Change of Status

Here is yet another entry that I had only written part of. It should be interesting to see what I write here as far as what I remember and whatnot. And right below this paragraph is another paragraph that I had written already, so I may as well keep it here.

I am sorry that I have not entered a new entry in quite some time; this is entirely my fault, but I do have my reasons. One reason is because of my job at Hersheypark and another reason is... well, you will find out in this entry. Call it a second job, if you would.

From Anime Academy's front page
June 10th, 2003 - Dear student body,
And the winner is...

Eek, Professor of Anime Politics! Beating out 47 of his fellow students to earn a spot on the Anime Academy faculty, Eek had to endure the stiffest competition in the history of Staff contests. For those others that sent in their applications, we would like to thank you all for wanting to take such an active role in our school.

This brings back a flood of memories and feelings. I can remember thinking back when the contest was going on that, if I lost, I would probably never come back to Anime Academy. However, I doubt that would have happened; I might have gotten a little pissed off because I put a lot of effort into it, but the chances of me being incredibly angry and never coming back were really small.

I can remember how it felt to win. Where I was once looking up to everyone else on the staff, I was now a part of them; where people once looked at me, they suddenly looked up at me. The sudden change of status was concurrently thrilling yet frightening. I mean, being a professor was something that I had always thought "Wow, that would be really fun," and while it is a lot of fun, the sudden shift from student to professor felt incredibly awkward. I had only an inkling of understanding how the site was run, and having all of the behind-the-scenes stuff revealed was like jumping from a hot tub into the Arctic Ocean in a second. There is that sudden shock once you realize how things function, but once the shock went away, I was able to see just how much fun it really is.

At this point, I have been a part of the staff for almost six months, and while I admit that some things have drastically changed in my life due to my relationship with Anime Academy, other things really have not. For instance, I have essentially sunk myself neck-deep in anime, but I have not immersed myself in the anime community as a whole. I do not mean to brag, but I have reviewed a boatload of anime in only six months (Most of it in the past three months) and I admit that I have kept the site afloat for the past month now, yet my relationship with the anime community has not really been affect. Allow me to elaborate: I do not really associate or participate in very many other anime-related sites. I mean, other than Project J and Twilight Whispers, I am not an active participant in other communities where I may be signed up on their forum (For example: Dub Review, Anime News Network, or THEM Anime Reviews).

The only difference between before I joined the staff and now is that I take notes and then I write a review for almost every anime I watch. There have been a few anime where I just cannot find the right words to write a review for them or they are a part of a larger franchise and said franchise tends to repeat itself over and over. The problem with the latter is that I do not want to keep repeating the same thing about parts of the franchise because they are all so similar, hence, I can only give thought to a solution. For the former, I have gone back several times and finished writing the review, but some of them still elude me. I might stare at the screen for a while and just keep thinking about how I can go about writing for it; part of the problem may be that I do not want to start repeating what previous reviews from other professors have already said or I will simply just not find the right words. Surprisingly, one or two anime have left me with an unknown feeling about them. I am not particularly impressed by them but they are not bad, yet at the same time, I am more than hesitant to turn in a review that essentially says "This anime was bland" with a grade haphazardly slapped on there just for looks.

I can remember when I was turning in my first review and I was talking to other staff members on IRC; I forget what brought up the subject (I had been a professor for less than six hours, if I remember correctly) but Kain suddenly jumped into the middle of the conversation and told me something to the effect of "Eric, if you are going to be a professor, I want only your honest opinion." That was about when I finally grasped the responsibilities of being a professor and decided that I would not let the opinions of others sway what I think of an anime.

However, I am sure that there are anime that some of the staff refuse to even think about reviewing. For me, that is any Studio Ghibli or Miyazaki Hayao anime. I remember once telling Kain on IRC "Well, Ghibli or Hayao flicks don't really jive me." I think his response was "And? That's your choice." I have told this to some other people, but I have never really explained why I choose to do things this way. I think I put it best when I was talking to ltj2002 one time: "Well, all that my review would end up saying is 'This is a Ghibli/Hayao film... what did you expect it to be? Bad?'" I mean, I recognize their quality, but they have never really connected to me. Of the staff, I am the only one that does not have a Ghibli/Hayao anime on their Top 10 Anime list, and I do not regret this in the least; to a certain extent, I almost pride myself on this for some unknown reason.

And five and a half months after the previous professorship contest ended, there is another:

From Anime Academy's front page
November 20th, 2003 - Dear student body,
With the recent retirement of both Kei and Griveton, Mugs and I feel that now is the time to open up a new Professorship position. All parties interested in joining the Anime Academy as a Professor should click on the above link. Please follow all of the instructions to the very detail; the last Staff opening in April of this year drew over four dozen applicants, so I reiterate that all applications should be filled out exactly as instructed to save us time needed to review them all.

A lot of people tend to be very quiet about the contest while others want to make it known to everyone that they are applying. For example, I began student reviews back in March or April 2003 (Actually, I was the person who started it), but I was not doing it for practice or anything; I did them because there was a Library section in the Lounge, and I figured that if I could not be a professor, I could still get my opinion out by other means. So I wanted to write reviews, and since I was a student, I separated them from the official reviews by calling them (Yes, you guess it) "Student Reviews." All of the original threads have long since been saved on my hard drive and deleted from the Library, but that was only after I became a professor; before I got the position, they were largely ignored by the masses that would descend upon the Lounge everyday, but afterwards, a lot of people were writing student reviews. Part of this may have to do with the fact that Kain posted in all of my student reviews threads something to the extent of "Good review" or "There is a mistake here, but other than that, it looks great." This undoubtedly attracted some attention, and it seems that a lot of people who write student reviews now believe that this is their means to shine and impress some of the staff in hopes for the next professorship contest. In fact, the day that the contest was announced, I remember at least a half-dozen new student reviews being posted, and there has been a large increase in reviews.

Yet, people seem to believe that this is all that the contest is based upon: a simple review. "Oh hey, if I have good grammar and spelling, I can beat out 90% of the people who apply, so I'm sure to win" is probably the mentality of some of the people, but there is more to it than that. I already gave some advice, but I am willing to bet that most people will overlook it to some extent; if that is the case, then it is for the better.

Still, I am anxious to see who will win.