Anime World Order Show # 80b – Let’s News Lengthy!

The news segment for Show #80 ran long, so here it is in its own separate file. Numbered #80b because most of you guys said you didn’t mind it in our online poll. SORRY, BOSTONIANS!

In this incredibly long episode of the news, probably the longest we’ve done yet, we talk about many things, most importantly DARKSIDE BLUES has been re licensed. Also in the news, Christopher Handley is probably going to go to jail for owning a comic book, you can read some of the details here, but be warned that the article, while well written was written by guy that might have some conflicts of interest.

We also get largely pissed off at everyone over the recent leak of an episode of One Piece which seemed like a case of lax security on Funimation’s part and general internet douche-bagery on anime fans’ part, and as soon as we thought this was all over, it happened again!

In other bad news, Shojo Beat is no longer accepting subscriptions. A magazine we all thought was doing well, but was probably like Pulp, the mid-90’s manga anthology by Viz that everyone seemed to like and no one bought. Let’s hope Otaku USA can avoid such a fate. In some of our rare gaming news Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has been set for US release. This gives us a bit of hope that non-Original Generation Super Robot Wars may get a release here, which is still incredibly unlikely (PROVE ME WRONG), but we still hold out hope.

Finally, as a warning to Kenta Miura of Berserk fame, Kaoru Kurimoto has passed away, thankfully, we understand that she actually finished the core of the Guin Saga story before dying, so there will not be another Wheel of Time issue.

In some other, far less impressive news, there will be more Yamato, time will tell if it’s bad or not, there’s some BGC movie, maybe happening which I won’t even link because we don’t care about this until filming actually happens, Japan’s ban on rape games will have no effect on anything at all, and Casey Rankin, the completely fluent English language singer of the excellent Orguss Opening and Ending passed away.

Here’s the terrific opening and ending:

Next time we continue with your horribly failed experiment of choosing what other people will watch, with Gerald’s episode. Daryl will review Kekko Kamen of Go Nagai fame, Clarissa will review Butt Attack Punisher Girl Gautaman (see a trend here?) and Gerald will arguably have the hardest thing to review with Fairy Squadron Yukikaze.

151 Replies to “Anime World Order Show # 80b – Let’s News Lengthy!”

  1. A theory on the FMA leak…

    They were probably posting to a caching service and didn't bother putting it in a non-public directory. These services take a little time to mirror the file. A certain tech-podcaster had this problem in the early days with Akamai, when the delayed release would cause some people to see a corrupt file if someone guessed the filename correctly and downloaded it early; causing everyone in that particular region to download a broken file. This problem was fixed by uploading it in a non-public directory and then moving it. Pretty simple eh?

    Also on the fans complaining bit: the number one complaint I'm hearing is not of releasing faster, but because there is no worldwide release. The internet is accessible worldwide, and certain fansubbers couldn't care less of Funimations attempt to stream it online: because they couldn't access it. They don't care if its because of some rights issue, and don't see the need to start a company themselves to license the material

  2. (continued; because I fail at pushing the correct button)

    –if they can simply download the 720p raw of FMA and sub it immediately; some groups manage to release it same-day or shortly thereafter.

    Okay, that is enough ranting for today. Its been an interesting 47 minutes so far…

  3. I am a bit worried over the Handley case myself, but that isn't really stopping me from buying hundreds of loli-centric doujinshi over here… nor is it stopping me from posting about such activity on a public forum, wwwwww

    Watashiya Kaworu, Kojika manga-ka. Female.

    Gundam Wing is more popular than you think over here. It's not crazy popular, but during my manga club's jikoshoukai all the girls were like "MY FAVOURITE ANIME IS GUNDAM WING, SEED, SEED DESTINY AND 00" or they said Hetalia. Maybe I've said this here already.

    I got the Yamato promo disc in the mail because it was free. The first shot you see is of a ship with BLUE NOAH written across the side. I thought to myself NISHIZAKI, THAT IS NOT THE YAMATO!!! The CG actually didn't seem too bad to me… not movie quality by any standard, and Yamato really does demand 2D all the way. There was some 2D character animation in the promo disc, and all it told me was that the new character designs are awful.

