For those who wonder about these things, there is some good source material on the biological processes of Kaiju here. (Curiously not mentioned is the fact that Gameras digestive system is navigable via minisub and contains enough air for a couple of children to survive for several minutes.)

...and for those socially benighted 'people' with engineers disease, we have a special link on the same topic just for you.

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Was it false advertising or just a dishonest narrator?

Steven Den Beste posts on Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girl. He has his usual thoughtful and in depth analysis but these two passages seemed to be the money quote.

" ....it's clear that we're not looking at a show about political intrigue....

.....It's a harem show that includes a magical girl."

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Oh my stars and garters.

^{Click 4 supah size}

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TONIGHT! AT 10 PM, NEW EPISODES ON COMEDY CENTRAL. 

If you have no idea what this is about then there is no need for concern.  You have simply learned an important fact about yourself, namely that you are a sad, deprived individual with a tragic void in your soul.

Huzzah!

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They have cake.

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Oh my....

Well, THAT was meteoric.

After receiving a huge infusion of cash and clout following their acquisition by Navarre back in 2005, Funimation spent the last 5 years gobbling up the rights to a huge number of R1 releases, many of them from other distribution companies that were going under in 2005-7. Funi has been very very good about punctual, high quality  and respectful translations.

Now Funimation is reportedly up for sale.

I gather that the parent company, Navarre, is looking to focus primarily on software and...whateverthehellelse they do. Funimation is reportedly  taking money away from their primary business model.

As I understand it, Funimation is making money but that they require resources that Navarre doesn't want to develop. 

This is not necessarily the end of the world for them. In these scary economic times companies need to focus on their core competencies (assuming those competencies have a future) and husband resources.  Assuming Funimation is in fact doing well, it is possible that they could continue as they are given a buyer that wants to invest in the areas that Funimation needs development in.

 However, this sounds a lot like what happened with Geneon U.S.A., which was ultimately closed down (and became the source for many of Funimations region-1 acquisitions).

I know there are occasional readers of this blog who are far more knowledgeable of the industry than I am...so have at it in the comments please.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste links to this article which contains this  passage :

Navarre is pursuing a more focused strategy. Now that we have substantially reduced debt and improved operating margins, we are focusing our efforts on driving revenue, particularly in new product lines. We are concentrating all efforts on our distribution and software publishing businesses where we have significant expertise and considerable systems and physical assets that can be leveraged. The Punch! acquisition announced last week strengthens our software publishing business and demonstrates a step in our execution of this strategy," stated Cary L. Deacon, Chief Executive Officer.

FUNimation Entertainment's strategy and capital requirements are distinctly different from those of the Company's core business. While FUNimation's recent results have generally met expectations, the strategies required to grow the business include co-productions of original anime content, social networks and digital broadcasting. The Company anticipates that those plans are best executed with ownership that has assets or expertise in those areas.The Company will be discussing its going-forward strategy and financial outlook in greater detail next week in connection with its FY 2010 year end conference call.

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The upcoming Space Battleship Yamato movie continues to look like it could be one of the most awesomest things in the history of awesome!

^{I see that Dr. Saito Sane is female now but she's still got 'spring water'. They've even got Mimi!}

People often wonder why this old show made such an impression on some of us.

 To a 10 year old, adrift in the vast wasteland that was the UHF programming of 1980, Starblazers ( the American title of the show) was nothing short of astonishing. It was a 'cartoon' that did not pull its punches, had an intelligent and engaging story and was a science fiction show that had the space battles that Star Trek often lacked. The translation while not literal was very good and because it wasn't on the major networks it was able to slide things past standards and practices (like characters dieing dramatically). It was a show about honor, courage and heroes who willingly faced genuine peril. This was something almost nonexistant at the time.

Now why then is a 40 year old going all full metal fanboy over this? Well, partly because I'm a nerd, but also because this film looks to be a very faithful adaptation. This means it is aimed at least in part at those of us who ran home from school to see this show some 30 years ago.

