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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

They say, "Write what you know" and these days my primary interest is Japanese animation. So here, forthwith, are shows that are well worth watching:

Mouretsu Pirates (released in the US under the name Bodacious Space Pirates): SF title placed about a thousand years from now. Marika is a first-year high school student at Hakuoh Academy, on the planet Uminoakehoshi ("Sea of the Morning Star") orbiting Tau Ceti. At the end of her first term, two strangers show up and inform her single-mother Ririka that Marika's father has died. Marika never knew her father, and in fact didn't even know his name. She is astounded to find out that he was the captain of the space pirate ship Bentenmaru, which is actually a privateer, having a Letter of Marque. For complicated legal reasons (which are explained in the show) Marika is the only person who can take over as captain of the ship, and the two strangers are there to recruit her. The series covers a period of roughly two calendar years, during which time Marika does decide to become the captain, and becomes a very good one. It's not a fan-service show, by the way, and Marika doesn't have any romantic interest. The 26-episode show was a commercial success and a movie sequel hit theaters in February 2014.

If you're a member, or if you're willing to put up with ads, you can watch this on Crunchyroll.

Girls und Panzer: is proof that a competent director can make an outstanding show out of even the strangest concept. In this case, the idea is tank combat as a varsity sport for high school girls. It's called senshadou which roughly means "The Way of the Tank". (dou is a Taoist concept about study and mastery.) Our protagonist is Miho, who is a second year high school student at Ooarai Academy. She just transferred in, and chose the school because it didn't have a senshadou program. But then she finds out that they're beginning a new one, and the president of the student body specifically comes into her classroom and orders her to join the team. This 12-episode show was the break-out hit of 2012 in Japan. A typical successful show sells about 5,000 copies of each two-episode BD. Girls und Panzer sold about 30,000 copies each, making it one of the best selling shows of all time -- much to everyone's surprise. It was expected to be a niche title (it's sometimes referred to as "World of Tanks, the anime"). Why was it so successful? In a word, characterization. It's a huge cast, but the five characters at the core of the show are so well conceived and so well acted that it's impossible not to get hooked by them. I should also mention that the tanks are extremely well rendered, and the battles are brilliantly choreographed, and the deep story being told (about Miho, and about the school) also is very gripping, but in the end it's just a pleasure to spend time with these girls. It's available now in North America.

This one also doesn't have much in the way of fan service. It's on Crunchyroll.

If it matters to you, both of these shows easily pass the Bechdel test.

Nanatsu no Taizai ("The Seven Deadly Sins") is a shounen action show in the tradition of Dragonball and Bleach. But it is extremely well done, and paced beautifully to fit into 24 episodes. The Holy Knights of the Kingdom of Lionesse have staged a coup and confined the king and his two eldest daughters. Only the youngest, princess Elizabeth, escapes. To try to save the kingdom, she seeks out an elite group of seven knights known as the Seven Deadly Sins, who ten years before were framed for the murder of one of the Holy Knights. In the first episode she finds Meliodas, the leader of the Sins, and he agrees to help her. The first half of the series consists of Elizabeth and Meliodas searching for other members of the Sins (who had scattered ten years before and mostly gone into hiding) and the second half is them fighting to save the kingdom. The pacing is fantastic, so that every episode moves beautifully and there are no filler episodes or long pauses for plot exposition. There is a rising sense of tension and, frankly, fear as the show moves along, which culminates in a huge boss battle in the last episode. The main characters are varied (very varied) and engaging, with widely different powers and abilities, and none of them are one-notes. There are strong women in it -- two of the Sins are women -- and Elizabeth is brave and dedicated and isn't simply a damsel in distress. Meliodas tends to take liberties with Elizabeth but it isn't really that he's a perv. It's more that he's trying to get a rise out of various people. As I watched the show, it seemed like every episode was better than the previous one, all the way through the story. Unfortunately, this show hasn't been licensed in North America yet, so your only way of getting it is through a torrent.