No respect for ichannel/azntv/g4ttv/encore action?

[beren]

Every tueday night on azntv (it used to be the International channel) there is almost 3 hours of anime broadcast in a block, I think most of it is premires, and as this is a forum for promoting Anime, I think it would be a good idea to actually promote it so people know that it is on, and new. Somebody also made a post about it earlier, here is the line up

Record of Lodoss War: Chroncles of the Heroic knight, a good show
Descendants of Darkness: The animation is good, it is an ok show
Geo Armor: confusing show about aliens and giant robots during the second world war

Then they show a feature film, so far they have shown

Darkside Blues
the yu yu hakusho movie: I think tons of people would have wanted to see this
Odin:Photon Space Sailor: I saw this in the sci fi channel years ago, it is very good, makes you think.
Wrath of the Ninja: A good movie, classic

Even more azntv airs all of this unedited, well atleast I-channel aired it unedted, even the tenchi muyo oav with the characters walking around nude.

Currently g4 tech tv is airing read or die the tv series, it airs either weekdays, or every day of the week at 1 am est and it is excellent, although they do edit shows so they can add mroe comercials, still worth mentioning to people so they can check it out.

Encore Action is airing Hellsing currently, since they are cable they air thier programs unedited. Thier anime unleashed block is broadcast fridays at 12 est, with a rebroadcast at the same time on tuesday. Sometimes they play feature length movies, I have seen the Cowboy Bebop movie, Macross Plus, and Black Magic M-66 (something based on a manga by Masamune Shirow, the creator of ghost in the shell. )

My basic gripe is that all of these animes are hardly discussed or mentioned, while the crap that 4kids is slopping out gets talk backs every day. For insatnce Now and Then, Here and There was stunning piece of work, and was totally new, but not one mention of it was made, if you missed it, you really missed something special.

[vegetable]

Well, a few things -

Encore Action: Barely anyone gets it because no one wants to pay for their ridiculous package.

AZNTV: Beats me. There used to be I-Channel talkbacks. Maybe some providers dropped it.

G4: Faith lost.

[Arxane]

My basic gripe is that all of these animes are hardly discussed or mentioned, while the crap that 4kids is slopping out gets talk backs every day.
Well, 4Kids (and Cartoon Network) reach more viewers than all of those other channels (maybe even combined?), so of course more people will talk about CN and 4Kids than anything else. Still, I do have a few thoughts about these channels:

Encore Action's Animidnight - The perfect place to watch anime uncut (dubbed, of course), it being a premium channel and all. It's a great place for properties that even Adult Swim can't handle like Hellsing. Sure, it's only available to those who pay, but it's worth it.

G4's Anime Unleashed - I lost faith in this block a long time ago, and it ain't doing anything to woo me back. Back in the days of TechTV, AU seemed full of potential, but now it feels like an afterthought. And judging by G4's new block The Whip Set (WTF?), I'm willing to bet that AU is where Tokyopop's hacked version of Initial D will finally end up.

[Swordfish_II]

AZNTV is apparently not available in my area. In fact, I don't think any cable providers in southeast carry it.

I just got G4 and Encore action last friday. So I'll wait til they start a show from the begining to watch.

But first the cable people need to come out and tell me why the quality is crap on several of these channels.:shrug: EDIT: Well I just checked and it seems like all the channels have cleared up now.

[Wounded_Dragon]

I get Encore Action, but I could never get I-Channel, so...

G4's other programming has nearly burned the channel from my memory. And I've gotten so used to watching AS that I forget about Anime Unleashed until its over. Even when AS is completely in reruns and AU isn't.

Encore just doesn't air it often enough for good conversations to keep going. One show(multiple episodes) twice a week isn't much. Though they do seem to be spreading out their anime amongst their other channels (WAM's running Streetfighter II V now).

[RogueMartian]

AZNTV is apparently not available in my area. In fact, I don't think any cable providers in southeast carry it.

I just got G4 and Encore action last friday. So I'll wait til they start a show from the begining to watch.

But first the cable people need to come out and tell me why the quality is crap on several of these channels. :shrug:

Well here's how I see each channel:

International Channel: I don't get it. I don't know anybody who does...I used to get it when I lived somewhere else, but then I moved. If I recall correctly they had anime on for half an hour on weeknights and instead of showing one anime every night you had to remember that your anime was on on tuesday, and the one on wednesday sucked...or was it the other way around...? It was also on at a time when I was usually out, making food, or working. The problem with a lot of animes is that they are short and if you miss a week you've missed out on a lot of plot points.

