HTF Anime Discussion Part VII

Just finished Scrapped Princess Vol 1. I'd say it's something of a cross between Chrono Crusade, Lodoss War and FMA.
The story seems serious in nature, the first disk isn't so serious but there isn't slapstick humor either. It uses the different cities they are traveling to as a means to introduce the major characters and provide some characterization, especially toward Pacifica. Toward the last episode the story turns much darker and seems begin getting more serious as the underlying story is better fleshed out.
Overall, I loved it...but I knew I would. If you are a fan of fantasy anime you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. Plus, the figure is cool...lol.
I look forward to volume 2....unfortunate it's not out till June 28th!
The only problem I encountered was the voice actors! Not that they were bad but I recognized them way too well so I kept hearing Samauri Champloo, Mahoromatic and Please Teacher as I was watching it and my brain kept trying to come up with mixed dialoge to provide humor to mask the irriation I was getting. ("Vector must be behind this hiding of the samauri that smells of Sunflowers. We will find him, this a priority one!" hehe) I may consider watching the rest subbed...
Stacey

Hmm well, not much went on this weekend but a massive house/apartment cleaning. And now, am at work to try to catch up here (work has been insanely busy).

That said I managed to watch and finish Nurse Witch Komugi-Chan. The extrememly petty, obnoxious, but cute heroine was pretty entertaining - and the episodic nature of the series was pretty fun as well. Good whacky fun - but only rates a C+ or B- (if I were to be generous).

Not much else went on, but I managed update DVD profiler, at least with my anime purchases. Also updated my manga spreadsheets as well. I'll update my signature here later with the actualy dvd count for at least the anime... movies, I am leaving for another weekend that's not so busy...

EDIT: Updated my signature - not surpisingly, over 60% of my dvd collection is anime....

All:

I got the first three disks of Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water watched over the weekend. An interesting premise, it's (loosely) based on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Three disks in, there is still a lot of character introduction/development. There are a few anachronisms, but they fit in with the 'period sci-fi' feel.

John.

Heh - JohnAD

It's gonna be a long but fun ride.

That said:

This Saturday I did get some stuff which I never listed.

Full Metal Alchemist 01 and 02
Gantz 03 - didn't even check to see that it was #3 >_>;;; Now I gotta find 01 and 02
Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA 01
King of Bandits: Jing 03
Samurai Champloo 02

Kong, you're doing it to me again... Now there's three more series I'm considering picking up. At least elfenlied appears to be a short one. According to animeondvd.com, they are going to release gankutsuou as The Count of Monte Cristo, though I don't recall a start date on that one. I don't think Samurai 7 has one yet either, so I hope I have some time before I have to make a final decision on those.

I made some small updates to my Web site; if anybody has any comment on the thing, please tell me about it. The reason I'm doing this in the first place, if anybody cares, is that a while back I was looking for a print reference to anime video releases [intending to use the information on LDs specifically]. I found one book which was extremely incomplete and full of errors, and then I came across what claimed to be a guide book for all animation. Imagine my disgust when, in the introduction to that guide, the author dismissed the whole topic of Japanese animation with a single sentence! He said something about how there were "other references", but his implication seemed to be that anime was beneath the notice of "serious" film lovers. I mean, the statement was inaccurate to begin with, but the fact that there were available references to Disney films didn't stop him from including them!

Have I mentioned that Gall Force: Eternal Story is really a well-constructed movie, with excellent uses of storytelling techniques? It may seem like just another "girls-n-guns" anime, and I guess the style is dated, but really it's worth a look. If nothing else, the ARTMIC crew did some good exploration of the dynamics of life in a monosexual society [with different results than Cordwainer Smith's The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal, but that's all to the good] and of the nature of man(?)kind's experience of conflict.

I have been making SVCDs of some of my LDs to send to my sister so she can get acquainted with my "new arrivals", and have an idea of what she wants to watch when she gets home. Talk about an unrewarding task! More than ever, I can't understand bootleggers. You couldn't pay me to do this kind of thing, and the results are totally unsuitable for prolonged viewing.

