▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Interview #237 - @Kwanthemaster ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬  Lover of 15-Second What-The-Fucks ”Not deliberate, not random,” said the pigeon, as the final dropping left its rear to meet the sidewalk below. Interview conducted by: @NextUniverse Reviewed by: @operationvalkyri Could you tell us more about yourself? Hi, I’m Kwan(themaster), a.k.a. the stock photo pigeon dude that materializes in the discussion threads of every 10-second anime on MAL. With dementia coursing through the brain, I spend my days wasting away on the internet in the pursuit of new art to view, save, document, and share with other people, and someday, I too hope to venture into the art world in one form or another and create something of my own I can be proud of. As for my real self, I’m a 23-year-old software engineer currently residing in Washington State, USA. I’m a Protestant Christian, moderately conservative, INFJ, who’s hopefully interesting enough to carry out a conversation that’s worth giving a read. 😉 Certainly a way to start off. Are you sure you aren't confusing dementia for avant-garde? Maybe you forgot? Many things I've forgotten over the years, but MAL’s recent naming blunder, that I have not. Not only did they ruin my clever signature, but what’s wrong with simply calling these abstract or experimental? Maybe I should just be happy that we've injected enough of these into the database that they finally had to acknowledge them (and thankfully allow them to stay). How did you choose your username? Before Kwan, I'd gone by various other names on the internet, notably Luke Mistycrest being the pre-selected name of my avatar from Free Realms (a fundamental part of my middle school days). Fast-forward to when I created my Steam account some years later, and I wanted to go by something new. Around this time, I had discovered the web series, The Guild. My brother and I were quite into it, and in season 3 there's a group of antagonists called the Axis of Anarchy that we liked - he chose Fawkes and I picked Kwan. Sometime later, I went to play a multiplayer game on Kongregate with my dad (we used to play a lot of browser games together, Miniclip Pool FTW), and of course, Kwan being a common name, it was taken. He randomly suggested I add 'themaster', and thus the legend was born. What exactly am I themaster of? I'll leave that to your interpretation. I'm sure the anime database community knows the answer to your last question .-. I have to ask now, because browser games are legendary, do you still play them? Even if Adobe Flash is dead. Haha, I suppose it depends on who you’re asking. Unfortunately, not really these days, but I will pick up something on a whim if I ever feel like it (probably something on Miniclip or from my childhood). Do let me know if there’s something I should check out, though. Shoutout to BlueMaxima's Flashpoint while we’re here – not sure how well known they are, but I’ve been following their activity on and off, and they seem to have done an incredible job preserving the Flash games of yesteryear, which I am eternally grateful for. Could you give us a brief history of your time on MAL? I joined MAL back in 2014 after browsing the website as a guest for a few months, since I wanted somewhere to keep track of what I'd seen and read. I had no real interest in interacting with the community and it remained that way for years. I've always been interested in data, so naturally I began to explore what was on the website. This eventually led me to discover some of the short films and music videos. I've always been bad with time management, so while I was going through university, it felt like I didn’t have much time to watch anime series (this requires you to actually make a point to set aside time to complete something vs. mindlessly watching YouTube videos or scrolling through a website that you lose track of). Shorts were always easy to sneak in here or there between working on assignments though, so I’d watch whatever I found. Well sure enough, I ended up finding a missing short by Fantasista Utamaro (Miyavi's Fire Bird). I'd done enough browsing by that point to learn about @lanblade, so I immediately thought to ask him about it. I was told it qualified, but instead of adding it himself, he wanted me to try. It probably took me a whole picken hour to submit one lousy music video, but I was determined not to make any mistakes. He also told me about Densuke28 at the time (one of my favorite independent creators), so I painstakingly added some of his work too with his guidance. The more I explored, the more I found and eventually I started to get obsessed with searching the database for new things to view and add, making corrections, learning the guidelines, and so forth. Meanwhile, I'd make discussion threads whenever I could to try and make it easier for people to view these works. I started to reach out to some of the people with big lists to ask for help locating things I couldn’t find, and that's how I connected with most of the people on my friend list. How did you get into anime/manga? I started with anime and manga in the 9th grade, having pretty much no prior exposure to anything. It was around this time that I developed an interest in learning how to draw (I loved to doodle, but my art skills had always been very poor). I didn't really know what to start with, so my mom suggested I try getting inspiration from some comics. This led me to check out my first "manga" from the library: Daniel X: The Manga series and Witch & Wizard: The Manga. These weren't even Japanese and I didn't much care for them, but I decided to explore some more series, which I ended up enjoying considerably more. At the same time, a guy from school I knew, who was always drawing in class, offered to give me some lessons during lunch. He was really into anime, so he started me off drawing some chibi characters. I also learned about Bleach from him and