    Also, I saw a Yamato 2520 soundtrack in Mandarake in Shibuya…

  4. I'm sort of surprised that you didn't mention anything about viz signature's new project with mangos being serialized in Ikki when you were talking about Shoujo beat and Pulp. A lot of seinen fans involved with scanlation are sort of interested in this project since Ikki does have a lot of interesting series that I'm sure you guys know about from your co-worker's articles in OtakuUSA and such, but looking at the timing of this and the track history, I feel pretty doubtful. Do you guys have any opinions about this direction that viz seems to be pushing? Or the digital (only?) distribution of manga that they seem to be trying out?

  5. Correction: Ed Chavez was telling us at the last Vertical meetup that Kurimoto had actually finished up Guin's story at book 100. She was writing side stories up until she passed away.

  6. I don't have much to add. I think the whole Handley case is fucked up just because we're all moral panic alarmists when is comes to the safety of children.

    You guys didn't talk about the shitty pay animators in japan get or the poll Funimation did for what current anime they should licensed.

  7. I generally do not wear product branded t-shirts, but if you make a shirt that says "Anime World Order: We Need More Money for Coke and Howitzers" I will buy.

  8. I was able to watch FMA:B episode 9 last Wednesday on Funimation's site, but sometime afterwards they took it down and last I checked it's still down.

    Half the first Pilgrims who came to America died. Even the exploration of space has cost lives. Whatever trouble they might have now is not an excuse to try again. At least nobody has died.

  9. On the Handley case, the bust was 2006, the court hearings began in 2007.

    Also folks need to remember, as you pointed out, that these charges apply to any character under the age of 18. So May's blow job in v.1 of Gunsmith Cats is problematic as is damn near any erotic anime and manga released in the US.

  10. I suppose those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks…so I can only hope that Funimation manages to get better security, for real this time around, and can persuade the Japanese to start the streams back up again. Otherwise, nothing will change.

    I honestly need to get back to Berserk sometime…maybe whenever the current arc ends first or something to that effect, which could be months or years at this rate.

    Guin Saga is indeed awesome and hopefully the anime finds a good stopping point in spite of the author's untimely death, but Phantom's surprisingly not that lame. I'd say it's much better than Noir, which might not be saying much until you actually start to notice the differences. Some annoying stylistic elements remain, it's still BeeTrain, but the core story is stronger and a lot less boring. Great ending to that first arc.

    The worst part about playing SRW in Japanese are the senshin (spirit) lists. Other than that, yeah, it's usually easy to get the hang of all the newer games. Except for that damned "dismiss" command in SRWK, which was annoying to memorize.

    Sorry to hear that about Casey Rankin. The opening and ending themes to Orguss were catchy enough to help me get through the more annoying parts of the show and reach the good stuff.

    I still can only shrug at that last opening to LOGH though…why, why did they ever do that? Oh well, three out of four ain't bad.

    -NJ

  11. No, the fact that Handley's manga was imported allowed him to be brought up on Federal obscenity charges, since the material was transported over state lines and the federal government has broad powers over the regulation of "interstate commerce".

    Under the letter of the law, just about anything that fails the three-pronged obscenity test could land you in jail, even materials that are legally released in the United States.

    Minmei is supposedly 19 years old in that scene, but good luck trying to prove that to an unsympathetic jury.

  12. On Tatsunoko rights: it looks like the rights for Battle of the Planets may have expired.

    All the DVDs look like they've been out of print for a couple of years now (the UK box set now goes for up to £199.95).

  13. Goober: Perhaps, but are they really going to go after someone who buys "The Aristocrats" through Amazon? I think they only went after Handley, because he was in one of those Bible Belt states, where anything foreign in the mail is automatically viewed as a terrorist threat. [At least I hope that's the case.] Christ, that guy who got jailed for selling the Urotsukidoji comic to an adult should have his case appealed on the same legal basis as a court finally overturning Texas ban on vibrators.

  14. Dear Daryl,

    You should know that Peter Payne and J-List were the most faithful advertisers in PULP (and thus, among its biggest supporters in the practical sense–keeping it financially afloat), for years purchasing the inside cover ad, up to the final issue. Peter was, as you allude, one of the founding members of Seishun Shitemasu, whom I have great affection and respect for.

