Microsoft's brand new Windows 7 operating system allows you to download a lot of nice & interesting themes, including international themes customized for various countries around the world. Most of these themes even take advantage of Win7's brand new rotating wallpaper feature. But there's still one theme that's only officially available in the Japanese version of the new software.

OS-tans, which is when you take various operating systems & make moe anime girls out of them, have been popular in Japan for some time now. It was always a fan-made idea, but then Microsoft Japan announced that they'd be making the first ever official OS-tan for Windows 7, & her name is Nanami Madobe (which is a word play on "7" & "window"). As a Japanese exclusive, Windows 7 would come with a theme pack based around her. This was bad news for international anime fans who wanted the option of having an official OS-tan for their theme, but luckily in this modern age you can find pretty much anything online, & the pack has been leaked.

The Nanami Madobe theme contains three different backgrounds that rotate from one to the other, but the bulk of the theme is all in the sounds. Nanami, voiced by Nana Mizuki (Hinata in Naruto, Fate in Nanoha), says something whenever you do pretty much anything. Whether it's max/minimizing a window, shutting down or starting up your computer, plug in a USB, encounter a system error, your batteries about to die or even blocking a pop-up in Internet Explorer. The only problem I encountered was that she's supposed to say "chin!" whenever you close a program. However, she actually says it anytime a process ends. & since processes are constantly coming & going in Windows, I was hearing her say "chin!" out of the blue about every 30 seconds. So I disabled her from saying that in the Sounds settings, but left everything else in tact.

So if you wanna have the first official OS-tan on your brand new Windows 7 machine, you can download the theme pack here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SQEG5XL4

In response to immense feedback, FUNimation has clarified why they changed their streams of uncensored Strike Witches to the edited version a mere few hours after I broke the story. Here's their official statement on the matter:

( Read more... )

iTunes is once again giving us some free anime downloads to enjoy. Viz Media began adding episodes of both "Honey & Clover" & "Nana" to iTunes today. For Honey & Clover, the first 12 episodes of season 1 have been added, & the first episode can be downloaded completely free. The rest of the episodes will cost you $1.99 each to download, or you can buy the whole "season set" in bulk for $19.99 which includes the bonus OVA episode (which can't be downloaded on its own). The episodes are dubbed in English, & as fan of the Japanese version, I can say for the most part I really enjoyed the episode 1 dub.

The first 11 dub episodes of Nana were also added, which is quite good timing considering today is Nana Day (7/7). Again, each episode will cost you $1.99, or $19.99 for all 11 plus the special recap episode 11.5 (which again can't be downloaded on its own). Unfortunately there are no free episodes for Nana. But get your free Honey & Clover ep, hit up the link below:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=319682712&id=318745265&s=143441

Starz, Bang Zoom, & Manga Entertainment have posted a "Ghost in the Shell" short featurette on iTunes that takes an in-depth look at the history, philosophy, & influence of the landmark anime franchise. And for at least the time being anyway, it's completely free to download & watch.

The 10 minute video talks to much of the staff behind the English version of Ghost in the Shell & its spin-offs, including American voice-actor Crispin Freeman (Togusa), who in particular seems to be a huge GitS geek (which is pretty awesome). They start off talking about the original film & how groundbreaking & influential it has become, in terms of anime, animation, & sci-fi stories in general. They then compare it to the "Stand Alone Complex" TV series & how it differs. Even the manga is briefly brought up & compared to as well. You can download the free video here:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=318427634&id=275693606&s=143441

It kinda sucked for Blue Dragon fans that Cartoon Network took down Toonami Jetstream last month, even though the series only had about 10 episodes left to go. Fans were left without a (legal) way to watch the series online anymore. Well guess what? Viz is fixing that problem by putting the series on iTunes! Only now you have to PAY for every episode! All right!

Well okay, not every episode. In honor of the series being added to iTunes, Viz is giving away the first episode for free until March 10. They're also allowing Xbox 360 owners to download the first episode for free as well until March 3, since the series seems to have been added there as well. But if want to continue watching this edited dub-only version of the show, you'll have to pay $1.99 per episode. Or you can buy them in "season" bulks. The first "season" (13 episodes) are up now, with more "seasons" sure to follow. So there you go, Blue Dragon fans. You can finally finish the series. Download your free episode here:

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVShow?id=300991776
Xbox Live: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/videos/media/980a1d8e-892b-4c0c-818b-0107feba19ed/?of=0&sb=1&p=2

Over the weekend, video streaming website Joost added a free application to the iPhone/iPod Touch App Store. As far as I can tell while looking through it, every clip, TV show, & movie that's on the Joost website is on the application. This of course includes all the anime titles Joost streams as well.

The downside for iPhone users is the app requires a wi-fi connection, so Edge & 3G networks wont cut it. I would guess this is because of the high quality & long lengths of the videos (especially the full length movies), so a really fast connection is a must. But this app is already better than the vSNAX video app that the Anime Network puts their shows on, since Joost actually allows you to search for whatever series or episode you're looking for. The quality of the video looks better as well, in my opinion. You'd never guess you're watching video on a mobile device.

