Dragon Ball Live Action

There is one giant elephant you cannot ignore in the room and it is called Dragon Ball Live Action.

The cast has been assembled here....

Here is the list of cast from IMDB. James Masters as Piccolo? Never expected that!

Justin Chatwin ... Goku

Yun-Fat Chow ... Master Roshi

James Marsters ... Lord Piccolo

Emmy Rossum ... Bulma

Jamie Chung ... Chi Chi

Joon Park ... Yamcha

Randall Duk Kim ... Grandpa Gohan

IMDB Entry

Now most old fans of franchise are screaming blood. As usual.
Bulma is kinda hot though.

Personally it is an interesting project, but there will be a lot of challenges as expectations are high. Already people are upset that Goku was an American.

I do wonder if they capture the feel of the show. That is crucial.

Islamic protest on Jojo's Bizzare Adventure

Anime DVDs pulled after Muslims protest
'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' called offensive

By Gavin J. Blair

May 22, 2008, 01:28 PM
TOKYO -- Shueisha Inc. has pulled an anime DVD series based on a popular manga after protests from Muslims about the negative portrayal of the Koran, the publisher said Thursday.

An episode of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" featured a villain looking at a copy of the Koran before ordering the killing of the hero and his companions, in a story set in Egypt.

Shueisha said the illustrators were unable to read Arabic and therefore unaware that the featured text came from the Islamic holy book, saying it was included to give "authenticity." The book doesn't appear in the original manga.

Source

More details and commentary from here

Link 2

In this case, I do felt the fault is on both sides, the Japanese for not consulting research properly and the Islamic ulama for over reacting to a mere entertainment medium.

But this is a replay of sectarian senstivity to protrayal of any associated memes in popular media.

Cosmode Online Launched.

First English based online magazine on cosplay now available. Signs of increasing internationalization of anime culture is here, plain to see. Will it expand or contract though? Hard to see, hard to say.

Here is the press release:

RELEASED: COSMODE ONLINE #001 - COSPLAY 1ST GRADERS STARTING TODAY!


TOKYO, Japan (May 25, 2008) OverDrive's COSMODE Online has released its first issue. Everyone has something to learn with tutorials on makeup, costume making, wig preparation, cosplay photography techniques, and cosplay manners.

"We strive to bring cosplayers and cosplay lovers around with world with only the best content", said Ted Harada, President of OverDrive, Inc.


The link is here.

It is now available for subscription.

Speaking of cosplay, I stumbled on this beautiful cosplayer doing a character from Clannad. Enjoy.





Until then.

Kara no Kyokai/Garden of Sinners/Rakkyo Ending Song

The ED song for Kara no Kyokai, Oblivious by Kalafina arranged by Kaijura. Beautiful and haunting song, suitable for the anime's feel and theme.

School Rumble 3rd Term. Or is it?

The promotion for new School Rumble series is up for 3rd time, and considering from the horrendously indecisive manga story....I think the anime can go on forever like Energizer Bunny. Already some fans of the story expressed anger at lack of resolution after such a long run.



The cast promotion of next School Rumble anime, VAs/seiyuus for Tenma (Ami Kozhimizu) and Yakumo (Mamiko Noto).

From what I knew, the love complication is yet to be resolved even at manga's chapter 220. To me that is like stringing along a cash cow as long as possible. Jin Kobayashi who parodied himself in the story as delinquent main character perhaps running of ideas?

The offical site with offical promo trailer for it

I don't really hope too much out of it, I do enjoy early parts but it has become a bit too draggy like Hispanic tele novela.

Yona Yona Penguin

Singapore broadcaster giant MediaCorp and leading Japanese animation company Madhouse Inc Monday announced a collaboration on a 13 million U.S. dollar computer-generated 3D anime feature film called Yona Yona Penguin.

The animation film will be directed by renowned Japanese animator Rintaro, who's made his mark in Japanese anime as the creator of Astro Boy.

Singapore's entry into billion dollar industry anime is this cutesy penguin story. I have to confess though, the name Madhouse did not struck me as the one will do cutesy, moe type of anime presentation.

Interesting industrial trend in anime, as it becomes more and more hybrid Japanese and something else now.

More news on Ghost in the Shell movie.