Encore Action: They aren't an anime channel and are working hard to never ever be one. Sure they've got hellsing, but overall they show a whopping two hours of anime per week (occasionally they decide to air CB:KOHD, Vampire Hunter D or Patlabor but it's sporadic and usually on when you are at school/work and lets be honest, how many times do you have to see Patlabor to realize its boring?). I don't know about anyone else, but I'm almost NEVER home on friday at midnight so I don't get to see it anyway. Its worth it if you have enough disposable income, but you could probably buy the dvds of everything they air, and STILL spend less money than you have to spend to get encore action every month.

G4: I don't see why everyone hates it so much. They air anime, and they air animes I would like to see, but unfortunately I NEVER know what their airing or when. By the time I find out they have a new anime they are already on episode 10. Not that that's a guarantee you missed anything, occasionaly G4 decides to start a series in the middle. Not exactly helpful for someone who didn't see the first half three months ago or whatever. Even worse to my knowledge they don't do reruns. So if you didn't catch the anime the first time around: sucks to be you.

It's important to mention that all three of those channels are specialty channels. You have to have special satellite or cable packages to get them, something a lot of people can't afford. What's worse is that none of them are REALLY dedicated to animation so they don't do a lot of advertising or repeats and you are often going to realize they are airing an awesome show when they are halfway through the series. These channels are great for people with premium cable or satellite and TiVo people, but outside of that...

[Gatomon41]

Though G4 anime unleash has quaility, the channel itself is horrible. Back when TechTV was more interesting than the Scifi channel, Anime Unleashed was great. It had stuff that sometimes outclassed Adult Swim. Then the great evil of G4 destroyed the greatness that was ounce techTV. The only thing I watch is Anime Unleash on G$ (and X-play), but the Anime Unleashed has lost some of it's luster.

[beren]

I know that many people don't get the channels, and some people don't like the networks they are on, but thats not a reason to ignore it. This is the Anime forum right? Toonami has its own forum, adult swim has its own forum, what is the reason, if any, to not give equal time and talkbacks for premire or sem premire episodes on those networks?

[vegetable]

When was the last time Showtime Beyond aired anime? It's been a while. :shrug:

[herbkir]

The only one of these that I get is G4. Encore Action isn't available to me on satellite except as part of an expensive premium package. The Int'l/AZNTV channel isn't offered by my satellite provider. G4 is offered to me as a 2nd-tier service, but isn't part of the basic tier. A lot of cable systems put G4 into their 3rd tier or offer it only as a premium channel.

The old Tech TV Anime Unleashed ran some excellent anime series and had a policy of not editing for content and minimal edits for time. After AU was acquired by G4, AU declined. They began to really cut into the shows to squeeze in more commercials, plus run on-screen pop-up promos during the shows. They still have good series, but their online schedule format is horrid and it isn't mentioned in most TV programming guides. They also changed from running different shows in each half-hour segment to running back-to-back episodes of the same show until they've run through all the episodes they have. They have a nightly repeat like Adult Swim, and eventually do rerun a series. I still watch/tape AU when they have a good series.

One big reason there is little talk about the shows on these blocks is their limited availability. All are upper-tier or premium channels. (^_*)

[Arxane]

I know that many people don't get the channels, and some people don't like the networks they are on, but thats not a reason to ignore it. This is the Anime forum right? Toonami has its own forum, adult swim has its own forum, what is the reason, if any, to not give equal time and talkbacks for premire or sem premire episodes on those networks?
Because dedicating an entire forum to one or even all of these channels/blocks is pointless. The number of people who actually watch these blocks is severely limited by the availability of these channels/blocks, and there just would not be enough people to justify an entire forum. If we create a forum for these blocks/channels, we might as well create forums for all the small local channels scattered across the US that show anime.

That is why discussion of G4/Encore/etc. are best left in the anime forum.

[beren]

Sorry if I was misunderstood, but that is exactly my point arxane, this is the place to discuss those shows, however it seems they get no credit, or promotion. Pokemon, yi-gi-oh, shaman king, that seems to be it as far as this forum goes, by bringing in a wider variety of things to discuss I think the forum would grow.


p.s. Read or Die the Tv is new on g4techtv, so far the series has been very entertaining, I would figure that since that is the case that people on the anime forum would be informed, and informing this fact to people, that is my goal for this thread, to make people more aware of Anime that is currently showing on television.

[Karl Olson]

You want to make a talk back for it a show on tv, or anything really - dvds and such too, have at it as long no one else has. I'm fairly sure none of the mods will take any umbrage with that.

