1 You're not alone, Harvey. I can't stomach it for some reason... not of that generation, I guess.

2 Am I the only person who doesn't understand all this? What is anime?

3 Your post is a good example of the kind of thing which made me decide to stop writing posts for "USS Clueless". No matter what I did, someone felt obligated to let me know that they didn't like it.

4 Bou: Often epic Japanese animated series. Like transformers or GIJoe in the early 80's. Often they revolve around a)Whiney b)kids c)saving the world d)by piloting HUGE BLOODY ROBOTS e)while trying to find the existential reason for living/trying to get laid (note these two never occur together, which is a shame because if art house kids are any example, deep soul searching questiions are a great way to get laid, but i digress). Essentially if at least two of A-D aren't in the series, it's not anime. Likewise, if teh main characters Aren't trying to find the existential whatever OR trying to get laid, it's not anime. True anime at least. Most likely in that case, it was made in Korea for the express purpose of trying to sell it to American Teenage Boys (see next paragraph). Then there are the "Game" animeor Saturday Morning Anime (pokemon, yugioh, the like) which are so far beneath contempt that if Einstein were correct they must have gone all the way through the contempt spectrum to be lauded as Anime Gods or something. Incidentally, for some reason, these kids (usually rated as 14-17) have bust sizes (talking about the girls here, folks) rating from "nonexistant" to "Backache" with the geatest preponderance towards the latter. Believe me, it is very diverting, however, ... Nevermind there. I was going to start in on Hentai, that's anime porn esentially, but that lies far too down the crooked path for me (usually). Having read all that, yes, i do like Anime. As bad habbits go, its better than beating up old ladies on the street. Some of them do a very good job, most are little more than warmed over shit. Hope this wee primer helped clear things up a bit. :-D

5 Wow. Who woulda thunk? Begs the question to me, "Where the hell have I been?" Best I can think of is when I lived in Taiwan, late 70's there was this Japanese cartoon we watched. We have no idea what anyone said, but there were robots and kids and the female robot's tits were also missiles. And they were BIG.

6 Thats about right. There was one shown here on Cartoon Network called Kikaider where the kids all turned into Robots (kid sized) adn had lasers that shot from little nubs. They guy shot from his eyes, the girl from her nipples. My previous assertion did miss three important sub-genrae, the hard boiled genre (Cowboy Bebop), the "chicks with guns" genre (Noir, Gunsmith Cats) adn the "reforming killer with a heart of gold" genre (Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun). These are all (ok, except GC) plot driven epics. All good to try when just getting started.

7 Thank you for the clarification. I just had no idea there was anything other than Pokeman, YuGiOh, Hamtaro or Digiman. Obiouvsly I have small children. I'll stick with my fave: Samurai Jack.

8 Well, at least Pixy will be happy--he's one of those animeaholics....

9 Oh, and Harv--you're entitled to your opinion. If Mr. Den Beste doesn't like it, he can lump it.

10 In any field of human endeavor, Sturgeon's law applies: "90% of everything is crap." That is as true for anime as for anything else. If one briefly dips into anime, there's nine chances in ten that what they see will be the crummy stuff. But there's also quality there. A year ago I discovered that, and that's why I'm hooked now. Tommy has done a good job describing the lower 90%. Here's what he missed: "Serial Experiments Lain" fits no genre I can think of. It is extraordinary on every level, and the single best piece of anime I have watched. Anything by Miyazaki breaks the mold. Miyazaki is widely acknowledged to be the best animation director alive today. I have four of his movies and I consider three of them to be masterpieces. "Kaleido Star" is about a girl working in a circus which is clearly based on Cirque d'Soleil. "Angelic Layer" has girls and robots, but the robots are only 12 inches tall. They fight each other, but it's a game. "Excel Saga" - Anime as if it were done by Tex Avery on acid. The trick is to find the good stuff. WRT Harvey's post: I do not take it to be a personal attack. I took it to be a personal opinion. But I got tired of constantly being bombarded by such personal opinions. Suzie suggests that I "lump it". That's exactly what I did do, which is why I stopped posting to USS Clueless.

