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So I finally got around to checking out ADV’s new online streaming video service, and I have to say, I’m pretty impressed.

There are some issues with the player itself, as well as the translations, but hey, you can’t complain too much when it’s free. Overall it seems like an excellent first foray into the wild world of digital distribution; one that has huge potential for growing the number of fans who follow newer anime, and thus the industry as a whole.

Detailed breakdown and analysis after the jump…

New episodes are uploaded every Thursday, and are available online for 28 days before they are removed.

The service is 100% free, supported entirely by advertising. As you can see, there are banner ads above and to the right of the player itself. In addition, a 20-second-ish advertisement plays before the episode starts, another in between the eyecatches, and then a third at the end, assuming you’re watching all the way to the end of the ED.

I loaded up several videos to get a feel for what kinds of advertising were supporting the site. Advertisements I saw included a trailer for 5cm Per Second and a couple of silly ads for ANN, as well as several seemingly out of place ads for mortgage refinancing and debt consolidation.

All of these, however, paled in comparison to the unintentionally hilarious ad for the upcoming Kanon release, in which the announcer said, “From the people who brought you Air, and The Melancholy of… Hoo-RAH-hi Suzu-MAH-yah…” I kid you not. Hoo-RAH-hi.

I think I stared at the screen mouth agape for a good five seconds before I recovered enough to laugh my butt off. It seriously sounded like they just dragged a random VA into the studio and handed him a script to read with no advance guidance on pronunciation. In the narration, there’s an audible pause where you can just see the poor guy struggling to figure out how to say the name before he blurts out the aforementioned botched pronunciation. I seriously wonder how that got past QC, and how they expect to be taken seriously with a gaff of that caliber.

Aside from that, they also seem to have some problems with the way their ads are handled. A number of times an advertisement would start to play, and then suddenly get cut off and the episode would resume. In addition, it’s obviously possible to skip over the eyecatch, thus avoiding the ad trigger there, as well as closing the video before the ED finishes, thus avoiding the final ad. Clearly Anime Network has some issues they will need to work through if they intend to properly attract advertising dollars.

As for the actual episode…the player seems to work just fine, essentially the same kind of interface as Youtube. When you mouse over the screen, the controls pop up and allow you to jump to any part of the episode at any time. Quite handy, really.

The video resolution is 640 x 360 and seems excellent in terms of clarity, with only minimal artifacts.

The translation was actually surprisingly good; I found myself very impressed. Whoever translated this did an excellent technical job, of course, but also managed to keep the translations very straightforward, much closer to literal translations than is usually the case in official releases. All too often they try too hard to “localize” the translation into American-sounding speech patterns and idioms, and it just has a tendency to fall flat and ruin any distinctiveness the original may have had.

As much as I like to hate on R1 subtitle jobs, however, there’s not that much even a hardcore fan like myself can complain about here.

That said, there were a few translation issues that bothered me:

Gunmen? Gunmen??

What happened to Ganmen? I should think it would be fairly obvious that they’re called Ganmen (顔面) because they have huge faces on them (ganmen basically means a human face). Of course, English speaking audiences wouldn’t be expected to know that, but why change it? It’s not like it makes any more sense this way; only a few of the Ganmen use actual guns, anyway.

EDIT: Sixten has kindly pointed out that this romanization is the “official” one as decided by the Japanese copyright holders, and thus the U.S.-based licensees have little choice but to use these spellings. It’s still a bit odd, but nothing that I think would ruin the enjoyment of the series, even for hardcore fans who have already watched the series.

They can also be shot. Or so I hear, anyway.

And what does he mean “they”? They don’t know that there’s more of these, or that the big Ganmen have beastmen inside of them yet, so he shouldn’t be using a plural pronouns. Oops.

A perfectly fine translation, but it lacks the punchiness of Order’s “I ain’t runnin’!”, which I feel does a much better job of capturing Kamina’s rough chimpira-style Japanese. (”Ore wa nigenee!” was the original.)

Again, not a bad translation, it just doesn’t do justice to the mostly over-the-top dialogue of this series. Mundane, everyday translations just don’t cut it when you’re working on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That’s not the Gurren-dan way!

Speaking of which…

*sigh*

Of course this was an unavoidable part of the localization, since most English-speaking viewers wouldn’t understand the meaning of “Gurren-dan”, but it still rolls off the tongue rather awkwardly.

Fortunately, at least the signature Gurren-dan mottos remain unchanged!

Overall, my impression of the service is pretty positive. The player works smoothly and the audio/video quality is fine. The only major complaint I have is that the timing of the subtitles was off in several places, which is both confusing and unprofessional.

