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A win would’ve been nice, but even if I had won, I would’ve been a lamb to the psgels slaughter (sorry psgel fans, but I actually voted for Keikakudoori. Nothing personal. But I probably wouldn’t have ever started blogging if I hadn’t run across Keikakudoori on MAL).

A tie is definitely more interesting. So what does this mean? It means both Rabbit Poets and JanaiBlog proceed to the next round. Yep, that means a yaoi three-way with psgels… ah crap!

Still… the presence of another combatant could throw a wrench into the next match. I doubt anything major enough to stop the psgels tidal wave, but I’m thinking if me and psgels split the episodic votes – with psgels taking the large majority (try not to hog all the votes psgels ) – it’s possible JanaiBlog could continue its run as tourney Cinderella (93 seed!) since they have a different focus.

But thanks again to all the readers and voters. Blogging would be a big snooze if it weren’t for you all.

In the meanwhile, go check out the tourney and see the latest blogs on the chopping block. Both matches are tight so far and could go down to the wire again.

                          

I am writing to inform you that Rabbit Poets has been featured on Guide to Art School’s list of the 50 Best Manga & Anime blogs found here: http://www.guidetoartschools.com/tips-and-tools/anime-manga-blogs. We hand-picked a list of our favorite manga and anime blogs and outlined the unique reasons why they are so awesome. I am quite impressed with the regular Episode Reviews on your blog which are balanced between being both critical and informative.

Now I’m feeling pressure to perform, lol. Especially since I haven’t written an episodic in a month… and now Angel Beats is half over. Getting back on the blogging train has been tougher than expected. One reason is I haven’t had the time. The second reason is I haven’t had the motivation (ugh, so far behind, never gonna catch up). But third, I don’t know why but I still feel jetlagged a week after I returned from my trip. Strangely, I had absolutely no problems with sleep and jetlag when I arrived in Japan. But it’s been kicking my ass since I got back. But I’ll catch up. Eventually. (Unless you guys tell me Angel Beats sucks. In which case I won’t. Wait- don’t tell me anything!)

                          

Artist: Nacht

Some of you already know me as Janette, the obsessive compulsive blogger of Black and Blue Socks. I will be joining the team here to blog two shows this season. So I suppose I’m an obsessive compulsive rabbit poet now. Which is quite a mouthful, but awesome none the less.

For those who don’t know me, it’s my pleasure to meet you, I’m Janette. While I’ll be doing some blogging over here, I also do blogging at Black and Blue Socks, which I invite you to check out should you like what you see here. Over here, I will be blogging Heroman and the second season of K-On. I’ve always been a huge fan of Stan Lee, so I’m very excited about his chance at an original anime, and can’t wait to see how it goes. I also loved the first season of K-On and I’m looking forward to the second.

I could try to describe what I like, but it may just be easier to provide a list of my top ten anime, as these ”top” lists often say a lot about a person’s likes and dislikes.

10. Alien Nine

A little known OVA that’s a sci-fi metaphor for a girl hitting puberty. While the word puberty tends to put off the image of icky things, this short series is a gem.

9. Martian Successor Nadesico

Talk about old! However, old does not equal bad. Martian Successor Nadesico starts off as comedy… and then kills off a fairly important character in the second or third episode. Nadesico is the best of a few worlds, being hilariously funny one moment, and deadly serious the next, with sci-fi in between.

8. Aoi Hana

In my opinion, this is the best of J.C. Staff’s works. Marked not only by an amazing drama, what makes this series stand out to me is the gorgeous animation. While watching an episode, I’d often pause several times to examine the art.

7. Magical Lyrical Nanoha A’s

What’s better than a fabulous magical girl series? A magical girl series that goes beyond the typical limits set by the genre. While the first series starts to redefine the genre, and then the second season does so more strongly. On top of that, there’s nothing like a cute girl in a wheelchair.

6. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

Back when Gonzo was good, they re-imagined the Count of Monte Cristo. Rather than set in the old glory days of France, it’s been transformed into a sci-fi adventure marked with some imaginative art. However, the spirit of the book is kept alive, being drama at its finest. It’s one of those animes that forever leave you with an image etched in your mind, this one being of a broken watch.

