All comedies, cartoons or not, suffer from the fact that to be really good, they have to introduce a new, funny way to look at life. After several years, it's not a new way to look at life, and the program either changes rapidly or becomes boring.

Cartoon Network has two of the most entertaining animated series around--"Justice League" and "Samurai Jack." Justice League is about to finish its second season with a 90 minute season finale on May 29th that is going to be a barnburner. Unfortunately, it looks like season three--which begins in August--is going to introduce a lot more heroes, reducing the amount of time that can be spent on characterization--a strength of the series--for any one character. Samurai Jack isn't quite as good, but it's good clean fun with lots of action and humor.

I can't watch Adult Swim because I've seen most of what they show in the original Japanese, and compared to the professional Japanese voice actors and actresses, the American guys *suck*. Every time my brother turns on dubbed Rurouni Kenshin I wonder if I'm going to start bleeding from the eardrums...

Not to mention that American TV has more commercial time than Japanese, so they have to cut a couple of minutes out of every episode, and oftentimes have to rewrite the story to fit.

And don't get me started on how they butchered Sailor Moon, which is absolutely hilarious in Japanese and just kinda pathetic in English.

I must say, I speak very little Japanese, yet I prefer most anime with subtitles because the Japanese actors generally are much better.

I really hate the actress who does Ranma 1/2 in English. Those shows are so much funnier with the original cast.

Um, if I may beg to differ, the first three or four episodes of the latest round of 'South Park' were absolute screamers. The Ninja anime episode was brilliant, Cartman trying to win the Special Olymics was a howler, and Stan and Kenny trying to get Mel Gibson to give them their money back over 'The Passion' was classic.

I was struck by how, with those episodes in particular, they were still in fine form.

Don't forget the short-lived "Clerks" animated series, now available on DVD. The episode where they run out of script and let the Korean animators "finish up" is a thing of beauty. "Who is driving? Oh my God, Bear is driving! How can this be?"

Cowboy Bebop is one that particularly grates on my with the dub. The good news from that standpoint is that [AS] is moving to more original stuff from Williams Street and away from the Anime angle.

There have been some good dubs done. I think the one done for Trigun was pretty true. I am thinking of buying the FLCL DVD to see the subbed version; I'm thinking that it may be one that is too hard to follow subbed.

Oh, and Dean? [AS] said that the Harvey DVDs are on the way.

(Gotta respect the [brackets].)

AS?

"It means there was a time when bugs were obedient to man. This clearly isn't that time."

The classics are the best, and not shown nearly enough on TV so I bought the Looney Tunes - Golden Collection on DVD :) 56 of the best ever cartoons made, and they're mine, ALL MINE! BWAHAHAHA!!! *shifty eyes* I'm a greeeedy little duck!

I'm one of those who grew up and came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, and my brother and I have always liked cartoons. My father also liked cartoons. He liked "Bullwinkle and Rockey", "Beep-Beep the Road-Runner", and others. In the late 1970s, he complained that animation had declined from the standards set by Disney, Hannah-Barbera, and Max Fleischer. He's no longer with us, but I think he would have appreciated "The Simpsons". My Mama doesn't like cartoons nearly as much. She hates "The Simpsons".