July Order In

Posted on July 5, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Some of the selections may seem odd, all things considered, but it works for me.

Kanon, Vol #4
Kanon, Vol #5
Witchblade, Vol #6 DVD
Devil Hunter Yohko Boxed Set
Gravion/Gravion Zwei Complete Collection
Grenadier Complete Economy Boxed Set

So, what with all the fallout from ADV’s slo-mo collapse, I decided to take a look at what licenses they’ve lost and figure out what I needed to grab, ASAP. The answer? Not a damn thing. The fact that I don’t care to buy any of their stuff may explain why they’re dying. Ok, I was mildly interested in Le Chevelier D’Eon, but at $132 for the full set? Assuming Robert didn’t go out of stock on one of them before filling my order. Ah, no thanks. Sgt. Frog? Sorry, I’m not amphibisexual, I like pretty girls, not alien tadpoles. Utawarerumono came that close to being on the order; in fact when I first started putting it together, it was on; the concept seems intriguing, and it got moderately positive reviews. But there is not a boxed set, so it falls prey to the same problem as Le Chevelier

But…. dammit, I’m left hanging on my obligation purchase of Kanon. What to do, what to do….

Ok, so I decided to gamble. If I were Funi, what would I do? Picking up a huge swath of titles from Geneon and ADV all at once is going to choke their production and distribution system. The smartest thing to do, to keep from spending two years just trying to get the license backlog out, is to take ADV’s incomplete work and run with it. And since Funimantion has confirmed that they’re in talks with ADV to acquire their completed and in-progress dub/subs, and ADV is obviously trying to create some fan buzz to pressure Funi to do just that… I’m grabbing Kanon #4 and #5, and betting that with just one DVD to go, and the work almost certainly completed, Funimation will purchase ADV’s masters (and stock if already burned), and just throw it out there with stickers on the cases, covering the ADV logos. At worst, they’ll reprint the covers with their own logo, but the same cover art. At absolute worst, they’ll burn new DVD’s to eliminate the ADV logo and ads. That assumes ADV actually burned theirs…I’d not be surprised to find they didn’t, given their earlier excuses.

Well, a two DVD order isn’t worth it, so what else is out there…. Ok, I need to finish Witchblade. And I’m fresh out of obligation buys for the moment. I want to get TTGL, but I’m going to wait until at least 3 discs are out, maybe 4. So, let’s start looking at boxed sets, for some bargains. Hello, Devil Hunter Yoko! I remember that from waaaaaay back. Complete series? I thought there were just 3 OVA’s? Well, the 3rd sucked, I thought, but so what, let’s pick up this old classic. Especially given that it’s ADV, and it won’t be around long if ADV goes under. (Hm, reissuing in August. Right.) Hey, there’s the boxed set of both seasons of Gravion! “God knows (and I don’t mean as sung by Haruhi-sama), the fanservice for this season is looking as thin as two seasons ago. Lets grab it to tide me over.” Done. And then, for the hell of it, I tossed in Grenadier. I still love the OP music and the show was reasonably good too. I bought it for DrHeinous’ Christmas present last year, and kinda wished I had a copy too, so now I will.

And that’s my order. Since I’m putting it in late Friday night (a holiday at that) and I bet Robert’s going to be dealing with the fallout from ADV and Funi’s announcements, I’d guess it probably won’t be put on the truck until Tuesday. Even then, I should still get it by next weekend.

Update: My keen sense for figuring out the completely obvious triumphs again!

Posted in Upcoming Releases | 3 Comments

Whom do I kill for this?

Posted on July 5, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Nekobox horror.

And let’s be clear, I mean kill as in “object lesson” not “I want.”

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What is Funi’s Deal?

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Ubu Roi

So the big news in the otakusphere is that Funi just nabbed 30 titles formerly belonging to ADV, which pretty much guts their catalogue.

Mixed in with the occasional fanboyism over at ANN is some very interesting speculation, which I’ll condense here:

1. Was the Soljitz (sp?) deal a trick to gut ADV all along?
2. How is Funi going to get all this stuff to the market without sitting on licenses for years?
3. Funi’s deal will impact CN, by shrinking the pool of available titles for them to show; or Funi will butcher the titles they make available to CN (take your pick).
4. The R1 market is becoming a monopoly, oh noes!
5. Funi’s making the same mistake as ADV, piling up too many licenses; they’ll become over-extended.

#1 sounds a bit too paranoid.

#2 might be valid, depending on how much work Funi decides to do. It appears that ADV doesn’t even have the right to distribute stock on hand any more which is a HUGE blow, and probably will finish them, if they didn’t get a pretty penny back. This also means that ADV has already done all the work; all Funi needs to do is reprint the box covers (or slap stickers over them) and send the DVD’s back out. It just depends on whether or not they want ADV’s logo to show up when the disk is loaded. If it were me, I’d go the sticker and insert route; every case would have a small slip of paper inserted explaining the change, and why the logo still says ADV. Said insert would include self-serving message about how Funi rescued the show from oblivion “for the fans” and give lip service thanking ADV for their excellent work in preparing the show for the R1 market. Rub it in. Yes, I’m an evil bastard, thank you. The alternative would be to spend years re-mastering and re-producing all 30 titles. If that’s the case, Funi will make ADV’s rep for sitting on licenses look like customer-friendliness incarnate.

