Damn, I was recently told that anime.c.la now only hosts French-subtitled anime. Given the super download speeds people were getting from that site, I’m sure it will be missed by the English speaking anime crowd (that used to use it anyway).
You can actually verify this without downloading any episodes by reading the filenames of each episode for its fansubbing group. You’ll find that all the groups listed are French-subtitlers.
And January’s poll ends, with 101 reader responses from 25 days worth of exposure.
Nothing much needs to be said given the clear difference in responses between categories. Most Anime Field readers (71.3% of them, in fact) are no different from the resident blogger, with a subbed-only anime diet. 21.7% enjoy both subbed and dubbed anime, while the remaining 6.9% “eat” their anime raw.
Given the success of this poll, I’m definitely going to continue polling and polling (until someone bashes me). Hmm, I wonder what I should ask next…
A few posts back, Rainy - who many of you should know from Rainy Anime - tipped me on Chiisana.net. I thought that Chiisana.net had gone down permanently, but clearly I was wrong.
So, a short feature follows:
1) Chiisana.net
AnimeOtaku.info - an excellent anime downloads forum - has been taken down temporarily due to personal (or actually, not-so-personal) reasons. If you have been on the forum even on a semi-regular basis, I think you’ll agree completely with what Ranma says:
Well I’m sorry to say that i lost interest in the site because of the actions i see from the mods and members, it’s really sad to see how people acts toward each other.
when i started the site i wanted a place to make friends instead it turned to be a place where people just fight. they even fight from the simplest thing. i spent a lot of time/money to keep the site going but from what i see it all becoming a disaster ..
the main reasons that got me to do this:
- Members doesn’t read the rules, create multiple accounts and fight with each others.
- The site became a spaming place , full of nothing but crap.
- Mods just abuse their power and ban members who doesn’t get along with them.
But luckily, Ranma will be bringing the forum back up in a couple of days. Yay!
Don’t worry, normal summaries and reviews will still continue. The Digest is just a peripheral thing. Make sure you read on though:
ARIA The Animation Episode 12
Another episode involving the mysterious “past” of Aria. This time, Akari gets to visit the very first colonists of Aria, at a time when Aria has yet to be flooded. While it is nice to know about Aria’s past, I much prefer episodes involving the camaraderie of the trios.
Bleach Episode 65
It seems this divergence from the manga is going to stay. For now, I can’t say whether I’m interested in this anime-only arc yet, given the lack of details surrounding the new “bad” guys. But one thing’s for sure, this episode is no different from the previous one. Instead of Inoue being kidnapped, it’s Chad’s turn. Bleh.
Onmyou Taisenki Episode 10
I couldn’t find my disc with the 9th episode, so I skipped straight to the 10th. And this episode is another boring one, with yet another banal battle. But since Riku has finally returned to his “seat of power”, it’s about time we see more exciting stuff.
Kashimashi Episode 2
Yes, Kashimashi is progressing just fine. Hazumu is uber cute, especially with this bra-buying episode! At the moment, I’m enjoying the comedy, but with the appearance of the aliens, I hope to see the more interesting parts the manga readers have been talking about. Anyway, where’s my yuri???
Black Cat Episode 13
Hoho, Black Cat is a cute kid alright. I think it must be this transformation that will trigger his Tao powers, enabling him to fight Creed on equal terms. I wonder what kind of abilities Number 13 will get though.
I visited AnimeBlues.com to check out some downloads today and saw a downtime notice. Specifically, I saw:
animeblues.com r brOked
Found a bug that we need to fix before service can resume. visit the forums to keep posted
In an effort to ingrain regular posting habits, I’ll be posting daily anime digests - very concise (or rather, terse) summaries of the various anime I watch on that particular day. And today, we have:
Law of Ueki Episode 33
The transition to Dragonball status isn’t sitting well with me, even though I’m still interested in seeing how Ueki develops.
Mar Episode 27
Finally, another loss for Mar. It’s always boring to see continuous wins for the good guys, ya know. But with Ginta fighting the next one though, I doubt we’ll see another loss. Actually, I was surprised with the preview of ep. 28. I had really expected Rolan to fight Ginta.
Onmyou Taisenki Episode 8
I’m not sure why I started on Taisenki anymore. The novelty of the special effects has already worn off. This episode is the 8th episode and the 8th battle our protagonist is subjected to. Far too predictable.
Yakitate Japan Episode 53
Arghh! And I thought the reactions had reached their supernatural limits when Cannabis Japan changed history. The new Yakitate 9 competition is clearly an attempt to extend the show.
Rozen Maiden Traumend Episode 11
Another strong episode from Traumend. How will Shinku and Jun react? I’d hoped to see Jun weave some miracles with his ability the ability we saw at the end of Season 1 around this stage. Hopefully, we’ll see something like that in the next and final episode.
Even though they’re already a ton of Kashimashi summaries floating out there, I’ll do this anyway, but I’ll keep the summarising short and the comments long. So, why my insistence on blogging Kashimashi (especially with my uh… not so consistent posting this month)? Because this anime is right on track towards making my must-watch anime list. I tend to gravitate towards shoujo-ai, and given the lack of them in recent times, Kashimashi definitely sticks. And based on previews and this episode, I’d say Kashimashi seems to be a little more explicit on the yuri in comparison with recent shoujo-ai like Maria-sama ga Miteru and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.
In Kashimashi Episode 1, we see a girlish-looking guy, Hazumu, who falls in love with a schoolmate - Kamiizumi Yasuna - when he helped her gather some plants previously. His friends notice this development, and some of them - Asuta and Tomari - suggest that he confess to her. Of course, Hazumu was warned by another friend - Ayuki - that if his confession should fail, even the original friendship between himself and Yasuna could very well disappear.
But Hazumu confesses anyway and gets rejected. As to be expected, he feels terribly dejected and starts climbing the mountain where he and Yasuna first met. But as time passes, his friends get worried and start searching for him. In the background, we have an alien spaceship crashing towards the Earth, and guess what? We have the spaceship crashing into our lovely Hazumu, only to return an even lovelier female Hazumu back to us. The technologically advanced aliens managed to resurrect Hazumu, but got the gender wrong in the process.
And that’s where the episode ends. I know this isn’t too detailed, so for a detailed summary, visit Random Curiosity - where you’ll find a really detailed and chronologically correct one.
Well, I found the spaceship crashing and failed resurrection thingy pretty wierd (i.e. unrealistic like mad), but other than that, the story looks solid enough. You don’t see male-to-female transformations so often anyway. Some parts of the episode I found pretty funny too, with chibi-parents somehow pulling my funny strings. Hopefully, the animators can maintain a strong comedy-love-drama plot.
But there’s one thing I really hate, and that is the starting scene that depicts some part of the future - where Yasuna kisses the female Hazumu after school, with Tomari catching them in the act. The reason for the hate comes from my wierd scaredness over really twisted storylines where the animators give you a final scene to expect - only to make a really sick twist in the end. But when that happens, I love it. Lol, contradicting personality isn’t it?
Another gripe I have is with the relatively slow subbing, even though there are five subbers on Kashimashi at the moment. I know it’s not my place to criticize, so I really thought of delving into the raws or manga… Must wait… Must…