Shinmaru

Yeah, I didn't really think the show was funny often (with a few notable exceptions), but I did enjoy the energy and visual creativity throughout. Surprisingly enough, I actually enjoyed when the show got semi-serious and had a plot at the end, too. And at least [b]Panty & Stocking[/b] is something [i]different[/i] instead of generic harem series No. 9,001.

That is correct mooooooooooooooooooooooo

Just so you know, [b]Panty & Stocking[/b] has a Gainax Ending that rivals their best ... though, of course, that means different things to different people. :p Personally, I loved the ending.

A small image, but whatever ... [img]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/2522/mool.jpg[/img]

I think that's [b]Utawarerumono[/b].

Alexa did me proud this week. ;-; I enjoyed the reaction to White's revelation that he doesn't like chocolate. Beautiful. (By the way, I'm kind of with you there, in that I only like chocolate when it's mixed with other stuff. Reese's cups = awesome. Hershey's bars? No bueno.) It also pleases me to hear more Hans von Hozel. Do not make a lazy anymore, Ace.

For the record, fansubbers take GREAT liberties with cursing most of the time. There aren't anywhere near as many curse words in Japanese as there are in English (as I'm sure you can hear if you have a good ear and watch a fair amount of anime), and in context, most of them are about as mild as "Damn it!" or whatever. If you see Naruto or Goku dropping an F-bomb, or something, you can be assured that that's the fansubber's choice, because their dialogue ain't as crass as that. :p Also, lol @ "in dubbing, they intend most anime to be for kids". Are you having fun posting from the year 2000? What's it like back then?

Today is one of those horrible work days that everyone dreads ... except, until the end of March, it will be the norm for me because of furloughs. Being understaffed and overworked is MUCHO FUN

[quote name='Anomaly' timestamp='1294694739' post='703771'] [font="Garamond"]I'll have you know I am a perfectly respectable young lady, [i]goddamnit[/i].[/font] [/quote] An Anomaly without swearing is no Anomaly at all, I say. (But srsly though she's not much worse than the rest of us. :p)

Nah, I can see where you're coming from. I remember enjoying the talking in ep1 but being somewhat bored during ep2. Again, I like the series overall, but not all the episodes are great, and likewise, not all the talking is i nteresting.

I enjoyed ep4 because it was such an enormous troll, haha. Especially the end where Shichika is like, "Oh man, that battle was crazy! I almost lost it there!" It was a pretty nice twist, too, although it probably had a bit more impact for those who watched the series by the month. And, yeah, the original author of [b]Katanagatari[/b], Nisio Isin, is well known for his dialogue-heavy stories. ([b]Bakemonogatari[/b], adapted from another light novel series he wrote, is also pretty talky, to say the least.)

[quote name='Anomaly' timestamp='1294651287' post='703758'] [font="Garamond"]are you implying I have a potty mouth, sir? :o[/font] [/quote] Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe.

[quote name='Katana' timestamp='1294525312' post='703721'] [color=royalblue][size=1]Working on watching [b]Katanagatari[/b] right now, something I dove head-first into without much research. It's comprised of 12 44-minute episodes, which is a bit tough to slough through when it's only available in subbed form. Also lots of talky bits, especially in the first episode, since the story has to be laid out. Talkytalkytalktalk. Some episodes are easier to get through than others, and I did binge on three in a row one time. GORGEOUS art style, by the way, rather unique. And the music is really good too. And there's fighting! Kinda.[/size][/color] [/quote] Have you watched the whole thing? There are some episodes of [b]Katanagatari[/b] I didn't like, but overall I enjoyed it. Not totally sure yet how I feel about the ending, though. Some parts are pretty good, and some parts are ... kind of dumb, really.

There had better be bleeps aplenty, or I will be disappoint.

[quote name='Katana' timestamp='1294523065' post='703718'] [color=royalblue][size=1](By the way, Netflix is a legit way to watch a show. You're paying for the service, so hey, if you have Netflix, more power to ya.)[/size][/color] [/quote] Yep, Netflix instant streaming has a fair number of anime movies (I watched [b]Ghost in the Shell[/b] and [b]Ninja Scroll[/b] there), along with some series (though I haven't watched any of those), and of course DVDs can be rented from Netflix (I watched [b]Planetes[/b] and [b]Simoun[/b] this way, along with several Miyazaki movies).

[quote name='Boo' timestamp='1294427279' post='703695'] Wheeeee! Also, cool stuff Shin and Kei. It's over an hour o_o I'm glad you didn't ask me to edit it to fit in the podcast, hoho. Concerning the podcast troubles: [url="http://blameon.ytmnd.com/"]BlameOn[/url]. [/quote] Haha, yeah, and that actually ended up being shorter than we thought it would be! We knew it would be far too long to fit onto the regular podcast (impossible to summarize an entire season in any meaningful way in a short segment), so we thought it best to make it separate. The editing wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, though it did take a while, haha.

Kei and I recorded a podcast yesterday as an overview of all the super duper fun anime that aired during the fall 2010 season. We're hoping to do this at the end of each season! [url="http://soundcloud.com/shinmaru/anime-round-up-fall-2010"]Listen to our awesomeness here.[/url]

The [b]Iron Man[/b] anime was pretty damn disappointing (I think I dropped it after four episodes), so I don't have especially high hopes for this series. The biggest problem with [b]Iron Man[/b] is just that it's really [i]boring[/i]. Maybe [b]Wolverine[/b] will be a bit more exciting, but I doubt it.

