New to the Site? Click Here for a Primer!

Hello, welcome, & this is The Land of Obscusion.

This page is for those of you who are newcomers & are curious about what exactly this site (or blog, if you prefer) is all about. Therefore, allow me to introduce myself.

My name if George J. Horvath & this is where I write about obscure & forgotten media, with a majority focus on anime & manga. In a fandom where most writers tend to focus on the present & popular, especially in the age of simulcasting via websites like CrunchyRoll, FUNimation Now, Hidive, & VRV, I wanted to go against the grain & write about the stuff no one else does. Why? Because, I figure, if I don't then no one else will.

Now, to be fair, I have sometimes written about anime that others have, because it usually comes down to my own preferences & whims, when all is said & done. Still, after five & a half years of doing this (as of the moment I type this), I figure that people who come upon this "Land" may want a general overview of what to expect, especially since I write in a kind of "anti-blogging" style. Sorry, I understand that reading blogs is meant to be easy, quick, & filled with short burst paragraphs, but that style of writing just doesn't work with my generally research-intensive, in-depth (as possible) writing style. These are more like essays than blog posts, so fair warning in advance.
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Anyway, what can you expect from The Land of Obscusion? Well let me categorize the kinds of pieces (or posts, if you prefer) that you can find here:

-Reviews-
This is what makes up the majority of what you'll find here. These are mainly reviews of various obscure, forgotten, or simply lesser known anime, though I do occasionally write up a manga review, or cover a video game or live-action adaptation of an anime/manga. I have kept track of what number each of these reviews are, because every 50th review is what I call a "milestone", in which I review an all-time worst obscure anime for no other reason than to torture myself.

I'm a bit of a history nut at times, so I try to give each review as much research as possible. If it's based on a manga, for example, I'll bring up when the manga originally ran, who created it, etc., and if it's an original anime than I'll at least try to see if there is any sort of historical context I can put it into. The end result is not just a simple explanation of what I liked (& disliked) about something, but also a bit of general information, too. Considering that I sometimes review something almost no one else has covered, I figure saying as much as I can about a product is a benefit as a whole.

-Demo Disc-
My main restriction for my reviews (aside from "No Porn") is that I have to get through all of it first; I have done reviews in "Parts" on rare occasion, but I always ended up reviewing the entire thing. Sometimes, though, I simply am not able to get through all of something; in fact, maybe I only have an episode available to me. That's why, in 2015, I introduced a segment called "Demo Disc". Similar to the eponymous trial CDs that were popular in the 90s & early 00s for PC & (later) console games, this is a seasonal piece where I cover only a portion of something. You can think of it as a "preview" for something that already came out.

There are two types of Demo Disc pieces I do. The first is when I test drive a bunch of anime via their first episodes, with some giving me two or three to work with. I usually cover around four shows in this fashion, & sometimes I include a bonus (like a short pilot or OVA). These are simpler write-ups in general, though I still try to include historical context if possible. I also aim to put a theme for each multi-show Demo Disc, like all mech anime, all based on shonen manga, etc.

The other type is when I cover only a single anime, but it's nowhere near the entire show. Instead, I'll only cover up to where I am able to, though in these instances my minimum has to be at least a quarter of the anime or so. This type of Demo Disc will operate more like a traditional review, but since it's not about the product as a whole I can't make an overall judgment for the title in full, so they don't count in my list of reviews. As I mentioned, Demo Disc is a seasonal segment, will happen around the time each new season of anime starts, will alternate between multi-show coverage & larger single show pieces, & will regularly swap place with Retrospect in Retrograde, as detailed further below.

-12 Anime Lists-
Everyone loves an online list, right? They're the junk food of the internet, after all. I'm no different in this regard, really, except that each list here will feature an attempt to restrict it to only twelve anime. I say "attempt" because I like to cheat, like by including multiple titles if they're all part of the same series. The most common list will be about "Older Anime That Deserve License Rescues", as well as some sort of list detailing my favorite pieces that I did at the end of each year, but I've also covered other subjects, as well.

Please note that these are not ordered lists, however, so don't think of the first entry as "#12" or the last as "#1". If you want to know why, it's simply because I hate having to organize stuff into exact tiers of importance, value, etc. These are meant to be nothing more than simple, fun lists that will hopefully remind people of stuff they may have forgotten, or will inform them about things that I find interesting or amusing, like any good list should.

