The Compromise of Batch Watching/Blogging
nekosasu | November 13, 2009 | 9:54 pm
Michael from Low on Hit Points hit on a very interesting subject that I feel very strongly about: weekly watching. It’s funny, because I often talked about it before and also tried explaining a certain Rule 7, which might ring a bell with some of the long-time readers here.
Anyway, I feel everything Michael in almost the same way. But perhaps I should add a little of my background as well (which is why I didn’t want to spam his comment box too much with my personal ramblings.)
Back in the days, I used to be in various DC++ hubs (channels), and there was one hub which had a set of interesting rules on anime, one of which was Rule 7: “Thou shalt not watch anime until thy series hath finished airing.” The exact formulation is similar, but the point is: don’t touch that anime until it’s complete.
I used an voracious anime consumer, patiently waiting my 7 days for the next episode of whatever series, so I could not really relate to that formula for new series. I was young, active, perhaps a little naive, but I still had a large attention span and relatively few hobbies yet. Besides, there were plenty of other series to distract me in the meantime. All was well.
But as time passed, I realized I just couldn’t keep up the attention anymore. Very often, I found myself demotivated to pick up episode 10 of whatever because I just lost interest in it. Multiply by x series, and it quickly becomes very problematic.
Especially after I started blogging, I noticed that I just couldn’t do it consistently anymore. Weekly watching compelled me to blog episodically, because that’s the only sense I could make out of reflecting upon what I saw in the anime. And then, it is exactly as Michael said:
“Waiting for a whole week, I would have thought too much about things I shouldn’t have. Waiting for a whole week, I would have overanalyzed during each break, which often leads to unfairly critiquing what I haven’t finished. Worst of all, waiting for a whole week, I would have read episodic blog posts about it.”
Cue my disinterest/laziness/business/disappointment of the next episode, and the whole series just goes down the drain. In this vein, I often drop anime midway, since backlogging multiple series usually ends up in not being able to follow the season at all.
Idiota! You broke the rule yet again!
I often tried implementing my Rule 7, but time and again I relapsed[1], which often ended in random, first-second episodical blogging, prodded by my greed, wary of the sphere competition, seeking attention, you name the reason. I don’t even want to recall my Hyakko fiasco. (Sounds funny. And yes, I will finish that one someday.)
But I know for sure that for most series, that style just doesn’t resonate at all with my anymore. Takes too much time, and is absolutely not a gratifying experience. The only series I’m actually glad to have cleared that way was Baccano!, but such exceptions are of utmost rarity.
Marathoning series is just a different experience altogether, and I often like doing it. As RyanA says correctly in a comment, it has something to do with the notion of recency. As far as I assess it by its name, the more recent the experience, the more vivid the recollection as one progresses through the story. Plus, there’s no room for cliffhangers, since one can cue the next episode right away. I think it’s quite self-explanatory.
The only drawback to it is that it restricts communication with the sphere altogether, since I’m likely to avoid posts and editorials on the anime I’m Rule 7′ing.
So that’s why these days, instead of waiting until the end of the season, I try to check out the high priority series that made a nice first impression until the middle (more or less), and then wait for the end. Watching (and subsequently blogging) in batches is a nice compromise and has become a very satisfying way of enjoying my anime – no weekly pressure, and a relatively nice feeling akin to marathoning, without building too huge of a momentum, so to preserve a little bit of the suspense of weekly watching.
I remember I watched Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and many of the 2009 series like that, and I enjoyed it a lot.
The only question that always remains in the end is, would my watching experience have been any different, had I watched it in a weekly fashion? Had I marathoned it from episode 1? And that is the question I might never be able to answer. It’s basically a hit and miss.
Back in the days, I had a poll asking how people usually watch their anime. Now I got rid of the polls plugin since I often can’t come up with interesting questions – but anyway, the question still stands.
Notes- although in the case of Nodame, I can’t remember if I did it entirely or just in the end [↩]
Faced some script issues. Lost my long reply as result.
I had installed a preview script, but I figure it was the worst possible timing to test it, I’m sorry. Would you mind writing that comment again, please?
