I am in no way saying this is incorrect; in fact, pointing this out to the prospective buying audience is a service, informing them of one of the cornerstones of the series’ format. But as a key part of the series structure, should it be cited as a negative issue? I don’t think so!

The episodic nature of Golgo 13 is one of it’s great strengths. You can pick up whatever story you like and be able to hit the ground running immediately. You don’t even need to know who Golgo 13 is, as you can bet at some point in the storyline someone will exclaim “Golgo 13? The legendary assassin? Jesus Christ!!” If you are finding the story to be rather slow, or god forbid dumb you can safely shelve it and move on to the next one.

What it set me thinking was about the alternative. What if Golgo 13 had a multiple episode overarching plotline? It would be the most wretched thing ever done to the franchise!

Golgo 13 is a hitman. The best one ever, able to make impossible jobs possible without breaking a sweat or even changing his facial expression. The authorities are baffled, women are enamoured, and those who try to betray him turn up dead in short order. Each of the anime series episodes is about a single hit he carries out, mirroring the format of the original manga. He is all about the hit, nothing else. Filling in his actions in-between jobs or providing a long term motivation to the separate events is pointless as it would bog his character down with unnecessary details. Recurring plot elements would have to be introduced, explained every time they are invoked and would pad out each storyline with gumph not directly related to Golgo sniping a bitch with an M16.  These things are undesirable as they would wreck the tension that surrounds each story- instead of wondering how Golgo will pull off the hit you have the audience wondering if genki genki mayumi-chan will turn up again. I’m using an extreme example here but you get the point.

With a long term plotline also comes the need for secondary characters, which would necessitate Golgo building relationships, something that is rather redundant when you are supposed to be a cold hearted killer of men. Having someone around in the storyline who is familiar would also take some of the gloss off of his accomplishments and make them seem dull. As it stands, every secondary character introduced in a Golgo story is either in awe of or frightened by his abilities. Those who are contemptuous are usually converted with a rifle round to the forehead. If you had a character lingering around who knew Golgo and was used to his abilities then you risk the audience getting comfortable as well, pulling back the curtain to reveal the cold truth that each story has the same exact premise.

Recurring characters would also require that Golgo interact with them, and this would involve speaking in more depth than his usual terse manner, if he talks at all. Putting words in Golgo’s mouth would impart him with opinions, feelings, viewpoints, and other inconvenient things that ruin the power fantasy that he embodies. You can’t indulge fully in a badass power fantasy as a viewer or reader when the template you are supposed to put yourself into starts saying things you don’t agree with. Half the fun of the Golgo manga is to have a desperate character spend a chapter explaining their dire predicament in exacting and emotional detail only to have the master assassin say “…” or “where can I find him?” and walk off without a single care given.

Sure, Golgo 13 is not the most deep or demanding show plot wise, but never do you feel that you have been shortchanged by the episodic nature. It is a little unfair to cite this as a negative item, as it stands at the very core of why Golgo 13 works as both a manga and an anime.

Also, you should run out and buy the Viz Manga, Sentai Filmworks DVDs, or the movies from Urban Vision if you like the sound of what has been written here, you will not be disappointed.

It Has a Solid Premise That Doesn’t Falter After Three Episodes

Okay, there have been quite a few previous Pretty Cure seasons before this one, and so now they have the structure down pat. Every episode has it’s own self-contained plotline and monster to overcome, as well as a distinct message and a small addition to the overarching plotline. In this case, some magical tree has died, and at the same time some assholes are running around stealing peoples hearts in order to wreck the world. It’s pretty nuts. In each episode you are introduced to the dilemma of the week, see it escalate, watch a fight scene, and then the epilogue rolls. It also helps that the intentions of both the villains and the heroines is outright stated and acted upon from the very first episode, allowing you to get into the action right away. No filler bullshit here.

The Characters Are Awesome

Well written and lovingly crafted characters can make a premise come alive and this rule holds true for Heartcatch Precure, especially the main heroines. Sure, the side characters are forgettable, but they are side characters, geez. The villains, as usual for a Precure series, are awesome and a real treat to see in action with their quirky personalities. In particular you have Cure Dark, who is one of the most dangerous antagonists in the show and who, in a rare break from tradition, is a real credible threat to the main cast without a shadow of a doubt. Plus she looks badass.