11 Hey Harvey, Bad news. I'm switching my blog too. Instead of comedy I'll be writing about Anime also. The Really Bad news is I don't think anyone will notice.

12 Well, I must be the only person who has heard of anime with no opinion either way. Yes I've heard of it, no I haven't had time to look into it and decide whether or not I would like it. There are simply too many things pulling at the limited time I have, therefore anime shall remain unexplored for the moment. This also means I won't be making a concerted effort to read anime blogs. However, I'm sure that Steven will write about anime with the same skill he has brought to other subjects. As long as he enjoys what he's doing - that is what blogging is about.

13 Good luck to Mr. Den Beste. I have no interest in anmine, I barely watch TV and haven't been to a movie since Columbus was a Seaman Recruit.

14 Hey Harv, I think it's a family curse - remember I got a comment from Chris Muir not too long ago? Then he had to give up his work due to family issues. Steven is a wonderful writer, a deep thinker, and I think he is passionate about his work. Which is why so many people love it or hate it. Anything of a strong opinion will generate a reaction. The best example of Steven's position (from my opinion) is "Chinese Water Torture". Steven's example was that each person agreeing with him was a pat on the back. After several hundred thousand of those, one's back gets pretty sore. Yeah, I know - what a tough problem to have, eh? Well, yes, it is. Some people think that having lots of money, skills, resources or talent is a blessing - but it's a curse too. The problem Steven is describing is related to his brilliant intellect combined with a gift for presentation. The guy writes well and the result is more accolades than he can handle. The high isn't worth the hang-over for him. I morn for the loss for him as an outlet for his creativity, but it appears that he's found another outlet. (I own only 3 Anime DVD's (Miyazaki's works). All were based upon recomendations from Steven. I've been fascinated by them. Without his posts I never would have gotten them - and I got them without hesitation based upon Steven's recomendation.) I morn the loss for us because the clear, well-formed logic that we used to enhance our lives will no longer be available via Steven's mind. While I cherish the knowledge he has provided me, I also know that there are others with his gifts - just as there are people with mine. The decomissioning of Clueless is a painful loss, but as with the dead-tree books, we will always have what he has already imparted to us. One part of me hopes that Steven will form a secret special access blog that requires a "no pandantic nitpicking" pledge in order to receive it. I'd sign that in a heartbeat. But from what I've picked up of his personality, he's probably capable of ending that phase of his life and moving on. No matter how painful we may think it is for him. Best of luck, Mr. Den Beste. Best wishes, too.

15 Gee, what I always figured the most annoying part of anime was the tendancy of the characters to talk in very fast sentances, usually reduntantly, with often no real bearing on the plot. Sometimes it is used for extremely fast plot exposition, but it usually just seems like people thinking out loud really fast, to me. But yeah, when I was a kid, I was hooked on Robotech, Voltron and G-Force. What can I say, I've always had an appreciation for explosions. Even in cartoons.

16 "Gotta get back back to the past..come on Jack!" Is that what they are saying in the SJ theme? That is great Anime...I guess it's Anime. The Star Wars stuff done by the same guys is great too. My buddy ripped it from cartoon network and I still haven't seen all of it.

17 GEBIV, unfortunately that is a byproduct of dubbing from the original Japanese to English. Same with the good Godzilla movies. Best to watch it in Japanese with the subtitles, besides, then you learn to swear in Japanese. "Kieuseru Kusotare," for example is my favorite phrase of Japanese, and when said in a jaunty manner makes people feel good. See both educational adn entertaining. (For anyone who speaks japanese that reads this, it's not me, it's my evil twin, Cedric.) :-D

18 I'm switching my blog as well, but because I'm an anacronistic type I'm going to blog exclusively about puppet shows.

19 Grau, but only if it's roadkill puppets right?

20 I don't know anything about anime but there's something about it that's a little creepy. Regarding other matters under discussion, I've never been able to understand how some people can be so sensitive. My first inclination is to say, "Oh grow up already!" but maybe it's a side effect of being a genius - the 'how dare anyone question me' syndrome. Since I'm not a genius I guess I could never understand.