[Go-chin]

I don't really like G4TV.
I get Encore Action/Mystery/drama/western/encore/love...for free apparently.
It's nice seeing stuff like Ghost in the Shell and the subtitled Shadow Skill OVA(Which rocks.)

But no Starz or HBO or Showtime.

As for AZNTV...apparently it's being added to my lineup on the 27th, so wewt?

[beren]

oops rod the tv isn't new, twice b4 they cut the series at 14 episodes but apparently they are in the habbit of showing 19 episodes, I guess that is what threw me off since I have seen the thing 2x b4 and turned it on to something that I had never seen before, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention, these g4ttv people like to throw curve balls and confuse people as to what is coming on when.

The stuff they show on ichannel/azntv isn't bad, for instance all of slayers, I really liked that series, all of tenchi, now it seems like they are going through all of record of lodoss war, the oav has ended and now it is on the tv series.

Also alot of the movies they have shown on azntv are older, but some of the stuff I really enjoy, I remember seeing some of it on the old sci fi anime saturday morning block, things like odin, venus wars, the EYES of Mars, green legend ran. Probably many of those I just mentioned are actually older then much of the people who post on this board, but they were excellent. It is the way they expanded your mind, like a good book.

[Jmanunknown]

oops rod the tv isn't new, twice b4 they cut the series at 14 episodes but apparently they are in the habbit of showing 19 episodes, I guess that is what threw me off since I have seen the thing 2x b4 and turned it on to something that I had never seen before, I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention, these g4ttv people like to throw curve balls and confuse people as to what is coming on when..

It isn't really G4's fault they had to split the series up. Its Geneon's fault they weren't done with dubbing the series so G4 shows what Geneon gives them.


G4 is gonna show the Last 14 episodes of Gungrave and the last 7 episodes of R.O.D the Tv series in may. Gungrave starts May 3rd at 1:00 AM ET and they'll probably show the rest of R.O.D the TV series at the end of the month. All of this is depending on whether or not Geneon finishes dubbing both series. Also G4 is getting better with their AU block their announcing their shows way in advanced ( they announced back in Febuary when Gad Guard, R.O.D the Tv series, and Gungrave would be showing)and the editing is a little better. Hopefully the block can continue to get better just like Adult Swim did.

[beren]

Can you confirm what is being aired when? I was just on the g4techtv forums and not even the mods there know what is coming on when.

[Ferquin]

You could... I don't know... check the schedule (http://www.g4tv.com/animeunleashed/schedule/index.html), perhaps?

[beren]

I checked it, http://www.g4tv.com/animeunleashed/schedule/index_pg2.html
did you?

That is to say the schedule is amzingly confusing, and on may 2nd stops listing what is being shown.

[Perfect Cell]

I used to watch I Channel ALOT when they had Slayerz and Irresponsible Captain Tylor, two of my favorite animes. They stopped playing them so i stopped watching i guess.


Encore? When is Fist of the North Star on again? :D


G4? I hate it too, hate it even more cause i missed the Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi showing...

[bigddan11]

I can't judge any of these channels simply because I don't have any of these channels.

[Wounded_Dragon]

Encore? When is Fist of the North Star on again? :D
*snickers* That did tend to get run a lot. I want Vandread back first though. :evil:

[Ferquin]

I checked it, http://www.g4tv.com/animeunleashed/schedule/index_pg2.html
did you?

That is to say the schedule is amzingly confusing, and on may 2nd stops listing what is being shown.
I was simply trying to point out that there's an online schedule that you can check regularly. It's updated fairly regularly enough that you could check at least once a week to see what's playing when. For comparison's sake, the Cartoon Network online schedule (http://schedule.cartoonnetwork.com/xmlServices/ScheduleServices?methodName=mainSchedule) is updated just as regularly.

In any case, you can only look so far enough in advance. But at least you know where online you can. Just remember to check back for updates.

[Jmanunknown]

Can you confirm what is being aired when? I was just on the g4techtv forums and not even the mods there know what is coming on when.

G4 is shoing R.O.D the TV series repeats again on May 2nd. I guess Geneon needs more time for dubbing and editing. I hope they keep Gungrave in its original widescreen format this time.

[ccwf]

Currently g4 tech tv is airing read or die the tv series, it airs either weekdays, or every day of the week at 1 am est and it is excellent This is a terrific series. In my book, it's second only to Fullmetal Alchemist amongst the shows currently on. It's on weeknights and on weekends (in other words, every day, but the episodes following Friday night's are on Monday night).

