:boxing: Boxing Bits ::11.26.09:: Champs Get Chewed Up

The past two weeks have not proven to be kind to almost anyone holding a belt, lead in dubious distinction by Miguel Cotto and Mikkel Kessler, who suffered only their second defeat, but did so in authoritative style via stoppage.

:boxing: Super Seventh:: Cotto vs Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao, the little dynamo that could, wishes to gain a record seventh title at a different weight class. Certainly a doable task for a man that has charged his way though nearly every division from flyweight up to light welterweight, improving and honing his skills to almost perfection when coupled with his frightening physical capabilities and being involved in all-out wars, blowouts, and clinics, losing last to the great Erik Morales in 2005 (before KOing him twice the following year). After making sport of another great in Oscar De La Hoya nearly a year ago and demolishing Ricky Hatton this past May, Pacquiao wants to hang the WBO welterweight belt on his already wide Wall of Achievement as "Lucky No. 7" come Saturday night in Las Vegas. One little problem, though: it's buckled around Miguel Cotto's waist.

:boxing: Boxing Bits ::11.10.09:: Dawson, Perez Impress

It's been quite awhile since the last "Boxing Bits" installment, but since I changed the format of the Seasonal Boxing Preview, I've been trying to figure out how to better utilize the feature and steer it away from the format it had used for so long. It was never intended to be so close in conjunction with the Preview, which stemmed from a temporary measure and experiment. While it will still be retain some connectivity with it, I'll solely be using it for commentary on select fights. We'll see how well it will work from here.

Since it's been so long since the last "Boxing Bits" (Super Six edition excluded), I will just be covering the fights within the last two weeks. Within that frame of time, there have been some pretty nice match-ups and interesting developments, such as the Agbeko-Perez slugfest, Haye defeating Valuev, and Dawson finally rising to the occasion to definitively beat Johnson.

:anime: Free/Low-Cost Anime Pick of the Month:: TRIP TREK

TRIP TREK

Official Sites: Japanese, English
Additional Links: Directory Link, ANN Entry
Video [Free]: English w/ Japanese Subtitles, Japanese w/ Japanese Subtitles

With Halloween coming in the next few days, it seems only appropriate to dedicate this inaugural feature to one anime befitting of the season. TRIP TREK, created by an "experimental" creative group by the name of "Estrella", is an obscure, web-original production by famous studio manglobe (Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy) about the off-kilter, darkly-comic tale of a strange little girl in search of her mother. Its style is what one might expect from a Flash-based animation--bold-looking, distinctive, and a little awkward. Being made primarily for online, its production values show, and though its purposeful arthouse-flavored visuals and sensibilities and overall macabre nature might not be everyone's tea (or more timely, hot apple cider), those looking for something to put them in the mood for the season or who either find themselves fancied by black comedies or just something "different" entirely will certainly want to check it out.

TRIP TREK has the peculiar distinction of being produced in English first, then into Japanese later, due most likely to Estrella's objective in creating works for a global audience. American English dub fans won't find anyone familiar in the show, since English-speaking voice actors (VAs) in Japan performed the roles. The result may be as awkward as the animation itself, but it remains a passable and acceptable effort. Both the English (Ep. 1-4) and Japanese (Ep. 1-3, 5) versions were put onto YouTube by producer bb-anime and features subtitles in Japanese (yes, both). And for a little "bonus", be sure to check out the Directory link above.

:boxing: HardDoor's Autumn Boxing Preview - '09 Edition

<--To Summer 2009 Boxing Preview

The slew of issues that plagued this past summer's lineup has turned into the autumn's bounty, as this season is filled with a number of high-profile matches, including the start of the much-anticipated Super Six World Boxing Classic in the super middleweight division (and there's also that Cotto-Pacquiao bout, too). For this preview, I'll be trying out a new format brought on by the concise model used for last season's re-err--preview, which I sort of liked. I'm figuring out a way to still comment on them without using "Boxing Bits", but that's still up in the air. For now, we'll see how this style works. And also...happy viewings!

--HD

:boxing: Boxing Bits - Super Six Edition:: Abraham Destroys, Froch Decisions

The Super Six World Boxing Classic in the Super Middleweight division kicked off to a super start (ugh...) with the King leveling Taylor with bad intentions (yeesh...) and the Cobra slithering away (sigh...) with a close, disputed decision against whatever nickname Dirrell has...

:boxing: Super Six Super Preview Super Bracket!

Today, Saturday, October 17, marks the first set of matches in Showtime's "Super Six World Boxing Classic", pitting six of the sport's best super middleweights in a round-robin tournament to crown the division's undisputed world champion.

IBF Middleweight Champion Arthur Abraham, former champion Jermain Taylor, WBC Super Middleweight Champion Carl Froch, WBA Champion Mikkel Kessler, and top contenders Andre Ward and Andre Dirrel, as part of the agreement, will all face each other at some point in the tournament, and perhaps even more than once in the later rounds due to the format. As a refresher, here is the setup as posted in July (second half):

:anime: HardDoor's Autumn Anime Preview - '09 Edition

<--To Summer 2009 Anime Preview

When I first saw what was airing this fall, I was surprised at the amount of shows that seemed worth noting. Yet when I actually began to compile this season's preview and filter the titles, the girth didn't seem as remarkable, nor did titles themselves. A bit of time passed and I decided to review the list of offerings again, which revealed a whole slew of new ones that were added since then and were noteworthy enough to make it. And so, this year's autumn edition of HardDoor's seasonal anime previews is the largest one to date, featuring 21 shows in the main section, 23 shows "of interest", and six movies debuting in Japan in the "theater" section--a total of 50 works in whole (besting this Spring's record of 39)!.

:anime: And Another One Bites...

Kadokawa Pictures USA, the licensing arm of Japan's Kadokawa Pictures, closed down on August 31, leaving a number of to-be-distributed titles such as Ga-Rei -Zero- and H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~ in possible limbo and becoming the fourth (or third, depending on how you view it) American anime company to dissolve within the year. It's such a shame to hear this news, as their products were of high quality and they seemed to put a lot of effort in ensuring it (as personally observed with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time). The titles in question may still be in queue if the closing only meant a reallocation of resources and that negotiations would occur through the parent company and not the subsidiary, but as of this moment, there is no word on their fate or of those that have already been released by the likes of Bandai Ent., FUNimation, and Nozomi Ent. I have really enjoyed their work over their too-brief lifespan, and along with their awesome eyecatch, I'll definitely be missing them if this is truly it.

:boxing: Road to the Pacquiao Stakes:: Mayweather vs Marquez

Perhaps the one match-up worth seeing right now that isn't named "Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather, Jr." is "Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs Juan Manuel Marquez"--well, arguably at least. It may not carry as big a marquee ring to it as the first, but it is as big a fight as that is. The argument can be made that Marquez is the real #1 P4P fighter in the world, having knocked out Juan Diaz in stunning fashion after a brutal war earlier in the year and taking Pacquiao to the brink in their two encounters (and for the record, I thought he won the first and lost the second--both by a round). On the other hand, Mayweather once held the mythical title for a good while, but has last fought nearly two years ago. With a date against the Pacman looming just beyond, he'll need to get by a man that not only fights nearly as well as him, but has his own plans of getting after the fighter.