The great thing about having lots of friends who love anime (and who also have money) is making a huuuge order from Amazon Japan for insane amounts of money.
Subtotal of Items: ￥ 50,530
Shipping & Handling: ￥ 20,700
Total: ￥ 71,230
The shipping charges are a considerable chunk, even in a group order. But it’s definitely worth it once the goodies arrive. I ordered 60 items, so Amazon had to ship it in several boxes. Two of which are here already.
Titles affected include Gurren-Lagann !!!! Air, Kanon, Kurau: Phantom Memory and 5 Centimeters per Second; see the full list in ANN’s article.
ADV itself and several distributors have not commented on the situation yet; notably, though, RightStuf just began a massive sale on many ADV titles, many of which have not yet been removed from the website.
News floods the blogging scene, but I like Brik Haus’s general summary of events, detailing how ADV has been canceling stuff since the beginning of this month — Anime Network TV, Newtype USA, ADVocates… I didn’t see the pattern until it was spelled out in front of me. And I didn’t give RightStuf’s sale a second thought either, although it makes sense now since RightStuf had a huge Geneon sale last year around the time of Geneon’s apparent death.
Is ADV really struggling financially? I had always thought they were going to acquire all of Geneon if a “friendly” deal wasn’t going to be worked out between them. But it seems ADV was depending on the partnership for their survival as much as Geneon was. …But if that’s the case, why did the merger fail? What’s really happening on the CEO’s desk that we don’t know about?
They can’t possibly drop Gurren Lagann. They licensed it when episode — what — 4? had just aired in Japan. Someone smartly told them how sure of a moneymaker it would be. And Kanon was a great purchase with the rise of KyoAni. I would sooner expect ADV to license Clannad. So why are they dropping the titles that ought to keep them afloat? I understand that cutbacks are necessary for business survival just as much as venture promotions are, but this doesn’t seem wise at all.
*Update:* ADV has released a vague statement saying that it’s working through temporary difficulties.
ANN has an article on Bandai Visual’s abrupt licensing of Shigofumi and True Tears. They have planned to begin releasing DVDs from both series in May 2008!!!!!!. The DVDs will be sub-only, and there will be a maximum of two episodes per disc for each series.
That last line, IMHO, is ridiculous. You can’t expect American fans to pay $30 per disc for 2 episodes of a TV series! FYI for you mathematically challenged people, that adds up to $15 a fricking episode. And they’re not even OVAs. Bandai Visual has done this before, however, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
While I guess I can expect a small premium because they’re attempting to release it so fast (2 months after the Japanese release dates) I refuse to spend $210 dollars on a 13- or 14-episode series. When anime fans demanded faster releases, it was assumed that the value of the DVDs would go up, but not to this extent. Perhaps 3 episodes a disc would be acceptable, since there’s the whole time constraint. But certainly not $30 (or even $25!) for two 30-minute freaking episodes.
I was really looking forward to watching Shigofumi subbed and then supporting its release in the US, but now I’m just bummed. Perhaps Bandai Visual will make downloadable episodes available. I’d pay 5 or $6 an episode, ‘ttebayo…
Oh, and while I’m ranting, SOMEONE NEEDS TO LICENSE D.GRAY-MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~CJ
A friend and I buy Comp H’s and Megami Magazine blindly now. After several months of satisfication, we trust them that much in providing amazing content (that we can’t yet read) and amazing, nosebleedingly perfect posters. (The scans that Heisei Democracy posts are just teasers to what will become mine shortly.)
Case in point, the cover to the latest Comp H’s, the March 2008 issue, as seen on Amazon Japan (EDIT: high-res scan on Moe Imouto):
*DIES OF MOE* omgggg~ I can’t stop staring at it.
First it was the melonpan (Shana reference!) Then it was Konata and Tsukasa. Then it was their melting facial expressions…!
You know, that could easily NOT be a melonpan they’re holding … but thank kami-sama it is. >_>
*looks at watch* I’ll be getting this magazine in the mail on .. oh, I dunno–FRIDAY (or even Thursday?)–so expect some pictures and a mini-review (of what I can manage to read) this weekend.
~Gleeful Crisu XD
Round 1 of SaiGAR 2008 is over, and it was certianly fun to watch. Upsets, pwnage and minute amounts of moe GAR made their presence this time around, and the stage is set for a dynamic round 2.
Want highlights? Keep reading. ^_^
This series is starting to totally engross me. It’s mysterious without being overly ambitious, and any series that can pull that off is permanently on my watch list. The lack of serious character development, though is getting mildly annoying, and the battles start to grow meaningless as time wears on without a proper freaking explanation as to what’s going on. At least this episode had some visually interesting action and some curiosity-piquing moments.
A slower episode, setting up more story and developing the characters of seemingly the antagonists of this series. We don’t get to see the girls until the last two minutes of the episode sadly, but that’s okay. Just looking forward to a lot of action in ep3 after all this plot setup.
Justice (Doujin Work) – 194
Nougami Neuro (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro) – 167
Roronoa Zoro (One Piece) – 321 (47.1% of 682 votes)
Chirico Cuvie (Armoured Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files) – 66
Ali Al Sarshes (Mobile Suit Gundam 00) – 170
Ryuuguu Rena (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai) – 423 (64.2% of 659 votes)
Round 1 over! Three days left until the start of Round 2, where we will do one trio at a time to determine the two finalists of each Group. For today’s results, Rena did win! Magnificent. If memory serves correctly, she’s the only female character to advance to Round 2. As for the next round, I wonder if Hosaka’s going to win because he got the most votes in his round. Or he could win because of a split JoJo vote. See you on Thursday!
This Thursday at http://saigar08.michaeldodd.net/:
Dio Brando (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood)
Hosaka (Minami-Ke)
Robert E O Speedwagon (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood)
View all the previous results here!
I had a few people do quite well on last week’s quiz, but can they do as well when the questions aren’t about moe bait seiyuu? :) Once again, highlight the blank next to ‘Answer’ to see if you’re right, and leave a comment with your score.
1.a. What series did Daisuke Ono play himself in?
Answer: Lucky Star (episodes 20 and 21)
1.b. Who else plays himself in that series?
Answer: Minoru Shiraishi!! :D
2. Which adrogynous pretty boy does Akira Ishida play in Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny?
Anser: Athrun
3. Takahiro Sakurai plays Yu Kanda in D.Gray-man; who does he play in Code Geass?
Answer: Suzaku
4.a: Sochiro Hoshi plays Hikaru in the early Ouran High Host Club drama CDs, but who plays him in the Ouran anime?
Answer: Kenichi Suzumura
4.b: The answer to 4.a plays a role in D.Gray-man; who does he play?
Answer: Lavi ^___^
5. Yuichi Nakamura has roles in three Fall 2007 anime series. Who does he play in Clannad?
Answer: Tomoya
Well… This episode was surprising to say the least. The bad thing is that we didn’t get to continue building from the end of episode 3. This one is the swimsuit-y fanservice-y episode. But be careful whom you look at.
Status of soul: rocked .. but not in the way I wanted it to be
Continue reading ‘H2O ~footprints in the sand~ 04 – “Hamaji”’
CJ
stardragon
alexkun
Crisu
Janette
rakuen42
Dave