#3 Damnfino.

#4 Not yet, but it’s getting there. I expect there will be one less company after this; my thinking is ADV may have 1 chance in 30 of surviving. Fire sale on all assets and divisions that they can to raise some cash, then start picking up the cheapest possible titles.

#5. Depends on #2, but I think Funi has MUCH deeper pockets than ADV.

Update: It’s not certain whether there’s still a heartbeat, but apparently higher brain functions have not ceased:

Greenfield wasn’t ready to talk about ADV’s current situation, but did acknowledge that the company’s separation from their partnership with Sojitz left recent titles with their “fate undetermined.” He also expressed his wishes that whichever company ends up distributing the titles will hire the same voice cast to continue the production of the episodes.

Although Greenfield didn’t think that ADV would be announcing any new acquisitions this weekend, he mentioned that they were in negotiations for 23 titles. No information was given as to when they might be revealed.

Whistling past the graveyard, or a sign of life? The furniture auction indicates they seem to be on the strategy I suggested.

Posted in Anime Industry | 6 Comments

Cue the Disappointment

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Ubu Roi

In contrast to last season, which had one really good fanservice show (Kamen no Maid-Guy), two mediocre ones (To-Love Ru, Kanokon), and one with ups and downs (Penguin Musume), it looks like this one’s got three. Ikkitousen is an acquired taste, at best, and Serikei is getting panned for art, animation, voice acting, dialogue, and plot (which really doesn’t leave much), and I’m sorry, although I actually found Strike Witches to be enjoyable, I’m just a tad disturbed by constantly gazing at the well-rounded asses of 14-year-olds. Except of course, when I, the viewer, find myself doing a faceplant into their crotches.

Now if I were still 14, that would be so cool. But my age is on the far side of those two digits transposed, which just makes it a little creepy.

Update: to be clear, it’s Serikei I’m terming the disappointment. Strike Witches isn’t bad so far, but if some folks have Engineer’s disease, wondering “how could that possibly work,” I have “wargamer’s disease,” wondering how the hell the battle is (apparently) a stalemate. The Neuroi seem to have strong defenses, really powerful weapons, and shitty fire-control. It takes the entire Strike Witch Squadron to destroy one Neuroi airship, but the girls are hit only twice, and then it’s when they’re diving straight at the enemy. It’s obvious that the witches have magical shields, to the front, at least.

Later, when the Neuroi attack the Akagi’s battle group, it looks like one cruiser is cut in half by a single hit and explodes. Other cruisers fire at the Neuroi, but if they score any hits, the airship shrugs them off. Other Neuroi hits aren’t as devastating; it sounds like the Akagi takes at least one. We see an air group queuing up on the Akagi’s deck*, but Major Sakamoto is the only Strike Witch available. If it takes the entire SW squadron to down one, what are Zeros going to do? (You know the planes will turn out to be classic Zeros, even if it is 1947.) So why can’t the Neuroi send in one airship high to distract the SW, and then another to wipe out merry ol’ England? Can they only make and operate one at a time?

I’ll assume the reason the rest of the world hasn’t been conquered is logistics…although Charlotte’s rank is in the U.S. Rebel army, which indicates that the Neuroi bypassed England. If the Fuso Empire is sending girls to England, what’s defending the homeland?

*They prepped those planes damned fast, considering the Akagi’s biggest flaws were the elevator was in the middle of the fight deck, and the unventilated hanger deck meant that planes had to be lifted to the deck and the engines started/warmed there. I don’t know if it was just their engines, but trying to start them and go to full-power for launch without properly warming the engine would result in seizure. If it’s 1947, perhaps the Japanese have fixed that problem, but the Akagi still has that damned elevator; unlike the side-elevators of the American carriers, she couldn’t spot and launch at the same time, and the planes had to be started on deck due to the ventilation. Today’s jets on supercarriers also start engines on the deck, but I think that’s because jet engines require too much air and have too much blast to be run in the hanger.

Update 2: Ok, it’s (SerKei) finished downloading. I’ll know soon if it is as bad as claimed. “Soon” as in “Soon as I log off WoW” that is….

Update 3:Um. It’s not quite Rosario + Vampire bad…. yet… but it’s bad. The art and animation were uninspired at best, cheap and lazy at worst. Don’t they try to make the first one look really nice, and then the art drops off? This one dropped in the first five seconds after the OP. The opening sequence was obviously meant to signal “deep and violent plot hiding under the surface!” but I’ve become sufficiently jaded to sneer at such a transparent attempt at adding “serious plot” to the paper-thin story. The voice acting was pedestrian, at best. I kept waiting for the male lead to do or say something that would distinguish him from any other hopeless harem lead, but no. (Edit to add: The closest he came to unique was admitting to liking seeing what’s-her-name’s bare breasts. And she actually kisses him twice in the first episode, which amazingly, doesn’t trigger a nasal bloodbath.)

