Anime Fans Online

Crunchyroll is streaming Welcome to the NHK now. Check out the post on AnimeNewsNetwork for the details.

Looks like official anime streams are catching on. I couldn’t be happier about that. I can’t wait until other companies catch on that this is a great way to promote their titles.

I checked out the first 2 episodes to get an idea of what we can look forward to. I’m impressed. The streaming video was offered in a couple of different qualities. The basic quality looked great in my opinion. The videos can be enlarged as well, so it’s not like you’re trying to watch the episode on a postage stamp.

I have a couple of gripes with it, but it’s just nit-picking. ADV and Crunchyroll have done a great job with the first 2 episodes. If they don’t screw up later then this should be good for everyone.

Anime, Online, News, ADV, Welcome to the NHK, Crunchyroll, Streaming, Video

Anime News Network reported that anime company Gonzo will be streaming some of thier new titles. Not only that, but those titles will be subbed in English. Check out the story for the details.

Why is this a big deal?

That’s easy. This is a big deal because this gives fans of anime outside of Japan a way to see the new stuff without turning to fansubs. As great as some fansubs are, they’re still illegal.

Why am I writing about this?

There are a couple of reasons that I’m pointing out this tidbit of news. The simplest reason is because it’s cool. This is good news. I hope Gonzo has tons of success with this. If they do well with this, then other anime companies might do the same.

The other reason I wanted to talk about this is because of a post I wrote back in November. In that post I talked about how anime companies can reduce piracy. One of the things I mention is simultaneously streaming the anime with subtitles.

It’s no secret that the first company to get their product on the shelves has a huge advantage. The same principle applies here. Gonzo is providing an official version of the anime a lot quicker than even the fastest fansub groups. That alone will probably do a lot for Gonzo’s reputation.

All of this leads me to a question.

Will you watch Gonzo’s anime online?

I’d really like to find out what you think about this. Will you be checking out the anime that Gonzo releases online? Is Gonzo on the right track? Do you think other anime companies will start doing this?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Anime, News, Opinion, Online, Gonzo, Subtitle, Fansub, Fan Sub

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m running late, but I had to post this. The trailer for the live-action Speed Racer movie is online. It looks amazing. Go check it out.

Speed Racer Trailer

Merry Christmas!

In recent Anime News reported by AnimeNewsNetwork there were a couple of articles about bittorrent. Some anime fans who use bittorrent to download anime illegally have recieved notices from their ISPs.

It turns out that BayTSP, the company working for Odex to track down illegal downloaders in Singapore, sent out notices to other countries… by mistake.

Warning Shot

It may have been a mistake this time, but what about next time? What are the chances that anime producers and distributors are going to ignore that list of people? I’d say the chances are pretty slim.

This is proof that downloading anime is not just illegal, but dangerous. While some creators want their work disseminated as widely as possible, others view it as business and want to be paid.

I still believe most fans want to support anime. They also want access to anime. The companies just want to be paid. While it’s possible to satisfy everyone, it isn’t likely.

Anime, Online, News, Downloads, BitTorrent, Warning Notice, ISP, Odex, BayTSP, Piracy

How can anime production companies and anime distributors increase their profits while decreasing piracy at the same time? It would take something huge like government legislation right? Not really. I think the answer is simple, direct and effective. Unfortunately, it will also never happen.

Over on FanaticSpace I recently wrote up some of my opinions about making online TV workable. The more I thought about it, the more I’m convinced that it would work for anime. Anime would be the perfect type of TV show to make it work. Everything is already in place. There are already people that can make it happen, and I’d bet they would be very happy to do it.

Official Fansubs and Revenue Streaming

The idea is simple. If you want to get rid of piracy you need to replace it with something. In the case of anime, official anime streaming sites. Have an official, and legal, version of the anime available. The official one can make money in a number of ways. A subscription service might work, but then you still have to compete with pirates providing it for free. I believe the targeted commercials I talked about in my other post would work best. This means the service is free to the viewer, but the companies would still make money.

Timing is Key

Unofficial fansub groups have an advantage over companies like ADV and Viz that license anime. Time. A fansub group can have an English translated version of a show on the net a week or two after the show airs in Japan. That’s months faster than most licensed anime and years faster than some. Fansubs are available to the fans first. That’s quite an advantage.

