Mahou Meido Meganekko

Just because I can’t access the site’s email server while at work, I’m doing a quick post to answer some questions of SDB.

4Kids also did One Piece.  They are famous, er, infamous, for editing, “dumbing down,” and “kiddiefying” several series, especially that one.  (Is that a word? It is now.)  The rank-and-file otakusphere has much hate for them.  If there was any fanserivce or intelligence to the show he mentioned, it’s likely gone, insofar as R1 is concerned.

Shizaru is a VERY major character in Godannar; arguably #3 or 4 lead–and my favorite from it.  See here and here.  Oddly though, I think her American VA (Tiffany Grant) was a better fit to the character.

And I’ve still got to go back and add the pictures to some old posts moved from Houblog.

Well, rather a lot, actually. I got on a bit of a roll. (Edit: I’ve come back to this post and put some of the spoilers in blackout. If you haven’t seen this show, you probably shouldn’t read them before watching it!)

Owing to the technical difficulties we experienced, and plenty of time spent doing other things, we didn’t get to finish Vandread while at Dr. H.’s this weekend. We saw Dual!, and the first 8 episodes of Vandread, but I had to finish watching that final DVD at home today. So, while it’s fresh on my mind, I’m going to put down some semi-random and disjointed thoughts. There’s going to be major spoilers here, so the bulk of this article will go below the fold. If you’ve already watched the series, or don’t care about spoilers, head keep going; otherwise veer off now. Also, this is going to be a straight text article, with no funky pictures to screw up the formatting any further, so I hope you’re not too disappointed in that.

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“If a deal looks too good to be true, that’s because IT IS.” How many times have I congratulated myself on being smart enough to know that?

It was too many, even if it was only once. Color me naive and stupid. “Oh, I’m sure there’s bootleg animé on Ebay, but I doubt there’s a lot of it. Get too open and obvious, and the authorities would smash your operation, after all.” I would have said that easily–an hour ago.

Read the comments here, and let it be a warning to you. It’s been a while since I’ve been this stupid.

Edit: I should have remembered my Heinlein. “Always look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Update: In the prior post’s comments, SDB speculates that the second package I noted as legit was also a bootleg. Actually, it’s just a combination of two errors I made in my rush through various sites and looking at different products for sale. I looked again, and I’m not sure where I got the Bandai; it’s Genon & Pioneer like SDB said, and it’s the first series only, not both. Sigh.

What with all the Magic cards I’ve been buying there recently, Ebay was simply the first place that occured to me to look for a discounted copy, or a shop that still had some of the Geneon specials. Once I realized I should be looking out for bootleg, I was stunned at the sheer volume of it on Ebay.
There were a lot of little signs I should have picked up on prior to the purchase, and a hella lot more afterwards, including the technical difficulties. I doubt anyone recalls, but I experienced earlier play problems (with this exact same hardware) that I mentioned in the Sister Princess review and later, trying to replay Sol Bianca: The Legacy. Combined with some connectivity problems I’ve had, I simply assumed that I was having hardware issues.

Since I’ve got it, I’m going to take the stupid thing with me this afternoon and we’ll see if it’s viewable, but after I get back from Dallas, I think I’m going to send an e-mail to Geneon and see if they want it and a written account for evidence. Won’t do a lot of good, I bet; the retailers will get a C & D order, then just change the packaging/advertisments slightly and continue — but it’s better than just going “Gosh, that’s a shame.”

Some might wonder why I’d do that, instead of just keeping it and say “lesson learned.” After all, I paid for the item, now I’m talking about giving it away. Well, there’s a very good reason: rational self interest. To explain, I’ll start by consideirng what many see as an equal ripoff: Fansubbing. I see fansubbing as a pinprick; you’re always going to have some folks that want to get something for nothing, and if it’s not going to be imported to R1, I don’t have a problem with DL’ing it. It’s a bit of a niche; while worldwide, you may have a lot of people running bittorrent and downloading fansubs, it’s a small fraction compared to the actual sales, and most of it is of shows not licensed in the region where the downloader lives. In short, many downloaders can’t get the downloaded program, and some wouldn’t pay for it even if they could.

But bootleg is a whole ‘nother cup of tea; someone has actively set out to steal the artist’s living for their own financial profit, not enjoyment. Instead of one or maybe a half-dozen people enjoying a download, the bootlegger is providing copies to thousands of people; unlike a fansubbing group, he’s profiting from that effort personally.  The buyer of a bootleg IS willing to spend money to obtain his product. Maybe, like me, the buyer is trying not to spend a lot of it, but if he’s willing to pay, then his money should damn well go to the creative artists, not the ripoff artists. Every dollar spent on bootleg is one less spent to import legitimate animé; every dollar wasted in such a manner means less will be imported because there’s no profit in it.  Not to mention some slimeball getting rich from his thieving ways.
So as I see this, I’ll watch it to get something out of the money I spent (after all, I’ve been ripped off too, as the product is distinctly inferior), but then it gets offered to Geneon for evidence, should they want it.

Well, as I mentioned before, something (the impending non-availability, or was it the bustlines?) posessed me to order the Vandred 3-disk Ultimate DVD Collection recently. It got in a few days ago, and after briefly considering holding off until I was in Dallas, I went “Nah!” and loaded that sucker up. (I’m now through 2/3 of the combined series).

