How Manga conquered the US
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( 3 / 133 )I played a couple of One Piece tracks on my last show - here are the You Tube clips of the episodes where I originally heard them.
First up, the infamous Sogeking theme - a parody of many an anime opening, done with the usual One Piece charm.
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Now here's Luffy's Island Song, another random funny moment that came out of nowhere.
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Of course, to appreciate the full exellence of One Piece, you have to watch it.
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( 3 / 125 )
Well, it's been quite a ride. The final episode of Death Note is out and well, I'm not going to start dropping spoilers now, am I?
No Cease and Desist fansubs, but we've got Ruberia to thank for a good sub of the final episode:
Death Note episode 37 - Ruberia fansubs
Already the episodes have been bundled together in one easy-to-download file:
Complete Death Note (episodes 1-37)
There's also three OSTs to look out for if you've enjoyed the music:
Death Note OSTs
Oh, and if you haven't read the original manga, here's a link:
Death Note manga
I feel kind of bad encouraging people to get all this stuff for free, but I know I'll be buying the manga, soundtracks, DVD boxset, keyrings, and a Death Note notebook (naturally) because I'm a bit of a collector, plus I feel it's worth giving money to things I want to support.
Anyway, I hope anyone who has watched this series has enjoyed it as much as I have. I doubt there'll be anything as good in the near future, but I'm sure a series that's just as compelling and well-realised will come along eventually. in the meantime, I'm off to read the manga for a bit to stave off my Death Note cold turkey...
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( 3 / 169 )
Well, not just yet, but pictures like that really make me wish there was more of an appreciation of manga and anime in the UK, or at least the US, so we could import English subs and dubs of series.
Speaking of which, Viz seem to have done a pretty shoddy job of their English dub of Death Note - Light just sounds like a whiny emo boy, not the calculated, removed sociopath that comes across in the original Japanese. I would include a link to the Viz trailer, but for those of you who haven't watched Death Note yet (hope you've got a good excuse for that), there's a ton of spoilers, so YouTube it at your own risk.
I'm not an elitist - I've watched many an anime in English, but the workaday translations that we get coupled with the popular belief that anime is just cartoons and therefore for kids keeps it marginalised, which is a shame, because there's a variety of manga and anime that caters to a wide range of tastes (One Piece and Death Note being my favourite animes for totally different reasons).
Ah well, at least the internet has pulled through again. Kuro-Hana aren't subbing anymore, but the cheekily-titled Cease and Desist fansubs look like they're going to take up the baton and finish off the final two episodes of Death Note:
Cease and Desist fansubs - Death Note episode 36!
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( 3 / 200 )
Ah boo...Animanda fansubs have dropped their subs of Death Note after getting a Cease and Desist notice from Viz Media (owners of the American license).
I could go off on a rant about the sad loss of a quality fansub (with only a couple of episodes to go until the end of the series), but instead I'll just recommend that you use Kuro-Hana fansubs, who despite receiving the same C&D notice, look like they're going to sub Death Note until the end.
Heck, even if Kuro-Hana do stop, it won't take long until someone else picks up the project...this is the internet, after all.
I'll post any updates if necessary.
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( 3 / 167 )
It's about time I raved about One Piece. Alongside Death Note, this is one of my favourite animes. It's all about Monkey D. Luffy, and his quest to become Pirate King by fiding the legendary treasure One Piece. On his travels, he gathers a crew (the Japanese term is 'nakama', an elegant term that means a friend who isn't related, more like a comrade), finds a ship, explores the world, and of course fights bad guys with his Devil Fruit powers.
I'll admit that when I first started watching it, I had just finished watching a lot of Naruto, so it took me a while to get used to the different animation style, also the pace and humour. But once Luffy sets off from the first town with the Marines that should be arresting him instead waving him off from the shore, crying manfully, I really started to love it.
But it's hard to sum up just what's so good about One Piece in a short synopsis (plus there's the issue of spoilers). This is an anime / manga with a lot of heart and a lot of style. There's very little of the introspective brooding that other shows use to drag out storylines (hello Naruto), and all the characters are given their good and bad sides, and are more lovable for it. Oh, and it's also damn funny.
****Side note: This is the original Japanese version I'm talking about, or course. The American version has been butchered by editing and redubbing (violence has been toned down and the orchestrated score has been removed). The good news in that Funimation (the guys behind the English dubs of Dragonball and the excellent Yu Yu Hakusho), now have the One Piece license, so hopefully it'll get a better treatment.****
Anyway, the best way to find out more is to just watch it! There's a couple of really good fansub projects for this show. The first I would recommend is this:
Kaizoku fansubs
These guys are doing a really good job with subbing One Piece, but they're a little behind with the episodes. Still, if you're only just starting to watch One Piece, you'll have 200+ episodes to watch before worrying about that problem.
If you watch 200+ episodes and need a new subber, you'll have to bounce between various places:
Gerusama (episodes 219 - 258)
ADC Elites (episodes 248 - 294)
Vegapunk (episodes 294 - present)
Go watch.
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( 3 / 137 )You should be...
...it's an anime/manga about a Japanese high school student who finds a notebook. Whoever has their name written in the notebook dies. If I say anything else, it would be against the rule of spoiler etiquette, especially for this show.
All I can say is that it's more than just a good anime, it's a tense thriller that's one of the best TV shows I've ever seen.
You can download the not-so-legal, but ever-so-good fan-subtitled (fansub) episodes from here:
Animanda Torrents (direct link to the torrents page to bypass spoilers - you can thank me later).
Or you can wait until the dubbed (and possibly edited) version is released in America and everybody is talking about it...
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