Ode to MALentine 💌 2nd Edition

Welcome to MAL's annual Valentine's Day event! This year, short poetry meets anime/manga.

This event was held first in 2018, and is now being re-run in 2023.
Check out the 2018 winners for inspiration~


Part One: Submissions
You are tasked with matching either an existing poem, or one of your own creation, to one or more anime/manga images. The resulting poem+image pair can either be romantic, tragic, or funny.

　♥ Existing poems can have a maximum of 5 lines.
　♥ Original poems can have a maximum of 14 lines.
　♥ Either your image or poem (or both) should refer to some kind of Valentine's theme: romance, loneliness, chocolate, etc.
　♥ Images can be still or animated. Please try to add your poem onto image though, if possible.

For GIF editing, you can use online editors like EZgif (what we used), Canva, Imgur, Giphy, etc. For image editing, you can also use online editors like paint.net or photopea, or a program like GIMP (free) or Photoshop.



Part Two: Voting
Once we collect all of the entries, we will curate them for the best submissions, and then create a voting thread/form where the community can vote on their favourites. Even if you do not make a submission, you can still vote.

　Everyone who looks through the submissions and votes will receive a profile badge for participating.
　No spamming the form with nonsense >_>
　Even if you do not make a card, you can still vote!


After voting closes, we will then rank the MALentine "odes" in each category:
　♥ Romantic
　♥ Tragic/Sad
　♥ Funny
　♥ Original Poems (these will also still appear in the above categories)

Creators can aim for first or last place in these rankings ;) The only prize offered is, as usual, bragging rights~





Join Us
If you need help or want a place to chat, you can use our Discord server.

　♥ First, join the MAL server by using this link: https://discord.gg/myanimelist
　♥ Read #rules and follow the directions in #verify-mal-acct
　♥ Go to #server-updates (under Info & Suggestions) and react to get the malentine '♡ role

This will give you access to a special MALentine channel.



Frequent Questions

So we gotta match a poem with an anime, not a favorite character?

i would but valentines day is exclusively celebrated by me and my wafius 

I suck at poetry but I'm excited to look at the submissions and vote!

Not good at poems

spy v family chicken bump other not sure

this is something new. will try to submit something.

Can I still vote if I don't have/join Discord? Only asking.

UPDATE: Sent Entry. 'Hope this is okay.

P. S.: The resulting badge won't look the same as last year, right?

will gladly check out the submissions and vote for the best ! and yes idk poetry and editing stuffs.

Voted!

Ayeeee o(╥﹏╥)

Submitted my card~

So, if you just look through the submissions and submit a vote, you get the badge? Because even tho I’d love to participate in the actual writing or choosing poems, I have no knowledge in poetry so if just voting still gets me the badge that’d be great

I've submitted 3 poems, 1 for each type.

marin and nazuna

Done with my submission. Now let's wait for the voting.

can i use poems in other languages? or only english?

They never specified that you couldn't, but don't expect many people to vote for your post since they can't read it or translate it properly.

Ohayo....

Patiently waiting for the voting, looking forward :)

May I know what exactly does 14 lines mean? Like, does it mean 14 individual lines or does it include breaks as well?

valentine's day is almost here, it's time for me to give chocolate to my waifu moe moe moe kyuu

Finding more otaku's like me.

Ok, mine is dumb and lazy, but I hope that'll do. 
By the way, how do I learn if my card met the requirements and was accepted?

Voted

nice nice nice

You can't have voted. The voting thread isn't out yet....

You don't need Discord. The badge is in the first post.

I'm sorry, English only please. You can translate a poem from a different language, if you like.

Individual lines.

I wrote the poem. sent my card.

This sounds like fun ^^

Ahhh, I'm terrible at wordplay...
Everyone Ganbatte!

Finally - the long awaited sequel! Thanks for organizing this :)

It should be pretty easy to make a submission... but I'm just lazy. 

Looks fun. I won't be submitting anything, but I look forward to seeing what people come up with.

love this concept I already wrote my first nobel nominated poem happy valentines day 

Just submitted an entry! It's my first time participating in an MAL event, since every other one I've seen to date has seem a bit overwhelming to me until now, so I'm kinda hyped about this one, ngl! 

When Next Season 2  Anime IMORTALITY year 2023 playing....?

~ Submitted my card

submitted!

Submitted

Submitted for the romance category! Looking forwards to reading all the poems on the 14th ^^

Dunno if I still have the free time to submit a poem, but I'll definitely vote.

the foolish speak of love. everyone knows love is traitorous

I will practice my English a bit so I'll can vote well. The lingua franca should be Esperanto :C

Woohooo! Poems! That's my jam! Might join, even if i'm not that good making gifs and everything around editing :p

submitted!!

Submitted! :)

In 2 categories, Romance and Tragic/Sad
There is an indication in the "Tragic/Sad" that says "no spoilers", but I think it can be used for all categories... In the same way I made 2 cards just in case.

All is right

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I watch anime,
And so do you.