Well here we are! Well into the new year, it’s now already past mid January and I have been making moves to keep the corner growing and developing. I started off the year by beginning 3 new on-going series and reading 2 volumes from each. My plan is to make a short IG Reel with a description and thoughts as a recommendation to people. I’ve already made the first 2 and am planning the third as of writing this. But I also wanted to give some attention to the Blog as well, keep things updated and gather my thoughts more coherently here.
Where is JoJo Standing?
To start off, a quick look at where we’re standing with JoJo.
I stagnated to finish off Battle Tendency and am still close to its conclusion, but I’ve got to finish that one off soon. As for the schedule I had to read the series before SBR began streaming to Netflix, it looks like it will be unlikely for me to catch up like I had hoped. That being said, I will try to keep myself moving forward in JoJo and not put too much pressure to rush and finish the series in time. If it happens, great, if not, no biggie. The last thing I want to do is ruin my enjoyment of the series just to catch up with the anime’s release.
The IG Page
Since the new year started I wanted to put a bit more effort into the IG Page, my main goal this year is to develop a small community! My dream, more than anything, is to create even a small circle of people passionate about manga, comics, all of sequential storytelling (focusing on manga of course, that’s where my loyalties lie), and be able to share thoughts and discuss news and enjoy the medium together. I am so eager to develop a following and would be honored to make something people find even remotely worthwhile.
So my first effort to do this is to reach out through social media like Instagram and find other like-minded people. Let’s be honest, most people don’t exactly read a blog unless you’re over 40 years old, so it was between Instagram and Tiktok. I went with IG. I’ve been making reels based off of some new series I’ve been reading, and I’m fairly happy with how they have come out, but that doesn’t mean there are issues.
Firstly, these edited videos with cuts and panels and a script of some sort take quite a while, especially because I am not recording myself and relying solely on visuals with minor editing and my own voice. This is the process I did for the first 2 reels and it took 4-5 hours of recording and editing. I would really like to cut down on that time so I can make more videos easily. If I can get down to 3 or even 2 hours it would save a huge amount of time for me and make the creating process much easier.
I’m thinking of trying to record not just my voice next time, but also my hands and a physical book from the above POV as well.
Along with that I want to make more posts in general, but I’m not sure whether that will be just aesthetic cover pics or something more.
New Reads!
I’ve started 3 new series (don’t worry, just dipping my toes not committing) in order to have something to talk about for the IG Page. These series include A Witch’s Life in Mongol, Tower Dungeon and Akane-banashi. I read 2 volumes from each series (which are mostly still quite early into their story) and have left it there in order to focus on the next and begin editing a post for them. That being said, I’ve just got the reel for Akane-banashi to make before I’m done. However, I can’t just let IG have all the fun and leave my heart and soul, the Blog, in the dust! So I will be posting a Review Roundup soon, where I make a short review formulated from those first couple volumes of each series in one blog post. It would be a shame to not talk about these 3 fantastic manga and also would give me a chance to flex my critical analysis and writing again! Look out for that soon!
Plans throughout the Year
Finally, I want to just mention a couple more ideas to think about and incorporate, and also to just think about what parts of this passion project I like and what parts I think could be changed. I want 2026 to be a big year for JMC and I want to do as much as I can to improve it and make both the blog and the IG Page grow. Here’s some of my ideas.
Reviews are the main course for the blog, these will remain mostly as is and will hopefully appear more frequently this year.
Hauls are a no-brainer, definitely good for IG as well where they shine more. These will likely appear as I make my way more through my books.
Manga Picks are super fun, it's an easy way to interact with people! However I don’t have much of a community to interact with, so this will be great if I am able to gather a group together!
Topics for the blog is a fun one that can also easily translate to the IG page. When I get Ideas for something to talk about I should write down ideas and make short research topics on an interesting subject.
Monthly Reading Reviews are something I want to do for both the blog and the IG Page especially. It allows me to talk about a bunch of series all at once and gives me a good idea of how much I’m reading, easy to engage with too!
Reading Challenges could be anything from making a game out of reading certain things or even setting a goal for myself and seeing what it's like.
The IG Recommendations are fun and have potential, but take a tiny bit longer to make than I would like, and need to engage with the audience a bit more.
Random IG Ideas. Things like My favourite manga covers in my collection! or Best Historical series to get in to! These sorts of short videos that could be interesting and just fun to share with people.
Updates, not just blog but insta too, share what I've been reading, talk about something offhandedly. Might be a nice chill thing to do for the page.
Phew! What a mouthful of an update that was. I’ll be making sure to keep up the hard work this year and do my best to make the manga corner grow!
Thank you so much for reading! Take Care!
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