Anime on Cartoon Network

I have to say off the bat that I am a little biased against most of these because I really do prefer subtitled anime over dubbed. English language voice actors just so very often miss out the nuances and inflections that carry over from the original Japanese dialogue. Even if I can't make out what the words actually mean in Japanese, I can at least tell from a rising tone of voice, or a suddenly clipped enunciation a mood or tone that so horribly often isn't expressed in the dubbed English audio track. That said most of what is aired on Cartoon Network is at least decently voice acted, but I still prefer subtitled and the original voice actors in a foreign language.

Naruto - Short synopsis is that the main character Naruto is a ninja trainee, but he is largely despised by the village he lives in because right after he was born a nine-tailed fox demon attacked the village and the villages former leader, in order to defeat it, sacrificed his life to bind the demon in the baby Naruto and the village was sworn to secrecy about this fact. So he grew up without family and with the adults who had been alive then looking at him as a demon and not as a person.

I really want to love this series. The manga is amazingly good. Awesome fight scenes in the manga, great characters and character development. The anime so far just seems to miss getting it a little. The pacing I think is where it is missing out at. All the action just seems so much slower paced on screen then it did when read in the manga, it seems to all be missing some sense of immediacy to it. I have the first five manga volumes, and fan-translated scans of it from the original Japanese release up to about volume 23. It is still a good watch despite my liking the manga better, and I plan to keep watching it. It is on Saturday nights at 7:30, 9 and 10 pm. 7:30 appears to be a repeat though and 9 and 10 are the new episode.

Bobobo-bo bo-bobo - Uhm. How to describe this... The main character whom the show is named after claims to be the Bo-tector of Hair. The villains go around the world shaving peoples heads and Bobobo with his big yellow afro of hair fights them using his... body hair. I mean, literally giant whip'like nose hairs shoot out of his nose and slap villains around.

This may be the single most absurd show I have seen in a long long long time. I've seen the first episode three times now and each time my brain partway through crawls off to a quiet cornor of my head and hides under a blanket until the show ends. It is just that weird. It is on Saturday nights at 10:30 pm.

Full Metal Alchemist - Edward and Alphonse Elric are alchemists. They practice the art of alchemic transmutation, turning matter from one form or shape into another. They sought to learn alchemy after their mother died in an attempt to bring her back to life via a forbidden human transformation. They failed though, and in the process Alphonse lost his entire body and Edward lost his left leg and sacrificed his right arm to bond Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor. Since then they have sought the legendary Philosopher's Stone, an alchemic catalyst that may allow them to restore their bodies back to normal.

I love this show. I have the first four DVDs of it and both of the PS2 games that have come out so far. The show right now is just into the second season of the series and it continues to surprise with the sheer depth of the characters in the story. It is on Saturday nights at 11:30 pm.

Inu Yasha - Is a feudal fairy tale. Kagome is a modern Japanese school girl who never believed in myths and legends. Until she tumbles down a well into Japan's ancient past and finds the tales are far too true and that her destiny is linked to one creature in particular, Inu-Yasha the doglike half-demon.

This is a very long series, I think right now it is airing the third or fourth season. It is also a very good series. The original manga was written by Rumiko Takahashi who also wrote Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku. It is very much a romance-action-feudal fairy tale. A lot of the story revolves around Kagome, Inu Yasha and Kikyo, the shrine maiden that Inu Yasha once loved and that Kagome may be the reincarnation of. I have the manga up to volume 13 and I know it stretches past 27 volumes. It airs at 11pm on Saturdays, and 12:30 and 3:30 am every weekday. Saturdays are the most recent / latest episode while the weekday airings tend to be earlier in the season or an earlier season.

Cowboy Bebop - It is the future, space travel is a reality via jumpgates around the solar system. Despite humanity spreading out across the solar system, society isn't much better and crime is pretty rampant in some places. The crew of the Bebop are bounty hunters who make a living catching criminals and cashing them in.

The description I can give doesn't come close to how amazingly damned cool this show is. The show literally oozes style, from the music to the animation all the way through. I have gotten a lot of art designer and musician friends hooked on anime by introducing them to this show. Most every episode has a unique musical theme that sets the score for the entire episode and the pacing for it too. I can't even begin to describe the full effect of how it works. But it is good. That said, don't watch this on Cartoon Network. They air it at 1:30 and 4:30 am on Sundays, but it is dubbed and while the English voice-acting is at least decent on this, it doesn't always mesh as well with the music and the pacing as it should. I have all six DVDs of the series and the movie on dvd. The movie isn't that good either, still a good show but it somehow lost the perfect sense of style from the series in the transition to the big screen and longer format.

Okay, handful of other really good cartoons on Cartoon Network right now, but left hand is cramping a little from typing and back is hurting, so ending this for now.