started to watch it on Hulu. Instantly I was hooked, but after about 60 episodes, I began to notice all the other anime on the website and decided to see what else the medium had to offer. For the record, my friend left the school that same year, and I never continued with any lessons, so I'm still a terrible artist to this day, but hey, at least I've seen a lot of Japanese cartoons now. Could you recommend to us three of your favorite anime/manga? It's well known that my favorite anime is Ping Pong the Animation, which has already received plenty of praise, so you don't need to take my word to check it out. The art direction or particular sport may not be to your taste, but I think the core coming-of-age story is worth anyone's time. I more recently tried the original manga from Taiyou Matsumoto, which I was fully expecting to enjoy, but I couldn't have anticipated just how much I would, and it now too now sits atop my favorites. For a static medium, it's incredible just how dynamic the art is, often leaving one gasping for air. If you're a fan of the anime or want to experience the story for the first time, the manga may very well be the way to go. You can debate whether or not it's an "anime", but I recently saw The Red Turtle, and it may very well have become my favorite Studio Ghibli and overall feature-length animated film. It has a lot of things going for it that are right up my alley - beautiful animation and music, a strong connection with nature, no dialogue, a very grounded and human narrative - by the time the film ended, I was in tears. If you don't mind a slower, simpler narrative, you should absolutely not miss this masterpiece. Finally, it wouldn't be a Kwanthemaster interview without a music video recommendation. One of my absolute favorites and something I think can be universally appreciated is amazarashi's Tarareba (directed by Yuutarou Kubo). Not only is the animation and music excellent, but the way the meaningful lyrics (which are translated in the video) are complemented by the visuals is perfect. Both sad and comforting, the message hits at the core of the human experience and is something I often reflect upon. Knowing amazarashi dedicated the song to his father makes it all the more special. Any particular users you have a liking/disliking to, and why? There are many users whom I respect for one reason or another, but I’ll limit it to five people who’ve shaped my time here: @a0dbxZa – If you're looking for one user most similar to me, a0dbxZa is the guy for you. A former prolific Anilist contributor and now at TMDB (Letterboxd), his exposure to film and independent animators well exceeds mine. Truly I don’t think I’ve found someone with the same combined appreciation for this type of data, animation, and archival as him. I credit much of my growing interest in world animation to his recommendations, and it’s always a great pleasure discussing and sharing resources together. @Johan – Johan redefined what it meant to make a friend on MAL. Most of the time when I interact with people on here, it’s either small talk or the type of discussion you'd expect on an anime website, but here’s a guy who not only is really invested in anime and the database, but openly engages me in conversations about religion, politics, sports, even real life. We’ve also seen many movies and series together, which is not something I really do with anyone else. Say what you want about his reputation here, but we've gotten along quite well over the years. Sure there are disagreements from time to time, but as friends do, we're always able to work them out. @lanblade - lanblade was one of the first people I got to know in the MAL community, and as I mentioned earlier, I can completely credit him for getting me invested in contributing to the website. Whenever I had any question about the database or was looking for a source, lanblade never failed to deliver, even if it meant long back-and-forths as I tried to figure out how things operated around here. This is not to mention all the incredible work he did for the database over many years. I don’t know how well the users of today know him since he hasn't been active recently, but he will forever remain a legend. @purplepinapples – pinapples is a user who consistently delivers value to the MAL community, be it his many user scripts, clubs, shorts recommendations, and most prominently, all the work he’s done for transparency of the queue and his notification bot for new approvals. Back when I was in university working on my capstone project for my computer science degree and had completely hit a brick wall, it was pinapples who was able to help walk me through things in a way to get me over the hurdle. This has been a repeat pattern whenever I needed help figuring out how a program worked or asking for some feature to be added to his tools, and I'm truly thankful we were able to connect. @TheFakestShemp – Shemp was one of my earliest friends on the website. We actually met on an unrelated gaming Discord server, but he was a former moderator on the MAL Discord, so maybe some people here remember him. What was great about Shemp, not to mention all our other conversations, was I felt like we could really talk about anime. We had a small little server for a while with some friends and did a couple group watches, and while our opinions didn't always align, the discussion was solid and there was always a mutual respect. Unfortunately, it seems he deleted his MAL account, but I'll always remember the good times we shared. As for the dislikes, I can’t think of anyone I’ve personally been bothered by enough to give any attention. Even if there’s a part of a person I don't care for, it doesn’t mean I won’t engage with them or be able to find some common ground. Instead, I’ll say more generally what traits I dislike about the internet anime community, much of which seems to plague the likes of the anime discussion boards and the MAL Discord. It seems like most anime discussions