Annas Anime Blog

You might want to catch up with my reviews of School Rumble, Volume One, Two, and Three before reading my review of Volume Four!

Summer is still in full swing in Volume Four of School Rumble, and girls are in the middle of a friendship crisis!

plot summary

Eri has subtly insulted her friend, Mikoto, over a misunderstanding involving Harima. Mikoto tries to confront Eri to settle their dispute, but Eri runs away faster than Mikoto can say “It’s not a date!”

Eri has a strange love/hate relationship with Harima, while Harima despises Eri but is polite to her for the sake of Tenma.

Tenma thinks Harumi is the world’s biggest player and is afraid he might try to woo her little sister, Yakumo while on a co-ed camping trip with their friends.

Misunderstandings seem to follow Harima, Tenma, and Eri around like depressing storm clouds, and the camping trip is no exception. Once again Harima tries to confess his love to Tenma, and once again, Eri gets in the way and becomes entangled in her own emotions concerning Harima.

Harima has issues other than Tenma to contend with, however, as his beloved animal friends have no safe place to stay. Yakumo sees the softer side of Harima and she and her friends lend Harima a hand in helping his furry pals.

Tenma’s classmate, Karen, has fallen for the obnoxious and boob-crazy Imadori. Tenma tries to help Karen out when Karen goes on an obligatory date with Imadori, but it’d be better if Karen forgot about Imadori since he’s already forgotten about her. It looks as if the heartaches surrounding Tenma and company have finally spread to their classmates!

review

Character Development

Volume Four of School Rumble was as funny as previous volumes and gave some good insight into a few of Tenma’s friends; namely Eri, Mikoto and the two’s relationship. But what I kept hoping to see never cropped up in this Volume, which was the reason for Tenma’s attraction to Karasuma. I also kept wanting to see Harima succeed once, just once, in his declaration of love to Tenma.

I understand there’s so much going on in School Rumble, that it’s hard to get info crammed into an episode and still have the episode make sense and be funny. School Rumble resembles a comedic, animated soap opera, in that it’s epic, never ending, and becomes more and more convoluted as time goes on.

The series is continuing on in an organic fashion; one set of circumstances has a profound domino effect on the series and grows into a completely new side story. This organic domino effect is thankfully humorous and is what keeps the long drawn out misunderstandings and “he said, she said”s from becoming tiresome and obnoxious. I will say that it’s hard to keep up with the love stories popping up and crumbling just as fast they appear.

School Rumble, Volume Four went by quickly and had the effect of leaving me wanting more- now. School Rumble is an anime worth investing the time in since it delivers what it promises and then some- laughs, laughs, more laughs, and tears.

Rating

School Rumble, Volume Four gets 3 out of a possible 4 Hammies!

Posted by Me on 30-03-2008 10:05:55 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Hard candy doesn’t really wow me; it’s a lump of flavored sugar that’s only function is to dissolve. Oh so not impressive. I like my candy with texture and personality, not some lazy piece of sucrose. However, if hard candy meets me halfway in terms of being more than a slightly flavorful ball of sweetness, then I’ll invest the cash to give it a shot.

Mitsuya Cider promises that it’ll taste like cider, at least, that’s what I got from the packaging. “Cider” is not a flavor I see often in hard candy, and Japanese hard candy hasn’t been as disappointing as Western hard candy-at least the Japanese candy I’ve tried so far.

The people who make Mitsuya Cider, Asahi, are part of the same giant mega-corp who manufacture alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals, and soft drinks. It would make sense for a huge beverage company to make candy modeled after their own drinks. Mitsuya Cider is an Asahi beverage, which is said to taste like “Sprite”. Mitsuya Cider is also available in white peach, grape, lemon and mikan (orange).

Packaging

The bag has bold fonts, which make it easy to read the giant English words on the front. Good use of colors and transparent materials add interest to the packaging. The apple on the front is further proof the candy is of the apple cider variety. Three balls on the packaging display the candies inside, which are individually packaged.

Each candy is individually wrapped and labeled according to flavor. Interestingly, there are two “cider” flavors, making a total of four flavors, despite the packaging on the front. Bonus flavor? One packet is green and simply says “Mitsuya Cider” and the other is yellow, sports an apple and also reads “Mitsuya Cider”. So which one is cider? And why bother calling both cider, since cider is made from apples and only one packet has an apple? I’ll bet the one with the apple is the apple cider…
Score: A

Appearance

Hard candy only works for me if it’s in ball form. Mitsuya Cider are nickel-sized balls with a satiny sheen. The pastel colors of pink, white, buttercup and peach are attractive matches for the satin glossiness.
Score: A

Texture

Mitsuya Cider takes a page from its beverage pedigree and fizzes in a subtle manner as it dissolves. The effervescence isn’t a violent action, but a steady, pleasant tingling that accompanies the flavor. It’s definitely carbonated in texture (if carbonated can even be described as texture) and is enjoyable. Crunching down on the candy is like crunching on any other hard candy except with a bit more fizz and a quicker dissolve of the candy.
Score: A+

Flavor

Cider rocks. I love apple cider, but I can’t really say that the cider (sans apple) variety of this candy actually tastes like apple cider. “Cider”, without the apple, tastes more like “Sprite”, which is what the beverage the candy is based off is supposed to taste like.

If the candy was to taste like the beverage; mission accomplished. However, if “cider” was supposed to taste like apple cider; fail. “Cider” is still an excellent flavor, as it’s lively, bright and all together refreshing. But, no dice on the apple cider flavor.
Score: A

The cider flavor with the apple on the packaging gets close to tasting like apple cider, but not close enough for me. This cider’s flavor is a light apple, which doesn’t equate with cider. Cider has a deeper and duskier apple flavor. This flavor is more like sparkling apple juice instead of apple cider. Good flavor, but it’s not apple cider.
Score: A-

The peach is another bright flavor and has a crisp taste. It’s very full and reminds me of a warm summer breeze. Americans don’t have any famous, mainstream peach flavored soda to equate the flavor to, but this candy is very tasty and light.
Score: A+

“Grape” is like sipping grape soda. It has that fake grape soda tang which harkens back to my youth, when we kids would pop open a can of Vess grape soda while on picnics. Grape is intense and it really tastes just like grape soda. Mmmm, fake grape…
Score: A

The Verdict

Mitsuya Cider is the tastiest hard candy I’ve tried in a long time. The flavors are all delicious and the fizziness makes them a joy to eat. I highly recommend this candy. At .99, you get all the flavor of four tasty sodas without all the sugar.

Posted by Me on 28-03-2008 12:01:38 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

There was some shakiness to the start of the New Year so let’s get the bad news out of the way first:

Viz Media has discontinued DVD releases for the MÄR anime series after volume 4. This was originally reported by AnimeSexDVD and later picked up by ANN. When ANN questioned Viz Media, their public relations department gave them the following answer:

“As in the case with all entertainment companies, we are constantly evaluating the titles we release and how they are released, and at this present time these titles are under evaluation. We do however still have the license to produce these titles, and they are still available for viewing on Toonami Jetstream.”

However, only half the episodes have been dubbed and it is uncertain if Viz will have the remainder dubbed.

The other title referred to in the reply is the strategy game series Hikaru no Go. ANN has reported that some retailers have said that the series would no longer be released on single DVDs, which means there is still a chance that Hikaru no Go will be released exclusively in a boxed set. Viz has released some titles in this manner including The Prince of Tennis and Buso Renkin.

ANN Story:
Viz Responds to Questions about MÄR, Hikaru no Go DVDs

__________

Here are a couple more pieces of bad news, but at least they have a silver lining:

Earlier this month retailers Right Stuf and Robert’s Anime Corner Store reported issues with some releases from Bandai Entertainment. The affected titles are Gundam Seed Destiny Vol. 12 regular and special editions, Eureka Seven Vol. 11, Flag Vol. 2, and My-Otome Vol. 4. On January 9, Bandai Entertainment issued a press release which confirmed the defective discs. It described the problem as “a result of a duplicator’s error which created playability issues on some DVD consoles and personal computers“. The titles have been recalled from stores and replacements will be shipped when they become available. For customers who already purchased defective discs, the press release states:

“A special link on the www.bandai-ent.com site will be active beginning 1/17/08. Customers who purchased the above mentioned titles and are experiencing difficulties should click on the link and follow instructions for the replacement program. This link is only for replacement discs of the above listed titles.”

ANN Story:
Bandai Entertainments Confirms Recall on 4 DVDs

Also earlier this month, ADV contacted retailers to let them know that Newtype USA would be ceasing publication after the February issue. ADV had licensed Newtype USA from Kadokawa Shoten who publishes the original Japanese Newtype magazine. The first issue was the November 2002 issue (not counting the “0″ issue released at Anime Expo 2002). ADV is planning to replace Newtype USA with a new magazine called PiQ. In an email sent to subscribers who were concerned about the status of their subscriptions, ADV wrote:

“We will be launching a new magazine that will be on sale in mid-March. Titled PiQ, the magazine will cover anime, manga, video games and other aspects of pop culture of keen interests to you. All existing subscribers will have their remaining issues fulfilled at a two-to-one ratio, meaning you will get double the number of magazines delivered straight to your doorstep! We hope you stick with us and give the new magazine a shot. We’re sure you’ll love it!“

As to why they are ceasing publication of Newtype USA, the email ADV sent to retailers mentioned (according to AnimeOnDVD.com, January 10 listing) “the changes…relate to licensing needs that go back to Japan.” Additionally, AOD noted that this decision was also “likely the result of the changing landscape in the US market“. AOD pointed out, “Anyone who has a copy of the magazine can tell easily where a good chunk of their advertising came from when you notice just how much Geneon Entertainment pushed their goods there“.

Image of the January 2008 issue of Newtype USA is from the Newtype USA site.

ANN Stories:
Newtype USA to Cease Publication
A.D. Vision to replace Newtype USA with PiQ in March

__________

Okay, let’s move on to some better news…first up a freebie of sorts:

Good news for US audiences…the Sci Fi Channel will be doubling their anime blocks. In addition to their Ani-Monday block (11pm - 1am ET), Sci Fi will start a 2-hour block on Tuesday nights in the same time slot. Okay so that amounts to just another 2 hours per week. Still, this is a promising development. If Sci Fi is planning to try to compete with the first two hours of Adult Swim’s weeknight block, then they will eventually strip their anime programming Monday thru Friday.

The new block…yet to be named, though Ani-Tuesday doesn’t have the same ring as Ani-Monday…will start in February.

