The imminent bankrupsy of Central Park Media (CPM) forecasts a bleak year ahead for the US anime industry, but given there are more fans now than ever before, one would assume that the opposite should be true. The Anime Almanac has an answer, though I’m not sure whether they are right; it seems fansubs are… Continue reading The declining Western anime industry
Category: Editorials
Reigniting the flames of fansubs
In an interview with ActiveAnime, Viz Media’s director of PR Evelyn Dubocq slammed all forms of internet piracy. Despite the generic corporate style of her responses (which show little-to-no knowledge of the anime community as a whole), Dubocq’s remarks have inevitably reignited the flames of debate within the anime community. On one side we have… Continue reading Reigniting the flames of fansubs
Anime Bloggers Need Excitement
The relevance (or rather, lack there of) of contemporary anime blogs has again been brought into question, this time at the core of the blogsphere itself; blogsuki. The central theme of the discussion is an unstoppable slew of generic episode summaries, the problem being that these dozens of posts all essentially describe the same things;… Continue reading Anime Bloggers Need Excitement
Can an opening theme resurrect a series?
Is an opening theme enough to reignite interest in a series? I guess it is for me because I’ve just seen the third opening sequence for mediocre vampire slasher Blood+ and suddenly I’ve been persuaded to give this show another chance. First time around I discovered Blood+ was terribly predictable, but if Production I.G devote… Continue reading Can an opening theme resurrect a series?
Skewed tastes of the otaku
With blogger hubs like Blogsuki and the AnimeAntenna cropping up, now is as good a time as ever to gauge how the tastes of the hardcore anime fan often differ from that of the general anime buying public. According to the stats provided by Blogsuki, the most popular shows currently being blogged are Mai Otome,… Continue reading Skewed tastes of the otaku
Paranoia Agent – Happy Family Planning censored in the UK
For those who aren’t aware, I’m based in the UK. Being an anime fan in England isn’t so bad, though like every country, we have to put up with the occasional scandal; and this week one such scandal has been making waves in our anime community. Basically, the BBFC have decided to censor a section… Continue reading Paranoia Agent – Happy Family Planning censored in the UK
Why am I running an anime blog?
This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately, and with the recent commentary posted over at “a fairy tale…”, I guess it’s time for me to revaluate the real reason why this place exists. I’ve long admired anime blogs from afar, enjoyed reading their quick-fire reviews of my favourite shows and always… Continue reading Why am I running an anime blog?
Fan service to the detriment of quality
I tend to avoid anime with an over-emphasis on fan service, I construe it as a weakness in story telling; a cynical way of appealling to a base number of fan-boys/girls. In other words, I hate being pandered to- and so inevitably, I’ve ended up missing out on some of the most otaku series of… Continue reading Fan service to the detriment of quality