You may or may not have the relationship (going steady) with anime that I and I know many people do. It may be a phase for you, a casual fling you’ll toss out and forget about in the morning. A two or three year stand, if you will. I think my seven year affair has lasted so long and is still going so strong because of all the potential I see in it. I see a whole lot in anime: storytelling device, art form, entertainment, thought provoker, controversy, culture bridge, and so on.

But for some people, the magic is gone. There’s just no spark any more, and all those long nights in front of the TV seem so empty now. If you’re losing interest with anime, why have you? Has anime not delivered all it promised it would? If you haven’t lost interest but you know someone who has, why have they cut anime off? Is there a reason, or is it that the relationship has grown all it has and simply ended? What is it about anime that’s made you avoid it at parties and in conversation? Why have you or a friend ditched anime?

Please share in the comment section below your breakup scenarios with anime!

I don’t normally do that- drop an anime. I can usually soldier through some heavy garbage to the end of a series and have put up with a lot of suck-tacular anime. But every now and then, a series comes along which pushes my buttons and gets under my skin in such a way, it’s no longer physically possible for me to watch it. It’s like I’m struck by a sudden illness and the only cure is to eject the DVD and bury it somewhere. The symptoms of this malady are irritability, unpredictable shouting jags, elevated blood pressure, random and effusive cursing, and a general felling of disgust. I’ve dubbed this Dropitnomea from the latin: Dropit- (drop it) -nomea (it is crap).

What usually brings on Dropitnomea is excessive moe, shotacon, lolicon, bathroom humor or any combination thereof. If I even smell a serious or comedic overuse of shotacon or lolicon in a series, I refuse to watch it. A tiny hint, no problem, but if it pops up more than twice within the first episode, buh-bye. Same goes for truly lowbrow humor. I don’t mind boob jokes or fanservice, but if the jokes seem like they were written by a fifth grader who’s gotten his hands on a naughty thesaurus, Flush!, the anime is gone.

I usually get another member of the team who’s immune to my anime allergies, so to say, to review the series I can’t. We all have something we can’t deal with in anime, and I’m very aware of what I’m allergic to in the medium. Do you have any anime allergies which flare up and make it impossible to watch a series? Have you stopped watching a series because of something in the anime that rubbed you the wrong way or made you ill? Do you drop anime or are you a trooper who makes it through even the worst anime? What’s it take for you to drop an anime?

Please tell us your thoughts in the comment section below on dropping an anime series!

The first time I saw a Speed Racer trailer was online some months back. My first impression was “Cool!” Since then I’ve readjusted my initial opinion of “Cool” to “Uhhhh” and “Reallly?”, mostly based on trailers I’ve seen on TV. The web trailer I saw was short, well edited and had a “mature” vibe. The ones I’ve seen on TV aren’t.

There are at least four Speed Racer trailers I’ve viewed thus far, and three of those don’t make me want to jump up and throw down $16 to see this thing. If anything, they make me want to stay far, far away from any theater playing Speed Racer since the place’ll be crawling with tiny human larvae, i.e. kids. Is that the main audience for the movie, kids? Because I thought this is the Wachowski brothers we’re talking about. You know, the guys who brought us the Matrix?

I saw a trailer of Speed Racer one Saturday morning, which played over and over, featuring Chimchim and Spritle doing slapstick comic relief. I wanted to weep for how bad this movie turned out if this short preview was any indicator of the quality of the movie.

Truth be told, I will go see Speed Racer in theaters May 9, but not because of the trailers. The trailers have little (some, but not much) to do with my personal decision to see this movie. I’m going because it’s a live action anime, big budget production directed by renown comic geeks and released by a giant American movie studio. That just doesn’t happen every day. Oh, and the visuals look hardcore awesome even if the story seems nonexistent. So despite my visceral reaction to save my hard-earned and forgo opening night on this one, I’m going to be in line May 9th.

How about you? What are your reactions to the Speed Racer trailers? Do they make you want to reserve seats on opening night or do they fill you with the desire to flame the Warner Brother’s website? Are you inspired by the trailers, or do they have the opposite of their intended effect? What effect do the Speed Racer trailers have on your desire to see the movie?

Tell us your thoughts below on the Speed Racer trailers and their effect on your desire to see the movie in theaters!

I know many fans are die-hard con goers and forgo even the basics, such as food and a bed, to attend cons. On the second day of the con I always see people eying my food the way they would a scantily clad cosplayer. That and the kinked necks suggest sleeping arrangements akin to a shoddily stacked set of Lincoln Logs. That’s dedication to the con spirit, but at my ripe old age of 31, dedication is running from panel to panel, staying up late to update the site and interviewing whoever I can whenever I can.

I can’t see myself sharing a room with any but my closest pals and I’ve gotten attached to eating at least once a day. I also suffer from an acute case of Princess and the Pea Syndrome. It’s a horrible malady which makes it impossible for me to sleep on anything that doesn’t have at least six inches of padding, i.e. a mattress.

When con season rolls around, are you ready for it? Were you scrimping all year and living off ramen to save for a convention? Have you saved up big time for the big cons, or are you going to buy a ticket and wing it from there? Do you have a con ticket and a hotel but can’t pay the rent? Are you set to converge at a convention or are you the guy with the sign, “WiLl GloMp fOr FoOD?” Do you go without meals? A bath? A room? Merchandise? What do you sacrifice to attend a con?

Share what you’ve forgone, or will forgo, to attend an anime convention in the comments below!

I know anime fans have a list of anime they feel everyone should see at least once. But do fans have a list of anime that should be avoided at all costs? There has to a list out there, emblazoned with a skull and cross bones, warning DANGER: Absolute Crap Ahead! I just know there’s a Plan Nine From Outer Space in anime. And just like Ed Wood’s thankfully obscure train wreck of a movie, there undoubtedly is an anime so bad, fans refer to it among themselves as a catchphrase for the epitome of Suckdom.

I’ve been lucky in my anime life, I’ve only watched one series so bad, I can’t understand why it continues to exist. The laws of nature state: survival of the fittest, which is why I’m perplexed as to why this series is still limping around. The series in question is Glass Fleet. It’s so holistically bad, I wholeheartedly feel Gonzo, the studio guilty of Glass Fleet, should burn it and mind-wipe anyone who’s seen it, myself included. I would be first in line for that. Yes, one mind wipe please, and while you’re at it, could you erase that bit about prom night? Thaaaanks.

In this household, we actually compare anime and live action on a scale of Glass Fleet to ten. That movie was bad, Glass Fleet bad. Pirates of the Caribbean Three has the honor of being the first live action movie to be awarded with a score of Glass Fleet.

Which anime is so bad you use its name as slang to describe something sub par? Is there a series so horrible, you’re confused as to why it still exists? Are there anime that have topped your DO NOT WATCH list? Which anime should be burned and never mentioned again?

While I feel NO MEDIA SHOULD EVER BE BURNED, no matter how terrible…for the sake of discussion, share in the comments below which anime you think should “figuratively” be torched.