I’ve long since shut down the Eastern Edge blog, as I wrote about below, and next on the chop block is this domain.  It’s just too deeply associated to what it once was for me to successfully remake it now.  The Eastern Edge left many permanent signposts on the internet which still direct traffic here looking for things that no longer exist, and never will again. Links to my old translations and commentary, commentary on my commentary, bandwidth leeches with direct links to images, and the other remnants of an internet character named “gottsuiiyan” I’ve decided to put out to pasture.  I no longer wish to do battle with the ghost of a Japanese language magazine column, and later a comic and animation blog, character that no longer inhabits me.  I will still write about comics and animation, but from now on I’ll write as me – not “gottsuiiyan”.  I won’t be that guy again.

I also won’t be translating Japanese creator interviews and magazine articles anymore.  Sorry to those who enjoyed them, but I feel it’s time the industry takes responsibility for it’s own stuff.  For far too long it’s been the fans doing the ground work disseminating information and creating interest in Japanese stuff.  When fans want information about their favorite Japanese comics, or to know a little about the creator, it’s the review sites and blogs maintained by fans that provide not only the garnishes of insight and commentary, but the meat and potatoes info that the license holders and publishers – both in Japan and overseas – should be providing.  I would put a lot of the blame on Japan for years and years of flinging content over the side like so many fishing nets into the sea in hopes of catching new revenue streams that simply aren’t just sitting there waiting to be caught.  Meanwhile, those seas are full of pirates adept at looting properties with absentee parents, all while flipping the script to paint themselves as digital Robin Hoods.

See, there I go again….

Even if I dispense with the opinion I used to toss around with reckless abandon, continuing to translate things and provide information makes me part of the problem I just stopped myself from ranting about.  It’s supposed to be about the creators and their creations, and the audience enjoying the things they like and not worrying about what they don’t.  That’s where I pulled back to when I shut down the Eastern Edge and it is where I want to stay.  I realize this is throwing out the baby with the bath water, but the rest just isn’t worth it.

I also don’t need the hassle of endless waves of referrer and email spam, MySQL hiccups, software updates, and server space and web tools I pay for but don’t really use anymore. I’m leaving all this behind and movin’ on up to a deluxe new website in the cloud! (otherwise known as Squarespace).  The gottsuiiyan moniker will live on in the form of my Twitter (@gottsuiiyan) and maybe one or two other internet handles, but gottsu-iiyan.ca is going down this summer, shortly before it’s 10th birthday.

To everyone who ever read my old content, commented on it, mentioned it in their content, translated it into another languages, liked it or hated it, I thank you for being a part of what was an interesting internet experiment.  The real me has moved on to my new website (which is on my Twitter profile if anyone is interested).

Thanks, everyone!  It was fun being “gottsuiiyan.”

Goodbye!