After some initial reservations due to the awefulness of the English dub, I’m giving Gundam 00 another try from the beginning. I just watched Gundam 00 Episode 1 in Japanese on YouTube, legally!
With the explosion of anime and other programming moving to the web on sites like YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and CrunchyRoll, the triumph of the small screen over the big one in the living room seems well on its way. I still prefer to watch the living room TV, but I have more time away from that one, than with it. And if my household is typical, I have a lot more small screen around than big ones.
This freedom does come at a cost though, but not the obvious visual one. Instead, the cost is becoming your own programming director. On demand, ubiquitous entertainment means freedom from someone else’s scheduling decisions, but responsibility for doing it yourself. I think the current generation is up to the task, just we older ones have to catch on. I wonder if there is a market for tools to make this task easier?
The show, btw, was pretty good and sounds much better in the original Japanese. I like English dubs too, but what I saw for this particular show kinda put me off. So hurray for subtitles! Just remember, on YouTube you have to click the caption icon to get the subtitles.