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Koi in pool inside Japan Center

Since I had a day off work yesterday, I decided to trek to San Francisco for the afternoon after cutting a haircut in the morning. I left home at 11:45 and arrived at the Japan Center around 2pm. My main stopping point was Kinokuniya – I had made a list of manga I was interested in & which publisher they might be found under. While searching the shelves, I started hearing some spring anime themes: Arakawa Under the Bridge, GIANT KILLING (which felt odd because it was while I was looking for vol. 2), RAINBOW, HEROMAN, one I couldn’t pin down, and then a few FMA Brotherhood opening songs.

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Statement of delivery from Gonzo Style

After hearing in September that Gonzo would be closing its official online store at the end of that month, I ordered some items from the GONZO Style store since there were heavy discounts on a number of products. (Like usual, I waited until the last day to place the order.) I used a forwarding service called JSHOPPERS that worked pretty well and the package arrived yesterday through DHL.
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They shouldn’t need to subtitle this chalkboard shot much, if at all!

When ADV/Sentai Filmworks announced some new acquistions via retail solicitations on Tuesday, I was surprised by a few things. The first was Ghost Hound, a series I only got 3 episodes into and forgot to resume watching despite kind of liking it, and the second was the pricing of its release relative to others that were also revealed.

The first Ghost Hound set will have episodes 1-11 and retail for $59.98 (current pre-order: $45) while the complete set 12-episode release of He is My Master and the 12-episode Clannad After Story part 1 will both street for $40 (current pre-order: $30). Maybe they figure GH has a smaller appeal than HIMM and Clannad and thus estimate lower expected sales, necessitating a higher price point to recoup acquistion costs. Perhaps being a Production I.G. project also has something to do with it.

Kiba previously ran on Toonami Jetstream and 33 of its 51 episodes are currently available to be watched on Anime Network Online by Premium users with new episodes going live each Thursday. $60 retail ($45 pre-order) for the whole set (Oct. 13th) sounds like a good deal to me as a consolidation of two previously released 26-episode sets at $50 a piece but I imagine it will a re-packaging of those two sets (Bandai’s Anime Legends bricks come to mind). I saw about half the series in anime club a few years ago and enjoyed it so I’ll look into this.

I have no opinion about the other “new” acquistions, Popotan and Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy, except I may rent the Geneon discs eventually just to see what either are about.

Links
Clannad After Story set 1: TRSIRACS
Ghost Hound Collection 1: TRSIRACS
He is My Master Complete Collection: TRSIRACS
Kiba Complete Collection: TRSIRACS
Popotan Collection: TRSIRACS
Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy Collection: TRSIRACS

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TRSI added a bunch of items to their online catalog today and along with many repackagings and consolidations in FUNimation’s September solicitations, there were many previously unannounced items and details to be found as well.

(UPDATE 6/24 3:44PM PDT: Robert of his eponymous Anime Corner Store wrote a post [saw via scottfrye] saying they now have pretty much all the same items up for pre-order.)

GONZO anime Burst Angel is evidently getting a Blu-ray release on September 29th at a list price of $79.98. (TRSI’s pre-order price is currently $60.) It will have all 24 TV episodes and the Infinity OVA, just like its Viridian Collection release in June 2008, except now in high-definition.

Nabari no Ou will have its first 13-episode set come out on September 22nd at a typical $59.98 price point. The ninja action series was one of Funi’s New Show A Go Go licenses last December and the manga is currently being published by Yen Press.

Sgt. Frog (aka Keroro) Season 1 Part 1 comes out on Sept. 22nd. That date was announced during their main panel at Anime Next but not the “budget” list price of $39.98 for 12 episodes. That’s at the same level as their Shin-chan releases but this will be a hybrid release (remember their test episode from November?) unlike the dubbed only Shin-chan.

Other first-run releases include the second half of Big Windup! sliding home (TRSI; RACS) on Sept. 29th ($59.99 MSRP), 6 weeks after the first half; the second half of Kaze no Stigma dropping on Sept. 1st ($59.98 MSRP); and One Piece Season 2 Part 3 continuing the adventures of the Going Merry crew on Sept. 29th ($49.98 MSRP). RACS also has that One Piece box set listed, saying it contains episodes 79-91.

After having finished with their Dragon Ball GT and DBZ uncut box sets, Funi will give the same treatment to the original Dragon Ball series when they release the first season uncut DVD set on Sept. 15th for $49.98 MSRP, the same price point as their previous uncut box sets from the franchise.

I’ll wrap up talking about Funi with some former Geneon releases. On Sept. 29, a box set of Heat Guy J will come out at $49.98 MSRP (TRSI) and both Black Lagoon seasons are being repackaged into a single box set at $69.98 MSRP, also on Sept. 29 (RACS; TRSI). There will also be a number of repricings of their $69.98 Geneon box set reissues last year: Ergo Proxy on Sept. 29th (RACS; TRSI), Fate/stay night on Sept. 1st (RACS; TRSI), and Shakugan no Shana on Sept. 15th (RACS; TRSI).

Finally: there are some Nozomi releases of some decades-old series. The first of two Kimba the White Lion mini-collections come out at $49.98 MSRP on October 6th (link), the second Gigantor collection on Sept. 15 for $39.98 MSRP (link), and two mini-collections of Astro Boy, both on Oct. 6th at $49.98 MSRP apiece (set 1, set 2)

Whew, that was tiring to put together!

UPDATE 6/23 11:10 PM PDT: I later found out that Nozomi had issued separate press releases about the Kimba and Astro Boy mini-sets.

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Case Closed Season 3 and Receipt

Monday afternoon I stopped by the Best Buy in Natomas (store #660) and bought Case Closed Season 3, which was 17.99 after the half-off discount. Ghost Hunt Parts 1 and 2 were also there for the same price but I’m a little tight on money right now (typical college student excuse). But I’ll try to pick those up at a later time, promise. Once I got home, I was surprised by how thin the volume actually was, given this was my first neo-FUNimation set.
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