...Finally, Steven Spielberg has been patiently “circling” Masamune Shirow’s classic Ghost in the Shell as a 3-D live-action feature. DreamWorks owns the rights to the futuristic police thriller and Avi Arad, who has successfully produced the three Spider-Man movies, the three X-Men movies, the two Fantastic Four movies, Iron Man and the upcoming Incredible Hulk, is attached to produce, and Jamie Moss (Street Kings) is reportedly working on the screenplay. No release date is projected yet.

Full article is here

The list of people involved in the project is very impressive. I hoping for a stellar treatment of the series, considering the big names attached to this work. I willing to wait for years, hoping a proper justice can be done on Ghost in the Shell.

One can hope, wouldn't it?

Earlier entry

Batman, Gotham Knight anime style.

The geek machine has fired into overdrive for Christopher Nolan's incoming prequel sequel, The Dark Knight. But the untold hero of this summer's Batman assault may lie elsewhere -- in the Animatrix-inspired Batman: Gotham Knight, to be exact.

Like The Matrix franchise before it, the Batman franchise has learned that filtering your mythology through the kinetic template of anime can do wonders for your upgrades. Batman: Gotham Knight is that upgrade, and it looks kickass. The Warner Bros. DVD-only film, due out July 8, sent Underwire these sneak-peek pics, which make great eye candy. The hi-def trailer is at right.

Wired Source



Wow, this trailer rocks. I really, really want to watch this version of Batman. From I understand there will be 6 short vids, 3 of them anime styled. Something like Animatrix compilation of short stories, to wet fans appetite for upcoming Dark Knight sequel to excellent movie.

Hopefully there will be a full length anime rendition of Dark Knight, I believe it can work.

When people take anime/manga a bit too far...

Medicom's Figure based on the franchise

....It wasn't until the anime was distributed outside Japan that the copycat crimes began. The first Death Note-related controversy took place in China in 2007: Students took death notes to school, prompting the government to ban products and conversations related to "scary magazines based on popular Japanese stories."

A few months later, in a case local police like to call "the manga murder," two human thighs and a matching torso were found on a Belgian hiking trail next to a handwritten note that read, "I am Kira" -- a phrase used in the original manga. Some suspect a serial killer was involved; others call the incident a grisly prank played by med students with access to spare body parts.

Then, students in South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama were suspended for carrying around death note replicas that listed their enemies.

Some parents and teachers are furious that such a morbid idea is being marketed to children, and some have called for Death Note, in its various incarnations, to be banned in the United States.

Wired Article

This is a form of social impact that is largely unforseen, but just like any medium of ideas, anime/manga can also drastically alter people's perceptions on reality around them. Another famous case that is based on the name which not covered in the Wired is Edison Chen's Hong Kong artiste sex scandal where a poster goes by same name, responsible uploading the pictures that rocked the Hong Kong pretentious entertainment industry; destroying lots of female artiste career there (notably Cecilia Chung Pak Chi). Somehow this name becomes synonymous with this story, thanks to Death Note presence of said name. K-I-R-A.

Another thing made me chuckled is puritanical zeal of US parents. It is like they don't their children to be streetwise or something. Heh.

It is a very interesting side effects from a largely popular anime/manga franchise.

A discussion on anime and Mac Donalds.

JAPANESE ANIMATION: A POST-MODERN
ENTERTAINMENT IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Kiyomitsu YUI


The base for the Anime industry is the Manga industry in Japan. In 1995, Manga accounted for 40 % of the entire number of publications in circulation in Japan including journals and books.

And the all the weekly comic Journals within the top 10 circulation have more than a million circulations. In 1996, seventy--five million dollars worth of Japanese Manga and Anime were exported to the USA (Iwabuchi, Koichi, 2001, p.35 ).

In 2001, more than 100 TV animation programs were broadcasted in Japan. Doraemon and Sazaesan have been on the air for some 30 years. In the entire world market, it is said that the share of Japanese Anime amounts to can be 60 %, with a whole scale
market value of approximately one thousand billion yen. In August 1996, the
Journal of American Billboard Ranking announced that No.1 selling video in
America was a Japanese Anime entitled “Ghost in the Shell”.

The PDF can be accessed here.

If you are curious what I do mean by McDonalds and Anime, read this discussion.

