That's right, the store which has always had an overpricing stigma in my mind has now decided to cut back on their anime department in select stores.  All of the anime in stock at these stores is 50% off the labeled price!  A list of the participating stores can be found here.  Unfortunately the list is not alphabetized, but Ctrl+F makes quick work of it lol.  On a personal note, it's kinda sad to see the store where I took my first baby steps into anime consumption start to cut back on anime, but with the economy in the state that it is I can't blame them for trying to cut loses.  Of course, I have already visited all the local stores within 30 miles and have stripped their shelves bare like a wolf cleaning the ribcage of a rotting carcass -- a strange metaphor which is actually frighteningly accurate considering the current state of the anime industry according to certain professionals' opinions.  But hey, that's another post altogether. 

Right now I have to, over the course of the next 12 hours or so, read two novels and come up with a subject and the subsequent materials to make a presentation on said novels.  Curse you procrastination and your sugarcoated fangs of doom!! lol Till next time, PEACE~!

I felt I had to share this video because it is one of, in my opinion, Aluminum's many great AMV's -- in particular this one has just been on my mind lately, but I'm not sure why.  It is rather old but it always moves me to tears every time I view it. 

This video was created by Aluminum Studios (William Milberry) who has since retired from the AMV scene.  All rights are his and those of the respective companies involved.

SPOILER WARNING!! This video contains scenes from the climax of the Sailor Moon anime. If you have not seen the original, uncut series and are offended by spoilers, please do not watch.

It's been a while since I posted last and a lot has happened -- guess I'm back to my once a month posting habits... lol.  Just want to cover a few things that have happened since my last post quickly.  I had the worst two weeks in terms of stress near the end of school, and I mean horrible.  I had to write twelve papers -- and no, that is not an exaggeration -- most of which were late papers which I procrastinated on for various (questionable) reasons.  Then, two days before my big day of finals (yes, all of them on the same day =_=+ ) I had an accident on the highway, messing up my car and my self-esteem.  Then to top it all off, my desktop computer decided to crap out... ok, it wasn't a serious breakdown at first, but it was the CMOS battery that failed and in my hurry to replace it I ruined the contacts... now it just doesn't work, period.  So, after all that mess, most of which is still in a mess, I was considerably frayed by the time vacation time came around.  Right now I'm trying to make the most of it, hanging out with friends and getting nine hours of sleep a night -- but there's still that nagging feeling that things are not in the right.  Besides that I've been rewatching and replaying some of my old anime and games and thoroughly enjoying it, so not everything is sour for me I guess ^^; Well, I hope everyone else is having a wonderful holiday season and that things will go well for you in this new year!  Till next time folks, PEACE~!

Apple, the company that has continually played with the idea that PCs are somehow more susceptible to viruses, posted on their support forums, "Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult," (quoted from Slashdot article).  Finally, a little bit of karma comes back to bite Apple in the rear.  Years ago I denounced Macs as being dumbed-down versions of PCs with practically the same hardware and software -- and despite their above average resilience to bugs, I still stand by my original prognosis.  It's a ridiculous case of false advertising to suggest that any system can be invulnerable to attacks, for a creation of man can be just as easily uncreated.  So, that wraps up my little spit-to-the-face blog entry about Apple.

Note: I own an iPod, so don't go so far as to think of me as condemning all Apple products, I just think that their better than thou advertising was improper, albeit amusing.

"The fan group Dattebayo has announced that it will stop subtitling and distributing the Naruto anime franchise "permanently" on January 15. That date is when the Naruto.com, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Joost websites will officially begin streaming the latest episodes of the Naruto Shippūden sequel series one week after their Japanese broadcast — for free. A Dattebayo organizer who uses the alias "Interactii" says that an episode of Naruto Shippūden would get 450,000 downloads from Dattebayo in its first week. According to Dattebayo, the group accumulated 976,405 downloads for episode 20 in 489 days ... Group organizer says "Viz and Crunchyroll have gotten their acts together" "
-ANN

We're moving in the right direction!  I've noted that many of the fansub groups are surprisingly willing to listen to reason when it comes to ceasing their actions when the series is picked up properly.  The future looks bright if the American companies keep this up ^_^

On a much less pleasant note, Broccoli International's USA branch has announced that it will be closing up shop at the end of this year.  This leaves a few good, but grantedly niche, manga and anime series out in the cold.  Hopefully some of the more well established companies will move in and save some of them; but it's still sad that Broccoli, who was so consistantly high-quality, won't be in charge of series like Galaxy Angel, Disgaea (the manga), and FLCL anymore.  I hope that their employees will find good jobs in some of the more well-established American anime companies.