these days boil down to name dropping, scores, and taste, with an unhealthy amount of irony in the mix. Everyone’s looking for attention, be it based on your sophisticated opinions, controversial takes, or that you really don't even like anime in the first place. It all begins to feel samey and shallow, and I lose interest rather quickly. I'd rather see more discussion about the actual art and creators, or really just more enthusiasm about the hobby instead of all the negativity. Speaking of which, I really have no patience for the live-action/short film/Western animation haters - I get that this is a Japan-centric site, but be a little more open, would you? I've seen quite a bit of live-action/short film/Western animation haters here on MAL, which is to be expected, but then again, I would agree with you, even though I am not one to force ideals on anyone. However, would you recommend any titles in the category you'd wish these people saw? Maybe one that would change their mind on the film style or one that is just so good there is simply no reason to not watch it. To clarify, I don’t really care if someone only wants to watch anime. I’ll openly admit that I’ve seen a disproportionate amount of it, simply due to familiarity, availability, and interest relating to what’s in the database and qualifies for it. At the end of the day, we all watch whatever we want, and that’s perfectly fine, it’s a hobby. The attitude I take issue with is that “all x or y sucks”, what, because you’ve never properly given it a chance? At the end of the day, does the country something came from, what techniques were used, or how long it plays for, really determine if it was good? I think the best piece of animation I’ve seen is Canadian artist Frédéric Back’s The Man Who Planted Trees. Not only does it look unbelievably stunning, but it tells such a beautiful and inspiring story that it’s never left me ever since. Like Takeshi Yashiro’s Gon, the Little Fox, it’s a simple but substantive message, and is made with such care and authenticity, that I think it’s firmly cemented itself as one of the best animated films that will ever be made. If you’d like more recommendations, I suggest checking out the 2003 Laputa Animation Festival list for the best animations of all time that was compiled by 140 of the world's leading animators, many of whom are Japanese. Any hobbies outside of anime, manga and MAL you'd like to share? Outside of the typical movies, music or other internet-related hobbies: I’ve been playing drums since the 7th grade, starting with percussion in band class. This was fun, but what really interested me was the drum set. I took some lessons from the worship leader at my previous church and began to play occasionally on Sunday. This continued with the worship team at my school and now regularly at my current church. Most of the time I just enjoy messing around with whichever songs I find online, be it rock, jazz, pop, etc. It’s also a great stress-reliever. My main physical activity is rock climbing, which I’ve been into for a number of years now. This is mostly gym climbing, but I have done several outdoor trips (which are a lot of fun, but infinitely scarier). Not only is rock climbing a great way to stay active, but conquering routes requires more than just brute strength (flexibility, balance, problem-solving skills), so I enjoy it a lot more than just hitting the elliptical or lifting weights. I’ve also started to get back into mountain biking this year with the purchase of my first mid-range trail bike. My favorite riding is single track in the forest. I also enjoy going on hikes when the opportunity arises (Washington has a lot of great trails, when it’s not raining, that is) and to go on walks around the neighborhood. I don’t purchase many sets these days, but LEGO has always been a part of my life in one form or another, and I keep up with all the news and new releases. My favorite theme is BIONICLE, which was a massive part of my childhood, and someday when I have my own space, I’d like to work on completing the main line of sets. How do you feel about how the site is run? Especially in regards to the moderators and admins. I think one of the problems with MAL is that it’s owned by a giant corporation that has undergone multiple takeovers, which is probably why so many suggestions or simple quality of life updates have never happened. The money behind MAL does bring the potential for great things to come… or it gives us a worthless NFT collaboration. I’ve yet to see anything I’m particularly excited about, like a way to see your contribution history or something simple like being able to filter for Chinese and Korean animation (maybe this is planned in the new tag update?). On the forums, it’s pretty bad - I suppose that could be said for a lot of the internet these days, though. I’m not going to pretend it’s easy looking after such a large and boisterous community like this, but time and again it seems like any thread that touches on a cultural topic or causes some kerfuffle between a few members, gets locked or deleted. I understand that you need rules to keep some semblance of order, but why is it always the threads with the most discussion that are closed? Oh well, most of it is probably not worth participating in anyway. On the anime database side, it could certainly be better, but I’m not going to point any fingers. Yes, the queue is out of control and I’ve seen my share of mistakes over time, however, I’m not going to pretend I haven’t made some myself nor that I’d be any better at speeding things up. Most of the time, the moderators are cordial and easy to work with, in particular, @Leknaat and @tingy I have a lot of respect for. The real issue I see is that, to my knowledge, there have been no new anime database moderators since 2015. I can only imagine that the current team is understandably experiencing some burnout and that they could really use some new motivated users on board. And yes, I know there have been incidents on the website or other teams that needed attention – perfectly understandable – but without a timeline, it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll see some movement. Why are you so cool? from @Cleome The name's Kwan, Kwanthemaster. Any theme song to go with? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho3-otFU_Vc You've made that pigeon profile picture (as well as avatar) very iconic. Any lore you'd like to share as to why you'd use such an image? Haha, too be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself why I landed on it. I've always enjoyed browsing stock photos to see what bizarre things I can find, and soon enough, I found one of a pigeon mask guy. What a perfect blend of goofy and professional! I was so attached to this, that all of my pictures going forward were pigeon masks, until I finally landed on the one I have now. At the time, I had been submitting some character images and quickly learned of the required 225x350 dismissions, so I wanted to have something exactly that (OK, well close enough - I just checked, and it's a little bit off, lol). I guess I've always just liked pigeons anyway, a familiar face whenever you visit a new city, and I enjoy watching them waltz around picking up scraps (maybe not if I lived there and had to put up with them everyday :p). If I ever change my picture here again, I'd like to do one of myself wearing the mask, I just need to make sure I find one that looks the same, since some of them out there are pretty bad. I got curious and had a little look myself, managed to find this. By any chance, have you stumbled across that exact site before? I have indeed, but it's been a while. I wonder what got so many people to don the mask - maybe the infamous Pigeon People of Tokyo? Either way, I guess I have no more excuses not to buy one now. What are your favourite browser games? Oh man, let's see what I can remember. Miniclip Pool is probably my all-time favorite. It was just the perfect multiplayer game, and I have a lot of good memories playing matches against my dad. Unfortunately, they migrated away from the superior Flash version of the game to the mobile port, and it has never felt the same since (not to mention all the gatcha gimmicks they've implemented). Back in the day, I used to play pretty much everything on Miniclip, especially if it had achievements. I remember the Nitrome games always being among my favorites. Not only are they really well-made and vary quite a bit mechanically from each other, but a nice feature many of them have was the local co-op, so I could play together with my brother. It looks like they're still putting out new titles, so definitely check them out if you haven't before. As an avid LEGO fan, I was of course always on the website and some of the games there remain among my favorites. The Mata Nui Online Game, CrystAlien Conflict, Supersonic RC, Backlot, the list goes on. However, if there's one game I have the most memories with, it's My LEGO Network. Maybe it's more of a mock social network, but I sunk countless hours into it building up my profile to reach the highest level and get pretty much everything imaginable that you could. This was a really fun one to talk about with my friends who also loved LEGO, since we could browse each other's profiles and trade items. I played other online browser games with them too, notably Club Penguin and Poptropica. Otherwise, pretty much a bit of everything. I used to play a lot of point-and-click/hidden object games with my dad too, so I have fond memories of those (A Small Favor, the Tipping Point adventure game, etc.). Super Crazy Guitar Maniac Deluxe, Sift Heads, Meat Boy, The Impossible Quiz, the more I think about it, the more I recall. Miniclip and Nitrome are for sure where the childhood is at. Quite a huge library of games and sites you know of too. Expected, I suppose. I just need to know as they are personal favourites of mine, have you played Fancy Pants Adventure and/or Raft Wars? Fancy Pants, how could I forget?! Fantastic series of games with such fun movement mechanics. Haha, yeah, I remember Raft Wars too. Was never very good at that type of turn-based game, but of course I still played them. Great to hear that you enjoyed those games! Last one on the matter since I only just remembered, I'm sure there is plenty of other stuff, but this one sticks out to me. Have you played king.com's (rip og king) Red Ball series? Hmm, I don't think so? This music sounds awfully familiar though and it looks similar to a lot of other games I played, so who knows. A red ball did remind me of the Papi games. I probably had nearly every one of those downloaded on my iPod Touch back in the day. Do you still have any of your doodles to this day? Maybe, if possible, you'd like to share them here? I do have some, but nothing I would like to share. 😅 Art has always been one of my poorest subjects. I remember back in elementary school showing my homeroom teacher my report card and, lo and behold, I had a "4" in art (this is the equivalent of a D in the German 5-point grading scale). Yes, that's right, a grade-schooler nearly failing art class. Well, she wouldn't put up with that, and told me to go down and ask for it to be raised. Somehow this was successful, and I earned myself a "3". Let's just say I never had the confidence to take another art class again. My doodling has mostly consisted of scribbles on my assignments, notebooks, hotel notepads, etc. Really any free scrap of blank space I could find would become my personal graffiti canvas. These compulsions have subsided a bit, but I still find myself at it (especially during long work meetings). With all the great art I've seen, I am inspired to try and learn a thing or two so I can create my own (not that there's a prerequisite, but something with basic competency). It could really be any creative pursuit though, I just sense a real longing to manifest some of the things in my head in one form