5. Rozen Maiden

This is pretty much my guilty pleasure of the list. A fair amount of the series was a bear to get through, with the antics of the dolls. However, its [BS1] portrayal of an extreme anxiety disorder and how hard it is to overcome it is so spot-on, that I have yet to find another anime that connects with me like this one did.

4. Kino’s Journey

The story of a girl and her motorcycle. A travel story where a girl goes from one interesting country to the next with its own unique customs and stays for three days. The anime on the surface is intriguing, but also touches on some extremely deep thought, making it a gem of a show.

3. Haibane Renmei

What happens when we die? Haibane Renmei offers a unique answer with the portrayal of a strange afterworld. While a lot of the story runs on character development and interactions, my favorite part of the show was watching the world of Haibane Renmei unfold.

2. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

Higurashi is… well, I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of Higurashi by now. The first season of Higurashi pales in comparison to the second season. This is an anime where I honestly felt everything was done right, and comes together into a truly epic and intense conclusion. Nipaa~

1. Princess Tutu

However, not even Higurashi can dwarf my love for the anime of Princess Tutu. A duck becomes a girl who becomes a kick-butt magical girl that takes on her enemies…by dancing ballet. It’s an anime that takes a while to get going, but it’s worth the wait. A gorgeous anime, especially for any fans of dancing, and fabulous character development. What makes it take the number one spot over Higurashi is as much I adore the story of Higurashi, I find the story and themes in Princess Tutu much more complex and interesting. What starts off as your typical magical girl anime turns into a story about a question: "Can you defy fate?"

                          

I’ve actually been tinkering with this redesign for the past 3 months. Even though I feel like it’s still only 80% ready, I finally decided to launch the new look, not because of the new season, but because I was getting sick of looking at the same damn test post while I was dicking with CSS code. Plus, I’ve been tweaking this design long enough where I started getting bored of it, at which point I thought, "uh oh" better release it before I Duke Nukem’d it for a newer, sexier model.

The redesign

There’s definitely a lot I’ve learned from this redesign. Most of all, I feel pretty comfortable with CSS now. I’m familiar with the syntax, I know what properties to look for. Definitely much more so than I was before. But even moreso than the coding, I think the toughest part was figuring out the right color scheme. It took me more than a month to settle on something I liked. I wanted to have some bright accents, which is why I went with the orange, a color I typically hate. And then I accidentally stumbled on the blue as the main color.

Otherwise, the goals for this design was to make things faster, more functional and more clickably-delicious.

As far as faster goes, I think I’ve accomplished that to some degree.

• My Yslow score has gone from a 63 to 71 on the home page, and a 57 to a 66 on post pages
• According to WebPageTest, the site now loads in less than 1/2 the time (from almost 9 seconds before to about 4 seconds now), and makes 2/3 the number requests it did before
• I think there’s still room for some improvement though (chasing a better Yslow score has become my white whale)

As far as more functional, there were a few things I wanted to incorporate:

• A better search – I must’ve referred to Kabitzin’s google search post about 50 times. Very helpful
• A comment toolbar – Nobody but myself knew that I had a "spoiler" tag enabled on the comments. Not that anyone should ever use it.
• Not really functional, but the site now validates as XHTML 1.0 strict! (Although I doubt I deserve any credit for that. Those props should go to Ian Stewart for building such an excellent framework.)
• Non-image based drop shadows
• Other things that I can’t remember

And as far as clickably-delicious, I wanted to incorporate some of the new CSS3 effects. So there’s a healthy smattering of box shadows, border radiuses, opacities and scalings (hopefully I didn’t overdo it). So anytime you hover over a button, or click on a form field, you should get some sort of visual response that should in theory, make you want to click it or continue engaging with it. I suppose taste is subjective, so again, hopefully I didn’t overdo those effects. They’re as much for usability and accessibility purposes as for the deliciousness factor.

Thanks

So some thanks are in order.

• Gargron for taking care of some PHP dirty work that was out of my league. Highly recommended, he was a true professional, a pleasure doing business with. I’d absolutely hire him again. (And you should check his and mefloraine’s collaboration, Paper Dream – very cool.)
• Smashing Magazine and it’s network of blogs, because just about everything I learned, from CSS3 to color theory, I learned from perusing their posts over the past few months
• Kabitzin for his google search post I mentioned earlier, and actually his blogging tips category as well.
• Firebug for Firefox, Notepad++ and Filezilla. All indispensable tools.
• Hmm, I could’ve sworn this section would be longer… Hope I didn’t forget anyone

Still not done

Sadly, there’s still plenty left to do. Luckily it’s mostly under the hood stuff, so you shouldn’t notice much changing.

