Blogiversary Time Again!

Part 1 of the saga here and part 2 here.

Once again, it was that time of the year where Aria became introspective about blog stats the yearly record within the spellbook. (Admittedly, this time she’d almost forgotten about the blogiversary when the past few times were a big deal – the biggest priorities, from her experience, were normally the 1st, 2nd, 5th and then every 5th blogiversary after that one, but by the 5th blogiversary, blogiversary dates were almost fully forgotten.)

The day of most activity was Wednesday still, but the top time was now 10 am. Why 10 am? Maybe daylight saving…?

…amazingly, the word count had increased steadily over the years (a common feat during Aria’s writing stints once she’d chipped at them for a while, but not one she “felt” until now). In the week of writing alone (writing on the day prior to the milestone), Aria had already finished 4 posts, including the #AniTwitWatches Kanon post, which…would explain the blogging burnout she was feeling at this point.

Nonetheless, 2020 had much less posts than previous years, with a downward trend starting from 2018. (Note from future!Aria: Maybe that’s why most of the high-ranking posts in this post hail from 2018.)

Excluding previously discussed posts, the new top 10 were:

The Devil’s in the Details in Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

“Ah, I remember writing this post like it was yesterday. As I pointed out in the round-up post that month, Iruma’s name greatly resembles the kanji for ‘human’. I still think the puns are charming and more people should check out this cute and family-friendly series, even if it does drag a bit near the end.

…ooh, this post actually overtook some of its competition from last time.”

Shippin’ the Half-Cold Half-Hot Todoroki with LAMA

“For those of you coming from the far future, around this time Scott started a wave of husbando posts (including this one, which was a direct response to the wave), which led me to dig up my old husbando writings, including this one. ‘[T]ime to ship some boys like your local postal service’, indeed.

I still remember putting a lot of effort into who I’d pick to ship – it had to be someone popular enough to ship with several characters and to be known, but obscure enough that none of the others would take my choice.”

Jigokuraku and the Power of the Extreme

“This is a post I don’t remember as much, but I’m still faithfully following the series. It seems to be approaching its end as of the time of writing, so now would be a good time to get in on it (although it has, as mentioned in the post itself, the caveat of being behind an 18+ wall on Viz’s website).

Since the writing of this post, another Asaemon woman has been introduced, but aside from that, it’s still a fairly solid post.”

O Maiden in Your Savage Season…Why Are You So Weird?

“This post is extremely personal, explaining both my relationship with Mari Okada and the concept of gender itself, but I do seem to remember referring back to it once or twice, which might explain how it ended up here.”

How Colour and Contrast are Used in Madoka Magica

“I remember I had a lot of fun writing this one, because it was one of those colour theory posts I was on a roll with at the time. It’s a very solid post for a symbolism-heavy work such as Madoka, I think.”

On a Particular Pun in Kakushigoto

“This is the first and only post from this top 10 which was written in 2020, which certainly shows the staying power of the initial writing in comparison to the later stuff.

I remember talking this one’s visual up in Jon Spencer’s Discord because I seem to remember I started with the visual first and then wrote the post. In retrospect, Kakushigoto was quite popular because of the intersection of things it was (from the creator of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, a father-daughter work, a comedy saturated with puns) and I would suspect part of that was due to COVID, but it was not as much of a breakout hit as, say, Villainess or Tower of God that season…

…which reminds me, I still have to get back to Villainess…“

Spellbooks and Horoscopes collab (Mahou Shoujo Ore) 1 – 2

“…oh, I didn’t expect this one to be so high.

Astral has since moved on to streaming as I write this, but sometimes I try to get him back with award posts…I mean, even Shoka has made a comeback of sorts at this point…”

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and Gender

“On the other hand, I thought this one would be higher. I refer to it quite a bit because it’s the oldest post in this WordPress style you know me by, by quite a long shot (from February of the year I started the Spellbook). It’s still quite the respectable post, although you can tell I was consulting the episode as I was writing it.

I think the block editor messed with it a bit, because it looks a bit funky now…”

Evangelion and Madoka Magica in Retrospect

“It’s two highly controversial series in one post, which would explain its placement, but it’s rather insubstantial on both series to be honest…”

Demon Slayer collab entry 22 – 23

“…and just to round out the top 10 this time…is another Demon Slayer collab post, continuing the trend from last time. Just goes to show how popular it really is.”

There were currently 338 followers, which, with a difference of 77 followers from last time, was less than last time’s, but that could be explained by the fact the last post was written in December and not November.

Not much had changed in regards to both outgoing wanderers and where readers came from.

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…and thus, another year was closed for the Spellbook.

Specific thanks to:

• Jon Spencer and anyone else involved in collabs or other community initiatives
• those who have given shout-outs to the blog
• …and all of you followers, readers, likers and commenters!