Digital or Physical Anime – Which Do You Prefer?

In recent years the entertainment industry has seen some drastic changes to how you acquire media. Not too many years ago, you had to have some sort of physical storage device in order to, for instance, play movies or television programs. VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray; neither of these are required anymore. Providing that you have a good bandwidth and a stable Internet connection, it is today possible to access a vast library of entertainment via your computer or TV within mere seconds. This is all thanks to streaming.

What I want to focus on in this text is anime in particular, although you could argue that what I will say here could be applied to movies too.

Anime on Kickstarter – Masaaki Yuasa’s “Kick-Heart” and Why You Should Help It

Do you remember my old post back in March 2012 on how I raised the question whether or not funding platforms were a possible future for anime? Prayers have been heard and anime has finally found its way onto Kickstarter.

Called Kick-Heart, it is a short animated film about a pair of pro-wrestlers which will be directed by Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, Kaiba) and animated by Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell, Guilty Crown). Not only could this be a piece of interesting animation in itself, but more importantly, this could be the start of a new era in the anime industry.

If you are a fan of anime, I wish you head over to the Kickstarter page and donate your share to the project and help make it a reality.

Anime is Not Getting Worse – We Only Lack Perspective

“All shit” they say.

A common complaint these days is how anime is declining, that true quality is a dying breed. “Moe is taking over the industry! Fanservice is everywhere! Whatever happened to the good old series that were actually mature and oozed “masterpiece”?”

To strengthen their arguments, people bring up old classics such as Cowboy Bebop or perhaps Neon Genesis Evangelion while pointing out K-ON! and other “four girls” series as the harbingers of death. Anime of today sucks.

Although, let us be honest here. Anime is not becoming worse nor is moe killing the industry. Those who claim that are utterly silly and probably ignorant. I would say that they lack perspective on how our viewing habits have evolved.

The Viking’s New Clothes – Theme Switch and More!

Did you notice that something seems different about Anime Viking? Well, that is because it is different! There has been a theme switch and now everything is fresh and sparkly. But that is not all. There will also be some other, smaller, changes. Hit the jump to find out what!

Are Funding Platforms a Possible Future For Anime?

Update! Dannychoo has written his own post about this! Read it HERE!

Let me start by telling you a story of a video game company called Double Fine. On 7^th February, they started a fund raising project on a website called Kickstarter, one of many so-called “funding platforms”. The idea of these websites is that you come up with an idea you want to realize, but cannot afford, and you let other people donate money to your project. You could say it is a product paid by its customers.

Why Do People Fansub? – Part 2

The Internet, a magical place where anything can happen. When it comes to anime, we now got the luxury of having basically any anime we want in our hands in the blink of an eye. But despite there being legal ways to watch anime, people still fansub.

In my first post I, very simplified, brought up some possible reasons as for why people still fansub. Whether they hold true or not is not up to me to decide, because I have no insight into fansubbing. But anyhow, let us play with the idea that we are going to fansub an anime, whichever we would like. It could be Haruhi, Bakemonogatari or something completely else, it does not matter. Now, the question is: what would you focus on when fansubbing?

I would say quality.

Why Do People Fansub? – Part 1

Picture by 嘉志 – Source

This is it. For each little step I take, I go deeper into the dark, scary and unknown territory. All alone, only accompanied by hundreds of distant glances from lurking monsters that are waiting for me to do a mistake and trip over. I wish them no harm, not at all; I only want to ask some humble questions. Will you please listen to them?