Stacey:

I can't believe Bandai got the rights to the limited edition figurines that came with Scrapped Princess. The R2s never got a box but a lot of figurines instead. So don't expect a box either for R1.

As for Kiminozo, definitely worth getting. ^^

I am glad you liked Scrapped Princess. Wait until you get the major cliffhanger episodes. You will be on a postal rampage to get the next episode. LoL. Trust me...the cliffhangers will make you go nuts waiting.

Rob:

I got the R2s for my friend, the limited edition versions. I wanted to buy them but I was already closing in at $500 a month on R2s and buying those would have made it closer to $550 a month ><;;. So I opted out and asked my friend if I could use his to um *cough cough cough*. ^^;;

James Kiang:

Ugh, why did they change the name? The should leave it as is or translate it as "King of the Underworld Caverns" (that is what "gankutsuou" means). But yeah, you should look into both of them. Everytime I watch Gankutsuou I am so memorized and hypnotized by the style and the storyline is intriguing because I love the story of The Count of Monte Cristo.

And Samurai 7 has one of the best adaptations of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Plus it has a catchy intro tune sung by Aikawa Nanase (Avex/Cutting Edge) jpop/jrock singer. One thing you have to do is forgive episode 7...great story but the studio lent to another studio to do the animation and it is piss poor quality.../sigh.

Eric F:

It is unfortunate that Please Save My Earth was only an OVA because it is hard to make a story from a 22 volume manga series into an OVA series. They really need to give this a full 26-39 episode series. Did you watch the movie for it?


All:

Forgot to mention some other recommendations in the woodwork to be released in the states soon:

Besisdes Princess Tutu which all of you MUST BUY regardless that it is presented by the evil corporation, ADV, please also consider Stellvia of the Universe (uchuu no suteruvia). This series is also another sleeper hit that really is a joyous romp about a girl's dream to become a pilot for the Stellvia space port to protect the earth from the second wave radiation blast. Great intro song (kinda addictive too), and great characters.

Another recommendation, along the lines of Azumanga Daioh is the series called sensei no ojikan (Teacher's Hours) which, much like AzuDai, is the humor look of high school life. However, the main character is the teacher who is very short (like Chiyo-chan) and there is an equal number of female and male students (4 or 5 on each side). Quite hilarious and great characters too. Intro and outro songs are catchy as hell (sooooo addictive). If you like humorous series, you should also look into this one if it ever comes over.

Kong

I got the soundtrack for Stellvia at Otakon 2004, and attended the concert by Angela. Awesome stuff. I am behind on the series (have only upto disc 2, haven't watched), but will remedy that... well when funds are available - gotta refurnish the bronx place since relatives are coming en masse in June -_-* .

Heard mixed reviews on SenOji, but still am happy this kind of stuff makes it here to the US. (More stuff the better. More choices for fans and collectors.)

Stacey: After all your talk about Scrapped Princess I got all psyched and ordered it...shame on you! It sounds really awesome and I'm looking forward to it. With only one DVD of Wolf's Rain left i needed something to collect and this fits the bill.

I doubt I will finish getting the last DVDs of Galaxy Angel and Hack:LOTT though. Will try to rent or borrow but .... I dunno. I enjoyed GA but it wasn't great or anything I doubt I will watch it too many more times, and there were too many elements in Hack:LOTT that annoyed the poo out of me...

Kong:

Stellvia is on my list of series to get, but I'm waiting until it is closer to being completed. I've still got 49 other series on my list, so there's no rush .

John.

JohnAD:

Is Stellvia already out? I may go and pick up my copy then.

(Off topic : I am an ecstatic fanboy now that Japan released the R2 DVD of Shall We Dance? the original version...uncut. Woot getting my limited edition copy asap!!)

It's funny, I was teasing her about how much she likes the fantasy anime while we were watching Scrapped Princess (normally my niche, fantasy) and how I have an entire bookshelf of fantasy books. She was insisting fantasy books all have "battles and political stuff" and then that fantasy books have "Castles and dragons and stuff, this is different". Mere moments after she says this, what do we see on the screen? A castle. A little bit after this? A giant frog which the characters are informed is a dragon.

