As an animephile MyAnimeList is a website I never knew was missing from my life. Basically it's another anime / manga community website with all the basics e.g forums, news sections, chat rooms and user profiles.

However the main function of this site is to keep a log of every single anime / manga title you have watched, want to watch or have dropped.

The interface is incredibly snappy and it takes just mere seconds to find a title you want to add. By doing this MAL creates a personal database for you that can also be exported for backup into a spreadsheet file if desired.

As you compile your list, there are a host of options you can add like ratings, completion dates and current status. These help generate a list of statistics that show you how much time or chapter length you have given to a particular title.

Now I myself have watched a lot of anime in my life and since I occasionally get confused with old and new title names this site saves me alot of time and hassle especially with newer anime I plan to watch.

Ok so lets put this to practical use, take me for example I have made a somewot accurate list of all the anime I have watched as you can see HERE. Now because I have rated all my anime if you click the SCORE field it will automatically rearrange my sores from highest to lowest or visa-versa so without even asking me you can see my highest rated anime!

This site may not be news to some of you as even I knew of it's exsitance for a couple of years but I really overlooked it's usefulness and am kicking myself for it.

MAL further extends it's sense of community by allowing you to add your favorite anime, manga, characters and people on your profile page - doing so keeps count of how many people have made the same choices as you. All this leads to a way for everyone to see how "compatible" they are with each other when viewing each others profiles.

Make friends, groups and clubs to take the experience to the next level - Tyrocasts club page for example

There is also an iPhone app made by one of the site members (PAGE) called Pocket-MAL which really has minimal functionality compared to the MAL website but hey it's still in active production and it's free!

So In Conclusion I know this site may seem like something only a super Otaku might use but in reality just one or two of it's features can justify signing up so let me list em for ya.

1. A way to keep track of all the anime / manga you have or want to check out
2. Another good site to read anime / manga reviews
3. Another good anime / manga community website
4. You become more organised in your Otaku like journey
5. Another way to find out what anime / manga other people like without asking them
6. Because I say it's a good site - THE ONLY REAL REASON YOU NEED DAMMIT!!

On a side note it took me about a hard working month to compile my list which is definitely not complete and that list excludes hentai - I highly recommend you take your time with it if you mean business.

Check it out people

- Donwun