SUBBED, DUBBED OR RAW: How do you like your anime Subbed, ...

Not knowing much more of Japanese than "Ranma no baka," I've got to go with subbed. When I first started watching anime, I went with dubbing, and I sometimes enjoy a dubbed episode of Cowboy Bebop or Dragon Ball Z?but mostly I don't like it. The dubbed performers rarely match the tones of the original seiyuu voice actors, and the performances are generally too exaggerated for my tastes. Fortunately, with dual or even triple audio sources available these days, viewers can choose the language that's most suited to their mood and taste.

Anyway, I just coughed up the cash for two DVDs of Noir, the tale of two women, Mireille Bouquet and Yumura Kirika, on a quest to discover Kirika's past. There is, of course, a shadowy conspiracy at work and some kick-ass fight scenes and great use of music. I'd already downloaded most of the episodes, but the real thing is worth owning. Noir reminds me, at times, of a more somber version of Cowboy Bebop, at least in terms of the art direction and use of music.

Most people who are reading this are familiar with anime, manga and the various distinctions of the niches such as shojo (aimed at girls) or shonen (aimed at boys). These are generalities?surely, plenty of guys watched and read Sailor Moon and I'm sure more then a few girls read and watched Ranma. In most cases, most anime has veered off from the original manga. The Aa Megami-sama! manga I've read, for instance, is very different from the OVA. Which is not to say that all anime was originally done as manga. I believe most were?but not all.

Due to the magic of the internet, most anime series are made available as soon as they are aired and when they're released on DVD, rips are made and posted right away. SaiyaMan is one of the groups dedicated to releasing raws, and they seem to be running a few weeks ahead of the translated fansubs. For instance, they released Inuyasha 127 around the time of Anime Kraze's release of episode 124. This means that you can watch new episodes of most ongoing series not long after they're aired in Asia. If you understand Japanese, the delay may be reduced to days.

A quick word for newcomers to file sharing. As most people know by now, the internet was fundamentally designed to distribute information via a decentralized series of networks. It should come as no surprise that creative people found so many ways to do capitalize on this architecture. From the simple KaZaa and LimeWire to Direct Connect and WinMX, there are tons of peer-to-peer networks. I primarily use BitTorents and the text and binary newsgroups dedicated to anime. There are more fansub groups than could ever be listed, and many have both torrent archives as well as IRC channels so you can talk anime while you download.

A good source for upcoming fansubs: baka-updates.com.

Fansub updates and other resources: downloadanime.org.

Fansub reviews (you can add your own): itsumoanime.animecenter.com/series.php.