"The Crunchyroll website has announced on Wednesday that it will stream Shugo Chara!, Skip Beat!, and "many other" anime series from the Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo. TV Tokyo and Crunchyroll had already announced that they will begin providing the latest episodes of the Naruto Shippūden anime series on January 8 within an hour of their Japanese broadcast. The Japanese news source BB Watch reported that Gintama is also one of the five anime titles that TV Tokyo will distribute overseas with English subtitles. TV Tokyo and Crunchyroll said that the website will move away from the user-uploaded content that have been its mainstay, and focus on "professionally-produced content […] approved by licensors." "
-ANN

EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED!! lol
Thank you TV Tokyo for doing the right thing!  Now we can finally start to see an improvement in the way anime is provided by the professionals.  I encourage everyone who is following any of these series through fansubs to switch to the official streams once they start in January- show your support for the legal providers!

I want to entertain an age-old argument on many forums that I frequent.  The dispute of whether fansubs hold an integral part in the fabric of the anime community here in the US (and other countries) has been tossed about more than my game controller after a few levels of Mirror's Edge (lol that wraps up my humorous moment for this post).  I often like to stand back and look at the structure that holds up this community and its multi-faceted nature.

When we look back at the origins of anime in the US we find a time when the offerings available through legit means were lackluster and sparse in number.  In that stagnant market, the fans struggled to satisfy their desire for more anime.  And though they were probably willing to pay, the offerings were not worth the price for the most part.  This is when someone came up with the brilliant idea to provide an avenue which was faster and likely of higher quality than the official offerings.  It is seemingly common sense that such deal would take off and soar to a frightening scale.  There was one drawback to this idea, however – the fansubbed product occupied a borderline area in the notion of intellectual media of the time.  Most people justified the practice by means of, “Nobody is asking money for these, so it’s not really illegal.”  But, this idea is flawed, because any use of copyrighted material that involves copying and distribution is absolutely illegal.  However, since the Japanese companies didn’t seem to mind at the time, the status quo was established that fansubs were a cheap alternative to the “corporate” anime production, and they aided the community by providing a much faster transition between Japanese TV and the American audience.  Another thing that fansubs began to do was to greatly influence the official offerings in a way that, for a short while at least, if a series was fansubbed then it was almost guaranteed a license by an American company.  One could call this a beneficial relationship between fansubs and the official releases, but you have to take into account that for every person that buys a hard copy of an anime, there are a hundred more that download it and will never consider paying for it.

This relationship continued to change and evolve over time – from the first mail distributed, and rather sketchy VHS fansubs, to the hugely efficient internet distribution which has become the paramount of today’s anime fan – and the Japanese owners continued not to pursue these infringements.  Now we see a sudden shift in the views of these owners as they have opened their eyes to the worldwide distribution of their products without their consent.  Certainly this is grounds for a lawsuit or two, but the irony is that the infrastructure of the anime community is so closely tied to fansubs these days that crushing them might actually hurt them more than the monetary loss they suffer from the potential customers that escape paying compensation by downloading an illegal copy.  This is because the market today is full of shades of gray.  You really don’t see many people who are anal-retentively strict about only distributing through means of DVD versus virtual media; however, those that do occupy the extremes are often the ones that get the most attention – who doesn’t like to watch the angry, boisterous monkeys clamber about their cage and fling poop at the unsuspecting passer-by?  The gray area, which I personally feel is the most effective method in fandom, is one which ties both free fansubs and purchased media together in a sort of give and take relationship.  That is to say, I like to look at fansubs as simply a sample of the work which I will then buy if I feel like watching it past the first two episodes, not as a replacement for the media which properly compensates the original creator.  There are variations of this model; for instance: some people, once they decide a series is not worth purchasing, continue to download to see if there is a change later on in the series, others see fansubs as a higher quality backup of the solid media, and others rely entirely on legal download-to-own providers.  So the idea that fansubs are detrimental to the market is both true and false.