:p)

I watched the first 2 with Stacey. Seems like good typical fantasy anime. Not much real fantasy anime, always glad to see something besides Lodoss War or 12 Kingdoms

Dave: It's been one of my complaints for a long time now, lack of fantasy in anime, which is pretty weird considering so many of the Japanese RPG games are fantasy oriented, with dragons and the whole shebang. That's awesome that there's some typical fantasy stuff in there, makes me want to see it even more. Your bookshelf sounds like mine.... I think mine is like 90% fantasy and 10% Sci Fi or something along those lines... haha... I'm such a geek, but love it.

12 Kingdoms is also on my future "to get" list. =)

Aside from the anime based on the RPG which made Roe R. Adams rich enough to bankroll half of AnimEigo... I have always thought it a great act of restraint on his part that it was never released in the States [or perhaps he's just ashamed of it?]

Kong:

Volume four (of eight) comes out today. The final volume comes out on 12/13, and they've been coming out every two months. I'll probably start picking them up around the time disk six comes out.

All:

I watched disk four of Nadia - The Secret of Blue Water last night. The episodes were a surprising change towards the serious. I really liked them, and I think my appreciation got 'kicked up another notch' .

John.

JohnAD:

Woo-hoo! Does it have a box? I may go get my copy soon. Who got the rights to Stellvia btw?

And Nadia of the Mysterious Seas is one of my top 10 series of all time.


Dave:

Well, let me spoil this for you and Stacey....the series is not all that it is cracked up to be. ;P 'Nuff said. ;P


Alanna:

The reason why fantasy is not a popular genre for animation studios to do is because well, companies want to sell toys to go along with it. And well, fantasy toys are hard to come up with something that is sellable on the market. That is why usually fantasy nowadays must have some sort of TnA to make it marketable. So that is why a lot of the fantasy tends to be fanserviced and comical, rather than deep and serious. So when a good fantasy anime comes along that is deep and serious, we all rejoice.

Just read a bit about Gantz release by ADV of 26 episodes spanning 13 volumes. I am shocked and stunned, as well as satisfied, that they are attempting this method, because it is a very typical method used in Japan for popular shows (or any new releases by Victor Entertainment Japan) to spread 26 episodes over 13 volumes. I have to admit, $17.99 is cheap per DVD. The Japan releases of 2 episodes per volume are 5800 Yen each (about $55 USD). And this method of marketing the DVDs is not to make money but cater to the hardcore collectors (basically the anime LD buyers of yore). Not just that, for the R2 DVDs, you get better max-bitrate compression of video and audio.

I can't believe people are whining about 13 volumes. It is nothing if it is released on a monthly schedule, like it is in Japan. I mean, for example, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone COmplex series 1 and 2 were 13 volumes each....so it took me 26 months to finish off the collection at 5800 Yen per volume.

Kong:

Yes, it has a box with volume 1. Geneon is putting the series out.

John.

If Gantz was $17.99 a DVD with only two eps on it, I don't think anyone would be buying it - well except perhaps the hardest of core (ha) collectors. Luckily the volumes can be had for around $10-11 bucks, which takes some of the bite out of it. I personally freakin' hate this method of releasing and would be one of the first to whine about it. Why? Cos I'm lazy for one, and don't like changing discs that often, and two, there's no reason to gouge people quite that badly. I always rejoice when DVDs like Fruits Basket or the Fushigi Yugi re-releases come along because they pack so much for the buck...that's where anime should be headed, to appeal to the mass market a lil more. Plus I'm not rich, in fact, I'm considered to be poor (ah how suckish) and am much more tempted with box sets or DVDs that are loaded with episodes =)

Alanna:

I doubt that they're 'gouging' anybody. They have to pay for the licence for the series, which is how the volume count and disk costs are determined. Nobody is twirling their mustaches and cackling about how the fans will be screwed.

John.

