Again, I did not manage to stick with blogging every day. Even more than this, I actually have not stick to it for three days! But at least, I now happily have a nice new design and the sidebar just like I have always wanted it. Ah well, today we will have a feature for three days then:
There surely are a lot of blogs worthy to mention, and according to my criteria which I will elaborate in the end, I decided to talk about my following favourites:
The End of the World
Even though Ruki tends to disagree, I think Owen is very right with his observation that being british seems to automatically make you a good anime blogger. Martin is no exception, with his blog older than most of ours and finally has seemed to gained quite a lot of popularity. Why has it turned out to be one of my favourite blogs now? Well…
First, I am a big fan of episodic blogging, because while overall reviews of series can be interesting, anime are structured in episodes with a reason and it’s worthy to look at them in episodes or, like Martin does, in bunches of episodes.
Second, Martin is a huge fan of Makoto Shinkai and therefore has an impeccable aesthetic sense and a nice set of good-looking headers along with a self-coded WordPress theme (if I’m not mistaken, his old blog was self-coded too), another big plus. He also likes the gothic lolita style, very good.
Third, he seems to have seen quite a lot of movies and read books. On a side note, Haibane Renmei is supposed to refer to “The Hard-Boiled Wonderland at The End of the World” by Murakami. And now go figure.
Fourth, he is very nice to discuss with. After I criticized that he hasn’t answered to my comments, he actually apologized (I was so surprised back then!) and is now very committed to it.
But finally, it is mainly the content and reading pleasure that put “The End of the World” at the top of my list. Martin seems to have a similar anime taste and opinions compared to myself, even though our MAL compatibility says something else. He tends to watch the same anime as I do, analyses them in a very enlightening and easily readable way and presents them with nice pictures and screenshots but keeping a very good picture/text ratio. At the same time, I never felt a “tl; dr” (too long, don’t read) sentiment when reading his entries.
Greatest finds: Very difficult to say, I think I would go for
* Episodic commentary on Mushishi, very nice to read while re-watching the series, or parts of the series
* Episodic commentary on ef, for a change a reasonable analysis of the show and also good for reading while watching
* He also blogged much more intensively about Kino no Tabi than me
* A comment on manliness, huerrgh!
* The first blog entry on Petite Cossette I have ever seen!
Azure Flame
As a fellow female anime blogger, Karura studies the major I have always dreamt of studying and stands out for a very particular sense of humour. In fact, I discovered her blog through the HARD YURI parodies or Maria-sama ga Miteru. She has watched far more anime than most of the people I know and me together (or so I think), but she still has high standards when it comes to differentiating the good from the trash.
If you don’t find her humour enjoyable, I will be glad to kill you there are still a lot of aspects that make this blog immensely valuable for me. Since Karura watches most of the shows, she provides a good insight and guidance of what to watch and fangirls about them in a very pleasant way. Even though she does not explicitly do episodic blogging, she still comments progressively about shows and therefore contributes to discussions about them. She especially also covers rare shows that nobody watches which I am very thankful for.
Greatest finds:
* Tuesday Rumble, a features that comes back - who would have guessed - every Tuesday, basically ranting about recent anime. What I like about it the most is actually that I can expect it (nearly) every week *hrr*
* Maria-sama ga Miteru parody posts, my initial love.
* Weekly Round-ups, quick reads to see some helpful indication if certain shows are still worthy to watch.
In fact, there really is not much to say about HappySoda. It’s just a feast for the eyes: A nice-looking blog design and the most awesome portraits of figurines I have ever seen that are so good that it has catapulted the site directly into this list. Of course, super rats also writes editorials from time to time, but it’s mainly the figures that are worth to look at, even when you actually do not collect figures like me!
Greatest find:
* A tutorial on lighting figurines, very detailed and interesting. It makes me want to take figurine pictures XD
Other noticeable reads
In the end, there are actually loads of blogs I read when I look at Antenna or Animenano closely, and all of them are of merit for me, but I really wanted to restrict myself to three.
First, the blog should not be too popular like Memento or Random Curiosity. I loved the first and liked the second for its screenshots, but everybody knows them anyways.