21 In Steven's case, I think it's actually the "how dare everyone and their brother and occasionally their cat - plus sometimes even a drunken midget living in a cardboard box under a bridge - question me on points that aren't even relevant to the thrust of my argument, and do it 4000 times a day" syndrome. And for the record, Lynn, I think you have genius a-plenty on topics musical. I seem to recall singing (literally) your praises in that department, once :-)

22 But you can't blame him. I mean the man writes essentially essays of a length that i have never written outside of a major college assignment simply on things that interest him or on how he sees things, and THEN has people lambast him for each tiny mistake or petty grievance over the subject matter. Folks the man just spent a large portion of time writing for the heck of writing and hoping to amuse or inform the masses, he does NOT need a doctorate student telling him where he went wrong in his explaination of stellar cartography because he said "azimuth" instead of "Declination." Alternately, he could just filter out every e-mail he gets, then he wouldn't have to worry about it, or the e-mails asking why he didn't respond. That would be funny, but counter-productive. I think i'm just going to be happy with whatever he deigns to write and not worry about it from there. Incidentally, this is probably the longest comment thread that has NOT mentioned either boobies or Reddi-Wip ever on this site. What, are you going respectable on us, Harv?? :-D

23 I guess it must be Hell to be popular. Of course, I wouldn't know about that either. ;-)

24 Being 52 years old, maybe that's why I don't understand this anime stuff. I've had it explained to me, I've had it shown to me, still doesn't stick. Just don't care for it. But I know something even worse, something that the first time I heard about it, saw it, left me speechless with horror. Left me speechless and made me wonder about the fate of humanity. Harvey, want to know what it was? Furries! That's right, honest to God people who seriously dress up like critters that they think they are and then go around and be half furry and half human. They even have conventions. Oh. My. God. How low has the human race sunk. Jeez.

25 "How low has the human race sunk"? Well, we have "sunk" to the point where people can dedicate large portions of their time to pursuing and enjoying trivial hobbies. We've elevated society to the point where busting your ass for 18 hours per day, 365 days per year, is not necessary to ensure survival. We've gotten to the point where we can discuss the brilliance and sensitivity of a man we've never met, with people we've never met, in (nearly) real time, in a public forum. I'm kinda looking forward to see how low we can go, honestly.

26 Tommy - BOOBIES! [/respectability] BeeBee - *blush* I'm already familiar with the concept of furries http://home.att.net/~ltorrance03/furry-parade33.jpg _Jon - race ya to the bottom :-)

27 The light bulb went on Harvey, I just figured out why Kerry is turned orange. This is breaking news. You see Kerry is a furry, his inner animal is a tiger. Hence the orange color, he has just taken his inner furriness to new, unimagined levels. Soon the stripes will start to appear, maybe even a tail. I dunno, this is as good as anything else I've read trying to find out why he turned orange. What do you think of my theory?

28 I'm trying to think of another animal that is orange, other than a tiger. A tiger implies some type of ferociousness, bravery and stealthiness, none of which he has. Is there a such thing as an orange slug?

29 OOps, nix that. Slugs aren't furry or animals for that matter. An orange weasel?

30 Naw, Kerry is the Tiger who never earned his stripes. Heh. Kinda like his Purple Hearts.

31 Banana slugs? Aren't they supposed to be yellow? Or at teh very least big and slimy. I mean, he DOES ooze in at least every interview i've ever seen. And thanks, Harvey, i was startig to worry. :-D

32 Maybe Kerry is Tony the Tiger, who looks kind of ... let's just call it "festive"... wearing that blue bandana all the time. Which would also explain why Kerry is always rubbing, touching, and caressing John Edwards :-/

33 Ewww, Harvey. But that would explain those rosy cheeks both seem to be courting. Courting, mmm, bad choice of words. Could almost be kissing cousins, opps, again bad choice of words. I better go get my mind out of the gutter. Been dealing with Numb Nut Nephew and Twitter his mother. Seems both are just a touch angry at me. Gosh, I can't figure out why except maybe I told them they're full of ****. What a coincidence, both are Kerry supportors.