HTF Anime Discussion Part VII - Page 8

There has not yet been an Excel Saga box set. However, I think that there will be one sometime in the future. At least I hope so, because Excel Saga is the funniest anime I have ever seen.

Not much going on at casa de Woo Jae - well, except I took the time out of ff xi to thinpak 100 or anime dvds. Anyone need 250 or empty dvd cases?

Hopefully the anime I have on order from rightstuff and deep dvd come sooner than later.

Woo:

Not me . I've still got one full case of ThinPaks from my last megaorder, but I've got about 4 series that I need to convert, so it won't be full for much longer. I had a busy three days anime-wise. I rewatched all of Mahoromatic (season 1), vols. 1-2 of Najica Blitz Tactics, and the April 2004 NewType disk. I can't wait to see more of Azumanga Daioh. Chiyo quickly became my favorite character .

Tony:

I thought ADV said that they weren't going to do a box for Excel Saga.

John.

Newtype gave Puni Puni Poemy such a good review that I preordered it after I read their glowing thoughts. Although almost all the anime reviews in there are positive soooo... but anyway it sounds like its going to be extremely whacky and just plain messed up and I wanted to check it out. Plus Animeondvd didn't like it much so it must be good right? heh.

Alanna:

I rarely give NewType's reviews too much credit, since they are rarely critical, as you mentioned. If you haven't seen Excel Saga yet, I'd recommend waiting to watch Puni Puni Poemy. I'd say that ES is a much better yardstick for finding out if you'll like PPP than NewType (or AoD) is.

John.

As far as Rightstuf, Stacey does pretty much 90% of her orders from them now. It only pays if you are pre-ordering a substantial amount of stuff, or catch a studio sale. Pre-orders are pretty much $20 or so - a good deal for Pioneer stuff, and a good deal on Bandai until recent distribution changes created price drops. Shipping is free over $100 (and that's before coupons). Plus rightstuf tosses out a coupon (like $5 of $55, or I think the latest was $10 off $111 or something like that).

So rightstuf is good deals, but only if you buy and pre-order a substantial amount of anime (not my pattern, I always rent some first, and rarely buy one).



But one advantage with Rightstuf - they ship stuff in big ol boxes full of shredded paper, padded envelopes, etc. Very rarely do you get something damaged. Whereas the DDD/Digitaleyes shipping - efficient, free, but padding free.

Example: I got a box in the mail that must have been kicked by the postal service, or a truck door closed on it, or something. I didn't need to open the box to see what was inside it, let's put it that way.

One of the DVD cases inside was absolutely destroyed - the plastic was shattered, twisted, etc - luckily the paper cover inside was 80% OK. Too much of a pain to send back, so I swapped out the DVD case and it was OK. Rightstuf boxes, on the other hand, have so much space and padding that they are much more indestructable.

Dave:

It sounds like you've had some bad luck with DDD. All the orders I've done have arrived with no damage whatsoever. Maybe you've just got the members of the USPS soccer team working in your PO .

John.

heh - Dave:

Rightstuf aint perfect either. My GTO box with tshirt arrived a while back. this was a hard cardboard box. three of the dvd cases were CRUSHED. INSERTS torn in half. And of course, it was all shrinkwrapped. I believe it was UPS's fault. I've had mixed results with dvds from ddd as well, but none were damaged the way the GTO box was. It's a crapshoot shopping online, but the prices, oh the prices...

Well, I still order from DDD. In fact, I generally order from them, since I don't have a lot of anime I'm buying these days (Stacey has it pre-ordered at rightstuf before I've even heard of it).

I just found that generally I was in awe of how much padding they put in the average packages. It's like the old gag where you put a giant box full of padding with a little teeny item in the middle. Oftentimes there is more padding than stuff inside ! And they use shredded magazines, UPS packing envelopes, etc. Fun!

Most of our packages arrive OK, but there's always a few that get a little banged up. And at least the rightstuf has some padding around it !

Hey!

Off-topic question:

My lil-brother is getting into Manga...

He started with some Shonen-Jump he got from a friend at school. And recently talked my mom into ordering Naruto 1 and 2.

So, I was wondering what would be some good manga for him. He is 11, and seems to really like naruto, and I think naruto is in shonen-Jump along with DBZ (eeww). I want to intoduce him to some quality stuff that is also not 17+ or something .