This method would work to make money for both the production companies and the licensing companies. The licensing companies would work like fansub groups. Take the original show and add a translated subtitle. If they work closely with the anime production companies they could have subtitles versions ready by the time the anime show hits the air in Japan. That’s quicker than even the fastest fansub group can do it. The official version hits the net first, so fansubs no longer have the advantage of an early release date.

That’s a replacement for the fansubs, but how do you get rid of them? That answer is the simplest of all.

Hire Fansub Groups

You heard me. Hire the fansub groups to do the official translations. They’re experienced and some of them do a great job. That kills two birds with one stone. Fansub groups are a workforce waiting for a job. If you hire them then they no longer compete with you.

I’m not saying fansubbers should replace the translators already working in an official capacity. I’m saying that additional translators would be needed, and fansubbers already know how to do the job. If this were ever implemented there would be a huge amount of new anime to translate. That’s great for the fans. Its also great for the companies, because now they’re making money from fansubs instead of competing with them.

I would really like to hear your thoughts about this. Do you think it would work? Can you think of any improvements?

Anime, Online, Opinion, Fan Sub, Fansubs, Streaming Anime, Piracy, Anime Piracy, Stop Piracy, Free Anime, TV, Online TV

Photo by: Videogame Visionary

Or else it gets the hose again.

While this may not be anime or manga related I would like to share a very fun site with you. Engrish.com has a lot of very funny pictures of creative language use. Before anyone starts complaining about me, or the site I’m linking to, please read their FAQs. It’s not meant to make fun of anyone. It’s just a great site to find some humorous photos.


Oh, and just a little warning, some of the humor is well, dirty. That’s one of the dangers of using a second language. Sometimes you say something perfectly innocent, and don’t know it’s a euphemism for something nasty.

I wanted to share this with you for a couple of reasons. First, because it is funny. Second, I wanted to point out some differences between English and Nihongo, the Japanese language. You’re probably used to translations going in the other direction, from Nihongo to English. I’d bet there are some hilarious mistakes involved with that. Mistakes most of use don’t even notice.

The differences in our languages can make translation of anime or manga tough. I think a lot of translators take a lot of crap they don’t deserve. I know that the companies doing official translations take crap for it. I’m sure the fan subbers do to. Try to keep that in mind when you see something that doesn’t quite fit. It’s a difficult job and they do the best they can.

Now, all preaching aside. I love that site. Anytime I visit I always come away in a better mood. There’s some great stuff there. Here are a few of my favorites.

• Bottled Water.
• Travel.
• Hair by…
• Something error.
• Here comes Santa Clause.

Fun Stuff, Online, Humor, Funny, Pictures, Engrish, English, Nihongo

I was looking around Facebook the other night browsing groups. I saw a lot, a lot, of anime groups. There are anime groups devoted to movies, TV shows and even particular characters. I’m sure the same goes for other social networking sites as well. The anime goodness doesn’t end there. There are tons of anime forums. Voice actor fan sites, like the Risembool Rangers. Yahoo even has a fair number of anime groups.

I got to thinking about it. There’s only one real difference between these groups and an anime fan club. Location. The members aren’t physically meeting to watch and discuss anime, but everything else is the same. You get to know other fans. You talk about anime. You even get to know your favorite show better. Shoot, you might even learn something.

The conversations take a little longer on a forum, but that’s not always a bad thing. You have time to think about what other people are saying. People that join next year won’t miss the big debate about “Subs VS Dubs”. You can call Inuyasha lame without getting punched in the face by a crazed fangirl. Well, you can. I live with one.

If you can’t find one that really suits you, build your own. There are free forum sites, like ProBoards.

If you’d prefer to blog, there’s always Wordpress.com or Blogger.

If you start an anime blog, how about putting AFO on your blogroll? I’ll come check it out. < (^_^)>

I guess you could even say Anime Fans Online is like an anime club. I know I’ve learned a lot more about anime since I started. I’ve learned a lot more about being an anime fan too.

Anime, Manga, Online, Fan Club, Anime Fan Club, Facebook, Social Network

Today I thought I’d talk about the connections between manga and webcomics. There are some pretty obvious connections. I mean there are tons of manga inspired webcomics. There are even a few webcomics that have made their way into the world of print.

Webcomics, the 21st century doujinshi?

