Another Anime Site???

Yes, I too am jumping on the blog bandwagon. After many years of being a passenger, I will finally lead my own vehicle.

This site will talk not just about anime, but about Japanese Dramas too. I will aim this at the anime/dorama novice because that is the type of site that I wished was available when I started watching anime and dormas.

I hope to update this site with interesting tidbits that I learn about my favorite characters, actors, episodes, etc.. I do not profess to know everything about this topic, but I hope the readers will learn along side me.

I have watched too many anime shows to review them all here (although I will probably do something on my favorites soon). But, I do want to review new anime shows as they come out.

I will try to do a review of my top rated doramas. I will admit my bias for doramas that have main characters in their late twenties to late thirties. But, I will watch (and have liked) some shows with a younger cast (Ganbatte) and those with an older cast (Karei-naru Ichizoku).

So here are some things to note about:
Japanese Dramas

• Japanese Dramas are often called Doramas. I will use these terms interchangeably)
• Most doramas run for 10 or 11 episodes and are aired in a one hour time slot. There will often be a bonus, 'special', episode for popular doramas, these are sometimes aired for longer or are composed of two hour long episodes
• Doramas are aired in seasons. Roughly the seasons are as follows: Summer = July - September, Fall = October - December, Winter = January - March, Spring = April - June

Anime

• Anime tends to run in 1/2 or full seasons. 1/2 season is approximately 13 episodes, a full season usually runs 26 episodes. This is not hard and fast as there are many 11/12 or 24/25 episode series.
• OVA [original video animation] is a video format used to show longer anime episodes (air time of 1 hour) with slightly higher quality in DVD format. As recently mentioned in Genshiken 2 ep 6, the OVA is becoming a slightly outmoded form. But, many past popular shows have used this medium
• Anime is shown on Cartoon Network (usually in Adult Swim) and on cable TV station Animax
• some popular/long running shows you can catch on US TV: Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Inuyasha,
  
• some popular movies in the US: Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke & Spirited Away (all by Hayao Miyazaki)
  

I typically watch anime that has not yet been released in the US or have not made it into mainstream American culture. The list of those popular shows are a bit different. When I mention one, I will try to do a bit of backstory so that everyone is on the same page.

There's nothing better than to start off with a review and so stay tuned for a post about Bleach!