[EVA] The VHS era is officially over. Things have changed....forever.

[Codename V]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-vhs-tapes22-2008dec22,0,5852342.story

The last company that actually still produced VHS tapes has made its last
shipment and is discontinuing production.

The VHS format is officially obsolete.

The last new movie to actually come out on VHS was in 2006 (it was "A
History of Violence").

VHS has been replaced by DVD, which itself is on the cusp of being phased
out for Blu-Ray over the next decade (arguably, even Blu-Ray has to
compete with Digital Distribution and New Media...)

Nonetheless, VHS is now as dead and dated as Beta.

The era of finding poorly fansubbed DVDs shipped to the USA from Japan, or
made at fanclubs, is over.

Indeed, my own anime club is throwing out the literally hundreds of VHS
tapes they have had handed down from previous members since the 1980's;
they've got a VHS-to-DVD converter and they're making copies of the ones
that still actually play (and throwing out the ones that actually don't
work anymore).  Also, at a different scifi club, knowing that I like
anime, without asking in early December they handed me a bag of half a
dozen VHS anime tapes they were throwing out.  And I mean good stuff like
"Armitage III", not obscure stuff.  Well, I suppose now these "early 90's,
you might have watched it poorly dubbed and badly edited on Scifi Channel"
anime movies are now themselves "obscure".  Ghost in the Shell at least
gets re-released because it was so iconic.

but I digress....

The days when everyone watched Evangelion by having to hunt for fansubbed
VHS tapes at anime conventions (often simply being unable to find a
complete set) are now a thing of the distant past.  The days when most of
our knowledge about the series was based on a handful of fansubs....based
of a Chinese bootleg?!...owned and analyzed by a small handful....are
over.  These days, new fans can easily just buy a box set with decent subs
and at-least-functional dubs.  Or they can just download high-quality
fansubs if they're truly obsessed.

But the "hunting for amateur fansubbed VHS tapes of Evangelion" days are
long over.

"Things have changed...forever.  There is no going back"


-- V

"I'm pleased to meet you and I hope you guessed my name, but what's
puzzling you, is the nature of my game"