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Now I know why these songs sound alike

Bananarama’s, I Heard A Rumor, used to be one of my favorite songs so I noticed similarities when I first heard Meiko Nakahara’s, Dance In The Memories. It shares the same style although slightly different melody. Then I heard Yoko Nagayama’s, GIVE ME UP. It also reminded me of I Heard A Rumor and I’m thinking these songs are copying it. It turns out all these songs sample Michael Fortunati’s, Give Me Up. I’ve never heard of him because the song wasn’t released in the U.S.

Anime has some great songs. I wouldn’t have discovered these other songs without watching Ranma ½.

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Funimation’s new site has bugs

First, the logon page won’t let you logon with Facebook. Clicking the Facebook button just sends you back to the logon page. Second, there’s no subtitles for A Certain Magical Index. I’ve been watching the series subtitled with the original Japanese audio up until now.

No subtitles

It’s sad Funimation won’t let you bring up these problems on their forum. They want to hide the fact their site is broken. No one at Funimation has responded to my email.

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Cecilia D’Anastasio

So I read a blog by Cecilia D’Anastasio who claims anime is misogynist, racist and needs to conform to Western standards. First, Miss D’Anastasio can fuck off. Anime is not hers to change. No one is forcing her to watch it. Have you not seen all the examples of racism in American animation? After watching 15,000 episodes I can honestly say anime remains fairly respectful of women and minorities. Anime is not afraid of tackling social issues such as exploitation and human trafficking. Numerous anime deal with a strong female protagonist–Those are my favorite!

Don’t change anime. Don’t make it Western because I’ll hate it. Don’t do us any favors.

サマリー: Cecilia D’Anastasio はアニメと日本の文化を嫌っている。彼女はキリスト教徒の信仰とモラルをアニメに反映させて欲しいと思っている。

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Choices before anime existed

I’m 50 years old. Animation was bland 40 years ago. Not much to choose from and no internet. If I was lucky, our antenna would catch channel 20 and show something unusual called Kimba the White Lion (ジャングル大帝). In college I discovered something amazing called anime. I wasn’t used to seeing animation beautifully drawn with captivating, emotionally charged storylines.

1973, Ace o Nerae!, Super Friends
1973, Ace o Nerae!, Super Friends

1975, Dog of Flanders, Grape Ape
1975, Dog of Flanders, Grape Ape

1976, Gaiking, Scooby-Doo
1976, Gaiking, Scooby-Doo

It’s the present and I’m overwhelmed with the amount of anime available. I feel robbed and cheated of my childhood.

Influential anime, Gunbuster, 1988
Influential anime, Gunbuster, 1988

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Japan Codes

Good news and bad news. The good news is Japan Codes sent my iTunes card instantly with my purchase. The bad news is the price for a ¥10,000 went up to $110 dollars from last year. I paid $91 dollars last year.

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Replaced my home theater’s subwoofer

My Infinity TSS-SUB750 subwoofer started having problems with hum and high pitch noise. The noise was getting worse and distracting so I replaced the speaker. Infinity doesn’t sell home theater speakers anymore. Instead, I bought Infinity’s REFERENCE SUB R10 which was similar in size and wattage. The R10 has a low-frequency effects (LFE) crossover setting, but it seems to have too much midrange. I’m using the LFE setting because my receiver has it.

Infinity subwoofer
REFERENCE SUB R10
Infinity subwoofer
REFERENCE SUB R10