A Conversation With iniksbane

Hello everyone! It’s the last day of February and you know what that means! Mecha March starts on Wednesday :). I’ve put a lot of work into writing things for it, so I hope you enjoy it when it does appear. With that, I hope you all have had a decent February. It feels much shorter this time around for some reason.

Here is the short survey link if you are interested in joining into this fun: https://forms.gle/WfsoEgv3eGMKUUVF9

With that, it’s time to meet some more cool people. iniksbane is someone that I’ve started to hang out with more in a lot of spaces online. Another good nerd to talk about cool things online with :). Also, they write some very good and very intellectual kinds of posts about anime that make you think about your points of views in directions that are unexpected. I may not agree all the time, but he creates some good opportunities for more discussion! Lets learn more about iniksbane from his answers!

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What is your name, the kind of content you create on the internet, and the name of that or those pieces of media?

My name is Inigo Montoya…

Wait.

OK. I will admit whenever anyone asks what my name is, I have the nearly automatic response of quoting The Princess Bride.

(S: I was waiting for Monty Python myself, but very good choice.)

But my name is iniksbane. I like keeping the lowercase “i” because it seems edgy and different. It probably just makes me look like I don’t understand basic grammar rules. But hey, this is the Internet, who needs grammar anyway.

I write an anime blog named In Search of Number Nine. Much like my Internet moniker, it meant something once, and now I just keep it around because it sounds cool.

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When did you first start enjoying the media of which you provide a voice for online?

So this is a weird question. I come from the generation that didn’t have easy access to anime. I remember liking the cartoons that were part of Force Five when I was a kid. They were mostly repurposed Go Nagai shows, but I really did like them.

I also remember Star Blazers and I watched a few episodes of Robotech, but I first became interested in anime because of combination of a RPG and an artbook.

See my friends and I started playing Robotech, the Palladium RPG. I loved the artwork on the mechs. Then in my local library, they had an artbook for Robotech that explained the plot and said that it was Japanimation.

Now, I’m not going to venture into the argument about whether Robotech is or is not anime, but that was the first time I heard about anime.

Then I had some friends in college who learned about my interest and we rented Oh My Goddess! That was the first anime I ever saw that I new was anime.

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What made you choose the media that you communicate your thoughts online?

Writing requires very little production work. While I can do audio and video processing, I don’t have the equipment to do it well or the desire to learn.

Writing, on the other hand, just requires me to have a computer, an Internet connection and a basic grasp on the English language. I do have those.

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Has it been difficult to find a voice in the online fandom?

So, yes and no. When I started my blog the first time, blogging was a much larger part of the discourse. That and the anime industry was going through a tumultuous time. It was easy to find people interested in listening to me yammer on.

Now, I’m just some guy on the Internet who has a full-time job as well. I’m neither as prolific nor am I as witty as I used to be. I’m also a bit out of touch.

That and a lot of the tools that used to exist for promotion just aren’t there anymore. No one looks at Anime Nano any more. There’s also a lot of noise out there. I mean way back when ANN was the big dog in town. When they said something, it carried a lot of weight.

Now with sites like Kotaku and Polygon and IGN out there, ANN is barely a blip. There is just a much bigger hill to climb.

That said, it does foster having smaller more insular circles of people to have discussions with.

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When did you start gathering an audience? (Even a small amount of views or subscribers is an audience.)

Well I think it was after my blog got accepted by Anime Nano.

On my return, I got lucky and had someone named Scott follow me pretty early. And I also started doing The Otakusphere. I mean a lot of doing that is to show that I am reading other peoples stuff.

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What are two posts/podcast episodes/pieces of art/etc that you are very proud of?

So I really like the last posts in my series on Evangelion and on RahXephon. I think I summed up my feelings on those shows.

https://searchofno9.wordpress.com/2019/12/14/will-i-ever-learn-to-love-you-eva/

https://searchofno9.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/the-cry-of-hope-at-the-end-of-rahxephon/

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Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!

Thank you for keeping this open.

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Where can people find you online? (Twitter @/Facebook group/Blog Link/Place to find your podcasts/Patreon/Other Things?)

Well my blog is searchofno9.wordpress.com.

I’m on Twitter at @Cameron_Probert..

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And with that, lets all thank iniksbane for stopping by and answering some good questions with very unique answers.

I’m running low on these, so if you are a cool person (or not cool like me), please stop by and answer a few questions. It doesn’t take very long!

Everyone out there can join in some way. Here is the link if you are interested in joining in the fun 😀 : https://forms.gle/dpGk7TaiQJrBJh5N7