Welcome to the Aniblog Tourney special, where we will highlight all the new and some old aniblogs, participating in this dorama-filled contest. Out of the 168 total aniblogs, 112 have been divided evenly into four houses brackets containing 28 blogs each for Round 1. We will have such multiple highlights in the days to come and the number covered will vary. For sure though, next six posts would be all about the battle between Gryffindor Red, Ravenclaw Blue, Slytherin Green and Hufflepuff Yellow for the first round. There are total four rounds after which the final sixteen will battle it out for the House cupTourney win, but that’s almost two months away so let’s concentrate on the present!

You would ask, why we are doing this? Well, I heard people talking about circlejerking and though it’s true in actuality, why not we try to change it? Why not actually give the new blogs a chance? Who knows this push of motivation would make them stay around and contribute even more to the anisphere? So, you can say, we accepted the challenge. I hope you find a few gems from this coverage like we did. Though, make your own judgement and vote for the blog of your liking.

1. Toxic Muffin

Thoughts: Welcome to the anime blog Toxic Muffin! Don’t let the name fool you this is not a blog about muffins or anything toxic; this blog is owned by a writer named Lord Reiseng or simply Reiseng. His posts consist of anime reviews and various first impression themed posts, but he also covers the weekly shounen manga that covers Naruto, Bleach and One piece aka the big three! Other than breaking down manga and anime; Reiseng also has a few editorials. Each post has a balance of screen caps or few panels from manga, filled with the right amount of text making them really easy to follow along.  However, Reiseng throws in some craziness too and by craziness I mean the fun kind of crazy that makes you laugh.

Design wise Toxix Muffin uses a white background with a black banner and white text. While this looks any another plain wordpress blog, the style is very easy on the eyes; every post on Toxic Muffin showcases a single screen shot from the episode. On the right side of the blog you can find several categories filled with different tags for quick access to weekly shounen, quick impressions, twelve days of anime and various posts about anime. So, if you are looking for a few laughs and fun posts, stop by Toxic Muffin.

2. 8thSin Fansubs Anime Blog

Thoughts: This website is dedicated to providing fan subs for various anime, live action dorama, films and music, thanks to 8thSin’s skills with translations, but he is an anime fan at heart as well who has written over one hundred action Japanese movies reviews and several anime reviews over time. Now I really have no idea what it takes to make fansubs, but 8thSin has been doing it since the winter anime season back in 2010 and it appears he is going strong with providing subtitles for Accel World and recently finishing off Ano Natsu from the winter 2012 anime season. Besides translations he also breaks down some other fan subbers translation while using a grading system and a difficulty level for each sub group. That is really interesting just to see how hardcore into subbing 8thSin can actually get. So, maybe you are into researching what fansubs work for you? Or maybe you want to try making your own fansubs group? I recommend you check out this blog.

Design wise this site uses a simple white background with bold blue text, but each post comes complete with a small screen shot from the series so you can sort of understand what you are going to read. Each post is a walkthrough on how 8thSin goes through the translation process. This really shows he knows his stuff when it comes to creating his own subs for every series he takes on. If you are a fan of Accel World, you might want to give his subs a shot because from the looks of things he is very dedicated to his blog.

3. Amaenbou Dane~

Thoughts: Amaenbou dane~ is an aniblog that doesn’t actually cover anime. Aedes and his accomplice Aero write all about about eroges – basically R-18+ dating sims. This isn’t really a department I’m an expert in, but it’s nice to see some variety amongst the participating blogs nonetheless. Here you’ll find either full reviews of eroge or some quick impressions by either of the writers. The reviews go over the storyline, characters, possible routes, and more technical things like the graphics. It gives you a good feel for if you want to play the game, but never really delves deeper than surface-level opinions and comments. Impressions read more like a free-flowing train of thought sort of thing where they talk about random things in the game that pleased them. It’s less organized and a bit jarring to read, but it still gets the bread and butter of info across. If you need a quick fix to gauge if an eroge is worth playing, this seems like a good place to start. If you’re looking for a less casual tone of writing with more analysis and insightful revelations, well, you’re looking at the wrong blog. Amaenbou dane~ is more for functional use.

