Dear Readers,
This September, Beneath the Tangles will be four years old. In the summer of 2010, I surveyed the blogosphere and found a void in the type of blogging I felt God leading me to do. With one simple post, I was off and running.
If you know me, the person who quits everything at least twice, it’s tremendous that I’ve lasted this long. And in fact, it wasn’t because of me at all. Beneath the Tangles has survived and even thrived because of the wonderful staff of writers here and because of the amazing community of readers. As such, I wanted to celebrate a big change with you all. After some gentle nudging and support from staff, Beneath the Tangles finally has it’s own URL. We are now found at http://www.beneaththetangles.com.
Further, writer JP (Japesland) has led the way in organizing a new resource for our site. Titled “The Christians Guide to Anime and Otaku-dom,” this new section, accessible through the “Christians and Anime” selection on the toolbar, is a starting point for Christians who have an interest in anime, manga, light novels, or visual novels. We’ve begun to develop the content for this area, but are far from done. We’ll be making further additions as the weeks and months go by.
Thank you, again, for joining us as we’ve continued to move along, and for being with us during this time of positive change.
Sincerely,
Charles/TWWK
Congratulations! A little over three and a half years is a very long time for an anime blog. I’ll be sure to check out that guide to anime. JP always has interesting things to say.
Thanks! It’s worth noting that the recommendations sections are a joint-effort, with me only adding particular entries.
Looks like some great changes. I’m not sure I’d have noticed the URL change if you hadn’t pointed it out; Beneath the Tangles is so comprehensive, it seems natural that you’d have your own URL by now.
I like the new section; I suspect it will help a lot of people get their bearings in the otaku world, and I’m personally interested in the visual novel part. I know a little bit about visual novels, but since they’re not as readily accessible as anime and manga, I haven’t spent time getting to know them. I hope that you’ll remember us girls as you build this resource. ^.^
Thanks for the kind words! I actually thought of you and the guide you created a while back, which is itself a really great resource!
Haha, well…hmm…I hope there’ll be an addition or two to the VN page that’s aimed at women, but with a guy developing that page (Kaze), it might not work out that way? I’ve played a bit of Narcissu, which we’re recommending, though, and although it’s from a guy’s perspective, I think it’s at least palatable.
I’ll probably give Narcissu a try. If anime are enjoyable beyond their target demographics, I suspect many visual novels are, too – particularly when I remember Clannad’s source material.
Narcissu was good but SIde 2nd was amazing and is also from a female’s perspective (all female cast, in fact).
In terms of female audience, there are 3 issues I can think of. First is English availability – VN translations take a loooooot of work, so translators tend to choose the most popular ones, and as one might expect, that hardly caters to females. Second is erotic content – most VNs are 18+, so regardless of other factors, they immediately get cut from potential recommendations, which further hinders the selection pool. Third is as you guessed – many transcend a gender target audience. For example, I can certainly say Little Busters works in a similar way Clannad did. If you have specific questions about a VN, feel free to shoot me a message or leave a comment, as they can be quite the time commitment and I wouldn’t want you, or anyone, starting something you wouldn’t enjoy.
Thanks, Kaze. That’s good to hear about Side 2nd. I look forward to trying both. ^.^
I kind of guessed those would be issues. I stop by one blog called “Girl Game Review” every now and then, so I know there’s definitely an interest in clean, girl-orieted VNs. I think, much of the time, interested girls hunt down America-based VNs and made with Ren’Py or some such free service – there are enough amateur works made in English to keep a person busy for a while.