The Decade of the Torrent

Looking back over the decade there can be only one thing that be said to have completely changed everything about Anime Fandom. It effected everything, even beyond anime and Anime Fandom. It was the internet. Specifically, BitTorrent.

In 2002 some guy created BitTorrent. Although there had been a "peer to peer" exchange of files previously it had only been small files, mostly mp3. BitTorrenting was different. It broke large files into smaller pieces and distributed them through a group of peers instead of one computer to another. Suddenly, you could distribute large files easily. Large files like videos.

Taking advantage of this, anime fans began distributing new anime recorded right off the air. With the easy access to these new shows a new phenomena of fan subtitling groups emerged along with easy digital subtitling.

Of course the advent of YouTube and improved digital streaming video has taken this to another level. Never before has it been so easy to watch so much anime.

What have we done?

Pikadon Redux?



*possibly NSFW/politically incorrect link to follow*

"I had seen enough "Blade Runner/The Day After" movies that I had half expected to encounter mutants walking around town or troglodytes emerging from the sewers.

Meanwhile, near Ground Zero just below the precise spot where the Nagasaki bomb had detonated, I saw several American fast-food restaurants including the smiling face of
Colonel Sanders."

Raijin-Oh Released in the U.S.



Anime Midstream, based out of St. Louis, Missouri, is now offering the first disk (5 eps.) of Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh for $19.99 + shipping. Looks like they also want to finish the Eldran series that Raijin-Oh is part of (Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger and Nekketsu Saikyō Go-Saurer). Not bad for a company that was asking for donations a year ago to pull this off. Let's see if they can carry this through.

Toy Robot Porn



If my collection looked like this one I'd have reverted to a drooling idiot by now. Thank God for beer!

I'm not a player...I just Krush a lot




While we're posting concerts, DJ Krush will be making a few appearances in North America. I definitely recommend catching a show, if you can.


Jan.26th Tue

Bowery Ballroom / New York (USA)
DJ KRUSH / and more...
http://www.boweryballroom.com

Jan.27th Wed

The Empty Bottle / Chicago (USA)
DJ KRUSH / and more...
http://www.emptybottle.com

Jan.29th Fri

Biltmore Cabaret / Vancouver (Canada)
DJ KRUSH / and more...
http://www.biltmorecabaret.com

Jan.30th Sat

Rotture / Portland (USA)
DJ KRUSH / Ryan Organ / E3 / DJ Kez
http://www.rotture.com

Jan.31st Sun

Neumos / Seattle (USA)
DJ KRUSH / and more...
http://neumos.com

Feb.2nd Tue

The Mighty / San Francisco (USA)
DJ KRUSH / and more...
http://www.mighty119.com

http://www.sus81.jp/djkrush/

It's a KFC Christmas




Original recipe! Oh yeah...

I gotta find some McDonalds CMs to post.

Who's got a mic?

Stupid question: How many of you guys has a mic and can record MP3s?

Japan Nite 2010

I just stumbled upon the line up for the Japan Nite show at SXSW and the following tour. The SXSW show will be Friday, March 19th in Austin, TX and the tour will be from March 21st through the 27th. Here's the announcement on their My Space page.


Red Bacteria Vacuum


Omodaka


Okamoto's
\

JinnyOops! (If I find something better, I'll post.)

Polysics Kick - The Covers





Gates of Steel

Uncontrollable Urge

"anime sea creature catpeople



from the moon!"

Mmm, suck me now, sparkling blue bioluminescent anime sea creature Amazon basketball player moonlike catperson of my dreams.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/26/notes122609.DTL#ixzz0axhOJoW7

I definitely LOLed. I needed a good laugh!

This guy again...



Please tell me I'm not the only one who's creeped-out.

Pokémon wants your soul!

Hello and thanks to Danno for inviting me to contribute in my terrible way to this enterprise! I promise I won't bore you. Much.

Apparently Satan is behind Pokémon! Yes, I was as shocked as you are! Because after watching this vaguely annoying bloke, I too made the connection to gang violence, prime time TV, .45's and one of Nintendo's flagship titles. It's not enough that D'n'D has corrupted our morally upright youth! Now they want children to join them in their ungodly practices! I particularly thought of Satan when the pastor/reverend/jedi/sithlord/whatever flashed an image of Jigglypuff on the screen. Dammit, I'm incensed! I'm going now with my Christian brethren to storm Satoru Iwata's office right now!



