Some fore-warnings: You are not hallucinating, there is actually a two number skip in this highlight. You can’t expect us to cover ourselves, do you?! So, I have taken us and our competitor out of the list to be fair. Also, if a live poll link is not working, no worries, it will work in a few hours and/or day. Check the match date for a hint.

Like I said before, I hope this series will help you discover new blogs and fatten up your RSS readers. You can find the first Ani-tourney Highlight here or just follow our Tourney category to stay updated. From now on these posts would be a day apart but we will keep up with the pace of Tourney polls. I tip my proverbial hat to Mushy, Reiseng, dere-moe Project and Otaku Life for their first try of Tourney. I hope to see them in the next one bigger and better, while congrats to the winners, even if they are Slytherin. Now on to the reviews!

17. Anime Picks

Thoughts: The first thing you’ll probably notice when arriving at Anime Picks is the site’s very own mascot, “Anna May”. Catchy, right? Beyond that this diverse blog covers a wide spectrum of topics (everything from culture to figures to video games). While having such a large foundation of writers allows the blog to push out posts, that might lead you to assume the quality varies. However, the hired writers do a nice job of maintaining quality throughout, with detailed and informative reviews that also provide tidbits of extra information like prices and release dates. It would be nice to see some more pictures in reviews, but the ones used generally speak for themselves. The only negative I can see is that the site doesn’t have much of a community, posts often go undiscussed, which is unfortunate since they typically bring up good talking points! It might possibly be because their reviews are more professional then personal.

Aesthetically Anime Picks looks very stylish, making good use of it’s theme colors and categorizing it’s plethora of categories neatly and easy to see. However, some might call it clutter and even being too compact, for instance banners and words cover up faces, and poor Eiko and Chizuru are cut in half! Overall though, it’s creative and not many blogs can say they have their very own mascot! (Unless you’re slug related.) If you’re looking for a blog that covers a wide variety of topics, but aren’t really into the community aspect then this might be for you! They’re not all that up to date with seasons and whatnot, but not everyone watches airing series anyway!

18. Kuuki no Purido

Thoughts: It was pretty tricky to find the “About” section in this blog as there is no “About” section. The lame me literally read one article from another to find the author of those articles, not remembering that the blog’s name is called Kuuki no Puraido and that there’s the word “kuuki” for its link. Duh. To find out more about Kuuki, click the “facts” tag and you’ll find it. Kuuki no Puraido has a hassle-free layout, but that gives the advantage for the interesting banner to get more attention. I wonder who is that on the banner? Eye patch and green hair, my lesbian side is tingling.

Kuuki no Puraido is the perfect website for those who don’t like reading long articles. Her posts are short but concise enough to let the readers know what the anime is about. Kuuki has a friendly writing style that people from all ages should be able to grasp. Her site also has tons of articles about figures, fashion, and Hatsune Miku. What I like the most from her blog are the little anime facts and lists she made. Thanks to her, I found out that there’s a French guy called Alain Delon (if that rings a bell, there’s a character in Beelzebub named that). Also, Kuuki actually made a list of the benefit for being a fujoshi. *fujoshi high five* That’s a good reason to visit her site, isn’t it?

19. The Notaku Blog

Thoughts: Notaku is a really awesome writer that I originally found through a blogroll and occasionally lurked a while back. He only covers a few shows each season, but he definitely puts quality over quantity. One guy can only do so much, so with that said, rather then putting short blurbs each week for 20 different shows, he gets very in depth with the select shows he does blog. He has a very humorous and unfiltered personality from what I’ve read, and although his posts are lengthy, it doesn’t feel like a chore to read them. Don’t let the “NSFW” scare you away, it’s a blog worth checking out!

For his blog’s style, Notaku keeps it clean and simple. I really like the three column design because it removes a lot of the sidebar clutter that it might have with only two. It’s not all that colorful or eye catching, but it’s easy on the eyes and definitely doesn’t detract from the writing. So if you’re following the shows he’s blogging or want to check out some entertaining editorials, Notaku is a good place to start!