Doujinshi, fan made comics and magazines, have been around for a while. It’s basically fan fiction for the visually inclined. Some very popular, and successful, manga-ka started off making fan comics. With web hosting being as cheap as it is, anyone can make a webcomic. This makes webcomics a great way for otaku to show off their talents or just show their love for their favorite manga or anime.

The 3v1l, it is too much.

A lot of them are, well, bad. Badly drawn, badly written or both. There are a lot of them too. That’s why manga and anime inspired webcomics have developed a bad reputation among webcomic fans.

I have to say, I admire anyone willing to put their work out there for the world to see. Especially when the basis of that work is a heartfelt love of what they’re trying to be a part of. A badly drawn webcomic can improve by leaps and bounds over time. You never know, todays crappy webcomic could wind up as a manga on store shelves in a few years time. It could even inspire others to work on their own comic.

There are examples of this happening. Two great manga inspired webcomics that I know of have made it into the world of publishing.

MegaTokyo is not only in print in English, it’s being translated to be released in Japan. A pretty big achievement.

Van Von Hunter is being published in book form and is syndicated to newspapers across America. Syndication is a dream of a lot of webcomic artists. That’s also an achievement to be proud of.

But…you don’t have to take my word for it.

I’d recommend checking out webcomics to any manga fan. You could be reading something for free today, that you’ll have to pay $10 for later.

Manga, Online, Opinion, Comics, Webcomics, Web Comics, MegaTokyo, Van Von Hunter, Doujinshi

I was looking through the news on AnimeNewsNetwork and a few articles caught my eye.

Episode 6 of Moetan pulled.

The episode “Hajimete no Date”, “The First Date” in English, will be replaced with a clip show. It will still be on the DVD however.

That peaked my curiosity. Why was it pulled? Something to do with the story? Was it a bit of animation that the production company refused to edit out? Was it to create a response like mine and drive up DVD sales?
If you know the answer, please leave a comment and let us know.

Free English manga on Popteen.com.

A Japanese teen magazine is posting free manga on their web site, translated into English no less. I read the first part. It’s not too bad. Very targeted to the magazine’s audience though, so unless you have a subscription to Seventeen or a similar magazine, Gal Samurai may not be for you. It’s about a very stylish young girl, who happens to be very good at martial arts.

Toei will open “All You Can Watch” anime buffet.

An anime subscription service from Toei Animation will start up on September 1st. It’s supposed to have 15 titles and over 1,000 episodes. Pretty good for under $15 a month.

If only they’d release an English version, that’d be sweeeeeeet. Is it just me or do the American distributors seem like they’re way behind the Japanese companies with things like this?

In other news…

IK Comics open for bidness.

Online comic distributor opens IKComics.com. You can preview comics then buy them. I’m not sure about their methods. Windows downloads are .exe files, programs in other words. Since the previews are just .jpg files, I can’t really tell you about their software.

On the upside, there are a few good points. The comics are priced about the same as traditional paper comics, though personally I think that’s kind of high for a digital comic that has no printing costs. Comics are rated either “All Ages” or “Mature”, so you know what’s what.

Some interesting sounding titles like Infiniteens and Wildseed.

Anime, News, Anime News, Moetan, Moetan Episode 6, Popteen, Popteen.com, Gal Samurai, Toei Animation, anime subscription, IK Comics, online comics, Infiniteens, Wildseed

Anime and games go hand in hand. There are anime that are based on games, and game based on anime. Not just dating sims and fighting games either. Last night I stumbled upon a simple little flash game. I wasted a lot of time playing with it. I don’t know if it’s based on an anime or not, but the graphics kinda make me think so.

Nanaca Crash.

The game is straight forward. You crash your bike into the guy standing there and send him flying. There are power ups or penalties if he bumps into anyone. It all depends who he bumps into. I spent quite a bit of time playing. here’s my best score.

Controls for the game are simple. Just click the screen when the arrow is at the angle you want and try to release it with as much power as possible. If you’ve played any golfing video games you’ll pick it up in no time. While he’s in the air you can click the screen for boosts.

Have fun, but try not to waste as much time as I did.

anime, games, flash, flash games, anime games, Nanaca Crash

As an anime fan in the US the biggest problem is finding anime. Sure we all have our favorite little shops, but the small local stores usually don’t have much selection. Where do you go to find a large selection of anime? Online. You don’t have to download fansubs, you can rent anime online. Here are 4 places to rent anime online, with a few pros and cons for each.

