Some people only seek help AFTER detonating islands... tsk, tsk.

So... AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or maybe, GAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Stress makes us do things we regret. Like destroy Hong Kong. Oh and apparently rend people asunder in horrible scenes of vicious carnage.

Scream with me as we dissect a horrifyingly messy anime delight of mine, GenoCyber!

WARNING: NSFW! Horrifying scenes of violence follow, only click the jump if you're steeled for nightmarish visions of brutal violence and language.

RG Veda: Nipple Tassels are GO!

Still working on 6-10 of my top ten, but I figured I might as well add something for the laaaaaaaaaaaadies.

This one goes out to my sister, my anime comrade-in-arms during the tragically sensitive period of that I explored the animation of the heathen-filled far east.

When seeking out fire-wielding, effeminate characters accept no substitutes. Let's flutter about in ecstatic discussion of RG Veda.

Heroic Legend of Arislan: A Girl Who would be King. Wait, that's a dude?!

So in watching anime there's occasionally moments when a beautifully animated character walks on screen and a brief panning sequence is used to drink in the character's appearance and then one dumb bastard in the room might say something to the television screen, like "Hey baby, that crown looks heavy. Can I hold it up by your boobs?" or something equally idiotic.

For the record, I'm usually THAT bastard.

Pleasure to meet you.

And I should also note that at least 40% of the time in anime that "hot lady" is not a lady and so it was with my first taste of the Heroic Legend of Arislan.

Oops.

And here people wonder why I stopped drinking...

It's not fair!

(Such is the appropriate reaction to sad and weird ass news like almost every anime company I supported since I was eleven years old tanking in Bankruptcy and pulling their stock from the market.)

Losing a friend is always hard, losing a friend in an industry is also hard. Watching a fledgling industry you're obsessed with fall into a downward spiral sucks. It sucks hard.

Starting sometime in 2008 (give or take), the market took a turn. "It's nothing," says the government. So the wheels began turning sending us into a nationwide depression that apparently is affecting the rest of the world.

Without wandering into the serious political screw-ups leading up to this problem and the insanely idiotic choices that followed from the new guy in charge... One of the early indicators for nerds that the shit was hitting the fan was when business began being eaten by other businesses. The point that the alarms went off was when multiple businesses began filing both Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 Bankruptcies.

So it was that the anime industry took a massive blow in the USA. Japanimation Giants ADV Films and CPM filed for Bankruptcy. With other teetering on the edge to this day.

What does this mean to you? Well, it means that your once overwhelming access to anime libraries have been significantly stunted.

Don't slit your wrists because potentially this can only mean the formation of something much better. But as of this moment, your stuff isn't readily available and it will probably be several years before these massive libraries of anime come back on the market domestically given all the madness with the licenses and potential bankruptcies of the original license holders in Japan.

SO basically, I'm whining.

I'm nostalgic for all the stuff from the early nineties and if I could make hot, sticky love to one institution of anime distribution it would have been ADV Films. They pushed the quality of DVD menus, audio quality, dub scripts, special features, etc. way past the bar set by all those OTHER guys. Also their library was magnificent.

I know it's weird, but ADV changed my entire attitude towards the art of the english dub and demonstrated that the only thing holding back other distributors was themselves and the effort they were willing to apply to the adaption and presentation. They made stuff I would normally avoid watching at all costs not merely BEARABLE, but enjoyable!

Uh, anyway, I'm gonna stop ranting a bit here. Reserving the right to come back and update this so it seems like a more... logical and reasonable post. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just rant some more.

SLEEP IN FEAR!!!

Birdy the Mighty: Making High School awkward for everyone

Ever have one of those days where you wish you could be someone else?

And then that day comes and you find yourself gaping into a mirror wondering why you are wearing your sister's dress, wearing make-up and heels that don't fit and you're standing in a bus station men's bathroom in an unfamiliar city?

Uh, me either.

Anyway, let's talk about Birdy the Mighty, a personal favorite of mine, but I don't know about squeezing it into the top 10 since there isn't enough to satisfy my greedy anime hunger. So let's just consider this a brief break from the top 10 and go with a strong anime recommendation.

Good Dub, Bad Dub: A Field Guide to audible fun you can understand

So anime has been bleeding over into the USA for since around the 60's. During the 80's so many shows were dubbed and renamed that companies are still trying to clean up the legal mess since so many fingers were in their pies.

One thing has only recently begun to truly change though: Dubs have MOSTLY gotten better, but bad ones will haunt us forever. Let's talk about the differences between good and bad. And then snarl a lot.

Excel Saga: To "Excel" is to invite a spray of mace in the eyes

Afro jokes, old anime references, random acts of violence, fast talking so fast that it actually hospitalizes voice actors and weird shit that is SO WEIRD that it puts all other weird shit to shame.

My number #5...

Let's press the issue that is Excel Saga!