[Kemapreedasse]

Interestingly, a few Japanese shops are trying Crunchyroll to distribute internationally online -- a Hulu for anime. Sometimes the translations are suspect, but the translations are all subbed (rather than dubbed), and the quality otherwise is fairly good.

Skip Beat's second season is moving to the site, f.e. Good comedy about an orphan trying to make it in show biz.

[highattainlet]

Code Geass is an epic tragedy in fifty parts. Nearly every major character is a tragic hero in the classic sense, knowingly doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons (at least in their own minds), and paying in spades for it.

Realizing this has only increased my admiration for this series.

[Cnbaapuy]

Anyone have any thoughts on Haimaine (or whatever, the one with all the little winged people)? It seems interesting, but I have only watched a single episode.

I really watch too much anime, and some of it sort of crappy (but Louie was fun), if it isn't good or fun I don't want to spend the time watching it.

JM

[b7RKli4l]

For what it's worth, Haibane Renmei is the best I have seen for a while. It is definitely right up my alley.

JM

[zabiqapara]

--"For what it's worth, Haibane Renmei is the best I have seen for a while."

I agree completely ^_^

--"Also watched the first DVD of Ergo Proxy. "

Haven't seen the series, just some clips, mostly from a convention a couple years ago where Shukou Murase was a guest. So was yoshitoshi ABe, though, which was the reason I went. It seemed like it'd be interesting, but from the reviews it sounded more like a rental than a buy.

I had forgotten to mention this, but Yotsuba& has been rescued by Yen Press, and they'll be starting release with volume 6 this September.

Wraith
"If you're talking about forgetfulness, I won't lose to you."
-- Osaka ("Azumanga Daioh")

[Qdkczrdi]

Sort of off the beaten path, I've been following Hatsune Miku, sort of a cultural phenomenon of fan-made art. She's a computer generated voice created using Vocaloid. Fans compose music for her to sing. Then a fan made the freeware program MikuMikuDance, which allows anybody to animate her moves. Insert YouTube and you get things like Nebula, of surprisingly high quality...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jym_...el_page&fmt=18

[Wrasialat]

I have started watching Naru Taru.

JM

[gennickO]

Gurren is starting to grow on me. It's hilarious.

[Kingerix]

--"Nothing much to catch my interest so far this season"

I have to agree. Part of the problem is that Japan's economy is in even worse shape than usual, so the production companies only want to make sure-fire money makers. Which means pandering to the otaku fanbase as much as possible, which right now means lots of moe (like K-on, among others) and anime based on things that have already turned a profit. Like Sengoku Basara... I watched the first episode of that without knowing it was based on a video game, and spent the entire episode wondering if they meant it to be a parody or not.

Only thing that really shows promise so far is Ristorante Paradiso, although the character designs take some getting used to.

Higepiyo has potential as another short comedy. First episode wasn't as fun as some of the Haruhi-chan or Hetalia shorts, but there's enough potential to make them worth the five minutes.

--"Sort of off the beaten path, I've been following Hatsune Miku"

Man, is there ever a lot of that ^_^

--"I have started watching Naru Taru."

Heh. Don't let the opening and ending fool you, it isn't cheerful, cuddly, or cute in any way whatsoever. Even so, the anime tones things down from the manga. Definitely has the not-unusual pacing problems.

--"Gurren Lagann"

My taste in mecha is skewed towards the Patlabor and Votoms end of the scale, but this one gets so many references I guess I'm going to have to watch it sooner or later.

Wraith
"Are you standing or are you falling? Make up your mind, you damn tower!"
-- Chiri Kitsu ("Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei")

[icyfreshy]

Since I use tvtropes it is rare that an anime catches me entirely off guard.

I plan to find the manga (not std us translation) of naru taru

jM

[NikitahDE]

Q: I got a copy of Akira on Video. Is it worth watching it, if I have to hook up a video to a TV via RF lead and tune in the video player?

[lesso73]

I would agree that there is a lot better than Akira out right now.

ACs sounds interesting.

JM

[epPtsDno]

I watched Akira back in college. I wanted those two hours of my life back.

replace akira with spriggan and you're standing in my shoes. akira isn't bad, but it's certainly dated and outstripped by more modern works. also of note the movie covers the first manga, and a little beyond that? weren't there five or six books to akira?

wraith, if you could reccommend something that's relatively family friendly, but still interesting to the adult viewer? my year old son loves the theme song to 'those who hunt elves' but i'd like to diversify the collection as escaflowne is a little campy for my tastes and berserk is wholly inappropriate. i'd prefer something not hamtaro's order of magnitude saccharine sweet.