I marathon only when I have crazy amounts of free time and they tend to be finished series that I never considered, but were later recommended by people. If something catches my eye during a new season, I watch them weekly. It’s much easier to slot it in and is an effective weekly escapist de-stresser as I go about my R/L. I am currently in the process of procuring Valkyria Chronicles for Christmas.
The TM8.0 example in that other blog was a great example. I’m sure if I marathoned it the first time, the whole experience would have been different. I’d be less pissed off at them dragging the Yuuki arc for example. Since it’s so chronological, marathoning would only make sense. On the other hand, I loved watching Bakemonogatari weekly (now monthly? bastards!). The gap in the middle only gave time and increase the Senjougahara fascination. She’s fav’ed more than Furukawa Nagisa at MAL! For the record, I consider Bakemonogatari *my* show of 2009.
I’m probably fairly patient as I’m fully aware animes have their dips, and they are far more noticeable in a weekly fashion. Bakemonogatari took a crash at ep10, while Toradora crashed after the ski trip. Aria the Origination ep03 disappointed me greatly. TM8.0 again, the Yuuki arc et cetra… I tend to give animes a bit more chance, and can afford to as I try not to watch more than 3 a week. Sometimes it pays off (Minami S2), sometimes it doesn’t (Shana S2). Minami S3 is the most consistent weekly-watched anime that I can remember.
That kind of “weekly de-stresser” is what I used to have back in the days, almost every day of the week, but it just doesn’t work anymore. I could blame my lack of organization and self-discipline, but in the end, it boils down to me losing interest. And yeah, it depends on series, on its genre and format, or so… I suppose that episodics a la Minami-ke, GA, or now Seitokai no Ichizon should be a lot easier to follow on a weekly basis, while continuous stories often suffer from lack of recency, or so.
Auuu, not sure what happened. I’ll try again…
I think what you mentioned is indeed a blogger’s paradox.
To answer the question, I believe there is an altered experience with marathons. Generally, marathons allow greater immersion into the material with less time to withdraw. Similar to environmental factors of the experience, the marathon factor is simple recency. The effect of marathoning tends to be a more intense experience, though it varies per individual I’m sure.
Even with a batch viewing of 3 or more episodes this effect can be felt. A greater level of satisfaction than a single-episode watch tends to be the general case.
Perhaps a similar altered experience would be one externally to the blogosphere, where the viewers is unaware of any musings, spoiling, hyping, spams, etc of others… the non-communal experience. Oh it’s surely different.
Not everything is a good marathon candidate though. ^^
Wow, I had a whole reply ready for you and it suddenly disappeared… well. I don’t know where to start now?
Sorry again for the plugin mishaps.
Well, by marathons I usually mean, watching anime successively without necessarily doing it all at once. Watching in much shorter intervals would be a lot more accurate for most of what I do, since I often can’t spare a lot of time for watching anime. So, two episodes a day until catching up/completing often sounds reasonable to me. But it is exactly as you say, recency is the key.
And I am certain that the non-communal experience you mention is pretty akin to batch viewing. After all, there is no pressure to be the first to watch/not to be spoilt offline, and people can build their own ideas without any influences. The difference is though, that an entire week wait often tends to diminish recency. I remember when I started using the internet with my modest ISDN line, I was thrilled to watch, say, Stellvia every week, and back in the days I did not know about forums, blogs, and the likes yet. But that in turn cannot really be a comparable example since I was young and pretty much clueless about anime in general so I only saw cute, funny and dramatic stuff without thinking too much about it.
Yea, I can totally identify with that. I used to marathon things, but usually not all at once… only started doing that around 2007 I guess. It was usually a couple episodes each day until it was all over. For some reason, having a daily habit like that (esp. during good days) is really enjoyable. ): haven’t had a scheduling like that in quite some time… well, can’t say that. I did watch Keroro and Gintama in such a way, few episodes/day… and it holds to the hypothesis.
There are so very many ways to experience an anime. Depending on the mood, weather, season, time of day, regularity… the effect can add some great magic to the mix.
