Otakuism

So apparently Bandai has sent out a press release (courtesy of ANN) forbidding the subbing and Distribution of the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society. The important part is here:

“Fansubs, even those not sold for profit, are harmful to our properties and industry overall and we will be watching closely to make sure our rights regarding SSS are not infringed,” said Ken Iyadomi, President of Bandai Entertainment Inc. “We are prepared to take legal action against fansubbers and illegal download and other distribution sites if this notice is ignored,” he added.”

The only question I have is why now? What makes SSS so important that they single it out out of ton of other fansubbed properties to make it forbidden. Even though they talk of other series they really mean SSS. Is ghost in the shell some super hot property in America that they fear even one fansub will hurt their earnings? Or is Bandai falling on hard times and pulling out the ‘our only financial problem is piracy’ card to cover their ass’s? Though it is most certainly known that most fansubber’s won’t comply to this. Fansubbing is too ingrained in the culture to try to get rid of it with one press release, especially if your only doing it for one show. Only thing to do now is to wait and see what happens once SSS does come out and if Bandai is willing to do the unprecedented action (as far as I can remember) and go after fans.

Someone finally gives next generation the respect it deserves.

Ok so this isn’t a ” Star Trek References in Anime ” but instead my thoughts on Black Lagoon. Detailing the lives of modern day pirates, Black Lagoon is one of the coolest anime in recent memory. What else has a girl who goes around shooting guys in short shorts, or your ex-terrorist maid going terminator on people’s ass’s, or a CIA chinese assassin who can’t speak Japanese worth a damn. Truly it was all the scary women who knew how to kill you a hundred different way’s and enjoyed it that made this show great. Nice engrish OP too.

Shouldn’t Nanoha be Revy as they both have Godmode shooting skills?

I liked how the show managed to blend the real world with your “No way can that happen in real life” anime world. This was mostly through the villians. So, ok maybe the neo-nazi’s weren’t that realistic, but you can’t say the same about the columbian druglords in the Roberta storyline or the Islamic terrorists in the last two episodes, along with all the references to the crime world. We also had a link to the real world in Rock, our narrator and idealistic foil to Revy’s diehard cynicism. He start’s the show with his kidnapping and end’s it with, ironically, his kidnapping. But that doesn’t mean we don’t see him grow up along the way. He’s kind of like Takemoto from Honey & Clover, except he get’s shot at a lot.

I’m gar for Rock.

Of course this is hardly the end for Black Lagoon, with a 24 ep second season coming at some point in the future. Hopefully the second season will fix my only complaint of Black Lagoon, that it drags on too much. We did not need three episodes for Roberta or the one ep detailing the Nazi’s entire background (I was seriously falling asleep during that episode). Still Black Lagoon was a ton of fun and I’m greatly looking forward to the next season. Hopefully we’ll see more Roberta and the chinese assassin whose name I never got. So if you like girl’s with guns, maids with guns, crazy real world action sequences or manly male character’s definately check this out. It’s currently liscenced but I know that doesn’t stop a lot of people. Uh I think I rambled through this entire review…

Hawt