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Zenryaku,
It's been some time, and the recent con thread reminded me that there's been a lot going on, so it'd be a good time for an update, especially since the new season in Japan started recently.
As always, I'll start with the domestic market. In the older news, Kamichu is almost done with its release. I highly recommend this series for anyone who like fantasy or slice of life stories.
Gunbuster finally has a release date, next Februrary. It's a fairly pricy set, and sub-only, but it's got a lot of good extras, including imported artboxes. This is an older title, so it'll probalby only appeal to people who already know about it, which is a pity, because it's a great short series. One of the few sci-fi shows that actually takes good advantage of the time-dialation effect of near-lightspeed travel.
Another oldie-but-a-goodie that's been licensed is, surprisingly, Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl. I love the series, but never expected it to be picked up. However, it was, and of course AnimEgo was the only company that would have possibly done so. This series is about Yawara Inokuma, grand-daughter of Jigoro Inokuma, a top Judo master and the only person who's ever won five consecutive national judo competitions. She just wants to be a normal girl, but he's been teaching her judo since she was 3 years old, and she's really quite good at it. His goal is for her to win the gold medal at the 1992 olympics (the series starts in 1989), no matter what she says. He even manages to recruit a rival for her, spoiled rich girl Sayaka Honami, who has conquered sport after sport without ever feeling she met her match. I'm not a fan of sports series in general, but this is one of my favorites of any genre. Highly recommended.
Pani Poni Dash isn't quite a surprise, but it's going to be a challenge. ADV got the license, and they're going to overload the DVDs with VidNotes. This is the system they used on Excel Saga, but hopefully they've worked on it since then. Pani Poni Dash has even more obscure references packed in than Excel Saga does. In any case, this series is about the genius Rebecca Miyamoto, the youngest person to ever graduate from MIT. She decides to go back to Japan to become, of all things, a high school teacher (one of her professors states that he figured she was trying to take down the education system from the inside). The school features it's normal collection of weirdos, including a girl calling herself Behoimi who insists she's a magical girl but can't do magic in front of people because then she'd have to return to the land of magic. Pure off-the-wall crack-comedy.
One title that's a surprise is Honey and Clover. This is a romantic comedy set in an art college, and is exceptionally well done. However, so far it's only been confirmed to have been licensed for Europe. This is a fairly unusual situation, so we'll have to wait and see if it gets a US license as well.
On the manga side:
The manga release of Berserk has finally caught up with the end of the anime. For those who liked the show but got upset with the ending, now's the time to start getting into this.
Yaoi titles have been doing rather well in the US (no surprise to anyone who's seen the fangirls around the yaoi dojinshi in the dealer's room at conventions). This has convinced Seven Seas to launch a yuri line. I'm not familiar with any of the titles on their initial release list (Strawberry Panic, The Last Uniform, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth), but some of them sound interesting enough to investigate further. With any luck we'll be able to get something like Maria-sama ga Miteru in the near future.
ADV's still mostly sitting on their thumbs. They haven't done much in the way of manga releases, and still are mostly not talking about them. Best news in this area is that Tokyopop has licensed the Aria manga and will be finishing the release. Finally. They've also got Aqua, the two-volume precursor series.
There's the standard, ongoing problems with manga titles suffering edits to dialogue and artwork. A lot of people are getting tired of companies licensing titles without finding out what happens in the later volumes, rating them inappropriately, and then editing them rather than change the rating. Case in point is Tsukiyomi Moon Phase. A recent volume included a scene with some rather nasty torture going on, S&M, and a stake through the heart, and Tokyopop chose to edit the nipples out. Left in all the other stuff, but apparently nipples are a no-no. And they wonder why people send them angry letters.
Which, sadly, leads in to the novel translations. A couple novel lines have started their release under Tokyopop's wing, and they haven't exactly started off on the right foot. Kino's Journeys is one of them, and it's only suffered minor problems. They've dropped a few illustrations (probably couldn't get rights for them) and rearranged chapters. The chapters in Kino's Journey are mostly stand-alone, so this isn't too big a deal. Except that it's hard to cut them slack after what they did to the other major novel license.