    –Carl

  15. In light of this information, I now truly understand why I long thought Pulp was a porn magazine until several years after it had ceased to be. If the warning labels didn't do the trick, the J-List ad probably sealed the deal in my mind.

    And Iowa's not part of the Bible Belt. It's part of the Grain Belt or whatever they call it. North Florida is definitely part of the Bible Belt, but the region of Florida we inhabit is considered exempt from this as it's the sole member of the "Men Who Wear White Belts" belt. Okay, that's actually a 15 year-old joke from Almost Live! which I can't personally vouch for. WHATEVER.

    Also on the fans complaining bit: the number one complaint I'm hearing is not of releasing faster, but because there is no worldwide release.

    Pfft. That's their own fault for not being Americans! But seriously, which requires the most effort among the most people: creating a fansub or installing a proxy? If you don't live in America and don't use proxy software, then you're just being a goof. Even if you are in America, lots of anime fans use proxies to access the "this site is only for members of Glorious Nippon" sections of the Internet.

    I would gladly bet real money on the fact that the vast, vast, VAST majority of the thousands and thousands of people connected to English language torrents for any given new episode of FMA: Brotherhood are right here in the US. I would also gladly bet real money that the majority of the people creating said fansubs are also in the US.

    during my manga club's jikoshoukai…

    For the record, I only know the English language meaning of that term ("introduce yourself" or something) because back in the 90s, Rika Takahashi had a website about learning Japanese by way of sound clips and scenes from Magic Knights Rayearth and Yu Yu Hakusho.

  16. Yeah, let's all hate on Yamato Rebirth. There's NO WAY it could possibly be any good. Those 5 seconds of character animation PROVE it. Tomonori Kogawa is a shitty character designer who should NEVER have been hired to work on Ideon or Dunbine. What a hack.

    Gang, if after I see it I think the movie is no good I'll have no hesitation in saying so. I'm just not into condemning stuff beforehand, okay? In other words, I'm not yet dead inside.

  17. Other topic: related to the Funimation security thing…

    Years ago I got to work on the animated series based on the Sony Godzilla movie. The security on thing was insane. They didn't want ANYONE to see the monster design before the release, as if it was so mind-blowing the nation couldn't possibly handle it. We all had to sign extra non-disclosures before we looked at footage. We couldn't actually draw the correct design in our storyboards until after the release. At one point the film production company was an inch away from pulling the plug on the entire series because they thought someone leaked a drawing. It was that crazy and we all knew it was BS while it was going on.

    But then I saw something that made me smile; two days before release some of us were walking through a mall on our lunch hour and passed a toystore. In plain view of everyone, a minimum wage employee with a "don't give a shit" face on was casually slicing open boxes that clearly said in big block letters DO NOT OPEN UNTIL [PREMIERE DATE OF MOVIE].

    What was inside? HUGE Godzilla figures, the ones easiest to see from a block away. The wage-monkey was opening them up and putting them on display, single-handedly bringing down the entire multi-million dollar enterprise. I'm sure the colossal financial failure of the movie stemmed from that one incident.

    This isn't exactly like the Funimation story, but is additional proof that no edifice, no matter how carefully constructed, is immune to sabotage by the neglected underclass. And so it should be. How else will the underclass stop being neglected?

  18. One more PS about Yamato Rebirth: despite Uncle Nish's claim, Toshio Masuda is the actual hands-on director. This is why I have hope.

    Also, Yamato 2520 was an OAV series, didn't show in theatres.

    AND…Rebirth was actually conceived at the same time as 2520 but got scuttled by the crashing failure of same. History would have been very different had it been made first.

    And one more thing? (I can hear you giggling at me, but screw you) I agree that the ships should be in 2D, but I'm starting to believe the talent pool of animators capable of drawing convincing spaceships for the big screen has dried up. Hence the CG. It's not as fully-rendered as the Pachinko animation, no, but it wouldn't match the character art if it was. I've been working with CG for 10 years, it's a compromise at every level.

