful and ended up becoming my favourite segment (along with “Kid’s Story“) before I even knew the name Studio 4°C. Artsy pretence aside, with this we’ll no doubt be getting Japanese animation that’s fluid, action-packed and stylish, could be hit or miss but an exhilarating showcase for our beloved Annie-May none the less. Soon to be seen on MTV, I bet.