Archive for the “Television” Category

The latest TV schedule posted on the Adult Swim website reveals that Code Geass will premiere on the late-night block April 27th at 1:30am. That happens to be a week after the dub’s debut at New York Comic Con (April 18-20); the English version of Lucky Star will also be screened sometime during the convention.

Announced last December, the localization cast for Geass features many “stars” including Johnny Yong Bosch (Renton, Eureka Seven; Ichigo, Bleach) as Lelouch, Kate Higgins (Talho, Eureka 7; Sakura, Naruto) as C.C., and Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke, Naruto; Alviss, MÄR) as Suzaku along with some lesser-known voices like Karen Stressman (Soifon, Bleach) as Kallen and Rebecca Forstadt (Rika Furude, Higurashi; Suiseiseki, Rozen Maiden) as Nunnally. Having a lot of talent does not guarantee a great dub, however. The morning after the episode airs, I’ll probably download it from Cartoon Palace and write some impressions but until then, I will attempt to catch up on the first season before the second season premieres in Japan next month. Ah, spring break is only two long weeks away…

There still hasn’t been a date announced for the DVDs but I think the first volume will be released some time in early summer, June/July – leaving the possibility for a promotion timed just before Anime Expo as was done with Haruhi – but that’s just some speculation on my part.

About a week and half ago, I got an e-mail from a PR firm about a cartoon series called Storm Hawks, which airs on Cartoon Network Monday nights at 7pm (eastern/pacific). The production company, Nerd Corps, asked them to “get in touch with high-caliber, well-written anime bloggers” like me. I don’t consider myself an A-rank blogger but whatever, I said I’d do it so now after watching the first seven episodes, I’m typing this short review up. (Other PR firms/departments of other companies, my contact info is on my About page.)

The main story is Aerrow and his scrappy crew, the Storm Hawks, are fighting to defend the Atmos from the evil Cyclonis. The Storm Hawks is one of many groups of Sky Knights that are charged with the duty of defending their particular region. This group of teenagers flies in their airship, the Condor, from Terra to Terra and fight in the sky and on the ground with their motorcycles equipped with collapsible wings. There are many different types of crystals that can power up swords, cloak objects, and be used in storm-creating devices among other things. Read the rest of this entry »

I really liked Macross Plus and I’m wondering how Sharon Apple sounds when she “sings” since she’s an AI with a computer generated voice. The character interaction within conversations seemed natural and there was always something interesting whether it was the test piloting action, Isamu hitting on Lucy and later Myung, or Myung dealing with her past and talking with Guld. Definitely going to be watching for the next three weeks. Also, the planet Eden looks a lot like Earth, doesn’t it?

Scott was right when he criticized the commercial breaks and the interstitials. Ad breaks happened less frequently during Macross Plus than it did during Tokko but they are still a little too close together. The interstitial jokes were kind of funny but the high-pitched girl’s voice was annoying.

Like any other Sci-Fi Channel show, the credits were squished down for about 30 seconds to allow for a promo to take up most of the screen before expanding back to full size. Besides that, I thought it was a pretty good programming block (they kept Tokko widescreen!) and it’s nice to have another option for watching dramatic anime on basic cable besides Adult Swim.

P.S. The Twilight Zone episode that aired after the block was one I hadn’t seen before and pretty interesting so if you’re still up at 1am and don’t want to watch Inuyasha (they’re still running reruns of that?!?), you can fall asleep to old-school scifi. Then again, I guess you don’t have that problem if you record the block on your PVR!