(no subject)
The combination of effective video compression, big hard disks, cheap video gear, fast networks, fan subtitling and BitTorrent is the devil. The devil, I tell you.
Last Exile is great. Wolf's Rain is creepy but good. Stellvia of the Universe is silly but has surprisingly good CG and develops an interesting plotline. Spiral is just fantastic. Scrapped Princess is intriguing, despite the unusual-even-for-anime title. And we haven't even got to Initial D, Tenshi na Konamaiki, Macross Zero, Hikaru no Go, Yokohama Shopping Trip or Gundam Seed.
I don't think I've been this caught up in my anime since college. Certainly I was never as current with what's coming out in Japan. Back when I started working for DIVA, I figured DIVA had about a five year window to establish a consumer-friendly, pervasive, and successful video-on-demand business. DIVA, alas, died due to many factors, but it's four years later, and I don't see anything on the horizon to compete with the ability to grab fresh stuff now, in a format you can watch on the equipment of your choosing, with resolution that's 'good enough'. Short of draconian and pervasive Digital Rights Management (which the various media companies are well on their way to getting passed), they're doomed. They're probably doomed anyways. A small group of fan subtitlers plus swarming, decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution is a hard combination to beat.
Were I in charge of a large media company, I'd give up on DRM, and move straight to providing cheap-but-good media to anyone who wants it, and charge for convenience and reliability. If BitTorrent reliably worked at the maximum speed of my download link, I wouldn't need the TV for entertainment anymore.
Last Exile is great. Wolf's Rain is creepy but good. Stellvia of the Universe is silly but has surprisingly good CG and develops an interesting plotline. Spiral is just fantastic. Scrapped Princess is intriguing, despite the unusual-even-for-anime title. And we haven't even got to Initial D, Tenshi na Konamaiki, Macross Zero, Hikaru no Go, Yokohama Shopping Trip or Gundam Seed.
I don't think I've been this caught up in my anime since college. Certainly I was never as current with what's coming out in Japan. Back when I started working for DIVA, I figured DIVA had about a five year window to establish a consumer-friendly, pervasive, and successful video-on-demand business. DIVA, alas, died due to many factors, but it's four years later, and I don't see anything on the horizon to compete with the ability to grab fresh stuff now, in a format you can watch on the equipment of your choosing, with resolution that's 'good enough'. Short of draconian and pervasive Digital Rights Management (which the various media companies are well on their way to getting passed), they're doomed. They're probably doomed anyways. A small group of fan subtitlers plus swarming, decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution is a hard combination to beat.
Were I in charge of a large media company, I'd give up on DRM, and move straight to providing cheap-but-good media to anyone who wants it, and charge for convenience and reliability. If BitTorrent reliably worked at the maximum speed of my download link, I wouldn't need the TV for entertainment anymore.