Before I begin, I promise that these won’t all be self-serving, gloat-y things where I talk about me and only me. I really just want to give some form of baseline, to explain where I’m coming from, and why this is something I feel so passionately about. So, apologies in advance - I promise I’m working on some really fun stuff! -Samantha
In the anime world, I’m considered by many to be an old fart. I’ve been a fan since 1992, and an anime journalist since about 2002… I’ve...
2018-07-17 18:24:25 +0000 UTC
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Image credit: Akira Toriyama artwork for Chrono Trigger (SNES), copyright Square Enix, 1995 - Present.
Hi everyone!
If you’ve followed me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been musing - well, talking pretty loudly - about talking more about the “old days” of anime fandom. I’ve been in this subculture since 1992, and I have countless stories to tell, from days in a tiny anim...
2018-07-16 15:22:21 +0000 UTC
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Hi, everyone! With AX out of the way, we'll be coming back to the regular weekly content for the Pateon. I apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you look forward to what we're cooking up next.
Thanks so much for your patience.
-Samantha
2018-07-16 13:36:06 +0000 UTC
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Happy Monday, everyone! Due to the fact that I'll be attending Anime Expo, we won't have a big piece for this week. I apologize for the inconvenience! >-<
However, I am working on a special something for you lovely folks - I'll be explaining more soon.
Love you all!
~Samantha
2018-07-03 00:47:54 +0000 UTC
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Before I start, I'd like to thank everyone for your patience! As there were a lot of moving parts in this article, which I wanted to be 100% sure I was documenting properly! This took a bit more time than I was hoping, and I apologize for the wait.
Ehe... funny story about this one. The bit about the news alerts is 100% true. I did get woken up by Natalie dropping the bomb at 4AM... and I did ignore the news until well after breakfast. By the time I had found out, it was pretty much everywhere. That competitive streak inside me just kind of died a little at the time.
I started gathering my thoughts a bit on Twitter, but I couldn't...
2018-06-22 02:49:25 +0000 UTC
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If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been talking about this for quite a while. Since the whole Steam debacle, I've been working tirelessly to get this together. Talking with developers, gathering facts, and, rewriting literally every time Valve changed their gosh darned minds on what they were doing. All in all, this took about 120 hours of work to put together, and I'm immensely proud of it.
So... expect this as our behind the scenes piece for the week. 😊
When I say...
2018-06-17 15:36:48 +0000 UTC
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Before we begin, I'd like to offer an apology. I've been sick for much of the past week (plus I had a much-needed scheduled day off 😷 ), so most site duties outside the dailies have fallen on the back burner. We're back in full tomorrow, though, and ready to talk nerdy again!
Original Title: 2018-06-14 18:01:33 +0000 UTC
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About a week ago, we put out a survey asking the readers what they wanted to see from an all-new Anime Herald. And, by a large margin, the biggest winner was "magazine style", with a greater emphasis on long-reads and features, and far less of the daily news feed.
Today, we went live with what I hope is the first of many features of this nature. Over the weekend, we caught wind of an ongoing saga where the creator of [New Life +] Young Again in Another World was found out to have a fairly... o...
2018-06-07 03:19:05 +0000 UTC
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Original Title: A Challenger Appears! Pony Canyon Enters the US Anime Market
Publication Date: 9/26/2014
Author: Samantha Ferreira
As a quick note; We actually had a tie last week, so I did a bit of deliberating on how to handle this. I'll be handling one today, and the ot...
2018-06-05 14:47:16 +0000 UTC
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So, yesterday, I did a thing. 😃
Basically, this is something that I've been discussing since before our change of direction - I've been wanting to really rework how we do things for a while, since, well... we've been stuck in a rut. To be honest, we've been using the same base styles and overall framework since 2013, with a few minor tweaks in 2016. This is the first, full-in, back to the wall rewrite that we've done since then.
And let me tell you: it's been a lot of work that ...
2018-06-04 00:15:05 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone, we just held our final vote for the season. Our Herald Anime Club picks for the Summer 2018 season is Happy Sugar Life. A huge thanks to our Hera's Helper patrons for helping us pick the winner! Your votes were a huge part of the decision-making progress, and we thank you for it. 😊
2018-06-03 21:49:14 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! I just wanted to send a quick heads-up. We'll be publishing our next behind-the-scenes article on Monday, as I'll be busy setting up the new site tomorrow.
Thanks much for your patience!
-Samantha
2018-06-01 17:56:08 +0000 UTC
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Title: Ode to an Endless Eight
Author: Matt Brown
Date of Publication: 5/25/2009
Ahaha... this takes me back. Matt wrote this back when we were smack dab in the middle of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya's second season. See, he was one of those folks who actually managed to tough it out through all eight of the infamous Endless Eight episodes. By episode four he was making "
2018-05-31 12:55:39 +0000 UTC
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Good morning, Helpers. It's that time of the season - we're beginning our votes for the upcoming Herald Anime Club lineup! And, since you're part of the Hera's Helpers tier, you get a vote that's 100% equal in weight to that of our core team.
So, we come here to ask: Which show would you like to see us talk about in the coming season? The full chart of upcoming titles can be found at AniChart.
Our only rule is "No mo...
