Seven-Year Anniversary

July 21st marks the seventh anniversary of the site. I usually let it pass without comment, but I felt like changing things up a bit, and I have a soft spot for anniversaries as a time of change.

As you might have noticed, I decided to change the layout. I enjoy plain and uncomplicated layouts quite a bit, and the old one was basically perfect for this site, but I’ve been thinking of changing it up here for quite some time. The only reason I kept the old layout as long as I did was because I could write with a font that used old-style numerals. Eventually, I decided that this was a terrible reason to keep a layout, thus you see this one (which uses old-style numerals in the headers, because I am fixated). The text is a little bigger, the sidebar is a little more streamlined (I moved the links to their own page, and the pages are tabbed at the top now), and… well, I had the old one up for seven years. It’s been long enough. Plus, a little color never hurt anyone. I do miss having the post counts next to the series names, though.

The biggest change is that I’m going to be posting regular content on Fridays (which is why I saved this change for today, rather than posting it yesterday on the right date). I’ve tried to commit to regular features several times over the years and failed, but I’ve done more than a month’s worth of content in advance, so I’m really going to stick to it this time. The features I’ve done in the past seem to be of limited interest, and what I have planned should be equally esoteric, but I like doing them, and that’s as good a reason as any to put something in a blog.

So. It’s been seven years, and there are 2,710 reviews on this site for 634 series. Well, “reviews.” I ramble for a while every time I read a volume of manga, and this is more like a reading journal for me. I’m more of a fan than a critic. But it’s old, and it’s big, and I’m fairly proud of it now.

Alas, Cheeky Angel 1 was the first review posted on this site, back on July 21st, 2004. Not a very memorable series, but I did think of it today while I was picturing possible outcomes for Your & My Secret (the eighth and final volume will be out in Japan in mid-October, and never in English now that Tokyopop is gone). Apparently my tastes in gender-swap comedies haven’t changed over the last seven years.

Seven years is an awful long time for any website to be around. Here’s hoping I can make it to the tenth anniversary without embarrassing myself too much.