One I had in mind: FLCL, is the manga worse in respect to content/rating. He seemed to like that. So yeah, whats some manga (new or classic) that would be cool. I wish Full Metal Alchemist was out in the US, I would get him (/me) that .

Oh! and what is a good place to order from? I know DDD has Manga for 6.00 each, that seems like a great deal to me...

-Owl

Bryan:

You can check out Tokyopop's site, where they have a list of all the manga series they carry. You can find the age ratings there, too.

All:

Ahhh...it's nice being back online at home . Now, back to unpacking .

John.

John: I hated Excel Saga. Well atleast the first two episodes off of the second DVD. For some reason my BF talked me into getting #2 first to "try it out" since it was on sale for like 2 dollars less and I HATE jumping "into the middle" of something so that was part of it. The other was the fact that one of the girls in the anime is always sick and looking like she's about to die and I was soooo ill at the time seeing it made me jittery and uncomfortable. LOL But Puni seems cool... atleast from what I've read. I'm prepared for the bizarre this time (I hope)

As for stuff arriving. I can say that out of all the stuff I get from DDD (atleast two or three packages a week - I order for myself and two other people that don't have online access that want to take advantage of their prices) that I have NEVER gotten one that was banged up or anything less than purrfect. But if I ever had to swap out a case, that's fine, for free shipping its worth a little broken plastic.

Alanna: I gave excel saga a c- the first time i saw dvd 1. I was like meh - too derivative. But a few months later, I marathoned it (as I usually do) and found it funny. It is like a B or B- series that is a great spinoff. Especially with the vid notes, you can catch the gags being spun in front of your eyes.

Bryan_Bortz:

I'd recommend most of the Shonen Jump line from Viz.

Good action and characters. I am currently collecting Shaman king(2 vols), Rurouni Kenshin (3 vols so far), One Piece (3 vols so far), Naruto (3 vols so far). I don't or haven't collected Dragonball or Dragonball Z(many volumes), or Inu Yasha(currently upto 19 I think) but those aren't too shabby either. Shonen Jump also offers the ever popular Yu-Gi-Oh and Yu Yu Hakusho. Ranma 1/2(so far 26 vols) is also a fun series (I myself started with this title around 12~13 years of age). The first 3 or 4 vols are STILL great stuff. And surprisingly, it is still entertaining even at 26 (upto which I currently own).

I doubt he'd read CLAMP, but Chobits(8 vols) is good, as is Angelic Layer (5 vols). But that may be too shoujo-ish(sp?) for him. Tokyopop has some good titles as well - S-Cry-Ed (5 vols) is pretty fun for action and drama. Different enuff from the TV series to make it very interesting. Samurai Deeper Kyo (5 vols so far) seems fum as well, as is GTO(18 so far). Marmalade boy (8 vols) is shoujo but very good as well, but again, it's shoujo.

Anyhoo, I'd say read or skim a volume of the suggested titles at your leisure at the SUPER chain bookstore before getting him a title. And while you are at it, look for Hellsing(so far 1 vol), Trigun(so far 2 vol) and Berserk(so far 2 vol) for yourself.

Rob Lutter:

Heh - around that age, I was reading Crying Freeman, Ranma, Ogre Slayer, Sanctuary, Fist of the North Star, and Battle Angel Alita - basically most of the viz releases. Ranma 1/2 was the light hearted fun stuff of the bunch. Blood, guts, "adult" situations were the norm for me. Doesn't shock me - was desensitized early.

(What, do you think I had money at that age? Noooo~ Thank god for Barnes and Nobles!)

Alanna:

I'm guessing then that you won't like Puni Puni Poemy very much, since it looks like ES turned up to 11. I would also recommend never starting on the second disk, either . I myself thought Excel Saga was hilarious, but I'm going to approach PPP cautiously.

Woo:

Yeah, I did the same thing to myself when I was younger, except it was horror films rather than manga. Now I'm so jaded, it's really hard to find a scary horror film any more. The remake of Dawn of the Dead came pretty close, though, and I'd certainly recommend it .

John.

Thanks for the tips!

-Owl

John_AD:

*hails the dark sith lord*

Well, that's just for animated stuff. Me, I run away from scary movies. But with anime and manga, I am cool with it.

Heh, Production I.G. Kicks ass

erm, a WHR remake in live action? ehhh.

-Owl

Wooooooooooo wait a a minute. Which Star Trek series? I personally couldn't stand anything past DS9. WHR could turn out reaally campy if not done properly.

An anime directed by Tarantino would be sweet though!