Ayumi HamasakixHello Kitty

Pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki and Hello Kitty, the popular Japanese feline character, have joined hands to create a new character set to hit Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai shortly, companies that created the new character said Friday.

Source from Wikipedia
Another one

Well it certainly looked like something. But I have difficulty matching her and Hello Kitty, just like trying to combine Gundam and Godzilla together. Seriously mismatched and from what angle is this creation supposed to come? Cuteness with edge?

This is a singer who past her prime back 2002, now trying to be at the top of the game. Hard to see how is gonna happen though. Her glittering career becomes under attack when news of her deafness broke out.

It is ironic that Hello Kitty will be more enduring than her, in a way.

Inside the Robot Kingdom

"It is about robots and Japan, and in the larger sense, about technology and culture. Like most people, until recently my image of robots confused science fiction and real life. I have always been fascinated, however, by the way robots in all forms-- in fantasy and industry-- are so celebrated in Japan. Around the end of 1984, while touring some factories in the United States, and seeing so few industrial robots at work, I began to realize that "robots"-- in all their various forms-- can really be seen as a symbol of a larger relationship between people and technolgy. To understand why America was having trouble with robotization and other steps on the road to the twenty-first century, and why Japan seemed to be more successful, it would be necessary to look beyond the machine. This led to my interviewing people with all kinds of different connections with robots in both nations, touring factories, attending international conferences, and reading hundreds of books, magazines, and journals and, especially, the daily industrial newspapers of Japan."

Source

This book talks about Japanese singular obsession with robots and it is penned by one of the most famous author who also translated Gundam novels, Frederick L.Schodt. The book maybe old but some ideas are still fresh and relevant; if any English speaker seeks to understand the robot craze in Japan might want to start with this book first.

History of Tatsunoko Animation and Gatchaman.

The story of “Battle of the Planets” started in Japan with a comic studio named Tatsunoko and an artistic visionary named Tatsuo Yoshida. It was 1933 when Tatsuo was born in Kyoto, Japan; the eldest of three tight-knit brothers who, from very early on had to fend for themselves to put food on the table. He quickly discovered that he had a gift in art and soon became known as an impeccable illustrator in his hometown. Yet he knew that if he were going to survive living as an artist, he would have to go Japan's biggest city of Tokyo in the hopes of being able to provide for his family.

It was in Tokyo where Tatsuo started to draw manga (Japanese comics), and rapidly rose to top of the comics scene with adventures like “Iron Arm Rikiya” and “Boy Ninja Squad Moonlight.” Work was steady and there was an ever-increasing demand for his talents. So Tatsuo asked his brothers, Kenji and Toyoharu (the latter better known by his pen name - Ippei Kuri) to come to Tokyo to help him with his workload. Very soon, all were enjoying great success. "My brother Tatsuo had a genius for drawing," remembers Ippei Kuri. "He moved to Tokyo and worked there for a publishing company, and I joined him shortly afterwards as an assistant. When I was seventeen I was already working on my own comics, and the same publisher even asked me to write some of them."

More here

A small tribute to one of founders of modern anime. I still remember Gatchaman with great fondness, no doubt it will look cheesy and tacky now but back then when I was a kid, I think it is one of the coolest cartoon. It have same place of childhood happy stuff in my life like Airwolf, Knight Rider, Saber Rider and many more.

This series is also the first who uses archtypes here, one pure hero, a rebellious hero, a gentle giant, a whizz kid and hot chick as team of superheroes, fighting masked villain for the sake of mankind to me. After that almost all other animea have same grouping concept,a meme that I keep looking out for whenever there is new series to watch.

I do wonder if Hollywood will pick this one up if Speed Racer is a commercial success.

Microsoft joins the anime bandwagon

Microsoft Corp. has announced that its digital entertainment brand, Zune, is about to expand beyond music. The Zune device and online network will now include downloads of popular television shows in the content offered for its small screen MP3 players. As well as shows from Comedy Central, MTV, NBC Universal, and Nickelodeon, Zune will include some anime series from FUNimation Entertainment and Starz (which includes Manga Entertainment).

Only a few programs have been announced thus far, as Microsoft struggles to catch up to the wide variety of entertainment offered by its rival, iTunes.
But three anime series were included in the new content mentioned in the initial announcement: FUNimation's Afro Samurai and Witchblade, and Starz' Ghost in the Shell.

