Has It Been That Long? (Year Four)

Has It Been That Long Year Four The Otaku Author

It’s been a testing year, but also one of my most productive on the Otaku Author. Amazingly, it’s been four years since I made the switch to this site, which means it’s time to reminisce! Has it really been that long?

Four Years of the Otaku Author!

I was curious what the average lifespan of a blog was and amazingly, the most recent study I could find was from 2016 and… you might want to sit down for this… it said that the average lifespan for a blog was one hundred days. I’d hazard a guess that it might even be lower than that now since blogging is not nearly as popular as it was then. That’s a fairly shocking number, although, in the four years that I’ve been blogging here, I’ve seen countless blogs come and go. There are a handful of sites that keep going, so if you’re one of those bloggers, then you are considerably above average, and probably quite stubborn. I know I am!

Anyhow, I’m not planning on throwing in the towel just yet so it’s on to year five. There were a couple of things I should note about the last year. I published my two-thousandth post which is insane to think about, especially as that comes close to one million words. I also had a lot of real-life events that tried to slow me down. Several made me reconsider how I was doing things and that is still going on. I’m trying to work out a way to make this site as good as possible without burning out. The other thing was the increase in manga reviews. I reviewed two hundred books in 2023. On top of all of that, the most shocking statistic was that I passed half a million views in the calendar year, which is more than the previous three years put together.

Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World Episode 11 Michio considers things

Who wants some statistics?

It really has been a crazy year for so many reasons, but enough about that. I want to revisit something I started last year where I created a top ten categories by views. And, since I have the results at this time last year, I can look at how categories are climbing and falling. Will there be any new categories in the top ten and will anyone drop out? It’s all very exciting! Let’s look at those numbers.

#Category%+/-^/v
1Why the hell are you here, Teacher!?37%+17%
2Tsugumomo6%+2%^3
3The Testament of Sister New Devil6%+1%^1
4Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba4%-2%v2
5Overflow4%NE
6Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid3%+1%^2
7My Wife is the Student Council President!3%NE
8Cat Planet Cuties3%+1%^1
9Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory2%NE
10YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World2%

The big news is that Why the hell are you here, Teacher!? increased its hold on the site with 37% of the views. That is insane. The other news was the appearance of three new entries (NE), mostly released in 2023. I am starting to notice a pattern here, however, the abundance of ecchi titles in the top ten is probably just a coincidence…

So, let’s look at who dropped out of the top ten and where they are now!

#Category%+/-^/v
11Fruits Basket2%-3%v8
13Akame ga Kill 2%-1%v7
21Fire Force 1%-1%v14

All of these were shows that I covered near the beginning of this site and haven’t had a new release in a while so it’s understandable that they would drop. I still can’t get my head around the continued dominance of Why the hell are you here, Teacher!?, although in the Cyber Monday sale on Crunchyroll, I noticed that the Blu-Ray sold out almost instantly. I’m going to feel it if it ever drops out of favour, which is why it’s that much more important that I find the next title to gain that sort of a following.

Overflow Episode 1 Kazushi in bed with Kotone and Ayane

Plans for Year Five

So, I’ve been reading a lot of manga of late, but I’ve been neglecting my personal collection in favour of the books from the library. To make matters worse, I’ve been building my collection and there are many that I haven’t got around to reading. To fix that, I will be focusing on my books until I’ve read them all… which could take all year. I’m also reducing the length of some of my posts so that I can speed up the review writing process. That might result in more posts, but it might just free up more time for my writing.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my writing going again and I’ve recently discovered that I was trying to make it something it’s not. I planned this series as an episodic adventure in novella format and I was trying to make them into novels. That was causing all sorts of issues, but now that I know what I’ve been doing wrong, I’m going back to making them what they should be – a fast-paced, action-packed, blood-soaked, thrill of an adventure.

Another thing I really want to try to focus on is increasing my positivity in my personal life. I’ve had a rough year with a broken kneecap, a herniated disc, a flooded basement, and lots of other smaller events. It’s been hard to remain positive with all that going on, but I want to focus more on what I’m achieving and not why I haven’t done something. I’m also going to make sure that I have at least one series on the go that fills me with that sort of energy. I’m not saying there will be more ecchi reviews, but there will be more ecchi reviews. Anyhow, it’s been an eventful four years at the Otaku Author. Hopefully, there will be many more to come. Thanks for visiting!

Citrus Episode 9 Harumi hits Yuzu

Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header

13 Comments

  1. Congrats on four years! Hope the blog continues to grow for you. Doesn’t feel like that long ago that you made the switch to The Otaku Author.

    • Thanks. I’m glad they read that way. My hope is to catch the emotions I’m experiencing and then try to explain why I felt that way, all while making copious amounts of notes for my own work.

    • Don’t forget the fun. If it’s fun we can tolerate most thing! But yes, a easier year would be nice. Thanks!

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