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I'm going to put this in for my GNAA Corporate application form: http://www.animenfo.com/irc/cgi-gnaa//
(I wish i knew how to make the link work when you click GNAA and not show the full url for appearance sake)

So, how long before Planetes becomes a reality?

wikipedia's page
Animenfo's link

Using the Kessler syndrome seems to be a popular enough thing in fiction, I wonder if it'll ever get to be a problem in reality.

Exactly! Every time I hear stories about space debris, I remember that anime. The guys behind it really did their homework on that one right down to the wearing of diapers for long space walks. Its a more realistic view of future space travel from our current standpoint. Below is a description of the series. http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1244,xkqkfo,pla net_es.html

Part of this is what I call "button-pushing syndrome" and for the most part only affects younger. I define this as someone who thinks all of lifes problems can be solved at the push of a button. Games like WoW and such definitely contribute to this (not that I think they're bad because of this) because progression is metered and living a fantastic life in a virtual world involves little more effort than hitting buttons.

Of course, real life is much more difficult and takes a lot more hard work. Presented with a world where they can exist by pushing buttons (the net) and real life, these people's fight or flight mechanism kicks in and takes them down the path of least resistance...the net.

Besides, the last remaining member of the sole Japanese Literary Club left in Japan was assimilated by Haruhi Suzumiya anyway...

Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.

If Sci-Fi anime is any indication of what's to come, apparently they won't need to evolve opposable thumbs.

(That's Poipoider from Kenran Butohsai: The Mars Daybreak.)

Or, try Uber Goober for an actual documentary about gamers... and if you liked Otaku No Video, the newer TV series Genshiken.

It is EXCELLENTLY written, and is great fun to watch even if you're not that interested in space trash. Great story, also deals a bit with global economics and what happens when you widen the development/financial gap between 1st and 3rd world countries even more by bringing the massive profits from space mining and tourism into play.

1)6 feet/sec is only about 4 mph. Not too fast.
2)I can ruck with over 100 lbs on my back for a few hours. Days without even lugging JP-4 around.
3)Do I need to carry 200lbs and sound like a chainsaw? This just makes me more of a target.
4)The user can duck and squat, but if under enemy fire could he engage and overtake? Or fall prone, return fire, and *get back up*?

Hmm... that's a bit of a generalization. I will agree that MOST anime sucks because of the lack of plot/etc., but there are some very very good series out there. Besides, most Western shows are crap as well :)

If you want something that isn't non-linear/non-sensical, try out Planetes, Monster, or Cowboy Bebop. Monster in particular is slow-moving, but very plot-driven. It's dark and serious for the most part, and I find that the characters are surprisingly "human". I don't think that Monster is licensed in the US yet, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop is played on Adult Swim, and Planetes is at least licensed over here. Serial Experiments Lain also has a pretty good plot, but it gets kinda weird...

As for your problem with dubs... that's what subs are for, fanmade or otherwise :)

Hmm... that's a bit of a generalization. I will agree that MOST anime sucks because of the lack of plot/etc., but there are some very very good series out there. Besides, most Western shows are crap as well :)

If you want something that isn't non-linear/non-sensical, try out Planetes, Monster, or Cowboy Bebop. Monster in particular is slow-moving, but very plot-driven. It's dark and serious for the most part, and I find that the characters are surprisingly "human". I don't think that Monster is licensed in the US yet, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop is played on Adult Swim, and Planetes is at least licensed over here. Serial Experiments Lain also has a pretty good plot, but it gets kinda weird...

As for your problem with dubs... that's what subs are for, fanmade or otherwise :)

Hmm... that's a bit of a generalization. I will agree that MOST anime sucks because of the lack of plot/etc., but there are some very very good series out there. Besides, most Western shows are crap as well :)

If you want something that isn't non-linear/non-sensical, try out Planetes, Monster, or Cowboy Bebop. Monster in particular is slow-moving, but very plot-driven. It's dark and serious for the most part, and I find that the characters are surprisingly "human". I don't think that Monster is licensed in the US yet, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop is played on Adult Swim, and Planetes is at least licensed over here. Serial Experiments Lain also has a pretty good plot, but it gets kinda weird...