I immediately got highly annoyed. Something about it and the DVD player in my main computer don’t get along. I finally got the first disk to play after several tries and a reboot. The next night, I was unable to get the 2nd disk to play at all, except by putting in the secondary computer and mapping that drive to the first system. It locked up twice, and after the second time, I said to hell with it, and actually put the stupid thing in a real DVD player (everyone else was in bed by then, so I had the living room to myself.) Aside from those technical glitches, I hate the disk holders. They don’t deserve to be called that; if you order this set, immediately remove all three disks and put them in some decent crystal cases or something. Extras are pretty sparse, of course. The first disk had a the original Japanese trailer, about five minutes long. (Unsubbed). The second disk had some previews, and the third, I hope will have a clean OP & ED from the first series. They were far, far superior to those for The Second Stage, both in art/animation, and music. Frankly, the ED images push into ecchi; Jura’s aureolae are clearly visable, and the nipples of all three girls look like they’re merely covered in glossy paint.

As for the show itself, if they were setting out to duplicate many of the aspects of Martian Successor Nadesico (as per Steven), I’d say they did a bang-up job of it. It’s got that same “fun” feeling to it, only moreso, and yet it’s still dramatic when it needs to be. The best scene on the first two disks, IMHO was when Bart stepped onto the bridge after Shirley died. I’d been thinking about the doll being incomplete, and that Bart had left behind the missing part. Then he steps out, and everyone gasps…

I can’t help but think, considering the sexual pressures of single-sex planets and the obvious, er, outlets and practices that would have arisen on Tarak and Mearle, that the first time for Dita and Hibiki is going to be… interesting. They could end up trying out just about every possible way to (remainder of this speculation deleted to keep the blog only moderately family-unfriendly.) And the discussion as they try to figure it out would be hilarious, especially as ditzy as she is. This is a girl who decided to pull down Hibiki’s pants out of curiosity when she heard two of the other girls whispering that men had this tube thing… Not that Hibiki’s much better; in the first episode, he pokes one of the girls in her rather spacious posterior, thinking “I wonder what they keep in here?”
Now (by end series 2, ep. 2) we’ve got a second loli to spice things up, and she’s got the hots for Hibiki too. Furthermore, she obviously knows more about what to do with a guy than any of the other females on board the Nirvana, as she provokes the first nosebleed (aside from the chibi scene in the ED) in the entire series. There’s not a lot of fanservice in this show, but considering the themes and compromising positions the ladies ended up in during combines, the animators restrained themselves admirably with that old schtick.

Jura’s not far behind on the learning curve though, as it seems she’s been cribbing from the doctor’s notes. “Hey, we’re only out here protecting this planet….alone… just the two of us….let’s make a baby the old-fashioned way!” Considering how the Paksis reacts to emotional states, I have to wonder what the effect would have been if Hibiki had agreed. Nirvana might have been more than just a ship’s name….

Well, it’s late and I have to run to bed. Sadly, without Jura (although BC might be my favorite), so I’ll just stop here and maybe do a bigger write-up much later.

(EDIT: don’t bother telling me the layout is screwed to hell-n-gone. I know it; blame WP. UPDATE: Finally figured out what was doing it and it’s fixed!)

I’m going to be really busy at work, and then the Thangksgiving holiday will hit, and I tenatively plan to spend the latter part of it in Dallas, hanging out with Dr. Heinous. Aside from that, I’m in mourning, along with many fanboys all over the world.

“I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.”

Mizuho has a penis.

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Well, episode 5 rolled around in Zero No Geass, and whacky harem hijinks ensue. Two new characters are introduced, and one returns. All female, and of course they’re good looking. Though one has inadequate communications skills, a second needs a personality other than “demanding bitch” and the third needs a brain donor, because she’s missing hers.

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So I was following Steven’s non-link to an article over at Anime News Service about a 40-minute OVA to be released on the web, done entirely in (probable) Engrish.  It involves a 20-something catgirl who can triple-wield weapons using her tail.  But scrolling down past that, I caught sight of the following report

First announced via ANS July 31st, based on the shounen / comedy manga by Takeshi Fujishiro, serialized in Shounen GanGan magazine, animation studio Feel will adapt Nagasarete Airantou to an animation TV series in Japan. Debut is expected in April on TV Tokyo. Confirmed staff now includes Director Hideki Okamoto (Iketeru Futari, Zipang), Character Designer Naoto Hosoda (Shuffle!, Jinki:Extend) and Script by Mamiko Ikeda (Fruits Basket, Gravitation). The 26 episode series will follow the story of a 14 year old boy runaway who stows away onboard a ship. After falling into the ocean and being being caught up in a storm he finds himself washed ashore the remote island of Airantou. The only inhabitants of the island are teen girls who have never seen a boy. The official website at www.starchild.co.jp/special/airantou/ launches November 22nd.

I guess I used up all my inventive humor last night.  There’s just nothing adequate I can say about that kind of a set up.

Anyone else remember the old Bud Light commercial (from about 20 years ago?) with the two astronauts stranded with a broken-down spaceship?  One’s sitting by the airlock looking glum when the bushes rustle. “Frank?  I told you to go find some….help?” As Frank is tossed out of the bushes, several busty, spear-and-beer toting amazons step out as well, dressed in glittering… uh, swimsuits.  Frank’s got a lot of lipstick on him.  “Wellllllllll….”  Cue the narrator, then cut back to the formerly glum spaceman talking to the leader of the Space Amazons.  “So, there’s nothing here to drink but Bud Light, we’re the only men on the planet, and we can NEVER leave.”

“Correct.” says the Space Amazon.

“Ah.. we can live with that.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I always thought they were idiots for not trying to find out WHY they were the only men on the planet.  Did the Amazons go all praying mantis on their mates?  And how’d they get the beer franchise?

Proof positive that I think too much, isn’t it?  Anyway, this absurd setup reminds me of that commercial.