[quote name='The Tentacle' timestamp='1294250638' post='703653']The problem I have is with the "watch anything you want, anytime you want and never pay for it" mentality that a lot of Internet users have.  I hate to keep beating a dead horse but that's where the problem lies.  Pretty much everyone who's posted in this thread have stated they buy officially licensed products even if they've watched the fansubs and that's a big part of the solution.  But a large number of the people who watch fansubs choose to be a part of the problem rather than the solution. [/quote] Yeah, I don't really like this either. Every licensed series on my computer gets deleted after watching; if I'm not going to rewatch, then there's no reason to have it around, and if I want to rewatch it, then it's better to buy it. Unfortunately, there will always be people who always download and never pay for anything, no matter what sort of legal action is taken. They exist in every hobby that has easy digital access. The music industry came down hardcore on downloaders, and it hasn't really stopped them at all. Really, for a niche industry like anime, it's imperative to develop better business models that make enough people want to buy rather than download. Streaming is a good step. I'm not a businessman, though, so I can't really propose anything better. :p

[b]Who is it?[/b] The Tentacle [b]Why is he nifty?[/b] Because he helps keep my beloved Anime Central alive! Plus, he's not a Johnny Come Lately fan; he knows his stuff and doesn't shun older series. That is nifty in my book! --- [b]What is it?[/b] [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/index.php?/topic/44350-anime-mashups/"]Anime Mashups![/url] [b]Why is it nifty?[/b] Not to toot my own horn too much, but I think this was a pretty damn fun thread. Some people came up with truly hilarious creations. [b]Death Note[/b] x [b]Lucky Star[/b] is still glorious. --- [b]Who are they?[/b] Boo and Korey [b]Why are they nifty?[/b] They took the bull by the horns and turned a half-baked podcast idea into something that has been consistently fun since the beginning. It's also engaged the community more than anything has in forever. These two fine folks deserve a lot of credit. --- [b]What is it?[/b] Anime Central [b]Why is it nifty?[/b] I'm not sure other forums exist. I certainly don't post in them! [s](If you see me elsewhere, then it's just an illuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusion!)[/s] --- [b]What is it?[/b] Status updates [b]Why is it nifty?[/b] More places to dump random thoughts? Count me in! It's like a mini-Twitter, except with people most others here actually care about. I approve. --- [b]Who is it?[/b] Jason [b]Why is he nifty?[/b] James is so Version 7.0. Long live Jason! --- [b]Who is it?[/b] moletta [b]Why is she nifty?[/b] She is the Lord, and I must pay proper tribute to her. --- [b]Who is he?[/b] Desbreko [b]Why is he nifty?[/b] My partner in anime, my partner in shipping, my partner in all things magical girl. Truly a most Nifty resume. --- [b]Who is he?[/b] Hans von Hozel [b]Why is he nifty?[/b] I think he is basically a member of OtakuBoards at this point. His stories are truly the greatest modern examples of literature that exist. It is only a matter of time before he wins the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes. --- [b]What are they?[/b] OB Podcast episodes six and eleven. [b]Why are they nifty?[/b] I hear those are the best episodes of the podcast. I'm totally not biased at all! Will edit later with more!

[quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1294172272' post='703628'] [color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Dang, really, Shin? That's pretty disappointing, but at the same time I'm not really surprised...[/font][/color] [/quote] I'm sure at least part of it was the awful subs I had. I couldn't even understand what the hell anyone was going on about half the time. But there's a bunch of other stuff that's just plain bad, and the ending is unbelievably stupid. It's like I was watching [b]Gundam SEED[/b] all over again except with magical pixie dust. Mike Toole's ANN review said it best: "Sweet Christmas, what a mess!"

If I remember correctly from one of ANN's podcasts on anime economics (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong!), fansubbing abroad does negligible harm at best to Japanese anime studios. Your dollar does not support Sunrise or Madhouse or BONES or whatever; it supports the American companies (Funi, Nozomi, etc.) that license the series. Japanese studios get their money from Japanese DVD sales and merchandising. Not that this sweeps away the anti-fansub argument, or anything, but it's a common misconception. Now, I'm definitely sympathetic to American companies. I actually have a job now, so my consumption of DVDs has gone up quite a bit -- I've bought more boxsets in the past few months than I did in the five years prior to that. If I watch a fansub for a series and [i]really[/i] like it, then I make sure to buy the actual series if it's licensed and I want to watch it again. That's only fair, I think. A grayer area is series that aren't licensed. There's just no reasonable, viable way to acquire many of those shows (particularly older series like [b]Rose of Versailles[/b] that will be licensed during an especially cold day in Hell) unless you're willing to pay out the wazoo for Japanese DVDs/BDs and a player that can play them. There are numerous great series that just are not available in America and elsewhere, and stand very little chance of being licensed due to how risky they would be to sell. ([b]Kaiba[/b], [b]Kaiji[/b], [b]Hataraki Man[/b], etc.) Downloading them illegally obvious isn't a totally perfect course of action, but there is literally no other alternative to view many of those shows here. Well, that's not totally true now, with the advent of streaming. It's not a perfect system (companies have yet to figure out how to make it truly profitable, and the video quality is often much lower than your standard 720p fansub), but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I've caught a few series on Crunchyroll and Funi's sites, along with the YouTube accounts some companies keep up. (For instance, I recently watched all of [b]Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt[/b] on Crunchyroll, and when I watched [b]Slayers[/b] with Desbreko, I used Funi's YouTube account.) ANN is of course getting into the game, too, even though they've had a couple of bumps in the road. Streaming is a great thing, I think. And it's a much more viable way for American companies to get better, riskier anime to consumers -- [b]The Tatami Galaxy[/b] would probably sell like crap if it were licensed, but streaming is a solid alternative.

Wow, the [b]Gundam 00[/b] movie is absolutely putrid. Terrible.

I wonder if the Second Impact will come before the [b]Evangelion[/b] movies finish?!