Welcome my precious readers !
It has been a long time since my last post in English, in order to keep up with the dirty work I decided to start a new series called the "RFP English Lesson".
Knowing that myself sucked at English, I am simply going to leave the teaching bit to the aftermentioned blogs.
But before we start –
Notice: This is a Self-explored English Lesson for non-native English speakers, if you ain't, why bother ? Get a subbed anime and start watching it !
Warranty: A pure heart XD; I am not responsible for any negative effect this post induced.
Interested ? Read On ….
Let's start by clarifying the title a bit.
RFP secretly stands for "Reads for pleasure", which basically means we are going to learn English, but in controversial way: yes, by reading blog / forum / chan-sites / whatever fits your style… and what's more important is, they have to be about Anime / Manga / whatever you can describe as MOE.
For our lesson 1, let's take an easy approach, to have a look at some famous(and infamous) blog on the net…
Section No.1:
The individuals – My top 5 list (in alphabetical orders)
Note that although there are 2m of anime blogs out there, not all of them are suitable for learning "specific" English, especially those came with strong l33t & otakuism. My personal selection would be –
- AOMM
- Memento
- Minaidehazukashii
- Random Curiosity
- Riuva
Guide –
Description:
Anime on My Mind is its full name; has been there for more than 4 years, now with a large reader base. Its owner Jason also develop quite a few site like Blogsuki.com & belldandy.us, but we shall leave that details till later.
The goods:
Most posts are written in clear & funny English, plus various pics for visual aids. Topics are mostly anime-review-based, the remianing parts are news or in depth report, so you won't miss the serious part of being a true otaku.
The bads:
Popularity causes certain downtime; Constant complaint of anime quality since the release of Suzumiya Haruhi XD
Description:
Memento is coming close to its third anniversay, starting out as a Japan popular cultural blog, now it has not only posts of anime reviews but also various entries concerning games / music / manga / etc. The author also runs the website kongetsu.com, which would be interesting if you are a fan of Japanese lifestyle.
The goods:
Same as AOMM, Memento has its posts written in "standard" English and its pics already to be pick-up. Memento is also one of the blog that offer full episode guides, so that you can check the English wording while watching anime, or vice versa. By the way, Memento always has a better HD screenshot than others, I wonder why (massively photoshoped ?)
The bads:
Hardly any, though its owner recently moved to Japan for a change, and since then there has been a slight increment of post-interval.
Description:
Just by looking at the title you know this is no regular anime blog, and indeed it isn't. Formerly known as nekketsu, the master "jpmeyer" is some sort of hardcore fans of kuso, and by hardcore I don't mean pr0n. FYI, he is also a cohost of anime podcast at animenano.com
The goods:
JP does reviews for a few anime / manga, but what seem to interest him most is the AWESOMENESS of everything, which turns out to be the main theme of his many articles as well. No further comment should or can be made before you entering his blog.
The bads:
Content is a little bit too l33t for non-native English speaker, or even readers that are not way into the anime business. Standard English ? partially fine XD
Description:
The most sophisticated anime blog I have ever read, this is merely the second year of its life-cycle, but the blog itself has already received more than 3.5m views ! Personally I look at it as a flagship blog on animeblogger.net
The goods:
Have you seen a personal blog with well-formed post schedules ? well this is your chance ! Randomc never really stop blogging anime unless the author is getting very very ill (Salute*). "Professional" is the word to use here.
The bads:
Full review + guide for every single anime he watched ? Subscribers will have to choose what they really want to read, otherwise might end up wasting hours.
Description:
RIUVA stands for "Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts", which just a funky name originate from Genshiken. The truth behind the name is clearly propagandized by its President, tj han: "to brainwashing people into boosting the figurine industry with their hard-earned cash".
The goods:
Most posts are written in so-called standard English, topics are dedicated to figures, though exception could be made for analysis / researches, which gives you quite a comprehensive view on what's hot in the fandom.
The bads:
When not photoing figures, Pics are just in requital for excellent "moar" comments … (*tagged unrelated*)
I shall leave the section 2 till tomorrow…
Hey guys, please drop a line or two on what you think about this post, or what can be improved it in future. I am eagerly waiting for any responses !
Updated:
2006.08.19 V1.1 – fixed numerous syntax bugs.
Eh? Why do we have to do math to post a comment? I almost got the answer wrong haha.
Anyway, first, thanks for linking to my site. But I don’t quite understand the line “mourning research” and “requital for moar comments”?
“mourning” -_- … I must be really tired when scrabbling this post down last night, just found around 20+ bugs… shall correct this later.
Correct me if I am wrong about this, but it seems “moar” acts like some sort of “requesting more pics” on chan-sites… + most of your hot pics posts are chan-alike to me.
试下IE7 = =
I’m surprised to see you linked even from here tjhan. Seems like you’re getting a lot of attention.
BTW just to enlighten me, what’s “kuso”?
くそ,”shit” in Japanese.
In modern internet-based society, specially among Chinese, “kuso” does mean something less of an insult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuso
Kuso FTW!!!