I’m sure by now everyone’s heard about Anime on Demand, a new UK streaming service designed to rival the likes of crunchyroll. Lets see what the pros/cons are of each…

 

Anime on Demand:

http://www.anime-on-demand.com

Pros -
-Has Steins;Gate

Cons -
-Has a bunch of shows crunchyroll is already streaming to the UK
-*Much* lower video quality than crunchyroll
-Is behind crunchyroll on the shows it shares
-A site that’s pretty terrible to navigate (current shows are where?) and is seemingly just AnimeNewsNetwork with a horrid red skin

And just to illustrate, a screenshot from one of their 720p videos:

(click for fullsize… lol, compression. Heck, even the player itself is full of compression artifacts, fail much?)

 

Crunchyroll:

http://www.crunchyroll.com

Pros -
-Better video quality
-Has *way* more shows, including an impressive back catalogue and an ever increasing drama section (though admittedly few drama gets licensed for the UK)
-Site doesn’t cause eye cancer

Cons -
-Doesn’t always license everything for the UK (no doubt they would have streamed Steins;Gate to us if AnimeOnDemand didn’t have it, seeing as they’re streaming it to pretty much every other country in the world)

And again just to illustrate, two screenshots from a similarly dark scene on an anime on crunchyroll:

(Left = 720p, right = 480p… both of which far better encoded than Anime on Demand’s 720p stream. *facepalm*)

 

Why oh why is anime on demand licensing shows that Crunchyroll is already streaming to us (or was planning on streaming to us)?!!! It makes no sense, no-one in their right mind would pay for something from one company that they can get for better quality from another.

Not to mention the use of AnimeNewsNetwork’s entire backend (for video streaming, account management, and providing forums) makes them seem *INCREDIBLY LAZY*, it makes it look like they’re just in it to make a quick bit of cash (lol, as if that’s ever going to happen… less than 200 subscribers was it?) rather than providing a service that is actually any good.

So frankly, unless you’re desperate to watch Steins;Gate legally in the UK i’d suggest you keep your money in your wallet (or continue giving it to Crunchyroll) until Anime On Demand improve their service somewhat.

Just had a brief listen through of the Eurovision 2011 songs. My favourites in order below…

Sweden – 12 points

Belarus – 10 points

Hungary – 8 points

Estonia – 7 points

UK – 6 points

Azerbaijan – 5 points

France – 4 points

Croatia – 3 points

Armenia – 2 points

Ireland – 1 point (what… it’s better than some of the other songs, lol)

As for who I think will actually win, hmm, a tight choice between Estonia and the UK I think, possibly with France in 3rd. Gut feeling (and £10) says the UK will win!

Hmm, if we win then that means I’ll have to actually go to the event when it comes here in 2012… far more important than the olympics with its dodgy lisa simpson logo.

*blows cobwebs away from site*

…soooo, Minecraft anyone? I’m sure everyone knows about Minecraft by now (if not, where have you been the past year?!)… to sum up; multiplayer lego with monsters, circuits, fun stuff^TM, and cake (or just watch the zero punctuation review, lol).

Anyway, the server that’s been running on my machine with a grand total of 3 players has been going for 3 months now, and we have achieved… well… we’ve moved some blocks around, dug some holes, and made some towers. As you can see below:

It’s a very odd game, there’s really no point to it. Why did I build a bunch of secret things that no-one else is ever likely to find (especially with only 2 other players, lol); in the hope that some bright spark may one day find them on their own, that there’s some sort of legacy i’ve left on this imaginary world, or simply because it was amusing to build? But then you expand that and realise there’s really no point to anything; why write a novel/poem that either only you will ever read or only you will ever know the true meaning of?

…and in a roundabout way what I really mean is, the server needs more than 3 players, ask if you want to login to it.

   

(I realised halfway through this post that I’d somehow merged 2 posts together “Play Minecraft!!” and “Everything’s pointless, oh noes ”, and that the end result now is just a half finished post, lol fail

…on the plus side:

(January 2011 = the last 3 days of January 2011)

It works!! (…make that 3 posts merged into a half finished post now. Or in maths terms: the loss of 83.33333etc% potential short term future content. Yeah, I should update here more. >_<)

)

After a long 3 year wait, finally a release date for the 10th Haruhi novel! A supposed simultaneous “worldwide” release on May 25th 2011 (not entirely sure what “worldwide” means considering the official English release won’t be anywhere volume 10 by May next year, but oh well).

Also メリクリ etc.

(blog still exists! >_<)

Coming up to the end of the year, I thought I’d rank my favourite songs of 2010. My top two were gonna be Luka Luka ★ Night Fever and Nomisuginnayo~ Yaaaah Bababai~ but they were technically available before 2010. >_< So here’s the rest of my list (in reverse order!):

30 - Oha Girl Maple with S/mileage – Morning Chime!!!

29 - Gojou Mayumi – Yume ni Yell! Patissiere♪ (Yumeiro Patissiere OP)

28 - Sugihara Yukina – Ichigo no Miracle (Yumeiro Patissiere ED)

27 - Mano Erina – Datenshi Ellie
(no video on youtube )

26 - milktub – Baka Go Home (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu ED)

25 - Kishida Kyoudan & The Myoujou Rocket – HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD (Highschool of the Dead OP)

24 - Mano Erina – Genkimono de Ikou!

23 - May’n – Ready Go! (Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi OP)

22 - Kurokawa Nami & Maeda Yukie & Yoneshima Nozomi – Yuuki Rinrin (Shin Koihime Musou Otome Tairan ED)

21 – COCOCREW feat. Ogawa Mana – COCOLULU SONG

20 - Watarirouka Hashiritai – Gomennasai

19 – Sphere – MOON SIGNAL (Otome Youkai Zakuro OP)

18 - miss A – Breathe

17 - ClariS – irony (Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai OP)

16 - Oha Girl Maple with S/mileage – My School March

15 – S/mileage – Otona ni Narutte Muzukashii!!! (Lilpri ED)

14 - Momoiro Clover – Hashire!

13 – Lilpri – Little♡Princess☆Pri! (Lilpri OP)

12 - Asou Natsuko – Perfect-area complete! (Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu OP)

11 - xRukix – Non-Dimension

10 - Houkago Tea Time – GO! GO! MANIAC (K-On!! OP1)

9 - Houkago Tea Time – Listen!! (K-On!! ED1)

8 - Houkago Tea Time – NO, Thank You! (K-On!! ED2)

7 - Houkago Tea Time – Utauyo!! MIRACLE (K-On!! OP2)

6 - AKB48 – Ponytail to Shushu

5 - Momoiro Clover – Ikuze! Kaito Shoujo

4 - miss A – Bad Girl, Good Girl

3 - Kalafina – Hikari no Senritsu (Sora no Woto OP)

2 – Jessy Matador – Allez Olla Olé (French Eurovision entry)

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And number 1……

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1 - Asumi Kana & Fujita Saki & Kitamura Eri – SOMEONE ELSE (Working!! OP)

A pretty decent year of music I guess. Kinda funny that I only bought one English song this year (not including Eurovision album), and that was a joke song, lol (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzocvh60xBU). As for best PV, I’ve gotta say that S/mileage’s Otona ni Narutte Muzukashii!!! wins that by a long long way.