I can’t read Japanese, so I’m not sure if the text said “Warning: Lark’s Vomit” or not, but it probably should have. If I had to characterize it in a few words, I’d say, “A poorly drawn Ikkitousen, with none of the schlocky charm, awful fight choreography, and half one-third the witty dialogue.”

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About Time

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Via Steven and Robert, Dentsu got their heads out of their asses and have licensed a bunch of Geneon’s old titles through Funimation, who I’d say is odds-on favorite to become the source of anime in R1. (Well, Bandai might have something to say. We’ll see.)

Among the titles that will now see street dates is Black Lagoon, Second Barrage. I’ve been holding back from torrenting it, 😛 despite wanting to see more of Revy, not to mention how it ends. The first half-season doesn’t resolve anything, although it’s obviously putting the pieces in place for Rock & co. to be in the middle of fighting a neo-nazi plot to build a nuclear weapon.

Posted in Random Nonsense | 2 Comments

Code Geas R2 #12, the Cliffhanger

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Oh. My. God.

There hasn’t been a cliffhanger like that in a while.

This is going to be messy. Very very messy, I think. Which way is she going to go? And what is the not-dead Cornelia going to do? Interesting that she’s Anti-Geass, thanks to Euphie’s fate. Then there’s the minor detail of “destroy the world?” I’d settled in to watch a very silly filler episode, and then they go and throw these crazy twists in. WTF is going on?

Hey, it’s Code Geas! Who cares, just enjoy the ride!

I have to wonder if Twitter-chan is going to put 2 and 2 together now. “Two Lelouches?” I’d always pegged her as the superior silent type, but no, she’s just crazy. Talk about a show full of crazy women; I’d say only Higurashi has it beat for that.

But what is this SP we kept seeing references to?

CG: the show you watch twice, not because you want to, but because you have to, to figure out all the WTF moments…

Posted in Snap Reviews | 3 Comments

Druaga, no To, the Aegis of Uruk

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Ubu Roi

You know, if I hadn’t gotten so lazy, I’d do a write-up on this series. RPG to anime series conversions always suck right?

This one didn’t. It really didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Divergence Eve. During its first 2/3 it’s often silly, prone to making me groan with Jil’s idealism, and the first episode wasn’t serious at all, being a reasonably funny parody of fantasy RPG’s in general — as well as Druaga’s take on the much more famous SHnY first episode. There’s even a second sorta-parody episode later in which Jil becomes the main character of the original game for a bit. (The series is set 80 years after the time of the game). Many of the characters are from the Standard Book of Clichés (none moreso than Jil, unfortunately).

Jil: Idealistic wannabe hero. Very high con score; he becomes the tank.
Kaaya: Cute priestess. High charisma score, manipulative, has secrets. Healer and buffer.
Ahmey: Woman-at-arms, silent but big eater. Off-tank; reasonably high Dex for someone in armor.
Melt: Impoverished nobility; mage. Ingrate, grumpy. Definitely low Cha.
Coopa: Cute and feisty loli assistant to Melt. Impossibly high Str for such a small girl. Doesn’t fight.

We also follow a second party:
Neeba: Jil’s older half-brother. Famous, deadly with a bow, cold and somewhat calculating. Ranged DPS
Fatina: “Gun mage,” material girl, terribly attached to Neeba, who doesn’t seem to care. Ranged DPS.
Utu: Big tough fighter in armor. High Str and Con; tank. Running joke is we never see his face.
Kally: Wiry and fast, bit of a joker, knife fighter. High dex, Melee DPS.

Others:
Sir Kelb: leader of the army sent by King Gilgamesh to invade the tower.
Iriri (I think, might have this name wrong): Assistant to Sir Kelb.
Pazuz: evil sorcerer, planning something mysterious but very not good. Eliminating the competition as he goes.

But like a certain silly fanservice show involving 500 maids, at about the 2/3 point it turns serious. And once it turns serious, it does so quite well. I can’t say that it “develops” a plot as it had one all along; but the one it has suddenly starts getting a lot more convoluted. The mystery quotient goes up a few notches, but it doesn’t appear that they’re just making things up. Unlike a certain trainwreck of a mecha/high-school/intrigue/revolution/harem show, every time there’s a new revelation, it’s consistent with what went before. Note however, that you can’t count someone as dead until you see the body.

Another thing is that the 12th episode does not resolve the series — which is a good thing, as the second series has been announced for 2009 (or possibly a movie, not sure). I knew going into the last episode that it wasn’t likely to be resolved, owing to the announcement. But I really didn’t expect the twist ending. I expected something, and I got it, even from whom I expected it. I just didn’t expect the second half, nor the curlicues that came with it.

Three betrayals were prophesied. We’ve seen two of them…

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