20. Beneath the Tangles

Thoughts:  Welcome to Beneath the Tangles blog, which is dedicated in exploring various connections between Christianity and anime and not just one religious view but many others. Sounds interesting, huh? I will admit that does sound a bit strange; however I think this is a very unique way to explore the world of anime. So, does the theme of religion and anime makes you want to read it? I would say it depends on the person or how curious it makes you? Though, there are countless series of anime that are filled with religious tones; so how does this blog pull it off?!  In the recent post that I enjoyed reading was Characters that embody the fruits of the spirit TWWK posted a verse from Galatians 5:22 – 23 along with the other “spiritual fruits” as in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of this is very interesting, but do you have to be hardcore in religion to enjoy the posts? I don’t really think so, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt…

Another wordpress style blog, right here. So, you have your usual one color background and information at the top and right hand side, but does this design blow my mind? Not really as there are countless wordpress blogs that pretty much look the same; however, Beneath the Tangles setup works nicely and the navigation bar has several links to other blogs. Even a helpful guide for parents on anime if they are curious, but I loved the bright banner of Madoka praying at the very top because really it fits the overall theme of the blog.

21. Anime Tree

Thoughts: Hippiefreak12 and Light are the two active writers at Anime Tree, with Hippiefreak12 being the dude in charge of things. Together they post anime reviews and sporadically update with episodic posts for certain series. You’ll also find some music posts and a few editorial posts thrown in. I was instantly drawn to the video game editorials, and quickly got sidetracked reading them all instead of just skimming the site…A good sign, for sure!

The episodic posts are more like summaries with the odd snippet of personal commentary thrown in, while the series review is actually based more on their thoughts for the series as a whole. As a result, I’m not a big fan of how they do episodic posts, but the review posts definitely work. As you’re reading, you’ll be greeted with a menagerie of pretty anime fanart. It’s a big of a cluttered layout, but you get used to it over time.

22. Subdued Fangirling

Thoughts: This one has an “About” page. Whee. ConfusedMuse (Muse for short) is also a victim of old anime such as Pokemon, and thus has been writing about anime for the past almost-one year. She literally had a relationship with anime, believe it or not. Or so what she said. Muse’s avatar is one of the twins from Lucky Star, and her layout is full of color blue. Subduedfangirling has such fangirl appearance (see what I did there?). So cute de geso!

Subduedfangirling really lives up to its name though. There’s little fangirling in her well-written articles since they’re all subdued in her mind. She mostly writes first impressions and end reviews with episodics sometimes. Muse writes very little in her First Impressions, and they focus on the most noticeable themes in those anime. Unlike the First Impressions, her end reviews are quite detailed, focusing on every aspect of the anime being reviewed. But really, nothing can beat Muse’s monthly figure reviews. I don’t know how she can get the money to buy those figures, but it’s always nice to see a blogger writing attentive reviews of figures. Do check her figure reviews de geso!

23. Ephemeral Dreams

Thoughts: Ephemeral Dreams is a solo aniblog run by the aptly named Ephemeral Dreamer. He’s quite an interesting guy, so he carries the site alone quite well with steady updates. He comes up with a new editorial topic every week or so about either currently running anime or older anime. I don’t know how he manages to think up something to write every single week with the depth and care that he does. His writing is compelling, comprehensive and to-the-point.

Ignoring the author for a moment, the site itself is decent-looking. It’s not fancy, but it gets the job done and doesn’t distract you from the actual posts. There’s also a list of anime recommendations if you want some advice about what to watch next. I must admit that this may become one of my new lurking grounds…

24. Ace Railgun

Thoughts:  Acerailgun’s anime blog is dedicated to episodic blogging. Also, just in case if you were living under a rock you probably saw his famous 50 questions about anime post; that post made its way through countless anime blogs as a way to get to know anime fans a bit more. AceRailgun’s posts are small or as I call them “quick hits” where he shares a few things he liked on the review, however the reviews are not filled with walls of pictures or massive paragraphs and this works very nicely for his writing style without all the filler of “what happened during the episode”. Besides the usual episodic anime posts you can find posts on anime music, awards, and artwork updates on his site Mascot named Cassie.

AceRailgun is another wordpress blog, but at first glance I thought it was made from the ground up. The colors really pop nicely as it uses greys, blacks and bright orange that makes it quite easy to read…I did mention a mascot character and I know most people roll their eyes when they hear such things, but I will admit I am a huge fan of anime blog themed mascots and Cassie is a really cute looking angel themed character with one mechanical wing or no wings at all. So, I recommend you stop by to check out the anime reviews, music choices, podcast and stay for the adorable Cassie artworks.

25. Heart of Manga

Thoughts: Heart of Manga is a blog dedicated to, what other then, manga! Laura is a writer who focuses almost exclusively on shoujo manga, and with 55+ reviews and counting she knows what she’s talking about and you can see that in her writing. Laura gets down to the heart of every manga she reviews, picking apart the romances, characters, plot, and art, providing shoujo-lovers with a great way of finding new series they might enjoy. One of my favorite aspects of her blog is the system she uses to categorize the manga she reviews, first giving them a heart rating (as a grade for her review) and a “romance rating” to help readers find exactly what they’re looking for, innocent, steamy, lustful, and of course, erotic. Apart from reviews she also provides links to great wallpapers and mixes in her own personal musings with her posts.

