We’ll Meet Again: The End of Mistakes of Youth: The Blog!!
You know that opening narration in Gundam? The one about how people are born into the world, live life, then die? Well, Mistakes of Youth was born into the world on November 7th, 2006, lived life for four years, and on today, January 1st, 2011, has now died. And yes, I done killed it with my own hands! But don’t get me wrong: I didn’t kill this blog out of malice, revenge, or any of the usual reasons why one kills something. What I’m doing right now is putting this blog out of its misery. So put on some background music, and let me tell you why!
I never really went too much into my personal life here, as it’s honestly of little interest to anyone. But since events in my personal life strongly affected the various directions that this blog took, I feel I should probably let you, the reader, in on what was going on with me between the end of 2006 up until now.
As most of you probably know, the better part of this blog (and my webcomic, for that matter) was written while I was in college. Like most other people, college was a big time of change for me, and I went through many different changes in college. My high school life was, erm, less than enjoyable, so upon entering college I was pretty socially withdrawn. I had hopped to make friends and have a good time, but most of my socializing was done on the internet. Before I knew it, my friends only existed on the internet, and I had no friends in real life. At least in high school I had friends who I spoke to on a daily basis, but for the first two years of college I was all alone.
I wasn’t Tatsuhiro Satou bad–I went to school, got good grades, and went out often; but I was alone, and my mindset grew more and more insular. The results of this insular, geeky mindset shine brilliantly in the posts throughout a lot of this blog, manifesting in articles extolling the virtues of young girls, and cheap bids to get attention by backing controversial viewpoints with a lot of vigor and arrogance. Half-way through junior year, I found myself in Japan. For the first time in a long while, I had to interact with a lot of people on a regular basis, and I gradually came out of my shell. But at the same time, culture shock hit me in a weird way. A way that resulted in posts such as this.
Upon returning to the States, I went out some more, and made some friends. All the insanity that had built up in me had died down, and I managed become less of a jerkoff. This change in attitude resulted in me wanting to do more thoughtful opinion pieces and analysis on this blog–what I’ve wanted to do from the very beginning–and while I managed to get some out, it was kind of tough. I was too used to being either a Negative Nancy or a creep, so that kind of stuff didn’t really come naturally. Furthermore, considering the history of this blog, I doubt many people took such posts too seriously. And I doubt the existing readership cared. So, in an attempt to put all this baggage behind me, I am closing down the Mistakes of Youth blog.
But, don’t fret–I intend to start fresh with a new blog: Analog Housou!
Analog Housou will be a blog completely dedicated to being a blog. What that means is, there won’t be things like comic updates or art site updates clogging up the feed. Those will still be posted on this blog, but will eventually get their own separate blogs. Analog Housou will be a more general “Japan” blog, but considering that I’m going to be writing it, anime will be the main focus. To help me out, I’ve asked some other people if they’d be interested in writing for it, so there’ll a good bit of varied content depending on how things work out. I will probably find my posts on this new blog completely embarrassing after about a year or so as well, but hopefully because they’re poorly written, and not because I’m completely disgusted with the kind of person I was when I wrote them.
To close this off, I just want to thank all of the readers who’ve stumbled upon this site across the past four years. I also want to thank all the friends I’ve made over these past four years for putting up with my bullshit. I know I’ve been an annoying pain in the ass, and I hope for your continued support.
Of course. \o
I’m going to really miss Mistake of Youth. Thanks for four years, though, and have a good 2011!
D:
I spent my high school life reading your blog.
In a non-creepy way I looked up to you. It seemed like you were LIVING THE DREAM, because you always seemed pretty happy and upbeat, and even made jabs at how creepy some of the shit you did seemed. You even ended up going to the holy land which blew my mind.
I used to look forward to when you updated your comic on Saturdays (or used to), even though I really didn’t get half the jokes made.
Anyway, you should keep doing the podcast somehow, now that you have a concrete bloggan’ crew, you can motivate each other or something.
Anyway that’s enough nostalgia, goodnight mistakesofyouth.
Good luck.
I rather enjoyed this blog, and admired the way it didn’t shirk from its own Mistakes of Youth. Sorry I had to say it.
Bookmarking the new blog now, more power!
The attention whoring was fairly obvious, but other than that I’ve never thought you were that much of a arse. Anyway, good luck with the new site!
I’m not sure how much commemoration a mere change in blogs merits, but it’s been fun to read posts here. Sometimes annoying too, but mostly fun.
It was fun while it lasted… or something along those lines. Good luck with the new site. I hope it is as entertaining as this one.
So you’re done with liking moe and lolicon?
I guess there are a lot of people who need to spend time online and grow up before entering the social scene in real life. I know the biggest problem for me was that all of my nerd friends in high school quit their fandoms so I wound up leaving them and moving here. Decisions like that work out in the long run, though, and most anime fans online have proven that it’s not that hard to be a total nerd and still have a fun social life IRL.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to your new blog, and I have that Shoushitsu post bookmarked. Back when you were complaining about the state of the aniblogosphere, I remember wondering why you didn’t just start writing the kind of content you wanted instead of whining about it, and I’m glad you’re starting to do that.
Thanks for some fun reading, I liked your comic a lot. Good luck!
Thanks for the hardwork in the comic section.. really like them =D
The comic isn’t ending guys, just the blog. And there’s a new one.
> extolling the virtues of young girls
Are you retracting your opinion?
Good job. Really, good job.
I remember that Bakemonogatari blog post… I think you set a record on weaboo elitist jerkism on that one ;)
Read this thing for the longest time and posted sometimes.
All in all, good times.
I’ve been reading your comic since I was in junior high and you were still GC.
I don’t think I’ve ever really commented before, though, but this seems like a fitting time.
Thanks for everything you’ve put into this comic and blog through all of these years!
You’re an OG!
The soles, no thicker than did their English cousins. As the central outline of that home, the female herself must also considered the key to her right disposition.