Aesthetics-wise the site is very plain, but functional and easy to navigate. The posts themselves are well organized into sections, with lots of pictures and spoilers written in white text to avoid making people rage. The impression posts have a weird format sometimes, as if the two of them are having a conversation that I’m not supposed to be a part of. There’s a new post every week or so (sometimes sooner, sometimes later), meaning these guys must blaze through games like demons to do all these write-ups. I’ll give them props for that.

4. The dere-moe Project

Thoughts: dere-moe Project is a blog dedicated to episodic reviews, first impressions, editorials and they even have a podcast called Rto Podcast aka Roundtable Otakus Podcast where they chat about anime mostly done in Filipino and some English. One quick thing I noticed was their review team is quite massive! Supporting over eleven different writers, but it appears only three of them are active at the moment but some attend a few podcast recordings. Their blog contains several pages of first impressions and lots of editorials; each post is fairly short with a very few screen-caps, but this isn’t really a bad thing because you can quickly get through reading through their thoughts.

On the technical side of things the layout for The dere-moe Project background is white and surrounded by lots of bright reds that are sometimes too much on your face, making the navigation a bit tricky and sometimes even problematic. They do have their own logo and a post counter so I guess they do take their anime reviews seriously. So, if you want short bite sized reviews, check the out.

5. Shameful Otaku Secret

Thoughts: There’s nothing shameful about Shameful Otaku Secret except that blatant Aniblog Tourney promotion post (but I think everybody has done that). For four years SOS has been standing, surviving the harsh world of anime and its fandom. Its plain white background can be tricky, because there’s nothing simple about this blog. Even though a cute girl resides in SOS’ banner (who I mistakenly thought as Waver), there’s nothing cute about this blog at all. Don’t expect ponies and rainbows here.

otou-san is a wise old (is he old?) man who happens to be a huge jerk. At least that’s what he said under his name. He’s not really a jerk. otou-san just has this habit of writing anime editorials that can trick simple fans like me into agreeing what everything he said in his posts. His friendly writing style will attract simpletons (Ok, me. I admit, it’s anaaga herself) and enhance them to read his posts until the end, no matter how long they are. The same goes for occasional writers’ posts (ghostlightning and digiboy), but since otou-san is the one who owns the blog, all the credit goes to him.

6. O-New

Thoughts: They really aren’t kidding when they say their site layout is still under construction, because I feel like I’m reading the desperate etchings of a convicted criminal on his grey, prison cell wall. Navigation isn’t so fun either. However, Mushy directly says his design is horrible, so this absolutely isn’t a case of bad taste. After getting past the layout, I dug into their posts to find a mix of anime, manga, video game and editorial posts. A good mix of everything, and their posts are daily as well.

Mushyrulez is the site founder and main writer, along with AbsoluteZero255 who seems to be the only other active writer at the moment. The writing takes on a very devil-may-care attitude, and focuses more on entertaining. For the most part, the posts are pretty amusing to read, and their brevity means you’ll just be reading quick little bites of humour. Any longer and they’d become senseless rambling. AbsoluteZero255 mixes some more actual critique and serious points in his post to provide more balance (which I personally prefer) while Mushy is the outright lulz-inducer. It’s an amusing little blog that should be able to make you chuckle every now and then.

7. Spherical Cows

Thoughts: Let’s take a look at Spherical Cows. Sure, the site has next to nothing to do with conventional cows or spheres, but the blog itself isn’t that conventional in the first place. As the site’s lone writer states, Sandra writes what she wants with little to no seriousness involved. While she doesn’t really do episodics, she does do some series and season reviews/previews. She also has the ability to pick out extremely QUALITY shots of the stuff she watches (which consists of a lot of Precure, but it also ranges to other genres). Yes, her posts range from a ton of paragraphs about her thoughts on an entire series to a single screen cap with a sentence and it’s all opinion based, but hey, making fun of bad animation is always amusing. While she doesn’t have that many shows reviewed in depth, but she seems to be posting weekly now.

