Forum - View topicShelf Life Catalog v.2 (December 2002 to 3 August 2015)
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
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Noted. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16974 |
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Honestly I've always been upset over that. It was one of my favorite columns dating wayyyyy back to when Bamboo ran it.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
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I liked it too, but I stopped following it years ago. I still intend one of these days to update the index, but who knows when that will be.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16974 |
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Beyond the article itself I always enjoyed seeing the photos of everyone's collections. I found those fascinating and fun to see. I also miss Answerman. The good ole days.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1709 |
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I liked Answerman too, though I preferred it when Mr. Bertschy was not the columnist. Unfortunately, I stopped having as much time to read about six and half years ago when I lost my hair, and was no longer putting it up in a bun every day. (I got better, but my hair hasn't been the same since.) Thus my reading of online columns and blogs dropped precipitously. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6602 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I think Crisha and I were the last 2 people to submit Shelf-Obsessed pictures to the column.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16974 |
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See we need to revive the column so I can send in photos of my new set up since moving lol.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10071 Location: Virginia |
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I used to think about sending in photos, but I could never get good photos of the entire setup.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1709 |
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Is there a need for a weekly anime review column? But in any case that's an interesting suggestion for a column by itself. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10071 Location: Virginia |
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Shelf Life was a product of its time. Back when physical media was king and streaming was just starting. I think it was based on advance copies sent to ANN and forwarded to the reviewer. Now we have multiple weekly streaming reviews instead. We do get the occasional season review but that appears to be streaming based also. It also appears the streaming reviews are voluntary and not assigned to the reviewers.
As for a Shelf Obsessed column, towards the end the Shelf Life column occasionally omitted that due to a lack of submissions. I think it would be worse now. As noted physical media to put on the shelves is declining, poster art is a thing of the past and the cost of figures has gone through the roof. I think it is currently possible to an ardent anime fan and have little or no physical collection to show. I suspect we would get mostly photos of the home theater set-up where the individual streams anime. And that is assuming that they would not be just streaming to a pad device or phone. Back when I started collecting, physical media in the US ran a couple of years behind Japan. It got a lot better for awhile but now it is back to that or worse (never) since we have to wait for the licensor to wring as much as they can out of streaming. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16974 |
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Despite my nostalgia I agree about the review aspect of Shelf Life. Between the weekly streaming reviews, and other reviews that pop up, that part is really moot right now. It's basically been replaced by these other reviews. I do see a way the column could still be relevant.
For starters gearing it more towards the "should I buy this for my shelf" aspect. More and more people are favoring digital media now. We have however seen cases where not having that physical media can come back to bite you though. You're at the whims of the various services in terms of what they have to stream, and what they keep licenses for. We've seen licenses expire and shows disappear. I think the value in owning a physical copy in some ways is even more important now. The problem is there is so much more to own now, so how do you narrow it down? Out of the 50 Isekai titles each year which ones are worth buying and keeping on your shelf? The column could be geared towards showcasing the more unique aspects of shows that help them rise to the top of that situation. Plus there could be a section regarding older shows. Anything 10 years plus in age. Do these titles stand the test of the time? Are they worth hunting down? Are they worth keeping on your shelf if you have them already? In particular are they worth double dipping for and upgrading to Blu Rays from DvD's? That's a particular conundrum for more seasoned collectors. Perhaps even go back through older Shelf Life titles that were Shelf Worthy back then, and decide if that remains true now. While physical collections might not be at the height they were in the past, I think there are still plenty of people with some sort of physical collection. Whether it's anime, manga, figures, funko pops, or hell even hobby adjacent items like TTRPG stuff, boardgames, etc. Of course that is reliant on people sending in photos of the collections lol. Anyways, maybe I'm just being overly nostalgic. *shrugs* |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10071 Location: Virginia |
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@Redbeard 101
While I largely agree with you, especially the importance of physical media in case streaming licenses expire, I think you are wrong about there being a lot to buy. Don't look at how many shows are released to streaming each season. Look at the weekly list of what is actually released on physical media. Every month there seems to be less and mostly titles that are marginal or obscure. Take a whole month's worth of actual releases and decide just how many you would miss if you couldn't see them anymore. It seems that most of the really good stuff is being held until its streaming demand tanks. Perhaps a monthly column listing all the anime released that month on physical media. I would include key art, the blurb, a list of extras if any, the date it was initially release in Japan for context and some comment on how it was received when it came out for each series. I would also attach links to all reviews currently on the site. The shelf obsessed feature could be appended to this column when photos were available. |
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1709 |
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Given that I'm half of a project that is trying to catalog all of North American (R1) anime releases (though our progress is slow), I could certainly get behind that. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10071 Location: Virginia |
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That sounds useful. Are you trying to catalog every title, or are you going as far as to list every release of each title? I've noticed that the Encyclopedia here provides very little information about VHS or Laser Disk releases.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1709 |
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Every release of every title. It's meant to be a replacement for Alan D. Peters' (sadly moribund) AnimeMania. My partner in this, Stephen Morgan, is doing most of the work, and I'm chipping in. Here's an explanation. |
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