Nigorimasen! Blog

I was watching this week’s Funimation Quickie this morning and it apparently was the first in a series of AX centered episodes. But while going through the exhibit hall, host Scott Porter said in jest while holding a YAOI paddle, “Dude, I just found out about this new boating anime called YAOI and they’re giving away these paddles - you have to buy ‘em. I’m gonna see if I can find out more because I love boats!”

So why isn’t there one? It could feature hot guys on rowing or canoeing crews training for a big competition with water droplets glistening off their chests and staying in the same cabin at a summer camp…

Okay, I’ll stop there because I’m scaring myself from how easily I wrote that premise but you can imagine many possibilities of where one could go with the basic framework. It would be funny if it were in fact not yaoi but rather it’s a shonen sports anime about a boy learning about boating and seeing how many people are confused by the title. Nah, it would be better if it was actually yaoi and had meta references in it.

Amidst the flurry of distribution acquisitions by Funimation a weekend ago, there were a number of series that did not show up on those lengthy lists. The focus of the partnership with Geneon was to continue releases that were halted during initial single-by-single release (e.g. The Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry); begin putting out series that were licensed but had yet to be released (The Familiar of Zero, Lyrical Nanoha); and furnish complete collection releases for series that had finished their singles run but lacked an all-in-one box set (Ergo Proxy, Fate stay night, Shana season 1). The same seemed to be the case with most of the Sojitz-managed titles with the exception of Comic Party Revolution and possibly Nerima Daikon Brothers.
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You may have heard about ICANN — the internet’s governing body — approving a plan to allow an almost infinite amount of TLDs on top of the handful that already existed. They are hailing this as opening up new opportunities for non-English language internet users and businesses but I belong to the camp of dissenters that believe a majority of the possible TLDS will be too underpopulated to make their registration worthwhile. and cause confusion among non-tech people who have become accustomed to .com/.net/.org. Josh beat me to bringing up the possibility of a .anime TLD and the costs involved in establishing one - $100,000 to $500,000 according to Ars Technica.

The potential uses for a .anime and a .manga TLD seem initially beneficial with each series potentially able to have their own domain name, e.g. shaman-king.anime, berserk.manga, and give each an information space regarding its status in Japan, Europe, America, and other places. Digital downloads could also be served from each show’s individual page. The caveat, however, is who would be willing to front the funds to establish the TLD and manage registrations and who SHOULD be in charge of them. They could be handled by a consortium of publishers with a board of directors but there has to be some rules established to prevent any potential “bad blood” stir-ups or selfish business interests from disrupting any registration attempts.

Many would hope that whoever does step up and found such a TLD will allow for public registration but there will have be restrictions on what could be registered by non-copyright holders since most, if not all, publishers would want to protect their trademarks and brands from gaining a poor reputation from an amateurishly designed fansite. I doubt a slew of people would want their own .anime domain if they have an existing domain that serves them well but there may be a market of interested takers.

As you may have heard, ADV announced on Thursday a deal with CrunchyRoll to stream dubbed episodes of the Gonzo comedy anime Welcome to the NHK! in a promotional partnership. I didn’t have any particular response to the news at first because ADV has traditionally tried to get their dubs as much exposure as possible and because it was an official partnership between the companies, with Best Buy running a short sale ad at the beginning of the first one.

However, while checking out the partnership on CR, I saw High School Girls under the “Others Also Liked…” sidebar and recognized it as the same series that Media Blasters was releasing as Girl’s High. Episode 2’s list of three pseudo-recommendations contained Hand Maid May, a Geneon title that is barely available to buy but is still, I believe, under license by the company. A perusal of CR’s anime index revealed more than twenty other anime available for streaming that are still being sold on region 1 DVD and many of them are Geneon and Media Blasters titles.
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Totally unrelated, just wanted to use the image.

I’ve been reading the past couple days about the live-action Death Note premiering in theaters across America in a two-day limited run and while the effort garnered a fair amount of press, I feel it was a lost opportunity of sorts. The “unique theatre event” (from the press release) likely increased the appeal of Japanese film and anime-influenced productions given the brand attraction Death Note has. However, the fact that the film was shown dubbed and forced viewers to experience that instead of experiencing the original cast’s voices makes me shake my head in shame as a film purist first and an anime fan second. (I suppose it shouldn’t be called ‘forcing’ since attendees are willingly paying $10 per ticket but still.) Regular readers know that I am more forgiving than others with regard to dubs but why didn’t Viz think about bankrolling subtitles on their prints?