That was Crest of the Stars. Sadly their translation efforts here seem to place page-count and changing the novel's target demographic as the main priorities. They've removed lines and even entire paragraphs, they've _added_ lines and paragraphs, and tried to "punch up" their language by having Jinto speak like a Valley Boy. Honestly, comparing the invading alien's hair color to frozen yoghurt is probably not the first thing that would come to my mind, but maybe that's just me. I have to recommend giving these a pass, and hope Tokyopop comes to their senses before the end of the century.
On to the new season in Japan. I haven't sampled as much of this as I had hoped, as I just put together a new computer and have been doing overtime at work for an impending product release. But I'll hit the highlights so far.
First one I'll bring up is Kanon. I'm not really a big harem anime fan, and even less of a anime-from-a-hentai-game fan. However, this is one of the less objectinable plots. Basic outline should be obvios: high school boy returns to a town he used to visit a lot and runs into lots of girls he knew. This one takes things in a different direction than most, at least.
I still probably would have skipped this, since it's a remake of a series that aired a few years ago, but this one is being done by Kyoto Animation. This studio did the excellent series, The Melancholy of Suzumia Haruhi, and their animation work is top-notch, so I couldn't pass it up. Not much to say about this one except the animation certainly is better than the earlier Toei version, but can only recommend this if you're a fan of the genre.
Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is an intersting one. Not highly recommended, by any means. Too much in the way of pointless animation shortcuts and too-obvious set-up. But it's got some good humor in it. The parts where it's spoofing horror movie standards are great. If they could just refrain from going super-deformed or sketchy-and-colorless so much, and maybe drop Kyouhei entirely, then it'd be pretty good.
Anyway, this one is about a group of four pretty boys who are renting rooms in a mansion. The owner, a rather flamboyant and eccentric rich lady, offers them a deal. Turn her niece into a fine lady and she'll give them free rent. They take her up on the deal, and are pretty happy until the niece actually shows up. She looks a lot like Shizuko (from The Ring), keeps her room dark and filled with skeletons, things in jars, and so on. She also has a passionate hatred for beautiful people and the light, and seems to be quite at home wielding a chainsaw. Amusing, but don't expect deep.
Asatte no Houkou is my second favorite so far. This is about a woman named Shoko, who moves to a remote Japanese village to escape her past and start her life over. Unfortunatley, she runs into her former boyfried, along with the reason he left her: Karada, his little sister he decided to take care of after their parents died. Karada absolutly hates being treated like a little kid, and is always trying to get her (significantly older) brother to treat her like a grown-up. After being upset by Shoko, Karada makes a wish at a shrine, wishing to grow up soon. This wish is granted, and she turns, physically, into an adult. At the same time Shoko is turned into a young girl.
So far this is a great drama. As long as you don't need major action sequences, this is worth checking out.
Last, but not least, is Death Note. This is about the rather improbably named Japanese boy, Light. He's a top student and very popular. Then one day he finds a strange notebook. Labeled "Death Note", it includes instructions that claim that the holder can kill someone simplly by writing their name in the book while picturing their target's face. Although he thinks it's a sick joke at first, he can't help but test it out, and causes a criminal in the middle of a hostage sitation to have a heart attack. Convinced of the book's power, he starts a campaign to wipe out major criminals. He also meets Ryuku, the Shinigami (death god) who dropped the book. Ryuku, bored with the Shinigami's world, just thought doing this would be more fun, and is rather pleased with the results.
Of course, prisoners dropping dead of heart attacks manages to catch the police's attention, including the ICPO. They bring in their trump card, a mysterious man called "L" who never lets anyone know his appearance or true name. He starts investigating the deaths, and at the same time sites online pop up to praise the unknown vigilante, who is dubbed "Kira". Definitely the best series I've seen so far for this season.
Anyway, that covers things for now, I think. As always, updates to follow.
Wraith
"That's right, this is how the story moves along. In the direction most undesirable for all concerned."
