ABA Nominations From The “Third Wheel” of The ABA Committee: For I Am A Copycat And An Attention Seeker

But then again, aren’t most of us like that? 😛

Written by TheBigN

There have already been substantial posts in content from other members of the committee trying to bring to successful fruition the Anime Blog Awards, so chances are that this isn’t really going to be one of them. But I’ll rehash some thoughts that I had about them anyway, so you never know. I don’t think I really need to say this, but these views are mine alone and not representative of the ABA committee as a whole. There’s no real hivemind here, no matter how much people would like to think so. Okay, maybe Impz, but it’s okay if it’s him/her. 😛

I don’t pay attention to the fact that you could reduce the awards to just being more than a popularity contest. And that’s probably defeating the point, but it’s not what I’m looking for. It’s logical that the blogs people vote for are the ones that they know. And if the ones that that they know are the popular ones, naturally those are the ones that will get the most voters. As others have said, those blogs have to be doing something right to have that much of an impact on fellow bloggers (including myself), especially when a lot of the “popular” blogs nominated don’t really seem to care about the awards. I certainly don’t see any serious bargaining or pleading for nominations from these blogs, nor do I feel that people are voting these blogs out of an obligation, for a favor, or for recognition, and that’s great.

As this is the first time as far as I know that any of us on the committee have attempted to do something like this, there are bound to be problems with the execution of the awards. Many have been highlighted and mentioned, but I also feel a lot also have yet to be brought up as well. For people with complaints about it that they care enough to talk about it, help out! Comments and criticisms are always welcome in order for this to go down better next time (since I hope there’s a next time), and suggest ways for more “community ” input in the setup of the awards, so that committee isn’t just wasting their time trying to give anime bloggers a way to pat themselves on the back. I know some of them don’t need it, but I’d hope that the though at least counts.

I believe in the awards as a way to recognize blogs that have done much for the bloggers that nominate (which should be all anime bloggers), intentional or otherwise, as well as a way to introduce blogs that others don’t know about in the animeblogosphere. Looking at some of the responses that I’ve seen, there a lot of blogs out there that others haven’t heard of before, and entire cliques of blogs that are isolated from everyone else. I’m sure that there are many bloggers that are fine with that, but at the same time, the fact that I do see that people are interested enough in checking out what others nominate in addition to the nominators themselves means something positive to me. That’s one reason the nominations are transparent after all, as it would totally be no fun if votes were held in secret, and we can see the process by which the final nominees are decided, hopefully with no cry of FOUL included.

Idealistically, I look at this as a means to both expand and bring together the anime blogging “community”. Expanding in the sense of the increasing the scope of the world of your fellow bloggers, and bring together as in interconnecting with each other, even though just posting links isn’t really going to accomplish either. But just posting those links is a start to both of those hopes, and even if everyone else has those same links, you can look at them as a starting point to learning more about why other bloggers feel the way that they do about the same blog. I feel that this can become something special if people give it a change, and that’s why I’m on the committee trying to do what I can. And by all means, everyone should have fun with it, since anime blogging shouldn’t be serious business. :3

Now onto the nominations, where my rationales for these nods will probably kill off any momentum I had above. 😛

Best Episodic Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
The End of the World
Anime Diet

Whenever I read blogs that blog episodes of shows, as others have said (see how original this is? lol), I don’t look at the summaries of the episodes, since I plan on looking at those anyway. I want to see the impressions of the episode; that is, how the bloggers viewed the episode, and how they explain what they get out of it. Sea Slugs places a nice humorous spin on these, often making me smile in the process while pointing out things that I didn’t notice, and making it easy for me to comment on them whether or not I agree with them. At the End of the World, Martin looks at episodes of a series in movie-length chunks, tying together themes presented throughout these blocks in well written posts, as well as interesting opinions regarding what he’s talking a look at. And when the page is up, Anime Diet impressions are simple but deep. Or at least that’s how I look at it. 😛

Best Editorial Blog
Omonomono
Hop Step Jump
Jinx!

Seeing that I wrote most of the description for this segment (which does need some work, I think), these blogs “excellence in its writing, explore the boundaries of ideas in a way that accurately portrays the blogger’s perspective and connects with their readers, and consistently introduces new, interesting ideas that can change our opinions on anime.” I’ll get to Omoikane and Jeff Lawson in a bit, but NovaJinx’s combination of controlled anger, humor, common sense and his focus on things bigger than the game makes this the best blog I’ve read from Finland since ever. :3

Best Team Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
Anime Diet

Reasons posted above for each + different but still entertaining/insightful opinions = a fun spice of my blog reading life.

