Actually, while anime is pretty damn expensive (which is why I mostly stick to manga), manga is actually quite cheap. While manga is a bit more expensive outside of Japan due to license and translation costs, its still dirt cheap, especially when you compare it to American comics. For example, a single issue of Green Lantern will cost either $3 or $4, depending on how generous DC was being that particular month. This means that, since Brightest Day is always $3 an issue and a bi-weekly release, I spend about $15 to $18 a month on four series. Compare this to the English release of Shonen Jump, which is, if I remember correctly, either $10 or $5 a month, depending on if you subscribe or not. Shonen Jump currently serializes four series, the big three, plus Stan Lee (Yes, that Stan Lee*) and Hiroyuki Takei's Karakuridoji Ultimo. For about the same amount of content, if not more, you're spending $5 to $13 less. But let's forget about single issues and magazines (which there really should be more of) for a moment. A trade paperback, which is usually between six and twelve issues compiled, costs between $15 and $40 (or more if you're taking collector's editions into account), depending on size (Green Lantern Rebirth is $15 for the compiled six issue mini-series while the paperback version of the twelve issue Watchmen is $25), cover type ($25 for the paperback Watchmen, $40 for the awesome hardcover), cover art (most comic shops will charge extra for variant covers as they are meant as collector's covers with the chances of getting one being one in 15, one in 25 and so on and so forth,**) publisher (DC's six issue trade paperbacks are usually $15, Dark Horse six issue paperbacks are usually $20) or edition (Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth is $75, which is insane for any trade outside of the biggest collector editions... Which Absolute Rebirth is.) Since manga rarely, if ever, comes in hardcover, collector's editions or with variant covers, let's cut those out. Let's look at the $15 to $25 paperbacks. Compare these to single volumes of manga, which are generally between $8 and $15, which generally depends on the publisher. Now let's add in the multi-volume omnibuses priced between $15 and $20. Of course, to be fair, manga is rarely printed in color and is also almost always printed in a smaller format than western comics, but those variables aside, manga is actually quite a bit cheaper than western comics and really not that expensive in actuality. * Not that it really matters since Stan Lee only have the original idea while Takei does the art and actual writing. Not to mention that Ultimo's not that good anyway. ** I once saw a variant cover for Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War Volume 1 at the book store priced the same as the normal cover, so this is something of a comic shop trait. This is because bookstores don't really care as much about collectors as the comic stores do, nor do a lot of collectors go to the book store for their comics (I usually only search Barnes and Noble or Borders for graphic novels when I can't find the one I'm looking for at the comic shop.)
Well, there's actually some legal alternatives to Youtube for anime streaming. FUNimation puts quite a bit of stuff on their website and Japanese distributors work with Crunchyroll to simulcast streams of stuff like Naruto and Bleach. All you have to put up with is some advertisements. The ad revenue helps pay for the streams and the streams bring the anime to an audience that otherwise has problems watching. Hell, Crunchyroll and FUNimation's website are a lot easier to use than Youtube, even.
Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. Still, this crackdown wouldn't have started if the people that simply download and ignore the English releases would buy the English releases as well as download. That is the only disagreement I have with this whole situation. I've read REALLY good series that have little chance to be licensed and its because of scanlators that I was able to do so. There's some good stuff that will never be licensed, but at the same time, it is still illegal, even if it is laughable for the Japanese distributors to expect their foreign fans to import everything they want that isn't available in their home countries. Still, I'm not surprised. I was hearing rumors about this three months ago (not to mention that the rumors apparently started floating around almost a year ago) and started seeing the effects at the beginning of June. Mangafox has purged most of their licensed series, Mangatraders has always purged on request, Mangahelpers is trying to sort things out with the Japanese distributors to get unlicensed work to foreign fans and One Manga/1000Manga is closing their doors on manga hosting. I am happy to see Mangahelpers taking such measures to try and make scanlations legit, while Mangafox has apparently changed their policy of "purge until the distributors aren't watching" to "purge and keep purged." Of course, it doesn't change the fact that most communities are crying about how the distributors are corrupt and greedy when they can't afford to NOT be greedy. In my experience on this forum, I'm not really surprised by the fact that most people here can see the point of what the distributors are doing, but most communities are crying about how manga is overpriced, too hard to find or that there isn't enough variety available. What those people don't realize is that the anime and manga industry is only about 2% of all entertainment. If things kept going the way they were, the industry would die. Of course, the common response to this is "I don't care if the industry dies, it just means that the corrupt corporations can't get in the way." Well, if anyone thinks like that, they're idiots. The reason why Japanese distributors tolerate scanlations is because its free advertising to nations outside of Japan. If the foreign anime and manga industry were to die, then the Japanese distributors would have no reason to tolerate scanlations and would likely start cracking down as scanlations are also breaking Japanese and international copyright laws. Really, there's no other fanbase with more entitlement issues I've ever encountered.
Yeah, "El Dorado" is this album's first single.
Well, this was.... Meh. Its not as bad as the worst Nine Inch Nails stuff, but not nearly as good as the better Nine Inch Nails stuff. Free music is great and all, but after Ghosts I-IV, which I feel was a brilliant experiment that tests the boundries of industrial, Reznor needs to step things up here.
Ah, leaks, the lifeblood of torrenting. Really, while many bands won't make it much of a secret of their lack of caring about people downloading their albums (they're generally more interested in concert tickets as (horribly overpriced) album sales on major labels give very little to the artist while the record executives just rake in the money), they usually want the fans to wait until release date. Still, nice to know that at least one person has a positive opinion on the new album. Side note: Also, saw a copy of the set list and "El Dorado" appears to be the only song from the new album they've played on this tour. Take that as you will.