Via Topless Robot from Everything Is Terrible

Doraemon wishes everyone a Merry Christmas...and offers free rides on his bus

STUFF BAD: 2009

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

While I can't think of anything good about 2009 I can't forget the worst live action movie adaptation I've ever seen. It happened in 2009. And it was called Dragonball: Evolution.

DB:E was apparently made during the Writer's Strike in Hollywood, without a script or any of those things you usually have when you're making an adaptation of something from another medium. How hard could it be? We just need some kid with too much hair product and we'll add some CGI effects and cash the checks, right? And that's pretty much how much time they must have spent thinking about it. The result was a vaguely coherent kung fu movie that really didn't resemble it's source material in the slightest way. I can't think of anything good about it. It's THAT BAD. Even if you watch it as a western cinema equivalent kung fu movie IT FAILS. Go watch American Ninja or Gymkata or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are all BETTER then this movie.

Dragonball: Evolution. The STUFF BAD of 2009. Go ahead, tell me there was something worse.

STUFF GOOD: 2009

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

2009 is almost done with. Looking back, was there anything good? List your STUFF GOOD of 2009 in the comments. And don't be afraid to make some lists!

Polysics Tour

The Polysics are hitting the road in the U.S. at the end of January through the middle of February. The Akron show might be interesting.

Jan-28-10 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA
Jan-29-10 - The Roxy Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
Jan-30-10 - Casbah - San Diego, CA
Feb-02-10 - Plush - Tucson, AZ
Feb-03-10 - The Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ
Feb-05-10 - The White Rabbit - San Antonio, TX
Feb-06-10 - The Independent - Austin, TX
Feb-07-10 - The Loft - Dallas, TX
Feb-10-10 - Double Door - Chicago, IL
Feb-11-10 - Magic Stick - Detroit, MI
Feb-12-10 - Musica - Akron, OH
Feb-13-10 - The Gramercy Theatre - New York, NY
Feb-14-10 - Middle East - Cambridge, MA
Feb-16-10 - The Rock and Roll Hotel - Washington, DC



About as close to a Xmas present . . .

. . . as you're going to get from me. Bah humbug.

Rodrigo Blaas' Alma is being streamed for a limited time during the Holidaze. Enjoy.

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Robotech Art 1: Fisked



Sean at Colony Drop gives this reliable old tome a good thrashing, and much hand-wringing ensues, though not nearly as much as followed his dissing of Akiba.

See also: "Robotech is Better than Macross"

Amuro Sings With Amuro

Singer Namie Amuro is singing with Amuro Ray (v.a. Tohru Furuya) in her latest video "Defend Love". From ANN, "Ever since she was a child, Namie Amuro held a special affinity for the Amuro Ray character due to their similar names, and she personally asked for the character to appear in the video to honor the 30th anniversary of Gundam." More info at ANN.



via ANN

Giant Robots from Uruguay

A homebrewed film from Uruguay supposedly made for just $500. It was good enough to get filmmaker Federico Alvarez a trip to Hollywood, an offer to make a film and a chance to work with Sam Raimi on developing the film that had a "compelling original story". Um, yeah. Giant robots blowing crap up. Cool, but not original. Check it out for yourself.

Michael Moore in Akihabara





via Japan Probe

KFC christmas in japan


KFC christmas in japan
Originally uploaded by shadowofwind

Merry Run


Merry Run
Originally uploaded by Big Ben(Gaijin Bikers)

Christmas Ultraman


Christmas Ultraman
Originally uploaded by thunder

Tokyo Disney Sea : Merry Christmas !!!


Tokyo Disney Sea : Merry Christmas !!!
Originally uploaded by Ethel Kidd

chibi xmas rei


chibi xmas rei
Originally uploaded by nuo2x2

_Developers_ Turns "Gundam" into "FUNdam"

Looking for a light, refreshing manga with no heavy baggage — some low-impact reading material to get you through the Holiday Period? Like cute girls, giant robots, and laffs? If so, I recommend checking our Developers: Mobile Suit Gundam Before One Year War. Yes, it's Gundam, but only peripherally; it's a comedy-romance in a sci-fi setting rather than the typica; Gundam fare of angst-ridden, New-Type-powered space war.

