This has been a long time coming for me, a lot of people won't agree with this, on the other hand a lot of people will. Then again, I don't care, I gotta blow off steam somehow otherwise my head will explode..! Anyway, let's get on with this shall we?


Have any of you noticed the way Anime News Network, or ANN has lazy people call it, have been consistantly going down hill in their open mindness in the last.. oh, two years? I sure have. I think a grand majority of it is due to "Answerman", IE, Zac Bertschy, view on anime. Mostly the fact that he seems to have lost site of what exactly anime is about making it, trying to keep out "bad anime" like Kodomo no Jikan, and put in good anime like, "Howls Moving Castle", which he also rips off. Now don't get me wrong, he does have some good points, or did rather.. but more and more it's been mostly bullshit that some angry nerd who's never actually got a chance (or ever will) of being an actual successant in the industry, here's a typically brainless quote:


"but the internet has made it so the stupid crap you come up with when you're a kid can suddenly become a "viable idea how do I get this made??" because there are a bunch of other kids with equally stupid ideas on the internet ready and waiting to validate your terrible ideas because they have their own terrible ideas and want validation. It plays into this fantasy that everyone has a shot at becoming a "famous anime director". There's nobody around to say "pretty much all of you will grow up, go to college, get a degree in business or engineering or something, maintain a middle-class job, raise a family and then die peacefully". Instead they all hold out hope that one day they'll be the next Miyazaki with their brilliant series about mechs piloted by twelve angsty teens with elemental magic powers and also three of them are gay."


Yeah I copied that right from the website, here's the linkie to see it. Well what else can I say about this? Freedom of speech, yes everyone has the right to freedom of speech. Or maybe it's that if I babble and complain about this long enough that people will go there and he'll get more fans. Really, I don't care, he could be the Jesus of cyberspace and I wouldn't give a crap. But he's just the main problem what's wrong with it. Every time this guy opens his mouth it's about some bullshit that has to do with how fans are moronic nerds, or that they
are wasting their life liking anime and should stop liking Girls Bravo and watch the Soparnos(which in my opinion, SUCKS, but it's My Opinion and I can have it.) But let's take a side step to this, and get to another big problem, the reviews.


There was a time when ANN first came out, it was said "Okay, reviews are going to be based on the facts, and we'll let the viewers decide which anime is for them." But then for some reason "???" it slowly began to turn.. now there's isn't a review that doesn't have some kind of flame passion banter that goes on about how either the series is cliche or how that the episode wasn't realistic enough. I need examples! Show me random examples! Are they hard to find??? Show me!! @_@ And it is done!!!!:


"Maybe in some cultures it's funny and entertaining for a girl to spontaneously undress while a guy is having a meal, or for her to suck suggestively on a banana. Or maybe Girls Bravo really is that bad. "


"[Insert Hell Girl Spoilers here ]"


" Despite all the hijinx, there's a very real story in FLCL, with real emotional content to boot. In essence, the gut of FLCL is a very serious sci-fi drama. " This one made me furi kuri in my pants!!


"Expect some mild entertainment in this volume, but let us never forget the series' true purpose: boobs, butts, and easily removable clothes. "


Well some of those, I would hope, speak for their selfs. I guess it's not just Answerman who's gotten STDs from basement life. I think it's a darn shame that ANN has gone so far down hill has it has.. almost makes me want to cry, or vomit. That's why I shall never buy their magazine. I'm just hoping they'll get reincarnated into some higher form, instead of a TMZ ripoff that everyone hates. Let's just fill this out with some more answerman quotes I don't think people get the magnetude of this yet.....


"The first - girls who call each other "sutekii-chan" and "chibi neko" and what-have-you - are generally pre-teens or teenagers and it's got a lot to do being young and establishing a kind of "clique language". They do it because they think it's cute or quirky and it's something they can share with their friends. They're watching anime, which is foreign, and they're picking up random, easy-to-learn Japanese words, which is exciting, and their friends are watching the same things and picking up the same words, so they all start parroting it back at one another. Is it annoying? Yes, but not really any more annoying than other groups of teenage girls quoting High School Musical over and over again. Here's a tip: teenage girls can be pretty obnoxious when they want to be, and the whole pidgin Japanese thing is just another example of that."


"People who argue that it "should" still mean "all animation" are ignoring a whole lot of logic and the rules of language. We don't live in Japan, so the word has a different meaning. End of discussion, really; what else is there to say?"


"A simple question which might need a little explanation: have the people at Geneon lost their minds?......This is a series that contains, to just scratch the surface, violence against children - including young children, violent murder by children (both in and out of a school setting) and, on at least one occasion, vicious torture inflicted by a teenager on a young child." (refering to the acqusion of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni); " My main argument during that whole extended lolicon debate was that all it would really take for us all to be painted with the pedo brush would be for some enterprising journalist to "investigate" anime fandom far enough so they discover the whole lolicon side of it. Once someone out there in the world of cable news hears about that, you can guarantee we'll see a series of sensational news reports on how the "underground anime culture keeps perverts happy and endangers our nation's children" or whatever. Higurashi might be mentioned in a report like that, but the show isn't exactly pornographic and I'd bet they would be more likely to target shows with more obvious lolicon overtones."


I think I've wasted my time enough talking about this, as for the other articles a lot of them are cannon foddler and more based about information, like tv listings, than anything else. In case you're wondering, that's why I didn't cover it. However, if you wanted to do it, go ahead do it I don't care XP Who the hell is that!? All of this ranting is made me angries, answerman, this is for you!