aniblog tourney

Now, we are on week two of the competition and it is pretty fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review another 12 Anime Blogs.

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff.

Day 7

Match 13

Black and Blue Socks


Black and Blue Socks have a clean layout. Although the theme is commonly used, I won’t criticize it since it’s a limitation on Wordpress.com. The layout is very clean and navigable. Although an episodic blog, it does have a decent amount of editorials mixed in and the content is fairly good, so I have much to say… It is a pretty well rounded blog…
Major Arcana


Major Arcana has a very nice and clean design. Although the author does episodic blogging as the former, unlike the former, there is a lot more editorial blogging covering a variety of subjects. The post quality is very good, except that unlike the former, the author doesn’t post as often… but from the quality of posts and content, the advantage is Major Arcana, but ever so slightly.
Match 14

Daijoubu

There is not much I can say about Daijoubu as it is another comic blog with well, comics that look as they were made in MS Paint and posts that lack quality and not as good as Beta-Waffle’s… I wished that this blog have done a better job in providing content that are higher quality. Perhaps some editorials and stuff… Oh well…
Mecha-Guignol

Although not particularly interested in some of the genres that the author is looking at, I think the author of this blog done a better job with the post quality. The author posts a mix of editorial and rarely episodic blogging. With the shortcomings of Daijoubu, it is quite obvious that this one is going to be my choice…
Day 7 Results

Major Arcana and Mecha-Guignol
Day 8

Match 15

Ani-Gamers


Despite the name of the blog, Ani-Gamers is a mixed episodic, editorial and review blog. Ani-Gamers have a clean layout, although not the usual layout as the stuff is on the left side. Fairly good quality posts and the author seems to post frequently.
Anime Full Circle


The problem with Anime Full Circle is that the text is a bit unreadable, maybe because of the fonts used on my system. In contrast to Ani-Gamers, they post fairly frequently, but the problem with the posts is that some of the posts lack some quality. If they improve their post quality, I would have vote for them, but the clear advantage is Ani-Gamers. Anime Full Circle should consider either getting a new theme or fix their current theme so it would be more readable.
Match 16


Since I follow Anime Instrumentality Blog on my RSS reader, it is obvious that I am going to vote for them automatically. It is rare that the Anime Blogosphere focus mainly on Anime Music as a whole, but I find this blog rather unique with high quality reviews on Anime Singles, Albums and Singles and also focus on Anime and related music as a whole.

The problem with Kita ze Inbou is that they focus way too much on Episodic Blogs and post a lot of screenshots like Random Curiosity. They have a clean layout, but why the banner add is on top of the banner? I would rather have them move it to the content area. Although the theme looks appealing, they really need to post more original content like editorials and stuff.
Day 8 Results

Ani-Gamers and Anime Instrumentality Blog
Day 9

Match 17

Behind The Nihon Review


Behind The Nihon Review is mostly an editorial blog. The pieces I have looked at were pretty professional and rational, although they don’t post as often. The layout design overall is pretty clean and easy to navigate.
Chocolate Syrupy Waffles


Chocolate Syrupy Waffles is probably one of the most controversial blogs out there that tries to be funny and interesting. The problem is some may not like the opinions shown on the blog. Also, they do episodic posting as well. As for the layout, it is pretty clean and easy to navigate. Despite the outrageousness of the blog, I think Behind The Nihon Review is better since it has a more rational approach on issues and being more polished.
Match 18

Listless Ink


The author of this blog must have put a lot of effort to make it look really nice. From the looks of the comments, that is simply insane. The content is mostly editorial and the posts are pretty good quality.
Super Noisy Rice Shower Goes Boom!!

Rarely there is a blog out there that focus primarily on Seiyuus. Like the former, the content is pretty good as well and it also has a very clean layout. Tough decision… so I’m going to let you guys vote for what blog I should ultimately decide on. The poll will close this Friday and I will decide on that day on what blog to vote according to the votes on this poll.
[poll id=”12″]
Day 9 Results

Behind The Nihon Review. Match 18 to be decided.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 18 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Friday with another 12 blogs to review.
Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is by G TONG (Pixiv Page)

Going to do this digest today since I got bored and just wanted to review more Anime Blogs. Will be using the iPad Simulator’s Mobile Safari (still based on Webkit) instead taking a screencap of every window because of the inconsistent window sizes and blogs should be designed for a 1024×768 resolution. No ands and buts. Now onto the blog reviews…

