Are You Embarrassed by the Name of your Blog? at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Are You Embarrassed by the Name of your Blog?

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Popularity: 8% [?] Published by tj_han March 8th, 2009 in Anime Bloggers

I ask a very pertinent question, since this issue was raised in my previous post where I mentioned that I used this blog as part of my out-of-school activities during an interview. TheBigN said, "But the things you never know that can help you out or bust open new doors for you. Life is sorta awesome sometimes." True, but only if your blog name isn’t the "Lolitron" or something really retarded.

This blog’s name is Riuva of course, which is a tribute/reference to Genshiken, which everyone worth his salt in the blogosphere should have watched/read, or at least have heard about. Now how would a non-anime person view this blog name? After a few random samples, where we directed respondents to cite their impressions of the name, most of them gave the opinion that it sounds "very artsy. Are you into art?", "Wow, you must have a great website." and "You are the man!" The reason could be that long names sound official, and the word art strikes a great fear and respect into the man on the street. In fact, that words "research", "institute", "visual art" are all fear-striking words. You wouldn’t normally expect to be able to enter a Research Institute easily would you, much less be the founder and head? HAHA. The best part is unicultural, what the hell is that right? Nobody knows. I made up the word as I needed a vowel to make the acronym easier to pronounce.

As such, I’m not really embarrassed by the blog name and I freely dish it out to people who question my worth in life. A simple retort of "Do you have a Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts? I founded one and I am awesome." scares them away.

On the other hand, I can see some other really good blog names out there in the anime blogosphere. The best one which comes to mind is surprisingly Dannychoo.com. It’s like tjhan.com or Changxing.com (darkmirage.com lol). Why is Dannychoo.com a good blog name? It makes him an online celebrity, and you surely won’t get embarrassed to say, "Hi, I am Danny Choo and my website is dannychoo.com". It makes sense, in a logical and mature manner. You have nothing to hide, no alias, and all the publicity you generate goes straight to your real career. Btw, tjhan.com is actually for Impz from THAT anime blog. He really has the initials TJ Han, and is a doppelganger of me. When we see each other, one of us will die and the other will become the Master Root and be able to draw upon the power of a Mototsumitama.

A quick glance through my blogroll and Anime Nano’s blog directory reveals a few observations:

Any blog name with the word anime is it is epic fail. Why? Because anime is really retarded to most people in the real world and you thus cannot use any site that would lead future employers to think you’re a dirty weeaboo paedophile, or some childish idiot. 90% of blog names apparently have the word anime in them. Surely having a site named "Anime Otaku" is just being retarded.

Interviewer: "What do you do in your free time, Impz?"
Impz: "I am the founder and head of an organisation titled That Anime Blog. We write articles on anime."
Interviewer: "What, you like Pokemon and Digimon? GTFO!"

I find that certain focused sites which have really obvious titles work well. A Gabriela Robin Site, A Home Look at GunPla and GFF really tell you what these sites are about. It’s nothing shameful to like plastic models or musicians, though Gunpla could be embarrassing at times. I can imagine saying, "I run a popular website analysing the music of an auteuristic musician." I can also imagine saying, "I run a popular tutorial and review website which showcases my skill as a modelling engineer." or something.

A fanciful emo or pretentious title. While Riuva could be interepreted as pretentious, it’s not as pretentious as something like "Cruel Angel Theses", which everyone knows is the opening song of Evangelion. Firstly, it’s not even original. There is no insta-link to you either, as people who mention CAT probably think of the song. It’s also an embarrassing title to use in official conversations. Imagine this:

Interviewer: "So, Owen, what do you do in your free time?"
Owen S: "I run a blog called the Cruel Angel Theses."
Interviewer: "Wow, you must be a staunch Christian intellectual."
Owen S *blushes" : "No, I just watch Japanese cartoons and talk about them with big words so I appear smart, nothing to do with real cruelty, angels, or any thesis."
Interview: "GTFO!"

Any references to your sexual fantasies are probably an embarrassment as well. I notice a trend of people whose sites have titles which mean 2D girls are better than 3D ones, or raise the point that underaged young girls are best. This includes blogs whose titles have the words "moe", "2D", "loli" and "giant tentacle penises".

Dkiwi: "Hi, I would like to apply for a scholarship."
Interviewer : "What activities are you involved in?"
Dkiwi: "I’m in the school anime club and I also run a successful website called 2D> 3D."
Interviewer : "So your website is about converting 2 dimensional engineering plans to 3D models?"
Dkiwi: "Actually, my website is about how I prefer anime girls over real life ones, because I can rape 2D ones and they blush and have lots of slime coming out of their holes while 3D ones don’t appear to talk to me much at all."
Interviewer: "GTFO!"