More here

Oooooh, I can hear the Imperial March in background as Microsoft now coming to use anime to assimilate people! Repent all Microsoft haters who liked anime! Repent!

Malaise of anime DVD slowdown in USA?

In the United States, Japanese manga and anime are both increasingly popular, yet the manga business is thriving while anime sales are languishing. More people seem to be enjoying anime, but fewer are paying for it.

At the Tokyo International Anime Fair held late last month, the US-based Society for the Promotion of Japanese Anime (SPJA) hosted a panel discussion to address the anime paradox.

In opening remarks, SPJA chief executive officer Trulee Karahashi said US manga sales had grown from US$60mil (RM228mil) in 2002 to US$200mil (RM720mil) in 2006, with the number of titles released rising from 1,008 volumes in 2005 to an estimated 1,700 volumes in 2008.

But meanwhile, she said: “The sales of anime (DVDs) in the US have dropped dramatically, from US$500mil (RM1.9bil) in 2002 to US$400mil (RM1.4bil) in 2006, and that is expected to drop further.” The number of released volumes has also fallen, from 756 in 2005 to just over 500 expected when the final numbers come in for 2007, she said.

“The anime market is under threat in North America,” said panellist Christopher Macdonald, editor-in-chief of the website Anime News Network, attributing the problem to “pressure from illegal online alternatives”.

Macdonald suggested that a lack of nimbleness on the part of the legitimate industry helps pirates operate.

“Right now, fans want to see an anime, and they are told that this anime isn’t going to be available in North America for six months, two years, whatever. They’re not going to wait six months or two years. They’re going to go get it (illegally),” he said. “When we’re dealing with a TV series, very often Japanese TV networks ... (demand) a 90-day monopoly on that product. From the day that it premieres on whatever TV network in Japan, for the next 90 days, absolutely no one is allowed to show that product anywhere else in the world,” Macdonald said.

Panelist Summer Mullins, editor of Anime Insider magazine, said: “It’s really a limited number of groups that are actually making the piracy – and the millions of downloads that you can see of people watching Naruto for free every week – possible.

So beating the fansubbers at their own game via advanced digital (security) methods, possible simultaneous releases and things of that nature are really the best way to go.”

Mullins also said: “The people who are buying these DVDs are so young that I think education on Net etiquette and the realities of intellectual property (would help).”

“The anime industry in the States isn’t ailing necessarily because there’s a lack of interest in anime,” she said. “It’s simply the piracy issue.”

Source
Another Source

The article seem to target fansubbers as main culprit of the dwindling anime DVD sales in USA. It is paradox that they don't mention that fansubbers are the one who introduced the works in first place to non Japanese speaking crowd. So blaming on subbers squarely for the issue is a little extreme here.

Not to mention too that most US anime DVDs were poorly marketed, substandard subs or largely indifferent dubbing. Most common complaint is of course, it is too expensive.

But the fans also have role in the malaise too. It is difficult for them to purchase the anime after they seen the subs. Some fans also a bit anal on dubbing or essence of Japanese purity of subbing; citing commercial subbing are sub par compared to fansubs.

I see this as multifaceted issue. Not just that, it is tricky issue to walk on.

Soft Power, Japanese style.

SOFT POWER, HARD TRUTHS / America in Speed's rear-view mirror

Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

As Speed Racer's Hollywood blockbuster adaptation opens in U.S. theaters today, Western media outlets are trumpeting its Japanese source: the 1960s manga and anime created by Tatsuo Yoshida and Tatsunoko Productions, the studio he formed in Tokyo with his two brothers, Kenji and Toyoharu.

Originally titled Mach Go Go Go, Speed Racer debuted on U.S. television in 1967, bearing many of the aesthetic characteristics now associated with anime as a global juggernaut--jerky, hyperkinetic action, ethnically stateless or even Western-looking characters, visceral violence and a complex, multifaceted, episodic storyline.

Its commercial success marked a watershed moment in anime history. Though Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy had arrived a few years earlier, Speed Racer was the title that catapulted anime into the U.S. marketplace and penetrated the consciousness of a generation now entrenched in middle age.

But despite its very Japanese roots, Speed Racer was, from the very beginning, made for America.

