Fumoffu - ふもっふ

MushroomSamba:

So, out of curiosity, i decided to tune into Sci-Fi Channel’s premiere of Ani-Monday. I was already pleased with their projected line-up (GITS: SSS, Ninja Scroll, Read or Die, Noein, etc.) and figured they were doing something good for the Western anime community by going with more complex, “mature” titles…not like Pokemon or whatever other crap you can find on Saturday mornings.

I wasn’t hoping for much, really…only that they’d respect the medium and leave it as pure and unadultered as possible. It doesn’t happen much these days, as most US stations have a sadistic urge to butcher any anime they get their hands on with censorship. “But, it’s Sci-Fi”, I thought. “It’s a respectable channel, right?”. Well, it seems they went with giving anime fans the big “FU” anyway.

In terms of censorship, they didn’t break any new ground, but that’s not where the main problem lies. Some genius bigwigs decided to screw with the aspect ratio, stretching the original widescreen format to TV “Full Size”. Anyone watching the opening sequence would have already realized what a disappointment they were in for. So, to what brain trust can I give my thanks for the thin-headed, pencil-figured sticks we were watching all night? I especially loved whenever Ishikawa would appear on the scene…with that high-rising hairdo of his accentuated by Sci-Fi’s snafu.

S’ok. Maybe I’m overreacting a bit. It’s not something viewers won’t be able to get past, I suppose. But, really…what could the people in charge be thinking? Thin, black strips on the top and bottom of the screen can’t possibly be as annoying as a stretched out screen, right?

Another issue, while not directly affecting the actual viewing, was the lack of publicity for the whole Ani-Monday segment. Aside from a commercial preceding GITS: SSS, I haven’t seen a single ad for it. If it weren’t for anime news outlets, I wouldn’t even have known about this at all. Sci-Fi channel isn’t something I watch all the time (or even most of the time, for that matter); However, according Sci-Fi faithfuls, this does indeed seems to be the case. It makes me wonder just how badly Sci-Fi wanted this to take off…

Hopefully, next week will turn in a better effort.

b0nes:

I caught about 30 seconds of GitS and I quickly turned it off after realizing the skewed aspect ratio. It was definitely a show of poor effort on Sci-Fi’s part. As for the marketing of the anime block, the amount of advertising wasn’t very surprising considering the network’s track record. The only time I recall any strong marketing for a Sci-Fi program was for Eureka and even that was a bit sparse. In fact, I’m not that disappointed, seeing as how I have seen most of, if not all, the programs they plan to feature.