What needs to be done?  At this point the anime community is merged so completely with the fansub market (though I don’t think it qualifies as a market in the traditional sense) that getting rid of it completely would, in fact, take away a large portion of purchases from people who base their spending on the series that they try out through fansubs.  Therefore, I would suggest something that, for reasons unknown to me, has not really been pursued with any gusto by the anime producers in the US market up until recently – a legal fansub, though these would not be fan-made – perhaps we should go with “corposub” or something like that.  The American production companies need to do what the fansub groups are doing and do it faster, do it more efficiently.  Recently there has been an effort by the larger producers to bring the anime to the world market immediately through legal streaming.  However, I want to call foul play on these companies for not making efforts to do this with more than one popular series.  I understand that getting the rights to the series is a somewhat lengthy and equally risky process – these American production companies are often just barely making a profit from the anime market while making a huge gamble by purchasing the rights to a series that may not even become popular stateside.  Several companies, such as Geneon, have recently picked up and left the US market simply because the profits here are miniscule in comparison to that of Japan.  I don’t want to suggest that fansubs are the direct cause of this, but I also don’t want to suggest that they have nothing to do with this situation.  FUNimation thankfully stepped up and saved many of the series that Geneon was simply burying alive, not to mention the titles ADV lost because of a soured relationship with the Japanese rights holder, and consequently became the largest producer in the anime market in America.  This position has put them on a pedestal and I expect them to really pull out innovations, some of which they have already begun such as legal streaming on YouTube and subtitle-only DVD releases in a more timely manner, and these innovations that they need to make are the solution to what will become an increasingly ugly battle between corporate powers and fansub communities.

So, in conclusion, my thoughts on fansubs are mixed – they have been helpful to the anime market in providing an easily accessible source for trying out new series and have even influenced the official releases; however, fansubs are undeniably an illegal method of distribution which needs to be revised into a copyright-friendly model.  This future may not be far off but it will probably be a rough transition as many people have the concept, “Anime is art and art should be free,” or simply “I don’t want to pay for anime because it has always been free.”  I’m sorry to say that these are not the only broken arguments for fansubs that I have seen – many more have been ridiculously naïve and, if applied to other aspects of life, would lead to the destabilization of society.  Anime is an industry and as such there is a monetary flow – this is the compensation for all the people that toiled over the aspects that go into the animation of a series, which is not at all easy.  When a person spends his/her time creating the wonderful art that is anime I feel that he/she deserves this compensation – this is how these people are trying to make a living.  Though there are people like myself who are perfectly willing to give the creators their dues, there are also far too many people doing all the taking and giving nothing in return, and this needs to be rectified.

So now I look at my school work and I wonder, "Just what exactly am I trying to accomplish with all this self-torturing garbage I'm going through for the sake of a so-called good job that society promises will be awaiting me at the end of the journey?"  In a sense I kind of answered my own question in the question itself - I'm trying to get to that "good job" that will support my addictions - but then what is the ultimate purpose of going through all this ritualized learning that, the more I look at it, comes across as simply an excuse to keep young people occupied and out of trouble - which they manage to find anyway.  At what point does the good life begin when even the trained student has to endure an eternity of mundane labor and only a select few actually come out with a surplus.  This is not to mention how many get on the job and realize, "I'm not really enjoying doing this."  That is probably one of the biggest riddles that seeks to baffle me at every turn.  If a person does not enjoy doing something then why do it in the first place?  It could be a simple fact of life that not everything is pleasant, but I'd like to think that there is always a more amiable alternative to things.  So when I sit down to do papers for these classes that I am told I need to graduate, I start asking myself those aforementioned things.  There should be a passion that arises from one's calling - a healthy lifestyle demands that you enjoy what you do everyday.  And while I'd like to think that I have chosen the correct path in life, my feelings do not back me up on it.  I need to figure out where I'm going in life before I end up at a dead end holding a bill and a shovel.

Till next time, PEACE~!

I am often asked, "why do you watch anime?"  Even though the question should be, "why do you watch anime instead of doing other important things," it still makes me stop and think.  Because despite my passion for the material, I can never come up with a convincing answer when confronted with this question.  It's a preference like any other in terms of entertainment – an interesting story, amiable characters, wonderful settings, and many other aspects.  The question is like asking any other person, "why do you watch movies," or "why do you watch television dramas?"  I like to watch anime because I like to watch anime.  Does there really need to be another reason?