or another, and just need to pick something and stick with it. What can you play on the drums? That's a good question, because I really have no idea. Most of the time drumming for me is like I said, just messing around with whichever songs I enjoy listening to at the time, an extension of my body to the beat. So if I can keep up and play along decently with what's happening, I'm happy. It's the freeform nature of drumming that I really like, and the longer you play and try new things, the more you'll be able to do. I've never been part of any band outside of worship settings, and most of the time, these songs don't have anything too complicated involved (nor do you want to do anything flashy, since you're not trying to draw attention to yourself), so maybe I haven't pushed myself as much as I should? So what do I enjoy playing along to? Jazz, rock, and hip-hop beats mostly. Oh, and anime music of course. :p If there's one song I'd like to get down pat, it's the opening to Ping Pong the Animation, but if that's going to happen, I really need to get scientific about it, breaking down the individual parts on paper and working my way through. The way I always play it is just going along to whatever I'm hearing, and then immediately moving on to another song. Any wild moments in your rock climbing life you'd like to share? I can't say I've experienced anything too crazy, since most of my climbing has been at the gym and it's all pretty safe. For those who are familiar with the grading, I'm consistently in the 5.11 range (peak 5.12D), with my top bouldering (shorter, ropeless climbing) around the V5 level. Outdoors, I've only done a handful of trips. My first time was a spur-of-the-moment day trip with my brother to Leavenworth, WA in the middle of December to do some bouldering. Neither of us climbed very well, but trudging through snow to scramble onto some even colder rocks where you'd lose all the feeling in your hands is something I won't soon forget. Earlier this year, I did a trip with a couple of guys to Frenchman Coulee where we faced the opposite problem of the impaling heat. Well, I'm happy to report I managed up a couple routes, but even if you're pretty good with heights, it really is a completely different feeling being up there with the wind blowing on you attached to a single rope someone anchored in moments ago. Highly recommend the experience, but if you value your life, take some time to build up your skills and make sure you're with some competent people. 😅 Have you ever considered competitive climbing? Oh, absolutely not. a) I'm nowhere near good enough to begin and b) I'm quite happy progressing at my own pace as I make the time. Back in the day, when I did karate, we'd occasionally have these tournaments they wanted people to participate in. I did a couple of them, and honestly, I was miserable. Back’s too slouched in the katas, no points in the sparring since I'm paired up against someone twice my rank, yeah, no thank you. Now then, getting a chance to compete on American Ninja Warrior? Sign me up! Any other LEGO themes you'd like to give a shout out to? BIONICLE was practically an obsession of mine for years after I was first introduced to it by a friend in 2005. I did have a couple buckets of bricks and a soccer field at the time, but for a couple of years, there were pretty much no other toys I was interested in. Once I started to branch out into other themes, some that I grew up on include Agents, Mars Mission, Power Miners, and Indiana Jones. I'd spend a lot of time looking through catalogs or even at sets from older themes online, so even though I don't own anything from these (currently), some of the late '90s themes like Adventures, Aquazone, and Rock Raiders I'm quite fond of too. These days, I tend to like the more classic offerings, specifically the Creator 3-in-1 models, but I've been eyeing some of the Ideas and Bricklink Designer Program sets from a distance. How do you feel about today's LEGO sets? The quality, range, and detail of parts seem to be ever increasing, which is certainly nice to see. There are lots of great sets coming out, but I can't have the same nostalgia for them as what I grew up with. It's nice to see that the company is marketing towards adult fans, which has led to many great models. I do find it hard to justify these purchases - even if you can argue they're reasonably priced - due to limited space and my tendency towards saving. What I really like about LEGO are all the creative possibilities that can be achieved from a limited number of elements. Do you aim to one day have assembled a large LEGO collection? Along the lines of memorabilia, maybe even world record levels. Oh no, just a few of the things I am interested in. Sure I like owning items, but too much of it and it becomes a burden (if not for you, then eventually for your children, lol). What if I'd like to move to another country someday or find myself picking up new interests? I've quickly seen how this can become an obsession. I guess you could say my interest in tracking down and viewing short animation is it's own sort of collection, but what's nice is that for the most part, it's free. Anyway, I think you can still appreciate these models from a distance without necessarily needing to own your copy. In one of our conversations, you've spoken about applying to become an anime database mod for MAL. Unfortunately, this never became a reality for reasons out of everyone's control. What are your thoughts on the matter? I applied to be an anime DB moderator back in March 2019 and again in February 2020 when there was the open recruitment announcement (this time with a lot more effort put into my application). Neither time did I get a reply back. I've spoken with @Kineta about the process, and it seems that because of website issues, company turnovers, and the urgency to fill other roles, recruitment for the anime team has fallen on the backburner (training material creation and the guidelines