1. Netflix.

Netflix is one of, if not the, oldest online movie rental company. A lot of people already have accounts and are very happy renting movies from them. They have a pretty good selection. They carry classic anime, popular titles and some lesser known stuff.

• Pros

Around 1,500 animated titles to choose from.

You can rent non-anime movies too.

Established. They’ve been around for a while.

They offer a free trial.

• Cons

Not all of their 1,500 animated titles are anime. Anime is mixed in with other animated titles.

No brick and mortar stores. It’s online only.

2. Blockbuster.

You may be more familiar with their local stores. They’ve been offering online rental for a couple of years now. Lately they’ve been promoting their online rentals a bit more. They’ve been renting movies for a while now, so they know what they’re doing.

• Pros

Brick and mortar stores. You can take your online rentals back to a Blockbuster store and get another one there.

Lots of anime titles. They have new and old anime. The oldest anime I found was Gigantor, from 1963.

Like Netflix, you can rent non-anime. Just in case you need a break.

Free trial available.

• Cons

The biggest con is the web site. It’s been vastly improved, but it’s still a bit tough to negotiate.

Family oriented. If you’re looking for hentai, you won’t find it here. Even some ecchi titles can’t be found at Blockbuster.

Even though they rent games, they’re not included in the movie rental. You have to sign up for game rental and pay more.

3. Rent Anime.

If you only want to rent anime, this is a good choice. They’re run by AnimeNation, a reputable anime store and distributor.

• Pros

Huge selection since they only rent anime. You should be able to find just about any anime title you want.

Adult anime fans can find ecchi and hentai there.

The online rental site for AnimeNation, an established and trusted online anime store. AnimeNation has been around since 1995.

Free Trial.

• Cons

Online only, no brick and mortar stores.

The site looks good, but it can be hard to find the information you’re looking for.

4. Anime Takeout.

I’m not very familiar with Anime Takeout. I’ve included them here for one reason. The also offer manga rental for an extra fee. Manga can be expensive, so a manga rental option could save you some money.

For a better idea of Anime Takeout check the customer reviews at DVD Rental Review.

• Pros

You can rent anime and manga.

Lots of titles.

• Cons

Renting manga almost doubles the subscription price.

No matter what plan you sign up for, you can only have 2 manga out at a time. The only way to rent more than 2 manga at a time is to sign up for another account.

Slow shipping and returns.

No hentai for adult anime fans.

No free trial.

Poor to non-existent customer service.

The winner is…

I’d have to say for anime only rentals, RentAnime is the clear choice. If you want to rent some non-anime from time to time, I’d go with Blockbuster for the ability to return DVDs to the store instead of mailing them in.

It might be worth keeping an eye on AnimeTakeout. If they get their act together, then having manga rentals could be a very strong selling point

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There comes a time in every anime or manga fan’s life when they decide to try doing some fan art. I’ve drawn quite a bit myself. It was mostly Marvel characters for me when I was younger. Unless you’re already pretty darn good at drawing, you might need some tips. There are lots of tutorials on the net.

YouTube is a good place to find information on visual mediums such as drawing and painting. There are lot’s of drawing tutorials on youtube. I’m not saying these are the best ones, but they’re pretty good.

If you liked those, click the links and check out some more tutorials. There’s some good stuff on youtube along with the crap.

anime, manga, drawing, draw anime, draw manga, tutorial, drawing tutorial, fan art, how to, how to draw, videos, drawing video, youtube, youtube videos

From AnimeNewsNetwork, adult swim will be running 2 Inuyasha movies online. The third movie goes online July 27th, and the fourth goes online August 3rd. They’ll play for a week.

Inuyasha, The Movie 3 -
Swords of an Honorable Ruler

That’s pretty cool. I like Inuyasha ok, so I might watch. What I’m more excited about is that they’re showing movies. Adult Swim is pretty hit and miss with their online streaming. Sometimes they have great stuff, other times it’s all crap. If they start showing anime movies then there may be hope for ‘em yet.

It’ll probably just be movies of the shows they play on the Cartoon Network. Still, they have some good shows on there between Adult Swim and Toonami. Naruto, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell would all be good choices to put online.

If they expanded to movies that don’t tie in to the shows on TV, that’d be even better. There are tons of anime movies that’d draw people in.

What do you think? Would you sit at your computer and watch a full length movie?

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