  19. Dear Daryl,

    Japan has many straight-up porn manga magazines, but PULP's titles were, almost without exception* from Shogakukan's BIG COMIC SPIRITS magazine, a very mainstream seinen magazine whose circulation in Japan at the time of PULP's launch was about 1.1 million weekly (as of 2009, this is down to 355,000).

    –Carl

    *Perhaps the most prominent exception was, ironically, a shojo title: Banana Fish, which ran in the magazine today known as BETSUCOMI, home of Hot Gimmick and Basara.

  20. "I don't have much to add. I think the whole Handley case is fucked up just because we're all moral panic alarmists when is comes to the safety of children."

    I don't agree that the problem is that cops and lawmakers are moral panic alarmists, the problem is that they are unproductively concerned about things which don't really matter, and tragically unconcerned with the things which do (domestic abuse, neglect, education, etc). This case isn't shocking, but an unfortunate reminder of all that.

    But this is a podcast about Japanese moving pictures, so why am I getting into all that?

  21. Daryl: I thought Pulp was a fanzine myself. Also, Animerica used to have porn anime ads in the back of the magazine, too.

    Tim: As long as it's not as awful as Indy 4, the SW prequels, or Sky Crawlers[Yeah, I went there.], I'm willing to give it a chance. Anyway, I didn't like the new Godzilla, either, but I was hoping Transformers would fail harder. Oh, well, I'm still crossing my fingers on Revenge of the Fallen…

  22. This fandom has gone from a society for the promotion of japanese cartoons to trying to defend simulated rape and virtual child porn. Cries of moe = hooray, I'm a low status male who feels empowered by masturbating to disgusting things.

  23. yknow, call me crazy, but if you're gonna use the Anonymous option to post (and you don't HAVE to, really! it's quite simple to use Name/URL), I think it's at least courtesy to do as Carl does and sign the post. Saves so much trouble when one Anon has value and the other is an asshat.

    But as RAMBO'S LAW hasn't been used yet, I guess it's just the way things are.

    Tim, I don't think a 1994 release of Yamato Rebirth, before Yamato 2520 would have changed things. I fear Nishizaki was too deep in wasting his money and, maybe, listening to the wrong people.

    I think, somehow, he forgot that it wasn't just him that made Yamato huge, it was that entire miracle staff. Just like Gene Roddenberry 'forgot' the work of Gene Coon, D.C. Fontana, et al. in the creation and running of Star Trek.

    (it's quite interesting how often Yamato fan history and ST fan history run paralle)

  24. Can't agree 100% with that, Stever. Based on what little footage was released on the "Quickening" video, the Rebirth staff had some experienced star power in it — far more than anything exhibited in 2520, which could only boast Syd Mead and a bunch of newbies.

    I stand by my claim. Not that it means anything in this time/space dimension.

    Anyone who wants to find out more, head over to starblazers.com and look for "new movie reports" in the "legacy" section. For that matter, the lead story this month is where I describe my first encounter with the new trailer.

    PS: If'n I ran the internet, "anonymous" wouldn't even be an option.

  25. Man, the worst thing about those digital converter boxes is I have to reshuffle the wires so I can play my old Kiseki tape of Macross: DYRL and UV tape of The Cockpit. But at least I'm glad that works, since UPN, CW, or whatever the fuck it's called still looks like shit. The pictures are clearer, but I'm still stuck with the crap-tastic reception of my local tv station, which means it my tv looks like a scrambled porn broadcast. Talk about a bait-and-switch. Hopefully, when Japan adapts that format two years from now, they'll come up with better technology for the boxes like they do with their other stuff. And hopefully, DTVs will actually be reasonably priced.

    -D.Z.

  26. >But seriously, which requires the most effort among the most people: creating a fansub or installing a proxy?

    Perhaps that is more targeted towards the fansubbers themselves, however I would argue that for those consuming the content, downloading over BT, IRC or better yet a DDL service is a hundred times easier than finding and setting up a proxy service.

    Though, assuming you do go with the proxy route, you are still technically violating the "Term of Service" in some manner anyway. So whats the point of using a proxy anyway? You're still breaking some law..

    >I would gladly bet … that the vast, vast, VAST majority … of people connected to English language torrents for any given new episode of FMA: Brotherhood are right here in the US

    While pretty likely, its a moot point. Those people obviously couldn't care less about Funimation's streaming efforts anyway.

