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Behind every large organisation lies an evil, twisted man?

Have you ever wondered, what goes on behind the scenes of an anime blog, and perhaps any other blog around? There’s really more to it than just simply setting up a blog, start typing whatever that’s on your mind and post it up within the next 10 minutes. Maintaining a blog is much more than simply coming out with a new post whenever you feel like it.

If you’re a blogger yourself, you would probably know what I’m talking about. It’s not easy to come up with a new topic to blog about every other day, especially when you’re in a tight niche like anime. There are thousands of other anime blogs, sites and forums around to announce the latest breaking news, and these news travels fast.

And there are only that much of original content and ideas (which really aren’t all that original anymore) that any single person can come up with every once in a while. Bloggers on team or multiple author blogs such as THAT Anime Blog would have less pressure since there are more heads to think and discuss over ideas for a new post.

However, those who are running a one person show would have a harder time to come up with new ideas regularly. That’s why most anime bloggers feature at least one episode review post weekly. This way, there would always be something to blog about each week, albeit a bit time consuming and could sometimes become a hassle, especially when the series starts to take a down turn *cough*firsthalfofshana2*cough*

That was probably one of the reasons why Owen started the Anime Blogging Collective, or simply the A.B.C. More heads are always better than one, and those in the group could easily discuss about topics and ideas to blog about, either individually or for the most part, as a group. It’s always fun and satisfying, especially when it turns out well, such as during the 12 Days of Christmas, anime style.

And that was the main reason I joined the A.B.C., a little before the discussions for the 12 Days of Christmas postings started. It was my first time participating in something like this, so it was really fun and exciting. However, if you’ve noticed, there hasn’t been much (or any) activities for nearly 4 months since then.

There has been discussions, one of which was for Valentines, but efforts and enthusiasm were hampered over and over again. It doesn’t help that our president (Owen) never really participated much to help coordinate the group, but expects others to do so and starts hammering down on you if you don’t. Shirukii already posted that particular announcement from Owen up along with a rebuttal.

Since I’m still quite new in the A.B.C., I’ve only joined in with the 12 days of Christmas joint blogging, but I recalled being disappointed and unimpressed by the fact that Owen mysteriously disappeared and dropped off after around the 3rd or 4th day without saying a word for the next couple of weeks.

Whenever he does post, however, he often only interacted with a select few others, who I’m guessing as those he deemed “worthy enough” of his attention. Everyone else gets to eat dust. He doesn’t respect opinions of the non-elite, even going as far as to kick and ban CJ from the group without warning, just for refusing to watch Clannad and True Tears. And from what DS has mentioned, Owen’s behaviour isn’t just confined to within just the Google group and emails, but also in MAL. Even usagijen, who once defended Owen, has decided that he had crossed the line this time.

There has been too much pressure and plenty of flaming going within the A.B.C. lately. Rather than being the productive group it was meant to be, aiding fellow bloggers to come up with new and interesting ideas to bring to the anime community in general, it has been doing just the opposite. It brought me down so much just thinking about it that I’ve not had any motivation to come up with anything new other than episode reviews on Clannad.

We’ve had enough of this shit…

Which is why I came up with this very ranty post. I’ve had enough, and decided that while I enjoyed myself in the companies of the other bloggers, the A.B.C. is not for me and will officially be leaving the group effective immediately.

Nuf’ said.

**Update: ABC Stands for April’s Blogger Conspiracy

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I’m extremely happy to see that anime companies (whether within or outside Japan) are finally showing signs they are heading towards the light. A.D.V. has begun streaming Gurren Lagann for free. Listen up people, you can now stream and watch Gurren Lagann legally, and for free.

There are only 2 catches:

• Each episode will only be archived for 2 weeks. There might be more than 2, since ADV said there would be at least 2 archived episodes. Not too shabby, really. If you really liked it after watching the whole series and would like to keep them, just shell out the cash for the DVD boxset. I really can’t think of any excuse not to buy and continue to rely on fansubs instead.

• There are ads - seriously this is not a problem, in fact I think it’s brilliant! Pythonite posted a comment in my fansub rant regarding placing ads into the anime being streamed as a source of generating revenue for the company. We’re already used to seeing ads everywhere and especially on TV and on the Internet. So this really doesn’t count as a catch if you ask me.

Gurren Lagann isn’t exactly “fresh from Japan” anymore, but it’s still very new compared to other licensed releases. It’s a big step forward, though there are still much work to be done. I actually haven’t watched the series but was hoping to, so this was great news to me. Unfortunately (but understandably), I was met with this notice:

Click to enlarge in new window

For those who can’t read due to the small text (or too lazy to click the image to enlarge it) here’s what it said:

Sorry guys and gals! This feature is only available to US and Canadian residents at the present time. Please check back soon as we continue to strive to provide you with the best anime available online for free. If you have additional questions, please check out our FAQ.