 _{In other words it's aimed at my age bracket...so for once I need feel neither dirty nor old.}

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The official Funimation page for Spice and Wolf features an ad that is deeply misleading.  The commercial seems to utilize EVERY SINGLE SCENE where Holo is nekkid in the entire 13 episode series.

A large percentage of fanboys that decide to buy the show based on this ad alone will be deeply disappointed.

Likely many of those who might enjoy the series will  be put off by it.
 _{(In fairness, the Opening Credits are only a little better in this regard)}

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As some of you know, my mobile home was destroyed by an anarchist suicide tree back in November. Because I had moved nearly everything into the spare room because of some floor repairs, and because the spare room was destroyed quite efficiently. I lost most of my collection, including nearly all the DVDs and tapes I had. After I had paid for my tuition and books and was putting money aside I pondered replacing some of the Anime DVDs.
The purchase list was short. Rewatchability is a rare commodity.

Van Dread....yeah I picked up the thinpack. This show really ought to have been mediocre at best but it is one of the most satisfying shows of the last 10 years. I will certainly rewatch this.

Welcome to the NHK....the loss of the entire set gave me a chance to pick up the last disc (which was not available singly after Funnimation picked the show up midway through.

Lucky Star is apparently no longer in production...though I can probably get it on line.

Days of Midori which I mentioned briefly here is a spectacualrly good show with one of the worst premises of all time.

Full Metal Alchemist didn't get replaced as much as completed. I'd never picked up the third and final pack for reasons unrelated to the shows quality. Now I've watched the whole thing and it would have surely been on the list. I'll have a separate post on that later.

There was little else that I considered shelling out for, though I may pick up Black Lagoon at some point.

Zone of the Enders was on loan at the time...which is fortuitous as it is long out of print.

UPDATE: Inexplicably deleted the mention of Gurren Lagaan.

Also, Crest/Banner of The Stars was not destroyed.

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The Anime/Manga franchise and merchandising juggernaut that is Sgt. Frog was commented upon by virtually everyone in 2005 when the anime started up. The show is still going strong in Japan and has been exceedingly successful. The oddball comedy has been surprisingly successful at appealing to audiences of all ages and has a lot of similarities to the long running Urusei Yatsura series from the 80s (which, indeed, was the stated intent of the Mangaka). The main difference is that the characters tend to be more likeable.

The show concerns several frog like aliens who are trapped on earth after their ill-conceived invasion attempt went awry. Their leader now lives in secret as the sort of housekeeper for a comic book creator and her children.  Other members of his squad are scattered around the neighborhood and similarly ensconced with various  humans...all of whom possess significant normalcy deficits. Every week he contacts his teammates and they join forces to conquer the planet Pekaponia (Earth)... hilarity ensues. As an aside, the show teaches younger viewers important life lessons as well...such as the fact that women are scary and dangerous and best avoided....even if they are wearing sweatervests.

Given its spectacular success and very broad demographic appeal in Japan it was natural that somebody would try to bring this show to the U.S.A. The theoretical potential of the show to be a genre crossing hit was immensely appealing at first blush. However, there were major hurdles, most daunting being the fact that the pop culture references that litter the show are overwhelmingly Japanese specific.

As the target audience would be Americans the references would make as much sense as an episode of Robot Chicken would to a North Korean. This would seem to be a show stopper, but one must remember that US television has long made good ratings on incomprehensible stupidity so this was not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. Additionally there was the fact that the company that actually bought this marketing conundrum was ADVision...and the people at ADV were geeks who dearly loved the show and really wanted it to succeed.

ADV seemes to have really tried to get the show released on television, which despite its niche appeal in the US was not an insane notion but merely a far fetched one at the time these decisions were being made. Cartoon Network was showing a lot of Anime then and a number of the in-jokes (perhaps as much as a quarter ) referred to those shows. ADV had assembled over the years a very fine cadre of voice actors and they were certainly capable of doing comedy well. The problem remained the very culturally specific nature of many of the verbal gags,  The episodes required rather more extensive rewrites than usual though the basic plots and overall story arcs could be brought over with little trouble.