As for your problem with dubs... that's what subs are for, fanmade or otherwise :)

Hmm... that's a bit of a generalization. I will agree that MOST anime sucks because of the lack of plot/etc., but there are some very very good series out there. Besides, most Western shows are crap as well :)

If you want something that isn't non-linear/non-sensical, try out Planetes, Monster, or Cowboy Bebop. Monster in particular is slow-moving, but very plot-driven. It's dark and serious for the most part, and I find that the characters are surprisingly "human". I don't think that Monster is licensed in the US yet, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy Bebop is played on Adult Swim, and Planetes is at least licensed over here. Serial Experiments Lain also has a pretty good plot, but it gets kinda weird...

As for your problem with dubs... that's what subs are for, fanmade or otherwise :)

In a word:
Planetes
(Tokyopop manga translation; official site of Bandai DVD; AnimeInfo.com review of Bandai DVD)

Animenfo is my favorite place to find out what to watch. Especially the top list at
http://www.animenfo.com/statistic/top.php?type=ani me
is useful :-)

Personally I recommend
One Piece (hilarious characters there)
FullMetal Alchemist (good action, and also a bit deeper story)
Berserk (Violence for teh win)
Elfen Lied (pretty fucked up at times, A LOT of violence and some perv moments)

Anyone else besides me thought of the Anime movies and series "Ghost in the shell"?

From the first movie:
Plot Outline: A female cyborg cop and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.

From the TV series:
In the future, life between the digital and physical world has been blurred. The boundary of technology and humanity has been stretched beyond imagination with lives being led in both the electronic and physical worlds. With the melding of man and machine. A new cybernetic level of existence is being created - An existence that continues to redefine mankind.

I dont recall which episode, but in the first TV episodes season you can see virtual IRC. pretty interesting and probably not far from the future.

Watching people with cybernetic implants get hacked in GITS gives a new meaning now. Like how the "Laughing man" hacked the eyes of Bateou when he was about to catch him.

http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1068,sgszbd,gho st_in_the_sh.html
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1287,ybqqoe,gho st_in_the_sh.html
http://imdb.com/title/tt0113568/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0347246/

Anyone else besides me thought of the Anime movies and series "Ghost in the shell"?

From the first movie:
Plot Outline: A female cyborg cop and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.

From the TV series:
In the future, life between the digital and physical world has been blurred. The boundary of technology and humanity has been stretched beyond imagination with lives being led in both the electronic and physical worlds. With the melding of man and machine. A new cybernetic level of existence is being created - An existence that continues to redefine mankind.

I dont recall which episode, but in the first TV episodes season you can see virtual IRC. pretty interesting and probably not far from the future.

Watching people with cybernetic implants get hacked in GITS gives a new meaning now. Like how the "Laughing man" hacked the eyes of Bateou when he was about to catch him.

http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1068,sgszbd,gho st_in_the_sh.html
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1287,ybqqoe,gho st_in_the_sh.html
http://imdb.com/title/tt0113568/
http://imdb.com/title/tt0347246/

Or maybe Witch Hunter Robin.

A) Japan doesn't export enough Anime

this is changing dramatically with companies like ShoPro grabbing at one of the most popular animes in Japan, Naruto.

B) Fansubs are killing the business

Fansubs IMO help companies pick and choose which animes they want to bring here. You'd be surprised how many people stop fansubbing anime once it becomes licenced. Fansubbers don't get paid to do what they do, they do it so they can show their appreciation for anime they enjoy and share it with others. Once anime comes over here, they've done their job.

