Welcome back to another wonderful Wednesday with the Wowl in the Wafters... I mean Owl in the Rafters… Today I wanted to do something a little different. “Something a little different” is a line I’ve been recycling a lot lately but this will be the last time you hear it for a while, I promise. This will be my last update for the year so although it is a bit early I want to make a sort of New Years resolution today, and I want you all to make one with me.

As usual I’ll start with a little contextual background, specifically my contextual background. When I started writing for 91.8 The Fan over a year ago, I established my goofy little gimmick and theme as being the guy who reviews collections of anime/manga rather than just one title at a time. I wanted to focus more on the ongoing themes and changes in different authors, artists, directors, and in some cases genres. I also wanted to provide a large array of interesting titles to help you, my readers, broaden your scope of what anime/manga really has to offer as a story telling medium. Starting with my very first article on Nobuhiro Watsuki, author/artist of the international hit, Rurouni Kenshin, I managed to do just that. Sure, my writing then was a little clunky and the factoids came across ham-handedly but it served its purpose, and the style grew as I went along with more reviews.

Of course, if you’ve followed my articles regularly you may have already noticed that I’ve deviated from that initial premise quite a bit as of late. It has been months since I did a proper anthology or collection review. (not counting the Halloween marathon as a single review) I admit that I have strayed from my goals, and on some weeks I’ve slapped together articles on whatever was fresh in my mind just to get an article up under the deadline, and other times I’ve just had more topical subjects to cover that don’t have a working anthology or collection behind them. That’s all fine and dandy every once in a while, but I’ve let this go on for too long and I intend to rectify that mistake. (just not right now…)

My resolution for the coming year is going to be to get back to my roots and do what I came here to do: review and recommend collections of related anime/manga. So, over the next month and a half I intend to recollect my old unused ideas, as well as a fresh batch of new ones so that I can welcome you all into the new year with a host of proper articles that will be worth your time.

So, here’s what I need YOU to do for me in the mean time. I want you all (Yes, YOU, the one reading this right now.) to make a pledge with me to read at least two manga series you’ve never read before, or watch at least two anime you’ve never seen before(or one of each works too, I guess) from a genre or target demographic you don’t normally read, and do it by the end of January. (That gives you about 94 days between today and the first Wednesday of February.) If you’re a shounen action/adventure/battleseries kind of guy I want you to try a couple shoujo titles, or josei titles, or seinen titles. If you’re the slice-of-life loving type, I want you to dig up a couple real purebred dramas, or some whimsical action/adventure series, or some psychological thrillers and take them for a spin. The point is just that I want you to try something really truly different, and once you’ve had your fill (either followed the series to completion or just given up on them) I want you to log into the forums here at 91.8 The Fan and in the Anime or Manga sub-forum under Entertainment make a thread telling me, and everyone else, what two shows or manga you tried and what you thought about them.

To be perfectly clear, that means I want you to find two different titles from the same genre, with the same target demographic, or by the same author and give them both a try; then I want you to tell me what you think of each and compare and contrast them if you can. Obviously I’d like to recommend perusing my old articles to use any of the anime/manga that I’ve reviewed in the past, but if anyone would like recommendations for a genre he/she isn’t familiar with please leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to get you a list of titles to fit your needs!