What Anime are you watching?

[Derrick]

Or you can stay in a normal hotel room, with lovely pixelated pay-per-view.

[The D]

Apparently Bernie had My-Otome before me, because my latest netflix took 5 days to get to me because they said they shipped it from Houston.

I'm starting to get a bit sick of this anime actually, because it seems to be filled with less real action and more estrogen-induced emo-fests: "ohh I love him but he doesn't love me back *SOB!*", "Oh, the girl gave up her dream to be an otome to be with her boyfriend *SOB CRY SOB*", "Oh I got into an argument with my best friend over some petty bullshit *SOB CRY SOB CRY*". These girls shed more tears than a baby daycare and no one has died yet. I had heard from some that this series was better than My-HiME, but I found HiME to be a much better series.

It was probably because of the lack of death and massive amounts of teenage angst and emoness that I picked my next two Netflix selections: Hellsing Ultimate and Devil May Cry.

And after a "Very Long Wait" they're shipping Gunslinger Girl 3 today. Cyborgs, Vampires, and Demons, oh my!

Edit: Tomorrow, actually, even though I sent my last DVD in on Thursday.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

DMC's nowhere near Hellsing Ultimate when it comes to that, though.  And you'll play hell getting the third volume of it for some time, as ADV lost the rights to it and had to halt distribution of it.  You'll have to wait until Funimation starts distro.

[The D]

I'll be getting Hellsing 3 soon.

Kinda disappointed with this series, actually. I won't deny that it's prettier with all the CG, that it has more gore or violence, that Alucard is more awesome in this one, and kicks way more ass.

But the biggest bitch is what they did to Seras. They've resigned her to basically comic relief. I heard that's kinda how she is in the manga, and if that's the case I'm really disappointed. I enjoyed how in the original Hellsing ova she was a serious character and we saw her deal with drinking blood, not being able to go out during the day, and sleeping in the dungeons. In this one she's making silly faces and going into SD mode. If this is Japanese humor I'm not amused. I'm not the only one who's bugged by this.

The other minor gripe is how they condensed the storyline. More than likely just to make it more "action packed" they removed a lot of story and filler. I noticed it first with the plot with the two vampire teens on DVD 1, they never went into the back story of the two vampires. This is probably why Seras is little more than comic relief now. I've even heard the series cuts out a lot of the filler and story from the Manga. So in other words they "Hollywood Action Flicked" the series.

I do prefer some storyline with my action KTHXBYE.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

You heard correct...Seras was more of a supporting character in the manga than she was in the first animated series.  From what I've seen, though, not a lot got cut from the manga story. 

Granted, I enjoyed the first half of the first Hellsing anime, but the second half was total trash.

[The D]

If you don't know my feelings on something that's "adapted" from something else, I don't expect an exact copy of a material from one format to another. Lord of the Rings did fine as a three movie trilogy even though not everything in the books was in the movies... they thankfully removed the stoner hippy Bombadill, yet sadly removed the battle for Hobbiton that was at the end of the story. But the feel of the books was in the movie so it worked out, and everyone was happy.

You have so many Hellsing manga fans jacking off because this new series is straight from the manga, who cares? I don't even read manga so I don't give a shit.

I did get DVD three though, and the bloodbath was amazingly awesome, yet disturbing. Yet Seras (and now Mr. Eyepatch Mercenary) are comic relief and pushed to the side, with little storyline. At least I would have had Seras conflicted about her vampireism and acting to try to keep Alucard from going too wild with his violent escapades.

They just put DVD 4 on Netflix and I have it on my queue! ^_^


Edit: Also, I so want to cosplay Alucard now.

[IDE]

The characters in Hellsing Ultimate seem like hyper insane versions of the themselves from the regular series.  Everyone has a big "I'M GONNA TEAR YOUR THROAT OUT!" perma-grin on now instead of before where only alucard acted that way sometimes.  Or maybe I just remember the old series differently.

Have the dubbed part 4 yet? 

[The D]

The characters in Hellsing Ultimate seem like hyper insane versions of the themselves from the regular series.  Everyone has a big "I'M GONNA TEAR YOUR THROAT OUT!" perma-grin on now instead of before where only alucard acted that way sometimes.  Or maybe I just remember the old series differently.

Have the dubbed part 4 yet? 