The Animation Director of Heartcatch Precure Worked on Casshern SINS

Casshern SINS had amazing art direction and fight scenes. It appeared that the muted colours of the post apocalypse from SINS have caused Yoshihiko Umakoshi to rebel, making Heartcatch the most vibrant thing you will have seen for a long while. The colours are absurdly saturated, almost to a surreal degree that makes the magical girl premise almost seem normal when you look at the hyper colourful setting. Also, the fights own. They have since the first Precure series, mostly because they have a focus on physical attacks rather than just having dumb heroines yell “constipated moon shower beaaaaammmmuuuuuu~” and ending the fight after 4 seconds. There are still stock animation magical attacks, but only after a sweet-ass fight scene.

The Intro is Like a Drug

Seriously that thing is like crack or something, it’s really hard to get out of your head after hearing it the first time.

There is Fuck All Else to Watch

Have you seen the current anime season programming? It’s looking pretty wretched from where I am standing, and even if you find a show or two to watch I am sure you animation hungry people have gaps in your viewing schedules. Do yourself a favour and watch this. It owns!

Here is a rundown of Gundam in order of the year it was released:
Mobile Suit Gundam TV series/Movie Trilogy (1979/1981)*
Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta (1985)*
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)*
Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989)*
Gundam F-91 (1991)*
Gundam 0083 (1991)*
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)
Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)*
Gundam Wing (1995)*
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team (1996)*
Gundam X (1996)
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1997)*
Turn-A Gundam (1999)
Gundam SEED (2002)*
Gundam 00 (2007)*
Gundam Unicorn (2010)*
* = series/movies that have been released in America on DVD

The series/movies on that list, however, are not in any particular story order. Many follow the timeline of Universal Century, but others are alternative universes. Since the Universal Century is the main and largest timeline in the Gundam franchise, here is a list of the events in chronological order in that universe.

Universal Century timeline chronology:
Mobile Suit Gundam TV/Movie trilogy (UC 0079)
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team (UC 0079)
Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (UC 0080)
Gundam 0083 (UC 0083)
Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta (UC 0087)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (UC 0088)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (UC 0093)
Gundam Unicorn (UC 0096)
Gundam F-91 (UC 0123)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (UC 0153)

As for where to start, there are several options. Most of us who grew up watching Toonami were first exposed to Gundam Wing, which I would say was a great primer for the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series that would later follow.

Normally, I would say start from the original Gundam TV series from 1979, but it’s hard to recommend to those anime fans that have this distaste of anything made before 1995. Generally, Gundam Wing is the most well-known of all the Gundam titles because of it’s pretty boy aspect. Don’t let that element fool you, however, as that is just the candy to lure you into the real meat of the story which is more political and morally based than any other Gundam series. So if those type of fans have watch just one Gundam series, it might as well be this one.

If you’re a fan who is more into Go Nagai and like anime that is more campy and fun than deep and serious, G Gundam is the way to go. Simply put, it’s a national fighting tournament with giant robots. It’s silly and ridiculous, but it’s also the most fun you’ll ever have watching a Gundam series.

However, all those recommendations are from the alternative universes. I haven’t really recommended any from the Universal Century timeline. Mostly because I’m not sure what to compare it to. The best place to start is with either the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series or the movie trilogy. Not just because it’s the first, but it’s also the best. Its dark, it’s operatic, and truly feels like a real war, more than any other Gundam title. So unless you feel dedicated to following Gundam from the start, the only other types of people I could recommend this to are anime fans who feel burnt-out on mecha shows.

So there you go. You have several options of where to start and where to go from there. Sure, I haven’t explained too much about these series, but you know what: DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH! I ain’t your daddy. You have the internet. I’ve pointed you in the right direction, now go follow it.

In November, D-Link will launch the Boxee Box, a small, low power sipping box that will easily bring online video content to your television. If you currently use Boxee, you already know that Crunchyroll has an application that allows you to watch anything they offer via their website minus the hassle of actually visiting their website. The navigation is built around the fact that you are using a remote instead of a keyboard and mouse.  Right now the only way to watch Crunchyroll provided content on your TV is via a PC hooked up to your TV or a hacked Apple TV, both which can be tricky for the average person to setup.

The upcoming Boxee Box TV isn’t the only device coming to the market either. Google recently announced their plans to do a set top box and integrate their software into the next generation of TVs. No more will you need a dedicated computer or have several different boxes that all use power when not in use. It will be as simple as plugging the TV in hooking up an Ethernet cord or configuring your TV to use your existing wireless connection.

We do have some anime choices currently available already. Funimation offers various shows for download-to-own via the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Along with TiVo the fore mentioned platforms can also connect to Netflix, allowing you to stream all kinds of different shows including anime. The problem remains that we’ve been given so much more to watch by Funimation, Crunchyroll, and the rest that we are only given a small slice of the total offering. It is great that we can watch some, but I want to easily be able to watch everything given to me and not have to be at the mercy of Netflix.