Here is what will be shown on Ani-Monday in February:

• Feb. 4 - Ninja Scroll
• Feb. 11 - Tactics/Noein
• Feb. 18 - Tactics/Noein
• Feb. 25 - Tactics/Noein

Here is what will be shown during the Tuesday block in February:

• Feb. 5 - R.O.D. (Read or Die)
• Feb. 12 - Appleseed
• Feb. 19 - Kai Doh Maru
  
• Feb. 12 - X

It looks like Mondays will primarily be used to show series and Tuesdays will primarily be used for movies.

In another bit of TV related news, the cable premium channel Starz Edge, is moving its Animidnight block to Mondays at midnight (i.e., Tuesday morning). Here is the upcoming schedule:

• Jan. 28 - Desert Punk, Episodes 21 & 22
• Feb. 4 - Desert Punk, Episodes 23 & 24
• Feb. 11 - Hellsing Ultimate, Episodes 1 & 2
• Feb. 18 - Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society
• Feb. 26 - Black Lagoon, Episodes 1 & 2

Two points of interest…first the parent company of Starz Edge is Starz, LLC. Starz, LLC also owns Manga Entertainment which supplies the majority of Sci Fi’s Ani-Monday offerings. With this move, Animidnight will be aired at the same time as Ani-Monday and Sci Fi’s Tuesday anime block.

Second, Starz Edge was originally going to air Hellsing Ultimate, Episodes 3 & 4 on February 18. However, Geneon USA (not dead yet) has told ANN that “episode 4 will not be ready with an English-language track next month“. Another issue was the fact that episode 4 is not scheduled to be released in Japan by Geneon Entertainment (Geneon USA’s parent company) until February 22. It will be interesting to see when and if an English dub of episode 4 will be available for broadcast…and if it will ever make it to DVD.

ANN Stories:
America’s Sci Fi Channel Adds Anime on Tuesdays
Hellsing Ultimate 4 Unavailable for Starz Edge Next Month

__________

Now on to the sales:

Amazon.com is having a sale they call the Big Anime Sale. You can save up to 50% on a select list of over 225 DVDs. No end date is listed for the sale.

__________

AnimeNation’s current sale is called their New Year’s Sale and it is essentially a continuation of their Overstock Sale.

You can save up to 60% on a select list of items. There is no end date listed for the sale.

__________

RightStuf! has a new sale called Take Note: Savings That Rule. You can save on products from Viz Media.

You can take 33% off the retail prices of all books and graphic novels. You can take 40% off the retail prices of all DVDs. This includes pre-orders. The coupon code is takenote and it expires on January 20 at 11:59 pm CST.

__________

Borders is offering a printable coupon for 20% off one item when purchased at a Borders store. Read the fine print for the exclusions. The coupon expires on January 21.

Posted by Me on 28-03-2008 12:01:00 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

It’s not much of a secret that I love Japanese sweets, aka wagashi. In my free time, I go on the .jp and search out new wagashi to research and try. I spend hours pouring over websites and trying my hand at translating katakana.

The only thing that really gets me through the massive amounts of translating and finagling is the Japanese’s love of pictures. Thanks to many illustrative photos and videos, I’ve been able to cobble together the rudimentary beginnings of a wagashi cookbook. One of the first recipes I tried off the .jp was kimishigure.

Kimishigure is made from egg yolks (kimi), bean paste (shiro koshi an and aka koshi an) rice flour (joshinko), water (mizu) and sugar (johakuto). Simple, right? This particular wagashi is a bit tricky since it must crack open when it steams, otherwise, it just isn’t kimishigure.

Adding too much water or too much sugar will hamper the cracks from developing, resulting in uncracked kimishigure. I learned this fact the hard way. My first try of kimishigure ended not so well, as it was not cracked and was overcooked. However, the wagashi were still tasty and pretty, just not as tasty and pretty as they could have been.

Here’s a simple recipe for this elegant and tasty wagashi I found and tailored:

Kimishigure

• 1 2/3 cups shiro koshi an
• 1 cup plus 2 1/2 Tbls. aka koshi an
• 1/4 cup joshinko (non-glutinous rice flour)
• 2 egg yolks, beaten and divided into 3/4 and 1/4 portions
• food coloring, optional
• sarashian (anko powder), optional

1. Wrap the shiro koshi an in plastic wrap and microwave on high for four minutes. Or, heat over medium heat until piping hot and bubbly, making sure not to over dry or burn the an.

2. In the hot shiro an, mix in 3/4 of the egg yolks and blend well. Scoop hot shiro an and yolk mix onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet and spread it around. Cover with a clean, damp cotton cloth to prevent drying and let cool 20 minutes.

3. After the shiro an is cooled, add the joshinko and remaining yolk. Mix well. Add the food coloring at this time if you’re using it, keeping in mind natural, light colors work best with wagashi. Traditionally, the kimishigure is not colored, but is simply rolled around in the sarashian for added effect. But go nuts. Own that kimishigure!

4. Evenly divide the anko and roll it into 15 balls. Set aside. Evenly divide the kimishigure dough and roll it into 15 balls.

5. In a clean palm, flatten the kimishigure dough into an even round. Place a ball of anko in the round and carefully wrap the anko with the round. Make sure the dough is of an even thickness around the anko center to ensure proper cracking. I shaped mine into ovals and rounds, but you can choose a more traditional route and simply make round balls.

6. Coat each ball with sarashian, if using, patting the powder lightly but firmly into the dough.

7. Line a steamer tray with a damp cotton cloth and place the kimishigure on the cloth approximately 3/4″ apart. Steam them on high for 7-10 minutes or till they crack. Do not steam them longer than 12 minutes as they’ll get tough.

Makes 15

The flavor for kimishigure is reminiscent of fortune cookies and rice pudding and is absolutely delish. The egg yolks are the only added fat in this dessert and you can control the amount of sugar of the kimishigure either in the anko (if you make your own) or in the dough, making kimishigure a healthy dessert alternative.

You can be very creative when making kimishigure or you can take the traditional route and make classic kimishigure without all the frills. If you’re daunted by the thought of “beans as dessert”, use a piece of milk or dark chocolate in the middle instead of anko and coat the outside with cocoa for a kimishigure truffle. Believe it or not, however, the flavor of the beans from the shiro an is undetectable in kimishigure and most wagashi. I’ve found lima beans make the best shiro an for kimishigure since they taste more buttery than beany.

Give this traditional wagashi a whirl in your kitchen and let me know how yours turn out!

Difficulty:Moderate | Time:50 minutes | Ingredient Availability: Moderate

Posted by Me on 27-03-2008 06:50:28 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

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There are no boundaries in the world of pleasure, so come take a peek into their dream world and see what it's like to have each and every pleasure fulfilled! Watch as they position themselves in the most revealing of positions and show off their petite bodies just for you! They're inside waiting!

Click here now to see more Softcore toons presented by HentaiXXXtreme.com

Posted by Me on 27-03-2008 06:50:21 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

With impeccable drawn titties and their blotty curves, these drawn girls love to bang! See how they get dress up in the sexiest and revealing outfits and show off their incredible petite bodies! From huge soft boobies, to small perky drawn boobies, each stunner is built differently and offers you her own unique style of banging! Lesbian drawn cuties spreading their long legs wide naked to get their sweet twats serviced by tongues, and girls who crave sweet clit juice in their mouths!

There are no sexual limits in their world of pleasure; these gay woman girls do it all! Watch drawn girls slamming and shoving their fingers and various making love toys into their craving drawn cunts! Each scene takes place in a new surrounding, from homes to offices at work, these nympho drawn girls will bang each other wherever they can! Hot drawn girls in hardcore gay woman drawn banging action!

Click here now to see more Hardcore toons presented by HentaiXXXtreme.com

Posted by Me on 24-03-2008 05:55:26 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Kinky and blotty drawn girls in the most hardcore banging action! These girls are ready to play! With their craving cunts wanting and needing serviced, they'll get more than what they need to get satisfied. Assholes get banged with the biggest cocks, making them stretch out to their stiffy capacity, while cunts are banged and filled with inches of thick man meat! Guys thrusting and pounding away on sweet pussies, abusing them and banging them raw until they can't cum anymore! Each drawn stunner is in need of a good stiffy clit pounding and that's exactly what these girls get!

Sex toys get used to assist the twats that are in need of extra special attention, as their perky boobies are sucked and licked on to get them ready for action! From fingers to foreign toys, nothing is off limits when it comes to aiding these harlots into cumming all over!

Click here now to see more Hardcore toons presented by HentaiXXXtreme.com

Posted by Me on 24-03-2008 05:55:26 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

As fans of anime, we watch anime- a lot. It’s what fans do. Some of us watch more than others, while some are the occasional anime fan, time permitting.

When I was first getting into anime, I watched some anime at least once a week. At the time, the longest I would go without watching anime would be about a week. The more I became interested in anime, the more I would watch. Eventually, I was watching anime three to four times a week and little else. Then things evened out, and watching anime became a regular bi-weekly habit.

These days, even if we’re (David and I) busy, we try and watch anime at least once a week. There was a time though, when we weren’t able to watch the anime which was piling up, due to circumstances beyond our control. I think the longest we went then was a month or two. We had to play hardcore catchup to stay up to date with all the anime we needed to watch, and I would like to forgo a repeat experience.

How long have you been deprived of anime, at the longest, either by your own will or against it? Was it a week, day, hour, month or was it more like years? What’s the longest you’ve gone without watching anime?

Feel free to comment about your anime abstinence below!

Posted by Me on 22-03-2008 12:41:07 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Anime Insider issue 52 has hit. Here are some of the features in this issue:

• Side Stories - Seven series are pitted against themselves to see which reigns supreme - the anime or the manga?
• Reality Bites - A real-life relationship primer for the clueless male lead of Kanon
• The 2008 Mega-Preview - Everything you need to know about the anime that will rock your socks off over the next 12 months
• Blood+ Manga Preview - An amnesiac schoolgirl, a sword and a mess of vampires make a manga bloodbath

Some of the series previews include Code Geass, Ouran High School Host Club, Gurren Lagann and more. Check it out!

Posted by Me on 22-03-2008 12:41:07 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

ADV Films

ADVFilms.com

January 1, 2008

• Jinki: Extend Complete Collection - 325 min
• Kanon Vol. #1 - 100 min
• Martian Successor Nadesico Perfect Collection (Thinpak) - 650 min

January 8, 2008

• Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy Vol. #5 - 100 min
• Ghost Stories Complete Collection - 550 min

January 15, 2008

• Get Backers Complete Series Collection (Thinpak) - 1225 min
• Venus Versus Virus Vol. #2 (also w/box) - 100 min
• Xenosaga Vol. #3 - 100 min

January 22, 2008

• Comic Party Revolution Box Set (Thinpak) - 325 min
• Red Garden Vol. #3 - 100 min

AN Entertainment

• No releases this month

Bandai Entertainment

Bandai-Ent.com

January 8, 2008

• Di Gi Charat Nyo! Vol. #05 - 100 min
• Eureka Seven Vol. #11 - 100 min
• Flag Vol. #2 - 75 min
• Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Collection 1 (Anime Legends Edition) - 625 min
• Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Vol. #12 (also w/special edition) - 100 min
• My-Otome Vol. #4 - 100 min

Bandai Visual

BandaiVisual.co.jp

January 25, 2008

• Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door - Blu-Ray (Japan only)
• Escaflowne the Movie - Blu-Ray (Japan only)
• Yukikaze Box Set - Blu-Ray (Japan only)

Bandai Visual USA, Inc.

