| Jun. 13th, 2009 @ 11:01 pm Good news for old school anime fans |
|---|
Current Mood:  hyper
http://www4.funimation.com/video/?
www.crunchyroll.com
Update: So I did some more digging and what crunchyroll.com is, is a legal fansub website. Sounds a bit odd. But I guess the deal Funimation made was that they could post fansubs on their site of the shows I mentioned before. The shows can be sold on Amazon but as fansubs.
And Crunchyroll is hosts fansubs and it is somehow legal.
Not sure how this works but the bottom line is that Funi DOES NOT actually have the real RIGHTS to the shows, just the rights by Toei to show them.
Here is hoping this means they bring the shows over here on dvd.
As you are probably well aware of by now, I really have no time or patience to update with a real journal entry with anything substantial. However I did notice many people haven't really noticed this or rather, haven't known to even look.
As you all know I LOVE old school anime. For me, (tho this makes me sound old I'm really younger than half the stuff I consider to be 'old school' ) the older stuff is, at times simpler and while we all have our definitions of what 'old school' is, (a big part of that definition is simply what you watched 'back in the day,' what got you into anime in the first place.) for me, while simply the stuff I watched when I was younger counts, quite frankly I just like older stuff, older than me even. It felt like stuff that had more talent and better story and writing than some of todays pieces. Hand drawn (while there are many pieces done like that today, my favorite older stuff sometimes were series that animated certain kinds of scenes that now, new pieces would just skip the scene or maybe even change it all together because it was easier.)
I want gritty but beautiful animation; not perfect because of the degradation loss due to the test of time; a story that could make you TELL these guys wanted this industry to move and wanted their story told; art and writing that could make you think these guys drew this like they thought they only had one chance to tell this story, so they would make it work right, now.
I wanna laugh at the same jokes these artists and creators laughed at in these series, I wanna cry with them, I wanna be on the edge of my seat, wondering if my favorite characters are going to be ok.
Sometimes, (and I don't mean this for all of the new series, I really don't) I feel some of the newer stuff is very packaged and about making money. This is a brilliant stand point. I mean it, as a business major and someone who loved this stuff back in the day, this is the 'way of the beast' so to speak. It evolved and grew and grew and it is now with the popularity growing and anime having been accepted as an art form that it is also a money making powerhouse. So much so that so much has saturated the market and for someone like me who is not looking for a lot, I have to search through the 'muck' to get to the 'gold.'
I don't even consider it 'anime' at that point. I consider it 'that show I liked.' Subtitled of course, but still 'that show I liked.' Sure I still watch everything I have ever owned. I'm not necessarily 'out' of anime. But before I bought 'Gurren Lagann' last year, I hadn't bought an 'anime' series in a few years. I was simply happy just rewatching my previously owned stuff; newer or older. But again, it is then simply 'That show I like.'
Now I'm sure it was always about money and one can argue that many of these new artists and directors are just that and want to also share a vision but that is not the point of my ramble.
BACK ON TOPIC! XD
Look, to each their own, like what you like and rejoice in it, but me I like my beer cold, my comics DC and my anime LEIJI FREAKING MATSUMOTO!
Space Pirate Captain Harlock
Galaxy Express 999
Queen Emeraldas
Interstella 5555
Galaxy Railways
Arcadia of my Youth
Gun Frontier
Cosmo Warrior Zero
Space Symphoney Maetel
Maetel Legend
Yes, I'm a dork but those are just some of his works.
Many of you may not know who he is but he is one of the pioneers of the anime industry and we wouldn't have some of the greatest and even worst anime of today without pioneers like him and directors like Rin Taro and Miyazaki, etc.
Bottom line: I have gotten mostly everything Matsumoto has had out over here. It's kind of a mix and match at times; timelines converging in different areas but essentially, his works are all in the same universe. Myself and many other old school fans have had to suffer through old bootlegged, fansubbed VHS tapes from YEARS back, trying to see through the 12th generation copies with faded subs because no one had been able to get dvd quality copies and worse yet, it wasn't as in as high a demand because maybe it wasn't pretty enough because it was all hand drawn and we have digital this and computers that. ("Well...back in my day...uphill...with no shoes..."lol)
Well some of the old school fans had spoken, dvd quality copies did get out there and some new, AMAZING fansubs were created. Many of which you can see on Youtube.
But, that wasn't enough. Certain series were incredibly long (most notably the 'Galaxy Express 999' television series which is 113 episodes.) and we could only get even bootleg dvds up to about episode 30 or so, even for the fansubbers it was hard.
Well, back in April, Funimation had made several deals with certain websites and companies, most notably Toei animation, and has aquired copies of such great works as Leiji Matsumoto's 'Captain Harlock' 1978 television series, his 'Galaxy Express 999' 1978 tv series, and they have also gotten a hold of some great series in their own right like 'Fist of the North Star, and 'Slam Dunk.'
Well I was on Amazon not too long ago and I tried searching for a copy of the GE 999 movie (Viz has lost the rights to the movies so PLEASE Funi, pick that up as well) just for fun to see if there were any legit dvd copies on amazon. (I, myself already had aquired the films on dvd I just wanted to see if anyone could get them up there) Well, what do I find on Amazon but that the GE 999 TV series is up there for download for your Ipod. THE WHOLE FREAKING thing!
Then I find that if you go to their website funimation.com you can click a link to their list of shows and you can stream all of these classic series for free.
Then I found the website crunchyroll.com who had a deal with Funi and are doing that same thing there.
SO WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS JOURNAL?!
Old school, new school, it don't matter. PLEASE SUPPORT THIS! Go, watch to your hearts content. Don't deprive yourselves of Space odysseys like Galaxy Express 999 or Captain Harlock, the in your face action of Fist of the North Star and the edge of your seat rollercoaster ride that is Slam Dunk.
My greatest wish is that these go well enough that they eventually get released on DVD. If they weren't, tho I would understand as they may not be as popular and 'shiny' as some of the newer pieces, I would be disappointed and maybe even feel like I was slapped in the face that I came so close to owning these pieces that before I was lucky to get maybe 20 episodes on an old 12 gen VHS fansub tape. T_T
Ummm...if it helps there is alot of new stuff on these sites too? ^_^; Code Geass and the new Naruto just to name a few.
This has been my rant. If you disagree, no disrespect but I don't really care, it's my page and I just wanted to post my two cents and maybe spread some awareness. If this gets any of you interested, then I did indeed succeed.
Thanks. |
|  |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
legacyshadow's journal
silly