Day 4

Match 7

A Product of Wasted Time

A Product of Wasted Time (an episodic blog) has a good layout design, pretty easy to navigate and such, except the large number of ads… well besides from that, the author seems to have decent content and frequently updates (from the number of posts made on the Archives). How about what the competitor is doing?
chaostangent

Chaostangent has a unique design which is very clean, appealing and original (the bottom shows his Last.fm, Youtube and Flickr profiles). His approach of blogging some can view as pretty good as he takes three episodes and write about them and afterwards, write a review in the end of the show’s running, which is pretty unique. Also, he posts rather frequently, so although some say it was a hard choice, the match goes to Chaostangent.
Match 8

見ないで! ひとり言 (mi nai de ! hitori gen)

The duo blog from jpmeyer and Hinano… who seems to RAEG a lot or focus too much on the negative. The overall design of the blog is good. Depending on the person, you may find the raeg funny or maybe not as your milage may vary. The notable feature from this blog is jpmeyer’s “what i was forced to watch this week” posts that many can find amusing, although lacking in some quality…
Caraniel’s Ramblings

Unlike the former blog, Caraniel’s Ramblings is less on the RAEG and negativity and more on the actual content. Comparing post quality, it seems that this blog is a little bit more higher quality than the former although the banner should of be design better, but the vote goes to this one as they seem to update more frequently, have better content and less RAEG…
Day 4 Results

chaostangent and Caraniel’s Ramblings
Day 5

Match 9
Just as Planned

Just as Planned has a clean and simple layout. The only flaw that I see with the layout is that the archives are missing. How I supposed to check older posts. The author posts fairly often and the author’s post seems to be very descriptive and high quality and is mostly an episodic blog…
Moe Check

Moe Check has a really good design and really navigable. Although the posts are good quality, the problem is the author seems to post infrequently, which slowly lessen the lead with design sadly. If only the author have posted a little more every month, it would get my vote, but the vote has to go to Just as Plan because the author of that blog posts far more often while maintaining good quality posts.

As the name say, Moe Check, the content is pretty persistent with that.
Match 10

Rainbowsphere

Rainbowsphere is very passionate with its eroge and hentai so much there is a post saying that he is not ashamed of his porno… Something that will turn me off (no, I have nothing against porno, eroge or such, but I find it… gross). The main problem with the blog is that it hasn’t seen an update since March 8th, which is almost like a month and being updated very infrequently, the chances of voting for it is very slow. The navigation is awkward compared to other blogs that have next and previous page on the bottom of the index of blog posts. The author should consider fixing that as well so that it will be easier to navigate towards pages and such.
JanaiBlog

Besides the fact that Janai on Twitter nagging about people not using licensed anime sources and this drama on twitter that causing myself and my friend on twitter to unfollow him (no offense) because of this reason… this shouldn’t be the big thing to be against of the blog because of something that happens on twitter. The design is pretty appealing, clean and navigable. The blogger focus primarily on the Anime scene mainly in America, so he focuses on issues that pertain to America and also Anime Cons and such… not that I would be interested in. The blogger also posts fairly frequently, so the advantage is clear… despite the shenanigans that happens on Twitter on theme design and productivity.
Day 5 Results

Just as Planned and JanaiBlog
Day 6

Match 11

Canne’s anime review blog

I seriously think the blogger needs to put more effort on the images as it look like something that came from MS Paint or something (hint: Use GIMP, Paint.net or Photoshop (If you can afford it). Besides from the fact of that, the content doesn’t reflect that at all. The posts are fairly good quality, but the blogger should really update more often! At least the author posts a few posts every month, I guess…Besides from that, the layout is clean and navigable.
COLONY DROP

I can say that the post quality is around the same as the former and they don’t update often. However, don’t like their design and what with this advertisement for Funimation… Ugh… I think I will vote for the underdog, Canne’s anime review blog. Also, they are missing archive links to older posts.
Match 12

Beta-Waffle

Although the color scheme and layout of Beta-Waffle is ugh, the content on the blog is pretty unique. They post comics that have to relate to Anime and such that they are funny… Only thing they should really improve is the theme and it will be all good.
bananaMuffin

bananaMuffin has a very appealing design to the eye and easy to navigate and has good quality posts and author posts fairly often… I don’t know… This is a tough decision… so what do you decide I should pick on this round? Its up to you now. The one that gets the most votes by next Monday is the one I will be voting for…

[poll id=”11″]
Day 6 Results

Canne’s anime review blog and Match 12 to be decided bananaMuffin.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 12 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Tuesday with another 12 blogs to review.