• Well, as you can see, I need to stick a cute image in the header. I’ll get to that… someday.
• Little nicks and nacks, like for example, inconsistent sidebar treatments
• Still figuring out what widgets should go in which sidebar
• Still redoing the blogroll. I plan on having the main list on its own page and then incorporating CCY & Gargron’s "Do you read" dual-custody baby somewhere on the home page. (I’ve finally started writing the blurbs)
• Testing across various browsers. While I had the stage site running, everything looked pretty good. But you never know what might happen when you transfer files over. (although you guys on IE6 are probably screwed. I don’t think it’s going to look terrible, but it’s not going to look quite right.)
• Other stuff I can’t remember

Anyway…

So, hopefully you’ll like the new look. If you notice anything wonky let me know. Or if you have any feedback (good or bad) that’d be much appreciated too!

                          

No! Windows 7 was my idea!

So Scamp’s spring 2010 season preview post reminded me that it’s that time of the year again. It’s like clockwork. As soon as I get some distance from the previous season preview post, chartfags releases a new chart and suddenly it’s time for a new season. It’s a vicious cycle that will never be resolved until I can one day knock the Earth from its rotational axis.

But it’s also the time of the year where I start agonizing about how to set the post up. There’s a couple reasons for this. One is that I’ve never been happy with the way I’ve written and laid out the posts in the past. The second is that I’m constantly looking for a unique ways to present that information – without being unnecessarily flashy or having a crappy user experience (this is the toughest part). I think I spent 10+ hours designing something for the last Winter post that I ultimately scrapped because I thought it got too flashy for flashy sake and didn’t anything useful.

So I humbly submit myself to the citizens of the world wide web. What do you want to see from a season preview post? At the very least, I’m assuming the basics: a picture, a short synopsis and some thoughts on the show. What other info would you want to see? Is there anything else? How would you want to see it? Lay all your hopes and dreams on me! Love and peace! (Sorry, stepping back to reality.)

Obviously, I can’t guarantee anything, but I’d love to hear what you all are thinking out there. Make Season Preview version 5.0 your idea.

                          

The best way to get to know my tastes is to see what kind of anime I’m interested in. So I present to you my top 10 list of my favorite anime of all time.

You may notice a certain trend in the shows I have chosen so let me make this clear at the start; I’m actually a girl. I just happen to like these kind of anime. Please don’t judge me.

10: Gundam 00

When I finally decided to watch a Gundam series, I settled on Gundam 00 simply because it was the most recent. At the start, I thought I didn’t know what the hell was going on due to lack of past knowledge. It took me a while to learn that the reason I didn’t know what was happening was because they actually hadn’t told us yet. This was my first hint that Gundam was far more than a simple mecha series.

I knew that Gundam had big robots but that was it really. I really didn’t expect how deep the plot would be. The story’s told from every point of view on every side of the conflict. It gets you so deep into the politics of the world that by the second season, there would be a big fight going on and I’d be considering the political ramifications of the fight. Then I’d realize what I was thinking and think “wow this series is good.”

Gundam’s got a very well developed cast of characters, even considering how big it is. Setsuna seems like a dull main character at first but he does develop in the series. He’s a ‘real’ character, despite his back-story; he changes gradually, not radically. The Gundam Meisters in general are all very distinctive, it didn’t take long until I could tell them apart, though to me at the start Lockon was the “Jokey One”, Tieria was the “Girly One”, Alleluiah was the “One with the Emo Fringe” and Setsuna was “Main Character Guy.” Pretty accurate really, especially Tieria’s.

Gundam’s selling point is in its reality. Despite having Gundams powered by unexplainable (Jupiter?) pixie dust, all the characters and the conflicts are undeniably human. War isn’t glorious, there aren’t simple solutions to war, there aren’t simple ways to end someone’s problems. It stayed true, yet was awesome even in those self-imposed boundaries.