They just put DVD 4 on Netflix and I have it on my queue! ^_^


Edit: Also, I so want to cosplay Alucard now.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

You have so many Hellsing manga fans jacking off because this new series is straight from the manga, who cares? I don't even read manga so I don't give a shit.

There's no reason a good manga (such as Hellsing) should not be made into a good anime.  That's finally happening with Hellsing, and it's thanks to the original writer/artist who was dissatisfied with the anime adaptation.  That's why you should care, whether you read 'em or not.

I did get DVD three though, and the bloodbath was amazingly awesome, yet disturbing. Yet Seras (and now Mr. Eyepatch Mercenary) are comic relief and pushed to the side, with little storyline. At least I would have had Seras conflicted about her vampireism and acting to try to keep Alucard from going too wild with his violent escapades.

Not having read the manga, you have no idea how these characters turn out.  All I'll say is, "stay tuned."

[The D]

I seem to be watching a lot of anime lately that are either remakes or sequels to already established and popular anime franchises. Besides Hellsing Ultimate:

Appleseed Ex Machina
I liked the plot of the first remake, but the CG made my eyes hurt. When people said this one was better than the first one, I watched the movie with an open mind.

The film's fight scenes are directed by John Woo (yes, THAT John Woo) and some of the costumes are designed by Prada, so we already have big names on the project. CG wise, the movie looks twice as good as the original. Storywise, I was not that impressed by it. There's plenty of good action though. The main plot involves some mad scientist wanting to brainwash people and start a utopia. There's a sub-plot about a clone of the cyborg boyfriend being made, and the main female character having to decide between her mostly-metal man and the flesh-and-blood clone, but the tension between them is barely there and they all become pals at the end. Grade: B


Slayers Revolution
Yes there IS a Slayers Sequel being produced right now. It's not a sequel of the shitty straight-to-video series with that annoying Tomato-Boob Naga, but a sequel to the much better TV series'. Lina and Gourry are looking for his Sword of Light, some dude is trying to arrest Lina just because she's Lina Inverse, and some green monster midget with arms for ears is blowing things up with Dragu Slaves and tarnishing Lina's good image. It's Slayers so of course it's good... Grade: A

Macross Frontier
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Macross franchise, they have created this new series that's a sequel to the original Macross universe. It has flashy battles, not as awesome as Zero (I doubt anything can top that!) but still they look nice. The storyline and characters are typical anime. Aliens attack, characters fight for survival, pop idols act like stuck up bitches and get in the way and have some major connection with the aliens.

What I can't figure out is why almost every Macross anime, including this one, has a stuck up pop idol for a main character. I know pop idols are big in Japan, but rarely in an anime series do you see them as a major character.


Kite Liberator
Sequel to the original violent Kite movie. it's in my queue. We'll see if it's any good.

[Wickedly Yours E]

I've been going back to watch the Azumanga Daioh DVD's.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

AzuDai was my very first Netflixed series...I enjoyed it so much I actually bought the set.  I don't know how it works, but it stays fresh for me even after multiple viewings and having read the mangas through several times.

Ex Machina was alright.  It looked much better than it was, which was a pretty straightforward military action anime we've seen a hundred times already.  I never watched the Slayers series, just the OAVs, so no comment.  Macross Frontier is a series I'm hoping gets localized and sees domestic release very soon...then again, I've been waiting for Macross Zero to see similar release for several years now (which is why I obtained fansubbed copies and personally authored to DVD).

[B E C K]

Merla and I finally finished Saiyuki season two today.  I already said it was a piece of crap anyway, so I don't think I need to go on about it.  I forget what anime we should be getting next.  I think they're a ways down our respective queues.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I got the first two volumes of that series, and despite it being so full of bishies, I thought it was pretty good.  Too bad Netflix conveniently forgot where it put volume three, prompting me to drop the series completely.

Back to a title D posted about before, I found Mai-Otome to be more fun to watch than Mai-HiME.  You do know that there's an OVA continuation coming out in early October, as well as a prequel OVA?

[B E C K]

I got the first two volumes of that series, and despite it being so full of bishies, I thought it was pretty good.  Too bad Netflix conveniently forgot where it put volume three, prompting me to drop the series completely.