[BrodiKennedy]

my son is just over a year old. he's more into shapes, colors and sounds at this point. he stops dead in his tracks and watches the safety patrol when it comes on at the end of one of our little einstein DVDs. he also does the same for when the theme to 'those who hunt elves' comes on.

[Payodcapy542fro]

I was also told that the Americans speak English, not Engrish, English. Sadly, this is a sign of pretty high production values.

Kassi

Thozban!

[GroosteFoessy]

Guu is pretty good.

JM

[Tazqoaap]

i'll see what the torrents have to offer. your advice is invaluable.

[mirex]

More updates.

First, another place to check for age-appropriateness in reviews is the Christian Anime Alliance. Feel free to ignore the religion section of their reviews, but they do comment on violence and language and the like, and they've got reviews for more recent series than Anime Cafe.

Some big news. My favorite so far is that yoshitoshi ABe's new project has been announced. Chiaki Konaka is involved again, and ABe's been working on this for a while now, so I'm very much looking forward to it.

Next, Funimation has licensed the first season of Spice and Wolf. The second is just about to start, as well.

Speaking of the new season, there's yet another season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei coming out. I do have to admit I quite enjoy this series, so it should be fun. The manga, by the way, has been licensed by Del Ray and the first two volumes are available in the US.

In more sequel news, the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has started. In typical fashion for this series, they're playing games with it, and the first episode was run in the middle of a rerun of the first season. One of the stories they're going over this season should be the actual making of The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru.

Full(er?) listing here. I notice that Nodame Cantabile is getting an OAD (basically a special DVD release with the manga), so there should be another couple episodes or so to maybe wrap it up.

Last of all, Twin Spica is getting a live action version, which starts running next week. I do enjoy this series, although I'm more excited about the release of the next volume of the manga on the same date. Live-action adaptations of anime don't have a great record, but they should be able to do this without hamming it up or adding stupid special effects, so there's hope.

Wraith
"Good dreams, bad dreams. It's still unfortunate to wake up in the middle of one."
-- Judeau ("Berserk")

[dalnecymync]

Wraith sighting! +1

Good to see you Wraith! How are you doing?

[goatteatromiag]

--"Nodame is coming back? Excellent."

Don't get your expectations too high. Since it's a manga extra it's probably only going to be an episode or two. It's also going to be interesting to see how this gets handled for licensing, although I don't think anyone's licensed the anime for the US yet (or is likely to), so it'll probably be a different title that faces this problem.

--"Of the ones that started a couple of months ago the only ones I have been following is the East of Eden and K-ON!"

I had to give up on K-On. I gave it a decent chance, 5 episodes, but I really got tired of the moe-bait. I don't mind moe if there's something else there, but I wasn't seeing anything but pure calculated moe bait from that show. I didn't even find it funny. It was like Potemayo without Guchuko.

Eden of the East is a mixed bag. I have to admit that I started it mostly for the Chica Umino character designs. Unless they're gunning for a second season, I really don't see how they can wrap it up in the time they have left. There are some good moments, but some of it is telegraphed a little too blatantly. At the same time, some of it is so out of left field it feels like a complete ass-pull. If there's no second season I really don't see how they can pull it together in any reasonable way.

--"Good to see you Wraith! How are you doing?"

Not bad. Much better now that a new ABe project is gearing up ^_^

--"Cross Game."

Haven't seen any of that, since I'm not usually in to sports anime (Yawara being the big exception).

The main shows I've been following are Ristorante Paradiso and Marie & Gali, which are pretty far apart on the spectrum ^_^ The former is pretty much a slice of life drama and the latter is a crazy comedy/science educational show. I never thought I'd hear a hip-hop song about Fleming's Left Hand Rule, but they did it. As a love song, no less. And it works great.

I'm watching several other things, but the only one really worth noting is Guin Saga, which is based on an epic fantasy series. Not sure how I feel about this one yet; the series is huge, and I don't know how much the anime plans to cover. The villains are too mustache-twirly for my tastes so far, but there's still plenty of story for that to calm down.

Well, there's the eternal One Piece. The manga is in the middle of an epic story arc, and given this series that's saying a lot.

Wraith
"Idiot, where is the fun in running away? You've got to tick off the enemy before you start running away!"
-- Apoo ("One Piece")