Second, the blog should be very regularily updated. Hige’s blog would nearly have made it to the list if I didn’t decide that his blogging is actually rather irregular (or is it just my impression?) Besides that, I love it. Other rarely updated blogs I have appreciated a lot are Cinnamon Ass, Wakaranai and especially the insightful postings on Ergo Proxy on Anikimeiski. With the understanding provided by that blog, I saw Ergo Proxy with different eyes, seriously.
Third, it should be a blog that I have always liked reading since I discovered it, which is unfortunately not the case for RIUVA, my previous no.1 (yes, yes, it was).
And finally, I really have no good reason for not writing about Star Crossed Anime Blog, in which psgels provides the most interesting first impressions on all kinds of shows; and Epic Win, the most promising rising blog, a mix of great writing style, good choices of series and topics and a hilarious blogging duo.
Ah, my life would be so sad without anime blogs! Should I worry now?
PS. Oh God, and now I have forgotten my main point: If anybody of you guys do not want me to write about you, just comment here and Hige will get his spot if he does not mind *hrr*
Comments 18
Verily, verily I say unto you, Britain is good. Or, rather more specifically, The End of the World is indeed a very accomplished read.
But I haven’t come across Happy Soda before *heads off to check it out*
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 02:44 CE(S)T ¶Wow, it’s quite an honor to be mentioned among such lofty company, Martin, Karura, super rats, et al. n_n;
It’s very true that being British automatically makes your blog cool. Case in point is the new start-up, IKnight over at Animanachronism:
http://animanachronism.wordpress.com/
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 02:58 CE(S)T ¶Thanks! And good to see some activity on your blog.
I’ve also noticed the British thing. I’d have to spend hours and hours editing to sound 1/4 as smooth as they do.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 03:36 CE(S)T ¶Haha, I see, 0rion is being modest like always. Seriously, your postings are immensely enjoyable to read.
@super rats: You’re welcome, it’s well deserved!
Do you actually spend time on your postings? I never do that and don’t even re-read what I wrote. Basically I’m hoping that my writing becomes better by a miracle.
@IKnight: Ah, to be honest I didn’t even know your blog, but now that I have skimmed through it, I find it very british indeed
I hope to hear more from you!
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 11:30 CE(S)T ¶Don’t chase my comments so closely, Orion. People will think you’re stalking me.
Unless . . . you are?
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 12:46 CE(S)T ¶Haha, don’t worry, your comment was in moderation before and he posted before I woke up and approved your comment *g*
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 12:52 CE(S)T ¶Yay, I feel so happy to be mentioned, and am awaiting my award…what, there’s no award? Not even a chocolate coin?
Although I must mention that I did blog about Petite Cossette last year. And now I must get back to doing British-type things, like supping tea and visiting libraries, for that is our secret to blog success…
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 15:54 CE(S)T ¶Wow, thanks for the mention! *grins and blushes* Your kind words are very much appreciated. The sheer variety of series covered by Azure Flame, plus the neat bits of humour and open honesty, have made it a valued entry to my blogroll. I didn’t know much about Happy Soda though, so that’ll be added to my feedreader ASAP.
Hige, Cinnamon Ass, Epic Win and Wakaranai are excellent blogs that I’d also recommend - these are sites that I find to be consistently well-written and endlessly interesting. It’s so much easier to write when you’re inspired by such good quality in the first place.
@Karura: yeah, I remember that post. It tempted me to put Cossette on my To Watch list, where it stayed until a couple of weeks ago. Lament@backlog!
@IKnight: I was really pleased when you took the plunge and started your own blog. Kudos to a fellow brit who sips MANLY TEA.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 19:12 CE(S)T ¶I see. German students only seem to go to libraries for match-making purposes while brits actually improve their blogging-style!
*reaches out to give Karura a jelly-filled doughnut*
But oh God, how could I not have noticed that post about Cossette? I really thought that OVA would be too old for anybody to write about it. (By the way, I finally read the manga too and found it very beautifully drawn and much more detailed when it comes to style than the anime. It’s just… not coloured.)
