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Yes and no, but specifically in the case of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, no. Some creators, such as Read or Die director Koji Masunari, openly supported or encouraged fans to view anime, whatever the means. However, Yoshiki Sakurai, a scriptwriter of Stand Alone Complex asked American fans to not download it without authorization while it was still being released in Japan. That's because America's Bandai Entertainment was involved in the production from the beginning; the anime was already "picked up" for the US market before it even aired in Japan. Some fansub groups ignored Sakurai's request, though, and continued distributing his series. Egan Loo Anime News Network

Nabeshin says otherwise.

Also see: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-10-23/japan-asks-america-to-stop-illegal-net-releases-of-anime

"Thus far the Japanese animeka's and mangaka's have never protested. I have also not seen any such hints in the Japanese media."

Not true. Japan has issued a formal statement to the US government asking it to take measures to prevent the illegal distribution of Japanese creative property.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-10-23/japan-asks-america-to-stop-illegal-net-releases-of-anime

Funny you should bring this up. If you're interested in a quite realistic story about the eventual necessity of space debris collecting, you may want to check this out.

You should watch an anime series called Chobits. It's about a guy who essentially has that happen. Well, it's more about the android. And there's no sex. But still.

They probably need to do something about their animators as well, where a significant portion get below-minimum wage pay. (I've seen much better breakdowns of the pay scheme, though they were in Japanese)

Whoa. Flashbacks to Roujin Z.

That's why most fansubbed stuff has "do not sell or auction, do not distribute after has been liscenced" in it. Because that keeps them legal. I would also like to say that I was going to suggest Animesuki myself, as it does keep to only 100% legal stuff. (Unlike others I could name.)

Japanese animated movies based of games are generally a whole different kettle of fish to the average Hollywood drivel. Another example which comes to mind is Air (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anim e.php?id=4093)

To be fair though, they churn out a lot of crap as well.

Additional comments to the article also point out:

This is horribly irresponsible and misleading reporting.

1 The man was already a convicted sex offender, who had served 46 months of prison for a child pornography charge from 1999.

2. In 2003, he was sentenced to an additional 12 months for violating his probation stemming from the previous incident.

3. In addition to the cartoons, he received 14 digital photographs of real children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and sent and received 20 obscene E-mails which graphically described, among other things, parents sexually molesting their own children.

additional info: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=853 6

This is NOT a case of a guy getting 20 years for just looking at 20 cartoons. I'm embarrassed on behalf of ABC for running the story without fact checking it.

Planetes deals with exactly this problem. Only they didn't see it as being an issue until the 2070s (the series takes place in 2075).

Still, a pretty fun anime, and the manga is even better.

I'm only up to episode 8 but looks like a 'keeper'.

I meant "The Glassy Ocean" http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=1942

Cowboy Bebop is great, as you say Watanabe has a flair for mixing genres and making it work (although I haven't watched Samurai Champloo yet). One of the things I love about anime, that you might disagree with, is the really advanced and varied story lines and concepts often seen. Topics and ideas that usually are not even dared experimenting with in American animation.

Movies like Nekojiru-so (Cat Soup) for example. Surreal, dreamy, cute and grotesque. Or, as mentioned in the article, FLCL.

A series I enjoyed immensely, although many might think it slow, was Oniisama E (Brother, dear brother). A sad, sad story - and I'm usually not easily moved by such things.

These are just a couple of examples. I don't know what makes the Japanese market open to this kind of intelligent and often beautiful storytelling. Maybe it's because of Zen concepts deeply rooted in the collective psyche, the ages-old sense for simplicity and beauty (just look at their flag), or something else.

What many see as cheap shortcuts to animation making - few FPS and much relying on extended "pauses" in the animation when there's action - I, and many others view as emphasizing the moment, the beauty of the scene. Think about the established standard "person just hacked with a katana" scenes - the action pauses, stands still, before one of the duellants eventually fall.

Americans (and many other peoples of the western world) need to grow up and realise animation can be a valid medium for delivering deep concepts and creating visions and vistas not possible with conventional film-making. 3D CGI moviemaking is not the answer to everything.

An information overview page

Review of the first DVD

A general review.

An information overview page

Review of the first DVD

A general review.

