Theme by nostrich.
Logo by vivdesigns.
Keep updated with Manga Therapy by subscribing to my RSS feed! "Like", "Follow", or "+1" me for more lovely conversations about manga & Japanese pop culture!
Text with 1 note
Manga Therapy on Pinterest
If anyone wants to know what I’m interested in (in the form of lovely images), be sure to check me out on Pinterest at:
http://pinterest.com/mangatherapy/
As you can see, my profile isn’t swarming with many pictures. Maybe I should post up pictures of pretty boys to please all the fujoshi since Pinterest IS mostly catered towards women.
Pinterest is still invite-only. If you want an invite, post a comment below or e-mail me at tonyyao82 (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll try to send one to you if I can.
If you don’t believe in the hype, here’s an article on the popularity of Pinterest.
Maybe I should be known as the “male who provides fujoshi fan-service to women” on Pinterest?
Text with 5 notes
Pinterest - The Next Great Social Network For Anime/Manga Fans?
Recently, I got an invite to join Pinterest, a new image-sharing social network that allows users to showcase pictures of what inspires or interests them. The neat feature about Pinterest is that you can create “Boards” of images. Boards are basically categories/folders that you can put images that you find in. You can create a “Board” for any topic you can think of from the top of your head. I created an “Anime/Manga Goodies” folder to showcase anime/manga pictures that I like from the site.
This is what Pinterest looks like when I search “anime”.
The images posted to Pinterest are known as “Pins”. There’s even a “Pin It” button you can drag to your browser toolbar, so you can share any image you find on the Web to Pinterest.
What makes Pinterest stand out is the organization factor. Having “Boards” of certain types of photos showcases one’s varied interests and users can separate images into whatever they like. Aspiring animators/artists can use the site to find worthy pictures and put them in a Board that can go by the name of “Inspirational Pictures” or something similar.
If you’re an anime/manga blogger, this is another source of promotion. You can promote images from your blog onto Pinterest to drive traffic and network with other users. Your profile can be customized to include a link to your blog. Pinterest is another way to get readers to know you better as well. If you want readers to know about your other passions (food, music, etc.) in vivid detail, this is a great site to showcase them.
As of right now, Pinterest is still in beta and it can only be accessed by invite-only. You can go to the website and click the “Request an Invite” button.
I think the site can really take off for fans of anime and manga to share a variety of images and what they love with other fans in a clean, user-friendly format. So, get out there and start pinning your love of moe, ecchi, or whatever floats your boat!
Though it seems like mostly women will enjoy Pinterest more given the dominant topics for the site, so shall we assume that Pinterest will be a site that fujoshi will go crazy over? Suggestive male coupling pictures, here we come!
Photo with 1 note
To my 500th Twitter follower, Kyonkun. This is for you.
His blog can be viewed at: http://jakesanimeblog.wordpress.com/
Text with 99 notes
“Ichigo & Rukia” Trending On Twitter
(It’s official. They’re the most popular anime/manga characters in all of Twitter.)
Wow, what is going on in Twitter land? This morning, I heard from someone about the BLEACH main characters, Ichigo Kurosaki & Rukia Kuchiki, being an item. So, I browsed Twitter Search and found out “Ichigo & Rukia” was a trending topic on Twitter. Hell, the topic was ahead of Thom Yorke, Amazon Prime, Bruna Surfistinha, and others (even Justin Bieber!). A good question is what has led to both Ichigo & Rukia to be part of a worldwide trend that got on the front page.
Is it because of Episode 310 (which finally highlights the end of the drawn-out Arrancar saga covered in Volume 48 of the manga)? Perhaps so. Fans of the manga have noted that the farewell scene between Ichigo & Rukia (Chapter 423) did not happen at all in this episode. People thought that this would be the last episode of BLEACH. Were fans visibly upset at all this and decided to vent their rage through Twitter? Also, are there really a huge number of BLEACH fans all over the world (more than Naruto & One Piece)? The answer lies in this document about a project being made to create a worldwide Twitter trend for IchiRuki. (Special thanks to Kim Huerta for the link.)
So, how does a topic end up trending on Twitter and end up becoming worldwide in the first place? A lot of factors have to be put in consideration: the amount of users tweeting about the topic, the time zone, the pace of the tweets, the influence of the topic starter, and incentives to promote the topic. Although a study conducted by HP last week reported that most trending topics are made because of traditional media news sources, this is not the case for the IchiRuki topic as multiple users made it a worldwide trending topic.
It looks like a lot of careful planning went into making IchiRuki a front-page worldwide topic. How did the IchiRuki community reach Tite Kubo, Masakazu Morita (Japanese VA for Ichigo), & Masashi Kudo (character designer for the anime)? Are the power of passionate fans that strong? Though in a sense, Twitter is a tool meant for fun & interesting diversions. It’s a platform that has created a community the likes the Internet hasn’t seen. You can reach many people in a matter of seconds with Twitter. The channel of communication is extremely open. The 140-character limit is actually fun, because it challenges people to be very creative with what they want to say.
An interesting article on the psychology of Twitter states that people are starving for community (in many forms) and Twitter fills that need. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? This can go both ways, but the fact is this: users can socialize with people with similar interests much easier than in a forum. It’s easier to band together as one huge group and IchiRuki is a good example of how Twitter redefines community.
It’s also amazing to see how popular BLEACH is all over the world. This is how it looks like in my eyes right now.
One Piece - Popular in Japan
Naruto - Popular in U.S.
BLEACH - Popular worldwide
You can credit BLEACH for being popular worldwide because of the many unique personalities of the series. Ichigo is loved because he really wants to protect people and that’s something most people can relate to. Rukia is loved because she’s not a fragile main heroine and a woman who is tough, though her character should be more relevant. Some of the villains are interesting (especially Ulquiorra). Although there are a LOT of characters, they are what makes BLEACH appealing (even though the story isn’t always too great). There’s also the fact that the story takes place in a very modern setting with fantasy elements. Do people appreciate series that take place in today’s world with a hint of fantasy? What are your thoughts?
Anime fandom has now shown it can take over Twitter. What else can we expect from them in the future?
Video with 2 notes
6-Month Anniversary “Thank You” Video.
Thank you everyone for visiting and supporting my blog!
Text
Manga Therapy Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, & New E-Mail Box
Hey everyone, just wanted to let you guys that there are now links to my Facebook fan page, Twitter, and a new box that allows you to subscribe by e-mail if you guys don’t like using RSS Feeds and easier access for e-mail subscription. They’re all the way to the left.
In any case, if you like, here’s physical links to my social media outlets.
Manga Therapy on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/MangaTherapy
Manga Therapy on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/MangaTherapy
So, become a fan (or “Like” me) and follow me!
