We're one month in to 2015, and while not a whole lot has changed visibly here at IKRP, there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and you'll start to see some of that finally come together over the course of February. I'm trying to set up a timetable of sorts for when I make I drop the big one (the update, not the superhero), which will probably end up being... well "some time in the not-too-distant future" is where I'm at right now.
What has changed visibly is the general layout of the site, which I was tinkering with at the start of the month and then got distracted by shiny objects and real-life commitments (and illnesses.) For ages now I've been trying to get something just right, and I think I've almost got it. It's still a work-in-progress and I'll add/tweak things here and there, but a clean, minimalist layout that maximizes content space and makes everything easy to find/get to is what I'm aiming for. I spent hours just trying to get that scrolling social sticky buttons thingie to work- hopefully it still does! As far as a few other things go, read on...
Rider Break! has been on another Unintended Hiatus™ (future episode title!) but I've been working on some plans for it in 2015, and they're going to be pretty cool. All I'll say at this juncture is I'm planning to split the massive Q&A across two or more episodes for easier listening, and the next episode will come out in February.
At some point soon I also want to finally get around to transferring stuff over from the old IKRP, so I don't have to keep telling people to go to a dead site with no pictures that looks like a junkheap. I'm only doing it with the real essentials. Stuff like:
-The important stuff; credits, FAQ, links, etc. The Links pages has always been one of my most popular (figures!) and I owe it to everybody who's still been linking to this site through its many dormant phases.
-The Ishinomori Week articles that I labored over. All those are basically getting extensive updates and additions anyway. I'm doing some tinkering with the release format too; it'll be different, but I think you'll like it when you know how I'm doing it. And it'll make sense- even with all the comics/shows covered thus far I've barely even begun to chip away at the massive mountain that is Ishinomori's work. There's a lot of stuff without Tokusatsu or even TV adaptations and I'm more than willing to write about it. First things first though, I want to get all the old articles over here and up-to-snuff before moving onto new frontiers (and I already have a couple half-written.)
-Some articles like Tackle Week (also getting a lot of tweaks) will be preserved, though shelved for a while and brought out later. That for example is something where I'd like to set aside an actual week this year to repost it since Stronger is kinda celebrating an anniversary and all. Or something like the 40 Years of Televi-Magazine, which isn't exactly timely anymore, but is still something I really enjoyed writing, will find its way over in some fashion. One of the most popular but unfinished series, Secret Origins, is something I'm going to give a massive overhaul to and finish, but that's a long-term plan right now.
Beyond that: With a lot of the TV show/movie reviews, my opinions and feelings have changed/evolved since I wrote them, so for something like Kiva (which I 'reviewed/recapped' in full) I'd kinda like to revisit it once it hits Blu-ray and let you know what I think of each individual episode then, rather than copy-pasting summaries that I wrote up largely because at the time, getting to see the episodes as fast as we do now wasn't an option. Or something like V3 or Kuuga, where I started them, but I've decided from now on if I do text reviews of a series it'll be more orderly and actually be something I'm committed to finishing. At some point, "sit down and go through every single episode of Kamen Rider all over again" is something I'm totally interested in doing, for multiple projects.
But basically, I am going to actually keep everything (because I keep everything except the important stuff!) I don't feel a need to repost it and tell you what I thought of a movie after seeing it once in 2009 when I can tell you what I think of it now having seen it a few more times, learned more about how it was made and how influential it would prove years later. That sort of thing.
Same goes for most of the other reviews. My Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider is one I'm keeping because that's another of my favorite articles, and there isn't a whole lot I can add to that beyond "years later, I still can't believe this came out on DVD & Blu-ray again!" A lot of the merchandise reviews I don't feel a real need to keep up either. I have a new format I'm developing and new goals in mind when it comes to toys/books/ etc, so who knows, I might revisit a few of them anyway (not that many people care about H.G.C.O.R.E. anymore!)
Beyond that, the odds & ends, news bytes and random pictures and such are all stuff I will discard or dump on the tumblr eventually. Maybe some of the goofy comedy articles too, I dunno if they're quite as funny now. But hey, like I said, I will save everything before finally pulling the trigger on the last remnant of the 'old' IKRP.
Because a new one is coming, and with all the stuff brought over from the old site, there's going to be a lot of new stuff. Some of which you may see real soon....
Thanks for reading!