John: I wouldn't put it past them though. =) They could be cackling about the consumer's misfortune right now even as I type! Seriously though, I just don't see any reason for two ep discs. Three is pushing it even, four is the acceptable mark, but two is just ridiculous. They might as well just put one ep per disc. Why not?

Alanna, my wife broke out the calculator when she was paying bills on Saturday. She busted me for spending $600 last month in anime. Game over! I'm poor AND immasculated now! So far this month I've only purchased

BoogieBop Phantom Box ($40)
Gantz 1 ($11)
Overman King Gainer 1($20)
GITS SAC 5 ($15).

Bah the Gantz release schedule and pricing sucks. I was getting used to paying about $15 a disk for (on average) 4 episodes per disk. $10 for 2 episodes just sucks, not to mention the shelf space!

But it its nothing compared to Geneon. $150 for Trigun? $100 bucks for Hellsing? Geesh. No wonder Bittorrent is so popular.

By the way, Overman King Gainer gets the award for WORST opening song in Anime history. All the characters are line dancing and twirling around (mecha included) to this totally abrasive tune screaming "KING GAINER!!!" every 3 seconds. Someone shoot me! Thankfully the show is pretty well done.

Todd:

Hellsing and Trigun are both worth tnose amounts IMHO. B+/A- series are worth paying for...

Hehe now you got me curious about that series, Todd. Sorry about being emasculated by the spousal unit. Being single has its advantages....

I'll still get Gantz - I mean I am NOT gonna start at volume 3... And I am behind at least or 2 vols on Stellvia...


John: So what do you think of the characters so far? Are Jean, Nadia, and King entertaining ya?


Kong: Stellvia's box is a tin with room for 8 discs in a thinpack that holds two discs (And it's the size of a regular thinpak. Pretty awesome). The paper insert for each has the cover of each volume on that side, and has no blurbs on the back. I have no clue as to what I'll do with the extra dvd cases and covers and inserts. The same problem exists with the LE Read or Die TV box (which I got at Otakon - it's in teh shape of a book... interesting packaging but I have NO clue what to with the extra dvd/inserts).

Been busy, as I am at the Disaster Recovery site at work with most of my department testing the site out. My reg commute of like 25~30 mins has been padded to 55 mins or so. Blechh - commutes are annoying


That said. Sure, it's nice to have higher ep counts. But like everything else it's a tradeoff. R2s from what I hear have better PQ and bonuses (with the LE boxes) than do R1 releases at a higher price point and lower episode count. So if the PQ is improved and we get a better picture, I don't mind paying the extra for a lower ep count. Besides, you can vote with your dollars - if Gantz a (and other 2ep series) stop selling well, then hopefullly ADV or anyone else will notice and change their business plans accordingly....

Edited to respond to a bunch of folk.... and for poor spelling...

Gosh...
Perhaps my appetites are more modest than I have ever believed. There are two or three LD boxsets I would like to have, at about $500 each, and everything else I want but don't have would total about that much again. If I spent half as much as the $500-per-month guys [assuming I could get the stuff -- it can take a while to hunt up], I'd be done in a year.

Todd, Alanna:

Geneon is not doing anything different than any of the other companies. It costs money to pay for the licences (significantly more than other factors), it costs money to translate and dub the shows, and it costs money to market and distribute the disks. All of that goes into determining the cost per episode and the disk count. There are also market factors, but it really boils down to making back the money they spend aquiring a series, and of course making a profit. But in the end, the choice is yours. If you don't want to have two episodes per disk, or you think it will take up too much space on your shelf, don't buy it. It's as simple as that. Anime is neither a right nor an entitlement.

Woo:

I'm really enjoying the characters so far. I didn't get a chance to watch anything yesterday, but I'm going to try and finish up the series by the end of the weekend.

John.

>> Geneon is not doing anything different than any of the other companies.

I simply don't believe it. The retailers are paying MORE for Geneon than the others. You can see it pretty clearly - if you accept DeepDiscountDVD as a good representation of the market, and comparing all $29.95 releases across the big 3 distributors. If you compare Best Buy prices you'll see the same pattern.

Bottom line, Geneon is evil. There is a conspiracy. They WERE in the grassy knoll!


