After the usual set of business such as announcing contests, wondering what was up with everyone downloading SHAFT Episode #39, Chris’ unhealthy obsession with Strike Witches, our blog review and a quick run down of releases, we sat down to discuss the biggest topic in anime today…

Fansubs.

We covered everything from what they are, how they hurt the anime industry, how they help the industry, the stigma, the grey area and everything in between. After we were done talking, we asked what you thought with your awesome live calls! Sit back and enjoy.

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After checking in with the usual we jump right in with the news coming straight out of Otakon two weekends ago. Aside from the big time attendance numbers the real showing was from Crunchyroll who announced a continuation with Gonzo and ADV along with a new deal with Media Blasters. A streaming success. Bandai bringing .hack//G.U over from Japan for those of us too lazy to play the Playstation 2 games. ADV with an underwhelming announcement with one anime license and several live action licenses. We end our coverage with some finer points of Funimation’s panel showing they’ve gone from hated door stop to fan favorite in 6-7 short years.

After a break, we put some time to a topic we brought up last week. Filler! What’s your gripe with anime’s way of keeping you constantly entertained while they make more relevant episodes. Check out what we thought was the worst parts and how it could be better for us.

We talk a bit about Black Lagoon and its release this week… plus a few other releases. And we end with a review of Azumanga Daioh. In all this time we haven’t reviewed this fan favorite. Check out what we thought.

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Early episode this week since Chris is out of town for the week. However, we have next weeks show all planned out and its a doozy. Gene will still be around for a live feed the normal time(7pm Eastern) right here on the blog in order to fill the void of our normal live show.

This week we talk about some old favorites that we have gone back and watched, reaffirmed Matt’s alive status(we were watching old anime WITH him) and our adventures at a Benehana style Japanese Steakhouse.

In the random of anime stuff for this week we talk about a Blu-Ray Animatrix, Pet Cosplay, Samuel L Jackson’s thoughts on the live action Afro Samurai, and a Gurren Lagann manga release.

We wrap up with release spotlight, talking about how the various box sets stack up this week, a review of whats on TV and all the old, lame useless jokes and bleep outs you can handle.

Join the fun, won’t you?!

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributors who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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This week, Gene takes off with another Code Geass rant having now finished the series. A dip into the mail bag to tackle the struggling question of bad anime, and an email talking about last show including what weapons we might have missed.

From there we throw down with some talk about Final Fantasy 4 for the Nintendo DS. An awesome game with beautiful new graphics, remastered soundtrack, and impressive gameplay. However, despite all that… not worth your money. Chris and Gene throw their thoughts on the Gurren Lagann dub out for all to see… the results may surprise you.

Big time release spotlight with two of the biggest titles of the year coming out with releases back to back, amazingly by the same company… amazingly both from Bandai.

We round it out with our reviews of Kujibiki Unbalance Vol. 1 manga and Shin Chan!

Join the fun!

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributors who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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This week the gang starts off quick by going into why good series aren’t lasting more then 12-13 episodes lately, Gene’s love for Code Geass and despair over voice acting DVD’s.

A trip to the mail bag with a middle eastern email and how Avatar isn’t an anime while Animatrix makes the cut, feedback on our Haruhi full series review, the Cowboy Bebop live action movie, good starter anime movies and some updates from San Diego Comic Con.

From there, the main event. Our, and your, favorite and unique anime weapons. While many familiar armaments made the cut, some of the more obscure make their way into the limelight.

We wrap it up with a two week long release spotlight and a review of Aquarion. This series while bright and beautiful comes off dark and foreboding. With slick animation and an interesting character design, the series has serious flaws in character development and plot execution. Not to mention a repetitive music track and rather disappointing dub track. Still worth checking out or getting as cheap as you can.

And we answer a question or two from the live chatroom audience!

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributors who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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This time around, we took a look at the sensation of Haruhi. As many regular listeners of the show have heard, we’ve found Haruhi rather mediocre in many respects. However, this series is most defiantly getting credit for some of the best visuals ever seen in anime history as well as some excellent music including its rather catchy vocal tracks. Hurting it however is everything else.