needing a major overhaul being another deterring factor). I completely understand all of these matters, but I think there being no substantial update since December 2015 (from a user perspective) leads many in the community to wonder when we'll ever see a new face on the team? Some sort of timeline would certainly help, since it's been well over the stated two years. As I was already exploring the content on the other anime databases, one day, I decided to check out the Anime-Planet Discord. I had noticed a few mistakes in the database and decided to request changes in the respective channel. Well, enough of these obscure requests, and I caught the attention of the owner. After we'd talked for a while, she asked if I wanted to join the team. One thing led to another, and eventually I did join, and I'm going on a year now. At this point, I decided to give up on ever joining the MAL team, and ultimately, I think this is a better fit for me, since I've come to like the flexibility of independent ownership and the database guidelines which are a lot more accommodating than MAL (my chance to add even more shorts!). I don't mean to direct the attention away from MAL (do check out Anime-Planet though if you haven't!) Obviously I still heavily use the site and will do the occasional submission here and there, but hopefully this clears things up, since I've been asked about this a few times. If you did become a mod, what do you think the MAL database would look like today? Do you think a lot would change? To be honest, it probably wouldn't look all that much different. At the time of posting, the anime queue has over 4000 entries. Maybe someone new who's motivated would be able to get through a decent chunk of that once they've completed the onboarding/training phase, but a team is not made up of one person. Everyone has their own lives with various things that occupy their time, so it's just about trying to keep up with new announcements and steadily knocking out bits of the backlog throughout the week as you're able. Depending on how the guidelines rewrite went, I'd probably advocate for certain changes (e.g. allowing work from Taiwan), but you can't just jump in and expect to take charge. There are things MAL could certainly benefit from to make the contribution process better that I'd like to see introduced over time: making a habit of replying to all user requests once they've been attended to, introducing notifications for all database edits, creating a page for a user to see their contribution history and what's pending, and possibly opening up requests to be submitted through Discord (something the other major anime databases already have). Some of this would obviously be outside of my control though. As you have stated, you are an Anime-Planet moderator. Is your time working there something you'd call a treat? Maybe any particular moment that stands out to you? I'm quite fortunate to be working with a great group of people there. The good-natured and active collaboration between teams is really encouraging and allows for progress to be made in all areas of the database. It's really a satisfying feeling to be able to add something to a website and immediately see it show up. Likewise, being able to assist with the guidelines to allow new types of work to be added (e.g. video game openings), is something that gives me immense satisfaction. It's also very encouraging to see the website owner so involved in the day-to-day activity by adding content and participating in the community. That said, moderation comes with its own set of challenges that can prevent you from simply doing the things you'd like to: writing documentation, working though user requests and import failures (which sometimes may be things you personally have little interest in), long back-and-forths about policies or particularly tricky entries. I have no regrets joining, but it's certainly given me a new appreciation for these volunteers and forced me to put some things on the backburner. Join because you believe in the website and want to build an excellent database, not just for a fancy status or your own interests. Would you consider yourself a Minna no Uta enthusiast? Yes, one may consider that, haha. My exposure to Minna no Uta was through the MAL database, as is the case for most people here. Originally, I had no idea what all of these were and didn't find myself particularly interested, favoring more traditional music videos. Eventually my submissions led me to some that weren't on the site, so I began to add what I could find. Well, the more I viewed, the more I came to appreciate them, and now I consider it my favorite part of the database. The program first began in April, 1961 (yes, it even predates the Sazae-san anime) and, over the course of its runtime, has produced 1,500 unique music videos, featuring many of Japan's leading musicians and artists (in fact for some, this opportunity became their professional debut or a chance to revitalize their careers). What I really like is the sheer diversity of the program that allows artists a platform to create something in their authentic style. Everyone from Makoto Shinkai to Yoji Kuri, Taeko Onuki to MAN WITH A MISSION has been on it, so you really get to see the evolution of animation and music in Japan over its 60+ year runtime. I think it has something to offer for everyone and is an important piece of Japanese culture. The program itself is not entirely unique, with others such as Hirake! Ponkikki and Okaasan to Issho offering similar family-friendly music videos, but Minna no Uta is by far the largest and has the best documentation, so finding the work is a lot easier (even if NHK is notoriously protective of the content). With the help of @purplepinapples's script and Minna no Uta - Club, I'd really like to make it a goal of mine to view and document everything from it that's possible. Most/Least favorite Minna no Uta songs? “Oshiri Kajiri Mushi” stands out as one of the worst songs