"We were surprised about the success [of Speed Racer]," Ippei Kuri (the brother formerly known as Toyoharu Yoshida) said in an interview last year, the 40th anniversary of the original TV series, "but it was actually what we had been planning. We had been studying American culture, and its style was something we tried very hard to emulate."

Speed Racer's protagonist was named Go Mifune in the Japanese original, a nod to Toshiro Mifune, the actor who appeared in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and other classics--but his appearance is modeled on Elvis Presley, specifically the race-car driving, scarf-wearing Elvis of Viva Las Vegas. The Mach 5, Mifune's gadget-equipped car, was inspired by Ferrari, and its elaborate equipment was lifted from the 007 movies, specifically James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

Most importantly, the familial bonds at the heart of Speed Racer--the macho yet lovable father, competitive male siblings, patient mother, helpful girlfriend and family pet (a chimpanzee)--all emanate from American television shows broadcast in Japan in the 50s.

"America in the 50s had a growing economy and was the global leader after its victory in World War II," Kuri said. "After that came Vietnam, and I think Americans lost their peaceful family image. We in Japan saw the '50s America as an ideal, and we presented that in Speed Racer. I think Americans in the '60s and even today like our show because it feels nostalgic for them. It was about a time when America was the world's ideal."

Peter Fernandez, the American writer and voice actor largely responsible for turning the Japanese original into a U.S. TV series, agrees. "Speed Racer had family values," he told me from his home in New York. "It wasn't about a hero who won in the end, or a robot. It had a family of characters who were all concerned about what happened to their members. That was and is immensely attractive, and I think that has helped the series maintain its longevity."

Fernandez spoke to me the day after he attended a preview of the Hollywood movie, directed by the Wachowski Brothers, the anime-obsessed makers of The Matrix. "I think they got it right," he said.

And what did they get right? A story created in postwar Japan by artists imagining an America that would no longer exist by the time it reached American viewers: projection turned nostalgia via transcultural boomerang.

The crowning irony? Not one of the original Japanese creators of Speed Racer actually knew how to drive.

More from here.

This short article talks about cultural power and appeal of anime as it trying to be in mainstream of US cinema goers with Speed Racer leading the way currently. On the gist, I agreed with the author but I also felt he is oversimplifying few things here and there. In the spirit though, it is an excellent article.

Nodame Cantable Paris Chapter

Well, well.

Looks like next installment of Nodame is coming and it talks about the adventures of 2 aspiring talented classic musicians from Japan in Europe.
I am looking forward to this.

Source

This is one of the few animes that managed to show, not tell the story. Good characters and nicely done pacing also helps.

For those who yet to read or watch this, get it.

US Business views on anime as product

Embracing Japanese pop culture
'Cuteness, coolness and playfulness' could bring big business to U.S.

Once one starts listing the examples of Japanese culture infiltrating the United States, it's pretty hard to stop. One of the most-anticipated summer movies, "Speed Racer," is based on a '60s anime. Leonardo DiCaprio, James Cameron and M. Night Shyamalan are all attached to anime-based projects.

Anime peppers cable channels like IFC, Spike and, of course, Cartoon Network, whose Toonami block features Japanese animation every Saturday night. Manga fills racks upon racks at Borders and Barnes and Noble. Japanese aesthetic has found its way into mainstream department stores, helped along by pop star Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers line of clothing and accessories, Le Sport Sac bags featuring Tokidoki designs (created by an Italian artist obsessed with Japan), and famed artist Takashi Murakami's bags for Louis Vuitton.

Cosplay and anime conventions don't just happen in hot spots like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, but all over the country. The nation's first J-Pop mall is in the works in San Francisco, created by Japanese film distributor Viz Pictures, and will feature a Japanese-only film theater, bookstore, café and fashion boutiques with the U.S.'s first boutique for Gothic Lolita fashion. Names once foreign to Americans — Pokèmon, Tamagotchi and Totorro — have become beloved household brands.

More from here.

Despite news of collapse of Geneon USA and ADV is in the trouble, this article shows why there is still some space for anime growth in USA commercial appeal.

Ga Rei, anime adaptation coming soon.

I just read some of the manga and it leaves the feeling of Bleach with just little bit more edge. But it does have some redeeming moments like focused relationship aspect of the characters. The fights are fairly standard and so are most of the characters in the narrative.