ADV - Divergence Eve $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
ADV - Cyberteam $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
ADV - Maburaho $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.97
ADV - Evangeleon Platinum $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
ADV - Wandaba $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
ADV - Rahxephon $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.98

Bandai - Gundam Seed $29.98 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
Bandai - Please Twins $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
Bandai - Scrapped Princess $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99
Bandai - Galaxy Angel $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $17.99

Geneon GAD Guard $29.98 DeepDiscountDVD $23.96
Geneon Fighting Spirit $29.98 DeepDiscountDVD $22.31
Geneon Saiyuki Reload $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $22.31
Geneon Human Crossing $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $22.31
Geneon Gungrave $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $23.96
Geneon Tokyo Underground $29.95 DeepDiscountDVD $22.31

Todd:

Actually, I would disagree that any online retailer is representative of the market. Best Buy is probably closer, but I would take MSRP as the 'baseline'. Still, even if DDD was a good representation, that doesn't mean that the price difference is indicative of a Geneon conspiracy. For one thing, we don't know how much DDD paid their distributors for the disks, or even if they got them from the same one. For another, we would need to factor in the costs that I brought up in my previous post.

In fact, one could argue from the same data, that DDD and BB are conspiring to overcharge customers on Geneon disks, possibly because they're getting kickbacks from ADV and Bandai .

John.

I would agree with John on this - It's not so simple a matter to assume that DDD prices are representative of anything. MSRP is pretty similar across the board for anime. For us to know exactly what was going on, we'd need access to information we do NOT have available to us as consumers, and then only the investors and employees of Pioneer/Geneon (or any other firm for that matter).

In general, we have it much better today than we did even 4~5 years ago. Large variety of anime is now available in many B&M stores, and we get a great many shows here in the US in a given year. And the prices in general are quite fair. Especially when Kong reminds that Japan's release of anime is of a much much more expensive schedule.

In fact, if you wait for box sets of anime, you can score whole series very inexpensively versus their release.

So as to the entire conspiracy thing or even attributing a bad motive per se to Geneon or any other distro is pretty silly. Now mind you the anime distros can improve. But to do that, they'd have to invest more in voice talent to increase the dub actors pool (no overuse of same actors and actresses), and somehow find a way to get on TV with the relevant merchandising for the show (don't see this happening much. Maybe Rob Lutter can comment).

You could easily see this discounting trend via PriceGrabber on a much larger retail sample. My only point was that the margins were tighter on Geneon products - I intentionally picked titles that have the same MSRPs. Whether its cost driven or otherwise, who knows.

I was kidding about it being a "conspiracy". I do, however, find it hard to believe that a company backed by Pioneer is about 25% less efficient than Bandai and ADV.

But whatever. I payed for all of Last Exile just like everyone else.

In no way, does the retail pricing is dictated by Geneon. However, what dictates pricing are sale volumes. High demand = higher pricing. Lower demand = lower pricing. It is basic economics.

Most likely from sales volume of certain studios, they can tell which studio is selling more and base their pricing on the studio. So, in effect, Geneon may be #1 in sale volume, which would in effect be reasonable to retail stores to up the price because they know people will pay the higher price, regardless.

This is really simple economics... I mean everyone should have takien a class in micro and macro economics.


And back on topic:

I just read that ADV is changing the names of Princess Tutu. AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!! They are becoming the worst studio ever. They may have the most titles and rights, but they also shell out the most piss poor translations and other crap ever in the history of anime. They are the second coming of Streamline Productions.

I mean, a Japanese name is a Japanese name. Ahiru's name is Ahiru. Yes it is also the word for "duck" in Japanese but that is her birthright name. In addition, I hope they don't translate Princess Kraehe as Princess Crow...because Kraehe is german for the word "crow". God forbid they do this. I mean, you don't translate people's name like "Takada" as "High Fields"...I mean wtf???!!! Or "Katsu" as "Victory" or "Akiko" as "Autumn Child".

I hope people over in Texas do some major b**chslapping to ADV's top eschelon people.