Nigorimasen! Blog

Friday’s news that Shinsen-Subs has dropped Romeo x Juliet in accordance with an C&D letter sent by Funimation on behalf of Gonzo is a stark example of the deep relationship the two companies share. Funimation has previously licensed many Gonzo titles including Black Cat, Bakuretsu Tenshi, Basilisk, Desert Punk, Kiddy Grade, Samurai 7, Solty Rei, Speed Grapher, and Trinity Blood. Anyone who remembers the “Babes, Blades, Blood, Beauty” campaign from last year knows that all those were Gonzo titles. Other licensors have also distributed shows from Gonzo including ADV with recent releases Red Garden, Pumpkin Scissors, and Welcome to the NHK and less recent ones like Kaleido Star; Viz with Saikano; and Geneon with Hellsing, Last Exile, and Vandread.

One thing that concerns me about this occurrence is what Funimation said to ANN about producers’ rights:

In a statement to ANN, FUNimation said, “…[I]t is important to note that the rights owned by Japanese producers are still applicable, and enforceable, worldwide even before the anime is licensed for local distribution.”

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The long-expected Lucky Star character singles were released a couple weeks ago and thus I am doing another music review based on a release playing to the fans of a particular series. Each single offers two songs, the respective off vocal versions, and a cut-together minute-long voice samples that has been manipulated through looping, lengthening, speeding up, and other techniques. I’m not giving numerical ratings this time because it’s a little tedious to assign numbers. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was over in Germany I saw two different versions of AnimaniA, the rough equivalent to Newtype USA, for sale: a DVD-edition for 8.50 Euro (~$11.88) and a DVD-less version for 4.80 Euro (~$6.71). One can also subscribe to DVD and DVD-less versions of the magazine. This made me think about Newtype USA, its current $12.98 newsstand price, and the possibility of a similar thing being implemented.
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AnimeNation is now selling the first four episodes of Girls’ High through streaming Windows Media for $1.99 a piece, which seems to be the company’s first foray into non-adult PPV content. I watched the first episode of Girls’ High on the preview DVD in the first issue of Otaku USA and thought it was okay. It was funny in parts but not enough for me to want to purchase the first volume. However, since I am curious about how new anime distribution systems function (see my previous posts about ADV Universe and iTunes), I decided to give it a shot.
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Goddamn! I woke up this morning to check my anime blog newsfeed on Google Reader (which FINALLY got a search addition last week!) and found a bunch of posts about gender in anime, most of them lengthy. I’m not supposed to be reading essays while on vacation, although I guess it does prepare me for reading to class in a couple weeks. I’m adding this topic to the lineup for my revival of a Talkshoe podcast (starts in less than 2 hours!) and probably later today I will compose my own reflective piece about the subject after I’ve read other people’s entries and talked about it for a bit on air.

I’ve decided not to attempt to link to the related posts at the moment because the list would become outdated in an hour. For now you can search for “gender” on Anime Nano or the newly revamped AnimeBlogger Antenna and find them yourself. I will probably include links to the revelant posts if I decide to quote other people in my planned writing but I still haven’t decided whether it will be one where I comment on everyone else’s views or just my own opinion on gender roles in contemporary Japanese animation. Reluctant to combine them though ’cause that would make it hella long.

In an AP article about “Thunder Road”, the first comic to be released exclusively for US cell phones, there was a bit about Tokyopop and their offerings through GoComics:

Mobile comics have been a cellular mainstay for years in manga-crazy Japan, where some titles already begin life on cell phones before going to print.

Stu Levy, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based TokyoPop, one of the leading U.S. publishers of manga, said the domestic market is still way behind Japan. But he said he could see comics being released in the U.S. on mobile phones before coming out in print regularly in the next few years.

Levy, whose company provides most of GoComics’ manga titles, said his company already is experimenting with adding animation and other cinematic touches to manga stories and tying in manga-themed games, ring tones, wallpaper and other content.

“I think that we’re all still in the experimental stage,” Levy said. “But I think with video and with technology that will allow the experience on the cell phone to become more engaging and more involved, we’ll be able to touch more customers in a number of areas.”

I tried out the service on my Verizon phone and the first chapter of DramaCon looked pretty nice with a couple instances of cropping and focusing on speech bubbles. However, I don’t think I would do it regularly because I like to have the whole thing in my hands and be able to admire two-page spreads or flip through the pages. Another excuse is a reluctance to paying a monthly subscription of $4.49 and using airtime to access something that I can’t view on anything else. It’s similar to my stance on ringtones and wallpapers - I’d rather make my own for free and have a lot of options instead of paying for a limited selection.

Yesterday I watched the first six episodes of Jubei-Chan through the Anime Selects channel of Comcast’s On Demand package. Much of the humor comes from the conflict between the simple Jiyu Nanohana and the overdramatics of her father, her attendant Koinosuke, the kendo student Shiro, the not-so-tough Ruffian Bantaro, and the teachers going after her. Shiro’s romantic struggle adds some romantic dramatics and while Bantaro’s efforts to woo Jiyu are overwhelmingly trumped by Shiro, he is still one of the more passionate characters in the series.

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ANN reports that BIGLOBE, a Japanese ISP owned by NEC, has teamed up with Toei to launch a subscription service wherein one can access “about a thousand” anime episodes from 15 titles by the production company for about US$13 a month. The selection will be refreshed every month with two titles being added and replacing two others, similar to video-on-demand from US cable television providers except this content is mainly going to be viewed on computer monitors.

The initial offerings for September include Sailor Moon, Fist of the North Star, Captain Harlock and Digimon Adventure (the first season). Looking at Toei’s production list, future additions could include Marmalade Boy, Mazinger Z, Cyborg 009, the 2002 edition of Kanon. I’m not so sure about more recent titles like Air Gear, Lovely Complex, or Pretty Cure but there is a possibility those could show up as well.