My friend has more extensive discussion on this work. Here

So expect typical supernatural fights, demons, school girls with power, clueless hero with latent potentials etc etc etc.

Blade of the Immortal Anime Promo, better quality version.,

Finally a better quality promo of Blade of the Immortal anime. Enjoy.

Hatsune Miku

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク, Hatsune Miku) is the first installment in the Vocaloid Character Vocal Series released on August 31, 2007. The name of the title and the character of the software was chosen by combining Hatsu (初, First), Ne (音, Sound), and Miku (未来, Future).The data for the voice was created by actually sampling the voice of Saki Fujita, a Japanese voice actress. Unlike general purpose speech synthesizers, the software is tuned to create J-pop songs commonly heard in anime, but it is possible to create songs from other genres.

Nico Nico Douga played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software. Soon after the release of the software, users of Nico Nico Douga started posting videos with songs created by the software. According to Crypton, a popular video with a comically altered software mascot holding a leek, singing Ievan Polkka, presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation.As the recognition and popularity of the software grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborate content creation.

More from ubiquitous Wikipedia

My personal experience with it is one of amusement to be honest. The software is no doubt pretty interesting and cool but what leaves me in smoke is the cultural impact generated by this seemingly innocent looking software. It even has cameo in Zoku Zetsubo Sensei anime. The new idol of anime fans around the world has been a subject of controversy in Net Neutrality when Google was accused of censoring images of Hatsune Miku. Here are some samples of this stuff here.



Fly me to the Moon to



Haktivah, Israeli anthem to



Full Metal Jacket running cadence and finally...







My favourite song of ANGELA.

The versatility of the software is amazing, a great tribute to programmers who did it.

Now Nico stuff made me go brain dead, to be honest, again. My friend showed to me and I am scratching my head as to how it is becoming so popular. Most of the vids I saw are schizophrenic, it looks like it is tacked on by dozens of people who did it out of sheer boredom.





Here is the samples that I can scoop out.

But yeah, it is an interesting phenomenon. For Japanese speakers, this article discussed on how it was created.

The creation story

Aegis of Uruk, Tower of Druaga

This anime caught my eye for unusual storytelling and characterization. Someone has been trying very hard not to be pigeonholed as stereotype here at Gonzo. Very, very hard.

And another precedent here, Gonzo released the sub on the day the episode was aired. Interesting direction here.

Macross Frontier?

My jury is still deliberating on it, but so far it looks promising. I do liked Sheryl songs especially the ending song which featured in the first video. The OP is sort of meh to me, the ED is more powerful in my opinion.

The 2nd video is another favourite of mine, What About My Star.

Here is obligatory OP of the series. Will review this once it was done.

Allison to Lillia, By the author of Kino no Tabi

Right now I paying a very close attention to this. I am a big fan of Kino no Tabi and this anime is no exception. I do hope my hunch is right on money for this one.

Gackpoid? You bet!

The musician and occasional anime voice actor Gackt has lent his voice to Gackpoid, the latest spinoff from the Vocaloid vocal music synthesizer that was popularized by virtual idol Miku Hatsune. As with Miku Hatsune, Gackpoid uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid engine and voice samples from Gackt to create entirely new songs when ordinary computer users type lyrics and musical notes. Gackpoid's official webpage is streaming a sample song. Up to 16 voices can be added for the background chorus. The software company Internet will ship Gackpoid in the middle of June.

Source

First Hatsune Miku, now this. Capitalism with otaku tinge. Rocking on!

Raw providers being arrested.

On May 9, the Kyoto Prefectural Police's High-Tech Crime Task Force arrested three individuals on suspicion of using the Share file-sharing software to distribute anime and other content on the Internet without the copyright holders' permission. The three suspects were company workers in their 20s to 40s from Kanagawa, Hiroshima, and other Japanese prefectures. Authorities searched the suspects' homes on the same day they were arrested.


More here

Source

It is noted that ANN has been leading a personal crusade against fansubbers in interest to protect the industry but as one of my friend pointed out, all their effort is going down the drain when GONZO subbed Aegis of Uruk Druaga on the day of its release.

Ironic bitter blow in roundabout way.

On the main issue, it does seem WINNY is fast becoming hazardous to transfer files.