TOO LATE! I already ordered Puni and I'll be sure to post my thoughts as soon as I get the thing. Also preordered I Dream of Mimi too. Saw where someone said it was similiar to Chobits. SOLD!

My Slayers Next box came in today. YAY! My BF nearly killed me when he saw the packing slip with the price on it but he will get over it (I hope). I'm watching this totally backwards. Loved Try, now hitting Next and sometime later this year the first series (I HOPE). Wasn't there a fourth one produced a year or so ago? I hope so because even if its not the most depth filled series I so love the characters. Especially Lina and Xellos. Good times had by all!!

Witch Hunter Robin for TV? I wonder why they picked this particular anime to make a series out of. Does Sci-Fi even show anime anymore? I remember "back in the day" you could see all kinds of cool stuff on there. Akira, 8 Man After, Armitage III, Dominion Tank Police, GAL Force, Demon City Shinjuku, Roujin Z, Tenchi Muyo In Love!!, the first three eps of Record of Lodoss War (but only the first three!)... there was always something cool on. Then one day it was just gone! With anime a lil more popular now than it was back in the mid 90s you would think they would consider giving it another shot.

My BF hates anime but LOVES Quentin Tarantino's movies... maybe if this does work out he'll actually WATCH this one with me!

Alanna:

I'm pretty sure they replaced the anime in the weekend late night slots with truly crappy movies (like Faust). It was only a couple of years ago, but seeing Tenchi in Love and Armitage III Polymatrix pushed me to get those series. As for PPP, I'll probably be picking it up myself today, along with TeXhnolyze vol. 1, Last Exile vol. 3, and Matrix Revolutions.

John.

Heh Alanna -

Unlike you I saw Slayers TV in the proper order - The Slayers, Slayers NEXT, and Slayers TRY. NEXT introduces us to that nefarious inscrutable priest, Xelloss. No Filia here . Of the three, the most popular is Slayers NEXT, which is generally considered the best of the series... On the other hand, I found the first series, The Slayers, to be a smidgeon above NEXT - mainly because it is here you really get attached to the characters. YMMV but I found and agree that both The Slayers and The Slayers NEXT are better than TRY.

As far as I know everything else coming out are ovas/oavs and movies. This does not include the large cast that was in teh tv series I believe. But instead features Naga, Lina's very well endowed rival, with a laugh that will drive you mad, I tell ya. MAD~~~

John: I didn't realize that Sci Fi continued showing anime up til a couple of years ago. It seemed to disappear from their schedule back in ... what? 1997? 96? Somewhere along those lines... that's what really got me into anime was being able to see a variety of it on Sci-Fi and it spread from there... they used to have one (and sometimes) two anime movies showing on Saturday morning as well. It would irritate me to no end though when I would get up just to watch whatever was scheduled and something else would be airing in its place. They did that way too often. LOL

Picked up Matrix Revolutions already. Wal Mart has it for $14.88 for those interested. Got mine at Target for $15.99 (still not a bad price).

Hmmm. TNG/DS9 ok, Voyager...*shudder*

Not sold on the state of scifi on TV or movie screens these days, so a sci-fi writer...hmmm... But I guess there's no one with fantasy experience really in existence (I refuse to count Xena, Hercules, and the like).


I guess I'm still not convinced. WHR seemed to be mostly style, single-ep stuff, without a lot of cohesive story from ep to ep (my standard for a good show). The same reason it got a "eh" from me. Stylish, but "eh". I would suppose the TV series would share similiar traits.

Woo: Naga's voice does drive me mad... hehe! I have all the Slayers movies and OVAs that have been released so far (I think) on DVD except the first movie (I have it on VHS). I've only seen a couple of them though since I just got them. (Slayers binge!!) I loved TRY and got it first on DVD because I had started collecting it on VHS... it was a good deal for the amount of eps you got compared to some of the other VHS releases. I'm trying to finish up Pretear today so I can start on Slayers NEXT... only two eps left to go... good series so far, atleast I like it.

It does bother me that the voice actress for Lina is different in the OVAs and movies than on the series... (English dub of course). The one for the series is much better. And I LOVE Xellos so I hope there's lots of him in NEXT.

Hmmm I was hoping for more fantasy stuff after the Lord of the Rings boom. Maybe in the next few years they will deliver on that more (I hope). How about a live action Record of Lodoss War???

Now I understand why that one guy is on the Puni Puni cover, heh the guns in the hair is so funny.

-Owl