Subdued Fangirling's Third Anniversary!

Image by ピペ

I missed this one by a good margin this year (it was actually on the 4th), but better late than never! This blog has survived three years, and I can't let this anniversary go by without marking it in some way.

I have to admit, it feels weird to say "three years," since in some ways it feels a lot longer than that. When I started this blog, I was a bored college junior who'd just finished up finals and needed an outlet for all the anime nonsense running through my head. Now, I'm about to graduate with a Masters and wish I had more time to write down all the anime nonsense running through my head.

I think that last part is why this blog was able to make it to year three. I started this blog with a promise to myself that it would be an extension of my hobby, not my highest priority. If it ever felt like a hassle, I told myself that I would stop. That's been the basis for a lot of the changes in my blogging schedule and writing style over the last year as real life demanded more and more of my time. However, all this time I've been thinking, "I wish I had more than two spare minutes a day so that I could write more on the blog." I've still been getting ideas. I still have things I want to say. And that tells me that I'm in for the long haul, regardless of what real life throws at me. I proved to myself this last year that I can mold this blog to fit my needs, even if it means a decrease in content. This was never about being popular or timely in the first place anyway. It was about putting my thoughts out there and seeing if others felt the same.

All of that said, I'm really looking forward to being more active this summer. The first thing will be to freshen up the layout; it's gotten pretty outdated. After that, I'm hoping to get back into the habit of writing episodics. The Sailor Moon remakes' bi-weekly schedule sounds like a great place to start. And I'm definitely covering the new season of Free!, since that's the most popular thing on this blog in terms of hits and I had a blast writing them. They still even get comments! And the monthly figure reviews and Attack on Titan manga chapter posts will continue as usual.

So overall, despite the growing pains, I'm excited for the next year. A lot of things have changed in my life over the past three years, and I think it's nice to have a blog that's documented how I've changed as a fan as well. I don't know what year four will bring, but I've got my hopes up!

And now for stats:


I'm getting closer to that 10,000 hits a month mark! I actually broke it last September, with around 13,000 views. I'm not sure how less content made my hits skyrocket, but either way it's up several thousand from last year, so I guess it's all good?

Meanwhile, Blogger's broken Stats counter is much more dramatic:

LOL, look at that drop off from September. It's like the stats fell off a cliff.

Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn't let you look at raw search terms anymore, so I have no idea what funny stuff people typed into Google to find my blog this year. It's a shame. I was wondering how many hits I'd gotten from "free anime" alone...

Finally, I'd like to thank my regular readers and commenters for sticking through my rambling posts and coming back to talk to me again and again. I know I said above that this is largely a selfish project to put my own ideas out there in the fandom, but it's nice to know that I'm not shouting into the void. I love you guys.

Here's to another great year!

Top image from Pixiv. All credit belongs to the original artist.