I've heard, period. Apparently he was popular with the kids though and it led to four seasons of anime, so I'm glad it was made regardless. Visually, I'll give it up for “Akisutozeneko”, which, as my former self put it: "Among the worst music videos ever conceived." “Jigueseo Chikyuu no Sora no Shita de” and “Mado” are among my very favorites; true masterpieces that resonate deep within my soul. “Funiculì Funiculà” is pretty rad too. For those interested, you can find an extended list of my favorites here. Any specific reason you choose to use an oversimplified rating system for your list? Rating anything has always been a stressful activity for me. Early on I was like everyone else, giving pretty much everything I completed a good rating. Over time, I started to become more critical and wanted some diversity in my scores, so I'd go back through my list and adjust things. I started to get a little too obsessed with this, spending more time fidgeting with numbers than actually watching new shows. If you think about it too much, trying to boil everything about a work into a single number is really not an easy task. One day, I had enough, and purged all of my ratings. However, I wasn't really satisfied with this either, since there was no ability for me to set aside the things I liked from those I didn't. One day, I stumbled upon the graphic novel blog Good Ok Bad and immediately fell in love with its simplicity. I decided to adopt this for my own list and haven't looked back since. I think with all the shorts I watch, this system is preferable, since it's really hard to compare a 15-second commercial against a feature-length film, when the only similarity is the medium they used to make it. I still probably think about rankings more than I should, and who knows if I'll ever decide to add scores back for normal series/films (since I already have a rough idea what they are), but for now, I'm happy with the flexibility it's allowed and not having to deal with people pestering me for what I put. Have you had any moment in your MAL lifetime where someone has attacked you for your scores/tastes? I feel like, with you being on the quiet end of the database, surfing titles many have no interest in, something like getting attacked wouldn't be frequent. Although I'd be simultaneously surprised and not, considering this is MAL. Not really that I can recall, since I don't seek it out. If anything, I probably receive more pestering for not having any normal scores to begin with (that and maybe "list padding"). I think it's more that if I assign something a score, I feel like I should have some justification for it, while the 3-point system allows for more flexibility. Does x really deserve the same score as y? Do I really remember what I saw correctly and would my opinions on it be the same now? I think when it comes to scoring, it should be a balance of your personal enjoyment and objective qualities. Whatever insecurities I had about my "taste" and scores in the past though have mostly subsided. I'm not important enough that anyone actually cares that strongly about what I think of something, nor should it really matter to me in the end as long as I'm trying to remain authentic. Would you consider yourself an active follower of GoodOkBad.com? Or, at least, have you been interested in anything from the site since discovering it? Not active, but I browse occasionally. If you're a manga fan interested in branching out into graphic novels (I haven't read many yet myself), his top 500 list - which includes many manga too - looks to have a wealth of recommendations (Cross Game is on the list, so it must be good). How far have you gone for an (anime) entry? Whether it be trying to watch episodes associated with it, or just finding out if something exists or not? There are a few entries I've spent an unreasonable amount of time on, notably 24H and Suntory Tennensui CMs come to mind. These commercial entries in particular are the bane of my existence as companies are notorious for purging them from existence once the marketing campaigns have finished, so compiling and tracking down sources can quickly become a difficult, if not impossible, task. I'm also fond of researching individual creators to try and find everything they've worked on, which can quickly become a huge undertaking when they don't even list half of these in their own portfolio. Oh and of course Minna no Uta. Probably the dumbest example of my completionism is Anime Beans, a mobile app from Production I.G that offers a variety of exclusive series to rent. One feature they have is the ability to earn coins by watching ads, so of course, I'll stupidly sit there on this cumbersome app clicking through these just to earn enough coins so I can sit through an equally painful show I don't even understand the dialogue of. Rinse and repeat. In general though, when it comes to tracking down sources, I'll try whatever I can, and have little shame asking anyone I've seen mark it whom I think is legit (this is actually how I met a number of my friends on MAL in the first place). I'll even go to the creators themselves if I think there's a chance (a low success rate, but it has worked before). I hope the MAL community takes pity on me when I post my bail for raiding Japanese libraires of their educational OVAs. I am not entirely sure why I am surprised that you'd even go ask the very creators themselves. Sounds like something you'd do. I am very curious to know which sources creators have given to you, would you like to share? How do you contact said creators? Which member of staff do you usually go to? I don't think it's that strange to tell someone you like their work and are interested in viewing something. Well, I haven't done it that many times and the success rate isn't great, but most creators have social media accounts or a public email address you can try. One such example is when I was telling @Johan about some Naoyuki Tsuji shorts. We found he had one available to rent