In view of the nice things that well-meaning people have said and the not so nice things that other, more tragically misunderstood people have said, I guess now would be a better time than any to clear the air on the inaugural Anime Blog Awards, of which I happen to be part of the organising committee. We’ve been railed at countless times, and I’ve kept my silence on the matter for quite some time, so this reply is somewhat overdue.

It also goes without saying that poor Impz has been tearing his hair out about the criticism, a matter I was supposed to follow-up with in a more vitriolic post tearing apart the flimsy reasoning and half-baked arguments, among many others, with massive amounts of logic. However, apathy for the misinformed and procrastination both led to me eventually forgetting about making that post, and just as I was going to write one regarding my nominations for the awards, I figured I’d just kill two birds with one stone by posting about them at the same time.

I’ve never viewed this as a popularity contest, if you ask me. The point for me has always been about the nominations and the accompanying transparency — I care about the results like I did the outcome of True Tears, which is to say, somewhat, but not as much as the process of getting there, and it’s this period that I want to highlight. Think of it as a mini-awards of sorts, my little “Up yours, fags!” to those with their inflated egos and/or popular blogs who haven’t even deigned to see where we’re coming from. Heaven forbid we didn’t consult your Excellencies in our bid to make something that everyone could take part in.

Here’s a disclaimer and possible pre-emptive before anyone decides to start braying in the comments about elitism and circlejerks later on: I’m subscribed to about 70 blogs as my blogroll will attest to, and while I’d have loved to include all of them in some capacity, the maths’ working against me with 15 categories and a maximum of 3 nominations per category — assuming that I had by some freak coincidence managed to conveniently pigeonhole all the blogs I read to tally up with the categories, that’s still 25 blogs left over. Go figure.

I don’t mean to state the obvious here when I state that I’m nominating the best blogs I know, but the objection to this has always taken the predictable shape of “Of course you’re nominating blog X, it’s all one huge circlejerk, and besides, s/he nominated you too!”, and I want to rip that illogic into shreds before I proceed. Why am I nominating blog X for category Y, and not blog W instead? It’s simply because I have heard of blog X and have not heard of blog W, you imbecile. That’s all there really is to it, and to read into the action of not nominating other “more deserving” blogs as the result of an exclusive, insidious insider group with copious back-patting involved is nothing but pure and unadulterated stupidity.

this is what I think of the naysayers, really

Or what about the other feckless accusation of “You’re being elitist by making it a blogger-only event” and its cousin “I don’t see the point of advertising about it about my blog”? Unless you’re one of those failure bloggers who love listening to the sound of your own voice and never wander out of your blog, the chances are pretty damned high that you actually have an audience that you entertain on a daily basis through your writing — how is it elitist when you’re setting aside a post for the very first time to inform other bloggers about something not usually done? Sounds like nothing more than the opinion of an ignoramus to me.

Drama aside, I think there’s something to be said about the point of The ABA, and how a lot of clueless, misinformed, egoistic, or just plain stubborn people have missed it by a mile. My blog turns a year old tomorrow, and it’s been a great process of learning and sharing in the 122-odd posts that I’ve published since then. 365 days later, I’ve grown quite some as a blogger, and I’m pleased to say that I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of those people that I’m about to list here, in no particular pseudo-order:

Best Episodic Blog

Unfortunately, if you’re one of those bloggers with a traditional episodic blog (think wall of pictures + summary + opinions format), I’ve to admit that I’ve never read your blog for the summary. In fact, the summaries are the first thing I skip, since it’s all noise to me — I don’t care to spoil myself before the subs are out, nor do I want to read what I already know happened, since I’ll usually be reading your blog after I’m done watching the episode.

Anime Blog ga Arimasu
Kurogane’s Anime Blog
Subculture Anime Blog

What these three bloggers have in common, “Anime Blog” in their blog names aside, would be speed, consistency, and a solid opinion. Nothing bugs me more than a post that tells me a whole lot of nothing or seems tacked on as an afterthought — you guys, on the other hand, make the process of reading the often-scorned summary a breeze through your substantial thoughts and well-documented reasons for liking or disliking the episode. Keep up the good work.