You expected something else from a blatant "Dances with Wolves IN SPACE!!!!"? Anyway, as for 3-D, it CAN be done well and it CAN be done artistically, but it usually isn't. Its a gimmick that makes me glad the theater I usually use doesn't offer it so I won't have to deal with pointless 3-D when Tron Legacy comes out.
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Wow, apples and oranges much?
OK, fine, but it should common sense that they'd be playing something from the album they're touring for. Never said that. The idea of "fans vs REAL fans" is one of the stupidest and most immature ideas ever conceived. "Most" isn't just A Matter of Life and Death and the Blaze era, but, hey, if that's you opinion. Again, the set lists are chosen weeks in advance, so there's really nothing that could have been done there. Oh, I know irritating that can get. A bad mix can completely ruin a show. Still, I gotta play devil's advocate here and say that Maiden tends to put on good shows, a bad night is simply a bad night. Note that I'm playing devil's advocate and wouldn't be if it weren't for Maiden's positive live reputation.
Ah, right, thanks for reminding me of Power Girl. I have to wonder why everyone makes a big deal out of Wonder Woman's costume (even though her new costume has just as much cleavage as the old one...), but no one blinks an eye at Power Girl. Sure, there's symbolic aspect of her costume, the hole representing that she feels that she doesn't deserve to wear the "S" logo the rest of the Superman family (Superman, Supergirl, Superboy) wears, as well as the fact that she also has the hole there to show she isn't hiding anything from her enemies and its not her fault if they get to distracted to avoid her punching them, but it doesn't change the fact that she's got probably the most gratuitous boob window on her costume in all of the DCU.
Except that it IS good music. Or at least the stuff between The X Factor and A Matter of Life and Death. I'll reserve judgment on The Final Frontier until I've actually heard it. That's actually kind of surprising considering that most fans like to try and pretend that the Blaze era never happened and Maiden was simply on a few year long hiatus instead for some bizarre reason. If you were to mention a few song titles, maybe I'd be more inclined to believe you. Again, they're touring for The Final Frontier, you should have expected them to focus on The Final Frontier. They aren't going to change a set list in the middle of a show. These things are planned out weeks in advance. However, I will give you that with the prominence of the internet, sets don't have to focus almost entirely on what they're promoting. Perhaps they're slightly behind on the times. So, you're going to completely disregard thirty years of them showing off just how well they can play live simply because of one bad experience? If you feel they focused on the album too much, wait until they're promoting a live album or compilation album, or just touring for the sake of touring. They've only released two songs from the new album, so if that's the case, I seriously doubt they'd play more than those two plus maybe a couple more. Of course, a lot of old bands like that have to deal with fans that refuse to support anything from their supposed "glory days." Case in point, there was a noticeably weaker reaction to Judas Priest playing "Prophesy," a song from Nostradamus, when I saw them last year, and a noticeably weaker, but not as weak as the reaction to Priest playing "Prophesy," reaction to Rush playing songs from Snakes and Arrows (except "Far Cry" and "Malignant Narcissism" for some reason) when I saw them live in 08.
Obvious typo is obvious. First I have to wonder if you've heard any of their more recent albums. I seriously doubt that the only modern era material they played was from their new album. If you haven't heard their newer albums, how are you so sure that all the songs were from said new album? Next, I need to know the setting of the concert. If it was a music festival, they would have a shorter set, so they'd have to rearrange things. Of course, if it wasn't a festival set, then disregard that last bit. Yes. Yes I do. I enjoy almost all of Maiden's albums to some extent (Killers and Iron Maiden are the only ones I don't like at all). In fact, The X Factor is among my favorites of theirs right next to Number of the Beast and Powerslave. Sure, comparatively, Virtual XI, Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death are weak when put against something like Powerslave, but they're still good, if not great, albums on their own. When I went to see Judas Priest, I didn't hear anything from Angel of Retribution, Painkiller (favorite album of Priest's) and only "You Got Another Thing Coming" from Screaming for Vengeance. I think I'd be able to live with Maiden not playing from Powerslave. And the person posting after you stating that they only played one song from their new album makes me wonder if they really didn't play anything from their classic era.
That would be fine and all.... except it isn't just a new costume, its a total retool done for the sake of publicity. Its not to tell the next story, its to lure in readers with some controversy.
WAAAAAAH!!! THET'RE PLAYING SONGS FROM THE ALBUM THEY'RE TOURING FOR WAAAAAH!!!! See how ridiculous you're sounding? **** I hate a lot of fellow metal fans. Especially considering, from the sounds of things, you're one of those Maiden fans that thinks everything from the Blaze era on sucks.
Yeah, Heroes on the Move (**** that title is stupid) requires the TOTALLY NOT A WII REMOTE. I'm going to be skipping it since I already have a Wii.
Scott Pilgrim is actually a series of graphic novels (6 volumes total). Since the last volume is out next week, the movie's going to have a different ending.
I'll be fair and admit that I wasn't reading comics for the majority of Simone's run (and even now I mostly read Green Lantern.) Still, the critics loved it, a good portion of fans loved it, but hey, a good portion isn't everyone. Well, it IS a retool, just one they never planned to use permanently. I suspect that its a publicity thing. Start some controversy, rake in some extra money, fix it before it becomes to much of an issue. That's the main problem I have here. Its not to tell the next story, its to lure in readers with a controversial move. Its not that I don't like change, its just that this isn't meant to change anything. Its a publicity stunt. Like I said, I've heard conflicting reports, so I'm not going to take sides until I can be completely sure of what the full story is. Regardless of who's to blame, it doesn't change what One More Day is. Besides, I will always hold Quesada as more to blame for it than anyone else.
