You don't HAVE to listen to the show, naturally. However, it's like only reading the Star Trek novelizations without ever having seen the TV shows.

If you haven't, check out the original 12 radio episodes. The dialog was written to be spoken by those actors, so you have to get those voices into your head to get the most out of the books

What they meant was whenever they noticed someone in the script was speaking the truth or mentioning a fact, they edited that out. They did not want viewers to know how simple everything, in fact, was. By understanding it, you are evidence that they failed. Then again, you may have just come up with your own "concrete" to fill in the holes the show was intentionally creating

You're just applying Sturgeon's Law. Naturally most anime is crap. Nobody will claim otherwise. The ending problem is somewhat unique to anime in that most US shows aren't meant to end, where as intensionally 1 season  shows are common in anime. The Paranoia Agent commentary actually deals with this. They started production with something like 7 plot episodes, 4 anthology episodes, and then the two ending episodes they'd worry about later (I don't remember the exact breakdown). The idea for the ending came the week they had to start animating it.

It's great until you listen to the Japanese commentary, where they admit they had no ending when they storyboarded the first episodes, and they deliberately edited out anything that would tell you what was going on to make it more mysterious. I now look at any similar show with a jaded eye.

It's the kind of show where you ask the question, are all those shots of power lines a statement about modern society, or a way for the animators to save money every episode?

Check out KAMICHU!, about a middle school girl who wakes up one morning to discover she's a Shinto God. All the episodes are on Youtube, and the dub is great. Nadia the Secret of Blue Water is a classic, based on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

2+2=5, for reasonably large values of 2.

Half a million is a lot to ask for. Taking a look at video game Kickstarters that actually drew that many pledges, only three are from this year. I think now that people are able to see the games that are coming out as a result of these things, they're backing away. This isn't going to be the funding source many hoped it would be.

(the timing may also have been bad, with so many expensive games coming out now for potential supporters to buy)

I had the thought this week, listening to commentaries on various horror films including Carrie, that when Dorkman wakes up there's a good chance his opinion on post-accident Stephen King will be different. The change in King's writing will suddenly make a whole lot more sense.

needs flames.

Well, the show finally aired. Thoughts? Apparently, after filming four or five episodes they got rid of the female lead, changing the pilot to write her out. No idea how much of the next few episodes will consist of salvaged footage.

Hey, here in Buffalo we're proud we killed President McKinley. Especially because the President who DID sort of come from here didn't do squat in office, so having a claim on both McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt is an improvement

(I still have an old LP called "We Killed McKinley" with a bunch of local groups, including early Goo Goo Dolls)

One thing that should be remembered is that anime isn't a genre. It's simply the word the Japanese use for all animation, and which in the US is used to refer to cartoons from Japan. Asking for recommendations is like asking for good live action films: you really need to be more specific as to what your interests are

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm aware of metallurgy and manufacturing limits, one reason I was hoping for an advisor on such things. After some time thinking on it, I have my characters and basic structure, but the science is still in the air. I do have the two children playing with some Tinker Toys their father invented, though, so that's something