8. Otaku Life: Anime Review

Thoughts: What a pretty site! The layout is so nice and it’s easy to navigate. That is, until you want to buy a guitar and find out that you can’t. I’m a little suspiscious as to why a bunch of header links don’t work, and why they all claim you can buy guitars…Kind of sketchy, but it didn’t link me to any viruses (that I know of) so I’ll let that one slide for now.

Most of the posts are more on the creative side, such as talking about one character, a random topic, or covering the latest anime convention. There are definitely a good amount of anime reviews, but for every anime review is another mini project that Arianna has taken part of or thought up herself. It’s the most unique part of her blog (aside from the guitar ad). Her writing itself is mostly opinion-based, to give you a good feel for what’s good or bad in any given anime season. Episodic posting seems rare, so you’ll have to be content with first impressions and maybe a review at the end of the series if you’re lucky.

9. Chikorita157′s Anime Blog

Thoughts: For three years and continuing, Chikorita157 contributed in coloring the aniblogsphere with his/her episodics and editorials. The mixture of blue and mild red gives that fluffy feeling every time his/her site pops out on my screen, not to mention them pretty anime girls in his/her banner and the pictures of moe girls in his/her posts. His/Her layout is just cute and NNGHHH.

Kudos to Chikorita157 for updating his/her  blog daily without having the need of another writer. Though Chikorita157 doesn’t cover all of the series airing, s/he is up to date with the decent number of anime currently airing, and that can be seen in his/her  episodics. Chikorita157 is also an expert of thoughtful editorials, especially when it comes to KEY/Visual Arts and s/he has also covered the previous Aniblog Tourney in quite detail. Basically, Chikorita157’s Anime Blog is a perceptively cute anime blog. Oh, and the whole his/her thing is intentional. Seriously, do check her/his blog!

10. Draggle’s Anime Blog

Thoughts: I suspect that draggle is a panda who likes to watch anime. Or any character who’s in his current banner. No, seriously. All he says in his about page is “I am draggle,” which is very godly of him IMO. The simple layout of his blog just adds the mysterious aura, and that Patrick icon (see the tab)! Very very mysterious of him. He also likes to sing and make different lyrics on the current series. One of them involved one mysterious Shoe, who just could not wear a crown.

How draggle can watch everything and write episodics of everything he watches is a mystery. It’s admirable of him to write everything all alone by himself, not to mention with the in-depth reviews he has in his Review Index. All by himself! That’s so cool de geso! So, do check him out!

11. Polychromium

Thoughts: Welcome to Polychromium, a blog owned by a writer named Lloyd, but his posting style is somewhat different than what most of us are used to. I think his style works quite well for him because he posts reviews that cover an entire anime series verses the usual episodic blogs we are used to reading. In these reviews, Lloyd breaks the review into several sections that cover the Plot outline, General comments, Characters, Story, Visuals and Score, Summary and a final rating to wrap it up. Each topic is touched on with a few paragraphs that flow nicely, but his reviews are lacking in the screen cap department; however, the style he uses doesn’t leave much room for walls and walls of screen shots.

Now for the design portion of Polychromium, the layout is another plain wordpress page style with a white background and a category bar under the banner as well as a twitter feed on the right hand side of the page. Every review post uses the a title screen from each anime or a in game screen shot from whatever video game that post is about… So, if you want to read posts covering an overall series rather than episodics, you should read Lloyd’s reviews.

12. Those Damned Cartoons

Thoughts: What do we have here? A blog with a very unique name called Those Damn Cartoons, owned by Bradley; who reviews batches of anime episodes with the title of the post called Rage Against the Machina. Recently he took on Mirai Nikki (1-17), Aquarion EVOL (1-6) and finally taking on Milky Holmes S2 (1-12 complete). His review format is fairly new to me but I can tell Bradley has a wide range of interests in various genres of anime. As far as the actual writing style goes the reviews favors more text based without the use of any screen caps from the anime or episode, however he does supply plenty of in-depth detail on what he dis/liked about the anime and that works quite well. There are also plenty of editorial style posts to be found mixed in with the episode reviews.

