Let Miyuki represent you, the fansubber/blogger/animator/reader …

Well, I may not be trying to feed turkey to my computer monitor, but I’m still having a very anime Thanksgiving here, in my dorm room, typing up a sequel to last year’s post, giving a little bit of love back to some of the groups and people making the English anime fandom so accessible to the less Japanese-inclined of us.

There have been a surprising amount of Thanksgiving posts around the otakusphere, and I’m glad to see some spirit and good feelings floating around. I shall just contribute a little bit more to that enthusiasm, so here’s some thanks to …

OTL, the ones in charge in supplying all us Kanon addicts with absolute top-notch quality releases of the audio dramas, edited up to look like visual novels. It’s outstanding, and, more importantly, full of Shiori.

NDT, because apparently they’re still alive, and still working to also help satiate the mad frothing passion of the Kanon fandom by translating the original visual novel. Keep pushing~!

mirror moon, for continuing to make accessible some of the most confusing (i.e. Nasu) yet enrapturing writing out there, in the form of Type-Moon visual novels and games. They’ve done an absolutely monmentual job with translating Tsukihime, Kagetsu Tohya, Fate/Stay Night and WHAT’S THIS: the Melty Blood set of games were all fully translated today. Go, go, go!

BSS, for releasing relatively quick and relatively slick subs for perhaps less-popular but still high-quality shows, such as Kure-nai, Kimikiss, and Golgo 13.

The Triad, because, even if they do troll like a crazy mofo, they still sub things that no one else really wanted or cared to do, like Akagi and Kaiji. I wouldn’t be a crazy gambling addict with a pointy-nose fetish without them.

B2E, because The Triad are crazy trolling mofos and either refused to sub One Outs or decided to let someone else do it. Either way, B2E has been the one to pick up the most slack for the next superbly intense anime from Madhouse’s gambling anime team.

OOM Fansubs, because they subbed Mission-E, and I didn’t. I always appreciate the fansubbing groups who decide to sub the underdog anime; every one should have a fair chance, and groups like OOM make it possible. And Mission-E is quite enjoyable. Seriously.

Eclipse, because they’re crazy enough to keep releasing quality fansubs for Akasaka, even if the show is rather bland and cookie-cutter (i.e. great to mock). In addition, they also team up to help sub many other quality, enjoyable shows. I still like Index, don’t sue me.

Static-Subs, because they team up with Eclipse to help sub quality, enjoyable shows. I’m still trying to like Clannad After Story, don’t sue me.

Menclave, because maybe if I give them enough love, they’ll release ef ~a tale of melodies~ faster.

m.3.3.w, because they’ve grown from a small speed-subbing group to an absolute flat-out quality fansubbing machine, translating a variety of anime with exceptional quality and care that should make any fan happy. They’re the main piece in my fansub group harem.

And of course, all the other fansub groups that I haven’t mentioned that help out in some way to do a great service for the English-speaking anime community. Everyone out there, who’s even translated just a little bit, thanks for making this fandom possible.

Additionally, let me give a shout-out to all the anibloggers out there, on behalf of a fellow reader and writer, for putting such hard work into their writing and their community. I know it’s not easy, and often a very tough ‘job’ at times, but some of the discussions and contemplations generated, are really inspiring and intriguing. Keep being awesome, everyone.

Do note that I’m only listing a sample of blogs out there (namely, those on my RSS reader) – there’s more writers out there then I could probably link using every character in this post (yes, I did that with that phrase in the last paragraph), and I’m discovering new and exciting bloggers every day. Anime Nano and the Animeblogger.net Antenna work wonders for that. Get out there and enjoy your community~!

Naturally, to all the animation studios in Japan putting together some top-quality (or at least entertaining, in one way or another) work; from what I’ve heard, the animators themselves don’t get half as much love – or pay – as they should. They’ll probably never end up at this corner of the internet, but let my good wishes reach you somehow…

Finally, I couldn’t end this post without thanking all of you readers, for letting me indulge myself in some occasionally serious, occasionally ridiculous, always verbose anime discussion on this blog. I’ve been having a lot of fun meeting new people and having interesting flame wars discussions – and as a certain kouhai may note, giving birth to increasingly implausible ideas.

So I hope everyone else is enjoying Thanksgiving, if not with their real-life family, with their internet family, their waifu (2D or 3D), or whatever may apply. And may these warm feelings last through the rest of the year…

-CCY