Most Influential Blog
Omonomono
Hop Step Jump
アニ・ノート (Ani-nouto)

I look at this as both blogs that inspired me to being blogging, as well as blogs that truly do influence the way people blog. For me, Omo has a bizarre way with words, usually seeming as if he knows something that the rest of us don’t. But it encourages people to look deeper into things without being shoving it in your face (or with it appearing like he’s not shoving it in your face. That’s important too. :P), and surprising or not, that’s one thing that I try to do when I normally post, but more on that later. Jeff Lawson was one of my top inspirations to blog because of his “style” of combining his experiences with life with anime, or even just combining his experience of watching anime with anime. I feel like I can relate to what he talks about, and no other blogger has that much of a hold on me, or others as it seems. And much has already been said about Mr. Zaitcev and how Ani-nouto has done much for the anime blogosphere just by being a not-so-passive observer. The fact that he was the first commenter on my blog, and that he continues keeping tabs on what I post about helps me become a better blogger. Not to satisfy what he wants to see, but because he encourages me (even when he’s not directly doing so) to keep going at it and continue to try to improve on all that I’ve done before.

Best Dorama
Basugasubakuhatsu Anime Blog
Mistakes of Youth: The Blog
Cruel Angel Theses

I’d like to think that Hung has the pulse of the anime blogging world under his finger, what with AnimeNano and all, but I think when he posts about the community, people listen and are moved to hear out what he has to say. Wildarmsheero relishes being a firestarter, especially because he takes the resulting drama in stride
and revels in it. He understands that for all due respect, anime (or anime blogging) shouldn’t be serious business, yet he does it anyway just because. And it’s still kind of sad to see that everyone likes a scapegoat, and though he doesn’t help out some people’s opinions about him, Owen doesn’t deserve a lot of flak that he does. But I feel like he wears that criticism like a badge of honor, and I think he also needs it in order to continue to try and expand how things are done animeblogging-wise. Whatever he does, people keep tabs on him, and that’s what it’s all about.

Rookie of the Year
Meaty Anime Blog
Claiming Ground
Jinx!

For Meaty, I feel that Roast-beefy-weefs is honest in how he feels about what he watches, for better or for worse, and the way he presents it somehow works with me in ways that not many other bloggers are able to. I feel that if coburn comes back and continues to post the way he had been at the start, Claiming Ground could really go places. For someone who claims to have not seen much anime, he manages to provide insightful, solid essays that make me feel like he’s been analyzing anime for a good long while.

Funniest Blog
Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
Derailed by Darry
Subatomic Brainfreeze

Because humor is subjective from person to person, all I’ll say is that these three blogs are the ones that make me laugh out loud the most. And based on the nominations made in that category, so it is for others.

Best Satire Blog
“WE ARE F***ING NOT DOTQ. THIS TIME SERIOUSLY.” (Want to keep my blog PG-whatever at least :P)
Azure Flame Reloaded

These two blogs make me laugh out loud when they’re trying to be funny, but at the same time make me acknowledge them being clever in hiding an underlying message under what they’re talking about. Most of the time. As I’ve said, humor is subjective, and I’d like to think so is satire. :3

Most Thought-Provoking Blog
Omonomono
Cruel Angel Theses
Derailed by Darry

All three regularly provide viewpoints that make me reconsider why I watch some shows, why I participate in the world of anime in the first place, and always make me wonder about if I’m really looking at things in the “right” way. As I’ve said before, Omo has the knowledge and the word skills to make me feel like I’m missing something when I read his posts, and I tend to look deeper into what he’s saying more than I need to, but whatever I uncover always proves to be an interesting experience. Owen goes on entertaining tangents with anime that I never really thought about, but still manage to make sense in my head and further my experiences with anime. And though I disagree a lot with what Jason Miao has to say, he’s constantly makes me realize that POVs that differ with mine have merit, and that I can learn some very important things by being with a person that doesn’t share the same views that I do.

Best Blog-related Comic
Mistakes of Youth
Beta-Waffle

Granted MoY’s blog is probably a result of his comic rather than the other way around, but his comic never fails to bring a smile on my face, whether if it’s twisted, sadistic, sad, intriguing, or just plain funny. And DigiKerot with his “Unfunny” comics constantly tickle my fancy, which probably says more about me and my sense of humor than I’d want to admit.

Best Art/Doujin/Visual Novel Blog
Radiant Dreamer
Mission to Deep Space
Heisei Democracy

What captures my eye from Radiant’s blog are the photoshoots, photoshopped or not, that are done with the figures he has on hand. The detail is what grabs me, even if it didn’t take him much time to work on them and even if people can do the job better. And his own art isn’t too bad either. With Mission, Hemisphere keeps tabs and produces thorough and entertaining summaries on the Visual Novel world so that I don’t have to worry about playing those games myself. 😛 And Shingo and co’s interest in doujin from the sites reviews to their doujin-related news is admirable and well thought out.

Best News Blog
Canned Dogs
アニ・ノート (Ani-nouto)

The first provides the most consistently solid anime related or anime-tangentially related news that I’ve seen and the other provides the most commentary on the anime blogging world that I’ve seen. These are the sites that I use in order to keep in touch with what’s been going on, and their interesting opinions keep me coming back for more.

Well that’s it for this go around, and I’m definitely not planning on doing this again for a looooooong while. Or until the next set of awards, whenever they may be. 😛