There was an even bigger problem that ADV did not foresee....ADV is no more.The show was one of those bought by Funimation and it is now being aggressively marketed by them....with a series of adds that don't quite do the show justice.

The show is one I found fairly enjoyable before this release and  it should be noted that the subtitle track is a pretty straight translation of the Japanese, which is what most readers here will watch anyway.

The dub fascinated me as I was very curious as to how they were going to play it given what to the target audience is the alien nature of much of the shows humor.

I don't know how many episodes ADV dubbed before they lost (or found out they didn't have) the rights in the Sojitz fiasco but the first 8 episodes are using most of the same voice actors that appeared in a preview ADV put on you tube some years ago. I am pretty sure that what we are seeing is very close to ADV's plan for the show, if so it is a worthy legacy because the dub is quite good. Funimation, which has a good reputation in its own right seems to have kept the bulk of the voice talent and there has been no jarring change in quality as of yet.

The dialog on the English track is fast paced,almost like a '40s screwball comedy. The acting is good and although the dialog has indeed been tweaked, the the Woolsyism's generally work quite well.  All in all I was very impressed. In my initial viewing I watched all but the first two dubbed and felt it did not suffer at all , in particular I...oh wait...you aren't reading this....

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...the artist who did this cute take on Beethoven's 5th

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One of my followers is named Trapchan. I fear this may lead to awkwardness at some point.

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^{Left to right, Tsuyuri, Najimi, Justice, and his  pupil/ assistant/charge Sora}

Based on a 4 panel strip, the 9 minute show follows college student Najimi Osana who upon losing her job is offered a one day job by her friend Tsuyuri. The job turns out to be selling Tusuyuri's rape-hentai doujin at Comiket. Initially appalled, our heroine does some quick mental calculations of the numbers of books her friend is moving. After meeting Justice, a childhood friend who is a  wealthy and legendary doujin-ka, she takes an oath to make her fortune in fanfic Pr0nz!  Soon she's learning that manga requires actual artistic talent,  all about printing costs and the fact that certain doujin artists might owe their rock-star lifestyles more to independent wealth than Comic Market income.

Our heroine is undeterred by any of this however.Through sheer determination she proceeds to acquire a table...a rival...and a fan. Now all she needs is content.

This is an odd little show and the dvd is not without its problems...while the first volume comes with the manga, nearly half of each disc is a live action segment  concerning two of the voice actors trying to do a manga...which means I paid 14.99 for 50 minutes of sketch comedy and 50 minutes of....wtf?.These skits did nothing for me. Additionally the lettering in the manga is sized wrong. The letters are so small that I recommend a magnifying glass. The package suffers from this quite a bit.

As to the show itself, it is an off color show but cute show. It would likely not have worked as full length or even half length episodes, but the skit format suits its little stories. It is little better animated than an old UPA cartoon, but the animators actually have some fun with this and make the most of their limited budget. The characters are enjoyably quirky. At this point I've watched the whole thing and, despite the high level of background slash radiation and female nosebleeds.... I laughed. 

Sadly, Justice never grows to kaiju proportions and shoots beams out of his eyes

3 bricks

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^{Comiket!!? Are you NUTS!?}

Comeket 76, day 3. The line from hell, 300,000 people being herded into the God Emperor of huckster rooms. I arrived around 8:30 AM expecting a monumental line, but nothing prepared me for this.

Note that this is not the line...this is the line to get in the line.

The brochure (~20 bucks at Gamers) says that photos of cosplayers are not allowed except at a prepared event nor are any photos allowed of the interior. As often happens, the English rules are wrong. No photos are allowed at all. I took these before a very corpulent gentleman threatened to relieve me of my camera.This long picture of the Tokyo Big Sight does not do justice to the size of the structure.

After only about 2 and a half hours I made it to the east wing and went through every one of the 6 bays, each footnall field sized. I started to leave  having had my fill of huckster rooms and I was still a bit weak from the bug I was getting over....but I knew I could not face any of my friends if I did not make the trek from the east wing to the west wing.

