Normally around this time of week a 200 Word Anime post would come out, but with the end of The Ancient Magus’ Bride comes the end of this project. Read on to see my thoughts on working with Karandi these past two seasons.
We as bloggers tend to be a little self centered. By that I mean the majority of our focus is on our own work, spending most of our time and energy on creating content that best fits with what we want our blogs to represent. Sometimes you see a group of writers coming together to publish content, but by and large the majority of us are solo creators.
But in being so inwardly focused, we may sometimes feel disconnected from others. Your mileage may vary, but I don’t get much pleasure out of writing post after post that doesn’t seem to connect with the rest of the community. That’s why I jumped at the chance when Karandi expressed interest in doing a collaboration last year. It was an opportunity to work closely with another blogger who I respect for the quality of her content and the work she puts into her blog each and every day.
At the same time I wondered if I might just be getting in her way. This wasn’t my first collab, as I had done a joint review with Remyfool and D to review Knights of Sidonia (On D’s blog, here). With someone as structured as Karandi though, I didn’t know how we would adjust to each other’s writing style, schedule, or vision for how we wanted the project to go. I would like to say that the success of this project was due to careful planning, but all we really had was a couple of shows we would possibly cover and a general idea of the format.
Karandi covered some of this in our last review of Black Clover, but I thought I would add my perspective on it as well. We had our challenges, like one or both of us having a hectic week and being unable to get our half written until several days after the episode (me more than her), blowing past the the 200 word limit (both of us, repeatedly), and trying not to step on each other’s toes as we figured out which topics to cover. But along with these challenges, there were a lot of rewarding aspects. Being able to read another blogger’s first drafts and mutually coming up with the best way to present our points, as well as helping relieve each others doubts about our writing has been a very positive experience for me and I hope Karandi feels the same.
In closing, I would like to express a special thanks to Karandi for choosing to work with me on this project. 200 Word Anime started because she wanted to connect with more of the community, but I can sincerely say that I got just as much, if not more, benefit out of it. I had a lot of fun along the way as well, and would readily work with her again should the opportunity arise.
I’m glad she chose me for first project, but it certainly isn’t her last. While working with me, Karandi has done a series of posts with Irina about Natsume Yuujinchou and has now started yet another collab with Kapodaco to cover My Hero Academia this coming season. She has been a patient and encouraging partner throughout our time working together and I have no doubt that others who work with her will feel the same. Be sure to continue following those projects as this one ends for more great work from her and the rest of the community.
You can find links to all the posts we did for 200 word anime under the category link at the bottom of this page (or click here). Thank you all for following along!
Weekend Otaku 