Japan is cool and all, but if you can’t speak any Japanese, it might be potentially embarrassing to have a Japanese blog name. You run the risk of being seen as a weeaboo, with no self-respect (why idolish other countries?) and an idiot. Now, quite a significant chunk of anime blogs have Japanese words in the title. Most of them are Japanese nicknames of the author, like how Kurogane is Kurogane and Tsubaki is named after a Bleach character that hasn’t appeared in about 6 years. There are some blogs that have full Japanese names though, such as MinaideHazukashii, which is now dead. At least JPmeyer’s supposed to know the language. I think so, but since he’s from NYU we can all laugh at him while shouting "DEMOCRATIC CONSENUS PROCESS!". My point is that just like we laugh at the stupid Japanese for abusing English just to sound cool, English-speakers who don’t know any Japanese should be laughed at as well.

Tsubaki from Anime Deshodesho, which is now dead, is a good example. Let’s laugh at him anyway. He’s actually part of Riuva now, so he’s cool though he doesn’t post and has given up anime. Since he’s a film major and all artsy, he can also get away with fake Japanese names since all artists love Japan or something. But for the purpose of this post, we shall use an imaginary blogger, Kenpachi.

Interviewer, "So John, what are your acitivities outside school?"
Kenpachi : "I go by the name Kenpachi outside school and I have a website called Boku ga Suki Suki Moe."
Interviewer: "You know Japanese? That’s nice, we might have a position in Japan."
Kenpachi, "No, I don’t."
Interviewer : "I thought you have a Japanese name and a Japanese website?"
Kenpachi : "No my name is stolen from a popular best-anime-ever called Bleach and I used babelfish to come up with a translation of my love for cute 2D Japanese girls, and used that for my website name since I really want people to know that I love Japan even though I can’t speak any Japanese. Bankai."
Interviewer : "GTFO, I use the Rasengan on you."

Come share here how you came up with your own blog name, and tell us situations in which you have gotten vindication or embarrassment with you said your blog name in public!!

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47 Responses to “Are You Embarrassed by the Name of your Blog?”

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1 Kesenaitsumi 20 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 3:52 pm

LOL… A funny post you have there.

I used Kesenaitsumi which from the song of Full Metal Alchemist which is an epic anime. To be frank I don’t really know why I chosen that name at that time, but maybe I didn’t really know much about what should I put as my blog name….

Has stayed with the name for 3 years and didn’t feel anything about it. I use Anime’s header but it’s fine with my life since I can say one of my Hobby is watching animes. But still, friends in my real life know that I’m good at much more category other than animes.

And then, I can speak japanese and has passed JLPT3 and has got the certificate few weeks ago with flying colour( what colour should I describe it is? hmm..well nvm..).

So what wrong is Kesenaitsumi? For those who don’t know japanese they probably feel that this is a strange name. But due to the name is similar to the song name, I can’t help the site to be the 1st result searched on google….
2 jinyamato 110 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

this is a funny yet interesting post………….but what is blogging now…… is it about the fame???? or the what nots…. I don’t think most people will use their blog names for interviews and such, but it works to ur advantage somewhat if the industry you are going to work requires a literacy background and such……..

and yar titles do give the first impression to people…..
3 Zeroblade 163 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

My old blog name was so horrible that I don’t even want to mention it anymore, hence, the change. Now my new blog’s name is “Life in Quadrant 4.” It sounds incredibly intellectual even though no one will understand the reference, and whenever anyone who asks me about what I write in there, I tell them, “it’s where I pen my thoughts and experiences on Modern Japanese Visual Culture,” and that shuts them up.
I’m loathe to change it to some Japanese name because even though I can speak a little, I prefer not to present myself as a loser weaboo japanophile.
4 gonzomehum 5 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:30 pm

The great thing about Thoughtscream isn’t just that the name is inherently cool. It’s that nobody else’s used it in a formal matter before.

Nor will they. I own the .com/.net/.org addresses now. Bwahahahaha.
5 SnooSnoo 173 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

By the way, what did happen to Tsubaki? I mean his first 3 months should have been long over right?
6 Adun 45 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

My blog name actually came from a badge design from my uni’s anime club. Although it has Japanese words, it made no difference for me when people ask about my blog in general, though many people do ask what does it mean (and yes I tell me that I don’t know Japanese). Even in job interviews before I’ve mentioned my blog but since I was aiming for web development work, they didn’t question about the blog itself but more interested in seeing what I know about dealing with web applications.

