In terms of results, again, we have a tie but at least the staff was forthcoming this time in announcing it promptly. Our nods to Anime Otaku, Anime Picks, Ani-Gamers, Type Nights, Ephermeral Dreams, JPHinano, deluscar,  Koji, Rabbitpoets, Bluemist, and Shonen Beam for being awesome and best of luck for some four/five way fun to draggle, Those Damned Cartoons, Kriz, Caraniel, TWWK, Subdued Fangirling, Reverse Thieves, Heart of Manga, Okazu, Avvesione’s, Ambivalence and Ogiue Maniax in round 3.

129. Hanner’s Anime Blog

Thoughts: Continuing with our red bracket coverage, we have Hanners’ Anime ‘Blog up to bat. Starting off with aesthetics, I’d say Hanners’ looks pretty nice. There’s a nice blue background and some simple but cute rotating banners that I find myself oddly fond of. My one complaint is that the box where all of his posts go is very narrow. I’m sure it looks fine on smaller screens, but reading it in widescreen is a bit of a pain. As a result, things are pretty cramped.

There’s no ‘about’ page (no, I will not stop complaining about blogs that don’t have an about page. A link to twitter or google plus doesn’t count) but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Hanners’ is a solo blog run by Andy Hanley (aka Hanners) himself. He posts episodics about a wide range of currently airing anime at a very fast rate. His speed and breadth of coverage is probably because most of his posts are rather short. Not that short is bad, or anything – he couldn’t cover as much if he wrote giant walls of text about every show. As a result, Hanners’ blog is great for quick impressions about an episode and even for concise summaries.

130. Animemiz’s Scribblings 

Thoughts: I really took my time digging through animemiz’s site because animemiz has too many blogs. Also, I was confused for a while because I have no clue what MMF is. So for those who don’t know, click that link first. And yes, animemiz mostly reviews published mangas. Her reviews are great, touching the little aspects of the manga and go through such detail on them. Her comments on the mangaka’s drawings are spot on (my word for agreeable). In short, Animemiz writes engaging articles. Based on her writings, animemiz sounds like a fun and amusing person.

Her site’s theme is simple black and white with blogroll as the sidebar (plus some tags). No banner. A picture or two in her articles. But at this point, I don’t even care about themes anymore. Oh, and a little fun fact here. Animemiz happens to be an Editor for her DMG group Sinful & Creatively Robust Unit (long name is long).

131. Blog of the Hawk (JanaiBlog)

Thoughts: So the first blog I’ll be checking out this week is Blog of the Hawk. (Previously known as JanaiBlog and I could stop here and say it’s awesome just for the name alone, but I’ll read some posts anyway!) BotH, as I will now call it out of pure laziness, is an anime blog that focuses mainly on the writing rather than the visual aspects of the media the writers cover, which is why for the most part you’ll find that the posts have few pictures. The blog itself is kind of plain aesthetically, but the darker wordpress layouts are starting to grow on me. Navigagtion-wise you’ll find it’s very easy to find what you’re looking for, which is nice considering the blog covers a really large array of topics and post types.

The quality of the writing is laudable and worth checking out, and I mean for all three writers. While reading I got a sense that the writers are very casual, but are always detailed and humorous, making their posts very easy to follow and digest. My personal favorite aspect of BotH were their reviews (of which I read 3, two anime and one video game) and they were very informative, and I especially liked nyanman’s review of Grave of the Fireflies. It was definitely one of the best I’ve read for the film. Anyway, best of luck to you three, you have a really great blog!

132. AstroNerdBoy

Thoughts: Tenchi Muyo! and drama. That was the only thing in my mind when I went to AstroNerdBoy’s page. Ehm, drama aside, the greenery of his page blinded me for a second. Everything is so… Green… I’m not a fan of green, so that’s why. My favorite part has got to be the Chii in his banner because It’s CHIIIII and everybody loves CHIIIII and CHIIII is so KAWAAIIII.

AstroNerdBoy writes generic anime and manga episodics. ANB is a happy man who happens to be friendly too, so one would find it hard to leave the comment section. He’s just… So… Nice. My only complaint is how he cuts his end thoughts with screenshots. It’s very distracting, and I would forget the previous statement and have to scroll up to re-read it. Oh, and it would be nice to hide ¾ of his episodic articles under the “Read More” section so that there can be more articles in the homepage. So that makes it two complaints. As for the rest, I’m cool with it. And thanks to him, I get to find out who Negi actually marry. Without reading it! I totally ship her with Negi.