That is where these new set top boxes come in, Crunchyroll has already established themselves by building a Boxee app, and when the Boxee Box launches they will be there ready for you to enjoy all that they have to offer. But what about the rest? Funimation has a great foundation laid–they offer a lot of their catalog online and even have gone so far to offer shows via Hulu. If that wasn’t enough they are also simulcasting shows that are currently airing in Japan! Funimation is serious about offering new and exciting shows via their online video channel and is taking the fight directly to Crunchyroll.

Anime fans have shown that when given a legal method of watching anime, free or not, that they will watch it. All the sites mentioned in this article wouldn’t still be online if that wasn’t the case. Obviously the time, energy, and costs associated with building sites and getting content online is worth it to both the animation studios and the distribution companies. The final key is coming into place. a cheap, easy-to-use way to deliver video content into the living room is almost here, all they need to do is take the next step. As anime fans, we need to let the companies know we want their content on more than just a website. We need to let them know that we support them in what they’re doing, and that all the time and effort hasn’t been in vain.

When I turn on the television now, I  find noting but Fifa World Cup. For some, it’s time to celebrate the world and all its glory, for me its just an illusion of what Africa really looks like. You look at the TV and you see all those smiling faces and you think to yourself everything is all right in the world. If South Africa is happy, then we should all be happy, because they live in some of the worst living conditions on Earth. The truth is after all these games are over, they’ll return to fearing for their life.

Africa is plaged with some of the worst types of people on earth. They believe that crime and corruption is the way to rule its people. According to a survey done by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for murder and first for assaults and rapes. Almost 52 people are murdered everyday.

The living conditions of South Africa is extremely unstable, and I can’t understand why the countries government and other countries governments don’t want to do more to get rid of its high poverty crime rate. The spreading of AIDS has become such a big problem that five million people are infected. As a result, South Africa’s death rate has skyrocketed.

This country has become a ticking time bomb that could go off at anytime. I think what most people don’t realize is that they can still be help and the countdown can be stopped.

Even though they have an extremely high unemployment rate, South Africa has potential because of the amount of resources they have. Major development has been done in some of the areas like Capetown, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Johannesburg to give people well enough conditions to start a better life for themselves.

Things like Fifa bring big revenue to South Africa and gives them time to recover. There is even a foundation that was created by Fifa that takes needy children in South Africa and gives them another chance.

But I ask you, how long do you think this happiness will last? Do you think that after the World Cup, the world will forget about South Africa? Will the country plunge into a period of death and despair, or can we turn this into a positive place where anyone in the world would want to live there?

Everyone deserves to have a chance at a fair life, no matter the kind of conditions they come from. If it means getting other countries to come together to help, so be it. Africa will continue to need are help long after Fifa is gone. I hope Fifa fans and the world will not forget the people of Africa but continue to help in every way possible so that it can become a better place to live.

Rumblings from Verizon country seem to indicate that they are also looking to eliminate unlimited data usage. So this got me thinking–now that our smart phones can stream music, download podcasts, apps and now stream video, is tiered pricing killing the mobile video star?

In the years since the iPhone launch (2007), mobile bandwidth data usage has exploded. No more did we have tiny color screens that could barely spit out a webpage. Now we have the luxury of full websites and access to more on-demand content.

More and more people are using their smart phones to stay connected with friends, watch video streams (Youtube, Netflix) along with texting and Twitter; now all of a sudden the carriers are pulling the rug from underneath us.

I think of sites like TWiT, Youtube, and Revision 3 whose core business model is to deliver on demand video content. With the new AT&T data price structuring (200mb for $15 or 2gb for $25), these sites are going to feel the hurt.

Now that Apple, HTC, and others have introduced front facing cameras, will they be worthless? You as a consumer must consider to yourself “Do I download the new album or application? Or do I wait until I can find some Wi-Fi?”

Tiered pricing could make all the great new and current features we have on our handsets obsolete. And what about future applications such as 3G head-to-head gaming? Will you consider the way you use your smart phone? Leave comments below letting us know what you think. We want to hear from you, the reader.

I started reading Naruto In 2007 and fell in love instantly. It became something like a guilty pleasure.  I loved the setting, I loved the characters and I the art direction. It was always so exciting to find out what was going to happen in the next volume. So much that I found myself reading fan theories online. One time I read that Kakashi was going to get killed because apparently alot of fans hated him. Not being one of those haters, I was understandably upset by this news. Thankfully, it turned out to be just a rumor (I was quite the gullible person back then).