So I wandered over and found myself in a river of humanity moving irresistably forward...er,up....no,over...no, I mean down...around...aiee! up again. There was a brief respite at an outdoor exibition area where some photos of cosplayers are allowed if permission is obtained. Given the language barrier and the somewhat confusing setup, I begged off and reentered the flow of fandom as it poured like a cataract  down the stairs into the exibition hall below. From a hundred fifty feet up the view of the west wing atrium looked like nothing so much as footage of the great animal migrations of the Serengeti.

Although I think it's a bit smaller, the west wing is even more impressive than the east in some respects as there are quite a few very elaborate displays.

One thing I saw that was mildly amusing was that there are now a number of comfort pillows for girls. Also, in contrast to most of their male counterparts, the female doujin artists tended to be impeccably dressed and made up as they hocked their slashy fare.

I'm not likely to go back, at least until I am very proficient in Kanji. Finding anything in that sea of dealers is challenging for the locals let alone someone who can't read the map. OTOH, the place opened at 10 AM and I was out by 1:30...That’s less than some waits I've had at the DMV so the staff certainly did a fine job with a third of a million people.

Oh...and for the person who asked (you know who you are)...I'm  6 foot one and weigh over 270 pounds. I could not have gotten out. Thus there is no way Tsukasa could have POSSIBLY made it back once she got in the wrong line. So no...it was not contrived. (Sheesh!)

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Saw this a few minutes ago and thought I'd share. I THINK the language is simplified Mandarin. I have little doubt what the subject is.

最奇怪的地方莫過於巧合太多… Kirk隨便被丟到一顆行星上居然就碰到了兩個關鍵人物

這個我雖然不想多題, 但是… Spock果然還是只能由Nimoy來演啊啊啊! 有些角度雖然很刻意的表達出兩人的相似度, 但是感覺就是不對… 尤其是他講”Fascinating”這個字的時候

Spock x Uhura還是有點不能接受

Kirk在小林丸的表現太痞… 雖然大家都知道他是作弊過關, 但我覺得他沒必要表現得一付”我就是在作弊!”的樣子…

Kirk從一個(幾乎被踢走的)學員一下子就升上校了? 我沒搞清楚, 但是他在酒吧打架之前有唸過星艦學院嗎?

Sulu跟Uhura這兩個角色仍然是不好發揮. Uhura是完全的轉型了, Sulu則是只剩劍撃那幕比較亮眼… 還有我不是很能接受他一開始時不會開船 - 他女兒日後坐上Ent:B時也沒有這麼手忙腳亂啊啊啊

JJA不知道是不是科洛弗檔案拍太爽, 在ST中也用了很多手持攝影機的拍攝方式(某些部份我覺得沒必要); 在IMAX大銀幕上真的會有點頭昏…

............. 

.............

 

Chekov 的wicktor wicktor讓我腹肌痠痛… 這部片有意無意的也對前作有相當程度的致敬. 放蟲的那段明顯是來自Wrath of Khan, 第一個redshirt(默哀), Kirk的藥物過敏(遞上老花眼鏡), Green alien sex(!), “I’m a doctor, not a…”, 片尾派克的制服出自電影第一集, Sulu那句”fencing”讓人想起”The Naked Time”, 星艦跟巨大的羅慕倫戰艦迎頭相撞etc etc. 真正的fan應該會看得很高興… 如果他們可以無視”正史”的話 (這兩者應該不是互不相容的吧… 我自稱trekkie也不會從n個月前就開始酸這部片)

Then again, I could be wrong.

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 Some months ago I finished watching the last of the Lucky Star TV series. Due to life issues, a review has been languishing in draft form for just about as long. Rather more recently, I watched the entirety of Azu Manga Daioh, having previously only seen the first half. Both of the shows are quite similar on the face of it:
Both are based on 4 panel comic strips.
Both follow a group of girls through the three years of Japanese highschool.
Both have fairly dry humor, similar in tone to Shulz's Peanuts.
Both have likely been reviewed in depth by every blog that features any anime reviews on this side of Antarctica save this one.