-- Drosselmeyer ("Princess Tutu")
It's been some time, and the recent con thread reminded me that there's been a lot going on, so it'd be a good time for an update, especially since the new season in Japan started recently.
As always, I'll start with the domestic market. In the older news, Kamichu is almost done with its release. I highly recommend this series for anyone who like fantasy or slice of life stories.
Gunbuster finally has a release date, next Februrary. It's a fairly pricy set, and sub-only, but it's got a lot of good extras, including imported artboxes. This is an older title, so it'll probalby only appeal to people who already know about it, which is a pity, because it's a great short series. One of the few sci-fi shows that actually takes good advantage of the time-dialation effect of near-lightspeed travel.
Another oldie-but-a-goodie that's been licensed is, surprisingly, Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl. I love the series, but never expected it to be picked up. However, it was, and of course AnimEgo was the only company that would have possibly done so. This series is about Yawara Inokuma, grand-daughter of Jigoro Inokuma, a top Judo master and the only person who's ever won five consecutive national judo competitions. She just wants to be a normal girl, but he's been teaching her judo since she was 3 years old, and she's really quite good at it. His goal is for her to win the gold medal at the 1992 olympics (the series starts in 1989), no matter what she says. He even manages to recruit a rival for her, spoiled rich girl Sayaka Honami, who has conquered sport after sport without ever feeling she met her match. I'm not a fan of sports series in general, but this is one of my favorites of any genre. Highly recommended.
Pani Poni Dash isn't quite a surprise, but it's going to be a challenge. ADV got the license, and they're going to overload the DVDs with VidNotes. This is the system they used on Excel Saga, but hopefully they've worked on it since then. Pani Poni Dash has even more obscure references packed in than Excel Saga does. In any case, this series is about the genius Rebecca Miyamoto, the youngest person to ever graduate from MIT. She decides to go back to Japan to become, of all things, a high school teacher (one of her professors states that he figured she was trying to take down the education system from the inside). The school features it's normal collection of weirdos, including a girl calling herself Behoimi who insists she's a magical girl but can't do magic in front of people because then she'd have to return to the land of magic. Pure off-the-wall crack-comedy.
One title that's a surprise is Honey and Clover. This is a romantic comedy set in an art college, and is exceptionally well done. However, so far it's only been confirmed to have been licensed for Europe. This is a fairly unusual situation, so we'll have to wait and see if it gets a US license as well.
On the manga side:
The manga release of Berserk has finally caught up with the end of the anime. For those who liked the show but got upset with the ending, now's the time to start getting into this.
Yaoi titles have been doing rather well in the US (no surprise to anyone who's seen the fangirls around the yaoi dojinshi in the dealer's room at conventions). This has convinced Seven Seas to launch a yuri line. I'm not familiar with any of the titles on their initial release list (Strawberry Panic, The Last Uniform, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth), but some of them sound interesting enough to investigate further. With any luck we'll be able to get something like Maria-sama ga Miteru in the near future.
ADV's still mostly sitting on their thumbs. They haven't done much in the way of manga releases, and still are mostly not talking about them. Best news in this area is that Tokyopop has licensed the Aria manga and will be finishing the release. Finally. They've also got Aqua, the two-volume precursor series.
There's the standard, ongoing problems with manga titles suffering edits to dialogue and artwork. A lot of people are getting tired of companies licensing titles without finding out what happens in the later volumes, rating them inappropriately, and then editing them rather than change the rating. Case in point is Tsukiyomi Moon Phase. A recent volume included a scene with some rather nasty torture going on, S&M, and a stake through the heart, and Tokyopop chose to edit the nipples out. Left in all the other stuff, but apparently nipples are a no-no. And they wonder why people send them angry letters.
Which, sadly, leads in to the novel translations. A couple novel lines have started their release under Tokyopop's wing, and they haven't exactly started off on the right foot. Kino's Journeys is one of them, and it's only suffered minor problems. They've dropped a few illustrations (probably couldn't get rights for them) and rearranged chapters. The chapters in Kino's Journey are mostly stand-alone, so this isn't too big a deal. Except that it's hard to cut them slack after what they did to the other major novel license.
