The anime community is not a really big one, yet it is hardly the smallest group of people that you can find in this wired world. This is especially apparent in animeblogger.net, where we have tons of new bloggers on board, with their keen views to spread the word around for anime. Even Maestro has been candidly saying that he has been doing application non-stops for the past one-two months without a bit of rest, which is extremely admirable of him.
In this short editorial, Impz will present to you some of the lesser-known animeblogger blogs around in the anime blogosphere, hoping to find some gems that have been hidden under the radar. Honestly speaking, after going through some of the new anime bloggers, I realized that there is something that is apparent: the new bloggers are lacking a sense of differentiated identity. I am not saying that writing a certain style is better than another, because to me, I never believe in that. Some people might say that editorials are the greatest but that is like comparing apples and oranges: up to one’s preference in the issue.
That is however a totally different issue to be answered in a totally different entry. For now, I will introduce two blogs of ab.net that I find to be pretty decent and have started up in the past 1-4 months. This will become a regular feature every month, to showcase the anime blogs that are up and coming among the many new ab.net blogs. The two blogs that are introduced for the month of January are Butterfly Dreams and Alvin’s art. No, I have not been bribed by them but I am keen to be bribed by popiah, donuts, chocolate chip cookies, nikuman and curry puffs next month.
1. Butterfly dreams
What does the blog do?
Whispered Hope (abbreviated to W.H for this entry) is the author of this blog that started around in October 2006. W.H generally deals with shounen episode summaries such as Bleach, D.Gray-man, Naruto and Busou Renkin, among other series that W.H blogs. She also seems to be blogging Ghost Hunt, which is clearly +5 points, even though there are not much updates on Ghost Hunt for now.
Critique
I do like her clean approach toward both her blog template, which is a banner of the Naruto Akatsuki characters (I do not watch Naruto so I might get this wrong). The sidebar is also minimal and intuitive, which makes finding things in the blog easy too.
Impz generally likes the style in which W.H often has a short quote on the episode summary entry before jumping in to the episode summary. I do have some qualms with W.H’s style of doing point form for the summary. I think that it can be done better, perhaps by capitalizing each sentence at the start but I like the general style of the summary because it allows people to grab the information immediately. I will love if W.H’s thoughts are longer but I guess it is how it goes. Still, I think that W.H provides a very different perspective with each of the entries on series that I do not watch. Hence, it’s a good idea field.
I recommend you to read Butterfly dreams if you like a bit of shounen, short summaries and interesting thoughts.
2. Alvin’s art
What does the blog do?
Alvin is the author of this blog that started very recently in November 2006. Alvin seems to be a completely different blogger compared to the first blog, Butterfly dreams, as he deals with the art structure of human anatomies and he has made some nice tutorials on how to do proper fanart. He also provided various masterpiece art in some of his entries.
Critique
The layout is very simple, with nothing complicated or glaringly disturbing, so it’s all good there for the layout. As his writing will be generally more specialized, the sidebar will definitely do for now. The banner can definitely look better as it is, especially since it is portraying itself as an artist’s site. I believe that the blog is still in the construction stage, so you might expect changes sometime soon.
On the actual style of writing, it is not really extremely exciting writing but it is definitely very competent. His tutorials are also very easy to understand, even though Impz is hardly a person who can do any form of drawings. His explanation nevertheless is of top notch and simple enough for a normal layman to understand. Maybe, I will bother with reading some tutorials in a more detailed manner on how to draw legs, hands, the anatomy and other stuff.
An artist’s paradise and I will recommend all budding artists or simply someone who enjoys drawing to visit his site once in a while.
I hope you take a bit of time to take a look at the two blogs and do not hesitate to recommend me blogs for the next entry. It will be fun, I promise! The blogs that I will be interested to review are….
1. Less than 4 months old
2. Anything anime/art/manga related
3. Preferably ab.net bloggers
So ya, we see how it goes~
18 Comments
heh per month? how about per fortnight, or maybe 3 or 4 per month instead?
ah well, anyway whispered.hope is a girl btw
lol, i wont have enough blogs to cover if i do it per fortnight, not that much since i do have some form of quality control in my reviews. I generally review only blogs that are good stuff, so ya.
And edited that part on gender ^+^
You don’t like my banner?