However, I found the tone and rewatchability of the shows quite different.


more...

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1 A bold premise, stated forthrightly, sir! I shall watch the responses... on closed-circuit video... in a bomb-proof bunker 23 miles away from the "event". ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Jul 20 21:49:27 2009 (pWQz4)

2 I am afraid that I disagree with your opinion.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Jul 20 23:47:42 2009 (Duio9)

3 Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote? Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea ever.

Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km. What selective memory!

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jul 21 00:22:12 2009 (/ppBw)

4 Interesting... it's been quite a while since I watched Azumanga, but I remember being bored by the Chiyo-dad sequences as well as the New Year's Dream episode (episodes?). Can't really relate to the rest of your complaints, though. Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.

Lucky Star has a lot of flaws, but once you've gotten to know the cast it makes a first-class comfort anime.

Posted by: Andrew F. at Tue Jul 21 07:00:06 2009 (d5+fR)

5 I'm not saying Azumanga sucks, it kept my intrest for nearly all of 6 dvd's. Azuma is, after all, exceedingly talented. The unlikeability of several characters put me off towards the end and, for me, its rewatchability is low

Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.

I agree that Kaorin is a one trick pony and the least fleshed out of the girls, however the crap she puts up with from Kimura is pretty awfull.  That isn't the only reason  she elicits sympathy of course. Just about everyone can relate to the heartbreak of unrequited love.

...can't they?
...or.....am I the only one who has had that happen?

Oh dear..I suddenly feel so utterly alone....
.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 08:53:30 2009 (+QU+M)

6 Criticizing Azumanga Daioh is the third-rail of this hobby. That's the only review I've ever written, posted, and then taken down again because of all the crap thrown at me for my opinion -- which pretty much agreed with yours.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Jul 21 09:02:06 2009 (+rSRq)

7

Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote?

Uhhh...a little... a loooong time ago...something about wanting a varmint rifle Is all I remember..I avoided most reviews because I was avoiding spoilers as I had the thin pack for a time and intended to watch it. I never saw SDBs full  review because he got rid of it. (I think a bunch of angry Slavs invaded his comment section or something )

Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea ever.

Actually the review idea was that I find Lucky Star more rewatchable than AzuManga, which I must say is an awesome idea, chock full of win!

 As to the question of Kagura, I agree that she is not well developed as a character. We know very little about her as she has little screen time and, like Kaorin seems to be included as a foil.

 However, she is the only one who really grows and changes. This is most obvious in the scene with the tent where she apologizes for her asshattery and offers to rebuild the thing herself (to the scorn of Tomo). She also buckles down quite noticeably in her studies towards the end and seems to mellow on her competitive streak a little. The character changes over time, in this case for the better. Most of the other girls have stuff happen to them, and we find out more about their quirks...they are fleshed out far better. However, the others don't really change or grow emotionally, except perhaps Sakaki and her changes are less pronounced.

Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km.

I disagreeI feel that a 30 something man wanting to kindle a romance with his unwilling 17 year old student is worse than an amusing bipolar jaded celebrity by a full nautical mile.   Now in fairness, when I sawLucky Channel first on a fan sub, my response was "WTF is THIS CRAP!?!1!". However, Sam Reigel and Stephane Sheh did a fine job with it in the dub.
I found it amusing.
A lot of people didn't.
 But, it is sufficiently detached from the show proper that I'd think anyone who didn't like it could just hit "SKIP" and be none the worse. Their stupidity is not integral to the story proper except for a few gags.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 09:38:54 2009 (+QU+M)

8 Lucky Star -has- a Kimura. The difference is that it's Konata's dad. In Azumanga your sympathy is all with the poor girls, having to put up with this molester-wannabe (we hope). In Lucky Star, it's Soujirou that gets all the development, such as it is, and his "victims" never appear (possibly excepting how warped Konata turned out). It's not as bad because Soujirou never does anything (that we know about) and at least the same girls aren't subjected to him over a protracted period, but at the same time, he's no less of a perv (and quite possibly much more of one!) than Kimura ever was.