We had actually started with Reload, then to Reload Gunlock, then to season 1 and then season 2.  We didn't think we missed much w/0 season 1's vol. 3.  Despite the good qualities of the show, it tends to have a horrible "let's drag this shit out forever" problem that plagues a lot of anime.  It's kinda like missing two episodes of Dragon Ball Z in between a fight: you don't really feel like you missed anything.

[Wickedly Yours E]

I'm going to look into picking up the rest of Azumanga Daioh....and I hear YOtsuba is becoming an Anime...AND WHEN IS THE NEXT HARUHI SEASON?!

[Bernie AKA]

I won't spoil the Hellsing manga - I'l just say I was rather saddened, and someone would have to be paying VERY close attention to my past posts to discern anything from that.  

I was going to see my pal Mike Vance who does VA work for ADV last Thursday and hear about what's coming up, but post-hurricane home concerns derailed that - sorry, D and other ADV fans. I will try to catch up with him and see if anything fun is coming down the pikes soon. 

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Based on what I see as an outside observer, ADV looks like it's on its last legs.

I'm going to look into picking up the rest of Azumanga Daioh....and I hear YOtsuba is becoming an Anime...

I whole-heartedly recommend AzuDai (spoilers), but I hadn't heard Yotsuba was being animated.

Despite the good qualities of the show, it tends to have a horrible "let's drag this shit out forever" problem that plagues a lot of anime.  It's kinda like missing two episodes of Dragon Ball Z in between a fight: you don't really feel like you missed anything.

I noticed there were like three series in the franchise...glad I backed out when I did.

[B E C K]

I liked Reload the best, so if you ever decide to retry it, I would do that one.  (It also has my one of my favorite openings, "Wild Rock".)  I think it's like eight discs long.  It's the one that came out on Encore's anime block a few years back with Gokusen.  You don't need any prior knowledge of the characters or anything, you can just jump right in.  Anyway, it's not really necessary to have to see all of the different Saiyuki series.  The same basic themes and gags occur in a majority of the episodes and it's not as if they ever reach India.

[The D]

I've been noticing Anime companies have been kicking the bucket lately. First Geneon, now ADV?

Apparently the people who got into the industry were too enthusiastic about it, and forgot two very important things:

1) Most anime fans are very broke.

2) Most anime fans get their anime downloaded illegally online.



Oh, I also forgot that I've started watching Kamen No Maid Guy. If there was any guy that would most accurately represent IDE in anime, Maid Guy would be it. Hardcore, huge, muscular, sharp teeth.





....and I cannot find a picture. These computer labs are packed and the network seems to be overloaded. You would think that the people who designed the network would design it to handle 10 times the network traffic if everyone was downloading movies on every computer, much in the way that structures and elevators are designed to handle a lot more stress than will ever be put on them. But I keep on getting firefox's 404 screen when I try to click on an image, so I think the network is fried.


Oh just google the fucking picture...  *stabs the network administrators*

[Bernie AKA]

When did ADV kick the bucket? Purchase rights to Clannad were announced on Monday. They didn't have powet for a week and nothing got done, but they're back up.  Wish they'd do more stuff like Le Chevalier D'Eon and Gilgamesh and less nubile 'n' mecha, but that's just me. I even liked their Gatchaman, and that's high praise, considering what a Gatchagroupie I am.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6598958.html?industryid=47140

And with no distracting TV for the past two weeks, I dug out old comics - kept thinking of IDE whist reading Cerebus the Aardvark. 

[IDE]

ku ku ku

I already plan on cosplaying that guy someday.

[B E C K]

I haven't heard about them kicking the bucket either.  What I did hear about was that anime conference where companies talked about how they were losing money and needed to re-adapt to the market pretty damn fast.  And then there was that whole deal about loads of their titles being sold off to other companies.  But that's downsizing your assets, that's not a dead business.

[The D]

I must have misread a post and thought ADV was going the way of Geneon.

Randomly, I bumped into a group of people that were walking around my old campus and promoting an anime club they were starting up. I decided to come along.

Back when I went to this college and before I left, I was a staff member of the old anime club, it lasted from 2000 to 2004. At first it had a lot of staff and everyone was enthused, but then people left or graduated and everyone went their own ways, and finally it was just me and one other guy. I was in charge of the website and the advertising, he was the president and downloaded anime and brought in his notebook computer.