ImaginAsian TV and The Anime Network also air anime.
You could... I don't know... check the schedule (http://www.g4tv.com/animeunleashed/schedule/index.html), perhaps? In fairness, G4's on-line schedule and the listings they release to TMS and TV Guide are often incomplete (often consisting of just an episode number with no title).


The Chinese/Japanese/Korean dramas board (http://bcjkdramasincalifornia.runboard.com/) in my signature includes a small anime section with threads for the R.O.D series and movie, the Lodoss OAV and series, Gad Guard, and some others. (Don't be put off by the Japanese in the titles since the discussions are almost entirely in English.) If we can't stir up enough buzz about these series here, feel free to look there for further discussion.

[Gatomon41]

I wondering what you guys thought about TechTV anime they showed. I thought alot of them were great to ok. And I was annoyed that every 5 mintues they go into a comercial. And worse, Anime Unleashed offten conflicted with Adult Swim.

What's everybody elses opinions on the anime on TechTV? Did any else have problems with how Anime Unleashed was presented?

[Ajax]

I wondering what you guys thought about TechTV anime they showed. I thought alot of them were great to ok. And I was annoyed that every 5 mintues they go into a comercial. And worse, Anime Unleashed offten conflicted with Adult Swim.

What's everybody elses opinions on the anime on TechTV? Did any else have problems with how Anime Unleashed was presented? To me G4 and TechTv might as well be the same thing, I only watch that channel when they are running a good anime series.
I really don't mind if AU goes into commercial every 5 minutes, because to me watching an anime series for basically free (I only pay $12 a month for all my cable channels:D ) is good enough, and I have no reason to bi**h about it.
And I guess me and you Gatomon, must live in different parts of the U.S. since over here in west TX, Anime Unleashed never conflicts with Adult Swim (ones on at 11:00 pm and the other starts at 12:00 am)

[ccwf]

I wondering what you guys thought about TechTV anime they showed. I thought alot of them were great to ok. And I was annoyed that every 5 mintues they go into a comercial. And worse, Anime Unleashed offten conflicted with Adult Swim. My opinion is that they're uneven. Some are great, and some are forgettable. Considering that they're a bunch of different series, that's hardly surprising.

The frequent commercial breaks are certainly annoying. But even more annoying, my local cable company (Charter) takes one of the audio channel and sends it as both the left and right channels. That means that sometimes if characters are speaking from one edge of the screen, I hear nothing. Argh.

As for the schedule conflicts, both Anime Unleashed and Adult Swim air twice.

[Brent Long]

My opinion is that they're uneven. Some are great, and some are forgettable. Considering that they're a bunch of different series, that's hardly surprising.

The frequent commercial breaks are certainly annoying. But even more annoying, my local cable company (Charter) takes one of the audio channel and sends it as both the left and right channels. That means that sometimes if characters are speaking from one edge of the screen, I hear nothing. Argh.

As for the schedule conflicts, both Anime Unleashed and Adult Swim air twice.

Do you know if it's just your local Charter or if this is the same thing with every Charter provider? I have a local non-chain cable service and I've thought about convincing my parents to change to Charter so I can get G4, but this doesn't sound (pun intended) very good at all.

[Gatomon41]

Do you know if it's just your local Charter or if this is the same thing with every Charter provider? I have a local non-chain cable service and I've thought about convincing my parents to change to Charter so I can get G4, but this doesn't sound (pun intended) very good at all.
I suggest that you avoid getting G4. There's barely any good shows on that chanel, except for X-Play and Anime Unleashed. Unless you want to pay extra for just 2 shows, I suggest that you avoid getting a headache, and avoid geting G4.

[beren]

Gatoman, do you know how much the channel costs per month? I would say almost nothing =/.

[ccwf]

Gatoman, do you know how much the channel costs per month? I would say almost nothing =/. You mean how much it costs the cable company or how much it costs us consumers?

For the latter, pricing generally varies by region. In mine, G4 is part of basic cable (which is also why the A/V quality is so poor), and AZN TELEVISION is part of extended basic.

[Gatomon41]

Can we give our reviews of anime unleashed anime here?

[Nobuyuki sama]

Can we give our reviews of anime unleashed anime here? Well, sure.

I think one of the original poster's complaints is that nobody seems to talk about them.

So go ahead and bang one out. :anime:

[Gatomon41]

My Review on "Betterman" (TechTV Anime Unleashed)

The Story: Military Otaku Boy accidentally gets lost, and finds he can magically pilot a mecha. His co-pilot just also happens to be a long lost childhood, female friend. Together, with a Mechanic/ father figure, a strange pink-hair girl rambling nonsense, a hot babe scientist, a phsyic and her boyfriend, and 2 mechanics, they must investigate and stop a mysterous disease that can destroy humnaity. However, half the time, they have to get saved by the titucalr "Betterman", who can transform into a gaint monster eating seeds.