@Martin: Maybe I should put “Lament@backlog” as subtitle of my blog, it seems to reflect my anime life far too well…
And now I shall go sipping some chinese tea *hrr hrr*
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 19:58 CE(S)T ¶When I started I tried to, but I learned after a while no matter how hard I tried I’d never sound half as literate as those British bloggers.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 21:47 CE(S)T ¶*eats doughnut*…mmm, virtual doughnut.
I like “Lament@backlog” too- for while it may look like I’ve watched a lot of anime (and, well, I have), I also have a monster pile of unwatched DVDs, plus a million fansubs on hard drive and burnt to disc. It’s the final boss of backlogs.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 22:57 CE(S)T ¶Haha, what an honour it is to be mentioned on a list of blogs worth reading (or any list in my case). I’m glad someone appreciates or appreciated the reams of rant and ramble of which my blog is comprised
Actually, reading your entry and picking up on some of the positives you used to describe a good anime blog makes me feel like I’m doing it wrong. The “picture:text ratio” is certainly something I should look at; of late my picture:text ratio has been:
1:Lots of fucking text
It’s a shame I enjoy writing too much, and taking/arranging screencaps is so arduous. I really wish I got more feedback on the blog. I don’t really care how many people are reading it (I haven’t looked at the hit stats for ~2 years), but I hate to think I’m being “tl;dr”. So if anything comes to mind, feel free to lambaste me. Add me on AIM or MSN if you like.
In the mean time I’ll be sure to keep an eye out on your blog
Oh, and for the record: I’m half-British. Can I cash that in for any kudos?
Posted 13 Jan 2008 at 13:41 CE(S)T ¶I posted about Petit Cossette two and a half years ago, although I had nothing interesting to say about it, and I used the correct incorrect spelling of the title ^^;
Posted 13 Jan 2008 at 18:36 CE(S)T ¶@super rats: Don’t worry about it, you are doing perfectly fine with taking great pictures. Also, there are quite a few outstanding writers, but you are the only outstanding photographer of figurines!
@Karura:I cannot quite believe that. If I look at your MAL list, I feel like you have seen everything I have seen as well, and much more of course O.o
@Washi: I added you on AIM and MAL and am wondering if that actually worked out.
I think it’s great that you worry about your blogging style but I find it mainly uncalled for. Maybe including some pictures would be nice, but in my opinion it isn’t necessary to include them just for the sake of them (like I do actually *cough*) unless you want your blog to become more popular among less sophisticated readers. Besides that, I really enjoy your writing style as you know, and I think other people name it among their favourite blogs for a good reason ^^
On a side note, you are so young! That’s amazing…
@DiGi: Thank you for mentioning that! I always had the impression that nobody cares about this and I know that the japanese insisted on releasing “Petit Cossette” with the ‘wrong’ spelling like that in France. In fact, “Petit Cossette” hurts my eyes and I refuse to spell it anything else than “Petite Cossette”. Also, the daughter of Jean Valjean from Les Misérables is actually spelled “Cosette” so I always tend to spend the whole name completely wrong. Who cares.
Posted 13 Jan 2008 at 23:04 CE(S)T ¶I went to bed shortly after I responded here so that’s why AIM didn’t seem to work. I’m keen to chat, so if it didn’t seem to go through you could always give me your AIM and I can add you.
>>unless you want your blog to become more popular among less sophisticated readers
I want my blog to become more popular among readers full stop, lol. Although I suppose if they can’t handle paragraph prose without visual aid, perhaps they shouldn’t be reading blogs at all.
>> and I think other people name it among their favourite blogs for a good reason ^^
Who are these elusive people? XD
Posted 14 Jan 2008 at 03:13 CE(S)T ¶Believe it or not, it’s true…actually when I can be bothered I’ll add it all to ‘plan to watch’ on MAL to demonstrate what I mean
Posted 15 Jan 2008 at 02:15 CE(S)T ¶I think my tardy response of appreciation here says a lot about my general ethos of doing things frequently. Not to say it’s an ethos I like, or intend to humour, but ya know…
Anyway, thank you for mentioning me amongst the elite of sexiness listed in this post. I’ll try and update more to legitimise the recognition. <3
Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 21:17 CE(S)T ¶hmm… perhaps i m not British enough….
/me goes and fetch some tea and crumpets
Posted 02 Mar 2008 at 22:51 CE(S)T ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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