So in essence my blog has helped me gain the job I am in now regardless of its name and content.
7 tj_han 1440 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

Adun, you’re one of the lucky ones then. Anyway people in the IT sectors are nerds.

Snoo: Knowing him, he probably moved onto other hobbies. The ADHD in him prevents him from being king of a domain for too long. Like Genghis Khan. I recall he went frm anime blogging to being king of the largest clan on Granado Espada or something, and probably moved on to something else now.

Thoughtscream Gonzomehum: That’s a waste of money, but I like your blog now. Read through osme of the articles, have added you to my blogroll.

Zeroblade: Come on you can’t be as bad as Jinyamato above you. His email address is Iloveneopets@hotmail or something!
8 IKnight 18 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 5:07 pm

I played around with ‘anim-’ as a prefix for a month or so. ‘Animanifesto’ nearly won. But I don’t intend to ever admit to anyone who I’m asking for a job or for funding that I run an anime blog.
9 Zeroblade 163 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

tj, I’m pretty sure that some kid actually has such an address.
10 zzeroparticle 7 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Yeah, as much as blogging makes for a good way to air one’s thoughts, when dealing with a topic like anime, it’s not something that one would advertise on college applications or resumes unless one has got a good reason for doing so (like being Danny Choo, which only Danny can be, all others shouldn’t even bother).

As for me, my blog name is part reference, and part… well it’s descriptive of the content my blog offers.
11 SnooSnoo 173 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

“Why is Dannychoo.com a good blog name? It makes him an online celebrity, and you surely won’t get embarrassed to say, “Hi, I am Danny Choo and my website is dannychoo.com”. It makes sense, in a logical and mature manner. You have nothing to hide, no alias, and all the publicity you generate goes straight to your real career.”

I think a teenage/schooling otaku wouldn’t want to reveal his/her real name over the net though. Privacy lol. If its for career and publicity, yeah.

Also, fanbangho is a good choice.(don’t click if you don’t want to carve out your eyes.)
12 SnooSnoo 173 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

I’m embarrassed. I didn’t link to the actual site. It should be “don’t visit”
13 Owen S 144 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pm

Actually, Evangelion’s OP is “Cruel Angel Thesis”. ‘Theses’ is the plural of ‘thesis’, which a lot of people fail at understanding, and apparently you’re one of them! So my blog name is more of a reference than anything. Try googling for both terms to see what I mean (without quote marks, I’m #1 for “Cruel Angel Theses” but #5 for “Cruel Angel Thesis”).
14 IKnight 18 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 7:02 pm

I’m pretty sure it’s ‘Cruel Angel’s Thesis’.
15 하늘섬 17 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

If I had an anime blog like Iwa ni Hana, not only would I have no problem name-dropping it on resume, I also wouldn’t have a problem displaying the actual content of the blog if requested, which is more than I can say for RIUVA. Anyway I’m fairly happy with mine. I didn’t maintain my blog to make false impressions on people (fear the “UNICULTURAL”!!) ^^

*very funny post though
16 one 135 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

Sankaku Complex is a pretty cool name.
17 bj0rN 153 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 8:18 pm

*stares at his own website* .. .. ..
18 Sorrow-kun 26 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

Why would you be discussing your blog IRL anyway, unless you knew whoever you were talking to was a weeaboo. This isn’t an issue unless you can’t suppress your power level. No-one outside the internet needs to know you secretly like watching fansubs of Shugo Chara! late at night and then writing lengthy, analytical posts about each episode.

Moral of the story: suppress your power level.
19 Owen S 144 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

IKnight: Wikipedia says it’s “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”, so I guess we all got it wrong.
20 schneider 17 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

My blog’s name is two-fold (URL is in Japanese, while the actual title is in English). I just thought continuingworld.wordpress.com didn’t… type right.

Doesn’t really matter because I don’t discuss blogging with other people–they usually think blog = LJ anyway.
21 animekritik 25 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

No one that i know in real life knows of my blog. so i don’t have to deal with any embarrassment issues.like offspring said, you gotta keep ‘em separated.
22 Captain Arepa 4 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 10:29 pm

I had a hard time coming up with the name of my blog… I asked a few friends, and I ended up with “Zatsudan Zone”. It was supossed to be a blog where I (and some other people who are now a bunch of ghosts) would “idly” talk about Japan and otaku stuff, but I ended up talking about random crap like “Why do people read the newspaper/Vogue/QC in their über-long toilet-sessions?” or “Why do I have to empty my back account to pay the university?”, or “Why do I rant about Japanese otaku and their insanely extreme moé-lolicon antics?”. And some random otaku crap and anime reviews, too. The only thing I regret is starting it in Spanish. Maybe I’ll start another one in English. Dunno, lol.