9: Code Geass

This may have been higher if “someone” hadn’t spoiled the Eupheminator incident and the 1 million Zero’s for me before I even started. Still, there were definitely moments to make up for these. Code Geass is virtually MADE of awesome moments.

A summary of Code Geass could go like this: Guy gets a power and wants to get something with it, the whole world conspires to throw everything they’ve got against him and blow everything up in his face. Of course this wouldn’t last for long if Lelouch wasn’t so damn fabulous! He is one of the best characters ever! He gets the entirety of the Japanese people, not to mention the audience, rooting for him, despite basically having a villain point of view. In a way, he’s comparable to Code Geass itself, completely over the top, and leaves a lot unexplained, but convinces you it’s a masterpiece simply by acting as if it is. And it works, for both Lelouch and the show.

The other good points are the character designs bishies, the rather spectacular fights, and of course, as many plot twists as a story about corkscrews. Every damn episode ended in a plot twist, which may be resolved next episode, only to be uprooted by an even bigger one. Code Geass was the first show where I had to take breaks because I literally couldn’t watch anymore for fear of heart attacks.

8: D Gray Man

My first encounter with D Gray Man was hearing that it was “some carbon copy of Fullmetal Alchemist.” After some time this thought occurred to me; “hang on, I liked Fullmetal Alchemist.” So I watched it.

One thing that really sets D Gray Man apart from other long running shonens is that the animation in the fight scenes is actually quite good. I’ve got a rather unladylike liking of really big fights so this was probably why I watched all 103 episodes at once without taking breaks to watch other series in the middle. D Gray Man has the best fights scenes in any anime I’ve seen when the combatants are human sized (i.e. no mecha).

As any shonen does, D Gray Man had a large cast of characters, and I did have my favorites. Probably unsurprisingly, my favorite was Allen, who’s such a nice guy, not to mention cute. My other two favorites were Kanda and Lavi; Kanda I don’t really know why exactly, I just do, and Lavi more understandably because he’s a laugh to watch and has a big hammer as a weapon. I mean, how much cooler can you get?

The show did get a bit bogged down in the arc inside the Arc (not intended) and it did have the odd boring filler but the rest of the plot does make up for this. It was worth watching for the fights alone.

7: Hikaru no Go

I start a number of anime because I read the first volume of the manga and want to know what happens next. I’d heard of Hikaru no Go before but hadn’t thought of watching it until I read the manga because seriously, it’s about a board game.

I soon found out that being about a board game doesn’t bring down the show in any way. By the end of the 75 episodes, I was ready to find some way to learn how to play Go because I got so into the game. It was one of the reasons I rated Hikaru no Go ahead of D Gray Man; Hikaru no Go managed to be awesome with just a board game.

The plot’s pretty simple; it just follows Hikaru Shindo as he tries to get better at Go with the ghost Sai’s help. Still, this was very well done, especially the gradual development of Hikaru, he basically starts off cute and ends up bishie. The interaction between him and Sai is one of the better duo’s I’ve seen. They’re very different, being different ages and from different times as well as having contrasting personalities, so it’s great fun watching them mentally bash off each other but it’s also sweet to see them growing slowly closer together.

The supporting cast wasn’t amazing or anything but I guess they play the parts they’re meant to play. I wasn’t mad about the rival, Akira, who’s a bit of a Go obsessed twat but admittedly he was a good contrast to the easygoing Hikaru. He’s also pretty exceptional as an anime rival in that he’s actually far better than the main character. Hikaru isn’t your generic game-based anime lead. He loses all the time, in the places you would expect him to lose in.

6: Gundam SEED

After watching Gundam 00 I decided to make my way through all the other Gundams out there in the hope that they would be as awesome. SEED was my second Gundam. Now every other Gundam has a new goal to surpass, the sheer awesomeness that is Gundam SEED!

Gundam SEED has its grounds in reality like 00 does, but the general setting is different. Instead of us humans engaging in general conflict there’s actually a giant war going on, so the entire focus of the plot is different. SEED uses its war as a base to build their characters on, it’s more character driven but has fewer characters.

I’ve heard the main character Kira Yamato is not popular in America but I really did like him. When it really comes down to it he’s just a normal teenager in a difficult situation. Kira spends most of the series trying to cope with the stress of a war he doesn’t even want to be in but he always struggles on. He’s a character you can emphasize with. Athrun Zala, his old friend who’s on the opposite side, is the other viewpoint in SEED, showing both sides of the war yet again.

