The word “artist” and “creator” can mean a number of things to a number of people, but to the majority of the general public, artists are creators who express themselves through their art. People who express themselves through the art of online video, are Content Creators. The cool thing about people who are content creators, is the fact that they’re art is on a greater spectrum than just one type of form. It can be comedy sketches, dance trends, movie reviews, ‘let’s plays’, anime analysis videos, and so much more. Eventually, if these people continue improving and enhancing their content to present to the audience that they’re targeting; growing it in the process, then these content creators become what many call ‘internet celebrities’, or ‘Youtubers’. Say what you want Hollywood, but Youtubers are the new ‘A-listers’ now! XP

Gone are the days of people thinking that you can’t make a career out of riding a shopping cart off the roof of your parents house, and landing in a pile of horse crap and it going viral on Instagram. These days you can become a viral sensation and gain celebrity status just by getting your dog to sing the “Star Spangled Banner”, and many people have taken advantage of Youtube’s features, and what it can do for them. Video editing software has become so commercialized these days, that now 8-year-old Timmy can just grab his dad’s iPhone 12, shoot a video of him and his 12-year-old brother reenacting a scene from some dumb movie only Gen-Zer’s understand, and that video gets 5 million views on Youtube. 16 years ago Youtube was a fun place where people could share videos about the crazy things they were into. I miss the days where Youtube was all about cat videos, lip synching the Mortal Kombat theme song, and Naruto AMVs – don’t get me started on Naruto AMVs.

Sometimes I ask myself why, why did I decide to create this anime blog alongside my friend of 20 years? In 2015 we had an idea, or at least a thought, about what it would be like to have an anime blog and write about the stuff you liked; anime! Well, my creative brain decided to create a WordPress account, find the best theme to make it appear that we were a business, and go nuts! One year afterwards we made a Youtube channel that would eventually become a hub where we would have a podcast series called “Nerdz of the Decade”, and do video unboxings of anime figures. It was then that we gained the role of ‘Content Creators’ because we now had content, to create.

Nowadays since anybody can do it, there has been a massive influx of creators who make their way to Youtube, to create content on the things that they like. With anime being as mainstream as it is; thousands of creators have produced videos talking about the industry, reviewing shows, ranting about how good or bad certain shows are, doing figure unboxings, and ultimately…fanning out about the thing that gives them joy. There are some days I wonder if we’re even reaching our target audience with our videos, or even if people think that our videos are good. There have even been moments where I felt discouraged about our chances of our ‘content footprint’ on Youtube, being noticeable to bigger channels or even sponsors that we look up to.

Numbers, subscribers, and channel views weren’t of top-tier importance 16 years ago when Youtube was fun, now after Google bought it, it feels like its a popularity contest where creators are all fighting for Youtube’s attention; to promote their channel. I could even go so far as to say that Youtube isn’t about the creators, but how much content can be put on this platform so people already on it will stay on it longer. So what does this say about the value of a creator, and what does this say about us as D&A?

Maybe, I may be thinking long term. Maybe, I need to stop worrying about other people’s success and focus on our mission to being one of the best blogs out there. There are people who have been rooting for us since day one, and despite the many speed bumps we’ve gone through in the last 6 going on 7 years of our existence, we got people who have our back. Every creator is different in how their content is presented to their audience, but for us we decided to take a unique approach on how we cover topics both educational and controversial without bias. (Not so much on ‘best girl’ though! XP)

You never know who’s watching your videos, so continue to create the content you love for the people who love it. While we might not reach Jake or Logan Paul levels of fame, we small-time content creators have a voice in the creative community, and value the quality of our content than its quantity. I guess what I’m trying to say before I end this post is; you can’t move forward if you spend so much time looking back. Don’t worry about what others are doing, focus on you. We have fun doing what we love despite our boring and stressful 9-to-5 jobs. We love our fans and supporters and fellow anibloggers, and no matter what the future looks like for us, we’ll continue to be D&A no matter what!

We are D&A Anime Blog, and that’s what we do!

Until next post.