    Anyway–I only wanted to bring up this point to inform you of it, not argue for or against it. Since you asked something along the lines: Aren't they giving everything that we want? For some people the answer is still 'no'.

  27. True. Some people, namely those on 4chan are like "we want the R1 anime DVD industry to die.".

    IMO this thing about streaming shows isn't the best bet. I still use fansubs to watch the shows as they come out and then buy the legitimate R1 release to show my support.

    I hate it when you ask someone "What was the last anime you bought" and they say "My internet bill or hard drive."

    I don't know a lot about Yamato but it seems like the Nish and other people like him should just realize that certain things are only indicative of the time of their creation and can't expect their new versions of their properties to be a hit when the trends have changed.

    As a sort anomaly between an oldschool and modern anime fan, I've learned to accept that trends and styles change. There's nothing wrong with liking the older stuff, but people need to stop asking for more of the old stuff when there not even part of the modern ascetics.

  28. I agree with your point, but there's always a catch; updating an "old school" show to match modern trends alienates viewers as often as not. One of the common complaints I'm reading about the new footage is "it doesn't look like the original." Well, of course it doesn't, and it CAN'T. The production process is totally different now. So the trick is to maintain the spirit of the original and combine it with visuals that can attract a modern audience.

    One example is the recent Votoms spinoff, Pailsen Files. Character designs were updated slightly but all the mecha went to CG which gave it a different flavor than previous installments. The mistake they made was letting the CG take over and dictate how the mecha should behave. In doing so, they lost some of the original spirit. Votoms mecha was always meant to be solid and a bit clunky; in Pailsen Files they move like dancers. They also threw out the original sound effects library, which made it feel like a totally different show.

    I don't see this happening with Yamato, since the mechanics of spaceship motion are basically the same in 2D or 3D. They'll just move more smoothly in 3D. That leaves story and characters. The character design is already throwing people EVEN THOUGH the designer is about as old school as they get–but as I said before we've only seen about 5 seconds of chara animation which is too little to judge an entire movie.

    That leaves the story. It's entirely possible to tell a modern story using old school elements. As long as they don't pretend they're still talking to a 70s audience that hasn't seen LOGH, Galactica, or other space shows, they've got a fighting chance.

    We'll find out in December.

  29. vz: "I don't know a lot about Yamato but it seems like the Nish and other people like him should just realize that certain things are only indicative of the time of their creation and can't expect their new versions of their properties to be a hit when the trends have changed."

    That's what they said about Star Trek, though.

  30. Holy shit, I just saw the Neo-Yamato promo, and I haven't been this wowed by a 2-d/3-d convergence since Macross Plus and the original Ghost in the Shell movie! Too bad it's probably going to bomb in Japan, since none of the pilots look like whiny emo pussies, nor appear to have any underage "little sisters" running on the deck of the ship. But at least this will be one anime Whedon won't be able to rip off without getting called on it, which is all that matters; or does he still have a career after Absolute Dollhouse?

    Anyway, I just hope the Starblazers/Yamato rights aren't as much a pain in the ass that we won't get the movie over here like we've been unable to do with every Macross starting with 7. Oh, and I hope Nintendo pays the production team to give us the Star Fox or Metroid anime we deserve. Though considering the current market, those animators will probably just be outsourced for the FX for the inevitable live-action Bucky O' Hare film, *sigh*.Sonova…There's already a listing for one on IMDB!

  31. "That's what they said about Star Trek, though."

    And Star Trek hasn't been interesting to me since the TNG and the movies.

    The only property I can think of that's reinvented itself and generally still work is Transformers.

    "nor appear to have any underage "little sisters" running on the deck of the ship."

    That would make the thing better IMO.

    Also K-On is ending and I am sad. ;_;

  32. VZ: I hear the new Trek movie's good, but there are a lot more Abrams fanboys than Whedon fanboys, so it could all be bullshit.

