Okazu Reader Profile and "Now This Is Only My Opinion" Solicitation

July 22nd, 2008

I *will* make the rest of the data available to you at some point, as promised. But I have a load of work to get done this week and next looks worse, so you’ll just have to wait. :-)

In the meantime, I thought you might get a kick of knowing who you are.

Okazu readers are female (70%) (which surprised me quite a bit) as likely to be straight (31%) as lesbian (30%) or bi (26%), between 18-25 (47%) and from the United States (49%). (A message to a few of you who chose “Other” – Alaska and Hawaii *are* part of the US. LOL)

You are likely to read Okazu a couple of times a week (75%), with almost half of you reading me at nearly every update (44%) – and thank you for that.

Here’s the thing that didn’t surprise me at all – 60% of Okazu readers have bought anime or manga in the last *month*, with 25% having bought in the last week. I was convinced that you, more than any other audience in the whole world, were likely to be active consumers and I am very gratified to find that my assumption was correct. On behalf of anime and manga companies everywhere, thank you. :-)

Another surprise is that reviews of Japanese anime and manga were the top reason (18%) y’all read here. This was a close race with more than 5 reasons coming in at about 15%.

.75% of you wish you didn’t have to read me, but don’t know where else to look. To you I say, look up Yuribou on Google. He’s got the guy’s perspective on Yuri you’d rather read. ^_^

Slightly more than 25% of you use Okazu as your only news source. This was surprising – and a little alarming! ^_^ Most of you (75%) go elsewhere and the usual suspects, AnimeNewsNetwork and Anime on DVD at the head of the pack and a HOST of other sources listed. I’ll see what I can do about collating those into a list of some sort.

And lastly, just slightly over half (51%) of you don’t attend any anime events at all, so just slightly less than half (49%, duh) do.

To sum up, you are a cute 22 year old girl, who buys anime and manga, lives in Ohio, is named Jessica, reads Okazu voraciously and will drop by the Yuricon table at Otakon. I look forward to meeting you there. ^_^

***

While I have your attention, I am now soliciting questions for the 6th “Now This Is Only My Opinion” question and answer segment. Ask me anything, and I’ll do my best to answer as many questions as possible. You can put them in the comments here or send them to me at anilesbocon01 at hotmail dot com with the subject line “Q&A”.

I won’t promise to answer every queston, but they can be about anything. Feel free to ask about anime or manga, but don’t hesitate to ask something better. :-)

I have really enjoyed the last 5 versions of this, so I’ll look forward to your questions and the 6th iteration!

Thanks, Jessica. :-)

16 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:

    Have any of Yoshiya Nobuko’s works been translated into English?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Besides Seirei no Moribito (which, indeed, is very awesome), what other recent non-Yuri anime series have you enjoyed?

  3. Haha – I think the Alaska and Hawaii folks pointed out their locations as a way to perhaps highlight our lack of physical shopping capabilities and poor convention attendance record. ;)

    Thank you for sharing the results of the poll with us. I, too, was surprised at the percentage of female readers and am happy to know that we seem to all be dutiful Yuri consumers. I must admit that despite my frugal nature, your blog has long compelled me to purchase Yuri wherever possible. :D

  4. darkchibi07 says:

    Can we be sure that some of those 70% aren’t just guys faking their gender?

  5. Anonymous says:

    To you I say, look up Yuribou on Google. He’s got the usual LFB perspective on Yuri you’d rather read. :-)

    Ah, but see, a perspective that isn’t yours isn’t automatically LFB. There isn’t just yours and LFB ;)
    I for once mostly nod when you write things – just on some occassions, you have a tendency to make things up, or go all condescending. In other words, I like the content, just sometimes I distaste the form.
    That doesn’t make me LFB – would be strange, since LFBs don’t come female.

  6. anonymous – Loser Fan*.* is gender non-specific. :-)

    And of course not aggreeing with my opinions has NOTHING to do with a person being a LF or not. Plenty of people disagree with me. Opinions are personal – everyon has the right to theirs.

    I consider Yuribou LFB because his Yuri is more often than not based on harem anime and ero-games. The intended audience of which are “otaku” – the Japanese word that means LFB to other Japanese. As in – he’s the creepy guy who plays erogames. :-)

  7. darkchibi – no, but since my results panned out on a similar scale to Yuri Hime‘s, I’m inclined to think it’s more accurate than not.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Yuribou stopped blogging Yuri.

  9. grace says:

    It’s not Yuri, but have you heard of the novel, Toshoukan Sensou (aka Library Wars), that has been made into an anime? If so, any thoughts on the series and will you check it out, since you too are a cool protector of books? :-)

  10. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t really an opinion based question, but since you said you were a fan I thought I’d ask: What the hell am I supposed to use pencil boards for?

  11. Anonymous says:

    Do you find there are different character types in Yuri aimed at different audiences? What are they?

  12. Anonymous says:

    What if I were to tell you I am a 22 year old girl from Michigan named Jessica … your analysis was nearly spot on :/

  13. Anonymous says:

    Oh, but you get readers from Australia too… At least, I’m one of them :)

    And 22 is just two years away from my age :P

    ~L-chan

  14. elle says:

    “.75% of you wish you didn’t have to read me, but don’t know where else to look. To you I say, look up Yuribou on Google. He’s got the usual LFB perspective on Yuri you’d rather read.
    I don’t feel that you responded to what a previous Anon was trying to say regarding this segment of your post. I think that she/he and I are both wishing that there were more options and blogs for this genre than what we are presented with, not necessarily beacuse we don’t know where to look. I’m frustrated that you would assume that I’d rather read Yuribou just because I don’t want to read you; honestly, this is the type of reader generalization and mild hubris that turns me off to your reviews. I feel that you went on about Yuribou’s LFBness rather than seeing the crux of the issue, which is that you shouldn’t lump people into these boxes based on arbitrary statistics from a poll that is by no means comprehensive of all of your readers. Considering how many people do indeed read your blog, I feel that this is irresponsible–creating a dichotomy between groups and otherizing those that fall into or happen to like any of these things that you associate with creepiness or loser-ness.

  15. elle – What do you want me to say?

    I’m sorry that other people have not stepped up to post regularly about the kind of Yuri that would appeal to you in a way that would not offend your particular sensibilities.

    No one forces you to read this blog. I don’t get righteous indignation as a form of entertainment. If you don’t like what you read here, feel free to start your own blog. I started one because no one else was doing it. I’m still writing about Yuri because I like it. You don’t *have* to read me. No one does. If you do read me, expect to get what you get. This is how I write – and as I am a human, it’s full of changeable opinions, emotions, random biases and a tendency to be mean, because I have a natural tendency to be mean. Most of the people who read me find me amusing. I’m hardly going to change my style for the 0.75% of you who feel dissatisfied – even if I could.

  16. What is your opinion about the upcoming Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie?

    Thanks! :-)

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