BandaiVisual.us

Bandai Visual USA was a casualty of Geneon?s and ADV?s decision not to go through with their sales and distribution agreement. Geneon had been distributing Bandai?s titles. Unfortunately, this means that currently their titles are not available through normal retail channels (brick and mortar stores and online stores). As a stopgap, Bandai is selling their releases through their own online service (dot-anime.us website) until they can arrange an alternate distribution scheme.

January 8, 2008

• Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO Vol. #2 - 85 min
• Super Robot Wars: OG - Divine Wars Vol. #2 - 72 min

BuenaVista Home Entertainment Japan

Movies.co.jp
No releases this month

Discotek

www.discotekmedia.com
No releases this month

FUNimation Entertainment, Ltd.

FUNimation.com

January 8, 2008

• Glass Fleet Vol. #3 - 100 min
• Suzuka Vol. #6 - 100 min
• Trinity Blood Vol. #5 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Trinity Blood Vol. #6 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Tsubasa Vol. #6 - 100 min

January 15, 2008

• Fullmetal Alchemist Box Set 3 - 400 min
• Hell Girl Vol. #3 - 100 min
• Mushishi Vol. #5 - 100 min

January 22, 2008

• Basilisk Vol. #5 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Basilisk Vol. #6 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. #07 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. #08 (Viridian Collection) - 100 min
• Kiddy Grade Box Set (Viridian Collection) - 400 min

January 29, 2008

• Beck Vol. #6 - 100 min
• Ragnarok Vol. #2
• Witchblade Vol. #4 - 100 min

Geneon Entertainment (USA), Inc.

GeneonAnimation.com

Until further notice there will be no more releases from Geneon.

Illumitoon.com

Illumitoon.com

Until further notice there will be no more releases from Illumitoon.

ImaginAsian (distributed by Right Stuf!)

No releases this month

Kadokawa Pictures, Inc.

January 29, 2008

• The Third: The Girl With The Blue Eye Vol. #4 - 100 min

Manga Entertainment

Manga.com

January 22, 2008

• Noein Complete Box Set - 635 min
• Tokko Complete Box Set - 320 min

Media Blasters

Media-Blasters.com

January 8, 2008

• Ramen Fighter Miki Vol. #3 - 100 min

January 22, 2008

• Angel Sanctuary - 90 min

January 29, 2008

• Step Up Love Story Vol. #2 - 60 min

Right Stuf International, Inc.

RightStuf.com

• No releases this month

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

SonyPictures.com

• No releases this month

Viz Media

Viz.com

January 8, 2008

• Naruto Vol. #19 - 100 min

January 15, 2008

• Bleach Vol. #08 - 100 min
• Hikaru no Go Vol. #12 - 100 min
• Prince of Tennis Box Set 04 - 275 min

January 29, 2008

• Death Note Vol. #3 (also w/Deluxe Edition w/Figure) - 100 min
• Naruto Vol. #20 - 100 min
• Ranma 1/2 Season 5 Set: Martial Mayhem - 450 min

Also of Note from Japan:

Imagica

January 23, 2008

• Utawarerumono Box Set - Blu-Ray (Japan only) - 598 + 117 min

Posted by Me on 21-03-2008 07:01:07 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

January 1

Tokyo Pop

• Slayers, Vol. 7
• Slayers, Vol. 8

Viz Media

• Black Cat, Vol. 12
• Dr. Slump, Vol. 14
• Fall In Love Like a Comic, Vol. 2
• Gin Tama, Vol. 4
• High School Debut , Vol. 1
• Hikaru no Go, Vol. 11
• Hunter x Hunter, Vol. 18
• Kurohime, Vol. 3
• La Corda d’Oro, Vol. 6
• Love Com, Vol. 4
• Nana, Vol. 8
• Reborn!, Vol. 6
• S.A, Vol. 2
• Sand Chronicles, Vol. 1
• Shaman King, Vol. 14
• Skip Beat!, Vol. 10
• Strawberry 100%, Vol. 3
• The Prince of Tennis, Vol. 23
• Whistle!, Vol. 18

January 2

CMX

• Presents, Vol. 2
• Tears of a Lamb, Vol. 1

January 8

Del Rey

• The Wallflower 14
• Shiki Tsukai 2

TokyoPop

• Arcana, Vol. 7
• Aria, Vol. 1
• B’TX, Vol. 14
• Cherry Juice, Vol, 2
• Chibi Vampire: The Novel, Vol. 4
• Chobits Art Book: Your Eyes Only, Vol. 1
• Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Vol. 20
• Dazzle, Vol. 7
• Deja vu - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter - Vol. 1
• Demon Flowers: Kuruizaki no Hana, Vol. 2
• Dragon Head, Vol. 9
• Elemental Gelade, Vol. 6
• Fantamir, Vol. 2
• Full Metal Panic! (novel), Vol. 2
• Gatcha Gatcha, Vol. 6
• Getbackers, Vol. 22
• Good Luck, Vol. 4
• Gothic Sports, Vol. 3
• Harukaze Bitter Bop, Vol. 1
• Judas, Vol. 5
• King City, Vol. 1
• The Knockout Makers, Vol. 1
• Manga Sutra — Futari H, Vol. 1
• Monochrome Factor, Vol. 1
• Pearl Pink, Vol. 4
• Phantom, Vol. 4
• Rebirth, Vol. 21
• Riding Shotgun, Vol. 2
• Rozen Maiden, Vol. 7
• Samurai Deeper Kyo, Vol. 26
• Short Sunzen!, Vol. 1
• Ultra Cute, Vol. 9
• V.B. Rose, Vol. 1

Viz Media

• Bastard!!, Vol. 16
• Cheeky Angel, Vol. 20
• Inuyasha, Vol. 32
• Project Arms, Vol. 18
• Red River, Vol. 20
• Togari, Vol. 4
• Yakitate!! Japan, Vol. 9

January 9

CMX

• Canon, Vol. 4
• Variante, Vol. 2

Tokyo Pop

• Sgt. Frog, Vol. 14

January 10

Tokyo Pop

• MY-HiME, Vol. 5

January 12

Tokyo Pop

• Lagoon Engine, Vol. 4

January 13

Tokyo Pop

• Dogby Walks Alone, Vol. 2

January 15

Del Rey

• School Rumble 8
• Pastel 9

Digital Manga Publishing

• Heroes Are Extinct! Volume 3 (final)
• Everlasting Love
• Prince Charming Volume 2

Netcomics

• Honey Senior, Darling Junior Vol.1
• Romance Papa Vol.1
• Totally Captivated Vol.1
• Operation Liberate Men Vol.2

Viz Media

Gyo, Vol. 2 (2nd Edition)

January 16

Broccoli Books

• My Dearest Devil Princess #2

CMX

• Cipher, Vol. 10

Dark Horse

• Trigun Maximum Volume 12: The Gunslinger TPB

Digital Manga Publishing

• Trigun Maximum Volume 12

January 22

Del Rey

• Kagetora 8

January 23

Broccoli Books

• Coyote Ragtime Show #3

CMX

• Gon, Vol. 3

Dark Horse

• Berserk Volume 21 TPB
• Oh My Goddess! Volume 28

Digital Manga Publishing

• Berserk Volume 21

January 29

DrMaster

• SVC CHAOS: SNK vs. CAPCOM, Vol. 8
• Puri Puri, Vol. 4

January 29

Del Rey

• Hell Girl 1

Digital Manga Publishing

• Party
• Love Share
• I’ll Be Your Slave
• Body Language
• Family Complex

Viz Media

• Rurouni Kenshin, Vol. 1 (VIZBIG Edition)

January 30

Broccoli Books

• E’S #5

CMX

• Penguin Revolution, Vol. 5

Dark Horse

• Blood+ Volume 1 TPB
• Gunsmith Cats: Burst Volume 3
• Red String Volume 2
• Translucent Volume 3

Releasing throughout the month of January

801 Media

• The Prime Minister?s Secret Diplomacy
• The King of Debt

Aurora Publishing, Inc.

• Walkin’ Butterfly: Volume 2

Go! Comi

• Night of the Beasts: Volume 2
• After School Nightmare: Volume 2
• TRAIN+TRAIN: Volume 1

Seven Seas Entertainment

• First Love Sisters Vol. 1
• Pandora: A Death Jr. Manga
• Voiceful

Posted by Me on 21-03-2008 07:01:07 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

December 31, 2007 - January 1, 2008

• Sorikon - Ballwin, Missouri (USA) ? (This is a Mini-convention and New Years Celebration)

January 3 - 6, 2008

• MagFest 2008 - Williamsburg, Virginia (USA) ? (This is a Music and Gaming Convention)

January 4 - 6, 2008

• Anime Los Angeles - Burbank, California (USA)

• Ohayocon - Columbus, Ohio (USA)

January 5, 2008

• Librar-ations - Fort Lauderdale, Florida (USA)

January 11 - 13, 2008

• Sac-Anime - Sacramento, California (USA)

January 12, 2008

• AUSAM-Con - Auburn, Alabama (USA)

January 12 - 13, 2008

• Pokettokon - East Peoria, Illinois (USA)

January 18 - 21, 2008

• Arisia - Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) ? (Primarily a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention)

January 18 - 25, 2008

• Otronicon - Orlando, Florida ? (Primarily a Gaming Convention)

January 19 - 20, 2008

• AnimePan - Recife, Brazil (Site language is Brazilian Portuguese)

January 24 - 27, 2008

• Anime Dreams - São Paulo, Brazil (Site language is Brazilian Portuguese)

January 24 - 28, 2008

• Further Confusion 2008 - San Jose, California (USA) ? (This is an Anthropomorphics Convention)

January 25 - 27, 2008

• Genericon - Troy, New York (USA) ? (Primarily a Gaming Convention)
• Vericon - Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) ? (Primarily a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention)

January 26 - 27, 2008

• Phoenix Cactus Comicon - Mesa, Arizona (USA)
• Setsucon - State College, Pennsylvania (USA)

January 27, 2008

• Animatrix - Moscow, Russia (Site language is Russian)

February 3, 2008

• Ponce Comic Con - San Juan, Puerto Rico (Site language is Spanish) ? (This is a Comics Convention)

February 8 - 10, 2008

• A & G Ohio - Akron, Ohio (USA)
• Ikkicon - Austin, Texas (USA)
• Naka-Kon - Kansas City, Missouri (USA)

February 9, 2008

• Anime School House Rock - Davie, Florida (USA)
• Anime-Arkansas - Rogers, Arkansas (USA) ? (Con has been cancelled)

February 15 - 17, 2008

• Katsucon - Washington, DC (USA)

February 16 - 17, 2008

• Animation On Display - San Francisco, California (USA) ? (features all forms of animation including anime)

February 17, 2008

• Kaisen Animé Convention - San Juan, Puerto Rico

February 22 - 24, 2008

• Con Nooga - Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA) ? (Primarily a Science Fiction Convention)
• WonderCon - San Francisco, California ? (This is a Comics Convention)

February 23, 2008

• Senshi-Con - Anchorage, Alaska (USA)

February 23 - 24, 2008

• Japan Addict - Strasbourg, France (Site language is French)

February 29 - March 2, 2008

• Anime Milwaukee - Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA)
• MarsCon 2008 - Bloomington, Minnesota (USA) ? (Primarily a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention)

• Minami Con - Southampton, England (UK)

Posted by Me on 20-03-2008 05:51:55 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

One of the most iconic vampires in anime, Vampire Hunter D, didn’t get his start in anime. D first came into being in a series of novels by Japanese horror writer, Hideyuki Kikuchi.

