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You obviously have a defective robot.

Chiiiii?

If you don't find this manga to your liking, you might take a look at PlanetEs.
A more serious and utterly fantastic manga about life in outerspace in the pre-warp universe.
One of the best mangas, and best sci-fi for that matter, that I've read in a very long time.

It's what Enterprise *should* have been.

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

Oh yeah I thought PlanetES too http://www.planet-es.net/ http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?propertycode=PL A&categorycode=BMG/ of that too. In addition to dealing with space debris those guys had to deal with energy demands. Supposedly in the future man mines helium 3 from the moon to use in fusion. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/2 7/1931205&tid=160&tid=99&tid=126&tid=1&tid=14/

Yeah, it's great that she succeeded and all, but I really hate these "High school drop-out does good" stories. They just attract the regular high-school drop-outs and give them more ammo to validate their stupid mistakes. "See, that guy dropped out and he's super rich!"

I was standing in line in a grocery store the other day, and I overheard 2 woman talking about how successful Spongebob squarepants was and how it's marketed on everything. One woman says to the other "And you know who the creator was before he made up Spongebob? [dramatic beat] a surfer." Sure Stephen Hillenburg might be a surfer, but that's not the extent of his background training.

While looking at the photos I kept thinking that somebody has been watching the Angelic Layer anime series, or reading the manga series.

AL is more or less the same thing except your control your doll (robot) with technology assisted telekenesis.

Second, I'd like everybodies suggestions for other cool devices from anime you'd like to see created in real life.

Here's a couple I'd like.
An e-frame from Exosquad.
Obligatory Veritech Fighter.
A new keyboard setup, with hand enhancement like in Ghost in the Shell.
Kaneda's bike.
Make people fear you even if you're old with the Roujin Z setup.
A pokeball, so I can finally do something about that annoying dog next door.
Appleseed had the right idea.
You know you want capsules like in DBZ.
Um....I guess I want a Chii Persocon too.....
I'm done.

The anime is okay, but the manga is MUCH better than the anime for realism. It's set in the near future and is much more plausible with more actual science and understanding of what really living in space entails. It has almost singlehandedly (along with the Firefly DVDs) got me longing again for true space travel.

The manga PLANETES is a love letter to space travel. If you love space give the manga a shot.

This sounds like a precursor to Planet-es. It's a very well written anime (even from a Hard Sci-fi POV)

Let me look at the Game Soundtracks I have on my computer right now and see what my selections prior to this discussion say is best:

Doom Music, Bobby Prince (original, separate OST) - another mp3.com users bites it.
Mechwarrior II (original, ripped from the game CD)
Mechwarrior II:Mercenaries (original, ripped from the game CD)
various Final fantasy MIDIs (original, from the 'net)
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy S Generation (oringal, pseudo OST)
Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano, Masashi Hamauzu - Final Fantasy X OST (original, OST)
Wipeout (licensed, ripped from the game CD)
Wip3out (licensed, ripped from the game CD)
Halo - waiting to buy after/asking for Christmas (original OST)

I don't seem to see many non-originals in there. I believe that tells my opinion. Also, Wip3out's rip is 6/14 by the same artist: DJ Sasha so it's really a combination of licensed and original music). I wish vendors went back to using audio tracks on their CDs, but with DVDs in consoles becoming more common, I'm not surprised. I was disappointed not to find any audio tracks on the PC version of Halo, but at least there is a soundtrack available.

Time to send my office mate into gaming land....

Let me look at the Game Soundtracks I have on my computer right now and see what my selections prior to this discussion say is best:

Doom Music, Bobby Prince (original, separate OST) - another mp3.com users bites it.
Mechwarrior II (original, ripped from the game CD)
Mechwarrior II:Mercenaries (original, ripped from the game CD)
various Final fantasy MIDIs (original, from the 'net)
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy S Generation (oringal, pseudo OST)
Nobuo Uematsu, Junya Nakano, Masashi Hamauzu - Final Fantasy X OST (original, OST)
Wipeout (licensed, ripped from the game CD)
Wip3out (licensed, ripped from the game CD)
Halo - waiting to buy after/asking for Christmas (original OST)

I don't seem to see many non-originals in there. I believe that tells my opinion. Also, Wip3out's rip is 6/14 by the same artist: DJ Sasha so it's really a combination of licensed and original music). I wish vendors went back to using audio tracks on their CDs, but with DVDs in consoles becoming more common, I'm not surprised. I was disappointed not to find any audio tracks on the PC version of Halo, but at least there is a soundtrack available.

Time to send my office mate into gaming land....

Tokyopop publishes a number of Japanese game soundtracks (and compilations of game music). Sometimes I'll see one or two of these in a game store.

I wouldn't be suprised if fansubs have been screened before at smaller anime fests, but I haven't heard of any official screenings; I don't believe anyone's aquired rights to the series English-language release yet...

• Cowboy Bebop
  
• Love Hina
  
• Chobits
  

Try your ears on some foriegn music. I like a lot of Japanese stuff. Here's some cool things to try:

• Maaya Sakamoto: Grapefruit
• T.M. Revolution: Heart of Sword
• Boa: Race of a Thousand Camels
• Siam Shade: IV Zero

Something to be wary of... there is a lot of Piracy in Japanese CD's by a taiwanese company called Son May (abbreviated SM). Japanese discs are usually very expensive ($30-$40). The SM versions are usually found in the states between $10-$15 a piece.

My place of choice to shop is Tokyo Pop. Check it out.