When I was young and naïve, I enjoyed Gundam 00 for the cool fights, with the convoluted world and plot on the side. In Gundam SEED it was the plot this time that took centre stage. Fast and epic doesn’t begin to cover it. It throws everything it has at you and while you’re trying to recover from the last moment of awesomeness it hurls you a new plot point to shout at. Most memorable for me was episode 30, probably the most wham! episode out of anything I’ve watched in a long time. I distinctly remember shouting at the screen for the last 5 minutes of the episode, then going off for a breather.

Gundam SEED is great to marathon. In my first sitting I got through 7 episodes, and only stopped because it was dinner. I slowed down after that, only to have something good to watch tomorrow.

5: Legend of Galactic Heroes

When I was attempting to compose this entry I had to sit down and really think, why did I like Galactic Heroes so much? What was it that was so amazing about a 110 episode space opera? The animation is dated, the humour sparing at best, no rapid action fights with giant robots, and the central characters are:

1. Reinhard. A blond haired, cape wearing pretty boy who would have been a bishie in a show made 20 years later.

2. Yang. A guy who can’t keep his own house tidy without help, answers the door in pyjamas and a toothbrush in his mouth, and is incapable of sitting on a chair properly in any situation.

So why is this show ranked so highly for me and quite a lot of other people? Because despite all this, Galactic Heroes is undoubtedly EPIC!

The fights aren’t to be watched for fighting’s sake. They are awesome to watch because of the thought that guides them. The sheer brilliance of these clashes is the rush it gives you as you watch the characters go head to head in a battle that is a battle of war but more so a battle of wits. War is only a medium for the characters to outsmart each other in. These fights aren’t limited to the battlefield. Galactic Heroes takes place in an entire galaxy and the political side of war can be just as engaging as the fighting, just as full of twists and gambits and cliffhangers and near death experiences as the fighting is.

Since there are so many characters everyone’s bound to have their favorite, mine being by far the lazy, borderline alcoholic yet absolute genius commander Yang Wenli. Actually in general I preferred all the Alliance characters, though I will admit that Reinhard von Lohengramm in his fabulous white cloak was rather cool as well.

4: Mushishi

With every show you watch, you will undoubtedly find something to criticize. It could be the animation, an annoying main/side character, fillers, a plot that doesn’t make sense at the start/end/middle/at all. Even your favorite shows will most likely have their bad parts. Mushishi on the other hand… is basically flawless. Sure you could say some episodes are better than others but its like saying that Mt. Kilimanjaro isn’t that tall compared to Mt. Everest.

Mushishi is classified as elitist and that’s true, it’ll never reach a mainstream audience. It’s a bit of an odd show, it’s episodic so there’s no real plot, there’s only one proper character, and get this, there’s no action at all!!!! Shocking, isn’t it. But this isn’t that type of show. Mushishi is ethereal, and it’s hard to say why I liked it. Watching it makes me feel… detached, completely absorbed into the world of the Mushi. I was rewatching this recently and when the closing credits drifted on at the end of every episode I would just sit there and feel as if I was coming out of some kind of trance. I will say that Mushishi is definitely a unique piece of work.

Of course, a show like this wouldn’t work if the only character in it wasn’t a top notch one. Fortunately for us, Ginko, the Mushishi in question, is one of the best characters I have met in all anime. He comes across as a far off, all-knowing figure most of the time but he also has a silly side, like when he’s selling mermaid toenails at the side of the road, and scamming his collector friend. He usually stays calm, almost emotionless, so when he starts to panic, it most likely really is time to panic.

3: Rurouni Kenshin

There may be a bit of nostalgia in this choice but it’s my top ten list so I can put in whatever I want, public opinion be damned. RuroKen was the first anime I picked up on my own initiative. All the ones before had been kid’s stuff on TV or something my brother had seen before me. After this I gained a lot of confidence in my own choices, since the first show I picked up myself, I loved.

RuroKen was made back in 1996 so obviously the animation isn’t godly or anything. Overall, it’s a pretty lighthearted series with a healthy dash of comedy (always good) and some romance on the side, but it also sports some way cool swordfights, plenty of super dark serious bits and one of the best villains ever, a guy so evil, so badass, that he’s going to take over hell when he dies.