2018-05-30 15:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! Before I begin, I wanted to give a huge "thank you" to everyone who took our survey over the weekend. I didn't really explain much at the time, but this was actually the first step toward a massive shift in the way we do our work.
Starting Monday, we began our new direction - we'll be cutting down on straight news content drastically, in favor of original content, editorials, etc.
I won't say much yet, but this isn't going to be your mama's Anime Herald. 💖W...
2018-05-30 13:15:02 +0000 UTC
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Good evening, Helpers, I hope you're having a great week! The time has come for another vote for this week's behind-the-scenes postmortem piece. As always, voting closes on Friday, and we'll run with the most popular pick!
2018-05-30 03:22:19 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone, and Happy Saturday! This week, we're coming to you with a pretty big question. Which direction would you like to see Anime Herald go?
I've been working the news desk for the past several years... and most recently, I've completed a 50-some day stretch of straight reporting. In short... I'm burning out. So, with that in mind, I wanted to reach out to you folks for input on the direction we should take going forward. If you have five minutes, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could ...
2018-05-27 00:04:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello readers,
Though it pains me to say it, we won't have a behind-the-scenes piece this week. We're hard at work at a pair of investigative articles (which will have its own stories, I assure you!), which means all hands are on deck.
I'm sorry about this, everyone, and hope you look forward to next week!
-Samantha
2018-05-25 04:12:59 +0000 UTC
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Original Title: Blue Ocean: A Look At Buyer Experience & Utility Levers
Publication Date: 2/11/2012
Author: Samantha Ferreira
Ah, the Blue Ocean articles! I loved doing these!
Before we begin, I have to level with all of you: I love business. I adore the idea of buil...
2018-05-22 15:22:58 +0000 UTC
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Hi there, Helpers, I hope you're having a great week! The time has come for another vote for this week's behind-the-scenes postmortem piece. As always, voting closes on Friday, and we'll run with the most popular pick!
2018-05-16 17:50:42 +0000 UTC
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Title: A Flair for Song: the Indigo
Author: Matt Brown
Publication Date: 10/16/2006
You know, since I've known him, Matt's always been a pretty huge fan of The Indigo. The group's unique sound and mastery of the melody were always something he'd talk highly about when we began talking about music.
Back in 2006, though, they were virtual unknowns in the west. They did the closing themes for Ai Yori Aoshi and...
2018-05-16 14:52:24 +0000 UTC
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Article Title: Crunchyroll Parent Ellation Lays Off 17 Employees
Author: Samantha Ferreira & Seth Burn
Publication Date: 1/18/2017
Today, we're taking a look at a much shorter piece than usual. The original content was just a few paragraphs, truth be told. Still, this was ...
2018-05-14 16:48:22 +0000 UTC
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Title: Anime Conventions: A Behind the Scenes Look Part 2 - Back to the Trenches
Author: Samantha Ferreira
Publication Date: 7/2/2011
Sadly, Matt didn't allow me to call this article "Behind the Scenes 2: Electric Boogaloo." Sad face.
Joking aside, this is another one of those pieces that I look back upon fondly. In 2010...
2018-05-09 14:47:20 +0000 UTC
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Hiyo, Helpers, I hope you're week's going great! Going forward, I'll be asking for your input on what you'd like to see for our next behind the scenes "postmortem" piece. Voting closes on Friday, and we'll run with the most popular pick!
2018-05-09 13:05:14 +0000 UTC
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Article Title: The End of an Era: AnimeNation Calls It Quits
Author: Samantha Ferreira
Publication Date: 9/13/2014
Before I begin, I'd like to take a few moments to set the scene, as this piece was written in 2014. For Anim...
2018-05-07 00:45:22 +0000 UTC
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Title: Not Exactly a QUANTUM Leap: .hack//QUANTUM Review
Author: Samantha Ferreira
Publication Date: 6/21/2012
Well, here you have it, folks! This is the last long-form content to hit Anime Dream, excepting the regular Anime Boston coverage. And, well... yeah. It's nothing too glamorous!
At the time, Matt and I were in pretty heavy discussions on how we were going to end it all... we were talking about what...
2018-05-01 14:04:39 +0000 UTC
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Hi there, Helpers, I hope you had a great weekend! We haven't done this in a few weeks, but I'd like to ask for your input on what you'd like to see for our next behind the scenes "postmortem" piece. Voting closes on Thursday, and we'll run with the most popular pick!
2018-04-30 03:16:58 +0000 UTC
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Article Title: Taking an L – A Real-World Guide to Writing a Retraction
Author: Samantha Ferreira
Publication Date: 10/17/2017
Through my career, I've always made it a priority to be honest, upfront, and transparent to Anime Herald's readers. I've always been proud of the fact that I'm able to step up and explain exactly what's going on without hiding behind some squirrelly excuses or noncommittal comments.
That said, thoug...
2018-04-29 06:11:29 +0000 UTC
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Title: A Few Words for a Ninja Master: Futaro Yamada
Author: Matt Brown
Publication Date: 8/1/2011
This was always an interesting work, really. I remember Matt showing me the draft for this in early July of that year. He had been reading The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, and watched through Basilisk, which drove him to really dig into the work.
And, rea...
2018-04-26 17:44:05 +0000 UTC
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