What’s odd about this is that in the next couple months, Bandai is going to be screening The Girl Who Leapt Through Time in limted release in three different locations: Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. The two West Coast cities will be getting the subtitled version while those in New York will see the English dubbed version. While it’s good that there are different options, it seems like New Yorkers are getting the shaft in a way.

I would prefer anime films be screened domestically the same way foreign films are shown in arthouse theaters - with minimal alterations and subtitled so the audience can understand as best as possible. Alas, this is not likely to happen in the near future with financial interest tied in with these promotional screenings.

This week Funimation has been announcing licenses and so far all of them have involved 13-episode sets. On Monday, it was Save Me, Lollipop (aka Mamotte! Lollipop) that will come out as a 13-episode set in December and Tuesday they announced plans to release the first 26 episodes of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple in two 13-episode box sets in 2009 without specification on the second set of twenty-six (meaning they may not have those yet). The latest was Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, the second anime season of the female cyborg assassin series, and those 13 episodes are going to be released as, you guessed it, a box set sometime in 2009. (Funi had put out the first season as singles in 2005 and repackaged it into a complete collection in 2006.)

It seems that they are certainly living up their plan toward more initial season sets but they are still releasing single volumes for new series like Shuffle! and xxxHOLiC, likely due to agreements with the Japanese owners. I wish I had access to sales numbers to see if this bulk packaging is actually working…

Just to give you an update on some of their previous announcements, Darker Than Black is listed as simply “2008″, Ghost Hunt’s site says Fall 2008, Ouran’s has no date but it was announced as 2008 at Otakon ‘07, and Negima!? and Planet of the Beast King (Jyu-Oh-Sei) don’t have their own sites yet but AnimeSuki lists both as 2008. So I guess we can expect some substantive details in the months ahead, maybe.

P.S. A user on the AoD forums predicts that Soukou no Strain will be announced tomorrow based on the silhouetted teaser on Funimation’s front page. And guess what, that has 13 episodes to its name as well.

Chris Beveridge posted a complaint Monday about the lackluster marketing and solicitation efforts of ADV Films and FUNimation to the broader non-hardcore audience. I personally haven’t had as bad a problem with on-box descriptions but I’ve had more of an issue with minimalistic ads, such as the above from the June issue of PiQ that I got in the mail late last week.

At first, I was like “what the hell is Shattered Angels?” and the one-line copy - “Why Choose?” - wasn’t helping me understand what the hell they were trying to advertise. It took a quick search engine query to divine that Shattered Angels is actually Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora under another name. (I later noticed that the image credit mentioned the production committee in the lower left corner but tiny, grey text on a white background is not very readable to the average eye.)
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I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Nozomi Entertainment, the licensing arm of TRSI, announced it will release the first season of ARIA the Animation (or as I like to call it, “that laid-back gondola anime”) subbed on September 30th. But while they continue to attract attention for bringing cult favorites like Victorian Romance Emma and Maria Watches Over Us to the states in season box sets, another independent licensor seems to be remaining stagnant and it’s not entirely clear how they will rise out of it.
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The deadline for nominating “web logs” in any of the Anime Blog Awards’ fifteen categories is next Tuesday, April 22nd, and I figured I’d write a post about it to remind any stragglers to submit their suggestions for the short lists. I’m also writing this under the situation that I haven’t been nominated once so far in any category. I’m not trying to be egotistical but come on, NOT ONE?!? *coughs* Perhaps I should chide myself a little for not making frequent posts or for not developing a substantial gimmick or personality with which I could market my blog. I would certainly agree I haven’t done anything particularly spectacular to warrant internet recognition through a group of my peers.
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Something that has irritated me lately has been the increasing trend of DVD volumes coming with the disc inside the case and that’s it. Recent examples in my buying experience have been the regular edition of Haruhi vol. 1, Red Garden vol. 1 and Pumpkin Scissors vol. 1. Seeing the empty space on the inside left side of the case when I open it for the first time triggers a sense of disappointment because I have an expectation that there was some sense of effort put into the packaging including the inserts.
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