Been there, done that

I think ADV's success has a lot to do with their relationship with their fanbase. They've been pretty receptive to suggestions, and the founders are actually fans themselves. The companies that were founded by fans are typically more attentive to details. They make a lot of trips to anime conventions and mingle with their fans. Heck, the co-founder is married to a voice actress. One of their main producers maintains a blog. All three were at a New York anime convention a few years ago and were quite obviously very passionate about their work.

From a post on Anime News Network forums:

UK anime cons have had a similar system to this for the past several years. It's called AEGIS and plays back digital video according to a predetermined running schedule, including automatically fitting AMV's, adverts etc into the gaps between programmes. At AyaCon 2005, the whole system was controlled remotely from a single location in the operations room, streaming video across the building's CAT5 network to remote modified VLC clients running on Mac Minis. No runs of coax cable required.

Having attended several UK conventions over the years, I've seen AEGIS in action and it's pretty polished and reliable. The Mac port is, I'm told, a fairly recent development, and consequently has a few issues... audio starts slightly before video, so there is about a one second delay before you actually start seeing a picture on the screen - it's not out of sync, but it does mean the first second of video gets kind of cut off.

I don't appear to be able to find a website for it though; Googling it only brings up websites related to Gatekeepers or Gundam and even after eliminating those the only related site I could find is the ANN forum post I quoted above.

It might not be what you were thinking of, but Planetes has quite some time spent on exploring that. In Planetes, those kids are called Lunarians, and are about twice as large as normal humans.

There's also an anime based on it, and it seems quite popular.

Planetes has dead on physics and barely extrapolates any new technology:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=2654

While we are at it the President could popularize Virgin Fleet:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=771
to popularize their recruitment and abstenence programs:

"If you hold out you can use your virgin energy and fly planes and do cool stuff in the navy!"

Planetes has dead on physics and barely extrapolates any new technology:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=2654

While we are at it the President could popularize Virgin Fleet:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=771
to popularize their recruitment and abstenence programs:

"If you hold out you can use your virgin energy and fly planes and do cool stuff in the navy!"

According to AnimeNN, Apple's US iTunes Music Store has expanded their collection of Japanese J-pop and anime soundtrack downloads at the same time the Japanese store was opened. I'm hard-pressed to find any additions, but then again, I'm not much of a fan.

Ah, so you're no stranger to sarcasm.

and cite a few more "exceptions". i can always use the list to find the better picks out there.

Perfect Blue is simply an adorable anime. Look at her! Isn't she just so cute with blood splattered all over her?

It's also so wonderfully lighthearted how in Akira the main character's girlfriend first gets beat up by a bunch of thugs and then later gets crushed to death by the main character.

Oh, yeah, and Ninja Scroll was sooooooooooo cute - especially the tentacle rape scene!

Finally, there's Barefoot Gen in which the most darling thing happens to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

For other really cute and fuzzy anime, try Blue Gender, The Wings of Honneamise, Iria, Appleseed, Witch Hunter Robin, Patlabor, Macross Plus, MD Geist, Ghost in the Shell, and Lain.

Sheesh, even Star Blazers showed people getting shot in the back, multiple suicides, and main characters dying.

Seriously, though, one thing that could help you pick something more to your liking would be the reviews at Anime on DVD.

Ah, so you're no stranger to sarcasm.

and cite a few more "exceptions". i can always use the list to find the better picks out there.

Perfect Blue is simply an adorable anime. Look at her! Isn't she just so cute with blood splattered all over her?

It's also so wonderfully lighthearted how in Akira the main character's girlfriend first gets beat up by a bunch of thugs and then later gets crushed to death by the main character.

Oh, yeah, and Ninja Scroll was sooooooooooo cute - especially the tentacle rape scene!

Finally, there's Barefoot Gen in which the most darling thing happens to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

For other really cute and fuzzy anime, try Blue Gender, The Wings of Honneamise, Iria, Appleseed, Witch Hunter Robin, Patlabor, Macross Plus, MD Geist, Ghost in the Shell, and Lain.

Sheesh, even Star Blazers showed people getting shot in the back, multiple suicides, and main characters dying.

Seriously, though, one thing that could help you pick something more to your liking would be the reviews at Anime on DVD.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime .php?id=3714
not id=1429

As an idea of what to expect in the way of edits, here's what CN did to the two episodes of NGE that they've aired before:

Episode 1

Episode 2

As an idea of what to expect in the way of edits, here's what CN did to the two episodes of NGE that they've aired before:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Here is an example of what you can expect to see should you decide to submit yourself to such torture.

