The Anime News Network is having Guess the Geneon License Contest #2 This time all the clues will be posted on ANN, as opposed to Geneon’s Podcast. Maybe Steven will finally get to celebrate Magipoka being licensed?
Although one wag has already posted that it may be Nanoka, based on a website reservation…kinda blows the contest, you know?
There’s no way they’d be doing something like this for “Renkin Sankyuu Magical? Pokaan!”, unfortunately. They’d look like idiots.
(What is “nanoka”?)
I think he means Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha… nanohadvd.com was registered by Geneon Entetainment on January 12. If the mystery license is Nanoha, I wonder how much of it they’ve got. Hopefully at least the first two seasons.
ah, that explians why I couldn’t find it either. The original author of the comment over at ANN misspelled it. (I hope…maybe it was me.) Wouldn’t have repeated it at all but I sort of remembered that name, so I gave it some validity.
Update: a more knowlegeable commenter states
I’ve never even heard of the last one. Two other titles speculated on are Code Geass and Saiunkoku Monogatari. Never heard of the latter either, and it’s maybe too early for the former to be licensed in R1 (there’s only been about 19 episodes, out of 52 planned)
Maria-sama ga Miteru is a yuri-fest. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but from the description I’d bet it’s also drenched with angst.
I intend to stay far, far away from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. That’s the one with killer lolis. (I saw a screen cap of one of them saying, “I like to kill them slowly with poison.”)
Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha is a pretty blatant ripoff of CCS, even to the point of making the lead look just like Sakura. (In fact, the first time I saw a picture of Nanoha I thought I was seeing Sakura in yet another of Tomoyo’s weird costumes.) But it’s supposed to be pretty good, from what I’ve heard.
Hmmm… looks like a comment with three links in it (like the one I just wrote) gets trapped as spam.
Akismet snagged it– I went and recovered it. Someone appears to have successfully poisoned their filters a while back, and it has taken some time for them to get it straightened out.
I’m also avoiding Higurashi, mainly because of the trainwreck of a plot. Sunrise would be proud.
Clue #1 has been posted. “It’s based on a PC game.”
Clue #2 has been posted, and it looks like it’s Higurashi. Bleah.
Yeah, definitely Higurashi. Wonder if they’ve got the upcoming second season as well?
The similarity between the leads is about the only thing CCS and Nanoha have in common aside from the standard mahou shoujo tropes. It would be hard to find two more dissimilar series within the whole genre, which isn’t surprising given that the CCS anime was adapted from a shoujo manga while the Nanoha franchise is a spinoff of an OVA based on an adult game (Triangle Hearts).
It is good, though male viewers may feel the urge to do something manly a la the Snickers commercial due to the girliness of it all. Well, it made me feel that way.
Clue #2 does seem pretty definitive. Hard to believe that there’s any other contender series placed in 1983.
I doubt they licensed the second season before it’s even aired. (It’s scheduled to start in April.) For a “hot” license someone might be willing to accept a complex deal, but I can’t see Higurashi being like that. (Ah! My Goddess wasn’t licensed as a multi-season package either, and that was a lot more “hot” than this one.)
I didn’t know that Higurashi was based on a PC game. If it was an H-game, the mind boggles.
From ANN:
So not only is it from a game, it was effectively an amatuer production. (Though from what little I know, apparently fan productions in Japan can get quite elaborate and rival that done by full-time professionals.)
Addendum: Seems really lame that they’d have done a series with only the first six chapters. If you’re going to do that much, do all eight and answer the questions.
I’d thought differently until just now, but it looks like the Higurashi sound novel isn’t an h-game after all. Not to say it’s in any way appropriate for children, but there are no “you must be 18” warnings anywhere on the official website.
I’m downloading the demo as I write this, but judging from the art on the characters page it’s not likely to be mistaken for a professional production.