if you had told me back in 1999 that…
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Tagged: monogatari:hitagi
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… I would never look at a stapler the same way again because of anime, I would not have believed you.
… Pizza Hut would be the most influential American partnership for anime, I would not have believed you.
… Gundam Wing‘s overly homoerotic tensions would be topped by another (two!) Gundam series in the next decade (including one that crossdrossed a pilot without blinking), I would not have believed you.
… I would own a Mac and love it, I would not have believed you. (But I would have believed you if you said that the Macross franchise would abandon their Mac OS roots.)
… Nadesico wouldn’t get a sequel, but To Heart would get one that made people collectively go, “Meh,” I would not have believed you.
… a website such as Wikipedia instead of AoD or EX.org would be the greatest anime information website ever, I would not have believed you.
… /b/ would be a more popular letter of the alphabet than /a/, I would not have believed you.
… I would be able to watch anime from my cell phone anytime I want, I would not have believed you.
… Britney Spears would be one of the least desirable females within ten years, I would not have believed you. (But I would have believed you if you said that Michael Jackson would die of a possible drug overdose and pop out of his coffin performing Thriller.)
… Ghibli, with all of their momentum from Princess Mononoke and their buzz for Chihiro and all the support from Di$ney, would not be a factor in American media in the 00s, I would not have believed you.
… Cartoon Network would replace Toonami, which was at its high water mark with Gundam Wing, Tenchi, and DBZ, with live-action reality TV for kids, I would not have believed you.
… Horie Yui would be involved in a sex scandal, I would not have believed you.
… a format prettier than the new DVD format will come along to make use of gigantic and beautiful televisions, but everyone would still prefer to watch instant net streams no better than VHS quality on their computer over buying such a new format, I would not have believed you. (But I would have believed that DVD chugs along, barely.)
… YouTube.com and nicovideo.jp would become the world’s premier threat to productivity, I would not have believed you.
… Tina Fey and not Adam Sandler would be the most relevant SNL alum, I would not have believed you. (But I would have believed that the Detroit Lions would go 0-16 at some point in the decade.)
… the most influential and popular anime of the decade would self-destruct a la Dwight Gooden, I would not have believed you. (But I would have believed that fandom already jinxed and hexed that anime by genderswapping the lead prior to the Dwight Goodening.)
… the typical anime fan in 2009 would not know either Kenshin or Onizuka until they read about it in some irrelevant anime blog, I would not have believed you.
… I would be able to watch translated anime a mere eight hours after it airs in Japan, and it would be considered slowpoke, I would not have believed you.
… I would be writing a blog about cartoons created in Japan and drawn in Korea (and maybe Vietnam) and people would actually read it, I would not have believed you.
30 Responses to “if you had told me back in 1999 that…”
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And just think what you won’t believe tomorrow.
I would have never believed that I could read any manga I wanted on my cellphone back in ’99 when I had a crappy Sanyo. A 3.5″ LCD is just good enough, especially with the pinch-to-zoom. Jason, do you Youtube or transcode your anime onto your phone? I am having a hell of a time transcoding .mkv without getting the video and audio to desync and no subtitles.
Next prediction for ’09 in the year ’19, watching anything on one’s cellphone without the battery dying in an hour.
…that people would parody one of the decades best school harem/romance series with zombies, I would not have believed you. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWhPAle-tyU) Don’t forget to check out the comparison:Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YogpmBskgt8
I would have never believed I’d be into a show with a trap as a lead. Curse you Mariya, curse you.
I was checking up on this place using the phone while driving and my friend, sitting to my right, saw the header picture and asked “Is that Japanimation you’re looking at?” =O I learned he keeps up with Naruto.
Jounin:
I have written a tutorial for that: http://vsnes.aep-emu.de/tmp/MKVtoAVI_1.0.txt
You’re a pretty big disbeliever. I hope you never have to go back in time and convince yourself of anything.
Ten years is a long time… many things had changed since then… the world is not the same… we’re not the same… so I definitively would have believe you some of the things above.
Not let me tell you what I won’t believe from here to ten years on the future… SUNRISE not doing a train wreck series anymore.
10 years, I’d say most of those things I wouldn’t have believed even 5 years ago.
@Jounin That’s the one thing that’s annoying about MKV: transcoding it so I can watch video on my iPhone. On a Mac, it’s easy. AVI files can be converted with VideoMonkey at high quality in less than fifteen minutes. For MKV though, I use FFMpegX with the Perian Quicktime plugin installed. FFMpegX will use Quicktime to do the encoding which will bring in the subtitles, but it takes a *long* time. I usually set it up to run overnight so it’s ready in the morning.
