Aniblog Tournament Coverage: The Kotatsu
Meta correspondent, reporting for duty!
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Hello, all! It’s Zabobinator and today, I am acting as Metanorn’s correspondent for the 2012 Aniblog Tournament. I’m here to review our tourney opponent, The Kotatsu. We at Metanorn are, of course, hoping to get as far as we can in this tournament but with a sense of camaraderie we wanted to review our opponent squarely and fairly. So, here goes. |
About the Author/Team
The Kotatsu is a wordpress-hosted aniblog created November 2010 by bobbierob and tubbytoad to talk and rant about their interests in the anime/manga fandom. This duo shares a love of Haruhi. bobbierob is a self-proclaimed animation quality whore (much like myself) and a K-ON fan boy while tubbytoad is your average otaku past the point of no return. As of late, The Kotatsu seems to be run primarily (read: only) by bobbierob.
Design/Theme
As pictured above, The Kotatsu is easy on the eyes. It features a simple theme that is pretty and calming which is a plus when it comes to a decent reading experience. However, it is not particularly flashy which isn’t particularly conducive to catching the attention of visitors. Continuing on, the Kotatsu is a breeze to navigate, a plus for those who are new readers, such as myself. A key feature is the list of all the tags on the side. All the shows that have been covered, as well as the different genres of posts are easily accessible.
Post Content
The Kotatsu features a variety of different post types. From the side list, these categories are Anime (e.g. episodics), Anison Digest, Editorials, Movie Reviews, News, Random, Rants and Ravings, sccsav, Season Preview, Series Review, Serious Stuff, Uncategorized and 12 Days of Christmas.
Regularity
From what I saw, I only saw one show that was covered to completion, that being Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka. Most of the anime reviews were overviews or covered a couple episodes at a time.
Post Frequency
The frequency of posts isn’t too high, probably averaging at around monthly from what I can see. However, what must be taken into consideration is that this is a blog run by just one person. All things taken into consideration (i.e. social life, school, etc.) this is to be expected.
Response to Readers
bobbierob has good response to readers, pretty much always replying to comments.
USP (Unique Selling Point)
Uniqueness is a rather difficult factor to judge when it comes to anime blogs because, to a certain degree, they all start looking the same. After all, we’re all talking about the same shows and the same material. In this regard, I did not find bobbierob’s episodics or reviews to be particularly special. However, bobbierob has done a good job bringing out his own sense of personality and individualism to his blog. Not only so, but, with the variety of types of posts that the Kotatsu has, he definitely covers a lot of ground.
Overall Thoughts
Before Metanorn, I never really knew of any blogs and, even now, I’ve only ever frequented Sekijitsu, Daifukuu and Random Curiosity. As such, though I went into this with a bit of apprehension, it was quite fun and interesting to explore a fellow aniblog. I’ll definitely be adding the Kotatsu to my list of blogs to follow from now on. In particular, I found it impressive that bobbierob was able to run such a blog on his own. I doubt I could ever do that.
I would like to add, however, that The Kotatsu would do good in becoming more consistent. Bearing in mind that this is his own blog and therefore he has the right to do whatever with it, bobbierob had some good ideas that he did not carry through with (e.g., Anison Review). Furthermore, posts aren’t updated consistently, nor were shows covered in a methodical manner. In any case, I look forward to facing bobbierob in the first round of this tournament. Best of luck!
About Zabobinator
Doesn't get enough sleep. Dork with a rather eclectic taste in manga and anime. Adores Studio Ghibli films.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular and Bassun-yo~ with 118 comments
Haha good, objective scouting there.
I agree, running a blog solo is a mighty hard task. Anyone who does that has to be commended.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
While Zabo appears on her recent exam, I’ll answer for her instead. Life for a solo aniblogger is pretty tough and the reason they need strong network to build themselves.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
In the About page, it shows two writers: Bobbierob and tubbytoad… though it’s practically one person right now LOLS
I wonder what happened to tubby…
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Ask bobbie. xD
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Giving praise to your opponent before the competition. You guys have a great sense of honor and camaraderie. More respect to you all.
Animation quality whore? LOL. Who isn’t one? (Though I’m sometimes one for the hot screenshots) When we’re watching anime with bad, near horrible quality, we always complain that we want it to be better.
So far only one person is running The Kotatsu? That’s gotta harsh on the other aspects of life, especially with maintaining the site. Well bobbierob and tubbytoad, here’s to hoping that later on you get to build your own blog team.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Thanks, BB! ^^
And the polls are finally open too: http://aniblogtourney.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/round-1-matches-13-16/
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
You guys are holding a strong lead. Give yourselves a cigar for success.
POWUH: iLurker with 10 comments
Well hello! First of all, thanks a whole lot for actually making this post. It really means a lot to be recognized, especially by an opponent who could have easily ignored you, and still gone on to win.
Anyhow, thanks for offering some constructive criticism on my blog and posts. It’s good to know what I’m doing well so far, and what I should improve on. Regarding the entire “team” situation, it’ll suffice to say that The Kotatsu is a team blog only in name. The other guy has had the pleasure of making the first ever post, and I’ve had the pleasure of making the other 164. Still, even though running solo is tough, and it has resulted in one of my blog’s shortcomings (irregular post frequency because of IRL things and such) but I’m not complaining. In the end, it is a whole lot of fun.
Thanks again, and good luck to you, too!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Bobbierob!! You are welcome and good write up by Zabob, but I have to say I know the pains of being a solo blogger it really is a hard thing to do at the start. That said you still manage to post some fun things over the year! So good job and you are right this is about having fun and discovering new blogs/bloggers.
Thanks buddy! I hope this brings you lots of new readers.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Yōko Fanboy with 1246 comments
You keep at it Bobbie ;D You’ve got an awesome writing style and I don’t know how tough solo is but I can tell you and other solo writers get it rough alright. I do wish you the best for the future and it’s great you’re finding it all fun ^^
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Bobbie, I wish you were pitted against a solo blogger than us! I know running things solo is rough. >< Also, you should update your about page if you are doing it all alone. I mean, take credit man!
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
This
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
Seriously, props to you. 164 posts?! I haven’t even written that much here at Meta. That’s amazing.
You’re doing awesome, dude. xD
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
awesome web by the way ~~keep it up ..( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Props to bobbie~
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
Good to see the positive feelings on this side of the bracket continue. Best of luck to everyone who writes here.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Thanks Emperor J! Best of luck in your first match! ^^
POWUH: Novice (36-50) and KoujiSeo Fanatic with 47 comments
Hunger Games reference completely shut me down for a good day. Good plot, bad writing. No character development or anything – Katniss is a complete…. oh wait, this is for the aniblog tournament.
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
sorry then
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Spiral: http://brianandrew.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/let-the-hunger-games-begin/ xD
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 74 comments
This shit is douchey, yo!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
How come? =P
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 74 comments
Aniblogs reviewing aniblogs is super weird. Aniblog reviewing is meant to be done with back hand remarks over private skype calls. Not like this…
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
That’s what we used to do but then Aniblog Tourney happened and among the 110+ new blogs added, people just didn’t know what to read and even check out. So, rather than mud-slinging and keeping quite, I took it as a project to highlight all the new blogs on their positive points.
POWUH: iLurker with 11 comments
[…] Zabo. Really loved your post for us in the aniblog tourney series, on our first round opponent, The Kotatsu. It was classy and thoughtful. Hope to see even more of […]