Coming up over the next couple of
months I'm going into a long discussion about my evolution of going
from store to store to buy movies and games; to going from web site
to web site to download the same. I originally started on one subject
and immediately rabbit trailed into several others causing me to go
over one page in my word processor. I typically type out these posts
there first and try to keep it at about a page to a page and a half.
I just had so much to say I figured it was best to break it up into
multiple parts. I'm going to post them in reverse order so that way
down the road anybody doing the typical tendency on these blogs of
scrolling backwards through the entries will see them come up in the
correct order.
Or maybe I'm thinking too hard about
it. Maybe I'm the only one that does that?
This article is really a direct
continuation of the previous. (Which will be posted in another couple
of weeks.) In it I discuss the advantages (to me anyway) with going
to all these manga and anime sites. One I didn't touch on was the
fact that often you can find translated manga and subbed anime that
is not available here in the States at all. An example of this is
Magikano. The anime is here, and parents, just so you know, not for
kids. The manga on the other hand isn't. It is online. Might I say,
it's WAY creepier than the anime. After seeing such stuff I warn my
friends about it.
Now we're back on course.
I hang around a group of friends that
are not otakus. They consider Japanese comic books and cartoon shows
to be kids stuff. What adult in his right mind would waste his time
watching that crap? So I have always kept my mouth shut and talked
shop or if the discussion went to TV it would be shows I watched like
House, Closer, or classics such as Knight Rider and A-Team.
After finding all the watch for free
anime sites, I would then tell my friends about them. First I would
ask if their kids like Japanese cartoon shows like Bleach, Dragon
Ball, or Naruto. Inevitably they say yes. By now they are looking at
me kinda cross wise. Then I suggest all the sites. Then they look at
me like I'm clearly crazy. I can see the wheels spinning in their
heads: “That Iraqi heat must have fried what little brain he had
left.” Then I point out that they would probably want to preview, for free,
what it is their children are asking you to buy for them. Unlike the
stuff you see on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, the stuff you see on
store shelves is a lot less like She-Ra and Bugs Bunny and more like Playboy.
My friends will say “Yeah, I'll give
it a look.” Whether or not they do is up to them. From that point
on it's back to work. I'm not on any kind of holy crusade here. I
just want to inform parents as to what is going on out there so they
can hopefully make the best decisions in raising their kids.
Especially since the age range of a lot of anime is mislabeled.
Mind you, parents: You can control what
your children read and watch in your home, but you have no control
over what your kids watch in their friends' house. It was one of my
buddies' son that told me about a couple of these manga sites.
He doesn't even have the internet!
He doesn't even have the internet!