Hmmm… maybe it’s just because I was in college in ’99, but I definitely would have believed the “everyone would still prefer to watch instant net streams no better than VHS quality on their computer over buying such a new format”. Of course, since I still do not own a device capable of displaying HD content (and can’t afford to buy one), I am definitely part of that everyone.
If you had told me in 1999 that my definition of traps would change from devices to capture animals to people designed to question my sexuality, I would not had believe you.
That Gainax would be milking Evangelion for 1 decade, I would not had believe you.
That Gonzo would go into bankruptcy and do a mahjong anime, I would not had believe you.
That 95% of anime would turn into moe blobs and hide good old fanservice trying to raise DVD sales, I would not had believe you.
Also…Horie Yui sex scandal? I think I missed that one, is that really true?
“… Gundam Wing’s overly homoerotic tensions would be topped by another (two!) Gundam series in the next decade (including one that crossdrossed a pilot without blinking), I would not have believed you.”
Hmmmmm….
I would have believed it. *Scratch head*
Heh. If you had told me back in 1999 that I’d be able to download an entire season of anime (or even a single episode) in a couple of hours, I would not have believed you. Hell, it used to take all day just to download the soundtracks.
that i would evolve so
Cartoon Network would replace Toonami, which was at its high water mark with Gundam Wing, Tenchi, and DBZ, with live-action reality TV for kids, I would not have believed you.
AMEN Brother AMEN cause I still dont believe they doing that shit its no even working for them
Omedetou…
If you had told me back in 1999 that I would be using google to spell check the word omedetou, I would not have believed you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I just slowpoke’d my way though ef, and I need a new box of tissues.
if you had told me back in 1999 that… updates on anime blogs that should be irrelevant to my life would immediately alert me through rss feeds, i would not have believed you.
and that i would immediately read it, i would not have believed you.
Make that free instant net streams and it becomes much more easily believed.
How about a series that will give you 8 of the same episodes for 2 months and yet you will still continue to watch it faithfully?
I’m still not believing it right now lol
That reminds me – we’re marathoning all of Endless Eight at our anime club on Friday. We are evil people.
I’ve spent too much time playing poker and XBox Live. Time to dive back into the anime woWho was involved in a What scandal?!? And no one invited me?!?
[shakes fist] Curse you, Mega Man 9!
Ahem… if you had told me that I would deeply enjoy anime loaded with high-octane nightmare fuel, I would not have believed you. And yet, I have “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni” on my DVD rack and and anticipating the release of “School Days.”
“… the typical anime fan in 2009 would not know either Kenshin or Onizuka…” I hope this isn’t true, I don’t want to believe it. Also, thanks for mentioning CN’s major failure of turning into a reality show station. Rumor has it they are changing their name the “The Network” uguuu.
Wow, makes me feel old.
Who’s the bigger fool, the one that writes a blog about cartoons or the one that reads it? and yes, old is how this post makes me feel.
Onizuka FTW, and yes, I unfortunately found out about it on an obscure blog which I can’t even remember the name of. And Cartoon Network’s inexplicable degradation into a channel that shows more live-action than cartoons still is a subject of much vexation for me.
If you had told me I would become totally desensitized to gratuitous, utterly random and uneccessary fanservice in animated television programs and even, dare-I-say, learn to appreciate it, I would not have believed you. Luckily, the Haruhi+Geass combo fixed me of that.
If you had told me that I would think a horse with tailpipes was the greatest thing I had ever seen, I would not have believed you. Then I read Notes on Camp.
“… Nadesico wouldn’t get a sequel, but To Heart would get one that made people collectively go, “Meh,†I would not have believed you.”
Actually just finished watching Martian Successor/Mobile Battleship Nadesico yesterday. Was pretty damn entertaining. It was kinda like a contrastingly serious Fumoffu but with more mecha’s and lots of crazy science jargon. Gai Daigoji will live on forever!!!!!!
“… Gundam Wing’s overly homoerotic tensions would be topped by another (two!) Gundam series in the next decade (including one that crossdrossed a pilot without blinking), I would not have believed you.”
you mean 3 gundam series it also got topped by gundam x litteral bromance
What’s this Yui Horie sex scandal that you keep mentioning Jason? All I can find on the net is that her talent agency was involved in making their talent put out in order to get ahead but nothing specific to her.
i just realize that is a boxcutter she has in her other hand. it really should be a mechanical pencil per ep6 and boxcutter are taken by kaede.
Here might be a dumb question, but:
What was the anime that self destructed? Eva?
thanks!