Well that sucks, doesn’t it. Let’s hope they would be able to and will provide this free streaming services worldwide soon, along with fresh anime instead what has already ended in Japan. Right now, they are just losing to speed.

On a side note, it seems that Bandai Visual Japan and Bandai Visual USA are “seriously considering on releasing some of the new shows simultaneously with” Japan by spring. Check out ANN for the full article on that.

Update from ANN (26th Dec ‘07):

On 2007-12-24, ADV Films clarified that not all programs would be broadcast in their entirety in subtitled form. For example, at this time only three episodes of Gurren Lagann are scheduled for subtitled broadcast. Other series in the pipeline will receive longer runs through First Look. ADV regrets the misunderstanding.

Now that sucks. I take back about me being happy with what they’re doing at the beginning of this post. It might have just been a marketing ploy to get fans to spread the word out and we fell for it hook, line and sinker. Bleh!

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“A-re… Didn’t I just study on this last night…”

Just a quick note. My final exam starts tomorrow and I have 3 papers in total. My first two papers would be tomorrow (Monday) followed by my second paper on Tuesday, so you probably be won’t be seeing much from me for the next couple of days.

My last paper would be on the 11th, and after that I would be free for quite some time until probably when my results comes out.

The arrangement of the dates are kinda silly. We start off with the toughest paper and ends with the easiest paper - with over a week of extra time for revision. If there are any paper that would make me worried it would be tomorrow’s paper. Wish me luck, I’ll probably need it

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DarkMirage now has first hand confirmation that Odex made a mistake that had lead to all those Odex letters flying off across the globe. Odex is not declaring war after all, at least for now.

“The hell? That was a false alarm!?”

What does this mean?

Here are some of my thoughts:

• Odex really did a mistake. But it goes to show just how infamous they are right now in so little time throughout the world’s anime community.
• Odex isn’t ready to launch a full scale assault, yet. They might really continue where they are leaving off now due to whatever reasons they may have right now.
• Odex screwed up somewhere and have to call the whole thing off. Unlikely, but that was my first thought.
• An elaborate evil ploy to tell anime fans that Odex is watching you and you should not do anything to anger them. Unlikely, but at the same time, very possible.

At any rate, the fact is that letters were sent and they all traced back to Odex. Mistake or not, they have caused an uproar in the community and their name has further degraded. Call it karma, but this incident proves beyond a doubt that every single wrong move that Odex makes will be remembered while their good efforts will be brushed aside like dust on the table. That’s what you get for threatening to sue 9 year old kids.

The Odex bashing will probably stop for the time being. But now the community would most likely keep an eye on their movements and waiting for them to slip and fall hard on their face.

“We’ll turn back… for now.”

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WARNING: Angry rant ahead. I’ve tried to tone it down, but I think it’s still pretty heated. I’m also writing this at 2am, so I’m not going to bother with any spell checks or read through it. You hath been warned.

Odex is back and this time, they are trying to screw not only Singaporean anime fans, but the entire world. What? Yes, you heard that right. Odex probably spent all their Singaporean dollars and decided that its much more profitable to attack where there are more fishes with bigger currencies. This includes USA, France and Japan.

Odex - Now Happily Bashing Fans Worldwide…

This is absurdity of the highest level. A bakayaro of 1000% idiocy reading on Chiaki-sama’s vision. Not only have they lost trust and favor of most anime fans (within Singapore or not), Odex is probably now to anime fans what the Nazi were to the world. And they call themselves anime fans.

I thought I was pissed at them when they started hunting down anime fans like dogs in Singaproe. I was wrong. NOW, I’m pissed.

Downloading fansubs are wrong. Sure. Right. Whatever. We all know that. So instead of making the smart moves, they decide that its far more profitable to kill the fans while they have the chance, profit as much as possible and forget all about anime until their pockets are empty once more. Then they can just repeat the process. After all, illegal downloads will continue regardless of what happens. The music industry has proven it. The movie industry has proven it. What makes anime any different?

There are rumors that Odex wants to start its own online anime service. Based on past experience (I’ve bought Odex releases before when I visited Singapore a few years back) and based on latest feedbacks, they would probably get some low quality video on slow servers and steal some poor fansubs translation and sell them to you at top dollar.

And to ensure that they will have money in their pockets when they launch the new service, they try and take on the world.

Absolutely ridiculous. Spreading their greed and arrogance even into the homeland of anime itself, Japan. Are the Japanese companies making use of Odex’s already destroyed and evil image to do their bidding? If so, Odex must probably be very well compensated.

No matter what they say, it’s still obvious that Odex only looks out for the money. Odex is pulling off the heist of the century, and trying to make it as legal as possible. I don’t know just how legally correct their actions are, but I’m still waiting for them to flop and fail oh so miserably.

Odex VS the world? Hah! Death threats will probably be the least of their worries soon. An utterly despised small time company trying to go against waves of fans throughout the globe. Insanity beyond belief.

Odex will lose.

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