Anime is often generalized and confused here in America by the uninformed or the just-plain-ignorant.  Going as far back as middle school for me, I remember being confronted by those that would ridicule me for watching Chinese porn, because that's obviously what anime is, right?  Though, the case hasn't been quite that severe for the most part, the extremes are often the most amusing.  I've talked with people that claim that anime, being animated, is intended for children and are thus confused as to why I am watching it at my age.  I've spoken to people that feel anime is somehow destroying the American economy and/or society by influencing our nation's young people.  I've even held a conversation with someone that claimed that anime was a sin.  Of course, I care not whether I can convince these people one way or another as to the wonders anime has to offer – they can continue to believe whatever the hell they want – all I know is that, to me, anime is not a sin, is not a crime, is not something that should be put down as a waste of my time, money, or emotional investment.

Why would I feel this way?  There in is also another question which comes down to preference.  I choose to like it.  You may choose not to.  That's the way it is.  When someone sits down to tell a tale, they may pick from various mediums through which to bring their story into circulation.  It is a matter of sharing a dream with others.  Should it be in the form of animation, drawings, movies, music, prose, poetry, theater, dance, or any other kind of expression, it all serves the same purpose of portraying an idea.  Depending on the intended audience, any number of these mediums can be effective.  If the intended emotion, embedded in the original work by the creator, is able to traverse the mental gap between simple perception and actual connection, then the work is a success.  So when I can feel the pain of these characters on a screen, when I can feel their embarrassment when they make a mistake, share their laughter when they are amused, or even be captured by the allure of these characters' humanness – I say, "This is why I watch anime!"

That seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life.  Procrastination has become an everyday concept.  I don't really know whether this is really acceptable.  I do understand that nothing good has ever come from putting things off until the last minute, but that doesn't seem to curb this incessant laziness.  Most likely this can be attributed to my ADHD-laced daily ritual.  This lack of sleep lately is not helping either. lol Well, on to more interesting matters!

A short time ago I was riding with my friend Adam on our way to do some anime figure shopping at Anime Palace and as we rounded the corner he exclaims, "oh sh!t".  I was, of course, too busy admiring the pretty shiny things out the side window and generally drooling absentmindedly (what am I a toddler?! lol) so I didn't catch the event that made Adam start speaking French all of a sudden, but I quickly turn to see.  Sitting in the intersection in front of us was a '50s Dodge and a tan, dime-a-dozen Camry that had seen fit to head-butt like a couple of angry, territorial rams.  Adam pulls the car over at the intersection and we look to see if both parties are uninjured, which they appear to be.  The first thing that runs through my head?  "Weird how the windshield-wipers on all these cheap cars get turned on by smashing into something headfirst."  Perhaps then I noticed that I should've been more interested in the occupants rather than the pile of scrap metal with two little black antennae sweeping back and forth across a spiderweb-patterned glass plate, and I called up the proper authorities.  And thus ended our encounter.  Sometimes I wonder why my brain is wired backwards lol.

On the note of strange wiring in the brain, recently I had a debate with several friends about fictional physics.  We were trying to figure out whether it was feasible to throw known laws of physics into the food processor and churn them up into a tantalizing smoothie.  Of course I was on the side of, "you can only stretch a viewer/reader's suspension-of-belief so far before something becomes ridiculous."  We threw around a handful of anime series that tended to mess with physics but ended up being unable to come to a conclusion either way.  As long as the pseudo-physics in a sci-fi story are backed up with a good plot and used properly in the story, even ridiculous aspects can become compelling simply because the viewer/reader wants to see a positive outcome.  I remember when the subject of Gurren Lagann came up I quickly pointed out that any object, super-awesome mecha or not, that became as large as a galaxy would have huge gravitational effects on matter around it, and would probably collapse under it's own gravity.  The people on the other side of table were equally as quick to point out that in this story it doesn't matter to the viewer that these things are completely impractical because the story up to that point has been solely about doing the seemingly impossible.  I have to agree that if you can persuade your audience well enough through the story to make them believe anything you throw out there then you are obviously doing something right.  So, I came out of this debate still clinging to my belief that things should be physically plausible, but I feel that this rule, like many others, can be bent infinitely and thus is of little concern in the world of fiction.

Well, now that I have probably alienated my last three faithful readers (you know who you are! lol) I guess it's time for me to end this post.  I hope to have some story material to post soon.  When I do get it up I expect some thoughtful reviews from all of you subscribers, or at least those that still care lol.  This is quickly becoming a very negatively-sentimented paragraph isn't it?  Well, Shana is calling to me, and I cannot resist XD.  Till next time, PEACE~!