BTW, excellent post. Made me reflect about my blog’s name, and why I’m not embarrased about it… I think.
23 Rakugakid 32 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

I just read your post and I found the part “Hi, I am Danny Choo and my website is dannychoo.com”, really cool… Or maybe its just because I am ezovex and my blog is ezovex.wordpress.com…

Hm… But anyway I write a lot of rubbish so its just for kicks and probably not in any way useful for interviews.
24 Helix 71 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

I will keep this post in mind if ever I decide to start a blog.
25 tj_han 1440 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

See, some of you guys are missing the point. When you put in as much effort into your anime blog, you’ll want to maximise the benefits it brings you. Danny Choo agrees on this point. If he puts in 100 points of effort and you do the same, but he gets fame, money and resume points while you get only comments, then you’re wasting your effort.

Owen S: It’s Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze, I can say it cos I know Japanese. In this case, you don’t know whether the angels wrote one or multiple TEEZE.
26 Owen S 144 comments Mar 8th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Which makes my blog name even better! Translation ambiguity ftw!
27 XT 17 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 1:55 am

Hilarious post lol.

My blog name is “A Product of Wasted Time”, which is appropriate since I wasted way too much time writing cr@p on there that nobody ever reads. Time to go back to studying for my GRE…
28 omo 137 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 2:34 am

>> See, some of you guys are missing the point. When you put in as much effort into your anime blog, you’ll want to maximise the benefits it brings you. Danny Choo agrees on this point. If he puts in 100 points of effort and you do the same, but he gets fame, money and resume points while you get only comments, then you’re wasting your effort.

Yeah, but who puts 100 points of effort into their blogs? And honestly that kind of mercenary perspective is what leads to email spam and feed scrubbing. Pretty sure far most of the blogs you pointed out in the entry are not the srsbzns kind.

There is a lot to say about making your blog optimized for search engines and making a smart name, but it actually takes some effort to do so. Furthermore 99% of anime bloggers out there can probably give an iota of damn about “benefits.” Someone like Danny Choo put all he has into developing his blog and whatever in certain circles, but that’s a career choice. I mean, srsly, would you dance around in a stormtrooper outfit so people can come to your blog and see animu figures? That’s a personal choice.
29 gonzomehum 5 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 3:27 am

TJ: Hah, thanks for the add. The point of buying up the addresses, though, was more because I have a few tentative leads to a bunch of media entrepreneurs I might be able to work with post-degree. A catchy web address is its own investment, if you know the right people…
30 gia 5 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 5:37 am

For a different perspective…companies who are funding anime blog-type sites, even ones familiar with the industry, have a total phobia about site names that don’t have “anime” in them.

I’ve tried. @_@ Believe me.
31 gia 5 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 5:48 am

Oh, and Anime Vice was a group-effort name, and far, far, FAR from the worst one we considered

I actually have had my giapet.net domain for a long time and used to use it for a static personal site with some short stories and other random stuff on it. In high school my name (georgia) had been shortened for a nickname, “gia,” and pretty quickly the g-g-g-gia/chia/chiapet/giapet nameplay came into being, so I snatched up the domain. I’ve always liked it– it’s short, catchy/memorable, and personal, without being my full name…though I do own GeorgiaManry.com and GiaManry.com as well. Not that I’ve used them in a long time!

But I didn’t keep a blog at giapet.net until shortly before the demise of animeOnline (which was named long before I came onto the project). I set it up on the fly as a whim, and gave it the title “A Geek By Any Other Name,” because the phrase stuck in my head. (I just prayed no one would ever ask me about “a geek by any other name would smell as sweet…until Toshi Yoshida did ask, anyway.) But I was never embarassed by it
32 MrMayat 50 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am

My site is more of an experiment than anything else. I expected the phase to be a “flash in the pan(tsu)” so to say. Next thing I knew, it’s been 2 years and counting. And thanks to all visitors who were misled by the pantsu in the title. Heh.
33 anon 3 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 10:26 am

Wiki fails at jap song titles and translated titles anyway. Although it still perplexes one how teeze can be thesis/theses.
34 ghostlightning 23 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 10:47 am

Blog name: “We Remember Love” Hippie New-age community? or Gay hippie new-age community? Like Owen’s, it’s a reference to an anime (Macross: Do You Remember Love?).
35 ghostlightning 23 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 10:48 am

Blog name: “We Remember Love” Hippie New-age community? or Gay hippie new-age community? Like Owen’s, it’s a reference to an anime (Macross: Do You Remember Love?).
36 The Sojourner 112 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

The Blue Fox Alley, sadly to say, makes no reference to anime and was not inspired by any kind of anime. I guess it is just a random name for our little corner.
37 e-jump 15 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Interview: “GTFO!”

