Posts Tagged “honey and clover”

Earlier this week, some upcoming Viz Media products were added to the online catalogs of RightStuf and of Robert’s Anime Corner Store including the 16th and final Naruto Uncut DVD box set (eps. 206-219), the 1st Naruto Shippuden DVD volume, the season 1 box set of Honey & Clover, the 20th volume of Bleach (eps 80-83), the second Bleach movie (The Diamond Dust Rebellion), and of course Pokemon Elements Vol 3: Electric and Vol 4: Water.

That last “pre-jump” Naruto box set will come out September 23rd and the first Shippuden disc a week later on September 29th. It was already obvious that the latter would be a hybrid release given how much Viz has already invested in dubbing the first series for television, and how popular those voice actors are, but I felt a little sad when I recalled that there will very likely not a cable broadcast of the series.

The relationship between anime companies and Cartoon Network has frayed over the past couple years and Viz has shifted its focus to digital distribution with virtual marketplaces like iTunes, Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace, and the PSN store and also on video portals such as Hulu. In fact, the first 113 episodes of Shippuden are currently available on Hulu and Crunchyroll in subtitled form. I don’t know when the dubbed episodes will appear online but I’m sure they would decide to focus on that than on the diminishing returns of cable broadcasting.

There is a slim chance that it would air on Cartoon Network but given the channel’s new focus on live-action programming like reality shows, it’s trending toward none. Programming decisions are based on audience estimates so if those shows pull in more eyeballs than what was occupying their Saturday night block, then that’s that.

The first “season” (12 episodes) of Honey and Clover, a series Viz had been trying to pitch to broadcasters at trade events for the past few years, will be released on September 22nd in hybrid format at a list price of $60 (lower at online retailers). This means we’ll finally hear an English dub in action – something I’ve been idly curious about for a while. Some roles have been revealed on the respective actors’ websites: Heather Halley as Hagumi and young Kaoru Morita, Julie Ann Taylor as Ayumi Yamada, and Yuri Lowenthal as Takamoto; Chris Kent has been added onto the series’ IMDb page as Shuuji Hanamoto.

The FUNimation Channel is supposed to run episodes of that, Monster, and Nana sometime this summer. There are still no details about a Monster video release, as far as I know.

From top to bottom: Japanese, German, English

When I was in Germany last August, I bought the first volume of Honey and Clover and wrote about how Tokyopop GmbH was releasing titles noticably ahead of US licensors. Now that Viz’s English version has hit shelves, I bought one of those and looked for differences and similarities between the German and American adaptations. What follows is a comparison of many features between the two in attempt to determine which is the better visual adaptation.
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Yesterday I was walking down Immermannstrasse, the main street of Düsseldorf’s Japanese district, and went into a comic book store. Inside there were manga and American comics translated into German as one would expect. I ended up buying an issue each of Daisuki (think Shoujo Beat), Animania (comes with pack-in DVD), and Manga sZene as well as some sticker sheets and a couple Chibi mangas (small sized 56 pages long from German authors). Gonna try to translate some of it during my downtime…

Anyway, I found out through a free Tokyopop pamphlet I picked up that they have already put out the first six volumes of Honey and Clover in Germany (webpage for vol. 1) and volume 7 is coming out in September. Each volume costs 6.50 Euro, which right now converts to just under nine US dollars so not much difference from US manga prices. Speaking of America, Viz Media announced last weekend at Comic-Con that the manga will replace Nana in Shojo Beat next March and that the first volume will also debut that month. Concidentally, just as the series starts its release in the US, the tenth and final volume will likely come out in Germany that same March.

I got my new 300-gig HDD set up for external use, just in time for the summer season. As of my writing this, I’ve watched the premieres of three shows, raw. Now, I usually don’t watch raw anime episodes. But…I’m anxious of some reason. I know I could wait for the sub groups make the karaoke graphics along with translating the dialogue, but I got impatient so I decided to dive right in them.

Since I don’t really know conversational Japanese, I only understood the broad details that could be gleaned from visual cues and select words I recognized. I’ll definitely watch the subbed versions of these shows in order to get the full effect. For now, courage.

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