Still, the real reason why I loved RuroKen so much was because of the man himself, the one and only Kenshin Himura. He’s a great laugh to watch, if only for the goofy expressions he pulls, but he’s also very kind and caring – it makes you want to give him a hug. Then on top of that there’s his completely awesome sword skills and his creepy-but-still-awesome Battosai mode. He can even cook! And he’s good looking. I’d say it’s obvious that I consider Kenshin to be the best character in anime ever.

Any RuroKen fan will know that the Revenge Arc was never animated, so the last part of the series is filler. That is the only bad thing really. If they ever decide to animate Revenge, I am so there.

2: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Thanks to my liking of big fights, explosions and mecha, I have some very unladylike choices in my top 10. TTGL is probably the manliest show in existence; it’s got giant robots powered by manly spirit, for God’s sake! Yet this is definitely one of my favorites, for the quote factor if nothing else.

TTGL actually boasts a good storyline, the tale of a boy “who has yet to discover his own destiny.” But ask any TTGL fan what the series is about and they will simply answer “DRILLS!!!” What really makes TTGL such a blast is the Humungous Mecha, the big fights of astronomical proportions (literally), and the coolest cast of characters ever. Everyone knows about Kamina of the Sunglasses, and while we’re at it lets mention the fact that Simon surpasses him in coolness, height and sunglasses too. Even the side characters seem to be made of concentrated awesomeness, except maybe Rossiu, though he did have his moments.

TTGL can be said to be a 100-ep series packed into 27 episodes of distilled manly awesomeness. Sporting one of the best soundtracks ever, mechas that leave you guessing at how big the next one will be, and the drill that will be the drill to pierce the heavens, I’m going to remember this for a long time.

ROW, ROW, FIGHT DA POWER!!!!!

1: Full Metal Alchemist

There’s a bit of nostalgia in this choice too. The original FMA was the first non-4Kids dub I ever watched so this choice used to be partly based on fond memories. Lately though, I’ve been watching Brotherhood and it has basically reconfirmed and reinforced my view that FMA is, to put it simply, the best thing ever.

FMA has everything, action, cool fights, explosions, smart comedy, likeable characters (Ed’s one of my favorites), badass characters (Mustang), an engaging storyline, well thought out villains, character development, very good ideas (to say the least, the entire structure of alchemy in the new series is already looking to be a rare gem), the potential to actually act on those ideas (which not many anime can pull off to its greatest extent), and it’s even got the quote factor (I’d say I can recite the entire “Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return…” speech).

The original FMA and FMA: Brotherhood are by this stage now matched in my list. Brotherhood is more jumpy, it has completely awesome episodes (think ep-19 “I sealed it with fire!!!”) but also some ‘meh’ episodes. The original on the other hand was pretty much consistent. It’s been a while but I do remember that there wasn’t a single episode I didn’t enjoy. That’s pretty exceptional for a 51-ep series. And best of all, Brotherhood’s not going to be stopping anytime soon.

Evaluation

My top ten list does kinda paint me as a serious shonen fangirl. I guess that’s true in part but I do watch more than that.

As a comparison here’s my list of shows that nearly made it:

11. Ouran High School Host Club

12. Cromartie High School

13. Shakugan No Shana

14. Darker Than Black

15. Samurai Champloo

16. .hack//SIGN

17. Kino’s Journey

18. Full Moon o Sagashite

19. Ghost in the Shell

20. Trigun

You can guess quite easily from my top ten what kind of anime I like most but my 10-20 list is all over the place. Well, a show doesn’t need big fights to be good, I suppose.

                          

But despite my uncertain state of work/study/future plans, there’s still a couple goals I’m committed to for Rabbit Poets:

1. I want to it be a long term thing; to eventually become a mainstay like Sea Slugs, THAT, RC or Star Crossed.
2. I don’t want to settle for same old, same old

What’s that mean for 2010?