on Vimeo, but there were a few others we couldn't find (Kaze no Sei and Mukashi no Yama). So he simply left a comment asking if those could be made available, and a few days later, they were up, simple as that. Other times a person may say they're not interested or simply not reply at all, but it never hurts to try. Nobody's really offended when you compliment them, especially if you mention you're happy to pay for it. Any cool stuff you've done as a software engineer? The team I work on creates and manages internal company tools that are leveraged by other engineers (automating processes, monitoring telemetry, making sure everything's compliant). Fundamental stuff, but nothing really that exciting I can talk about. My time at school offered some cool learning opportunities and projects (building websites, creating simple games, or even a tool leveraging AI to identify flowers), but a lot of my day-to-day job is just maintaining existing systems, working through the never-ending bugs, and attending a lot of meetings. Projects change though, and hey, I certainly can't complain about the benefits. I don't really code in my free time either, so no personal projects of note. I do have a published research paper under my name though, so I guess that's pretty cool? (Don't ask about it.) Considering you like to do your research, are you as invested in different forms of media as you are in animation? (Live-action, games, music, etc.) I think more so than knowing about animation, it's that I'm a database addict and like knowing the ins and outs of these sites. While I'm familiar with most titles and maybe details about certain things I like, I'm no expert on the history of the medium or most of the mainstream knowledge of shows that people who've seen them would have, so don't come asking me to join your trivia team. For other media though, I have varying degrees of interest in all of them and their respective databases (refer to the linked profiles on my page), but I certainly know less than I do about Japanese animation, that's for sure. Steam used to be one of my obsessions, but similarly, I'd spend more time hoarding games, browsing the storefront, making trades, following bundle sites, idling for cards, etc. than maybe actually playing games lol. Oh well, it was my own form of entertainment, and I'm proud of the pile of rubbish I amassed (the majority being free or very cheap). Do you see yourself leaving MAL in the near future? Nope, for as long as I'm interested in anime and using the internet, I'm pretty sure I'm here to stay. Is there anything you wish MAL had? I wish MAL had animation from around the world in their database. :p Feature-wise, definitely custom lists. Is there something unasked that you would like to talk about? What's underneath the pigeon mask, I'll leave to your imagination. Here I was thinking I've asked too much. I expected nothing less from the master himself lol. Any feedback on the interview format? Really had a fun time with this, and I appreciate that I had some time to think about my replies. Thanks again for reaching out and all of your questions! Thank you for your feedback, I had fun doing this too. :) Can you recommend three members whom we can choose from to interview next, and briefly explain why you would like to read their interviews? Other than yourself certainly deserving one with all the great things you're doing on MAL these days (and having to put up with interviewing all of us bozos): @purplepinapples deserves an interview if he's up for it, considering all the great tools he's built and his extensive knowledge about MAL. This is not to mention his fantastic anime list and just genuinely being a great guy. @hacker09 is another user who’s been delivering a lot of value to the MAL community recently with his scripts. Really a friendly and helpful guy, with a passion for programming and data, so I'm sure he'd have something interesting to contribute. @Psajdak as a screwball recommendation, both for his long history of contributing to the character database that would probably be insightful, and the wild nature of some of his threads. I think it would make for an entertaining read. Well then, that's the end of this interview. Thank you for your answers and attention. :) Appreciate it! If anyone has something else they'd like to ask or just want to connect, I'm always happy to meet new people - the profile's open. 🙂 |
NextUniverseNov 21, 2021 1:21 PM
| Always thought that pigeon mask had history behind it. You've piqued my interest and now I have to watch The Man Who Planted Trees. |
zagzee said: Always thought that pigeon mask had history behind it. You've piqued my interest and now I have to watch The Man Who Planted Trees. Most of the uploads are poor quality, but I managed to find a good one on YouTube when I was originally looking for it (720p, original French dialogue, English subtitles): |
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| Very interesting read. Thank you for all your contributions to MAL's database all these years and sticking with us one way or another :) |
p r o f i l e 👀 |
| Great interview @Kwanthemaster now I see why you're quite vocal about your takes. |
 |
| Sorry I didn't get to ask or submit any questions :( This interview was conducted during a period of time where I was... of course banned. But wow Has this club advanced? Feels like you were asked way more questions than I was lol. Glad you finally got your interview- it was well overdue. And MAL is fucking disgraceful for not already having you as a memeber of the DB team. Its literally unbelievable. No human being on this site, maybe except lanblade? Has put in more work than you have over the years. Noone is more deserving. Cheers pal and thanks for the kind words Jimmykudo3000/Johan - This deserves more traction then this 7th reply. |
 If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ Let him be accursed O Lord, Amen! |
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