The summer season of new anime is approaching and here are the premiering series I am interested in watching. (I looked at this for basic information.)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni [show site]
I only managed to get through eight episodes of Higurashi’s first season before putting it aside, annoyed by the rebooting and a little turned off by the violence. Since Umineko has a closed island situation and presumably fewer CRAZY EYES moments, I’ll give it a shot. The latest PV (via pKjd) shows a little bit of face contortion but the rest looks okay.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume (Taisho Baseball Girls) [show site]
It’s about baseball so I must try it out. It has the potential to be pedantic with many of the girls just picking up the sport but the 1925 (Taisho 14) setting might give it a different feel. The voice actress playing the bright-eyed Komue, Kanae Itou, is also voicing the similarly lively lead girl in Sora no Manimani.
Element Hunters [show site]
This could possibly be a sleeper hit for me because of a pedestrian interest in chemistry and the sciences in general. It deals with the chemical elements disappearing into another Earth on the other side of a dimensional wall, which a team of Element Hunters will try to breach in order to return the elements to their proper planet.
CANAAN [show site]
I saw some commercials for a live-action Wii adventure visual novel called 428 late last year and then quickly found out there would be an anime series by Type-Moon based on the scenario.
Sora no Manimani [show site]
It’s about Saku, a quiet bookish student, who moves back to his hometown as a high school freshman and gets brought into an astronomy club by Mihoshi, his childhood friend. I’ve had a passing fascination with the cosmos since childhood so that’s the initial pull for me. I currently have no expectations regarding the romantic comedy angle so we’ll see how that turns out.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 [show site]
Mildly interested in this one because it’s BONES, even though I am not too keen about plots that involve a group of characters trying to escape from something (e.g., The Happening, Cloverfield). Perhaps there will be some intangible that grabs me like chemistry between the three main characters, the initial disaster scene, or the overall tone.
Spice and Wolf II [show site]
I somehow only saw the first episode of the first season but didn’t continue despite liking it. I’m definitely still interested but I may or may not wait for season one to come out on DVD in December.
There are still a few series from this spring that I have yet to start and others I have only sampled so I’ll attempt to catch up those over the next month.
This is a follow-up to Monday’s post about Funimation joining Comcast’s video on demand service. I didn’t start up any of the episodes because I wanted to keep the video relatively short so I don’t know if some of the content that is originally widescreen would have been displayed as such, though I imagine it should.
A few things I’ll point out:
1) There is a folder for Ouran Host Club but no episodes are there right now. I looked at the online listings and episodes 1-5 should have been there. Episodes 1 & 2 are set to expire tomorrow (May 15th) and episodes 6 & 7 should be added tomorrow as well.
2) There are entries for Aria ep. 1 and Maria Watches Over Us ep. 1 under Anime Network’s free offerings. (as reported here) Both are set to expire after June 3rd.
3) Under Movies & Events – Anime Network, Clannad Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 (both 97 min.) are available for $3.99 each. It’s not a wild guess to think the former contains episodes 7-9 and the latter has episodes 10-12.
FUNimation announced Monday (saw this on Anime Vice) that they have joined Comcast’s On Demand service through two folders: The Cutting Edge, where other anime video-on-demand offerings like Anime Network reside, and Movies & Events, where pay-per-view content can be found. While the addition of already-released series through a standard free VOD model is nice for me as a customer, I’m finding “pre-release pay-per-view access” that “provides unprecedented sneak peek access to brands before the release on DVD” a little more interesting. PPV offerings for this month will include xxxHOLiC, Devil May Cry, and Tsubasa while Honey & Clover and NANA are mentioned among those slated for this summer. (I shouldn’t have been too surprised to see those last two considering this but I still was.) I will try to explore both folders tomorrow and maybe I’ll shoot a video while doing that.
This story reminds me of one that may not have received much press when it came out in mid-April: the appearance of streaming and DTO labels on Viz’s websites for the Honey & Clover and NANA anime. Both components are currently unavailable but at least one of them is likely to be enabled this summer since the first NANA box set is supposedly due out July 21st.
The DTO episodes should carry the now-standard price of $1.99 per episode for downloadable videos and could just entail links to various download services (iTunes, Zune Marketplace, et al.). I wonder what their PPV price on Comcast might be – according to their VOD blog post, Funi has their new dubbed series pre-DVD release series pegged at 99 cents – a very reasonable price point considering you’ll if you choose to watch that way – so it’s very likely that Viz’s will bear that price as well, but there is still a chance it could be a little higher. Their $2.99 price point for movies is the same that Comcast offers for library titles on their general Movies on Demand service and that Apple does for library titles on its Apple TV and through iTunes. I suspect that the streaming component might involve Hulu if they are planning to embed episodes onto each respective show site since Viz also uses that for Naruto.com.