    Anyway, I forgot to add that the 2004 Appleseed was among the last 2-D/CG anime which impressed me. The sequel was more like the kind of official fan-fiction they used to censor in the U.S. release of the GITS manga, though. http://www.cityonfire.com/japanese/appleseedexmachina.html

  33. I know I'm probably being redundant; most people that would care about this news and happen to read AWO comments are already plugged in to the goings on of anime fandom, but here I go anyway: the first bunko of Golgo 13 had been scanlated, with plans to release more in the future! Over 300 pages of the beginning of Golgo 13, available right here:

    http://offtopia.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=59

    Will be interesting to read the manga chronologically from its beginnings in 1969.

  34. Man, I can't believe Toupee is screening the Fist movie at AX, and in the early evening, and not after midnight to boot. Maybe they're hoping some exec will do a better LA version of it?

  35. I'm glad that in Handley's case and any other involving depictions of sexualized minors in entertainment can be subject to obscenity charges at the very least. Without a shadow of a doubt Dwight Whoreley would have used his authority as an adult to molest a child if he had been given the chance. And Neil Gaiman is a notable author but he's ridiculously naive and undeserving of the litigious power he has.

    Thanks to myopic anime fans I can't enjoy japanese animation like I did when I was a teenager. The fandom's become a regrettable collection of scary burgeoning pederasts and their over-enthusiastic apologists clamoring around inside their internet echobox. You oppose informed decisions made by top politicians and the United Nations to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.

    Seriously fuck you.

  36. I'm glad that in Handley's case and any other involving depictions of sexualized minors in entertainment can be subject to obscenity charges at the very least. Without a shadow of a doubt Dwight Whoreley would have used his authority as an adult to molest a child if he had been given the chance. And Neil Gaiman is a notable author but he's ridiculously naive and undeserving of the litigious power he has.

    Thanks to myopic anime fans I can't enjoy japanese animation like I did when I was a teenager. The fandom's become a regrettable collection of scary burgeoning pederasts and their over-enthusiastic apologists clamoring around in their internet echobox. You oppose informed decisions made by top politicians and the United Nations to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.

    Seriously, fuck you losers and your diatribes.

  37. So, one of the Anon's is Ash? Or Ash just liked what Anon said so much he did the copypasta and added more cursing?

    So, what, Ninja Scroll stop getting you hard or something? Ain't no anime viagra, sorry.

    and I for one rather don't approve of the United Nations making law for the US of A thank you very much. We'll deal with anything that needs dealing with just fine on our own.

  38. So you don't see a difference between a pedo spooging over live-action child porn vs. drawings of same? Seriously?

    As a parent myself, I'm disgusted by the thought of adults getting hot for anyone under 18, but getting hot for a drawing of someone under 18 doesn't make my list of things worth fighting over.

    It's pathetic and worthy of ridicule, but it isn't criminal behavior. And if you choose to see it as a gateway drug, well, you live in a dark, scary world.

  39. I think the one point to take away from Ash/anon's posting (which I actually agree with, once you take out the bitterness and combativeness of his post) is that the zealous and seemingly uniform defense of lolita pornography and rape games in the anime community is…. unsettling and creepy to say the least, and irresponsible at the very worst.

    As Mr. Harrison says, these actions are "pathetic and worthy of ridicule", but that doesn't seem to come up in ANY of the commentary I've seen. Perhaps there might be some discussion of these things among anime fans, where they are condemned as unhealthy, but so far, every blog and forum I've seen is nothing but sympathetic to the people who engage in this behavior.

    That universal endorsement, quite frankly, makes me wonder what company I've unwittingly kept when I decided to start checking out anime and manga.

  40. Just remember that it's not the fault of anime and/or manga what sort of people it attracts. We don't blame any other medium (movies, novels, TV shows, etc.) for its following, just the individuals who decide what to do within that medium.

    In any audience for anything there's always going to be a certain percentage of lunacy that gets expressed in icky ways. It's one of the prices we pay for living in a free society (without affordable mental healthcare).

  41. And that's coming from a man whose greatest love is a show where naked girls in tubes is just part of the mythos :3

  42. Very fair point, Tim. And I'd readily agree with you that this is an "icky minority" situation, IF there was a shred of disapproval expressed in ANY of the fan communities I frequent.

    So far, the comments section of this podcast is the only place I've seen it appear, and only after ash/anon got hot under the collar and lashed out immaturely.