The plot takes half the series to set up and once set up throws it out in favor of an Odd Couple comedy style. This is sad as once the series is set up proper, many great ideas come up from many excellent prospectives. Character development is all over the place where Haruhi takes 10 minutes to develop and stays on the same destructive path through out the series and Kyon takes 6 episodes to develop and actually develops slightly more as time goes on. However, they are the lucky ones as other characters do nothing at all such as Nagato. The dub suffers by having A-list talent… not using it. I was rather disappointed in certain mainstays such as Crispan Freeman and Wendee Lee being in this series as they brought nothing new or excellent to the table. As for the rest of the cast, I wasn’t expecting anything. And yes, there is a JYB rant in this episode because he was part of the problem… not to say we didn’t pick on anyone else though.

We go on about this at great length in the episode as well as what others may see in Haruhi, its success in a viral marketplace, what the second Haruhi series may entail, as well as clips… lots and lots of clips. Forgive us if we seem a bit on a ramble in this episode as this was a rather tough series to review.

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This week after talking about whats currently interesting us… from Angelo watching Shojo anime to Chris developing a complex for cosplay, to Gene finding crappy 80’s style kung-fu… today we took some email. Talking about our thoughts on some anime we obviously didn’t have enough exposure with, an Anime Expo Crossplayers watch, and some interesting thoughts on Hayate the Combat Butler coming to the US.

From there, we made up for no review last week with two reviews this week. First off, arguably the best collaboration between western comics and anime since Witchblade… Batman: Gotham Knight. High marks for differing art style and low marks for a plot that was hardly interlocking.

Next, we talked about some releases that some may find the best and the brightest, and other we felt fell short.

We wrapped it up with what we’re considering the anime title of 2008, Gurren Lagann. High marks for just about everything. Ganiax has outdone themselves with an expressive mecha series that ultimately refreshes the genre with bright, vibrant characters.. lots of laughs and an engaging plot that turns traditional stereotypes and sheds new light upon them. Defiantly worth checking out if you haven’t already.

All that and the zanyness you come to expect.

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributors who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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Also, I forgot to mention it on the show, but if you love us… log in to the Blogger’s Choice Awards and throw us your vote!

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Sorry for the delay in this episode and our next Full Series Review episode. We had some unforeseen technical difficulties and the FSR episode will be coming shortly.

This super sized episode saw us discussing all things Anime Expo 2008. From ADV’s lack of sneak preview, dub casts for Gurren Laggen and Ouran High School Host Club, Fansub roundtable, SPJA Awards… as one sided as they were, a new Eva manga here in the states from a different publisher then Viz, Big Bandai announcements that didn’t include Haruhi including Blu-Ray, Gundam and a certain anime license you might enjoy and wrapping it up with some Ghost in the Shell 2.0 and Clone Wars news.

After that we invited Walt in to talk about the big Funimation winner take all acquisitions. How it ends up being one of the most fan friendly business decisions in anime history. What we expected would happen to the titles and how ADV can stay afloat to rebuild thanks to this what we consider ‘bail out’.

All that plus as many lame jokes as you can stand.

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributers who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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We talked a little bit about the end of Kanokon and our hope for a second series, Gene’s problem with the inability to dub a fantasy anime, L33tStr33t Boys, and the new blog content.

After we hit the mail bag and what a hefty mailbag it was. We talked about BERSERK and Claymore, talked about how Chris has a lack of conversation, feedback from last episode regarding both manga and under the radar anime. We finished up with a question about Buso Renkin that Matt wasn’t here to answer.

On our main topic of the day, we talked about the apparent decline in ADV citing the fall of PiQ, the licensing snafus, and the office auctions. We talked about what was going wrong for the anime giant and what they can do to make things right. A good ol’ fashioned talk about the anime industry it was.

After talking about some rereleased box sets hitting shelfs, we went on to review Desert Punk. Its like Mad Max, without the cars…. and with better girls…. and goofier characters. Honestly, if you’re into a zany teen and up comedy with a semi-post apocalyptic plot this is your series and we urge you to check it out!

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributers who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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This week was all manga all the time, except for the email we took, Gene’s thoughts on Read or Die and Chrono Crusade, Mad Libs and some releases.

Other then that we went into a full on discussion on what we enjoy for manga and what you might enjoy for manga. All manga!

Big thanks to Clint and other fine contributers who make this show better in their own unique and awesome ways!!

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