Well, mine is from my real life nickname(how it is pronounced/sounds like). And actually its defaultly suggested by WP.com when i created it LOL
However i dont think i will mention about it in my resume or during interview
38 Lainforce 10 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

lol I definitely can’t drop my blog name anywhere other than in casual conversation.

It’s “Think Chink.”
39 ETERNAL 29 comments Mar 9th, 2009 at 9:29 pm

You’re back to being funny again!

Personally, I never intended on using my blog to help me get a job or anything of the sort, so my only intent behind the name was to think of something that represents me as a fan. I might be embarrassed by it a decade from now, but I doubt I’ll ever lose my taste for effeminately-named visual novels, and I’ve always considered it important for (self proclaimed) editorial bloggers to maintain their roots as otaku. It’s nice to write thousands of words on the symbolism on ef, but really, I’d hate to see myself doing that in 5 years while conveniently ignoring the fact that I was obsessed with Miyako when I first watched the show.
40 AK 31 comments Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

After a whole slew of weeaboo-sounding titles and awful-sounding names, I decided to just revert to using my initials. Makes sense since half of it is already in my default internet username.

And also because it sounds like xkcd.com. Awesome site is awesome.
41 TheBigN 75 comments Mar 11th, 2009 at 1:04 am

lol

The thing was, when I started Drastic My Anime Blog, I wasn’t really thinking of a name for the blog seriously. I just remember S-cry-ed’s ED song, remembered I loved it’s name and last phrase, and went from there. It could have been “Drastic My Blog” as well, but I wanted to specify that it was a blog that focused on anime. Though with some people shortening the name to just “Drastic” sometimes, it might bring something down the line. Or maybe I could just use the blog name acronym DMAB and use different words for the letters.
42 usagijen 34 comments Mar 11th, 2009 at 3:58 am

roflmao.

Our blog became Scrumptious even before I knew it! Guess our chefs were pretty hungry when they were brainstorming about the blog and decided to name it something delicious or what. Still, I love our blog name… coz it’s Scrumptious like that
43 Otaku Dan 10 comments Mar 11th, 2009 at 5:17 am

I got lucky when I picked my online blog name because for some reason I thought that Otaku Dan would have been taken
44 Chris 4 comments Mar 11th, 2009 at 5:52 am

When I was choosing my blog name I put a lot of thought into it and kicked around a lot of different names, but most ended up being too cute, or too stupid. So, I just went with what struck a emotional cord with me. I’ve been watching anime and reading manga for a very long time, and there came a time when I had become disinterested with the state of the anime and manga. So, along came a “little” anime called Sailor Moon and it’s mix of yearning for the past, living in the present day, and dreaming of a beautiful future got me hooked on anime again. So, I named my blog the Crystal Tokyo Anime Blog, expressing my desire for a glorious future slightly tinted with a nostalgic yearning for a simpler past.
45 Blowfish 27 comments Mar 12th, 2009 at 3:42 am

Finally a funny post without cheap bashes! Im glad you got back on track,

My Blogs Name is shamelessy stolen from the Baccano! Anime/LightNovel Series.Its the name of the transcontinental train of the Great Punk Railroad Arc.I liked it for its WTF factor.
I dont talk with real people about my blog so theres nothing to be embarrassed about.
I only use the blog to stroke my e-penis and have no ambitions to use it as a marketing tool for myself.
If somebody would somehow know about my blog and ask me about the name id reply that its taken from a japanese novel.It isnt really a lie and doesnt sound as retarded as LOL its from an Anime!!111
46 Leefe 119 comments Mar 13th, 2009 at 12:16 am

My site name is actually a malay word refering to nipa palm.. Came across them when I went Ubin for a coupla times and I decided I like the name.

But a lot of people do mistake it for something from Higurashi… something about niipas hmm…
47 edogawaconan 8 comments Mar 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm

I suck at inventing names.

Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.

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