Hideyuki first began writing the Vampire Hunter D series in 1983. Yoshitaka Amano illustrated the covers for the books and drew illustrated pages for Hideyuki’s books, as well. The novels were hugely popular and led to a Vampire Hunter D anime feature in 1985, based off the first novel, Vampire Hunter D.

The movie was considered a success and in 2000, a second Vampire Hunter D feature was released, Bloodlust.

Bloodlust was based off the third of the D novels, Demon Deathchase. This sequel was also considered a success, and Hideyuki continued to write the popular Vampire Hunter D novels.

Nineteen D novels have been published so far, with the first of nine being translated into English in 2005. The latest novel, Throng of Heretics, was released in Japan this past October.

In November of 2007, a Vampire Hunter D manga was released for the first time ever by Digital Manga Publishing. The manga was drawn and written under the direct supervision of Hideyuki, by a mangaka the author personally handpicked; Saiko Takaki.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D, as the manga is known, was released first in English. A Japanese language release will follow after the manga has been translated into German, Finnish, and Hungarian.

The manga closely follows the first novel…

plot summary

10,091 years after the world’s governments unleashed atomic doom upon the earth, a strange nobility is teetering on the brink of obsolescence. Vampires stepped onto the world stage after the nuclear dust cleared, and declared themselves rulers of a post-apocalyptic planet. The Nobility, as the vampiric ruling class is known, has governed the world from the safety of night for the past 100 centuries. But they have become decadent and outdated.

Mutants and supermen have risen from the peasant ranks to overthrow their vampire suppressors. They are the vampire hunters. The most renown vampire hunter, D, has dedicated his life to eradicating the Nobility. D gets his formidable strength from his lineage as a dhampir; a creature half human and half vampire.

As D is roaming the countryside one day, a young girl flings herself into his path and challenges the vampire hunter to a fight. After gaging the dhampir’s powers, the girl, Doris Lang, hires D to help her. Doris has been bitten by a Noble and needs D’s help to rid the countryside of the vampire who has chosen Doris as his unwilling bride.

D agrees, and becomes entangled in the girl’s plight and his needs as both man and dhampir.

review

I loved the original Vampire Hunter D anime. I loved it so much, that when the novels were first released in English, I rushed out and bought the first two. The novels were slightly disappointing, though, since it felt that the translation was poorly done.

I got tired of reading “the gorgeous youth/man” over and over and over. It seemed something integral was lost when the text was turned into English. But the gist of the story was still interesting enough for me to soldier through the book.

A manga format is a much better fit for an English rendition of the famous novels. The visuals which don’t translate well into boring prose, are painstakingly drawn out in the manga. The wordiness of the novels is changed from hard to read book, into beautifully illustrated manga, which needs little translation.

Character Development

There isn’t much development at all in the first Vampire Hunter D novel and there wasn’t much character development in the manga, either. Within the first four pages, Doris gets naked, fights D, and then begs him to work for her. This scene was ripped from the book, nearly word for word.

I can’t fault the manga for what the novel failed to do since the manga is following the novel so closely. It would have been nice, however, for the manga to strengthen the story with a bit more insight into D and Doris.

The Nobility is given some amount of character development in the way of motivations and background. D isn’t given any back story, but there’s some hint at his origins. The other books in the Vampire Hunter D series flesh the hunter out by degrees; however, this manga was a great opportunity to really develop D for Western audiences.

I felt no connection with Doris and her little brother, Dan, beyond superficial pieces of the story. D was the main draw, no pun intended, of the series, and the manga didn’t disappoint.

story

The story is actually compelling, if not a little overwrought at times. I had a hard time getting into a few parts of the manga, just as I had a hard time getting into parts of the book, as well.

The beauty of crafting a world so far into the future, is that an author can be as far-fetched as they please and not have to worry about timely contradictions or unbelieving naysayers. There are many “out there” instances in the manga which I couldn’t connect with but still enjoyed: cyber-horses, mutants, scientifically-advanced vampiric nobility. Yet there were some examples which left me scratching my head: time-bewitching incense seems more like a parlor trick than an advanced feat of science by the ruling class.

Part of the story involves D and Doris. Their “relationship” seemed forced, if not downright fanservice for those wanting to see two gorgeous people hook up. It did work wonderfully as a fanservice device. I don’t mind admitting I was smitten with the vampire hunter way back, when I first saw him animated, and wasn’t averse to the thought of D in love.

Character Design

The mangaka, Saiko Takaki, did a wonderful job in following and developing Amanao’s initial direction of the character designs. Much of Amano’s trademark style is evident in the manga; the long eyes, sharp noses, and organic lines have all been worked into Saiko’s art.

D never looked better, nor could I have imagined him to look better, than how he appears in the manga. He truly does live up to the description, “gorgeous youth”, but without the youth bit. In the novel, both D and Doris are described to be around the age of 17-18. In the manga, they look to be more around the age of 23-25.

All the characters in the manga look exactly as they’ve been described in the novels and they also resemble Amano’s brief illustrations. However, the art does retain some of Saiko’s own style.

Art

Too many busy lines, though, tend to distract from the work. The overall heavy organic feel of the art becomes tangled up in all the detailing and shorts the flow of the manga. The shading also tends to be a bit muddy. Aside from a few distracting instances, the art for Vampire Hunter D is strong and beautifully rendered.

Production

The cover for Vampire Hunter D is richly done in dark purples with crimson embossing. The edges of the pages are tinted a matching reddish-purple which compliments the gorgeous cover. However, the paper of the pages themselves is only a step above newsprint.

The roughness and off-white cast of the pages detract from Saiko’s artwork. Paper quality counts, and sadly, Vampire Hunter D’s pages don’t add up to the effort inked onto them.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D is a must read for any Vampire Hunter D fan, but it’s also a must read for fans of the truly unique and creative.

Rating

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D gets 3 outta 4 Hammies™.

Posted by Me on 20-03-2008 05:51:54 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

In looking back, this year has been filled with some awesome anime series. Some series have been subtle, and tell a rich story without overuse of action or visuals. Some anime have been in-your-face action with high-end visuals and sound. Some anime have even managed to combine the two to create something worthy of the title, “Best“.

Then there’s the anime which sucked so hard, they created a black hole in the anime universe, which even the most fantastic anime could never hope to fill.

I have a few anime I would like to nominate as “Best” for 2007:

• Basilisk: Best Story and Best Character Designs
• Afro Samurai: Best Action and Best Character Designs
• Tekkonkinkreet: Best Anime Feature
• Karas: The Revelation: Best Animation
• Ergo Proxy: Best Science Fiction

For the “Worst” anime of 2007:

• Glass Fleet, Volume One: Worst Character Designs and Worst Story
• Witchblade: Worst Costumes and Use of Boobs
• Trinity Blood: Worst Waste of Animation and Time

I haven’t read enough manga this year to be informed enough to say which is “Best”, but if I had to choose from among the manga I have read in 2007, it would be:

Best Manga:

• The first four volumes of E’S: Best Line Work, Best Story, Best Panel Usage
• Gon: Best Use of the Manga Medium

Worst Manga:

• My Dearest Devil Princess: Worst Story

Best and Worst is all relative and my choices for Best and Worst probably won’t coincide with anybody else’s. Since we have a nifty comment board in which to air opinions, let’s hear a few of everyone’s personal choices for Best and Worst Anime of 2007!

Posted by Me on 18-03-2008 11:48:46 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

New Year’s is a major holiday in Japan and has been for centuries. Shogatsu, as the Japanese New Year’s is known, retains many traditions from former times which are still alive today and a fixture in modern New Year’s happenings. These traditions can be small, intimate ceremonies practiced with the family or in private. For three days the Japanese celebrate the New Year and enjoy traditional New Year’s foods, osechi ryori, aka osechi, which have been prepared or purchased before the festivities.

Some of the foods eaten include nimono (simmered vegetables), kazunoko (herring roe), kurikinton (mashed chestnuts and sweet potatoes), datemaki (sweetened omelet roll), kamaboko (fish cake) and konnyaku (gelatinous yam cake). But the one dish which is famous as New Year’s food is ozoni.

The morning of the first day of New Year’s, people will drink sake and eat ozoni, the traditional soup of New Year’s. This soup has many variations and no one can agree on any one ozoni recipe as the “official” ozoni recipe. However, no matter what’s added, subtracted or left out of an ozoni recipe, the one thing which makes ozoni, ozoni, is mochi.

Mochi is another celebrated New Year’s food and is even featured as a New Year’s decoration, the kagami mochi. Pieces of toasted mochi cake are added to ozoni as part of a hearty meal.

I decide to make ozoni this year and have listed what I used in my own rendition of this traditional soup. I’ve listed ingredient variations so you can personalize ozoni for your own New Year’s celebrations.

Rae’s Ozoni

Variant Ingredients

• cabbage
• crab
• chicken breast
• chicken stock
• maitake
• miso
• mitsuba
• mizuna
• spinach

Posted by Me on 18-03-2008 11:48:46 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Read my review of Glass Fleet, Volume One before reading my review of Volume Two!

Looks like calling kittens foul names has finally caught up with me; it’s penance time in the form of Glass Fleet, Volume Two!

plot summary

Michel has just joined forces with Cleo, when the ship’s crew receives a hail from an ailing cargo vessel. The glass ship answers the SOS and lends a hand to the wounded crew. While helping the cargo crew aboard the ship, Michel finds someone he thinks may be his brother.

