Forum - View topicNEWS: Manga Reviewer Wanted
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Izlude
Posts: 323 Location: Wherever The Wind Takes Me |
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Heh I was considering putting in an application for this...but then I realized how biased I am towards manga (In a good way!)
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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That's a problem happens on me as well. Whenever I browse manga shelves of typical mall-based bookstores, there's always "that's it?!" feeling in my mind. 
Talk about Chinese (Taiwan) version.... I've seen KOR in early 90's back in high school. ANN doesn't have Chinese support yet...(sigh and whine)
Huh?! Isn't that mandatory for any type of reviewer? |
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mirichan
Posts: 27 |
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And I ask? Why? When I read a book, I'm not spending my time comparing it to other stories by other writers that have been published before and might be in the same vein. I am reading that writer's efforts and concentrate on his/her skills in telling me a story... That's my point. When I see a review where it's more about other books than the one under review? I stop reading because this, in my book, is useless. I want to know how good/bad a story is, not whether book x or y was better... |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Let's put it this way: when you are going to buy a car, whose recommendation would you trust more? The 16 year old boy next door who got his driver's license last month, or Michael Schumacher?
Have you ever read an academic review article? The reference list of a typical review article often contains more than 100 different articles of previous works. Some of them have as many as 300 or more. What you consider useless might be very useful to many other people. Writing a review is different from writing a personal comment. It is not personal comments are inferior than reviews in any way; they simply have different requirements. While a personal comment can be very subjective, a review has to be as objective as possible, and a broader background knowledge would be more likely to provide a more objective viewpoint. |
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Vekou
 Posts: 329 |
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Yep. Thanks for saturating the market with a hundered titles of crap every month, Tokyopop. But, hey, people are buying it, right? So you must be doing something right... right? The above jab is a good example of why I'd never get hired by a "news service" to review things, even if I lived in Montreal. I am extremely biased against certain production studios and, of course, US licensors - usually moreso because of their business practices than the actual quality (or lack of quality) of their product. If you got to know me, this might not come up very often as I don't particuarly like to bash specific organizations or groups in everyday talk. But, oh boy, does it show up in my written opinions. Is the knowledge of the industry (in this case, anime and manga) there? Of course. But can I be neutral about a product from a company I dislike? Signs point to no. But I guess that's fine. That's better. I'd rather be reported on than a reporter. I'd rather work for a company and make their product instead of standing on the sides and cheering or complaining about it. I'll be in the industry, making the product as good as I can, and getting paid for it. What am I trying to say here? Not that reporters and critics and analysts are bad. They're needed. But should a manga reviewer's position be revered and sought after (as opposed to a job with the actual producers of the content)? Maybe that's your thing, but I'd say no. By the time I'd be done going through most of the titles out there (essentially, the job ANN is looking for here)... I'd probably start to hate manga! So, to sum it up, I think it's a good thing that the criteria for this position is so extremely specific. If it were not, people would jump at the opportunity to do so (this thread is proof enough), and it'd be very difficult to pick that diamond in the rough - someone that can go above and beyond. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10471 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Knowledge of a product is pretty necessarry in order to review it. ANN is a site read by anime and manga fans, so a review needs to be written from that perspective, not from the perspective of someone who is an "outsider." What's more, familiarity with past titles, the existing genres, stereotypes, cliches and knowledge of the teminology used to define them, simply makes for a review with fewer errors. See Dormcat's answer.
Please feel free to submit the reviews. I have to be honest and state that, all things being equal, I'll chose someone with more experience over you. But the quality of writing comes first, and I won't pick someone who's been reading manga for 10 years if they can't write a decent review. The fact that your an anime fan for a number of years also balances out the fact that you're relatively new to manga. -t |
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astra
Posts: 131 |
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I don't live in Montreal. Does this mean there's no way at all I could get this? I'm a college freshman taking Japanese at the second year level (very intensive program) after taking three years in high school. I've also taken about 8 years of French in middle school and high school. I have a huge interest in manga and own about 30 in English and 80ish in Japanese.
