Discovering thatguywiththeglasses.com is a double edged sword for me. On the one hand, the site has provided me hours of entertainment and led me to other sites and web shows that amuse me to this day. On the other hand, it doesn't really help with the procrastination problem that I have. The site has grown and now hosts several web shows that showcase the absolute worst in pop culture.
The big kahuna of the site is Doug Walker. He started off on YouTube editing blockbuster movies down to short humorous clips called "Five Second movies". Very few of the videos were actually five seconds and you can rest assured that he took some ribbing from commentators about that. He hit it big with a new character called the Nostalgia Critic. Under this guise, Doug looked back over movies and shows that we (people in the '80s and '90s) grew up on. He discovers that a lot of it is terrible and as a result has become bitter and cynical. The videos mock and heckle terrible movies, but occasionally give credit where it's due. The Gargoyles review was highly positive and the Critic has done a few "Top 11" lists to showcase some quality work.
After some trouble with YouTube, Doug and his friends decided to launch their own website to host the videos they were making. This was the beginning of a major franchise that has even gotten noticed by business magazines. To keep the outflow of videos going, Doug created a few new characters. The other notable one is Chester A. Bum an enthusiastic homeless man who sees the newest releases and praises them all as "the greatest movie he's ever seen in his life". As one would expect, he ends up poking fun at the story while making a lot of random jokes. It's interesting to note that the Bum was in a way inspired by the Nostalgia Critic. The first video Doug released under the Nostalgia Critic banner was for the 2007 Michael Bay Transformers film. In that video, he reviewed it the same way the bum does now.
The Nostalgia Critic is also notable for engaging in a satirical feud with fellow Internet critic, the Angry Video Game Nerd. The two characters have butt heads on a few occasions and settled it with two "final" battles. The first was a mono e mono slugfest while the other was an all out war between movie reviewers and gamers.
Doug created a third character known only as "Ask That Guy" for a show where people ask questions, mostly stupid ones, and he answers them in a sociopathic and rather offensively hilarious way.
Those are his big three shows and the most popular, but he also came up with Video Game Confessions in which a bartender named Dominic tells stories about the characters he encounters at a bar called the Pixel Palace.
Doug also has a recurring bit where he adds humorous lyrics to television theme songs that didn't have them.
Another big personality on the site is the Nostalgia Chick aka The Dudette aka Lindsay Ellis. When Doug announced a contest to find a distaff counterpart to review the more feminine childhood franchises, Ellis entered and won the title after a three way tie between two other contestants who would be featured on the site. She has a more snarky and laid back critiquing style compared to the Critic which makes for it's own brand of humor as opposed to just being a carbon copy.
Linkara is a character played by Lewis Lovhaug who hosts Atop the Fourth Wall. Like Lindsay, Lewis got onto the site through a contest that the site was running. He is a comic book fan and is the primary comic critic on the site. As Linkara, Lewis finds dreadful comics and lampoons them by showcasing bad art, bad writing, and ridiculous editorial mandates. He frequently guest stars on other web shows and collaborates with other site contributors for joint reviews. His show is notable for introducing story elements. Events from previous reviews will often come up later and he has even set up an epic subplot where the critic is stalked by a robotic doppelganger.
Angry Joe is a game reviewer and often brings updates about upcoming new releases. Oddly enough, despite the name, Angry Joe never really came off as angry to me. I've only seen a few episodes and they are, by and large, pretty entertaining, but the nom do plume is a bit inaccurate. His trademarks include wearing a Superman shirt and frequently utilizing force lightning to attack things or people he doesn't like.
Benzaie is a french video game critic who hosts FAQ You and Games You Might Don't Know. I haven't seen very much of his work so I can't go into detail. What I did see just didn't work for me. He has his fans and seems to be pretty popular on the site, but it just didn't appeal to me for some reason.
That chick with the goggles was one of the three contestants who ended up tying for the role of Nostalgia Chick. As the producers thought her work was good, they kept her on the site as a video producer. Her primary show is Games I Grew Up On which showcases older games. She's been fairly quiet recently, having not put up a video in quite some time. Given how busy some of the contributors get with their day to day lives, it's not that surprising, but her fans are anxious for a new video.
Spoony was a sort of web phenom even before he joined the site. Having hosted a show of his own as well as doing a handful of Let's Play's, for YouTube and his website, he had a solid fan backing. He expanded his empire by joining the TGWTG crew and regularly reviews obscure bad movies and games.
Bennet the sage is also a critic, but where as most of the other reviews are for "teh lulz" he presents a more straight forward review, pointing out the good and bad aspects of new releases. He also hosts Masterpiece Fanfiction Theater, where he reads the worst fan fiction has to offer. It's funny, but some of the stories are extremely off putting. I really didn't need to hear about raptor bestiality or Ninja Turtle/Gargoyles slash, just no.
Little Miss Gamer reviews classic games. Where as most of the critics are angry and lash out, she tends to be more laid back and affable about it all. She showcases the flaws of certain games without going into typical nerd rage. She also hosts a podcast with Lee, another contributor who has a show called Still Gaming. Where most critics film themselves talking, Lee uses still photos that change poses every few seconds.
Marzgurl is an anime critic. She is notable for her blue hair and jump suit. While it took some time to find her niche, it seems she's found a style that suits her with both her anime news editorials as well as Translation Terrors, a show that compares Japanese adaptations of American franchises as well as the other way around. She was the third contestant to come into the three way tie and get accepted on the site as producer.
That dude in the suede was another anime critic who hailed from New Zealand. Suede went on hiatus for a Mormon church mission at the beginning of 2009.
Paw is another critic who's work I haven't seen a whole lot of. He is the site's resident "music guru" as he likes to be called. He hosts a show called Full Circle and another one called Wi-Fidelity.
Sean Fausz is a co-host on the site's main podcast, Transmission Awesome, and a host of his own show Epic Fails where he highlights the stupidest of the stupid in various forms of media.
The site also hosts a handful of article writers as well such as The Cat (an anime reviewer), Coldguy (a game critic), The Last Angry Geek (a comic book critic who was actually writing before Linkara's arrival but got overshadowed), and Doug's brother Rob has even contributed a few articles to the site.
As the site expands, more and more critics and shows will be brought in. As you can see, the cast has gotten quite large, and these are only the big names on the site. There are also other contributors like Film Brain, Phelous, The Distressed Watcher, Y: Ruler of Time, and LordKat. Channel Awesome (the parent company of the site) has literally become a channel as it is host to several various web shows and critics.
Marzgurl discusses Funimation Sale
For the past several months, internet personality Kaylyn Dicksion aka Marzgurl has given her thoughts on recent anime developments in a series of editorial videos aptly named Anime News Editorials.
This week, she discussed the possible sale of licensing company, Funimation. Navarre, the company that owns Funimation, has lost interest in the company, partially due to the fact that it pretty much acts on its own.
Marzgurl discusses the pros and cons of this deal. On the one hand, Funimation has improved it's dubbing quality since the Dragonball Z days and by being given to a different company, there's a risk that the new bigwigs will want to meddle and try to fix what isn't broken.
You have to wonder though, if Funimation has, for all intents and purposes, acted as its own company for so long, why can't it just make it official?
This issue has been brought up and Gen Fukunaga discussed the specifics of what a transaction would require in a recent interview
Another reason for the sale cited in the original article (which Marzgurl herself cited as a source) is the simple fact that the two companies wish to go in two different directions.
While anime as an industry isn't doing so well, Navarre makes a point to say that
Funimation has met its expectations, but that they would be able to grow much more effectively if they partnered with a company that had more expertise and assets in the areas that Funimation focuses on.
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