What anime are you currently watching?

[Kinokokao]

[s]Or you could buy the DVDs and support the industry.[/s]

Kimiko, Please Save my Earth is a fantastic manga series. I have yet to watch the OVA although I really do keep meaning to do so! I own the silly thing, I just haven't finished the last 3 books in the manga series (I did the thing where I waited so long that I really have to go back to book one and start all over... oops!)

As for shoujo-ai, have you considered Doki Doki School Hours? There isn't hardcore love or anything, but there's a very cute situation where a student crushes on the teacher. It's a bit like Azumanga, very light hearted. I have the first 3 discs and really liked it.

[Kimiko]

I'm watching Pani Poni Dash! right now, so I wouldn't want to jump into Doki Doki right away, but I'll keep it in mind.

[Maxine MagicFox]

:3 The cutey highlighes of today's Toradora!

[spoiler]

I have too much time on my hands....[/spoiler]

[noodles]

[scy]

[Kimiko]

VLC has been reported as having problems with some sub formats. It displays stuff it shouldn't, and leaves out things it should display.

[Maxine MagicFox]

I am using VLC.

The problems I'll have include:

Subbers putting the video at too high quality which will freeze my program and very nearly freezes my computer.

Or words will appear over top of other words such as in the case when in Toradora it shows the magazine text, the words he speaks appears right on top of it.

Also, the words are often huge and centered - I don't know if this is fault with sub quality or VLC but it just looks fucking aweful and is extremely distracting and some lines will only have one word which makes a two line text page appear as four lines. <-- didn't have so many problems with that in Toradora but it got fucking ridiculous in Higurashi Kai.

Note: I know Rie's roles. I've obviously bothered to look her up a while back and have watched both Hayate and Shana. ^_^

And I didn't like Hayate because I thought it was "too" whacky and it needed to have its serious moments. Or maybe I didn't like its form of humor... not sure. I thought the first episode was totally kick ass but subsequent episodes just seemed boring and not funny... and they needed to get that damn censor-guy shit out. It ruined the funny moment in the first episode and it didn't improve. I wouldn't have minded blurry images or even the beeps as characters were talking, but the censor guy was just stupid and looked ugly and was incredibly distracting.

[Kimiko]

Try a different player and see if that helps things.

I've seen Shana mentioned a lot lately. Is it good?

[Seniwac]

not really

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Archaic Sage]

[scy]

Media Player Classic or CorePlayer (+CoreCodec for that) with CCCP is all you need for anything. Hell, MPC comes as part of the CCCP install.

Edit: And go for CCCP.

The text being gigantic is an issue with VLC or some codec; it is not handling the (soft?)subs correctly if I recall. I've since switched from VLC ages ago since VLC is pretty terrible for high-quality subs but a great "out-of-the-box" thing for most .avi formats. Until it gets better support for certain features that nearly all groups have moved to, it's pretty much done. Or for non-.mkv format.

Edit: Irony is right now I can't watch anything as the sound is garbled. Fun times ... and fucking strange

As for Shana, season 1 is good, despite the "we're going to make up a finale k?" part. Season 2, unfortunately, has a very terrible beginning with the silly recap episode and then their own completely made-up story arc. THAT LASTS WAY TOO DAMN LONG.

AND IS MADE UP.

AND IS WAY TOO DAMN LONG.

Hayate ... dunno. I loved the humor, got nearly all the references, and the censoring had to stay for it to air on TV (the Manga has similar censoring if I recall) when and where it does. The DVD releases have them removed and there's a group subbing those. The Anime has a very random episode order (no, really...episode 52 is end of v5 but it pulls some v7 moments earlier and otherwise plays whack-a-mole with the order) so the manga seems to "flow" better than the Anime does but some of the zaniness is just funnier to watch. Plus, Nagi is adorable (as is her voice). Hinagiku too.

[Maxine MagicFox]

[scy]

[Archaic Sage]