133. We Remember Love

Thoughts: Welcome to the anime blog We Remember Love owned by Ghostlightning, recently joined by JoeAnimated for some episodic blogging on Mysterious Girlfriend X and Eureka Seven Ao. So, I guess you could say that WRL might be considered a small team blog? Other than those two main writers, Ghost has several guest writers appearing on the blog for special posts. If you are confused what the blog is about, let me tell you that Ghost covers mostly mecha themed anime and besides awesome giant robot posts you can find stuff on Nisemonogatari, Hanasaku Iroha, Bakuman and several other anime series. Ghost is very detailed and lately you can find the hilarious panel of characters from Fate/Zero or mecha series in general. JoeAnimated is fairly new to the whole episodic blogging scene, but I love that he mixes things up with each post trying out something new like voiceover reviewing for recaps on Eureka Seven Ao… Overall WRL is a great anime blog if you ever got curious about getting into the whole giant robot scene.

Design wise the first thing that always catches my eye when I visit WRL is the awesome starry background! It really fits the overall theme of the blog down to the banners at the very top. Speaking of banners for a minute; each post you read, you will notice the banner switch! That’s another fun part of the blog I enjoy. Everything on the blog is very simple to navigate as well. So, if you are a hardcore mecha fan like me; head on over to We Remember Love right now and show them some love.

134. Anime Instrumentality

Thoughts: Well here’s something I’ve yet to see in the aniblog tourney, a music themed blog! The uniqueness alone might compel you to read, but I’ll tell you now that it’s more than just originality that makes this blog amazing. Every post feels very professional, and it should be said that the blog isn’t exclusive to music, but even when the authors review anime (like this season’s Kids on the Slope) they focus on the musical themes of the episode. Obviously the best parts of the blog though, in my opinion at least, are the album reviews. The authors get right down to the heart of the album, meticulously reviewing selected songs for the technical aspects and the enjoyment. I’m not going to pretend I know anything about the technicalities behind music, but I do feel like I know a little more after reading their detailed reviews.

Visually the blog stands out because it’s not your typical wordpress/blogspot theme. It’s very organized and easy to navigate, especially if you’re looking for a select album or anime. The blue colour might be jarring to some but I didn’t have much problem with it as darker themed blogs are growing on me. Overall, an awesome blog, and good luck to them in second round!~

135. GAR GAR Stegosaurus

Thoughts: First of all, GAR GAR Stegosaurus is one of the best blog names I have seen yet. Secondly, it’s run by A Day Without Me or known as Day to most. And she has no patience for stupidity. Excellent. She covers episodics for a select few anime titles and impressions/ other stuff on some other series airing. This season she only seems to be covering Fate/Zero and retro blogging The Big O. She doesn’t really cover a lot of current things, but some of her insights are pretty interesting. Also, her writing is nice and easy to read. She has written some shiki fanfiction too so if you are into a BL pairing (Seishin/Toshio), check them out.

Site design is the standard wordpress one and finding individual anime can be hard. I also had a hell of a time finding A Day Without Me’s name before I realized that it was actually on her ‘about’ page. I thought it was just some fancy quote or similar. Anyways, other things might not be easy to find, but at least there’s a search bar. Anyways, do check out her blog because she’g got oomph.

136. Open Your Mind

Thoughts: Those Hyouka eyeeeess, I can’t look away. (´∀｀) Okay. So, Open Your Mind is an episodic blog run by 53RG10 … wait, is that Sergio? I don’t know, leetspeak confuses me. As he points out in his about page, the blog isn’t meant for long, thought-provoking posts, it’s just a place for him to have fun, posting funny images from each episode and pointing out little things he liked or didn’t. With that said, I agree. Open Your Mind is a lot of fun! It can be hilarious at times and 54R8953IO (as I will now call him) has a way of making me laugh even with just a couple sentences and some pictures. These beautiful shots of Miyuki for example are just one reason why you should visit this site. So, in short, lots of laughs, but not as informative as other blogs. It really all depends on your preference.

Visually the blog looks very nice, although I’d probably say the same for any blog that hits you with those eyes right away. >< I feel like I’ve seen the layout a few times before in other blogs I’ve checked out for this Meta-review-thing, but it’s also one of my favorite layouts so I don’t mind.