I honestly don't think anyone should view this series in its mutilated, dubbed form on CN, not even newbies. Those of us that love the show most likely already have the boxed set, and can watch it in its proper, unedited, subbed format. Those of us that haven't seen it would be getting the worst possible introduction to the show on CN and might even form incorrect opinions about it based on that mess.

I think a suitable anime reference would be Beck.
It's a short music anime about an indy rock band in Japan. There is a lot in the Anime that actually reflects on what Mr. wheaton said. Even though Beck is (from the perspective of the anime) an incredibly talented band of rock musicians, they have to do all the promotion themselves, and all this while they're becoming better musicians, and to the recording people it means jack squat, all they want is a pretty face to attract the girls.. they don't give a damn about the quality of the music.

It's a kick ass Anime and well, just to make sure you don't confuse Beck/Mongolian chop squad with the alternative band Beck they're totally unrelated ^^;

Check also Genshiken.

Isn't April Fools Day just the best? =] For a 'full' list of sites pulling pranks today check out this list here

Here is a sample:

kellyosbourne.org - Sanctuary records group shut us down
nukefreezone.net - Making fun of atrios.blogspot.com
weebl.jolt.co.uk - Replaced with Cats-By-Mail
telecom.co.nz - Click 2 Brick
ytmnd.com - (NSFW) hacked by teens for christ
wingus.ampedhost.com - Site converted into Mingus' Gently-Used Furniture store. Oh dear. Why won't he be kind?
homestarrunner.com - Now a pay service.
whirlpool.net.au - Australia's biggest Luddite to head Australia's largest telco
thinkgeek.com - Fake product listings.
theregister.co.uk - Bush twins to join Air Force tech unit in Iraq
creativebits.org - Site purchased by Microsoft
ocremix.org - Now partnered with EA (or something like that). Called EA ReMix.
spacedaily.com - Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
planet.gnome.org - Switched sites with planet.kde.org
planet.kde.org - Switched sites with planet.gnome.org
ietf.org - RFC: Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode
beejaysworld.de - Gentoo dropping livecds for x86
nature.com - Apollo bacteria spur lunar erosion
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov - Water On Mars
smh.com.au - (Free Reg Req) SMEGmail offers 1 terabyte storage
smh.com.au - (Free Reg Req) Linux looks to Hilton for exposure
thetoque.com - Canada Builds Own Missile Defense Shield
onion.com - U.S. Dog Owners Fear Arrival of Africanized Fleas
chron.com - Bush Twins in Maxim
ask.com - Jeeves has been replaced by a robot
animenewsnetwork.com - Viz Unlicenses Naruto
uninventthewheel.co.uk - New BMW technology to get around the EU ban on right hand drive cars in Europe.
newgrounds.com - changing to numagrounds.com
neopets.com - neopets adds 50 new pets
www.firstloox.org - The Loox is being recalled
packages.gentoo.org - Adobe doesn't sell products for Linux
pc.ign.com - Microsoft World of Wordcraft (Extremely Obvious)
spamusement.com - Page full of spoof banner ads
gentooexperimental.org - Gentoo using the NT kernel
moddb.com

umm Rahxephon is already released in US.
Rahxephon ADV Films Announced: 7/05/2002 Released: 03/25/2003

Courtesy of http://www.animeondvd.com/licenselist/

Gankutsuou is a new series (about halfway through its first and only season) with high ratings. It WILL be licensed. It's a retelling of the Count of the Monte Cristo.. certainly not niche there.

Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has received a lot of awards among the non-Japanese anime community. Guess what, licensers look at the popularity of fansubs, and it will be picked up. Check out anidb if you don't believe me about its popularity, probably biggest interactive DB on net for anime (~20000 EP's). 8.57 (1324 votes) for Kimi, for comparison Cowboy Bebop (an extremely popular series released in US and on TV) is 8.73 (1922 votes)

Two more site-plugs while I'm at it
Kyle's edit list
AnimeNewsNetwork Anime Encyclopedia

umm Rahxephon is already released in US.
Rahxephon ADV Films Announced: 7/05/2002 Released: 03/25/2003

Courtesy of http://www.animeondvd.com/licenselist/

Gankutsuou is a new series (about halfway through its first and only season) with high ratings. It WILL be licensed. It's a retelling of the Count of the Monte Cristo.. certainly not niche there.

Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has received a lot of awards among the non-Japanese anime community. Guess what, licensers look at the popularity of fansubs, and it will be picked up. Check out anidb if you don't believe me about its popularity, probably biggest interactive DB on net for anime (~20000 EP's). 8.57 (1324 votes) for Kimi, for comparison Cowboy Bebop (an extremely popular series released in US and on TV) is 8.73 (1922 votes)

Two more site-plugs while I'm at it
Kyle's edit list
AnimeNewsNetwork Anime Encyclopedia

I am quite sure the parent is refering to this non-OVA series:
Aa! Megami-sama[Japanese Site]
Ah! My Goddess (TV)[English Site]

This sort of thing never ends well.

First, it's unclear where the term came from; second, the French spelling is not correct when applied to the Japanese word, regardless of where it came from -- just like the transliteration of the Japanese word for "coffee" is "koohii", not "coffee", even though it was derived from the English word.

• Blue Gender
• Cowboy Bebop
• FLCL
• Gundam 0083
• Inuyasha
• Pilot Candidate
• Kenshin
• Trigun
• The Animatrix
• With Hunter Robin
• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Case Closed/Detective Conan
• Lupin the 3rd
• Trigun

Take a 1"x1" piece of paper and rip a hole in it so you could put your head through it without ripping it apart

First thing I thought of is that it'd be a lot harder to pull that off in chibi mode. Pity the poor Precious Moments kids who are unable to snap out of their super-deformity.

The previous poster could be referring either to The Lion King or to the fact that Atlantis was eerily similar to Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. There's even a handy comparison chart.

Spooky!

The previous poster could be referring either to The Lion King or to the fact that Atlantis was eerily similar to Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. There's even a handy comparison chart.

Spooky!

The producer in Japan said that the title of the film should not have "2" in its name. The American title should have been Refer "Innocence - Ghost In the Shell". His intention was to target this movie to Japanese people who hadn't seen the original.

I think sequels are generally poorer than the initial movie and are a marketing convenience, but how many people won't see "2" because they missed "1"? Now that anime is widely popular (at least, compared to back in 1994), they should have stuck with the Japanese name.

"Innocence" also conveys the director's vision than "2" does. Mamoru Oshii is making a movie about life. What is human life and existance, as opposed to those that are machines? "Innocence": The theme of the movie.

Mamoru Oshii's vision is to make a movie that discusses--often overtly, which bothers some--the nature of human existence and how technology is changing the definition of humanity.

Well, a lot of manga is about gay men! Ever see any BL (boys' love), shounen-ai, or yaoi books? I'm actually kind of shocked that the hard stuff in this genre is finally making it over here ^_^; Chalk one up for the fangirls!

A Beautiful Mind is less accurate then Perfect Blue or Paranoia Agent. Dont know why but Susumu Hirasawa does a very good (if some what chilling) depiction of schizophrenia.

google does no harm by suggesting a set of standards, and any "legitimate" groups will do their best to follow the principles.

they aren't the first group to do it, nor are will they be the last. for instance, if any of you are into anime, you may recall ann's ethical code for fansubbing. fansubbing is a copyright-infringing practice, namely subtitling and distributing japanese animated shows.

at the same time, however, many of these fansubbers claim that they're a positive force. this list outlined the "ideals" to which anime news network felt fansubbers should aspire to.

the result? no one followed it. why? because fansubbers find it either unnecessary at best, and repulsive at worst.

so why did anime news network write it? because, by writing out an ethical code, they are now able to take the self-created moral high-ground. the same thing is happening here: google is setting standards that no spyware manufacturer would want to meet.. as such google can proclaim superiority over them.

now, the question is: what will google do next? anime news network let the issue about fansubbers slide back into obscurity. will google do the same with spyware manufacturers? or will they press the issue and reveal spyware makers for the scum that they are?

Sincerely Yours,
Hell Mishima.

PS: Baka Friedrich STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!

Sincerely Yours,
Hell Mishima.

PS: Baka Friedrich STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!

Sincerely Yours,
Hell Mishima.

PS: Baka Friedrich STAY OUT OF MY BUSINESS!

The original series
The OVA
The live action movie

Hehe, ANN rocks :)