Vetti, the Holy Emperor, meanwhile, begins to woo Rachel, the daughter of the leader of the Cross Star religion. He uses honeyed words and eloquent poetry to try and win her hand. Rachel, though, is having none of Vett’s courtship, and continually rebukes the tyrant.

Vetti’s young royal guard, Ralph, has grown jealous of the attention Vetti lavishes on Rachel. Ralph tries to dissuade Vetti’s interest in the girl, only to learn the true reason behind Vetti’s courtship.

After their encounter with the cargo vessel, Michel and Cleo have returned to the People’s Army to lead them to victory. The road to true victory, however, needs funding and the road to funds leads to the Duchess of Bordeaux, Bebe. As Michel and Cleo rush to the Bordeaux Territory, they discover someone else is already trying to win the Duchess to their cause.

review

Volume Two was actually worse than Volume One; much, much worse. I don’t even know where to begin with how bad this series has been so far.

The inconsistent nature of this wretched series has become rampant in this volume. For whatever reason, space in this anime has atmosphere; however, this changes whenever a massive body-count is required. When that happens; Blammo! Instant Vacuum of Doom!!! One minute, people are chatting away on the hull of a ship, next minute- uh oh, no one can hear you scream in space! You know why? Because it’s a frick’n vacuum!!! But hey, Glass Fleet has this nifty Vacuum On/Off switch.

character designs

Each episode of Glass Fleet finds new ways to insult my good taste. The character designs, far from being cleverly inventive, are degrading into the laughable, stupid and tasteless. I give studios credit for trying something new, but the keyword there is “trying”.

Glass Fleet doesn’t look as if anybody tried to design anything that might be passably tasteful or attractive. All the designs are ugly composites of various cultures mushed together without forethought. The colors are garish and loud, and heap on further visual abuse. Rachel’s dresses are the absolute worse fashion faux pas I’ve ever been witness to. She’s the daughter of the leader of the Star Cross religion? Can’t she afford to execute her current fashion designer and hire a new one?

Character development

The only redeeming quality in this volume was the addition of Rachel. She thinks Vetti’s full of crap and repeatedly insults him. She sees through his shabby attempts at courtship, and throws them back in his face. It’s as if she’s in on this whole joke of an anime.

The absolutely predictable dynamic between Cleo and Michelle, ooops, Michel, is getting boring. Should I be able to know what happens next in an anime? Do I have awesome psychic powers? Or is Glass Fleet so shallow that even a two year-old could follow it?

The bad dialog, crappy story, sub par animation, horrific character designs, and ear-splitting voice-acting is now being touched off with overt hints of shotacon.

Vetti and his “royal guard” display a weird affection for each other beyond mere camaraderie or brotherly love. There’s a sick twang to the “love” these two share which is wholly inappropriate to any anime. I thought it bad enough with the yaoi-ness between Vetti and Cleo, now to have this man-boy love pop up in the series makes watching Glass Fleet that much more burdensome.

animation

Wait, did I just imply that the shotacon was the worst this series have to offer? My bad, Glass Fleet’s stunningly bad animation is actually far more disturbing than the shotacon; and that’s saying something. Gonzo should burn any mention of their having worked on Glass Fleet and mind-wipe anyone who knows they worked on it.

It’s positively shameful how bad the animation is. In one scene, it looks as though some animator’s kid was given an opportunity to work on GF with his crayons. Yes, crayons. In another scene, as Vetti’s fighting Michel, his jerky choreography is missing whole actions! One second Vetti is lunging towards Michel, the next he appears in front of Michel with zero movements in between.

music

John Williams, the composer who scored Star Wars, must be pissed something fierce. I know I would be if someone stole my music, and it sure sounds like Glass Fleet ripped its score from Williams’ podium while he wasn’t looking. The grandiose nature of the score is far too big for the smallness of this anime.

Glass Fleet Volume Two outstrips Volume One in terms of overall crappiness and poor quality. If down is where this thing is headed, it doesn’t have long before it’s dead and buried.

Rating

Glass Fleet, Volume Two gets 0.5 outta 4 Hammi heads

Posted by Me on 16-03-2008 11:41:15 | Add your own comment, currently 1 comment(s)

We’re almost to the end of it folks, of the year that is. It’s time to reflect back on what we can be proud of this past year and what we can do better the next.

Some of us may be thinking about joining a gym, eating healthier or quitting smoking. Others might be planning to blog more, party less, or to take up a new hobby. There will be resolutions drawn up, lists being made, and plans formulated for a brighter 2008.

When you’re plotting the direction you plan to go in the upcoming year, does anime factor in to it? Will you be planning to watch more anime or less? Spend more money on merchandise and DVDs or choose to invest in manga this year?

What changes in your anime habits do you plan on making? Watch more anime with friends, win new converts to the medium or are you walking away from anime in ‘08?

Do you have lists of series you need to catch up on? Are you going to watch the dubious anime recommendations you’ve been putting off for so long?

My resolutions are:

• To finish all the series I started in 2007 by my first anime con, which will be in May.
• Reviewing more manga and Japanese snacks.
• Do more with the site and post more about Japanese culture including cuisine, fashion, and hopefully, music.

Here’s hoping we can all do more in 2008 of what we love to do most; watch anime and read manga!!

I encourage everyone to share their anime/manga 2008 New Year’s resolutions for posterities sake. They’ll still be posted on the site in 2009 so you can check back and see if you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to!!

Posted by Me on 16-03-2008 11:41:15 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Christmas, as it’s celebrated in America, is definitely a Western custom. The shopping season leading up to this most generous of holidays starts in the States the day after Thanksgiving: Black Friday. We Americans have a proud tradition of getting up at 3:30a.m.on Black Friday to shove lil’ old ladies down in the way of a 0 flat screen HD TV. Tis’ the season!

We also have a noble heritage when it comes to decorating our yards with giant inflatable reindeer and blinding displays of seizure-inducing lights. And what would Christmas be without the endless parade of obligatory work-related and family Christmas parties? Let’s not forget about the hours upon hours spent in the kitchen pouring over cookie cookbooks and rolling out endless varieties of Christmas confections. And for what? To give cookies and bon-bons away to people who will hate you for blowing their diet.

Since everyone in the US is familiar with what goes on here-and I know you are- why don’t we look at how Japan handles this time of year. Is their holiday season anywhere near as hectic as ours? Do they even celebrate Christmas? New Year’s Eve? The answers to that are no, somewhat and yes, and how.

Japan does celebrate Christmas, just not with the fervor and extreme enthusiasm as over here. The beginning of their shopping season coincides with ours; the day after Thanksgiving, sans blood-letting. They do have Christmas carols, in English, and they do exchange gifts.

However, the focus of gift giving is mainly directed between couples. This is a romantic night for couples, and is seen as a night when magic can happen. For someone to be single on Christmas in Japan is almost as bad as someone being single on Valentine’s Day in the US. The analogy of Christmas in Japan being like Valentine’s Day in America isn’t far-off. The gifts exchanged on both days are similar; teddy bears, jewelry, roses, personal gifts, etc.

Instead of a Christmas dinner consisting of a ham, goose, or turkey, a Christmas cake is standard fare in Japan. Every household tries to buy a Christmas cake before Christmas Eve to celebrate the season. These cakes are pretty things topped with fresh fruit arranged artfully on a frosted cake.

Bakeries do a booming business with Christmas cakes, up until the 24th, and then they discount their cakes on the 25th to get rid of ‘em. There’s a horrible analogy comparing marriageable women to Christmas cakes: Both are good until the 25th, then it’s hard to get rid of them, i.e. it’s difficult to marry a girl off after they’re 25 years old.

The Christmas tree does exist in Japan, but it doesn’t have nearly the prominence as it does in the West. Instead, pine trees, are more apropos for the Japanese New Year- a holiday much, much larger and more important in Japan than Christmas.

Traditionally speaking, New Year’s in Japan, shogatsu, is a time to give thanks to everything and everyone that helped make the previous year a good one.

Doorways are adorned on either side with twin kadomatsu, decorations made from pine branches, bamboo, and straw. The pine is a symbol of longevity and the bamboo represents prosperity. Other decorations adorn households, including kagami mochi. Kagami mochi is a large stack of two mochi cakes topped with a mikan (orange). These displays are meant to attract luck into the household.

Mass mailings of New Year’s post cards, nengaj?, similar to our mass mailings of Christmas cards, flood post offices the days before New Year’s. Everyone writes to their friends and family to inform them of what’s passed in the former year, much like the American practice of stuffing annoying family newsletters into Christmas cards.

The following days of New Year’s are filled with “firsts”: Hatsum?de, first prayer at a shrine; Hatsuhinode, first sunrise and Hatsuyume, first dream. During the first visit to a shrine, people will dress in kimono and line up to pray and to purchase good luck talismans for the new year. The first dream of the New Year’s is a special one as it’s believed to portend what will come in the following year. The first food and drink of New Year’s has traditionally been toso or sake and ozoni.

During the first three days of New Years, no one works if they have the choice. The food has already been prepared, the gifts have been bought, the cards have been sent, and the house and streets are cleaned. People sit back, relax and enjoy themselves for three work-free days.

Our holidays may not be celebrated the same way they are in Japan, since Christmas is a Western import. However, we also consider New Year’s Day a time to relax, a time to reflect on the past year and to draw up resolutions for the upcoming one.

We haven’t imported any Japanese holidays of yet, but let’s allow some of Japan’s New Year’s traditions rub off on us: Going into this holiday season, let’s try to relax and be thankful that we survived the past year and grateful we’re here to celebrate the next.

Images copyright:
Japanese Santa
Christmas Cakes
Kagami mochi
Kadomatsu

Posted by Me on 15-03-2008 05:03:41 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Here’s a quick update on some current sales:

AnimeNation has their ongoing Red Hot Overstock Sale offering up to 60% off a select list of items. Also, if you make a purchase (sale or otherwise) you are automatically entered in their Holiday Giveaway. No end date is listed for the sale, but the contest ends on December 30.

__________

RightStuf! has posted the full list of sale items for their 12 Days of Anime sale:

1. Eureka Seven DVD Bundle (1-10) - .99 (63% OFF)
2. Inu Yasha Movie DVD Box Set (Deluxe Edition) - .99 (55% OFF)
3. Chobits Mini Box 1+2 DVD Bundle - .99 (59% OFF)
4. My-HiME DVD Bargain Bundle (1-7) - .99 (59% OFF)
5. Vol. 1 of Venus Versus Virus, Pumpkin Scissors, Innocent Venus, & Red Garden Xenosaga - .99 each (52% OFF)
6. Big O DVD Collection & Big O II DVD Collection - .99 each (52% OFF)
7. Rumbling Hearts DVD Bundle (1-3) - .99 (77% OFF)
8. Initial D Season 1 DVD Box Set - .99 (60% OFF)
9. Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA Ultra Edition - .99 (64% OFF)
10. Burst Angel DVD Box Set - .99 (55% OFF)
11. Boys Over Flowers DVD Bundle (1-12) - .99 (69% OFF)
12. Scrapped Princess DVD Collection - .99 (52% OFF)

For Day 13, RightStuf! posted a list of an additional 16 DVDs/bundles/sets for sale with discounts between 52% and 78%. No coupon codes are necessary. The sale ends on December 25 at midnight CST.