That was Crest of the Stars. Sadly their translation efforts here seem to place page-count and changing the novel's target demographic as the main priorities. They've removed lines and even entire paragraphs, they've _added_ lines and paragraphs, and tried to "punch up" their language by having Jinto speak like a Valley Boy. Honestly, comparing the invading alien's hair color to frozen yoghurt is probably not the first thing that would come to my mind, but maybe that's just me. I have to recommend giving these a pass, and hope Tokyopop comes to their senses before the end of the century.
On to the new season in Japan. I haven't sampled as much of this as I had hoped, as I just put together a new computer and have been doing overtime at work for an impending product release. But I'll hit the highlights so far.
First one I'll bring up is Kanon. I'm not really a big harem anime fan, and even less of a anime-from-a-hentai-game fan. However, this is one of the less objectinable plots. Basic outline should be obvios: high school boy returns to a town he used to visit a lot and runs into lots of girls he knew. This one takes things in a different direction than most, at least.
I still probably would have skipped this, since it's a remake of a series that aired a few years ago, but this one is being done by Kyoto Animation. This studio did the excellent series, The Melancholy of Suzumia Haruhi, and their animation work is top-notch, so I couldn't pass it up. Not much to say about this one except the animation certainly is better than the earlier Toei version, but can only recommend this if you're a fan of the genre.
Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is an intersting one. Not highly recommended, by any means. Too much in the way of pointless animation shortcuts and too-obvious set-up. But it's got some good humor in it. The parts where it's spoofing horror movie standards are great. If they could just refrain from going super-deformed or sketchy-and-colorless so much, and maybe drop Kyouhei entirely, then it'd be pretty good.
Anyway, this one is about a group of four pretty boys who are renting rooms in a mansion. The owner, a rather flamboyant and eccentric rich lady, offers them a deal. Turn her niece into a fine lady and she'll give them free rent. They take her up on the deal, and are pretty happy until the niece actually shows up. She looks a lot like Shizuko (from The Ring), keeps her room dark and filled with skeletons, things in jars, and so on. She also has a passionate hatred for beautiful people and the light, and seems to be quite at home wielding a chainsaw. Amusing, but don't expect deep.
Asatte no Houkou is my second favorite so far. This is about a woman named Shoko, who moves to a remote Japanese village to escape her past and start her life over. Unfortunatley, she runs into her former boyfried, along with the reason he left her: Karada, his little sister he decided to take care of after their parents died. Karada absolutly hates being treated like a little kid, and is always trying to get her (significantly older) brother to treat her like a grown-up. After being upset by Shoko, Karada makes a wish at a shrine, wishing to grow up soon. This wish is granted, and she turns, physically, into an adult. At the same time Shoko is turned into a young girl.
So far this is a great drama. As long as you don't need major action sequences, this is worth checking out.
Last, but not least, is Death Note. This is about the rather improbably named Japanese boy, Light. He's a top student and very popular. Then one day he finds a strange notebook. Labeled "Death Note", it includes instructions that claim that the holder can kill someone simplly by writing their name in the book while picturing their target's face. Although he thinks it's a sick joke at first, he can't help but test it out, and causes a criminal in the middle of a hostage sitation to have a heart attack. Convinced of the book's power, he starts a campaign to wipe out major criminals. He also meets Ryuku, the Shinigami (death god) who dropped the book. Ryuku, bored with the Shinigami's world, just thought doing this would be more fun, and is rather pleased with the results.
Of course, prisoners dropping dead of heart attacks manages to catch the police's attention, including the ICPO. They bring in their trump card, a mysterious man called "L" who never lets anyone know his appearance or true name. He starts investigating the deaths, and at the same time sites online pop up to praise the unknown vigilante, who is dubbed "Kira". Definitely the best series I've seen so far for this season.
Anyway, that covers things for now, I think. As always, updates to follow.
Wraith
"That's right, this is how the story moves along. In the direction most undesirable for all concerned."
-- Drosselmeyer ("Princess Tutu")
)
the story was really good 
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