Thats all I could get out of the plot after watching it 3 times. And I still don't get the technobabble or backstory. However, the interesting thing is that the mecha are more used for scientifc investigation than for military combat. The series focuses on the strange events surounding their investigations.

The story seems to be a cross of X-files, Lovecraftian horror, Eva, and Godzilla movies.

The charectrs: The main charecters are an annoying geek, and depressed girl who can pilot gaint robots. They're not as interesting or complex as the secondary charecters. In fact, if they got rid of the geeky kid, this show would had been better. The titular Betterman mostly serves as Deus Ex Machina for most of the series, but he becomes a major part of the story.

The Villians: Typical giant monsters. But theres a twist: many of them are result of technology, often biotechnology. (Think Resident Evil). But the monsters ar'nt that scary and have been done before, but they are pretty creepy. The main villians are creepy and stragnge, but their motives are even more bizzare.

The art: Betterman was made by Sunrise, the creators of Gundam. The art here is good and well drawn, but feels slighty outdated compared to recent shows like FMA. The color palete is muted and used dark, cool colors. The mecha designs are not that amazing. The charecter desgins are ok. Interesting, the two main charecters seemed to be drawn in different styles, yet the show perfectly integrated them both. The show does a great job a creating a bizae, dark atmoshpere. And the introduction is pretty good. Triva: Betterman was the first anime series to be boradcasted in anamorphic widescreen in Japan. I think.

Overall: I liked the series, but it's not for everyone. It's interesting and mysterous, but the plot has been done before and presented alot better in other series like Evangelion. Lots of violent, needsless deaths, although there is a lack of blood during the AU version. The technobabble is is confusing and needless, and there just way too much of it. The charecters could have been developed better, as well as the plot and pacing. The Monsters are not that scarry, although creepy. The mysteroy that drives the plot is far too confusing at times. Unless you watch the series in order, because if you miss one episode, you could miss a major plot point.

I liked the series, but its pretty unremarkable.

I give it a 3 out of 5.

[Nobuyuki sama]

Not bad. I rather liked the show when I watched it on a friend's DVD. Of course, being able to instantly rewind helped. And "Chakraman" pwned. :cool:

The only complaint with your review is:

The art: Betterman was made by AIC
You misspelled "Sunrise". ;)

[Gatomon41]

You misspelled "Sunrise". ;)Chakraman did good. He rocked.

Whoops. You're right, it is Sunrise. Rats, I must have been thinking Dual :sweat: when refering to prioduction comapnies. Sorry about that.

There we go, it's fixed. But this dos'nt bode well for my future as a critic. :sad:

[ccwf]

Then they show a feature film, so far they have shown

Darkside Blues
the yu yu hakusho movie: I think tons of people would have wanted to see this
Odin:Photon Space Sailor: I saw this in the sci fi channel years ago, it is very good, makes you think.
Wrath of the Ninja: A good movie, classic

Even more azntv airs all of this unedited, well atleast I-channel aired it unedted This week's AZN TELEVISION movie is the classic Grave of the Fireflies. It's on Tuesday night, repeated Saturday. Next week's movie is Urusei Yatsura.:)

[ccwf]

AZNTV is apparently not available in my area. In fact, I don't think any cable providers in southeast carry it. Comcast Atlanta carries it. (I think you mentioned being vaguely near Atlanta at one point.)

If you give me your ZIP code, I can check the lineups at Zap2It (http://www.zap2it.com/) to see if any cable company in your area carry it, or you could look it up yourself.

[Swordfish_II]

Comcast Atlanta carries it. (I think you mentioned being vaguely near Atlanta at one point.)

If you give me your ZIP code, I can check the lineups at Zap2It (http://www.zap2it.com/) to see if any cable company in your area carry it, or you could look it up yourself.
S. Carolina, actually.

And according to AZNTV's site, it's not available on anything around here.

[ccwf]

S. Carolina, actually.

And according to AZNTV's site, it's not available on anything around here. Doing quick checks, I see AZN TELEVISION is available in Charleston and Columbia.

Again, try the cable lineups at the Zap2It site. In my experience, they are more accurate when it comes to lineups than the info at AZN TELEVISION's own site.

[Swordfish_II]

I still don't see it anywhere.

[ccwf]

I still don't see it anywhere. Well, that's certainly possible. The channel is not available in all areas.

If you are willing to post your ZIP code or send it to me via PM, I'll help you look.