A friend asked about “The Big 3”, which is, arguably, what many in the U.S. think of when somebody mentions anime. His three were:

1. Robotech
2. Voltron
3. Battle of The Planets (aka G-Force)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoO5H_UKCrw

Now, as a kid, I watched all three of these. I actually tried to carefully follow Robotech, but I had other childhood pursuits (i.e. video games) to occupy my time. I each case, and why these 3 are important, the series named above are “Americanized” versions of some classic anime. What do I mean by that? It means there was not just translation, but usually, (and notably in the case of Robotech), heavy editing of, and shortening sometimes (Robotech vs Macross, for example) the original storyline.

Macross

It is to Robotech what Avatar: The Last Airbender is to M. Night Shamalan’s The last Airbender (rough analogy since the more recent movie had no translation to do.) One is great, and the other…we’ll…not so good. They have the same story, however, sorta. If you say you like Robotech, to a fan of anime, you’ll either get a frown of dismay, or an understanding nod and recommendation to go see Macross. So, I’ll be the latter: go see Macross. It really is a good story. It’s best to see it as it was meant to be; in its original form (sorry you’ll have to become a good reader of dubs or learn Japanese.)

Voltron

I liked the lions and the vehicles (lol at me if you want.) AND I’LL FORM THE HEAD! This one’s special because it was a combo effort between a Japanese and American team to adapt two animes, Beast King Go-Lion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. That’s why it felt like two different series to most of us who watched it. I didn’t learn that for quite a few years. I actually haven’t watched the originals yet. Someday, I will.

Battle of The Planets

took me a sec to realize he meant the Americanized version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, which, aka Battle of the Planets (one of my favorites as a kid!) As with Macross, this may be a bit of an odd sensation to watch the original since there will be some differences. I must confess, I need to take a look at this one again too.

There’s a lot (LOT) of great anime you might have heard of, but should see if you like those 3. They are key ones, for sure. Just see the original Japanese versions, please. Here’s a few that you might also hear commonly, in case you want a good foundation:

• Neon Genesis Evangelion (or Eva, for short) -- Considered a classic by many. If you like giant robots defending Earth, this one should be on your list.
• Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) -- I admit I would not have seen this when I did if it weren’t for the popularity of it’s ending song, Hare Hare Yukai. Check it out, if you haven’t already, and keep in mind the series is actually very good:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5G5bD2Do-k

• Golden Boy
-- It’s short, but still a fun ride (lol). I was pleasantly surprised, and this is also an example of good ecchi anime (possibly NSFW, but not too raunchy at all.)
• Love Hina
-- Another good anime that kinda turned my on to the “harem” anime genre.

If you’ve heard of Bleach or Naruto, then I strongly urge you to still give them a shot. Both have their ups and downs, but there’s some really good plotlines in both. They’re popular (might be a good or bad thing), but they do deserve credit for having good production quality. In case I didn’t mention it before, see them subbed. Crunchyroll has both and that is good quality subbing.

This is by no means a definitive guide to anime. I’m not entirely sure one exists, but I hope that’s OK. I like to explore a bit, although I’ll be pretty busy in my favorite genres for quite a while I think. Hopefully, I won’t be alone in my exploration.

Interesting. I kinda like the feel of Kazuma.

And….once I got the order right (I think.):

坂本 Sakamoto (book of the hill) 国海 Kuniumi (country ocean).

Take your real japanese name generator! today! Created with Rum and Monkey‘s Name Generator Generator.

Information on this fine beast at WoWhead

It would be a super long drive and perhaps an RV rental would be fun, but I’d likely be taking a solo trip, so a train trip or flight is what I’m thinking. I don’t mind flying, but I’ve never been on a cross-country train ride. That’s what I’d rather travel in for a long trip. What about you?

Would you rather drive across the country in an RV or go by train? [From That’s My Answer! » Would you rather…]

Whatever happens, make sure you print out your bingo card before you go, and then throughout the weekend, cross off everything that you see on there. If, by the end of the weekend, you’ve nabbed five across, you win!

I’m printing my Bingo card right now…

via WoW Insider

Oh, yeah. Fall has hit this blog as well. Enjoy the colors…

tabard - Ryagas of Sanctity guild - Azuremyst realm

Yeah. I’m pretty die-hard when it comes to WoW…

I think the guild I’m in has been in The Black Temple for quite a few months and this is only the second time I remember this weapon dropping. The first hunter to get it is no longer on the server (or in the guild, sadly) and I certainly didn’t get it terribly cheaply, but that didn’t matter much because my DPS took a serious boost. Goodbye, Legacy! Hello, Halberd of Desolation!

Edit: Pirate-ized for Talk Like a Pirate Day

BigRedKitty: Channeling Larry King – WOW Insider:

Except for Death Kniggets, no class got more new toys than Hunters. Mages and Paladins and the other lesser classes got some presents under their WotLK-tree, but we got so many gifts, we can’t see the floor. It’s good to be us!

Now, while many classes seem worried and anxious about how drastically they’re going to change in the upcoming expansion, it seems the nerf-hammer has been mercifully not heavily applied to us hunters. I, for one, missed being a raiding Marksmanship hunter and do not cringe in fear at the thought that gasp, my DPS will depend on my skill at weaving shots again, even as a BM hunter…

Since the The Age of the Raiding Macro-Masher could be over, the DPS of your average hunter versus the other DPS classes will probably decrease. Whereas hunters used to dominate almost all pre-Tier 6 DPS charts, the frequency that a hunter will get the top spot will decrease, as more skill will be required to maximize our potential. Skill > Gear, and WotLK is going to prove that for our class.

JL2003 on Flickr

As much as I liked being at the top of the DPS charts, being a macro masher was not as exciting as the old days of anxiously timing cooldowns to get the perfect shot rotation to work (if a perfect one existed, I didn’t find it…) Again, I’d rather work on actually being a skilled hunter than a one-button killing machine. Just like when I knew I was going to respec to BM, it was for raid usefulness, and I’m sure any future respec (even back to BM) for the expansion will still allow me to have fun with whatever play style I choose. I might even dabble with Survival for leveling. Who knows? I think I’ll have to play around with the different specs in the PTR (and beta, if I can get a key…)

For now, I’m not gonna be a “Wrath-Freaked” hunter.

A sign of things to come? This line took 2 hours and was to tame The Kurken, one of the exotic beasts that hunters will be able to tame in the upcoming patch. The long wait was due to a certain orc hunter who would kill The Kurken occasionally while another hunter was taming it. That probably won’t happen on PvP servers (it’s an alliance starting area), but I can see this happening on PvE servers. I believe that type of harassment is reportable on live servers, so it might not happen too often…

At any rate, two hours later, the job was done:

Nightelf mohawk, FTMFW!