But then he started bitching about how he was doing everything (he tried to do the website himself after asking me to do it... he wanted his website to be covered in Naruto pictures and I refused). He complained how he had no time to run the group. Well he tried to do everything himself rather than delegating tasks. He wanted to set up a webserver to share anime with those who brought computers but couldn't even get it set up. He tried to do the webpage himself because it didn't have enough Naruto shit on it. He bitched that I didn't help him get anime even though A) I have less than half a dozen anime series at home, and B) at the time I had dialup and couldn't download any series at home. And the president just gave up and the club collapsed.


I think I'm sticking with this one because I want to see them succeed this time. I told them I'd be the Old Geezer of the group, I'd reminisce about the good ol' days where we'd have all day Transformers screenings and raffles and pizza, where we'd have to walk to club meetings uphill both ways, and we had to use VHS tapes, and whine and bitch about all you punk ass kids and your torrents and mp4s and HI-DEF anime downloads.

So far they've decided to have the screenings every Friday (which requires a lot of work), they have no running series and are just showing one episode of random anime each day, and they're showing anime they buy off of Blockbuster Total Access rather than stuff they download, which may cause the anime companies to complain (maybe). We'll see how long this shit lasts.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

When did ADV kick the bucket? Purchase rights to Clannad were announced on Monday. They didn't have powet for a week and nothing got done, but they're back up.  Wish they'd do more stuff like Le Chevalier D'Eon and Gilgamesh and less nubile 'n' mecha, but that's just me. I even liked their Gatchaman, and that's high praise, considering what a Gatchagroupie I am.

ADV's actually skirting the edge right now.  They lost many of their licenses from the past couple years (including d'Eon, which I agree is one of the best series in the past couple years), since the company handling their licensing in Japan (Sojitz) fell through and saddled up with Funimation, as did Dentsu, Geneon's parent company.  Remember NewType USA?  It was yet another casualty.

This is why ADV is re-issuing a lot of their older stuff lately...it's all they have readily available for release in order to maintain a retail presence.  It's also why you're seeing a bunch of incomplete series from the past year popping back on shelves with a new volume available, since Funimation's just getting that going at this point.

The positive side is that ADV's localization work is still viable for the incomplete stuff, as they're a stone's throw from Funi and is still in the dubbing business.  So anybody who may have bought them won't be put out by a whole new team working on the English aspect of it.

[Bernie AKA]

I-45 stays pretty busy with VAs going between ADV & Funi - Greg Ayres and Monica Rial should have their own lanes.  Nice to see a Dallas and Houston company in the same field with a good working relationship instead of the usual cutthroat attitude.  Pretty smart on everyone's part for the Texas studios to be friendly in a right-to-work state and keep good people - crew & actors gotta eat, and Funi could only be The House That DBZ Built for so long.

[B E C K]

Newtype USA lost me when they decided only subscribers get preview DVDs.  And they were too pricey, too.  Like ten bucks a magazine or something, weren't they?  Every month.  No, thanks.  When they first came out, I thought "Cool.  I wonder how soon this concept will die."  It seemed like a costly venture from the get-go.

[The D]

Indeed.


I have begun watching the second season of Code Geass. IDE (since you're the only one I know who has seen the first season), in case you haven't seen R2, here's where you can watch it online.

The first few episodes are worth it just to see Kallen kick the ass of people twice her size... wearing only a playboy bunny suit! My love for that woman has just doubled! 

Lelouch is kicking ass, Suzaku is the Emperor's right hand man, the Emperor has a Geass himself, Lelouch's "brother" has a Geass and a mysterious past.... and all in the first two episodes.

[The D]

Now for images!



Here's the IDE-as-an-animated-character Maid Guy. Note the sharp teeth and the claw-like fingernails. Notice the glare in his eyes and his lust for large breasts.




Cleavage!

(link goes to youtube video clip. Bunny girl ass kicking after 1 minute into video)

[The D]

Kite Liberator had a Sopranos style ending. The screen suddenly went blank.

I heard there may be a sequel. I sure as hell hope so, because that ending sucked.

Also, I'm getting close to finishing Code Geass R2. I seriously hope this ends with half the world burning to the ground. If Lelouch were to kick the bucket or something, and the British were to win, that would quite possibly be the worst ending to anything ever.