C) Not that many people in the US are actually interested in watching movies where the women are portrayed as children with blue hair, guys are always "cool" (in a Japanese-thinking sort of way), everyone's eyes go huge and bug out, saliva is everywhere, all the characters overreact, all monsters have tentacles, and the story lines are shrouded in inexplicable nonsense/lack of backstory?

Check out AnimeNFO for anime that isn't so stereotypical of what you just described. You'd be surprised what you could find there, and the high quality (both animation and storyline) of anime that exists.

Watch Monster

Let's hear it for obscure anime references!

Chobits

Chobits

Very strange, but well outside the paramaters of the contest, as they're not likely to exist within the next 20 years, even in research labs.

How do you think the American public knows of these anime?

A little thing called the internets. You might have heard of it.

Oh, and let me shoot that one back at you: "How do you think the American public knows of these fansubs?" People who know they like anime can go searching for fansubs. People who might like anime, but haven't heard of it, won't learn of it from fansubs... they won't stumble onto a distribution place unless a friend points it out to them- and in that case, the friend could just as easily lend a (legal) DVD.

(Or, you could argue that a person randomly downloading from Kazaa might stumble on anime that way. But in that case, it could just as well be a DVD rip with subtitles, and not a fansub job)

For now I will stop shooting holes in your story.

You haven't contradicted me at all, yet. I already stipulated that, starting in the 1980s, fansubbers nourished the audience for anime in the USA. But that was a long time ago- even if fansubbers were a jumpstart to international anime viewership, the commercial engine is running on its own by now. US fans can see the same promotional materials the Japanese viewers do.

Kiminozo is niche!? It's currently rated #2 on the Animenfo top 200!

Too much anime... I read that as "For example, the problem might have been Lain in the Passport login servers."

Watch the Anime title Hikaru no go, each episode has a short lesson about go at the end. Amied at children and beginners, though AFAICT.

Now if they could just equip it with the ability to grab elements of its surroundings to add to itself and if it had some of the exoskeleton technology being developed we might finally be able to create something reminiscient of Roujin Z. Ahhh....one can dream....

So, 2001 is old now. I mean if you where talking about an OVA from the 80s, maybe even the early 90s you might call it old, but I don't know about 2001 yet.

Obviously you hire some space garbagemen to clean it up.

Sounds like Hellsing to me, I highly recomend it and the anime of it.

And yes, I do read mangas, and in some occasions even find the mangas better than the anime (for stories that have an anime equivalent at least, like Naruto, Midori no Hibi ...).

And yes, I do read mangas, and in some occasions even find the mangas better than the anime (for stories that have an anime equivalent at least, like Naruto, Midori no Hibi ...).

You see, in their world, the wealthy nations have funded everything. There are very few people from poor nations in space, and they lack space age technology even when the rest of the world is so advanced. When the largest nations reach an agreement as to how they are going to divide up the resources of the moon, they decide to base it off of what each nation has contributed.

This puts an unimaginable gap between the wealth of the different nations, so much so that the impoverished nations form a terrorist group to halt the conference where it is to be announced and hold the people hostage in order to make them change it.

While this may not necessarily happen in the future, I think it is CERTAINLY a possibility with the way things are today. I mean, if the US were to colonize the moon, do you seriously think we'd want to let other countries share the resources? The world has seen what our president will do for oil, just wait until he finds out about H3.

That is an innaccurate statement. They HAVE made robots that help the elderly, they just haven't solved the whole "stop them from going on a rampage and destroying the city" problem.

If anybody is interested in an anime which deals with this issue, I HIGHLY recommend Planet ES. It deals with a salaryman in space who works as a space debris collector (futuristic garbageman). Apparently space trash is a HUGE problem in the series, and even a tiny screw floating out in space can kill if its moving fast enough. Very interesting. I wonder how closely our future will mirror this.

Now this is all based on the anime, but it is still very interesting, and I wonder if it has any scientific merit.

Well duh! Think about it - what was the sterotypical nerd? A member of the Audio-Visual Club. Who makes movies? people who were in the Audio-Visual Club.