FUNimation’s foray into PPV adds another method of non-DVD distribution for the company along with streaming episodes through Hulu, YouTube, Joost, Veoh, and their own video portal as well as offering download-to-own episodes through their web site, iTunes, Xbox Live & Zune Marketplaces and, most recently, the Playstation Network. Viz has been making similar strides into “alternative” distribution with a presence on many of the same video portals and marketplaces that FUNimation is on. They also brokered an arrangement to stream newly-aired-in-Japan episodes of Naruto Shippuden on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and their own Naruto site.
The “octopus approach” operated by both companies continues to take them to new platforms, though Viz has some catching up to do. Meanwhile, Bandai just began on putting episodes on YouTube in February and currently have Code Geass season 1 and Gundam 00 up there. They don’t have the financial flexibility to venture out as much as the other two do but at least they’re starting to experiment with it.
P.S. I know this is all US-centric stuff so if you choose to make a comment, don’t just complain about regional restrictions. By the way, Evan Flournoy, Manager of Brand Protection and Rights Enforcement for Funimation, said last week that those restrictions are mandated by the licensors.
As a fan of the the first anime series and of the originating manga, I was interested in how this new version, FMA Brotherhood, would turn out. I was initially optimistic and I haven’t been disappointed so far after watching the first four episodes (through FUNimation’s video portal, just to clarify).
I like how Brotherhood is running faster than its predecessor. Shou Tucker’s story originally occupied two episodes; it’s now been told in one. A similar condensing happened with Cornello and Lior, with Rose’s “revived” brother and Ed in chains being cut, omissions I’m fine with. The mining town incident with Lt. Yoki was wrapped up in a few lines during an office conversation. I think the Clause/Majihal and the train hostage situation are being passed over entirely for the sake of a quicker storyline, which may be for the better. Those took place before Ed got his State Alchemist title, anyway, and it would benefit the series to not waste time on events of the past and instead focus on the main narrative.
Even though this remake seems “darker” – however you wish to read that – there are still the same moments of humor, e.g., Al being confused as Fullmetal during the brothers’ first appearances and Ed being sensitive about his height.
Something that bothered me about the first series, now that I look back at it, was Michiru Oshima’s orchestral score because it could be overbearing at times, particularly in the last quarter of the series. Akira Senju is handling the soundtrack this time around and though there are some tracks with similar dramatic vamps, there have also been less bombastic ones including a sullen, Middle Eastern-sounding string piece in ep. 3 (15:25-16:37 on Funi’s timecode) when Al was telling Rose about how he came to be a suit of armor. Regarding the opening and ending sequences, I didn’t care for either at first but then I grew to like most of YUI’s “again” – the quick bridge still annoys me a bit.
P.S. Alex Leavitt wrote an interesting post recently about the art design differences between the two series based on their first episodes.
This spring season features the highest amount of premiering anime being streamed legally with more than a half dozen premiering series currently “simulcast” on the Internet. Most of them are on Crunchyroll – Saki, Hayate no Gotoku!!, Natsu no Arashi, Shangri-la, Mainichi Kaa-san, and Ristorante Paradiso – while FUNimation is following up Shikabane Hime with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood except this time, they are restricting the new episodes to their video portal.
The ball got rolling in spring 2008 when Gonzo GDH placedTower of Druaga and Blassreiter onto YouTube, BOST, and Crunchyroll (CR); Strike Witcheswent onto those same three services that July. October saw CR play host to premiering series Linebarrels of Iron and FUNimation push Shikabane Hime onto YouTube, Hulu, Joost, and their newly launched video portal. Crunchyroll addedShugo Chara and Skip Beat in November; in January, they took on Gintama, Natsume Yujincho and Naruto Shippuden, the latter of which Viz also streamed through Naruto.com, Hulu, and Joost. Crunchyroll addedHitman Reborn in March.
One of the things that worries content providers about putting their video portals is whether the sites will actually generate revenue. It seems that Crunchyroll has gotten off to a good start by establishing an attractive platform for foreign content owners to get their properties global reach – a Yomiuri article about TAF 2009 relays the following figures for Crunchyroll: 4.5 million visitors who were often exposed to advertising, 1.5 millions of hours viewed monthly, and almost 15,000 paying memberships at $6.95 a month ($100,000+ of regular revenue).
