I've written enough about my past here at AD — how I stumbled and fell, haplessly, into the role of Editor in Chief after just being that guy that wrote the script for publishing the news. In a lot of ways the site was an experiment to me, one that was destined to fail because so much time went into reinvention and categorization. If blogs have taught us anything, it's that content still has a shelf life even though it's not on a shelf. That the Internet has no past (except when you're searching for information about something new), and it's a waste of time to catalog content for posterity.

I can't emphasize enough how much I'm going to miss this, or miss wanting to do this, as it were. Either way I look at it, it's like losing a part of myself. Eleven years ago, I wouldn't have imagined being here today — if anything, I would've imagined stopping sooner, like at that magic four-year boundary that marks high school and college life. Nobody wants a good thing to end, but it always does, and you can never go back.

In my case, the thing I lost is the desire to watch anime on a regular basis. I could blame the recent content, talk about the degradation of anime values like some curmudgeon, but the truth is I changed. My work is fulfilling where it wasn't before. I have a renewed interest in music and music performance. And there's this small matter about still being alone at my age. (Identifying oneself as an anime fan is not seen as attractive, generally speaking.)

I'm not bowing out of anime writing altogether. I plan to make the occasional contribution to Mike's Anime Herald, and I'm working on an idea for a new publication that will allow me to be a bit more free-range in terms of culture and entertainment commentary. I like writing articles, and probably always will. So farewell, Mr. Bond, but not goodbye.