Viz will also continue to add episodes of Naruto and Naruto Shippuuden to Hulu (currently around 110 episodes of the original 220-episode series are available there). But that’s not all. TV Tokyo, the Japanese broadcaster of Naruto, has announced that it will stream new episodes of Naruto Shippuuden (along with other series) to Crunchyroll; what’s more, paid subscribers will get access to subtitled Naruto episodes a mere hour after their Japanese broadcast. Episodes will be available for free one week after their original air dates, as with the other sites.

I’m not sure what the pricing will be like, but not having to wait a week is a powerful temptation. That said, of all the streaming sites I’ve seen, Hulu has the hands-down best interface, so it may be more worthwhile to wait anyway.

In other Naruto-related news, fan group Dattebayo has announced that they will stop subtitling the show permanently as of January 15, the go-live date for the various streaming websites.

Finally, I have taken the plunge and started reading the Naruto manga, in preparation for the new releases coming up next spring. Woo!

Congratulations to my sister Prachee, who successfully defended her doctoral thesis yesterday!

Viz Media has announced that, beginning in January 2009, it will begin streaming Naruto Shippuuden episodes near-simultaneously to their airings on Japanese TV. New English-subtitled episodes will be streamed at www.naruto.com one week after their Thursday-night Japanese airing:

In addition, the official Naruto.com website will stream the first eight episodes of Naruto Shippūden for free on January 2. The website will add eight more episodes every Friday thereafter until all of the earlier episodes are online. Naruto.com is already streaming the episodes of the first Naruto ninja action series, and its ad-supported streams are available to users in the United States and Canada.

Viz Media has also confirmed that it will publish volumes 34 to 44 of Masashi Kishimoto’s original Naruto manga between February and April of next year. Volume 44 had only just shipped in Japan this month. After volume 44, Viz Media will release the Naruto manga on a quarterly schedule.

This is awesome. I am freaking out. I was considering starting to read the Naruto manga in Japanese, actually, as practice and so that I could read ahead in the story, since the anime is still a ways behind. Now, though, I may be able to get all this in English; quite a dilemma.

I am not sure what has motivated Viz to make so much Naruto content available for free online, but what a great way to combat the piracy problem. They’ll make a ton in advertising revenue as well as generate interest in the manga and higher-quality DVD releases. Smart business that the consumers will love. Good job, Viz.

my love of shounen martial arts anime, it having been so long since I had obsessively watched Rurouni Kenshin, but it has come back to me. With a vengeance.

After a continuous anime marathon for almost the past month, I have completely caught up in both Naruto and Bleach (both 5 stars), and am now forced to wait a week between episodes.

Naruto has defied all my expectations, and I have been well and truly sucked in; epic storyline and beautifully animated fight scenes aside, the character development in this series is what makes it shine. It is simply heartwrenching at times—I’m not afraid to admit that more than one episode of the series, especially the second and currently-airing portion, Naruto Shippuuden, has had me in tears.

Bleach takes a more subtle approach to its character development; its plotting remains tighter and more elegant than Naruto‘s, but takes a markedly less overt emotional approach. While it doesn’t have as much immediate impact, emotionally speaking, as its counterpart, it is as absorbing, and remains one of my favorite shounen series of all time.

In other anime news, I have to say I was quite disappointed by the Skip Beat! anime; it has extremely low production value, though the seiyuu are good. Which is a real shame. That said, they are doing a good job of editing down the manga for broadcast purposes in the 5 episodes I’ve seen so far, and I’m still watching, so it’s not all that bad. Problem is that it makes me obsess over the manga, which doesn’t have another release for over a month and a half. <sigh>

Now it’s all a waiting game.

So I was on my thankfully final trip out to Knoxville—involving, praise be, neither US Airways nor Charlotte Douglas International Airport in any way—a couple of weeks ago, and I had another unexpectedly sublime sandwich experience.

Anyone who travels with any frequency knows not to expect too much from airport food. Your choices are generally limited to greasy junk food or dry sandwiches and wilted salads. In short, with the exception of a couple of terminals at SFO, most airport food is a fitting accompaniment for the unadulterated misery that is modern air travel in America.

Not so that day, however. I was flying American for the first time in a long while, so I was in an area of Terminal 3—one of the aforementioned exceptions—I do not normally frequent. On the lookout for an inoffensive sandwich, I spotted guava & java, which offered quite an impressive selection thereof. I selected the “Turkey Festa Americana,” which frankly I wasn’t too keen on, but I felt like turkey more than roast beef or tuna.

Let me take a moment here to praise the g & j packaging. Whimsical and friendly, all purchases come in a cheery orange or lime green paper bag, which injects a bit of brighness into an otherwise dreary day of travel.

Anyway, what set this sandwich apart from the mediocre masses was the fact that not only did it have cranberries in it (actual cranberries, mind you, not a sugary sauce), but it contained stuffing. Stuffing! In the sandwich. Brilliant! The stuffing contained just the right amount of moisture and saltiness to balance the turkey beautifully. The balance of flavors was so well judged, in fact, that I wasn’t even bothered by the presence of the iceberg lettuce (normally a deal-breaker). Good stuff.

In other sandwich news, I’d also like to praise the Sentinel’s roasted eggplant, basil and goat cheese sandwich, which I enjoyed for the first time last week. It was a bit heavy on the basil, but the absolutely gorgeous bread and the perfect texture of the grilled eggplant hits a sandwich home run. Don’t miss it!

Oh, man. Now I’m hungry.

According to the horse, HBO has given the production order to film a pilot for George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones (the first book in probably my favorite fantasy series ever). I am. Freaking. Out.