New theme

First things first, I like Atahualpa, but I’m getting tired of it. So you can look forward to a new look, hopefully sometime within the next couple months (hopefully something without banners. I really hate making them). Sadly, the way I’ve sized my screenshots over the past 300+ posts has really limited my options by being a poor fit for themes following the increasingly popular 960 grid system. So I’ve been checking out different options and inspirations. Of all the blogs I’ve seen, I’d say I really like Ars Technica’s new site architecture. It’s not the snazziest, but I like the way the info is laid out and how you can easily access different categories and types of posts. Whatever I end up with will undoubtedly look somewhat different, but I’m planning to steal as much "inspiration" as I can. There’s also a 50/50 chance that I may jock we love maids and Sea Slugs and go mascot hunting at some point. I’m so ashamedly covetous over Aiko and Nama-chan.

Different posting style?

I’ve never liked the look of my individual posts, what with the block of text, followed by the block of images, repeated ad nauseum. It’s the most logical way to post about an episode, and certainly the easiest, but it looks so… plain. I’d much rather take a more print approach to it, where the images more naturally complement the text. I think Blindability over at Bokutachi does a fantastic job of integrating the pictures within the narrative, for example. Which brings me to a point of user feedback. The pictures I pick for each post make sense to me. But that’s just inside my head. If I was honest, I probably end up not looking at or skimming past pictures when I see them on other blogs (unless they’re central to the post like on THAT). So question for you, do you care about the pics, or would you prefer less of them?

Post length

I’d love to cover more shows. But I only have so much time to do so. So I either have to shorten the posts I write, or possibly find some co-writers. So again, I wouldn’t mind hearing your feedback. Are my episodic posts too long? Do your eyes glaze over, or are they ok, as is?.

New authors?

Adding another writer or two is something I’ve been thinking about, but haven’t come to a decision on. If I decide to go forward with it, I’ll post a formal request, probably sometime before the spring or summer seasons. But if you’re reading this and are thinking you might be interested, feel free to contact me @rabbitpoets. Episodics, editorials, I haven’t figured any of that out, so feel free to ask whatever questions you want. I am an open book

Anyway, regardless of whatever changes I end up making, cheers to a new year of anime that’s hopefully even better than the last!

                          

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Rabbit Poets has come a long way since the days where I think I was the only visitor to where it is now. One year sounds like a long time, but it also feels like it passed in a flash. Technically, I started this blog a little more than 14 months ago, but I never expected to write regularly. So I started writing on blogspot for a couple months, then moved over to rabbitpoets.com once I decided I wanted to start devoting a little more attention and regularity to blogging. I have no idea when exactly I moved over to rabbitpoets.com, but it was around Christmas, so in the future, I’ll celebrate my anniversaries sometime in the week between Christmas and New Years. The exact day will be a surprise.

I’m hoping to do bigger and better things with the blog in the new year, which I’ll cover in a subsequent post, but much thanks and love to everyone and anyone that has stopped by, read a post, or left a comment! I write, because I love to write, but without you guys it’d be no fun *wipes away sentimental tear*.

                          

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Update: The move turned out to be pretty simple and quick. But if you notice anything misbehaving or funky, please leave a comment. Thanks!

What with the imminent winter season preview post, the Twelve Moments in Anime project, an end of the year anniversary post, and then the subsequent winter season first impressions posts, things are going to get busier around here. So with that in mind, I figured now was as good a time as any to pick up and move this site to a new host. Hopefully nothing breaks and everything goes smoothly and quickly, but we’ll see. But if you notice general wonkiness over the next 24-48 hours, you’ll know why. Much thanks to Kabitzin, Zenical, Panther, and Gargron for answering my questions about their hosts to aid my research.

                          

When Robyn over at AnimeBlips contacted me about being a featured blog, I thought, "whoa, no way!" (in more of a Keanu Reeves-like incredulous tone, then a negative tone). When I started this blog, I never even expected to write on a regular basis, much less be profiled by one of the largest anime news/blog aggregator. But I figured what the heck, when else am I ever going to get this chance. And voila, Rabbit Poets is now the featured blog of the week.

So I won’t say any more about it. Go check out the article, read what I have to say, and log-in and click the triangle vote button so I don’t feel like the only loser who clicked the button. And then go root around AnimeBlips to show your support. Much thanks to Robyn and AnimeBlips for giving me my 5 minutes in the spotlight! And thanks to all those who’ve visited, left comments and made this fun along the way!

(Oh, and thank goodness for backups, because I just realized all my images from June were broken, because the folder was missing for some strange reason.)