You Tube? Seriously?

So according to my Manga aficionado friends, the best places to watch manga online are anime6.org and crunchyroll, which reminds me of sushi. Mmmmmm. Someone else mentioned animegiant (Was that one of you?).

So far my favorite is crunchyroll, because it allowed me to instantly stream Vampire Knights Vol. 1 from my library computer, and since it's fansubbed, I didn't need to turn the sound on. No one even knew I was watching anime! (I didn't like how the vampires' eyes glowed red, though. It made them look like evil robots.)

Anime6 was blocked by our firewall and animegiant required me to download either Divx or Shockwave, which I was too lazy to attempt. So that's as far as I got in terms of test-driving these sites. Let me know what you guys think.

"It's all in how you look at it ... and I'm looking away."

For those of you who missed the conversation this Thursday, we talked about the "fanservice" in certain Manga series, and everyone voted on where we should shelve books that include provocative shots:

1. in the trash
2. on the Manga shelf
3. on the circulation shelf
4. behind my desk
5. in Zach's pants pocket

I didn't originally include option five, but Zach insisted. Anyway, #2 won.

If you disagree with this decision or have something else to say on the topic, you can post a comment here. Here are some of the smart points you guys already made:

• Nudity isn't the same as pornography. If it were, most of the great artists of the world would be considered perverts.
  
• Most Manga (as well as cartoons, books, etc.) have at least one controversial image. If you judged the books based on those images, you'd have to ban half the stuff in the library.
  
• One way to discover new series is by browsing, so if series like Negima are shelved in a separate place, lots of people will never come across it.
• If someone's looking for sexy content, they're going to find it somewhere. Taking Manga off the shelves won't stop that.
  
• People who don't appreciate Manga might flip through a volume of Dramacon or Paradise Kiss looking for controversial content, but real fanboys and fangirls read sexy content in context.

We also agreed to start dividing the collection along the lines of the age ratings (thanks, Margarete). But I have to get labels before we can do that. And I'm probably going to make you guys label them for me, so, in the words of Jafar, be prepared.

My Favorites: Athena's Powers, a Vortex Com by Marcus

Prompt: What were the circumstances of your character's birth?

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the work of Margarete, who asks you to answer this question: "What could make this better?" It's a broad question, but those who dare to answer it will receive their reward. (To answer, click on "comments" and type away.)

Reviewing Manga

OK, there are basically three ways you can review Manga:

1. You can write an epic ballad from your heart touching on whatever inspires you. For an example of this kind of reviewing, see Sleep is for the Weak. In fact, you should all read the Deathnote review over there, because it's truly, truly epic.
   
2. You can divide your review into 3 parts: what was good, what was not good, and what your final analysis was. For an example of this kind of reviewing, see (my most favorite Manga review column ever) Right Turn Only!!
   
3. You can rate the Manga on a scale of one to ten (one being blech and ten being awesome!!) in each of the following categories: art, plot, dialog, and overall flow. (You can also add other categories.) For an example of this kind of reviewing, you'll just have to look at the sheet I gave you, because I don't know of anyone who does such a mathtastic review.