So agreed with environmental factors weighing into viewing experience, although the impact might not be that apparent. Best anime for sunny days? Rainy days? Interesting questions, perhaps.
I wonder. Going on a boat ride on a quiet lake, preferably on a sunny day, and just watching loads of animu at once… I wouldn’t dislike that, I guess. Especially if boat = yacht, and quiet lake = sea. How much further can you spice up your experience!
First off, thank you for the shout out. Secondly (to the other commenters), I personally always copy the text of a comment before hitting submit, just to be safe. It’s a simple tip I feel I should share to hopefully help erase potential future commenting frustration.
Back on topic, batch watching could really work for certain series that are structured for it. Certain recent anime that would be perfect for that method are Bakemonogatari, Umineko, and Spice and Wolf. All three of these series have well defined arcs where you could wait for that arc to end, watch it start to finish, blog about it, and then hold off on watching until the next arc concludes.
The only issue with that is you need to know the structure of the series ahead of time. And the only way I can think of getting that information is to monitor other blogs following said series. Of course, that’s always a scary endeavor, what with spoilers and all.
Agreed with copying text, although it often does not come naturally since most people expect stuff to work without a hitch. (I plead guilty!) There’s nothing more frustrating than having to retype a long comment. Copying the text into clipboard should be some kind of automatic feature of WP or browsers in general or something.
Either way, yeah, its quite hard to get the structure of a series, many of which often segue in irregular patterns. I’ve often found myself catching up at the right moment, while sometimes, I even ended up in the middle of a big cliffhanger.
It’s actually a nice feeling to have bits of both elements, it’s a nice blend of recency with suspense, but that would be only pleasant to me as a watcher; to the blogger in me, it’s outright frustrating, since it will make me blog non-episodical, with all the features of episodical blogging: incomplete, hesitant, and hypocritical. Of course it wouldn’t hurt to wait one more week instead, but yeah, spoilers and all.
It is often a hit and miss, really.
Hmm, I watch new episodes every week for the current series because I simply don’t feel like waiting on them when the episodes are available. As for older anime that are already completed, I just marathon them because the episodes are already available for consumption. Marathoning Monster in 3 days was an awesome ride.
Each method has it’s advantages/disadvantages, but I like marathoning because you get to see the entire story and don’t have to wait on cliff hangers.
Well, some would argue that the most true way to watch anime is to do it in a weekly fashion, because, cliffhangers are meant to be digested and pondered about weekly or something like that… some might even find it actually enjoying, I can’t disagree. But beyond that, the collective thinking and debating online is what usually is most attractive to anime watchers, be it on blogs, forums, or chats.
But once again, it’s up to the individual whether they prefer weekly/batch/marathon, whether they want to participate in/contribute to discussions etc. The choice is usually harder for bloggers than for casual watchers anyway, at least that’s how I see it.
Well, I started to watch animes once in two weeks a while ago, because I’ve noticed that one episode from a certain anime is not enough for me. Now I have problems keeping this habit as well, I already have two animes I’m not following… I have to watch those 6 episodes of them I’ve missed. It’s not because of the lack of free time, no I have plenty. But somehow… I can’t watch them. Similar case with my brother’s pc: now that my brother is in Japan, I can use his more superior PC to play games what my PC can’t run… but somehow, I don’t want to leave my room for that. Maybe I’m just that lazy. I just sit here, browsing the same sites and doing nothing. I don’t know, like I’m not in the mood for anything.
I feel you. It’s in fact exactly the same I have been doing for a long time in the past – pure procrastination. Too much free time, so much to watch, but there’s simply no motivation or impulse to do it. And eventually, you will come to the logical conclusion that will find a justification, relieving your conscience: marathoning… If ever.
It may be hard, but do start out with a simple episode, even if your body refuses to do it with all its might. Just a little impulse. It might work ;)
Well it does happened: with my brother’s PC and games. I started playing Age of Empires 3, and marathoned trough all three campaigns in one sitting, with a little pause in-between.