And Now, For Your Reading Pleasure...THE OMNIUPDATE!!!!

Everything you could ever ask for in a post on HardDoor: anime, boxing, free anime, special features, beatdowns, and excessive fanservice! Let's get it on!!


--As some have noticed, over the past few weeks, I have added pictures to entries in the ongoing feature "Blacks and Head Shots in Anime". Writing about what happened is good, but sometimes "a picture is worth a thousand words," and with that in mind, I finally decided to utilize Blogger's picture feature and put it to use. It had been on my mind to try it out, but I never had much of a need for it until now. Maybe I'll give it a go after all of this is done...

--Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on Part 5, aiming to get it posted it by Tuesday or Wednesday. I initially thought that it would be the shortest of the bunch, but I found that there was much more to say than I planned going in. The plot description was much longer, too, as I forgot about the little complications that lied in it. Miraculously though, I got it all done in pretty much one sitting.

--I didn't want to say outright how long the feature would be, but it looks like I'll be settling on seven parts. That's around what I had projected (well, once I got past the two-post thinking from the early pre-planning), but I wanted to play it by ear than restrict myself into a corner. I wanted both freedom to write at length, but I also practiced restraint in how long I wanted things to go. The feature as a whole has gone longer than anticipated (writing-wise), but I'm also quite happy with how things have shaped up.

--On the Directory side of things, I've added Media Blaster's new high-quality streaming service to it. And I did so with some reservation, given that they have IkkiTousen: Dragon Destiny, Queen's Blade: The Exiled Virgin, and Kanokon. They're dubbed and there are more titles on the way, but those are some pretty dicey ones right there and I'm not too fond of hyper-fanservice shows. But it's a free/low-cost anime directory, so they deserve a mention there to some extent. They aren't hentai, either, as borderline as they can get. On the plus side, at least Queen's Blade OP theme is great...

--Speaking of Queen's Blade, the dub was about what I expected: a mix of new talent and experienced veterans. As such, it was on the mediocre side, but not a total washout or unlistenable. Nice to see the NYC VAs get some attention and some notable names in it, such as one of my favorites in Angora Deb in the lead role of Leina, but I rolled when I saw that another favorite of mine was using a different name ("Darla Chaney") as Melona. Risty's VA, Jessica Paquet, wasn't too bad, herself. I'm not crazy about QB (outside of said OP, score, animation quality), but after letting the video load to check out MB's video quality, I decided to just give it a go. Overall, the service is surprisingly good and it looked great (The episode itself? Still sucked. :P )

--To finally comment on Hopkins-Jones, it sounds like it went as expected, though the former won on a UD. It didn't sound like a big moneymaker, though that's not too surprising, nor was all of the dirty fighting, like Jone's rabbit punching (which apparently lead to Hopkins momentarily passing out in his dressing room afterword). If it were just a few years earlier...

--As for the Mayweather-Mosley fight, I don't think some of the things about were as pronounced as people said they were. No doubt, my prediction was glaringly bad and Mayweather whipped him, but I don't think "Money" was in too much trouble in the much-ballyhooed 2nd round. The first punch got his attention and the second buzzed him, but he wasn't hurt that badly or even close to getting KO'd, as you could tell by how quick he recovered a few seconds later and won the rest of the round. Mosley wasted a prime opportunity to capitalize on a momentarily hurt Mayweather by aimlessly throwing errant punches in his direction and not concentrate on throwing purposeful combinations. Worst of all, he actually clinched him while he was still recovering!

--Throughout the whole fight, even, Mosley fought horribly with no real gameplan in motion (despite trainer Naseem Richardson pointing the way) and was gassed before the half-way point. The 1-1/2 year layer certain factored in, but give Mayweather credit for stepping it up and actually trying make it entertaining on some level, though it still became a lesser version of Pacquiao-Cotto: a lopsided, not-that-enthralling-or-competitive shut out, despite the victor's show of skill. The Marquez fight was more intriguing, even Pacquiao-Clottey to an extent, but at least Mayweather showed up. It was a massive mistake for Mosley to fight him right out of his hiatus and he blew a perfect opportunity to give Mayweather a real fight, instead of the farce that was three Saturdays ago.

--Having first seen Sergei Dzinziruk fight Fri. night, I can definitely see why people having been saying good things about him. For a European fighter, he oddly has a more American style, but more notably, he has tight, but versatile, technical precision and a phenomenally good, quick jab. He appears to be dedicated to fighting the top competition now, having gone as far as to claim that he will fight all of his fights in the U.S. from now on. It remains to be seen how well he'll fare, but I believe he has the right tools and motivation to pull through. If there was one point of criticism against him, it's that he needs to keep his guard a little higher. His gloves were over his face, but they were still low enough to allow a crisp jab to snap his head back too often for comfort.

--After his landslide defeat to a re-impressive Victor Ortiz, maybe it's time for "The Galaxxxy Warrior" Nate Campbell to hang it up. He has fine technical skills, but given his past circumstances, he just peaked too late. Though he fought well, Ortiz is still not that outstanding, and I'm not sure he has, or will ever, lose that "soft" mentality (i.e. pack it up when things aren't going well). He won't get far if he mentally crashes like he did against Marcos Maidana. No one said he had to fight a "fool's fight," but being a quitter or half-hearted won't cut it if you want to advance, either.

--Amir Khan looked quite good in his show of superiority in a shootout with Paulie Malignaggi last night. He's eager to fight the very dangerous Marcos Maidana, which is good and all, but he'll have to be smartly aggressive with him and keep moving. That's not an easy fight regardless of his skill level, and right now, I think he needs deep preparation against stalking hard hitters like Maidana, especially if Breidis Prescott is still on his mind. And he thinks those Prescott was bad, future targets Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander are like a thousand hims. Digressing, Khan still seems have a good head about things and I doubt either he or trainer Freddie Roach will let him go into any of those fights unprepared.

--FUNimation went on a licensing spree of sorts and announced the dub casts to Casshern Sins, Eden of the East, and Shikabane Hime/Corpse Princess yesterday. Rosario+Vampire (both seasons), Chrome Shelled Regios, Heaven's Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono), Chaos; HEAd, RideBack, and Geneon license rescue GUNxSWORD are all shows up FUNimation's alley and were only a matter of time until they had picked them up. The dub casts are near perfectly chosen, even everyone's darling EotE, which, through nine episodes, I think is thoroughly limp and lousy. Then there is the far worse R+V, an even lamer, shameless fanservice-obsessed show with the most dead-looking, blank-slate characters I've seen in years. It's especially true for the vacuous females, though one in particular (see Ep. 2, IIRC) comes off as the most pathetic excuse for a girl I've ever seen (and I actually felt sorry for her for looking so pitiful, too--and she's not even real!).[/rant] On the bright side, I'm quite happy to see RideBack get licensed--one of my favorite and most under-appreciated shows of 2009--and that Casshern Sins will be released in August. There should be something for everyone to look forward to from this announcement.