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Robert’s Anime Corner Store holiday discounts have ended, but they do have some Holiday Specials from a list of select DVDs and figures. Also, most of their figures and toys still have a 10% discount or more from their regular prices.

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CDJapan is having a holiday sale…the 2007 CDJapan Holiday Offer. This sale offers discounts of up to 70% off of select CDs (music and drama) and DVDs (anime, live action, western, gravure, etc.). The sale ends on January 10. There are a couple of caveats. The prices are in yen and the DVDs are R2. If your purchase is 3000 yen (about .49 US) or more, you can receive an additional 500 yen (about .41) discount in the form of a coupon…if you purchase 5000 yen (about .16), you will receive another 500 yen coupon. These coupons are valid through December 31.

__________

yesasia.com is having their end of year clearance sale. You can save up to 80% on select items including manga, anime, live action (Japanese, K-drama, etc.), western films, games, etc. If your order totals or more, you will receive a coupon for your next purchase. The sale ends on December 31.

__________

Here are a couple of contests:

AnimeOnDVD’s 44 Days of Christmas contest continues. Each day, AOD will be giving away a DVD (on December 17, the prize was Kodocha, Vol. 13). You have to enter every day. Check AOD’s home page and click on the 44 Days of Christmas link (under contests) to see the current prize and for entry rules.

Their other running contest is their Magic, Mayhem and Pretty Boys from ADV Films Contest. The winner will receive Vol. 1 of three different series…Magikano, Tokyo Majin,and The Wallflower. Check their contest page for entry details and rules. The contest ends on December 24.

__________

RightStuf! has a new contest…the Geneon Entertainment Contest. There will be 4 winners. Each will receive a package which includes the first volumes of Elemental Gelade, Bottle Fairy and Kamichu!, plus a full set of Sakura Wars pencil boards featuring art from the series. To enter, fill out their entry form before January 3. You have to be 13 years or older to enter…check their rules page for details. The winners will be announced on the January 4th edition of RightStuf’s Anime Today podcast.

Posted by Me on 15-03-2008 05:03:41 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

In looking back, this year has been filled with some awesome anime series. Some series have been subtle, and tell a rich story without overuse of action or visuals. Some anime have been in-your-face action with high-end visuals and sound. Some anime have even managed to combine the two to create something worthy of the title, “Best“.

Then there’s the anime which sucked so hard, they created a black hole in the anime universe, which even the most fantastic anime could never hope to fill.

I have a few anime I would like to nominate as “Best” for 2007:

• Basilisk: Best Story and Best Character Designs
• Afro Samurai: Best Action and Best Character Designs
• Tekkonkinkreet: Best Anime Feature
• Karas: The Revelation: Best Animation
• Ergo Proxy: Best Science Fiction

For the “Worst” anime of 2007:

• Glass Fleet, Volume One: Worst Character Designs and Worst Story
• Witchblade: Worst Costumes and Use of Boobs
• Trinity Blood: Worst Waste of Animation and Time

I haven’t read enough manga this year to be informed enough to say which is “Best”, but if I had to choose from among the manga I have read in 2007, it would be:

Best Manga:

• The first four volumes of E’S: Best Line Work, Best Story, Best Panel Usage
• Gon: Best Use of the Manga Medium

Worst Manga:

• My Dearest Devil Princess: Worst Story

Best and Worst is all relative and my choices for Best and Worst probably won’t coincide with anybody else’s. Since we have a nifty comment board in which to air opinions, let’s hear a few of everyone’s personal choices for Best and Worst Anime of 2007!

Posted by Me on 13-03-2008 05:52:05 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Everyone here at The Anime Blog wishes you a Safe & Merry Christmas!!!

Illustration by David Bigler

Download the card

The Anime Blog Christmas Card Big Download (208KB JPG)

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Posted by Me on 13-03-2008 05:52:05 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

So I got an email regarding the movie Appleseed Ex Machina, and it seems they are having a little contest:

I was wondering if you would be interested in covering the new Appleseed movie and its contest? There is a trailer remix contest where you can cut scenes from Appleseed: Ex Machina into clips and apply different songs from the soundtrack to create a trailer. Visitors to the site vote on the best trailer, and the winner of the contest will get flown to San Francisco for WonderCon in February. It?s a neat little contest, and I thought you might want to share it with your readers.

I went to the trailer page, and the one they had made already was quite exciting. Even more importantly, the controls for the trailer creation tool are very slick, as you have a lot of control over where you want each piece to start and end. You also can set up a soundtrack for your video trailer, to set the right heart-thumping mood.

The only bad thing about the contest is that they don’t have vocalized speech that you can cut in. You can’t add your own “announcer voice” stuff in either. Too bad, because the possibilities of a truly hilarious trailer are endless. Still, the tools definitely give you the chance to create something really cool. Caveats are that you do have to give some info about yourself, and you have to live in the USA.

Posted by Me on 11-03-2008 08:52:10 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

In the West, who would ever believe that anything as common as beans could ever become anything more than kick-ass burritos and tasty tail-gate chili? Beans have gotten a bad rap through the years as being poor man’s food and the “musical fruit”. Derisive songs have been sung mocking the bloating attributes of these tiny powerhouses. But in Japan, this lowly legume has transcended its humble beginnings to become one of the most widely used ingredients in desserts; Anko.

Anko is a building block in Japanese desserts, wagashi. Without anko, there wouldn’t be the profusion and variety of wagashi which exist today. Anko is made from red azuki beans which have been carefully boiled down to a chunky jam and is then sweetened. This whole bean variety of anko is known as tsubu or tsubushi-an.

Tsubu-an is used as filling in wagashi, a dessert topping, and as a sweet soup, zenzai. White beans are also used in creating anko. Shiro an is white anko, and is usually made from either lima or navy beans.

Anko also comes in different textures, one of which is koshi-an. Koshi an is a refined, smooth bean paste. Koshi-an is made from either azuki or white beans, which have been pulped and then strained to a satiny texture. Sugar syrup is then added to sweeten the paste. White beans are most commonly turned into koshi an rather than into tsubu an.

To create delicate, beautiful wagashi known as nerikiri, a mochi mixture, gyuhi, is added to shiro koshi-an. The end result is a paste similar to marzipan and can be tinted and molded into just about any shape.

Today’s edition is all about anko and we’ll be making a batch of each anko variety: Tsubushi-an and Shiro Koshi-an. Let’s get started transforming these shriveled beans into something worthy of an emperor!

Part 1 of 3:

Part 2 of 3:

Part 3 of 3:

Shiro Koshi-an

• 2 cups lima or navy beans, soaked overnight
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• salt to taste, optional

1. Cook beans according to directions on package. Watch video for tips on cooking wagashi-worthy beans.
2. Mash cooked beans in a bowl until only the skins are recognizable.
3. Force mashed beans with the back of a spoon or a wooden pestle through a strainer to separate the bean meats from the skins. Drip some water from a faucet through sieve to help force bean meats through.
4. In a clean, unbleached piece of muslin, strain bean water by placing cloth in sieve or cup, adding bean water to center of cloth, twisting closed, and tightly wringing out water. Watch video for tips.
5. In a small sauce pan, heat water and sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes. Remove from heat.
6. In another saucepan, add strained bean paste and 1/4-1/2 cup sugar syrup, more or less to taste.
7. Heat and simmer on low till water is mostly evaporated, stirring constantly and making sure not to burn shiro-an. Shiro-an should be a satiny mass of paste when fully cooked.
8. Let shiro koshi-an cool on a cookie sheet or smooth surface. Use immediately or freeze for future use.

Makes 1 cup

Note: Azuki or green mung beans may also be used in koshi-an.

Tsubu-an

• 1 cup azuki beans
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• Salt to taste, optional

1. Cook azuki beans according to directions. Watch video for tips on cooking wagashi-worthy beans.
2. After beans are desired firmness, drain beans and slightly mash beans to desired texture.
3. In a small sauce pan, heat water and sugar and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup syrup to mashed beans. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until desired consistency.
5. Cool and serve.

Makes 2 cups

Note: White beans may also be used in tsubu-an.

Posted by Me on 11-03-2008 08:52:10 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

For over half a century, a popular New Year’s Eve tradition in Japan has been to listen to or watch the K?haku Uta Gassen (Red & White Song Battle). This year will be the 58th edition of K?haku. The show features two teams of the most popular music performers of the past year. The Red team (akagumi) is made up of all the female artists/groups and the White team (shirogumi) is made up of all the male artists/groups. Each team will perform at least 25 songs.

At the end of the show, a panel of judges (celebrities) and the audience (who gets one vote…so it’s majority rules) selects the winning team. Since 2003, audience voting has become more complicated with the addition of voting from ISDB-T (Japanese digital broadcasting standard) viewers, cellphone users (since 2005), and, in 2006, 1seg (a form of mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan) users. I believe that, after experimenting with giving each type of audience a vote, the system is back to a majority head count of the audience as a whole. Anyway, whichever team gets the most votes wins. The White team has won the last two years.

Although the show’s popularity has been diminishing recently, it is still an honor to be a participant. All the artists are there by invitation by a selection committee organized by NHK. This year’s lineup was announed by NHK and features 56 acts:

• Red Team: aiko, AKB48, Angela Aki, Amin, Ayaka, BoA, Leah Dizon, Dreams Come True, Natsuko Godai, Ayumi Hamasaki, Hello! Project 10th Anniversary Kohaku Special Team (Morning Musume, Berryz Koubou, °C-ute), Ayaka Hirahara, Yo Hitoto, Sayuri Ishikawa, Miyuki Kawanaka, Sachiko Kobayashi, Kumi Koda, Kaori Kozai, mihimaru GT, Kaori Mizumori, Yoko Nagayama, Shoko Nakagawa, Ataru Nakamura, Mitsuko Nakamura, Mika Nakashima, Ai Otsuka, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Yoshimi Tendo, Akiko Wada

• White Team: Masafumi Akikawa, Toshihide Baba, EXILE, Akira Fuse, Gackt, Kiyoshi Hikawa, Ken Hirai, Hiroshi Itsuki, Saburo Kitajima, Takeshi Kitayama, Kobukuro, Kome Kome Club, Kiyoshi Maekawa, Noriyuki Makihara, Kenichi Mikawa, Shinichi Mori, Porno Graffiti, Masashi Sada, SMAP, Masato Sugimoto, Sukima Switch, Akira Terao, Ichiro Toba, TOKIO, Hideaki Tokunaga, w-inds., WaT

The photo above shows the artists/groups making their first K?haku appearance…left to right: °C-ute (in red plaid), Berryz Koubou (in green plaid), Masato Sugimoto, Toshihide Baba, Ataru Nakamura, Shoko Nakagawa, Leah Dizon, and AKB48 (in blue jackets and gray plaid skirts).