Best Editorial Blog

As much as I’d like to have blurred this category and the one before it, I’m afraid that Impz would have had a brain embolism were I to suggest anything in that vein. There’s always next year, though, and I have to admit at this point that pure editorial blogs typically bore me since they’re talking about a whole lot of nothing! If it’s not industrywank then it’s inevitably theorywank, and I’d rather have some substantial analysis to chew on rather than airy-fairy opinion dross.

Omonomono
The Animanachronism
Jinx!

I’m always amazed at bloggers who have opinions without being overtly editorial-y about it, and Omo’s a particular favourite of mine for how he goes on and on like one of those Incubus songs in their early days, circa Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.C.E. — an occasionally incoherent, drug-influenced mess that still makes sense after you take context into consideration, and is a pleasure to read. IKnight and NovaJinx read more coherently, and their combined powers of analysis-cum-editorials are like a breath of icy and fresh air in a stuffy room, something I absorb gladly every time.

Most Influential Blog

The current nomination trend here is hilariously farcical and utterly worthless, in my opinion. A majority of those big names blogs over there have done a grand total of zero for me in terms of personal influence or reaction, and the impression I’m getting here is that too many people are confusing “popular” with “influential”, as if they were the same word. If it’s any consolation, my list is infinitely superior, in addition to being accurate in terms of the word.

Bateszi Anime Blog
The End of the World
Hige vs. Otaku

Yeah, they’re all British, so sue me. bateszi in particular is one guy that I’d say has influenced me like Kotarou has influenced Negi, for lack of a better analogy — despite being at odds with my nature, the way in which he writes, even if it’s infuriating at times due to his being almost my polar opposite in terms of taste, always drives me to do better. Martin puts me to shame with his quantity and quality of posts that he churns out despite having a full-time job, and the way in which Hige fuses opinion, analysis, and witty, impeccable English into a post has always blown me away. It must be the colonial thing at work.

Most Thought-Provoking Blog

Like Most Influential Blog, I’ve got to say that things work differently for me, here — being a mutt blogger of sorts who mixes editorial/analysis/episodic styles, “thought provoking” in this instance falls into the category of people who help me look at things differently through their respective points of view, even if I may or may not agree with them.

Anime Diet
The Scrumptious Anime Blog
Mega Megane Moe

It’s sobering to say the least, as I’m always stumped as to what exactly to say whenever I read their blogs, which explains why I tend to drag my feet on the commenting aspect, even if I do so eventually — I’ll always remember Mike, for instance, in how he cast those blinkers off my eyes and helped me look at ef a lot more critically; Jen has the dubious honour of being my kimikiss Devil’s Advocate and alternate pairing connoisseur; finally, CCY and his exhaustingly long critiques always leave me drained, but ultimately more appreciative of harem as a genre every time I finish reading his posts.

the only thing better than Lucky Star art is a photoshopped Lucky Star-Touhou crossover

Most Satirical Blog

I guess I should go and fix the wording on that category or something, since the last time I checked none of these bloggers do satire full-time — they actually have a day job in the form of actually blogging about anime, as far as “day job” and “blogging” relate in the vaguest of ways.

Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
The Animanachronism

What irks me the most about this category is (again) the subtle nuances of English that many have failed to grasp while casting their nominations. I’d like to blame the category description, but then again, it goes without saying that satirical != funny, and people fail to see this. Kabitzin is funny, but ultimately overshadowed by the satire he employs, whether through his wry comparisons or puns, and as for IKnight, well, let’s just say that the way in which he employs his British wit kills me whenever I get it.

Funniest Blog

At least “funny” isn’t a particularly tough concept to grasp, and one name immediately springs to mind whenever I think of it — despite our dubious rivalry spanning centuries decades years months weeks days some indefinite amount of time, I have to acknowledge that no matter how well I can trade jibes with him, he probably makes me laugh more than I do him.

Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

Remember, kids, funny != satirical; tj is side-splitting levels of funny and will always be as long as he has the time for the internet, but as far as satire goes, he approaches it with all the caution of a drunk driving a monster truck in a dinosaur museum. Oh, and I suggest looking at my above examples of satire if you still have difficulties differentiating between the two after reading this.

Best Art/Doujin/Visual Novel Blog

Hooray for the mixed bag. You may not know these names all that well, but…

Mission to Deep Space
Hunting the Elusive
Moogy’s Anime Blog

…as far as eroge goes, Hemisphere trashes the competition, and no, not in that way, you pervert. He started blogging around the same time as I did, and it’s been great to see him adopt the path of the ero-jiji so well that he’s practically synonymous with ero as far as I’m concerned. icie, aside from being the guy who subbed Byousoku 5cm along with moeside as Pireze x moeside, never ceases to impress me in the way he effortlessly chronicles his latest artbook and figurine purchases (the former of which he also scans), and Moogy, before Dreamhost screwed him over, probably had the only blog to my knowledge that did justice towards the title of “Biggest Visual Novel Fan”.

Best Blog-related Comic

There aren’t that many blog-related comics out there that I know of, but the few that I do know never fail to effortlessly amuse me, every single time. I’ve got to envy their way of putting such outstanding humour and unique characterisation into their art, sparse as they may be, and can’t help but think that in an alternate world, where my forte was drawing instead of writing, I’d have them as role models.

Walfas
Mistakes of Youth
Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

I was surprised to find that even Impz of all people followed Walfas and his daily Flash animations, given the Touhou designs and all, but I guess there’s something to be said for simplicity and xkcd-sque humour that, when combined with SD versions of Touhou characters, makes for a winning combination.

translation makes this all the more hilarious

Best Team Blog

I never really managed to grasp the distinction between a team blog and a regular one, if only because your regular team blog usually has personalities so indistinct that you can’t tell one from the other. There’s two of which I know that break the mould, though.

Anime Academy
THAT Animeblog

Anime Academy in particular deserves special mention for also being a new blog that managed to keep my attention beyond my usually short and irritable attention span, and I hope to see more of their writing in the future. As for THAT, well… let’s just say that their blog became 1000% more readable after they switched to proper full text feeds on my bugging Impz, and that their Spring previews have been exhaustive, impressive, and infinitely useful.

Best News Blog

This may come as a surprise to some of you, I know.

Ani-Nouto
Canned Dogs

But throughout the months of his blogging, Author has evolved from covert ‘troll’ (if you consider being unequivocally honest as trollish behaviour, in which case you need to count me in, too) to overt paparazzi, and his presence as something akin to the Aya Shameimaru of the blogosphere has greatly enriched my daily reading, to the point where I actually look forward to being quoted in his occasionally acidic observations.

Best Manga Blog

I only read one, sadly, but he’s the only one that matters.

THAT Animeblog

Through my conversations with him on IRC and his impassioned writings on THAT, I’ve come to the conclusion that manga isn’t so much entertainment or a medium as it is a lifestyle to Extrange; he’s widely-read, in addition to being ridiculously open-minded and not bound to genres unlike many a fan I know — a mindset I try to emulate from day to day, at the very least.

Rookie of the Year

Last but not least, the rookies — a particularly tough choice, considering the number of new blogs I’ve begun reading recently, in addition to the sheer quality that overwhelmed me at first.

The Animanachronism
Claiming Ground
Anime wa Bakuhatsu da!

IKnight, of course, seems akin to Kanye West in his multiple nominations at this point, and I can’t fault him for it, so keep doing what you’re doing. It’s too bad that coburn’s on a brief hiatus at this point, for I just got around to reading his blog, and he reminds me of myself a year ago, ditto OGT; the drive and passion they have for their craft is commendable, and I highly recommend the both of them if you’re into eloquent, decent-sized bites of analysis and commentary.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Omake. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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