  43. "naked girls in tubes"? Fyana was a WOMAN, dammit.

    About the lack of disapproval, well, this IS a very permissive fandom. We sorta have to be, since we're embracing pop culture from a very different country. On the upside, that makes your average anime fan more open-minded. On the downside, well, you've seen it already. We're permissive to a fault.

    Disapproval is what we're all trying to stay away from.

  44. Ash, I attend several anime and manga conventions a year, and out there–that is, out there among actual people interacting in reality–I see that fandom is mostly made up of teenagers hanging out together. I don't think they are likely to allow any creep to put some moves on them, just because they're fans, or it's a con. They are there for each other, which is how it should be. And it's worth bearing in mind that they grew up with the internet and all its extremes, yet they're not disgusted with anime and manga fandom, because they see in reality it's different. In the big picture, it gets more social and normal each and every year.

    I was eleven when I became an otaku, and–as I'm always saying, because for me it was true–I got far creepier vibes from the scene back then (1982) than I do today. I can't enjoy anime today like I did when I was a teenager, either–but that's because I'm not a teenager, and haven't been for a long time. From what I can see of today's teenage anime fans, though, it looks like they're all right, and have got themselves together.

  45. I have listened trough some older episodes in the archives and about the death of a certain Japanese singer. The only one, gone by now, who could sing in English very well. Dear AWO-Trio, what was his name again? ;°)

  46. Well thing about super robot wars, is that if it got released in the US, it would most likely do so exactly once. The massive amount of money that would be spent licensing would mean that the game would have to make a pretty big return in order for it to be profitable. Unfortunately, mech games typically don't sell as well here as they do in japan. While I still wish with all my heart that I can shoot poorly conceived sentai monsters with a "GETTA BEEAM!", I don't think that a U.S. release is likely.
    Also, I wonder if there is a list somewhere on the internet of all the loopholes that one would have to go through in order to get a SRW game released.

  47. >>That universal endorsement, quite frankly, makes me wonder what company I've unwittingly kept when I decided to start checking out anime and manga.

    It's all just fiction, dude. No one's getting hurt when a guy looks at a dirty comic book. Everyone looks at porn, just some people have different tastes. Doesn't mean they're going to go out and kill people, then rape their guts in real life.

    In my manga club here in Japan, there's a lot of people who are into loli stuff, but they are some of the chillest, most normal people ever.

    I think if you're going to be an anime/manga/game fan, you need to let go of any right-leaning opinions you have, because you'll just a headache if every single person who likes 2D kids freaks you out.

  48. ash: "I'm glad that in Handley's case and any other involving depictions of sexualized minors in entertainment can be subject to obscenity charges at the very least."

    So should people be arrested for watching Hard Candy and Hound Dog, too?

    "Without a shadow of a doubt Dwight Whoreley would have used his authority as an adult to molest a child if he had been given the chance."

    Perhaps, but since he was already a sex offender, the public would have been on alert. My issue is with someone who looks at a drawing being lumped in with sex offenders, especially since they can expand the law to define any fictional depiction of "minors" engaging in sexual acts or situations as illegal, even if it's only implied. I mean, where does it end? People being arrested for reading Ranma 1/2, because the teen girls show their tits once in a while? Or how about girls who talk about sex in Air Gear? AWO should really link Toren's comments on Nymphet, too. http://mrcaxton.livejournal.com/26421.html

    "You oppose informed decisions made by top politicians and the United Nations to protect the most vulnerable members of our society."

    Politicians who started a war which threatened more children's lives than a comic are hardly what I'd call "informed". And the U.N. is looking the other way on actual rapes in Darfur-the same way it did in Bosnia.

    Milo: I always find it bullshit that those games get trashed, but whenever some underage floozy from the Disney Channel dresses like a whore, it's "ok", because she's really meant to cater to "tween" audiences, which basically means encouraging little girls to look and act like the characters from a certain South Park episode. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Spoiled_Whore_Video_Playset
    'Cus let's face it. Their agents know exactly what they're doing by "catching" them half naked in preparation for when they become 18. (*cough* Lindsay and Miley *cough*) So if selling actual underage celebrity skin to horny guys is somehow "normal"[ http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/192840 ], why are h-games any different?

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