1 Can you clarify why the XF8U-3 looks so incredibly awesome?

2 Need an anime series suggestion.  Dunno what to watch on Netflix or Crunchyroll.  

Actually, do you know anything about the Chunibyo! series?

3 Go watch Girls und Panzer and/or Mouretsu Pirates (aka "Bodacious space pirates")!

4 Have you seen The Wind Rises?  I went to see it several days ago.  Well worth watching.  If you've seen it, I'd love to see you review it.

5 Does MPC need to have a special setting enabled to image capture? I get an error message that says something needs to be reverted back, but I don't remember changing any settings. Can you image capture with VLC?

Suggestions: D-Frag is surprisingly funny, but the main character tends to stay in yell mode too much. Very inventive games they come up within series.

Mikakunin de Shikoukei is a good series if you like slow development. Good female cast. The male character is (by design) low energy, but not bad.

6 @2 Dreamshadow: Read this, then go be happy.

@4 FDM: Not yet.  When it comes out on DVD, probably. 

@5 Topmaker:  I use ZoomPlayer, m'self.  There IS something you need to toggle in MPC to get screenshots, but I don't remember what it is... I haven't used it for much of anything in a long time.

7 Was the rapid contraction of the anime market in the United States due to a too-wide cultural gap resulting in a lack of interest in many second- and third-tier properties, a lack of quality English dubs, a failure to properly market the licensed properties, or the general poor performance of the world economy at the time?

8 @7 Ben: Nah, too much crap was licensed.

9 Stephen, I loved Moretsu Pirates.  GuP.. hadn't gotten around to it yet.  I really should.  Like tonight.

Thank you, WD!  I was wondering where I had read that article before, but couldn't find it again.  I was worried I would spend the first episodes embarrassed for the characters and that usually drives me away from a show.  I'll give it a go!

10

Girls und Panzer is great.  Bodacious Space Pirates is not so much, IMO.

Re: 7. Ben - the answer to your question would take waaaayyyy too long.  And too many of the articles online talking about it only give one aspect.

 

11 Thank you, I shall try it out. I like how it seems to be moron easy.

12 Top, I use it, so it's clearly moron easy.

13 Ah! I hope you are still taking questions...

I see all these different translation sources for subs - Horrible, C12 (I think it stands for cyber 12?), shinkiandshitoshi (which might be crunchy roll?), subdesu, FFF etc., as well as what seems like individual uploaders who must be obviusly ripping someone off - bleachverse for bleach, for instance.

How do we know who should get the traffic, and are most pay sites legally licensing?

14 How do we know who should get the traffic?

If you've gone over the cliff of watching anime via Less Than Official Means, you don't really know who should get traffic.  It's one of those things that is an individual decision.  I try to stay away from HorribleSubs, for example, since they pretty much just take their subs from CrunchyRoll.  Fortunately for me, many of the shows I've watched have all been covered by just a few places: UTW, Mazui, Doki... and they're good, too.

Are most pay sites legally licensing?

As far as I'm aware of, the only pay site that's legally licensing is CrunchyRoll (other than Funimation, which has a pay-for-stream for their own shows, I think, and maybe some of the other companies).  If any other website asks you for money to watch or download anime, run very far away.

15 The Anime Network offers an online-only subscription, now.  But I think they're limited to former-ADV/Sentai properties.

16

Hulu, Daisuke, and Neon Alley (Which will soon become part of Hulu.) are all legitimate paid streaming sites.  Neon Alley is run by Viz, though they have a wide selection of titles from many different companies - and stream in English.  Daisuke was created by a group of Japanese licensors like Aniplex and Sunrise.

If you have a Xbox 360 or Xbox One, you can also get the Manga Entertainment app and watch the (limited) selection of titles using that method.

C.T.

17

 The Anime Network offers an online-only subscription, now.  But I think they're limited to former-ADV/Sentai properties.

Anime Network streams anything currently licensed by Section 23, Maiden Japan, ADV Films (Which technically is still in existence, according to David Williams.), and Sentai Filmwork titles.  Any license they do not hold anymore will not be shown.

There is also Anime Sols, which is the weird duck in the lot.  It is a streaming service/crowd-funding site for older titles, to get them released on DVD outside Japan.

18 Funi posts some of their things to Youtube with minimal ads. It's a much better deal than Hulu. I really hate Hulu, and not just for obnoxious ads. Their performance is subpar in many areas. I watched all of Initial D on Youtube.

Gundam Build Fighters is on Youtube as part of Gundam.info deal, unrelated to any distribution companies.

Daisuki is kind of okay. A downside for me is that their Flash plugin is not Linux compatible, so I have to watch on iPad. But I finally - FINALLY - watched first 35 episodes of DBZ (the first arc on Earth). Took me literally many years of aborted starts.

19 I skipped original Chuu2 and went for REN in-season. It's okay so far.

20 Thank you host and all youse guys for the info.
It seems like a subscription to Crunchy Roll should be strongly considered.

I have a blu ray player that is at the bottom of the pricing pack. It has a USB port, so I will often load a file to watch on this player. The main issue for me is that .mkv files do not play all that well. The video works fine, but it seems like the multiple subtitle tracks don't overlap and you are left with only one (usually the earliest) showing. You might get a sub of dialogue, but if they translate a sign, it won't show. If there are overlapping dialogues, say a character talking in the background or over a speaker system, or even a character interrupting the original speaker, that won't display either.

It is no big deal at the moment, but when I do upgrade to a better player, I want to find a brand that plays these files (and others, like .ogm) without any  problems. Can anyone recommend a brand that understands this stuff?

Yeah, someday I will hook a computer to the flat  screen, but that may not be for another year or so.

Thanks!

21 Computer to the flatscreen, plus wireless mouse and keyboard is a wonderful thing.