Design wise the blog uses a strange peach colored background with lots of pink dots, which resembles a giant pop-tart; the overall design doesn’t really hurt the blog too much, however, when working with wordpress you can be somewhat limited in color schemes. That said maybe a colorful banner or a new background might help things? Anyway stop by this blog if you want to check out someone with a unique writing style versus your everyday episodic blogger.

13. iSugoi

Thoughts: Neat and professional is the initial impression I get from looking at iSugoi. It’s simple, but very organized, neat and inviting. The mix of posts is actually a bit eclectic, and only a couple of shows from each season will get first impressions and a full review once all the episodes have aired. Nestled amongst these posts are J-drama posts, the occasional editorial, and coverage of old shows that released ages ago. It’s a weird combination to sift through, especially if you’re only looking for one particular thing.

The writing itself is interesting to read, very engaging, and covers all the bases needed for a proper review. Despite this, the site seems rather quiet, and commenters are rather sparse. As a result, the site feels like a sad, ghost town. The random spurts of updates probably don’t help things. A bit of a shame considering the high quality of writing from most of the staff.

14. Baka Laureate

Thoughts: It’s only two years (more like one and a half year) since Krizzlybear (Krizz for short) created Baka Laureate, and yet many know about him already. Although Baka Laureate has a simple appearance with its blue-colored theme and scenery banner, the mix of the two gives a calming effect for those who stumble upon this site.

Baka Laureate (BL for short) might look simple, but there’s nothing simple about the articles Krizz writes. As an aspiring novelist, Krizz writes lots of attentive editorials about simple things involving anime that some won’t even think about, from bandages to love letters; he sometimes dabbles in fan fiction too. The highlight of BL is the Fiction Friday column that contains writing tips for fellow aspiring novelists. For those who want some writing tips from fellow aniblogger, BL Baka Laureate is the perfect place for it. And man, his Precure episodics makes Precure sounds like perfection. Maybe it is.

15. Caraniel’s Ramblings

Thoughts: Hailing from Northern Ireland, Caraniel has been writing about anime for the last three years. The white in her blog gives more focus to the lovely XXXHolic banners that are colorful enough. AIR was the first anime she blogged. From then on, she has been blogging faithfully about anime till now. She is very active on twitter and good to talk to. You can say, a blogger who has seen the previous Tourney and a lot of interaction of the anisphere.

First Impressions, Episodics, Cara handles them all well. Cara’s “Character of the Week” column features some of the most enjoyable characters that most people will love. It should also be noted that Cara also reviews older anime (such as Infinite Ryvius), helping some beginners when it comes to classical anime. But seriously, those XXXHolic pictures. So pwetty. Before I get further distracted, do check out her ramblings on recent and old anime.

16. Angryjellyfish’s Blog

Thoughts: So, what does Angryjellyfish has to offer in terms of anime reviews? Well, he seems to be an episodic blogger. In their reviews Angryjellyfish uses a great mixture of screen caps and text covering the events of the episode; the actual text part of the review never gets too wordy using one or two paragraphs explaining the overall plot of the episode. Other than hitting up episodic blogging, he also posts mid-season impressions covering several episodes of anime at once giving them either a safe or dropped status. He also has an “Overlooked and Underrated anime” where the writer takes on some old school reviews of anime that people normally passed on giving them a final breakdown using Anime-Planet ratings versus a personal rating.

Design wise Angryjellyfish is a wordpress blog it doesn’t use the typical white background, but instead it has a nice shade of purple for the background and a silver-ish looking design for the actual posts; along the right hand side you can check the archives or check out the blogroll for more blogs and a large box called the “Jellycloud”. Overall the design is simple and clean complete with a cute anime character for the banner. Currently you can follow Angryjellyfish’s episodic reviews of Mirai Nikki and check out the Overlooked posts; so I recommend you take a few minutes and visit the blog.