There's plenty you can criticize about Azu. It's true that Kagura is the only one who really develops. Everyone else coasts through the series, more or less exactly the same person they were before they got into high school, except with some happy memories to recall later on. And there's room for that kind of story too, of course, but it's not a literary masterpiece.

But there's the problem with comparing the two shows in the first place. With Lucky Star, the audience is expected to be "in" on the joke. Whether it's Kagami making fun of Konata for being a geek or Konata making fun of Kagami for being a norm, the fan watching the show is involved with the humor. (Which is one reason that Miyuki falls flat as a character - her jokes are flavored differently, and while "oh, look, she's done something absent-minded" is funny a few times, it can't carry the show.) Even Lucky Channel is in this mold, and this is coming from someone who is sworn to punch the hell out of Minoru Shiraishi should the opportunity arise, right?

With Azumanga, you can't be "in" on the joke because it's not joking. It's an idealized high school life, with most of the problems elided out, except for the obviously despicable guy who's SOOOO evil that he's a parody of the entire concept. Come on, they even have one wacky cool teacher and one serious cool teacher, both of whom are perfectly comfortable hanging out with them...

So comparing the shows like they're head-to-head rivals is mistaken in the first place. Sure, okay, slice-of-life. But Azu isn't a slice of YOUR life; Lucky Star is.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Jul 21 20:30:59 2009 (pWQz4)

9 @ Avatar
All your points are good ones, although I don't find Konata's dad particularly disturbing. He is very much what I thought Kimura might be before the seventh disc. That is, he is socially inept, finds teenage girls attractive... and thinks out loud. We never see him stalk anyone unless one counts a wistful glance in the credits and in the later episodes we see him being a pretty good...if unconventional...father figure to Konata and Yutaka.

I think that bothered me most about Kimura was that the over the top creepy stuff towards the end (most of which IIRC was not in the trade paperback) was supposed to be funny...that left a really, really bad taste in my mouth.

I do think that Lucky Star flows somewhat better and has better characterizations but the parts that so appeal to me are going to alienate a lot of others. The post explains why I find LS more rewatchable.

I heartily agree that the series are quite different shows and comparison is more than a bit of a stretch. However, the comparison comes up frequently and I've been asked more than once how I could possibly like LS more than AzMD...hence the post. While the post is more than 140 characters long the URL is not....making my life easier.


Your last paragraph is, of course, spot on.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 21:46:34 2009 (V5zw/)

10 I can't figure out what it is Pete is referring to that I wrote.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Jul 21 22:40:39 2009 (+rSRq)

11

I left a comment earlier but it seems to have vanished? An expanded version if it can be seen here.

Posted by: Andy Janes at Wed Jul 22 16:48:16 2009 (lNf10)

12 Steven, I think he's confusing Kimura (the teacher) with Kagura (the student/jock).

Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Jul 22 17:57:56 2009 (Duio9)

13 I think you're being overly harsh on Tomo. She's hyperactive and insensitive and has terrible impulse control, but she's not really evil. Her misbehavior energizes the others and helps keep them from getting into a rut.

The most overtly malicious thing that she does is come up with a plan to bully Chiyo with a harassing "home inspection." But that actually starts the chain of events that causes the group to bond as friends.

Kimura is loathsome of course, but I think even that serves a purpose in the story by reminding us of the darker side of adolescence (which is never far from the surface in this show.)

The show isn't trying to say that high school is a wonderful, carefree experience. It is saying that it is a good experience if you do it with friends, and miserable otherwise. (Even if the friends are less than perfect people.)

 That is probably why Kaorin, who is only marginally attached to the group, suffers much worse than the others. (One can, of course, come up with more negative interpretations, e.g. the writers are predjudiced against lesbians.)

Posted by: Jonathan Tappan at Thu Jul 23 21:58:58 2009 (7wFYN)

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