Three of these “rookies” are quite popular among the Akihabara crowd…AKB48, Shoko Nakagawa, and Leah Dizon. NHK is planning to have them be the “top batter” (opening act) for the Red team. The will sing their songs individually, then perform together for an “anime theme song medley”.

AKB48 is short for Akihabara48. They are an idol group who has their own theater in Akihabara. They have 48 members who usually perform in 16 person teams (Team A, Team K, and Team B…of course). For their K?haku appearance, they will perform as a combined unit of 48.

Shoko “Shokotan” Nakagawa is a multi-tarento (multi-talented) idol. Besides singing, she is an actress, seiy?, and illustrator. She also has a love of cosplaying…she was the World Cosplay Friendship Ambassador at the 2007 World Cosplay Summit.

Leah Dizon is a model and singer from the US (born in Las Vegas). She moved to Japan in 2006. In addition to her modelling and singing, she has become a TV personality co-hosting Webtama and hosting Sakigake Ongaku Banzuke Vegas.

This year will have a rarity. The host for the White team will be rakugo artist Tsurube Shofukutei. The host for the Red team will be SMAP leader Masahiro Nakai, who was last year’s White team host. This will be only the third time in K?haku’s history both teams have been hosted by men. The first two times, Teru Miyata and Keizo Takahashi were the hosts…this was in 1955 and 1956.

K?haku’s overall hosts will be announcers Miki Sumiyoshi and Kazuya Matsumoto.

Pictures from the K?haku website: © NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) All rights reserved.

TokyoGraph Stories:
NHK reveals Kohaku lineup
“Akiba idols” to perform at Kohaku
Nakai, Shofukutei named as Kohaku hosts

Posted by Me on 09-03-2008 14:47:51 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Variety is the spice of life, right? If that’s true, than today’s snack review is muy picante (super spicy)! I have two, sample-size variety packs of tasty-looking Meiji candy; equaling a total of eight different Japanese candies.

Meiji is one of the big Japanese candy companies; up there with Glico, Kasugai, and Morinaga. They’re the creators of such famous candies as “Poifull” jelly beans and “Black” chocolate. Meiji is also the maker of the adorable, chocolate-topped, mushroom-shaped crackers, “Kinoko Chocolate”.

Today’s offerings are:

• Apollo Chocolate
• Choco Baby
• Coffee Beat
• Hi-Lemon Candy Tablet
• Yogurt Candy Tablet
• Marble: Chocolate
• Marble: Strawberry
• Poifull

Since there’s a lot to review, let’s get down to it!

Apollo Chocolate

Meiji has always had good design sense in regards to how their products look and these candies are no exception. Every one of these samples is a mini version of their originals and sport the same colors and designs on the packaging. Each box has a cutesy animal mascot pimping the product.

Packaging:
Apollo Chocolate has a smiling strawberry bunny with choco-dipped ears on the front, offering the consumer a strawberry. Good colors and design usage. Way to go Apollo bunny!
Score: A+

Appearance:
These lil’ candies are miniature versions of the original Apollo Chocolates-so named for their resemblance to the spacecraft of yore. They also look like candy versions of the famous Rocket Pops, also of yore. As minis, Apollo Chocolates are adorable and easy to eat by the handful.
Score: A+

Texture:
Apollo Chocolate, Apollo for short, has great texture. The ridged exterior gives the candy an extra “oomph” in the crunch department.
Score: A+

Flavor:
The chocolate itself is smooth and has a rich chocolate/ strawberry flavor. These guys are excellent!
Score: A+

Apollo Chocolate: A+

choco baby

Packaging:
The colors are compelling and the bear is sorta cute. But maybe it wasn’t such a keen design choice to put a picture of the product on the packaging; especially since the product looks like a cross between goat turds and feed pellets. At least the bear seems excited about the way they look.
Score: B-

Appearance:
Choco Babies don’t look appealing at all, since they resemble something I would avoid stepping in.
Score: B-

Texture:
The size of the candy is perfect to give added texture to what would be a block of chocolate. They have a crunch, because of their design, which adds interest to the candy.
Score: A

Flavor:
Rich and smooth are what I would say about the chocolate. Choco Baby has an almost nutty flavor, but not quite.
Score: A+

Choco Baby: B+

Coffee Beat

Packaging:
Sepia and warm brown tones make the packaging for Coffee Beat a winner. Coffee bean stencils inform the consumer Meiji means business about the coffee flavor. The blue mouse dancing on the front looks like he drank one cup of java too many…
Score: A

Appearance:
Damned if these don’t look exactly like chocolate covered espresso beans. Meiji really means business about the coffee flavor!
Score: A+

Texture:
If I didn’t know these weren’t chocolate covered espresso beans, I would swear by their crunchy texture they were. Coffee Beat has a layer of medium-hard chocolate candy-coating surrounding slightly softer chocolate.
Score: A+

Flavor:
These beans have an unbeatable combination of chocolate and coffee. The coffee flavor is strong and authentic mixed with the rich chocolate. Coffee Beat tastes exactly like- you guessed it-chocolate covered espresso beans!
Score: A+

Coffee Beat: A+

Hi-Lemon and Yogurt Candy Tablet

Packaging:
The packaging for both seems looks like it came from the 1950s era by the colors and style. The lemons and bowl of yogurt(?) in the corner tell the buyer that this product uses lemons and a bowl of white stuff in some fashion. Each box features a strange, little lemon/ yogurt alien mascot thing. Hi-Lemon’s alien is holding a deformed lemon as a sign it comes in peace, while Yogurt- who looks like it partied way too hard the night before- is holding a jug of yogurt.
Score: B

Appearance:
Hi-Lemon is pale buttercup yellow and Yogurt is a shiny white. They look like any other shiny, candy-coated, round tablet candy and aren’t remarkable.
Score: B

Texture:
Both candies’ outer candy shell is almost too hard. After biting into one, I thought I made a mistake in thinking the candy was chewable. Hi-Lemon isn’t a hard candy, but I initially thought it was. Inside the tough exterior is a mealy bit of powdery candy which dissolves on the tongue.
Score: C+

Flavor:
Hi-Lemon’s strong lemon flavor, which instantly dissipates, reminds me of candy-coated SmartiesTM. It’s not a bad flavor but the texture is off-putting.
Score: B+

Yogurt has an interesting, tart flavor which doesn’t taste remotely like yogurt, until it dissipates. Then, the tang on the back of the tongue says “Hey, this kinda tastes like yogurt, FYI.” Yogurt is a good flavor, but not one that makes me think of actual yogurt.
Score: B

Hi-Lemon and Yogurt Candy Tablet: B

Marble: Chocolate and Strawberry

Packaging:
Both varieties of Meiji’s candy-coated chocolates are packaged similarly with minor differences. The font is well done in a rainbow gradient which adds to the visual appeal. I’m confused as to why there’s English on these boxes. A parade of critters celebrate Marble-written in English- by playing instruments.
Score: A+

Appearance:
There’s nothing special about round, candy-coated chocolate. In fact, they look just like M&M’s, but without the “m”. Marble does contain interesting colors and the Chocolate colors differ slightly from the Strawberry ones.
Score: B+

Texture:
Marble has a good amount of crunch due to the candy-coating, more so than the M&M’s™ they resemble. The chocolate is dense but smooth in the center, adding further texture.
Score: B+

Flavor:
The chocolate flavor is good but not as good as Choco Baby. The strawberry has a strong strawberry flavor, which dissipates quickly.
Score: B

Marble: A-

poifull

Packaging:
Happy, happy, happy!! Is the message I’m getting from these cheery colors. The product is once again featured on the packaging-good job- and various fruits declare this to be a fruity candy. A guilty looking beaver on the packaging seems to be hiding something. Did that beaver eat all my Poifull?!
Score: A+

Appearance:
Poifull look like translucent, elongated jelly beans. All the beans are soft pastel hues representing the flavors: yuzu (which tastes like grapefruit), muscat (grape), apple, and green grape.
Score: A

Texture:
This candy is much chewier than American jelly beans, with a slightly harder exterior.
Score: A

Flavor:
Poifull have a very strong flavor. They taste almost as if they’ve been flavored with fruit liquors. Each fruity flavor tastes exactly like it should, unlike their Western counterparts.
Score: A+

Poifull: A+

The Verdict

Out of eight different candies, only three made it onto my “will-buy-again” list: Apollo Chocolate, Coffee Beat, and Poifull. The other five aren’t horrible, but if I was going to spend .50 on Japanese candy, it would be on any of the former three.

Posted by Me on 09-03-2008 14:47:51 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

We’ve all had those days when we just don’t feel attractive. We even have names for these “off” days, as in: I’m having a “Fat Day“, or I’m having a “Bad Hair Day“, or I’m having a “Wardrobe Malfunction Day“. These times are often transitory and don’t negatively affect our sense of self-worth for longer than that day. What if every day was an “off” day? And what if anyone stunningly beautiful might be a creature from another dimension?

plot summary

Sunako Nakahara is a reclusive goth gal who long ago renounced her femininity after she was shot down during an attempt to profess her love. Sunako’s aunt, a beautiful and eccentric woman of means, wants to transform Sunako from an unkempt lump into a lady fit for high society.

To that end, she enlists the help of her four bishishounen tenants, Takenaga Oda, Yukinojo Toyama, Ranmaru Morii, and Kyohei Takano. Auntie, as she’s known, makes the handsome lads an offer they can’t refuse: Change Sunako into a classy woman or pay triple the rent!! All four readily agree to help, but after meeting Sunako face to face, they realize they might be in over their heads.

Sunako represents multiple challenges to the boys, as she’s antisocial, uninterested in her appearance and frightened by the four beautiful men she dubs, “Creatures of Light”. The boys try to reach Sanuko through her self-imposed darkness but to no avail; Sunako prefers her misery, and is blinded by the four’s unearthly beauty, literally.

What are four fashion-consciousness, totally hot boys to do with a gothic girl who has no wish to change her dark and dingy ways?

review

I laughed and laughed till I hurt with this anime. To judge by the DVD cover would be to assume that the anime is about four bishonen and their shojo-esque interactions. The roses and petals liberally scattered across the cover also point in the shojo direction. Anyone who so judged The Wallflower would be wrong, wrong, wrong!