Oh, and why twelve? Because I like to go one step beyond "one step beyond".

-Theory Musing-
I don't always consider myself a truly insightful person, honestly, but sometimes I feel like I have a thought in my head that I want to share that isn't a review, list, or what-have-you. That's where the Theory Musing segment comes in, as it's a time where I "ruminate out loud" about something in an attempt to, at the very least, sound like an insightful person. I can't guarantee that the end result will exactly be thought provoking, but at least I tried. I try to make one of these each year.

-Vs. Battles-
This is a simple & slightly silly concept, but in this segment I will put two different titles up against each other to see which one is superior. The catch? They have to have the same name, because otherwise it would just be another generic internet Vs. Battle, which plenty of other websites already do. Because of that catch I can't guarantee any sort of regularity, but it's happened enough to call it a segment, I guess. This one happens when it happens, essentially.

-Obscusion B-Side-
Also debuting in 2015 was a segment that allowed me to write about anything I wanted to that wasn't anime/manga-related. Just like how a vinyl record has music on both sides, this is the flip side of the site, essentially. The concept is more or less the same (Reviews, Vs. Battles, Lists), except that it has nothing at all to do with anime or manga; sometimes it won't even be related to Japan. The only notable differences are that "Obscusion B-Lists" feature just six entries (I try, I swear), while Vs. Battles here may be about similar concepts rather than outright same-named products.

-Retrospect in Retrograde-
This is an update to this "Primer", as I debuted this in 2018. Honestly, a lot of the reviews I wrote back in my few year+ (at least up through Joe vs. Joe in January of 2012) were actually done solely off of memory, or I had at least seen it a few months prior to starting the blog. Not just that, but I didn't really start my more in-depth review style until around the end of 2012, at the earliest, so I've always had the itch to go back & revisit some of my oldest reviews, with the intention of re-reviewing them in more detail, as well as to just see if I feel the same way about them today as I did back then. That's what RiR is, in a nutshell, and while it was originally a seasonal segment, usually swapping places with Demo Disc, it's now become more sporadic, as RiR has a limited amount of titles that can be done via it.

-Oh Me, Oh My, OVA!-

Yet another Primer update, as this debuted in 2021. The idea behind OM, OM, OVA! is a simple one: I pick four anime that were releases straight to home video that are each no longer than two episodes long & cover them in a fashion similar to that of Demo Disc. However, since these are short OVAs that I am watching in their entirety that means that I am effectively reviewing them, though due to them being part of a series of collected pieces they don't count towards the overall "traditional" review count. This segment exists mainly as a way for me to watch & write about short-form productions that otherwise likely wouldn't really warrant longer-form reviews, and also allows me to occasionally cover titles that I otherwise wouldn't normally cover here on The Land of Obscusion. I try to make every entry/volume of this segment themed in some fashion, but every third entry of OM, OM, OVA! is a "Deus ex Rota/God from the Wheel" entry, where I literally use an online randomized prize wheel to determine the four titles I'll be covering, and I can't fight against what the wheel picks for me, no matter how bad it might wind up being. This segment has no real schedule to it, it's more of a "whenever I feel like it" thing, though as Demo Disc & Retrospect in Retrograde wind down it'll start becoming more common.

-Everything Else-
Finally, if I'm not doing any of the above, it'll fit here. Every December 1 will have an Anniversary Post, as that was the day that the site was born back in 2010, if I went to a convention & felt that there was enough to write about (especially if I did a panel there) then I'll cover it, & every so often I might write about something newsworthy or simply put up some sort of update.

All that leaves is every other piece I ever do, which I simply categorize as a "Special Feature". Essentially, if it's not any of the above but is still about an actual subject, usually relating to anime, manga, or video games (or some mix of them all), then it will fit here. Think of it as a catch-all category, if nothing else.
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Now then, if you've made it this far than I guess you actually find what I write about interesting. If so, then thanks & enjoy the rest of the site; I maintain a Master List that organizes everything alphabetically into each category.

If you don't find what I'm doing interesting, however... Then I can at least thank you for bothering to read this far down. Maybe we can meet again one day, under the sea of stars.