For those who want to see just how far this has gone, check out Battle Programmer Shirase. (If you're wondering where to get it, I had to scroll all the way down the google page to find a link that wasn't to a torrent site.)

Sosuke Sagara is an elite soldier who belongs to an independent special force named "Mithril". Mithril is a self appointed military force that fights terrorism across the globe. With technology that is far superior to that of normal nations, Mithril intercedes on behalf of justice. Sagara, a Second Lieutenant under Mithril's command, is assigned to the duty of protecting a girl named Kaname Chidori, who attends high school in Japan. To accomplish this task, he pretends to be a transfer student attending at Kaname's school. As Sagara settles into his new role as classmate, a massive plot unfolds beginning with the kidnapping of Chidori. What is Chidori's role in the conspiracy? Why does she seem to be born with knowledge of technology that has only been recently invented?

Sosuke Sagara is an elite soldier who belongs to an independent special force named "Mithril". Mithril is a self appointed military force that fights terrorism across the globe. With technology that is far superior to that of normal nations, Mithril intercedes on behalf of justice. Sagara, a Second Lieutenant under Mithril's command, is assigned to the duty of protecting a girl named Kaname Chidori, who attends high school in Japan. To accomplish this task, he pretends to be a transfer student attending at Kaname's school. As Sagara settles into his new role as classmate, a massive plot unfolds beginning with the kidnapping of Chidori. What is Chidori's role in the conspiracy? Why does she seem to be born with knowledge of technology that has only been recently invented?

We will more likely see Ranma than Gunslinger Girl in the near future....

They've extended it to 52 episodes now.

Check out animenfo.com for all your anime/manga info needs, and MangaNews for the latest scanslation releases (think scanslation slashdot.)

They've extended it to 52 episodes now.

Check out animenfo.com for all your anime/manga info needs, and MangaNews for the latest scanslation releases (think scanslation slashdot.)

Girls with guns and swords and jet fighters and kung fu moves are just sexy, period.

It needs more adolescent girls with guns

...they feature all kinds of operating systems every now and then. Well, maybe not what you'd expect... :) They either go all to way to fantasy land and make up something like they did in Lain (which in turn inspired a real life OS interface -- LainOS), or they humorously mimick real life OS -- think "Windaws XXXP" (seen on "Happy Lesson Advance") or "Red Hot Linux" (seen on "Chobits").

...they feature all kinds of operating systems every now and then. Well, maybe not what you'd expect... :) They either go all to way to fantasy land and make up something like they did in Lain (which in turn inspired a real life OS interface -- LainOS), or they humorously mimick real life OS -- think "Windaws XXXP" (seen on "Happy Lesson Advance") or "Red Hot Linux" (seen on "Chobits").

...they feature all kinds of operating systems every now and then. Well, maybe not what you'd expect... :) They either go all to way to fantasy land and make up something like they did in Lain (which in turn inspired a real life OS interface -- LainOS), or they humorously mimick real life OS -- think "Windaws XXXP" (seen on "Happy Lesson Advance") or "Red Hot Linux" (seen on "Chobits").

If anyone's ever seen the Crest of the Stars (Sekai no Monshou) anime, you know what I'm talking about. The Abh are a genetically engineered race of humans specifically built to live in space their entire lives.

To wit; resistance to radiation, normal physiology in low gravity, better performance at high Gs, a sixth space sense, etc. There's a great explanation here. The anime is actually based on a series of novels; consequently it has a level of narrative depth far higher than most TV series. To me, it feels like a book more than a TV series, and I loved it.

Nausicaa is a great movie from 1984 by Miyazaki. Its about Nausicaa, a princess from a small valley called the Valley of the Winds, and her fight to save the destruction of the valley by the endless fighting between other human countries. The entire world then is already in a sad state because poisonuous plants are growing everywhere, slowly killing off human settlements.

Great movie overall, I personally liked it better than Mononoke Hime.

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