Now, when I originally heard that FUNimation was going to do a podcast, I assumed that it was going to be an audio deal…but apparently while they have an audio-only version of it, it is actually a video podcast. And at 14 minutes, the video comes in at 170 megs…FUNi, c’mon. You can do better than that. I could do better than that! For this reason, I’m not going to bother embedding the video here– it really wonks up the page’s load time. If you want to check out the video yourself, you can do so here.

Moving on to the actual content. I was kind of excited about this being a potential opportunity to really talk about what’s going on at FUNimation, what they do, how they do it, etc…and a cool opportunity for announcements, too. But this first episode is pretty much just a 15-minute commercial for Shin-chan, School Rumble, and One Piece, among others.

It’s hosted by Todd Haberkorn (above) who you’re most likely to recognize as Watanuki in the xxxHOLiC dub. The presentation is decent; the video quality is great and the FUNimation staff has always been awesome at the light, slightly self-deprecating humor…but sometimes, just because you make fun of yourself for being awkward, that doesn’t make it any less awkward.

All of that said, there’s hope– they mention that they’ll be podcasting live at Anime Expo next month, which I’m hoping also means the appearance of events manager Adam Sheehan, who is a hilarious guy. They’ll also be making an announcement for the next vidcast. There are going to be weekly check-ins as well as the longer monthly podcasts as well, and those could be nifty.

But this episode you can really mostly just skip, unless you’re really desperate to see the trailer for the School Rumble OVA.

Posted by gia in Commentary, General • Comments (3)

Randall will cry if I don’t link to his very first podcast, a review of eromanga Please Miss Yuri (not safe for work or my under-18 readers, obviously).

DON’T CRY RANDALL. We all love you.

Posted by gia in Misc • Comments (5)

True to form, ANN has announced that they’re gonna do a video podcast long after everyone else did (I kid).

…But, hey, they’re looking for on-air talent. They list it as a staff posting. Does that mean it pays?

It should be interesting to see what they do. I have yet to be impressed with any video podcast, really. As far as anime-related vidcasts go, the only really significant one is AnimeTV, which…well, I was underwhelmed by. It needs a bit more structure, IMO, and also needed to build up the credibility of its commenters a bit. That said, what can ANN do that AnimeTV isn’t doing? Well, that’s easy– if they have brains at all they’ll do commentary on the news rather than the shows, since as far as I can tell people visit ANN more for the news and forums than the reviews.

What do you guys think? Heaven or hell?

Posted by gia in Anime, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (2)