darkfader.net Anime

Anime

For anime newbies...

Long hair with mostly weird colors, cute big eyes, comical facial expressions (changing shape of eyes, sweatdrops), small pointy nose, mouth wide open and smiling, elfears, catears+tail+bells, lots of decorations in hair, fancy clothes or not much at all, short-skirts, panties (pantsu !;), flying/talking pets...
You know what I'm talking about right? ^^; Anime!
Originally from Japan, it spreads around the world and web like madness. Google for the word 'anime' and some other common word and compare the hits. The word 'manga' (Japanese cartoons) doesn't score much lower.

There are a lot of genres (not verified) that can be mixed... sci-fi, mecha (robots), action, comedy, humor, cyber-punk, drama, horror, family, thriller, nudity, hentai, semireality, fantasy. Hence, there is anime for all ages. Newcomers might even mistake the age category for some anime, some hentai for example. Most of it is cute and might be the main trigger for people to start watching it. If you want to shed some tears, try some drama. You might even see the end of the world in some.

Some studios make some quality anime. Mixing good music, fluent motion, atmosphere, story.
Nowadays more is made using computers, which can save production time. It's hard enough to find time to watch it all.

Animals:
Some cat-girl drawing. 'Evil' cat from Azumanga Daioh.
Cats (neko) : Nothing is more cute than these little furry animals. There's plenty of manga/anime you need to see too, since there's a lot that have cats in them.
Even if you don't like cuteness, then there's still plenty to see.
Ok... one more cat... ^_^

Besides the attractive graphics, I also like the sound of Japanese (and some other Asian languages). It's not _that_ difficult to get the basics (simpler than other languages), although I don't understand the most of it yet. Subtitles can help, but you need to listen very carefully, filter out the seperate words, convert to base forms, read subtitles fast enough, reorder and map the speech with subtitles, and finally remember some of it. Ofcourse you'll want to make sure that you're right before starting to remember it.
A language course would be great ;)

Anime (sharing) community

Note: You may not upload/download anime that is licensed in your country... blah blah :)
Anyway... sharing files isn't always as easy as it should be. People get annoyed, angry and tired of waiting, complaining etc... For example, I've found some stand-alone anime servers that had waiting queues for a few years and lot of strict rules that get you banned in a blink.
A less bad example are the IRC fservers. While this works, it's still too hard to get in a queue and find the correct files if you are looking for files that are somewhat older. Searching triggers (@find) will sometimes result in a ban.

The solution is to use advanced peer-to-peer programs (P2P) that handle queues, priorities, bandwidth, sources...
A good P2P network is the eDonkey network. There are several eDonkey clients, close- and open-source (clones).
The original one is just called eDonkey. [screenshot] A good alternative with lots of functionality is eMule for which also a portable version exists that can run on Linux, Mac etc...
The eDonkey hybrid also implements the OverNet protocol, which is a decentralized network also based on eDonkey (ed2k) links.

You can start downloading using those ed2k links by visiting AnimeReactor. Just choose a recent release, select all files of it and hit the queue button.
There's also a big anime database with links at www.anidb.net (also on #anidb on aniverse irc). You can use this database for you own collection too.

Besides eDonkey, you can also try BitTorrent [screenshot]. This is generally better for high bandwidth connections and the files are not served for long. Just Google for 'bittorrent' and you'll find anime sites. Looks like it was made for it ;)

Get your friends into anime sharing too, because that would improve the exchange rate and popularity. Otaku-powerrr!

Computer Generated Anime

CG is either 3D modelled, photoshopped or made with other painting programs.
3D is the most fun but hard to do to get a real anime style.

My anime

AniDB mylist - my anime list

Chiigle

Chiigle - yet another Google theme

Links

Forums / messageboards
AnimeReactor - complete series are regularly posted here
AniDB - the ultimate anime file database
AnimeCon - some anime convention over here
Noated -
animeblues -
animeboards -

File sharing
eDonkey - predecessor of eMule, now also includes Overnet for even more coverage.
Overnet - this is a server-less client... unfortunately half-compatable with eMule/eDonkey.
eMule  - opensource eDonkey client
xmule - highly portable eDonkey client
BitTorrent - Small, fast, reliable P2P file sharing application.

Misc
Anime Project - more info about anime
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Asian Culture... - speaks for itself

Learning Japanese
Japanese For Bakas - small dictionary...
So You Want To learn Japanese... - reasons for not learning Japanese (don't take this one too serious)

Hiragana Lessons
japaneselearner.net
Perhaps the best of all... The Smart learning platform. Also for iPhone.

buyfags guide - Ultimate guide into merchandise shopping
Great tutorial on how to draw manga