The release of the app coincides with Joost's exclusive debut of the anime series "Kaiji" & "Buzzer Beater" in subtitled format. Both those series have their first few episodes on the Joost website as well as the new app. Other anime included are free, full, uncut, legal, & subbed episodes of Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Shikabane Hime, Angelic Layer, IkkiTousen, Black Blood Brothers, & much more, including series from the Anime Network, Gong, & Toonami Jetstream. Gong offers series in both sub & dub formats, & everything from Toonami Jetstream is in edited dub format (thus the app provides both subbed & dubbed versions of Naruto). The iPhone/iPod Touch application will likely carry the Naruto Shippuden eps when they start rolling out next month as well. The application can be downloaded from the iTunes Store here:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=295977505&mt=8

The Strike Witches anime series may have concluded last week, but the love for the pantsu obsessed series continues in other forms. For instance, a couple fan-made games based on the series have recently started to appear online. & the genre for the games is rather well suited for what anime. NO, they're NOT hentai dating games! The OTHER genre- 2D flight shooters! You get to fly as the girls & shoot down the evil enemies that plague their world.

Of course, the games are in Japanese though. But don't fret, as Sankaku Complex has instructions of how to play. As well as download links to download the games to your computer, of course. All the information & links for both games wait for you here:

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/09/21/shooting-witches-strike-witches-game-download/

For a few weeks earlier this summer, One Piece was the most downloaded show in the world. Major piracy issues about this aside, it's pretty cool that an anime took the top spot the world over, beating out shows such as Lost, Heroes, & Doctor Who. But then after a few weeks, the series dropped off the list entirely.

Now, results for the week of August 18 have come in, & One Piece is back on the list! Not the top spot this time, but taking the #2 position behind Lost. But interestingly enough, for the first time One Piece is not alone on the list. Fellow anime series Bleach & Naruto join the the top torrents for the first time, reaching spots 4 & 12 respectively. Nice job, shonen anime! You show Family Guy who's boss. The complete top 20 below:

( Read more... )

As has been expected for sometime now, Toei Animation has officially added Digimon Adventure 02 & Pretty Cure to their OnDemand downloadable lineup. The first 15 episodes of Digimon 02 & the first 2 episodes have PreCure are the first of both series to be added. As with their first two properties, the episodes are all in Japanese with official English subtitles & retail for $1.99 each (to own, not rent like blasted Sony's doing). This is the first time the Japanese version of Digimon has been officially available in America, & the first time for any version of PreCure since 4Kids let their license of the series die.

Considering the long-time Digimon fan that I am, I bought the first few episodes from the Direct2Drive service. I must say, the video quality really leaves something to be desired. This is especially true considering the unusually large size of the files- over 300MB each & they still don't look that great? Aside from that, the subs use a weird combination of Japanese terms & English dub terms for the series. All the kids keep their original Japanese names, except they're called DigiDestined instead of Chosen Children. Evolve is Digivolve, & yet "DigiMental Up" is kept intact. Ken is properly referred to as the Digimon Kaiser here, but the levels of the Digimon are referred to their dub names. The names of the Digimon themselves are all over the place. It seems for the most part dub names were kept, such as Veemon (as opposed to V-mon), Flamedramon (Fladramon), Armadillomon (Armadimon). yet interestingly enough, Tailmon is kept as Tailmon. I guess Gatomon was too different from Tailmon for even them to justify the change. Piyomon is also kept, though.

There are also a few small spelling & grammar mistakes made throughout the episodes. & I STILL don't understand why they chose to skip the first season of the series & go straight to 02. 02 was probably my least favorite season of Digimon, but probably has mostly to do with how long the Kaiser arc dragged on for. But despite all these problems & issues, were finally getting an official subtitled version of Digimon after all these years, & us old fans of the series should appreciate that. The interchangeable dub names shouldn't be a real problem unless you're a hardcore original extremist. But I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we ALL fell in love with Digimon through the Saban dub, so it really isn't that big of a deal. So go & support Digimon by buying some episode! Oh, & Pretty Cure too. =b Your downloading begins here:

http://www.toei-anim.com/ondemand/

For the second week in a row, One Piece was the most downloaded television series in the entire Internets. Lost? Heroes? Dexter? All of these big hitters fall to their knees in front of the One Piece! South Park, Simpsons, Family Guy? None of these American-based cartoons hold a candle to the power that his Luffy & his Straw Hat Pirates! Granted, probably the vast majority of these downloaders are from outside America, since One Piece never really caught on that well in the US (not like it was ever given a fair enough chance). But still, a wins a win & we'll take it. This week's list of Top 20 BitTorrent TV Downloads:

( Read more... )

Nielsen Ratings have been the standard way for decades of judging how popular television shows are by looking at how many people are watching them. Trouble is, here in the 21st Century people are watching their TV shows in more ways than just on TV. More illegal ways, to be specific. Well now some sites are measuring how popular a show is by how many times it gets downloaded in a week via torrents. It doesn't go by individual episodes mind you, but series as a whole.

