Greetings

Hello. I'm Matt. I'm 24 and live in Appleton, WI.

It's hard to pick a favorite anime. If I'm pressed to do so I'd say Higurashi When They Cry, but I enjoy a wide variety of shows and genres from romantic comedies such as Lovely Complex to darker shows like Boogiepop Phantom.

I've attended Anime Central 5 of the past 6 years, but I've only tried cosplay once so far.

For some non-anime info, I'm an avid gamer, a Whovian (Doctor Who fan), and a big fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

I'm not very accustomed to self introductions like this so I hope this will do. I look forward to meeting you all at upcoming meetings.

Welcome Matt! Happy to have you join us!

I haven't seen Higurashi When They Cry yet, but one day I hope to watch it. One of these days, lol.

You going to ACen this coming year? Or Kitsune Kon?

Hello Matt and Welcome.

I am looking forward to meeting you at the Oct meeting. See you then.

Thank you both for your kind welcome.

I will indeed be attending ACen this year. In fact, I just purchased my pass today. Unfortunately my group missed out on the first set of hotel room blocks, but we will hopefully catch something in the next set.

I'm not sure about Kitsune Kon. I actually hadn't heard of it until just last year, but I'll certainly look into it.

One thing to keep in mind if you do plan to watch Higurashi is that you really need to watch both seasons. Unfortunately, the company that licensed the first season in the US never picked up the second series and has announced that they have no plans of doing so. Fansubs do exist, but I know that some people prefer to avoid watching fansubs. A company called MangaGamer does offer an english localization of the original visual novel as well for those interested in such things.

If you can't find rooms, or a lot of room, I have two spots available. Just in case. My room's at the Hilton. More details if anyone is interested. I actually reserved my room at midnight when they went live and even then it was difficult to find a room. D:

And dang, why in the heck did they get the first season and not the second? Ugh, now it'll be a battle between my code of ethics against fansubs and my want to see the show. Watch out, it might get bloody, lol!

Something that I forgot to mention that may help a bit with your dilemma is that Yen Press did release a localization of the manga. Its not quite the same as watching the anime, but reading the manga or playing the visual novel would allow you to get the complete story. Just make sure that you know which order the arcs go in if you are looking at the manga or it will be out of order and very confusing.

As for why they did not get the second season, the first season simply did not sell well. They clearly stated that the reason they were letting the license on the first season expire and why they would not be licensing any more from the series was that it did not sell well enough.

It may be possible to import a foreign copy of the DVDs (something which I may look into myself). For me at least, I wouldn't mind watching a fansub if I had purchased a copy through the proper channels and supported the show even if I can't watch the DVD itself due to region issues.

I think I'll try going the manga route then, I'm more driven by the story than anything else. And I'll definitely make sure to read them in the correct order, it doesn't take much to confuse me on that front, lol.

Aw, that sucks. I had thought is was more popular with how much people were talking about it... Man...

I do this too, but with domestic releases. For instance, Rose of Versailles is a 70's anime I had no hope of ever seeing released, so I watched the fansubs, which then made me feel guilty for not supporting the original creator. I was thinking about getting the italian/french re-release of the anime, simply to have it to alleviate my guilt. But now that RightStuf got the rights for an english subbed version, I can now buy and watch it guilt free!