Visually the site is very appealing with a very reader friendly interface. It’s easy to find what you want by using the various categories and indexes and Laura also fills us in on what manga she’s currently reading and plans on reviewing through the use of the sidebar. Shoujo lovers will definitely fall in love with Heart of Manga!

26. Ultimatemegaex’s Blog

Thoughts:  Here we visit the anime blog Ultimatemegax. This blog appears to be very random as there are no episodic posts, but every post is about anime like a list of translations projects he has worked on with The observation of Haruhi Suzumiya: Official Fanbook, Someday in the rain, The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya official guide book and several others. Other than this, there are posts about DVD sales and season round ups where he lists several finished series giving each a number scores as a whole versus breaking down artwork, music and story.

Design wise typical wordpress style again with a single colored background; this time with a dull yellow and green text on top of white with a banner at the top of the blog. The navigation bar highlights his anime collection, MAL webpage and complete with twitter comments and a blogroll on the right hand side of the page. It certainly isn’t anything special for designs but I suppose it gets the job done for Ultimatemegax.

27. Deluscar

Thoughts: I squealed a little when I saw deluscar’s layout because it’s just so cool de geso! The black reminds me of Metanorn right away. deluscar’s theme might be seen often in other sites, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s neat and comfortable for the eyes. I mean, who doesn’t like seeing pictures of pretty and moe girls? The sidebar is filled with famous sites’ subscribtion, such as Sankaku Complex and Danny Choo. deluscar also has Facebook and Twitter widget, so Kai is definitely stalkable.

Kai handles the six months’ existence of deluscar professionally. Instead of episodics, Kai writes reviews after he has watched the whole series. He writes his reviews with such great care, putting every detail he noticed in the reviews. Kai is not afraid to voice his opinions and handles discussions calmly. Just like Muse, Kai also does figure reviews but more towards the pictures of the figures. If that’s not enough reason, visual novel is also Kai’s area of expertise. Anime, Figures, and Visual Novels! That’s more than enough, yo.

28. Kansatsu ~観察~

Thoughts: Endless scrolling! It just keeps going and going, like Tumblr! I…don’t know why that impressed me as thoroughly as it did either. Kuro’s blog Kansatsu has a lot more to offer than just endless scrolling and simple yet maximally functional layout. There’s a variety of editorial pieces about both anime and video games as well as first impressions for the currently airing anime, followed by end reviews when the series is finished airing. Every now and then he does cover specific episodes of a series if he has something of note he wants to share.

Kansatsu is updated fairly regularly, so there will be at least one or two new things to read over during any given week. Kuro’s writing is concise and even his editorial posts fall on the short side in terms of length. However, he’s got a great style and always raises a very interesting and distinct point in each post. Looks like yet another impressive blog in the running for the Aniblog Tourney!

31. Avvesione’s Anime Blog

Thoughts: While Avvesione’s Anime Blog might have the outer appearance of “just another episodic blog”, if you look a little closer you’ll see that Avve isn’t lying when he says he “puts in effort”. He describes his style of writing as topic posting, touching on the points that he cares to write about with a lot of detail. From what I’ve read, his posts are very analytical and talk about a wide variety of topics like I mentioned before. I’d say his greatest strength, apart from his writing style, is his insight because it provides plenty of interesting discussion points! Best of all he always responds to comments!

Appearance-wise I feel as though his blog lacks anything particularly eye-catching. Hopefully you’ll allow his writing to be your first impression rather than the somewhat dull colors (the purple tags stick out though which I like!), because the guy definitely knows what he’s talking about. The blog is also easy to navigate, which is something I always enjoy in a blog, especially when I want to read older posts.

32. The Otaku’s Blog

Thoughts: In total, Otaku’s Blog has ten writers, although one retired and two are on hiatus. Otaku’s Blog has a basic black-and-white theme with bunch of anime pictures everywhere. It’s not really the best, but it’s pretty much acceptable for the eyes. Anime characters are always acceptable for the eyes. I’m sure they’ll get better in time. It’s been a year only, after all.

Don’t be tricked by the simple theme though. The amount of writers in Otaku’s Blog gives the blog a wide variety of writing style and topics. Genres, fandoms, BLEACH, even Cardfight Vanguard. Otaku’s blog covers sooo many things. And the great thing is, the writers are really friendly. So, do check them out!