2. Don’t just review popular or mainstream sh*t
This is a google thing more than anything else. You want people to see your reviews? Don’t just stick to reviewing popular shows. I call them “easy” shows because these are shows just reviewed to death. We have your Code Geass, Death Note, Evangelion and a lot of other popular shows. Some start up reviewers actually starts with popular shows like these, because they’re easy. In terms of being a reviewer, easy shows won’t provide a challenge to you. Any kind of opinion is already stated by somebody else. Unless you have a completely unique point of view about a show, like spotting every phallic symbol in a Shaft anime, then stop going with the tide by reviewing easy shows. I’m not saying you should stop reviewing Code Geass, but you should just hold off on it. Popular shows are a lot more fun to review when you have a good knowledge on how to review certain anime. I waited years to review Natsume Yuujinchou, and I actually feel proud with the review I made. I can say that it’s good, but I really only reached that kind of satisfying feeling because I reviewed other shows first. This is also the big reason why I’m holding off on reviewing Kino’s Journey as well. It’s an anime I consider deserves a score of 10/10, but I’m in no hurry to review it.
Avoiding easy shows also clears the SEO hurdle with google. If you search for “Code Geass review” then I don’t think your work will pop up in the first page. If you’re starting out, then review uncommon anime. There are a lot of anime some people do not want to touch, but they admittedly want some info on. When my site was thriving, the top searches were Ecchi anime like High School DxD and Soft Tennis. No one really wanted to touch that filth, at least on the level of how I analyze sh*t, so I get three hundred views in a day. Right now, my site is on the radar because of Yosuga no Sora and Dramatical Murder. They are not recent shows, they are not popular shows, and not a lot of people review them. Thanks to the odds though, my site keeps popping up in the first page of Google and I’m able to take advantage of that SEO stuff. People really want to know about the incest stuff, I guess, and BL visual novel are rarely reviewed by people. Oddly enough, it’s the lack of activity for anime like this that gets good views to a small wordpress site. If you want some good traffic, then put off your review of Code Geass until you have a sizeable audience. Tackle the easy shows when you feel like your readers will actually enjoy them. Trust me, it is better that way.
If your mindset is on improving yourself, challenging yourself and keeping your readers in mind, then easy shows should be the least of your priorities. You can try a hand at a few, but your review list should have some healthy diversity in it. Seriously, find the one anime of the season that people drop in their list and review that. It’ll be torture, but it does help.
Here’s a tip as well. If you truly want to improve yourself, then accept this TPAB challenge.
I dare you to review M3 The Dark Metal or Hoozuki no Reitetsu. A precise review on whether you like it or not, the positive elements of the show, the negatives and the general theme of the show. You will actually discover the areas where you need improving on your own just talking about these two anime. They helped me improve the most, because they’re really hard to review. Both anime pose a unique challenge of their own, so this’ll really be a challenge. M3 is gawd damn unwatchable, and Hoozuki is just a different kind of beast. Good luck, and send me a link of your review if you ever decide to do it. You can leave it on this post, and why not impress me and others while you’re at it. This’ll be an old school pissing match between people that are proud of long their piss can go. It’s going to be fun.
I would also just like to say that it’s weird publishing a post that’s barely two pages long on Word. My reviews are seven pages long and ranging from four thousand to six thousand words. This post is below a thousand, and it just doesn’t fell right. I feel like I should keep talking, but I don’t really know what else to say. I’m just tired of Code Geass review. Good gawd, let’s clear some room for the upcoming season, Ok?
Yeah, till next time. I guess.
The Pantless Anime Blogger 
I think people gravitate towards covering more mainstream stuff because that will get more hits. Reviewing a niche series that ends up attracting no comments can be discouraging.
Yeah, I understand and that reason is pretty valid. I guess I’m just saying that it’s better to build an audience first and then they’ll give you comments. Sometimes your earlier reviews won’t be as great as your later ones, so it’s better to do a review of a mainstream one when you have a good handle on how you review style goes.
Always go against the current, not with it. Always a great motto to have.
:3
If it’s just getting more hits on your site then do a review with the recent anime. If the anime is old but you want to review it because it’s fun and it’s worth writing for then go with that but it will suffer a backlash of not even being bothered of being viewed by anyone (most probably because they never had heard of it or that they don’t have access on watching it). Ah… the irony of things. Well for me, I’d just do what I feel on what I want to do because doing something that I do not enjoy doing will only let me curse the thing that I did do the death. Bloggers are not bound with rules since we work independently and gain no profit (unless you do advertisements on your blog) from what we do, but we are bounded to our principles on what we think is right. In a nutshell: do what you want to do!
This is just an advice. If you want to improve, then challenge yourself. If not, then I’m sure there is always room for another review of Code Geass. Why the hell not.
Actually, I haven’t watched Code Geass but my sister did. She said she liked the combat/battle scenes since it involved strategy.
That’s cool. I’ve actually never seen Evangelion, and the more people urge me, the more I don’t want to. XD
I liked Hoozuki no Reitetsu but I’d say I can’t get my feelings towards the anime into words. If I ever decide to do a review, I’ll post it here XD
That’s the “challenge” part. It’s super hard to review it, and I’d like to hear your thoughts on it if you do review it.
Thank you! That mainstream stuff is such a good point. So many reviewers of different media (movies, music, games, etc.) only focus on what’s popular. It’s safe and easy. Good point about the whole Google search issue. With my Iridium Eye review blog (http://iridiumeye.wordpress.com), I’m forced to check out lesser-known things and more often than not, I go into movies and anime blind. Besides, reviewing only popular stuff is lame. Reviewing more obscure stuff takes more skill and research to craft a decent critique.
A lot of people check out reviews for lesser known titles.Some people can’t see that, but I’m glad you understand. Sometimes you just gotta give love to titles that needs it. 🙂
Definitely. It’s also fun to scour more obscure titles to show some great movies or anime that no one’s ever heard of. Some of the stuff I’ve reviewed include movies that don’t have Wikipedia pages, so it make research tougher, yet more fun.
Hiya! I’m about half a year late for commenting on this, but whatever.
I’m intending not to specialise in reviews, but it just so happens I tackled Hozuki no Reitetsu (season 1) as the first post in a review format, which you can find here -> https://animangaspellbook.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/hozuki-no-reitetsu-season-1-series-review/
I’ll also be following your (and others’) coverage of YuruCamp for the Winter Games, so hopefully we’ll be able to meet again on one of those posts.
hey, thanks for sharing your review. I’ll check it out.
and thanks for the comment and support. I’ll win, so prepare your congratulations *smirk face* I kid.