I think I fit the profile except for location. However, in the very likely event that I don't get this post (heh) does anyone have any advice for getting published in the anime industry? I know I may have to wait until I graduate college, probably with a Japanese major under my belt. I'm interested in writing about my hobby as a hobby 
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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The advice here is painfully simple: start small. Submit reviews or articles to fanzines and websites - without expecting to make any money off it, build up experience, establish contacts, make a name for yourself. And in a bit, it may be entirely possible that an editor at Anime Insider or Animerica or whatever who is looking for a freelancer to do an article, knows you, knows your strengths, and knows what kind of shows you are most familiar with will flip to your contact info in his address book, and there you go. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Damn Canadians.
Shame too because I can easily read French versions of manga. I'll keep my cold fearing butt in Florida. |
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AnimeHeretic
 Posts: 179 |
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Well, I credit them for taking a gamble on unflipped manga for $9.99 with JP sfx, pretty much forcing most of the other manga companies to go along (shudders, remembers the old crappy bound manga by Viz at $16.95/volume that continually shed pages like a cat sheds fur). Sounds like the French readers have it good though. I hadn't heard of the French being so far ahead. Which makes me wonder: Do the French Canadians have a similar advantage in anime releases or is that comparing apples to oranges... |
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mirichan
Posts: 27 |
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First off, you have to remember than contrary to the US where the cartoon culture is mostly geared towards the superheroes, the French-speaking readers (through France & Belgium) have been reading "bandes dessinées" for a long time and these cover many styles and subjects, like manga in fact. So it's not surprising that the French manga market is quite ahead. Now, for your second question... euh. NO? French-Canadians are in Canada... aka R1. Anime dubbed/subbed in French and available commercially are from France... aka R2. So in fact the anime in French market is very poor in Quebec... |
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Ryo
 Posts: 62 Location: Montreal |
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That's right, a french-canadian who don't speak english would have trouble watching anime. Some major titles are subbed (Millenium Actress and the Animatrix for example) or even dubbed in french (Disney's Studio Ghibli releases, except for Nausicaa and I think that's quite stupid) but only a few.
Well, at least, there's not some stupid law that forbid selling titles that are not in french, like for video games...
As for the mangas, I only have french mangas in my collection, and I won't have trouble finding titles I want anytime soon. 
When everyone on this site were so happy Kenshin just got licensed, I had just bought the last volume.
I think the quality is very good too. |
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jmays
ANN Past Staff
 Posts: 1390 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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Actually, I'll give the opposite advice here and say aim high. You won't get anywhere sitting around and waiting to be "discovered"; you have to pester the hell out of people until they give you a shot. Having something to show off is essential, of course, but it's not like you have to have been writing for free for ten years before anybody will take a look at you. If you've never submitted anything for publishing before, I'd recommend trying somewhere like ANN first. Send us your best effort, and we'll try to get back to you with some feedback. But hey, if you want to call up Animerica tomorrow and make a pitch for their cover feature, there's nothing stopping you. For what it's worth, I've found my success with anime magazines to be hit and miss. I got lucky with two cover features in Animerica in consecutive months, and then an entire year passed before they found space for any more of my stuff. With Newtype, they just happened to be looking for a music writer at the time, and I've been doing monthly artist interviews for them for a while now. Luck is a big part of the equation when you have so few publications to choose from, but persistence is still the biggest factor. |
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Bara_Megami
Posts: 106 |
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Ottawa isn't close enough, is it? Damn, I love writing reviews. I don't know French or Japanese, but damn I really wanted to apply. Maybe I still will... (even though I probably won't get picked...)
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4560 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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It would be nice if it was... probably depends on how often you can travel on the 417/40. As "homesick" as I am for Montreal, I still don't have a driver's license so going back to Montreal isn't really an option for me right now. |
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