Guests' Web Picks

First of all, I would like to thank the people from AnimeWebTurnpike for giving me the opportunity to write this article and of course also for their great Turnpike-page which helped me to find interesting pages very often ^_^.

Living in Germany (yes that country lying in the middle of Europe ^_^) isn't quite the best place for being an Anime/Manga-Fan and we're often look with envy over the Atlantic or the Indian ocean to see how things are progressing there. As with my 3 years as being an Anime/Manga-Fan here in Germany you could call me a 'newbie' but still I've discovered many things about the German Anime/Manga-scene :

First the fanbase here is still rather small (I would say around 15000 people when you don't count all the 'Moonies'* running around here ^_^). Second problem is that the fanbase at the moment is rather unorganized but I guess that's because we live in many different regions in the country and the distances between them are just too big and traveling takes a lot of time or costs a lot of money. In Germany all the domestic commercial-Anime-releases are controlled by one company which is a very big problem, because it's organization/management and public relation is a textbook-example of some 'Dilbert-Comic-Strip'. The only commercial Anime/Manga magazine here sadly belongs also to that company.

This means sooner or later you will have to stick to Import-Releases maybe first from the United Kingdom and later when you have bought a VCR/DVD/LD-Player (which can handle NTSC) from USA or direct from JAPAN. Another problem in Germany is the public-opinion/media-coverage about Anime&Manga. Most people don't know what it is or they think it's only porn&violence or just some kiddy-stuff. There are really many bad examples for this in the public media, I can even remember one which quoted Miyazaki's Masterpiece Mononoke Hime as a violent&dull eco-fairy-tale cartoon.

Well it's not all that bad as you might think now, there are of course also some positive ^_^ things happening. For example we got the joy (or not ^_^) seeing the whole Sailor Moon-TV-Series and even the Sailor Moon-Movies, we had Nadia - Secret of Blue Water on TV 2 years ago (guess that was some mistake and the TV-channel bought something cool without knowing it) and as the MANGA DragonBall is a huge success here in Germany we can also looking forward to see DragonBall on TV next year. But I guess the biggest thing ever happened was the visit of the 'Master' himself Hayao Miyazaki at the Berlin Film festival this year. Unfortunately I couldn't go there. ;_;

Well I guess that's enough about this for the moment, now some sentences about myself. As I said before I'm now 3 years on that 'drug' called Anime&Manga ^_^. My first experience with it was with Akira and Videogame-Magazines. After that I bought Doomed Megalopolis and Battle Angel Alita (both engl. Dub) and wow, what should I say now, I got a whole cupboard full with Anime sometimes hoping it's stable enough to hold all the tapes and not dropping above me when I take a tape out of it. ^_^;;

I'm a friend of good artwork, and good or strange stories which after viewing lets you reflect and make you think about it. As I'm really skilless concerning drawing or telling stories (and I really admire people who can) I try to express my admiration for Anime/Manga in programming lots of mostly useless Anime/Manga-Goodies. ^_^. Doing this is also my main occupation of course besides studying software-engineering (doing software with clue or well better say trying to look like you do it with clue ^_^), watching Anime and getting lots of new stuff to fill my overfull cupboard. I always wanted to do Anime-related-programs starting with my own diskfanzine (Hmm I'm not sure how many know what a diskfanzine is, well to make things short you could compare it to an off-line version of a webmagazine) : Otaku no Magazine which I gave up after 5 volumes, going on with some rather embarrassing things I'd better not talk about. ^_^;;

But at the moment I'm working on my biggest dream (or nightmare ^_^) which I had awhile ago : The AnimeVirtualReality-ThemePark, well you could also say maybe I've watched too much Otaku no Video (if you haven't already seen it, go to the next video-store and buy it!). Basically it should be something like the 'Otakuland' idea' from Kubo and Tanaka in OnV. Just as doing it in real is way out of reach (at least for me). I thought hey why not try something similar on the Internet. Who said nothing is impossible. But this should be a project for all you out there so if you have any ideas, suggestions don't hesitate and bring it along, the ThemePark will also be some sort of Artist-community. Okay enough speaking about Internet.

Maybe before we start, some general words : For my picks I would say it follows the same 'law' as for my Anime-choices, good/strange stories means here useful information and content. Artwork, well ,you can transfer it direct to webpages. ^_^

Well one page I nearly go every day (except the AnimeWebTurnPike itself ^_^) is . This is the Number 1 page if you want to stay in touch what's happening in the Anime-Business lately. It has nearly every day a new News-coverage. Inside Stories, Interviews with people in the Anime-Business, Reviews and interesting and funny articles. And what I especially like it also brings news about the fanbase itself.

Next in line for good News&Rumours about Anime is the . Divided into Japan/USA gives you a good coverage about what's coming out soon there. Though the updates have slowed down lately.

Well if you want to know what's new on Japanese TV, get the latest TV-Ratings&Synopsis from Japan, you can't passed over this page . Boy I would gladly change person with him. ^_^. Glad this page is in English.

If you're not just searching for news but also for Reviews/Articles about new Releases in Japan&USA CON-Coverage and interviews with some of the hottest people in Anime/Manga-Business you should turn your browser to maybe the best Webfanzine on the whole planet EX.These guys are pros!

If you're living in Germany, are a Manga/Anime-Fan and haven't already signed up for the first official japanese Popculture (mainly concerning to Anime&Manga of course) Club here in Germany then it's your chance to find out more about here. Please join and make this world a better place for us. ^_^

Got all the domestical releases here in Germany? Need someone to get you imports? Are low on new stuff. Well then try this . They will help you to get Anime/Manga from USA and US-Comics. And they're fans themselves not just people out to rob all of your money but they sure care about their customers.

These pages have become also very useful to me when I was searching for a title which hasn't been commercially released yet but you still want to get it and are searching for a FanSub then try it has all the titles listed which have been subbed until now.

Well if you're a fan of Men-In-Armor (especially Saint Seiya) or BiShonen-characters? Then you should give this page a try .

When you have a Webpage which has something to do with our most beloved 3 Magical Knights and you're searching for a Webring to join with it you should try out the .The Ring-keeper is maybe one of the most enthusiastic ring-keepers I've come up till now. He really cares for 'his' ring.

When you like 3D-CG and also like Anime&Manga. Wow then this Linkpage maybe the best page of both worlds. . Unfortunately this page is in Japanese only and nearly all the pages which are linked are also Japanese, which is really a pity that my Japanese knowledge is very poor. But it seems Japan has really a huge amount of talented artists if only a small part of them would work on my -project. Boy that would be a dream ^_^. You should really check these pages your jaw will sometimes drop very deep. (At least mine did ^_^)

Well I'm nearly coming to an end this is my last pick. I will handle them together, because they all fit in the same category. These are the only 3D-CG-Anime/Manga-pages I came up which aren't japanese only until now, so if you know more please let me know. If you even are a 3d-Artist yourself please get in contact with me :

• Super Robot Page

*Moonies : This term shouldn't be offensive to people who like SailorMoon, it's just some characteristic of a group of people which are best described in this term. In my term 'moonie' means someone who has seen some episodes of SailorMoon and thinks now he knows everything about Anime&Manga and is really stubborn to accept others besides SailorMoon.