The more I read the manga, the more I felt connected to the characters. As Naruto grow up, I feel I did as well. If you were to ask me a year ago what my favorite manga was, it was be Naruto–hands down. At the time, it was the most I have ever loved a manga, but as I’m typing this now I’m realizing I’m just buying the manga so I can read it to the end and get it over with.  Now don’t get me wrong, I still love Naruto. In fact, if you have a friend who is not really into anime or manga, I would recommend it would be a gateway anime. Love it or hate it, Naruto is a great example of popular shonen anime today. The story is not to shabby either…at least until you get to the Shippuden series.

If Masashi Kisimoto were to do one thing for me, he would change the title of the manga to Sasuke because thats what the whole manga is about now. The story went from being about a young boys struggle to prove that he could be the greatest fighter no matter what anyone tells him. Now its all about everyone whining about how much they miss Sasuke and how they are going to get him back. The story is still alright, but I just wish that things could have gone differently because Naruto deserves better.

All the Naruto goodies you could ever dream of can be found here. If you purchase any Naruto merchandise using that link, a percentage of the sale will go to support fightbait.com. Believe it!

A few angry fans on the ANN forum actually went as far as to comparing Dance in the Vampire Bund to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Lolita. Forum member J-syxx says this:

“Stanly Kubrik’s Lolita is perfectly fine and this isn’t. Have you ever actually read the novel, Lolita? Explain to me why the content in the novel of Lolita is legal and in every library in the country, yet this anime shouldn’t be allowed? Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Thankfully tuxedocat stepped in to refute this statement, “The Kubrick film was made with the intent to cause discomfort. Vampire Lolita is made with the intent to arouse. So yeah, creepy.” Had this not happened, I might have given up on anime forever. Frankly, I don’t want to be part of a group that will sincerely say something so uninformed. I applaud your valiance, tuxedocat. You’re a true warrior.

Let’s get one thing straight: I’m super bias about this topic. I really don’t give a fuck that a couple scenes that sexualize minors (“excuse me, she just looks like a minor; she’s actually a couple centuries old, lol”) are removed from an already mediocre show that I’ll likely never experience. But in order to give a more accurate report on the matter, I watched the first handful of episodes on funimation.com.

It actually wasn’t that bad. I’m to understand that they removed some naked lotion rubbing, but I couldn’t tell because the story made plenty of sense without the scene. I was also privy to scene where the female protagonist fought someone while naked, but her erogenous zones were blurred out (THANK GOD!).

There is one interesting, and probably inadvertent effect of this editing, however. The fact that this lotion rubbing scene was removed had no impact on the plot. Hell, I couldn’t even tell it was gone. This just goes to show how forced fanservice in anime has gotten. In a perfect world anime companies would catch wind of this and stop adding crappy fanservice where it doesn’t belong and start focusing on–oh, I don’t know–the plot.

I’m just as guilty as the next guy for enjoying a little fanservice on occasion. I will fully admit to having the hots for Yoko from Gurren Lagann, but she at least looked like she was legal. But having a seemingly 12 year old girl prancing around onscreen in the nude is crossing the line, and Funimation realizes this fact.

I can’t pretend to understand why they bothered acquiring this show in the first place–maybe it was part of a package deal, or they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into–but I’m glad they’re handling it with caution. Anime fans can’t afford for another company to go down, especially over something as stupid as a “child porn” scandal. Think about it, if Funimation crashes, anime is dead.

Another thought that occurred to me was that maybe they’re doing this intentionally. Perhaps they wanted to spark a little purposeful controversy. It reminds me of when ADV announced said they were changing the title of Utawarerumono to Shadow Warrior Chronicles only to release another statement two months later saying otherwise (the corporate equivalent of, “Just kidding! But you should have seen the look on your face!”). While I highly doubt Funimation will recant their desicion, it certainly can’t be denied that it got people talking. Seriously, was anybody watching this show prior to the announcement? I sure as hell wasn’t! And I know I’m not the only one that checked it out based solely on this fan uproar.

So here’s my message to you, Angry Anime Fans on the Internet: Stop whining. It’s only a cartoon. Your first amendment rights have not been violated, and Funimation is not out to get you. No matter how old Mina Tepes technically is, masturbating to her makes you a pedophile. Funimation is still releasing Strike Witches uncut, so stop freaking out. The only message that canceling your Strike Witches pre-order is going to send is, “People don’t want to buy creepy loli anime anymore,” which might not be a bad message after all. And my final piece of advice is this: DON’T BE A PUSSY, OR I’LL BEAT YOUR ASS!

Five Totally Badass Anime Series That Were Released Uncut That You Should Watch Instead of Dance in the Vampire Bund:

• Baccano
• Berserk
• Gantz
• Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal
• Shigurui: Death Freanzy

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