I guess MSPaint can only get you so far. Anyway thanks Impz, 
Currently, I’m on a quest to brighten up Alvin’s Art, because well all the tutorials was in black and white, and the previous banner was in greys. I’m also making my own layout, because the one I’m using now is giving me tons and tons of continuous problems.
Also, I’m gonna start to do Anime Reviews, but in a different persepective. Instead of reviewing everything about the anime, I’m gonna focus more on the art style and drawings
.
Right now, my page is creeping me out. Because I’m using my brother’s computer, which is hooked up to the computer, so the characters on the sidebar (which you can’t see in the screenshot above), look absolutely huge and I just know I’m gonna have nightmares.
Anyway, once again thanks Impz
Lol I recommend riuva.com .
Anyway, good post idea. I like it. Why aren’t these guys on ANO?
-twitch- Someone thought I was a guy? xD That would make my squeals about the bishies quite awkward, wouldn’t it? xDD
Oh, they just released 3 more episodes of Ghost Hunt~! ^^ Though I wish they released the fourth part and just finished that case~ (end tangent)I guess I’ll have to work on my opinions, huh? And you’re right, it is Akatsuki~! They don’t get enough love!
I generally do only point-form summaries when I’m too lazy to write full summaries xDv I’m back to doing full summaries now, but if I go back to point-form I’ll captalize it xP
Aww, I overshot the requirement by a couple months. Then again, I think my style is pretty generic aside from graphing which takes a lot of time per post =(
Impz, I can recommend my own one right? ^^ No, really I would love getting opinions and how to become better and get closer to that ‘identity’ you spoke about.
Hey I tried doing something like this ages ago. It was an ongoing feature of my site for at least 24 hours. I then realized it was too much work.
However, reading someone elses better attempt at it is completely effortless. Good show!
Nice post Impz. I’ve been looking for my style for a couple of months and I dunno if I’ll ever find one, especially since I end up blogging in 2 languages.
Wahahaha! I am doing this right at pacific coffee company while studying with joo and alkanphel for their work (i am there to sleep)
@Alvin: I have to admit that i do expect much more from an artist on his banner. So ya, i am sure u will do something since it’s still a decently new blog ^_^
@TJ: ha ha ha. It’s more logical for you to review me -_-
@W.H: I always assume bloggers are male until proven otherwise. What’s wrong with writing about bishies. If so, then i will be a bit disturbing to be talking goods tuff about Seiran and Shuurei in Saimono. Wait, i am disturbed @_@
@Shirukii: Yes, sire, and u started at the same time as me …I have completely no rights to review you, lol!
@Shadro: Why not, i will be sure to look around and it’s easier when someone gives me the link to take a look, so it’s easier for me to find it and see if it’s decent enough for me to review….
@Crayotic: LOL. I finished this in around 40 minutes. It wasn’t too hard, i think desu~
@Deathy: arrrr ^_^. Well, i think i might eventually branch out to non-ab.net sites but for now, i am more keen to review those in my own community, considering the comments that i got that there are way too many ab.net blogs and too little time to invest.
Cheers.
xD Nothing’s wrong with writing about bishies, though I wonder if you’d all really think it’s okay for a guy to gush over how uber hot someone like Sasuke is xDD -pats impz- And I thought loli’s were your thing xP
I don’t think I said it before, but thanks for this and the critism ^^ Though I am thoroughly embarrassed now and will have to live under a rock.
oops, link…yea ya would need that impz ^^;
http://gandtheonehalf.animeblogger.net there you go
ahahaah~ we see.
And well, if anything, the blog did not start with loli swooning. I am in fact a very big fan of mellow slice of life series but it’s less seen unless you read my summaries of such series. I generally love slice of life for the relaxing and enjoyable mood it portrays.
Whispered.Hope loves Naruto, so I love her blog
Okay Impz, for you I will do a brand new banner, and make it good this time. It’s just that right now I don’t have much time on my hands, so it’s kind of hard to find time to sit down and draw the banner in my sketchbook, then scan it, colour etc…
No reviews on non-AB.net blogs?
Nice Post.
That was well said. Always appreciate your indepth views. Keep up the great work!
John
hahaha, thanks, Frangerson. Wrex, i am not intending to as yet but it’s always welcome. The thing is that I am not much of a surfer in blogs and will not know of new blogs that exist around until I see them.
So ya.
That said, I am writing up another entry for the month of February. Another new blog will be introduced.