Ever since Ganriki.org debuted in November 2013, we've been wondering what each successive year would hold. It wasn't even clear we would be able to sustain the kind of pace and the variety of outlook we'd coined for ourselves in those first couple of months. Whether we would even last a year to begin with was a good question. Now here we are, two years and one month later, mapping out all that 2016 holds for us, and finding our hands fuller than ever.
For us, it's never really been about having a dearth of material. There's so much to talk about, and in so many different forms, that it's been more about triage and priorities: What's worth talking about now? What's worth talking about any time? What's not worth the bother ever? Those aren't easy questions to answer, especially not when there's anywhere from two to five new shows a season that do demand an in-depth discussion, that have a hint of an ambition to do more than just entertain.
2016 promises no respite from that — if anything, it is likely to only grow all the more intense. As streaming expands its reach, and as the market for DVD and Blu-ray Disc reissues ramps back up thanks to the efforts of folks like Right Stuf and Discotek, more titles are returning to availability for the first time in a current generation of fandom. Many of them would be total ciphers if it weren't for the efforts of other fans (and critics) to bring attention to them, and so we'll be attempting to do our part in that regard.
Here, then, is a peek ahead at all the things awaiting us — and you — in the months to come:
The hits shall keep on coming
The lifeblood of Ganriki.org has long been its analyses of current and classic material, and that shall continue full-blast. Here's a sampling of things we have lined up:
- Vertical's release of Nisioisin's novel Kizumonogatari (Wound Story) will most likely be the first major article for 2016, so look for it soon-ish. Light novels have not been a large part of our discussion here, but Nisioisin's following is hard to dismiss, and so this may well serve as a lead-in to discussions of other works of his that have made their way into English.
- When word hit last year that Right Stuf would be releasing the unclassifiably fantastic Revolutionary Girl Utena on Blu-ray Disc, we had to say something about it. Expect that to be one of the major discussions we delve into in the coming year.
- The recent season of shows hasn't escaped our notice entirely — it just sometimes takes us a while to put our thoughts together! To that end, expect discussions of Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation, Everything Becomes F: The Perfect Insider, and Concrete Revolutio [sic] are all on the slate.
- Shy geek girl meets flamboyant cross-dresser in Princess Jellyfish, a show — and a manga, and a live-action movie — that has long deserved a close analysis. Now that the manga has been slated for release in the U.S. (took them long enough, right?), it's high time we gave this franchise the discussion it deserves.
- We recently added two excellent and under-discussed back-catalog items to our discussion roster: the historical fantasy Le Chevalier d'Eon and the science-fiction action-adventure Birdy the Mighty: Decode. Both are slated to be discussed in January and February, respectively.
- It's high time we started that long-planned retrospective of Osamu Tezuka's works, beginning with Astro-Boy, now enjoying an omnibus re-release thanks to the good work of Dark Horse Comics. Of all the places to start with Tezuka, it seems to make the most sense to begin there, with his most familiar, popular, and populist work.
- Speaking of Tezuka, one of the more unsung and maverick projects he had a hand in — the psychedelic fantasy Tragedy of Belladonna -- underwent major restoration work and is being released on home video in the coming year. Projects of this caliber are the very reason Ganriki exists
- It's also high time we started talking in details about Blade of the Immortal, the long-running manga (and anime, and now live-action film courtesy of the inimitable Takashi Miike) about a nigh-unkillable swordsman and his life of violence. Now that the manga has run its course, our project is to break it down arc by arc and look at how it had so much more to offer than creative and gory kills.
- Speaking of dark fantasy that has a lot more to it than violence and bloodshed, Berserk is a long way from concluding its run, and is more likely than ever to take its sweet time getting there. To us, that's a good excuse to embark on what is certain to be a long and grueling mission: an examination of that manga series, also in arc-by-arc format.
- We'll also be digging into both the archives and exploring the shelves for more Korean animation. Outside of King of Pigs, there's a veritable galaxy of other titles to delve into, many of which either received only the most limited release in the West or none whatsoever: Leafie, A Hen in the Wild; Oseam; My Dog Baek-gu; My Beautiful Mari; and much more.
This is hardly an exhaustive list (although it's likely to be an exhausting one), so by no means will our coverage be limited to these things alone. But we think it's a good start.
Not that Satoshi!
Patreon has allowed us to build a base of support that already makes it possible for the site to pay for itself. As of this writing, our supporters are providing us with $18 a month ($20 sans Patreon's cut), and while that's nice, we'd like to kick things up a bit.
We've started a campaign to to garner $30 a month in Patreon support — something that a mere ten more people could bring to us if they gave a dollar a month each.
If we achieve that level of support, we'll be performing a major retrospective of the works of Satoshi Kon -- he who gave us Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent, and Paprika.
Much of his work is out of print in the U.S., and so a retrospective seems like a good way to keep alive awareness of all he had accomplished — and all he had yet to accomplish.
If you've been thinking about jumping in and helping us out, but remained on the fence for now, do yourself a favor and give in. Even a buck more support a month will make it all the easier for us to prepare and execute exciting new projects that would otherwise have remained out of reach.
Pedals to the MeTal
When Ganriki.org was launched, it used a blogging/Web publishing system named Movable Type. It did the job, but the non-commercial version is no longer being actively developed, and we're faced with two choices: use an obsolete product, or pay $500 for a commercial license we don't really want or need anyway.
We're preparing a long-term transition away from that software to a platform we've created ourselves, called MeTal. This may happen as early as spring of next year, depending on the breaks.
Why do this instead of using an existing platform like WordPress? In truth, we looked at WordPress as a possibility, but decided against it for a number of reasons: the security issues created by the ecosystem around the platform (which imposes a good deal of management burden we don't want), and the fact that using it would create a much higher load on our servers than the system we use now.
MeTal is designed to solve both of those problems, but to also be as easy to use as WordPress. It's also meant to help us make it easier to modify the site in a non-destructive way, so we can make both evolutionary and revolutionary changes to the way the site looks and feels without having to expend an inordinate amount of effort to do it.
What's more, once we have MeTal running at a level we're happy with, the software and the templates used by it will be released as open source software for all that are interested in using it themselves. In other words, this is something we're hoping will also benefit other bloggers, whether anime fans or otherwise, further down the road.
Whatever road we're on...
... the destination remains the same: to explore anime and manga (and perhaps other aspects of Japanese popular culture, resources permitting), and to do it in only the way we can.
See you all next year!