On its about page, Crunchyroll says “[p]roceeds from the subscription service are shared among [their] content publishers”. It’s assumed that a portion of advertising revenue also goes toward that pool of creators. The question is whether the allocated distribution is based on a uniform rate or dependent of video views. That distinction could be be important for a studio in financial troubles like GONZO, which is undergoing restructuring. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s almost April and I feel obligated to disclose the series I am initially interested in out of the batch of spring premieres. That doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try out other spring series down the line as I hear good things about them. Just to let you know how far I am in the winter series I started, I’m behind on all except Hetalia and that is only because its episodes are 5 minutes long. Read the rest of this entry »
When I read on February 20th that Viz Media asked Hulu and Joost to disable embedding of their episodes, I wasn’t that surprised because it was part of a larger (possibly temporary) pullback by entertainment studios in general regarding how their content is streamed online.
Earlier that same week, there was a back-and-forth between CBS and Hulu following the disabling of embeds Feb. 17 on TV.com, which was part of CBS’ acquisition of CNET Networks in June 2008. (CBS content doesn’t show up on Hulu because the network hosts videos on its proper site as well as TV.com.) That was followed by Hulu pulling content off Boxee (a media center program) and explaining that it was done at the request of their content providers. TV.com came out with an iPhone/iPod Touch application (iTunes link) on Friday, increasing the sense of competition between the two sites.
Joost wrote a short message about the anime matter, saying they “hope to be able to allow you to embed and watch these shows on other sites again soon”. Just before publishing this post, I checked Joost and embed codes have returned to Viz’s shows – I was able to get self-embeds of Death Note and Naruto Shippuden from Hulu to play more often than not, so maybe Viz’s posturing has ended for now. Read the rest of this entry »
Remember the misreported story last month about Best Buy getting rid of their anime section? Well, details of the company’s actual plans were revealed yesterday (saw via ANN) and they involve ranking of titles and clearance sales next month.
Once I read the words “A-list”, “B-list”, and “C-list” in the ANN article, I immediately thought back to two previous posts I had written in response to ADV Films’ John Ledford using similar terminology to describe how marketable different anime series are. In this case, the A-list titles will be “around 20 core anime SKUs”, according to ICv2, and would be carried in all locations; those would presumably include Afro Samurai, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z. The B-list series (”over 100 anime SKUs”) would appear in about half of their 1,000+ stores and the C-listers would only show up in their top 200 stores nationwide as part of “large scale anime assortments”. So something like Baccano! may fall into the B range while Save Me! Lollipop and Indian Summer would likely fall under the C category. A reminder: these categorizations are based on expected marketability and not directly reflective of the quality of the series themselves.
I perused the list of stores ICv2 posted (ANN’s copy has store numbers) that will have 50% off clearance sales March 1st-21st and found two that I sometimes frequent – one in Vacaville and the other in Natomas – are on it so I’ll try to stop by both those in early March to see what’s available (and snag any good stuff) as well as do before and after shots of their respective sections. The ones in Citrus Heights and Arden Fair (Sacramento) weren’t listed so I’m assuming both will continue to carry A’s & some B’s.
There was no indication of a reduction in their online offerings but there may be a decline in how many copies they order as an entire retailer. This move will result in fewer total sales of anime in their B&M stores and pushing more people toward other online-only outfits but it may negligible for the company since the stores that are contracting their shelf space weren’t making an impact anyway. I hope many of those vacated spaces aren’t replaced by plastic instruments…
So just to recap: only the best-selling stores will carry the widest breadth of anime, the middle will carry a more moderate amount, and the least will have significantly pared-down sections – and there will be clearance sales next month.
Scott Green at Ain’t It Cool News passed along that Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers, which is being distributed by Sony’s Stage 6 Films label, was granted a PG-13 rating by the MPAA Ratings Board for “material involving violence, some sexual content and smoking”. The next big steps are deciding on a release date and casting dub actors, if any.
Just to compare, here are what some other recent anime films to hit the big screen were rated: Paprika (2006; Sony Pictures Classics) – R for “violent and sexual images”; Howl’s Moving Castle (2005; Buena Vista) – PG for “frightening images and brief mild language”; Appleseed (2004; Arcangelo Entertainment) – R for “some violence”
I have been trying to stay away from others’ detailed first impressions of winter premieres so as to not influence my first viewings of them. Sadly, Twitter is more pervasive in potentially spoiling such things but at least I got a sense of what a segment of the community feels about certain series after only one episode.
In this post, I will provide my short reactions to Akikan!, White Album, Maria Holic, Kurokami, and Asu no Yoichi! – short because earlier reactions from others likely recounted the plots satisfactorily and because I don’t see the need to be garrulous over just the first episodes. In addition, I made a list of commonalities among most of the group that came to mind from watching them all in a row, the exception being Asu no Yoichi! Read the rest of this entry »
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