The story centers on a small family-owned engineering company in Zion called Hosioka and its efforts to develop the very first prototype Mobile Suit. The program's prime contractor, Zeonic Corporation, chooses the tiny firm to be its subcontractor for the project due to the million-to-one chance that the new-tech MS's power reactor will blow up; they figure if somebody does get blown up, no one will miss Hosioka. As the story begins, Zeonic's project supervisor, the earnest Tio Pajitenov, arrives at Hoskioka's dumpy digs on the bad side of the cylinder bearing the plans for the prototype MS. There he encounters the company's crew of weirdos, geeks, old farts, and other misfits, including Watch Dog, the company, er, watch dog. He also encounters the boss's daughter, the tomboyish but winsome Mion Hosioka, who takes an immediate disliking to him. After dragooning him into performing a couple of menial tasks, Mion and the Hosioka team figure out that Tio is not a loser looking for day labor but the head of the MS project; soon after, Tio introduces them to the project, and (shamefacedly) to their own role as expendables as well.

Despite the doubtful nature of the subcontract, however, Mion is fired up at the thought of working on a whole new type of work droid. Her enthusiasm proves infectious. Soon the Hosioka gang is hard at work, taking the first small steps in the development of the wonder machine, never guessing that fruit of their efforts will someday make history.

Developers is a great deal of fun to read, primarily bcause of the character interplay. Mion, who is more a feisty female in the tradition of Fio from Porco Rosso than a modern-style tsundere, gives the good-natured Tio a generous serving of attitude; nevertheless, her pure-hearted love for machinery and her devotion to family keep her well clear of annoying nag territory. The family business is of course a haven for underachievers of various stripes, from snack-munching Auntie to the trio of dozy old engineers who keep the gears turning. Imagine the cast of The Office, only in the robot-building business; that's kind of what it's like.

Technically, the strip is great, with clean, crisp linework, well-spotted blacks, and judicious us of gray toning throughout. Artist Housui Yamazaki (山崎 峰水) [Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service] tells the story with a deft hand, and gives each character (especially cutie-pie Mion) a memorable, idiosyncratic look without veering into comedic caricature.

The only downside to Developers is that you have to steal it read it online in order to read it at all; no official English-language version of this strip exists, or likely will ever exist, so it's scanlation time. Nevertheless, if you have a little free time, you should give this fun manga a read. I enjoyed it, and I think a lot of you all might dig it, too.

That didn't take long



"I think the over-stylization of the Na'vi might also have something to do with the fact that Cameron has been completely infatuated with Japanese anime for years now."
- Tanaka

Chinamation Über Alles



No doubt that as the original article linked to by Matt Alt in his blog entry is a little far-removed from the lingua franca for some of us, but the commentary from Tim Eldred and other of our own fine contributors goes quite some ways in summing-up the situation.

In a nutshell, the Japanese Anime Industry has been permanently outsourced. But we already knew this, right?

Tara-chan desu! ha ha

I hate Tarantino.

Jigglypuff is Satan

I know this old news, but it's still good.

Real Marriage, Virtual Girl Pt. II

Too add to DVC's post, here's the video:

Brain-melting Toy Goodness



Swiped from Matt.

Right about now I'm wishing it were Christmas in Japan circa 1978.

Fame and Anime


Meet Me At Comiket



Find more hits like "Guitar Hero Hero" and "RickRoll" at L33tStr33tBoys.

Source: via Japanator

Tokusatsu Gargleblaster!

While reading up on Matsushita yesterday I learned of their involvement with National Kid, a live action hero show from 1960 that I'd never heard of (news flash: I didn't grow up in Japan in the late 1950's) so I went to YouTube et viola, he's the first in a string of heroes in this brain-meltingly cool montage. After watching these cut scenes set to OP themes I'm convinced that the Toku shows post 1989 tend to bite. I'm also reminded of how weird Brazil is.

It keeps dancing and dancing . . .


Kowai!!!!

h/t Tokyo Mango

Console Deaths By Girlfriends

NSFW = swearing.

XBox 360



PS3



Couldn't find a Wii getting trashed by a P.O.'ed girlfriend.

SPAAAAACE BARLEY!



Dopey, but hey, this is P.G. and beer is just part of the equation.

Personally I think the profits should be used to send drunks into space : /

hat tip, Pink Tentacle

"Work with US, Viz!"



Just wow.

hattip Japanator.

Johnny Sokko on YouTube



Who knew MGM had the rights?

Frittering away the hours just got that much easier . . .

Tokyo Robotics Showcase


Something more light-hearted and hopeful.