What are you Watching?

[_D_]

I used to collect stuff but mostly only because it would eventually get banned in my country. The problem was that the department that handles viewing of controversial material is swamped and can take as much as a year to get around to viewing such offerings. But the vids are freely available from rental shops (the few still in existence anyway) until then. Got quite a collection that way. We used to get the Cream Lemons from LD copies for subbing purposes back in the 80s. I think Rall was the first one we did which started off the tentacle craze. Urotsukidoji we also had subbed. As I recall, we shipped that one to the UK to and it ended up being shown at a big convention there which started off its notoriety in that country. It's still a very popular film over there. I haven't kept up with this sort of thing in a long time now though as I had other things on my plate over the past 10 years. As far as I can tell though, the Japanese are still keeping up with stuff that would get banned over here content wise. The fetishes still prevail but recent changes in laws up here would put you in jail if they caught you with such newer material to the point that there is no longer a distribution channel. I couldn't even get Sizzle magazine with the Omaha The Cat Dancer serialization as Diamond cut a deal with Canada customs and will not ship anything of that nature to Canada. So, downloading the copies off Usenet was my only option. Rather loathesome. Ditto for Hentai material. Just not worth the risk to anyone to import it or download it anymore.

I was following the English translations for Futari Ecchi but Tokyo Pop stopped after 4 volumes saying it was too costly. I think the real reason was the content after those initial volumes got to be too controversial to print in North America. Weirdly enough though, they are available for reading online in German and French! All 50+ volumes have been translated and are for sale in those countries. So much for the 21st Century being a more enlightened age over in North America...

[greg]

I just finally watched the last episode of Disgaea. It may be slightly different from the game, but I thought it was fairly decent. Granted, I have not yet completed the game, but something tells me that the ending to the game will be more satisfying. I thought that the ending to the anime was somewhat okay, but the ending just seemed a bit "Huh?"

[Animusubi]

Watched Sonic Soldier Borgman: Last Battle on VHS last night, I remember liking this anime a lot when I was younger (still do!) because it wasn't just about them in awesome looking suits. So eventhough I didn't see them in the suits till much later, I liked the character development. Now of course I want to watch the whole series.

[greg]

Last night we started watching Yawara as a family at the dinner table, and it's even holding the attention of my 4 year old. AnimEigo was giving out free DVDs of the first 4 episodes or so at the San Diego Comic Con in '07 and I got it then (I can't believe it's been so long ago already!). I since gave that DVD to a friend years ago, so it's been a long time since my wife and I watched this. Gosh, that summer we went to the SDCC was just before she got pregnant.

Anyhow, Yawara is such a fun show! We just finished episode 5 tonight. I bought the box set from AnimEigo a few years back after they first discounted it, but we are finally now getting around to watching it. We've exhausted the Lupin DVDs that I own (the Pioneer ones). I should get the Discotek Lupin series sometime soon.

[usamimi]

Yawara is so cute! I remember watching that in anime club back in the day...we only watched the first 10 episodes, though, because a bunch of the guys in the club got "bored" with it after a while. (Go fig.) It's a shame the whole series never got released here.

I just recently got a great deal on the complete series of Eureka Seven (I found both complete box sets at Hastings used for $18, and they have a deal were if you buy 1 used DVD you get the second used dvd you buy of equal or lesser value for $1, so I got the whole series for $19) with some trade-in credit I had. I'm thinking of starting it today, I've heard good things about it (I only ever saw the first episode back when it first came out). I also just ordered the complete Sorcerer Hunters box set online with some more trade-in credit I had, so I'm looking forward to watching that again--I haven't watched that series since I had it on VHS back in the day!

[greg]

We'll start on the 3rd Yawara DVD tomorrow night. Watching this really reminds me of how much I love AnimEigo. They don't dumb down their translations, and they provide extensive footnotes. The subtitles on this DVD are excellent: you can disable every subtitle and you couldn't tell if it came straight from Japan or not, you can have no subtitles but just translate signs and such, you can have the dialogue subtitled but the signs and footnotes will be disabled, and finally you can have full-blown subtitles. The second to last option is my favorite. I don't need a footnote to tell me that they are sitting at an oden joint for dinner, nor do I need a footnote to explain what taiyaki is. I don't need translations of newspaper headlines translated either, as it would just get in my wife's way of viewing. I also don't care to have every judo term explained to me, but it's nice that if anybody really is interested, subtitles are optional to explain them. AnimEigo truly loves anime and anime fans.

[usamimi]

That's one thing I always absolutely loved about them--they always want to try to explain things as best they can for the Japanese-cultured-impaired. I feel like they spoiled us a little, though, because now when I'm watching something and they don't even have subtitles for signs/letters/newspapers, I get really annoyed. XD

Right now, Nitro and I are re-watching "Sorcerer Hunters", since he's never seen it and I probably haven't seen it in 10 years (or more?!). I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't seem as good as I remember it (or maybe I just forgot that it starts out really slow). I re-read the manga last year and forgot just how much I used to enjoy this series back in the day.

[Animusubi]

I've been watching alot of Ranma 1/2 in Japanese, and I feel like I'm watching for the first time again, which is awesome. I still like the dub (minus Richard Ian Cox), as it is still just as nostalgic for me. But I have a new love and appreciation for the original. I am in love with everyone's voice.

[_D_]

Just found the first 5 episodes of Gold Lightan subbed on Usenet. Fun pre-transformers anime and still wildly popular today. Never saw it subbed before. This was not released in English as far as I know. Definitely very Henshin/Sentai like in many respects. Can also be formulaic but that was part of the genre for all those shows anyway...

[kndy]

Yesterday, I began watching a series called "Penguindrum" (Mawaru Pingudoramu). Watched the first "Berserk" film and it took awhile to get used to the new animation. It was OK, good if you don't have time to read the manga or watch the original 1997 anime series but like most abridged animated films, you miss out on a lot.

I will be watching Toriko next....