Now here's the interesting part. In the week ending in June, One Piece was the most downloaded show of the week. It ranked #4 the previous week, & was the only anime series in the top 20. In fact it seems ever since this practice of measuring TV show downloads began, anime has rarely if ever entered the list. So having One Piece at #1 is quite impressive. Way to go, One Piece fans! You rob profits from your favorite series more than any other show in the world! The list:

( Read more... )

Toei has launched their own online video on demand service, & they're kicking it off with two of their classics- "Slam Dunk" & "Fist of the North Star." The first 15 episodes of both series are now up & ready to be bought for $1.99 each. & to get people started, they're letting IGN stream the entire first episode of Slam Dunk for free, which you can watch above. The preview episode, just like the purchasable episodes on-demand, are sub only releases with no English dub.

A few years back, the Japanese animation company tried to enter the American DVD market by releasing these series & more. Unfortunately for them though, their attempt failed (not so bad for the consumer though, as they're DVDs pretty much sucked). After that, didn't completely disappear from the American anime scene. They've been involved with the English versions of many of their series, such as Beet the Vandel Buster, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Digimon: Data Squad, & One Piece. They were also to be involved in the English version of Pretty Cure, but we all know what happened with that. But since they still list the series on their English website, maybe there's hope yet that the series will be getting an English release at some point.

Last year, Toei ran a survey on Anime News Network asking readers which of their series they would like to see subtitled on a Video on Demand service. Slam Dunk did pretty well on the survey, coming in fourth place in total votes. Fist of the North Star did... okay, coming in at around 12th place. The success of those two probably had something to do with them being the inaugural series in this project of theirs. But what of the shows that did even better in the survey? After all, Sailor Moon was the number one choice, & Digimon came in at number 2. Both series clobbered all the other competition. So with Toei's VoD service now a reality, the chance of seeing officially subtitled Digimon & Sailor Moon might just be around the corner. Now those are anime series that I'd pay to see officially subtitled. But until that ever happens (if that ever happens), you can check out Toei's first 2 VoD shows here:

http://www.toei-anim.com/ondemand/

In order to help promote the Death Note live-action movie that screens in theaters next week, Viz has uploaded special ringtones & wallpapers for cell phones on to the movie's website. As of yesterday, they added a ringtone for Ryuk & one for L (though the L one sounds really weird). They also added the poster for the movie in phone wallpaper size. & really, they got every single cellphone screen out there covered. The image comes in so many sized it's crazy, though all of them still pretty small though in order to fit on your phone (iPhone one is a decent size at least).

So if you love Death Note enough to put these goodies on your phone, then by all means get your download on! You can find downloads for everything mentioned above right here:

http://deathnotefilms.com/goodies.php

A free-to-play online MMO shooter called Manga Fighter has recently finished its beta testing & is now fully open to the public to download. Did I mention it was free? Well, it is! Just don't get it mixed up with the similarly manga-themed free MMO Lunia, which is an action game as opposed to a shooter.

Unlike most MMO shooter games out there, Manga Fighter takes a kid friendly approach & uses anime-style slapstick humor shooting instead of realistic violence. The game runs online 24/7 as you pit yourself against other online players from around the world. Special in-game events with prizes will be happening all the time as well. To download the game, all you need to do is register for a free account at the official website. From the official press release:

( Read more... )

The second Yu-Gi-Oh GX Sound Duel is here at last! Good news for all of us who wanted the GX BGM's that came after the first 26 episodes which were featured in Sound Duel 1. Except there's only one problem. This CD doesn't have every new piece that's come out since the first disc. Rather, it only contains the music tracks that were introduced in seasons 3 & 4. Yeah, that's right. None of the season 1.5 or season 2 music is here. This includes the most popular BGM in the entire series among fans, unofficially titled Impossible Victory. Other fan-favorite songs like Camula's theme are missing as well.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good tracks on here. I loved the new music that was introduced in season 3 & felt like it was an overall big improvement to the tracks that we got in season 1. But "Impossible Victory," which was introduced in the Seven Stars saga in season 1, is without a doubt my favorite in the whole series. & with this probably being the final Sound Duel disc for GX, it's unlikely that we'll ever get it. After all, if they were to release a disc featuring the music from seasons 1.5 & 2, they would have released that before the season 3 & 4 music. Not to mention there weren't enough new songs introduced during that period to fill up a disc, though they were all good ones.

But enough of the pessimism here. Yeah it sucks not to have all the tracks from the series, but at least we got more at all. The CD contains a total of 45 tracks in all, which is really quite a lot. It even includes the GX remix of Yugi's theme, introduced in the final episode of the series. So what are you waiting for? Get your download on over at Janime here:

http://janime.eu/showthread.php?p=1610973#post1610973