At any rate, this subtitle-only, streaming digital delivery is exactly the kind of thing hardcore fans have been demanding for ages. If they can clean up some of the rough edges and make a viable and profitable distribution model out of this service, it will likely introduce sweeping changes in the anime industry. Serving new anime for free online is a sure way to grow the consumer base, as more and more people will be willing to give new shows a try.

In an article on The Anime Network, ADV President and CEO John Ledford is quoted as saying:

“We know there’s a demand for fresh, unreleased anime on the Internet. Through Anime Network’s First Look broadcasts, we can engage fans in a lawful way and at the same time help build the audience for our DVD releases. Everybody wins.”

Although I have a lot of reservations about the way ADV conducts business, it is good to see that they do at least recognize the necessary next step that needs to be taken if the U.S. anime industry is to continue to grow.

Should this become a financial success, it will serve as the acid test needed to help convince other major players in both the U.S. and Japan to expand into the realm of digital delivery. Obviously there’s still a significant delay between this and the original Japanese air date, but hopefully in the future the time difference will begin to diminish as this streaming video approach takes off. If they can solve that problem I can easily see this solution taking a big chunk out of the fansubbers “market share”.

Also, sorry to all you folks outside of the US/Canada who would’ve liked to watch the show this way. I imagine they’re worried that all you evil pirates overseas will find a way to rip off their video and make money off of it. Nevermind that you can already find it online and in much higher quality for free.

Well, that or the ads they’re trying to serve mostly wouldn’t apply to you, and thus wouldn’t contribute to their revenue stream. I still like the first explanation, though.

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The week long voting period for the best Union Jack flag re-design is over, and justice has prevailed once again.

For those who haven’t been following the recent news out of the UK, our friends across the pond have been debating proposed redesigns for the Union Jack flag as a way to “better reflect the diversity of the country” or somesuch malarkey. This would have remained just one of the usual ho-hum political stories, if it weren’t for the decision to put the idea for the redesign up to the wisdom of the masses, taking design submissions and then allowing everyone to vote for their favorite.

The contest became popular on 2chan, with many Japanese submitting otaku-themed flag designs such as the Union no Tsukaima and the leek flag. There were even a number created entirely with ASCII…

None of these, however, were as awesome or awe inspiring as the eventual winning flag design.

The popular choice, with over 50% of the total vote, was this:

UNION FLAGANN! Or maybe I should say “Hail Britannia!”

Not to be outdone, the Telegraph’s readers seem to have turned the related online articles into one giant meme-infested anime in-joke. A few of the more humorous comments:

“Your neighbors on the other side of the pond applaud you for this grand display of kicking reason to the curb and the manliness of Britain’s united soul. Bravo, friends. Fight the power.”
Posted by The United States of America

Apparently the whole of The United States approves of this development. Not that I’m disagreeing, of course.

Don’t believe in your country! Believe in your country that believes in you!!
Posted by Kamina

I believe, Aniki! I believe!!

Heh, having a flag like that would stir at least some nationalistic pride even in a jaded misanthrope like myself.

“The chance of this flag winning was 0%…”
Posted by DiabloTerrorGF

Oh ho, I see what you did there. O_O

“Haha, oh wow”
Posted by ANDOUUUUUU

Even the Kaiji fans are out in full force!

“ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH”
Posted by Anon

Because the UK is soooo gangsta.

“What, no Trogdor!?”
Posted by Strong Bad

And finally, the obligatory Trogdor reference. It’s like some kind of reverse Murphy’s Law.

Now we just need to redesign the U.S. flag to incorporate a Britannia mash-up and we’ll be set to surpass the impossible and conquer the world!

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On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

5 GIIIIGAAA DRIIIIILLS!!

4 metatags
3 rain charms
2 Guchuko’s
And a cruise on a nice boat for free!

The fifth day is always the part of the song filled with the most gusto and over-the-top theatrics; people who up until that point had been otherwise minding their own business will come over just to sing that one line.

So of course there’s only one show that can appropriately fill such a role…

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Piercing the heavens with its drill since ever.

The Giga Drill Breaker is itself an attack that epitomizes the entire theme of the show. Impossibly, comically huge, it just brooks no arguments, spares no time for pointless scientific analysis, and pierces everything that stands in its way.

The whole series is just one big frenetic rock out. As Hige so aptly put it, it’s like air drumming so enthusiastically that you end up smacking yourself in the chops. It’s eating the entire tub of ice cream in one sitting and feeling no guilt afterwards.

Awesomeness for the sheer sake of awesomeness, with no greater purpose needed beyond that.

What more could you ask for?

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