Jon’s Creator Showcase (February 2019)

Hopefully you didn’t miss the announcement, because here comes the Showcase.

Again, kudos to Nesha for the image.

This month, we had 43 submissions, so thank you to everyone who made this possible.

More details before we get to the good stuff:

• Breaking stuff down by category seems appropriate – although I’ve given people who create material from outside this blog’s boundaries precedence because this might be their only chance to be featured here.
• I did not renege on the fact this is January’s content – a few submissions were automatically excluded since they were from February. I also noted there were people who were treating Showcase tweets like any other tag post and had to account for that by being careful with later submissions, but if it’s been part of the chain of tweets, the hashtag or discussion with the content owner, then it’s been counted.

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Anime

The Rising of the Shield Hero Episode 1 (The Shield Hero Impressions) by LynLynSays

Shield Hero created a maelstrom of discussion in January due to the fact it starts with two big bangs in the first episode – both of them potentially problematic – but it’s always refreshing to see well thought-out arguments and questions to ponder over from that period.

Gargantia: A Mecha Which Lulls Like the Waves | Review by Takuto

Don’t let that title fool you into thinking Gargantia is boring – Takuto makes it sound anything but! To be honest, Gargantia‘s been languishing on my plan to watch list for a while and though I don’t think I’m going to get to it any time soon, this post at least makes me want to prioritise it that bit more.

Seasonal Anime, The Otaku Community and Spoilers by Steph from Two Happy Cats

Getting spoiled on seasonal anime is an unfortunate symptom of our times, although as the comments section can attest, it also happens with other media with less notoreity for doing so (Steph’s example is Game of Thrones). Nonetheless, if you wish to enjoy anime at your own pace without spoilers and don’t know where to start, Steph has some tips for you as well.

Why is the Number of Light Novel Adaptions a Problem? by Karandi from 100 Word Anime

Definitely not 100 words, but still insightful and, judging from all the pingbacks, original (as far as being “original” can go on the internet, anyway)…especially with that infographic. Personally I haven’t seen any complaints about the number of light novel adaptions going around, but if you’re curious about the breakdown of 2018 anime by source, then check it out.

Anime 101 – The Trappings of a Trap by Lumi

Remember that kerfuffle around Lily from Zombieland Saga? If you’re not in the know, Lily was called a “trap” by sections of the anime community, leading to heated discussions about what a trap is, what Lily identifies as and so on, so forth.

It may have only been last season as I type this, but the issue is not “so last season”. By having this character type and preconceptions around it, we get nothing but arguments so we’ve got Lumi to do some mythbusting for us.

Note: I remember reading this when Ruka was the example instead of Lily (which I couldn’t understand because I’m not caught up on Steins;Gate), but as of submission time the example was Lily so I’m going with that.

First Impressions: Winter 2019 Anime by Emiko from Ramblings n’ Scribbles

As it stands, this Showcase has its origins in the anime community and doesn’t seem like it’s leaving any time soon (despite my best attempts towards the contrary, a big fraction of the submissions were anime-related), so a first impressions post was basically obligatory at this point…

I’ve picked Emiko’s post because it says a lot in so little space (one screenful of my 1366 x 768 monitor or less, to be precise). It contains a few more typoes than some of the other entries, but from a formatting perspective, it’s pretty darn fabulous, not to mention every word oozes passion.

Books

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C G Drews: A Thousand Perfect Quotes Waiting to be Read by Chizurue (Elle) from Of Midnight Ravings

As I type this, I’ve got a post lined up in April for…well, Your Lie in April. When I read the second volume of that manga, it instantly hit favourite status! So to see Chizurue submit this poetic post laced with quotes for a book comparable to it absolutely makes my heart sing.

Games

[OWLS January Blog Tour] Dungeons and Character Development by Megan Peoples from Nerd Rambles

Now here’s something interesting…Jon mentioned there had never been a post on Dungeons and Dragons submitted for the Showcase before, so let’s change that! I don’t regret the fact that my usual go-to blogger for changing up post content seems to not use the handle Google’s indexed them under, because in return I got this instead.

Now, I know next to nothing about Dungeons and Dragons, but if you’re not familiar with it, treat it like any other story and I think you’ll understand what’s going on and the author’s passion just fine.

Atelier Arland: Introduction and History by Pete Davison of MoeGamer

Games and anime tend to be a frequent crossover, not to mention the Atelier games have an anime (I dropped it, but that’s beside the point), so I’m not as blind as I think I am with this post.

The moment you read the second line of the post, you realise Pete’s got a monumental job ahead of him – to summarise a series of almost-20 games in one post (!) – but he does it with aplomb, touching upon not only general logistics like the consoles, but also more emotional aspects like the core appeal of the series and even details regarding the virus one of the game discs carried.

Getting Involved with the Blogging Community

Replying to Spam (feat. Absurd Comments and Absurd Replies) by Luana at Book Storm

Spam’s fun if you can think of the right things to do with it – I wrote a snippet of a story inspired by mine a while back. What makes this post so fun though is the community aspect of it: Luana asked for replies to spam and turned it into a tag at the end, so if you’d like to participate, by all means do.

The WordPress Anime Awards 2018 – Ladies and Gentlemen, the Results are In! by Raistlin and Ayano (Kawaii Paper Pandas)

This one was suggested by DerekL and given the okay by Ayano herself, so here it is.

I was honestly quite overwhelmed by some of the presence of certain anime, in particular March Comes in Like a Lion season 2 – by virtue of its being a 2nd season, it automatically has the odds stacked against it. Now, if only the Crunchyroll Anime Awards were anything like the experience of this one – for instance, not having bonus categories come out of the woodwork all of a sudden – then maybe we anime fans would all get along that bit better…

The First Anniversary of the Jon’s Creator Showcase – A Warm Thank You & Submission Update by Jon himself

It’s a Showcase with a Showcase post in it…I just couldn’t resist making such a cylical thing happen.

However, not only is it a good shout out to previous Showcase participants who aren’t aware of changes Jon intended to make (which I’ve tried to honour to the best of my ability), it just goes to show how great this project is with a little polishing from previous hosts and Raistlin.

Other

Inside Wm Lee Castings, Dronfield by Derby Shire Duckie

I don’t think we see any travel bloggers appear in the Showcase, so I’m including this one for how uncommon the scenario is – apparently the blogger’s kids named some robots at a foundry, which led to an adventure of its own.

“I Know Where I’ve Been”: How One Musical Completely Changed My Life by Hannah from the Well Bean Blog

Again, I’m not proficient in the topic of choice (for this case, it’s musicals) but the way Hannah describes the experience feels so authentic, it’s like I’m right there with her in 2012. Her determination, despite her at-times overwhelming anxiety and having the odds stacked against her in regards to dance experience, is admirable enough to give her a place in this post alone.

[Fanfiction] Do you still read stories if they haven’t updated in forever? by Crimson at My Fujoshi Life

It’s not much of a secret past me embarrasses me with the things I got away with under the “MagicConan14” name in the pursuit of fanfiction, which still (somehow) gets me notifications and beta requests to this day. However, Crimson’s discussion, as she acknowledges as the end, applies to serialised fiction in general, so you might find something interesting in the discussion even if you’ve never read fanfiction.

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So did you enjoy this month’s Showcase? Next month it’s mirrorpurple‘s turn, so prepare for some great content there.