James Andrews

Over the last 2 days I have managed to watch 102 episodes of a Japanese anime called “Naruto Shippuden”. I was able to do this legally online without having to pay to watch for each episode all thanks to the partnership between the Hulu and VIZ media corporation who are the license holders for Naruto in the US. There are a few things about this that really made me happy and I hope that some one somewhere in that industry reads this because I think they have a great thing going.

First off. I HATE Cartoon Network. As many of you may know CN is owned Time Warner when it was originally conceptualized the main idea was TW wanted a place where they could show all the old Hana-Barbera cartoons that they had purchased. That was all fine and good but it grew to be something more than that to the point where they were showing a lot of really great Japanese animation, as well as some great original material. Cartoon Network eventually started Adult Swim, which took control of CN’s airwaves after 10pm on weeknights and weekends. While they had some original programming based off of old Hana-Barbera media, they also had a nice collection of Japanese animation. Cartoon Network had become the leader in providing Japanese animation on TV despite ADV’s attempt at Anime Network.

Today’s Cartoon Network is a different beast. While they still do have some great original programming they have forsaken the Japanese animation even though there are still a lot of interest in Anime. With the exception of Pokemon which is played every weekday morning there is very little anime during the 7am-10pm hour. Adult Swim is a different story. For a while they had a lot of GREAT original programming. Aquateen Hunger Force which was my personal favorite and many others seemed to shine, but recently the shows have gone downhill in a menacing spiral and all anime has been pushed off to late saturday night/early sunday morning. A slew of [AS]’s mistakes include showing Family Guy to the point of it being unwatchable, shows like “Tom Goes to the Mayor” and “Tim and Eric good show great job”, and more recently the inclusion of “King of the Hill”, probably because some suit at TW felt that that horse hadn’t been beaten to death enough. They’ve basically ruined a good thing.

This is just one example of a television network screwing up and disappointing their viewers. Fox is notorious for scheduling changes that keep shows from becoming smash hits (ie Firefly/Family Guy), and I personally think that now is the time for the industry’s major overhaul.

NBC the parent company for Hulu is on the right track, but I still think they have a LONG way to go. Allowing the choice of what you want to view, when you want to view it is a great first step. Limiting the number of commercials per commercial break is AWESOME, even though I think they could do better in means of allowing the user a choice in the kinds of commercials that interest them. For example I don’t care about women’s products, don’t advertise them to me while I watch. The internet is empowering, allow the consumers the power to control what they want to see. There are so many times I turn on the TV and at 4am I can’t find a thing to watch because it’s all infomercials. Give me a world where I don’t have to watch banners at the bottom of shows advertising other shows. Give me a world where I don’t have to watch commercials about little blue pills until I need information about those little blue pills.

The state of television is dim, internet television’s future is bright, let’s do it right!

Yesterday’s post reminiscing of childhood television got me to thinking.  Not too long ago I was surfing Youtube, and I decided to see if they had any of my favorite childhood shows.  I was in luck.  Seems someone had put a significant amount of the Americanized version of Robotech on Youtube.  I think I spent several hours a few days in a row watching my old childhood friend.

Since I had had success with Robotech, I thought I’d search for “Starvengers”, which was one of my favorites of the “Force Five” shows.  It was pretty much “Starvengers” and “Gaiking” that I enjoyed the most.  Danguard Ace was my least favorite, but I still watched it.  Anywho.  I do my Youtube search and low and behold.  There is the first episode of “Starvengers”, but also episodes of Getter Robo G subtitled in english.  Which I have never seen.

It was pretty common until Anime was taken more seriously in the late 90s, that the American production companies that brought over shows like those found in Force Five, Starblazers and Robotech had a habit of totally bastardizing the show before it was aired to the American public.  Removing most indications that these events were happening in Japan.  Changing names of weapons was common as well.  I am getting a HUGE kick of some of the original names to the weapons.  In “Starvengers” the weapon names for Star Dragon were “single hatchet, double hatchet, hatchet boomerangs, and omicron beam”.  While “Getter beam” is not so amusing “Single Tomahawk”, “Double Tomahawk”, and “Tomahawk boomerangs” are a riot!  Why on earth would you change these names, they were brilliant!  I am thoroughly thrilled at the opportunity to watch the Japanese versions subtitled and unaltered.

A few years back I tried to re-watch the American version of “Space Cruiser Yamato” (Starblazers).   I got through a few episodes and just couldn’t continue, maybe I’ll give it another shot.

I really wish one of the big Anime distributors would buy the rights to these shows and re-release them in the US.  I think they’d be huge hits.  Even if the animation is circa 1978-ish.  They have held up pretty well over time.  Plus General “Hidler”  (who is based of Adolf Hitler) is a riot.