This Beauty and the Beast tale is funny as hell to watch, as the four bishies duke it out with the socially inept Sanoku. The boys try their damnedest to bring out the feminine side in Sanoku but they only have the effect of driving Sanoku deeper and deeper into her dark world. Kyohei actually spurs Sanoku into homicidal thoughts as he continually causes the overwhelmed goth to gush geysers of blood from her nose.

The two go to head to head in each episode as Kyohei schemes up ways to pay the rent or to transform Sanoku into a lady so he won’t need to pay rent. The other three try to passively change Sanoku, but Kyohei’s hot-headed manner won’t let him be a by-stander in the train-wreck which is Sanoku. Ironically, Kyohei and Sanoku have much in common below the surface; way, way, waayyyyy below the surface. They seem to eventually connect on some level at the end of the first volume, but not in any deep way.

Character Development

Sanoku is given plenty of backstory in the first episode so viewers can understand how she turned into the person she is, if not relate to why. We’re given frequent glimpses into her mind and thoughts whenever the boys try to impose their will on the poor girl. Sanoku comes across as sympathetic, pathetic and stoic all at once. Her self-imposed social and feminine exile is at odds with some of her actions throughout the volume and she’s, thus far, a very sympathetic and interesting character.

The boys are less developed in comparison, except for Kyohei. Kyohei is different from the other boys in that he doesn’t want people looking at him solely because he’s so handsome. He could do without his good-looks and be thankful he didn’t have them. In that regard, he’s kinda like Sanoku: neither one of them want people to gawk at them for their physical appearance or to judge them by it. They both want to be left alone.

Character Designs

Really, this anime is about hot men and a goth girl and they nailed it in making the men bishie as all get out. The boys look fantastic with their shimmering good-looks and naturally flowing hair. The super-deformed persona of Sanoku is amusing as is any of her ass-kicking incarnations. I’m thinking especially of a certain scene involving a chain-saw, an SS uniform and bondage gear.

Other interesting character designs are the four, wiggly-armed gothic lolita sisters: Goth, goth, loli, loli! Scary. But far scarier are the ganguro girls. Yikes times ten.

Animation

The sparkling shojo effects are dazzlingly done by Nippon Animation. The animation company made the boys seem tantalizing enough to touch and Sunako skeezy enough to want to avoid at all costs. The animation is good, but has some excellent shots whenever Sunako’s ire is raised. Amazing shots, those. Everything about the animation is pure shojo and it’s a treat to watch the dewy effects shimmer on the television screen.

Music

Kiyoharu, the popular J-rock singer, crafted the OP, “slow“. It’s a perfect companion to the overt use of Shojo Mojo? in the opening credits.

Kiyoharu also did the ED, “Carnation“. Carnation is a great J-rock tune with enough get-up and go to get an anatomical dummy to shake its rump. Amazingly enough, an anatomical dummy does dance to the ED in the end credits.

Voicecast

The Japanese voicecast is fantastic and the voice actors for the bishie men made them that much more bishie. The Japanese voices were smooth and oozed sensuality. The English voicecast was good as well, but Sanoku’s Western voice actress most approximated her Japanese counterpart.

Every facet of The Wallflower is loaded with comedic elements and never seems to get into too deep a place without then turning into a good laugh. The anime does have messages about self-acceptance and and the what it means to be beautiful, but it doesn’t ever make these messages into speed bumps which would stop the easy flow of the anime. The Wallflower lets the viewer make their own decisions about self-worth since, hell, this is a comedy!

Rating

Wallflower, Volume One gets 4 outta 4 Kasugai Gummies™!

Posted by Me on 08-03-2008 07:06:57 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

While everyone else is writing up these lists of 12 moments, series, Gundam mechs, etc. that matter, I jotted down some plugins that I find handy. I was going to release one a day, but the writeups are so short that I decided to just publish the whole list at once. If you want to read an anime-related list, try:

[ Roxas | CCYoshi | 0rion | Owen | Demian | Reverse Vampire | Nekoron | Martin | Michael Huang | Moogy | DS | Nigorimasen | Usagijen ]

1. WP-DBManager: No more excuses, this plugin will actually automate the backup process for you. The ability to do some rudimentary DB housecleaning is nice, too.
2. Simple Spoiler Enhanced: So much better now that you don’t have to edit any files, this plugin almost feels necessary on an anime blog.
3. WP AJAX Edit Comments: Lets commenters correct their own entries. I hate when I realize I wrote something incorrectly and I can’t change it!
4. LMB^Box Comment Quicktags: Having the HTML buttons above the comment area is so much more convenient than having to type in the code yourself.
5. Who Sees Ads?: WSA lets you customize your ads so that certain visitors see certain ads. You can also use the plugin to ensure that regular visitors don’t see ads, or ads are only displayed on newer posts. There are a ton of customizable rules, and WSA also simplifies the process of adding/editing ad code in your blog.
6. Maintenance Mode: When you want to make some changes without users seeing the mess, this handy plugin lets you throw up a splash page that gives readers an idea of what is going on, and how long the blog will be under construction. At the same time, logged-in users can continue to work on the blog and see how things are looking.
7. myDashboard: The default Wordpress dashboard is rather ugly and slow. This plugin lets you customize how the dashboard looks, and allows you to prune information and feeds that you don’t use.
8. Full Text Feed: The <!--more--> tag is great for formatting your blog’s front page, but it truncates your feed. If you want to offer full feeds to your readers, this plugin will let you use the <!--more--> tag without punishing feed readers.
9. FeedBurner FeedSmith: Feedburner is even more useful now that all the Pro options are free. Basically, Feedburner lets you track and optimize your RSS feed (which is increasingly important), and this plugin makes it easy to use Feedburner on your blog.
10. Google Analyticator: With the new fancy graphs, and the even newer ability to display 2 data lines on one graph, Google Analytics is a powerful tool. This plugin makes it super easy to integrate Analytics into your blog.
11. Header Image Rotator: Yeah, it’s easy enough to code yourself, but this plugin works right out of the box and comes with a few handy options. Who doesn’t like rotating banner images?
12. Akismet: Soon to be the only major player in the spam fighting game, Akismet is a decent plugin. It’s convenient for commenters and it’s great at catching splogger/scraper pingbacks. Unfortunately, Akismet doesn’t catch everything and it suffers from way too many false positives (even after catching over 67,000 spam comments).

Posted by Me on 08-03-2008 07:06:55 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

This was something I posted on 9rules but wanted to get everyone’s opinion on:

Anime and manga are Japanese creations which have found a strong following in the States. But, will we ever see American-made anime and manga develop as big a foothold in the US as Japanese-made anime and manga?

Die-hard purists in the anime community refuse to acknowledge that anime or manga written or directed by an American can be just as good as anime from Japan. I’ve read reviews by fans who say Tekkonkinkreet- an awesome anime- was poorly done, due mainly to the fact American Michael Arias directed it.

Manga is also being written and drawn by American mangaka, and sometimes receive flack that their creations are a pale shadow compared to Japanese manga.

Are these opinions valid or are they a reflection of elitism stagnating growth in our community?

Americans, or Westerners in general, may never truly understand the Japanese perspective of anime/manga storytelling, being they weren’t immersed in it from birth. Yet, Americans who do become involved with either medium, can learn to create anime/manga with their own perspectives using the same style of storytelling.

Themes are important in anime, but isn’t it feasible to develop Western themes which will connect to those audiences in a more meaningful way? Moe means nothing to the average American and elicits feelings of revulsion among the more progressive who do know what moe is. It has no connection with mainstream US audiences except to serve as a reminder of how far feminism has come.

Each country has their own mythology and their own history which shape the archetypes in their storytelling. Is it possible to blend Japanese and American mythos to create something new which can still be labeled anime and manga?

Question:

Is pursuing American anime and manga viable or pointless?

Posted by Me on 06-03-2008 12:07:34 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

So you’ve decided you’d like to dress in Lolita style, but your body type does not lend to the standard construction or sizing of Japanese brands. Or perhaps the clothing that you’ve always dreamed of will be forever out of stock. Fear not, aspiring Lolita, for there is another way to possess the fashion you desire!

What you seek is a commission. Your first step is to select the particular item you would like to have personally crafted for you. In order to better explain the process, let’s imagine that you’ve fallen in love with this black velvet Shirley Temple one piece. But alas, even if you obtained the original, it’s been designed for pre-teen girls! Only an eight-year-old could ever fit into such a thing! You must have it re-created in your size.

pictures

Begin by gathering up as many photos of this item as you can. Luckily for us, we have both a front and back photo. But what if we could find no back photo? The rest of the garment would be a mystery. Therefore it is up to you, the consumer, to fill in any gaps in information. Shall we leave it plain? How about a large bow? Maybe even a few ruffles? The choice is yours. (Of course you can make these suggestions even if you have the photo, it is your commission.)

finding a seamstress

Step two involves finding a reputable seamstress, preferably someone who has extensive experience with Lolita fashion. Don’t worry if it takes a little time to decide on who you feel will be perfect for your project. Ask around; other Lolitas are usually eager to share their commission experiences, both good and bad.

Post your Shirley Temple photos. Once you contact (or are contacted by) a potential sewing expert, inquire as to the cost of labor, materials and the like. Request credentials, references, and photos of previous commissions. Ask what her current queue looks like, and when you can expect your piece to be finished.

Questions to ask

Inquire as to any return or refund policies.Your seamstress is most likely not making a living sewing Lolita clothing, so she may have you enter into a contract that states you will pay for the dress regardless of the final result. Ask if, after your dress is complete, might you be able to ship it back to have a fitting issue resolved? Would you have to pay extra for this service, or is it included in the overall cost? These are matters that must be settled before the commission begins, to avoid misunderstandings later.

material

When it comes to materials, you can select them yourself and ship them (if you live in the same area as your commissioner, you may be able to go shopping together). Or, you can describe a price range (the most expensive, luxurious velvet? Something durable that will not show wear over time?), and trust the seamstress to buy the fabric and lace for you. In order to know how much material will be used, you will have to be measured.

measurements

A word about measurements: accurate measurements make accurate commissions. I suggest that you visit your nearest dry cleaners, and have yourself professionally measured. This clears up any misconceptions as to where to place the measuring tape, and also reduces the desire to cheat. Do not tell yourself “I should order it a bit small, because I’m planning on losing ten pounds.” SEND IN CURRENT, BRUTALLY EXACT MEASUREMENTS, not the measurements of the future! I cannot stress this enough!

At this point you have chosen your design, you’ve been measured, and you’ve agreed upon a payment method. Your photo and measurements are now in the hands of the seamstress. Can you just sit back and wait for your beautiful Shirley Temple recreation to arrive in the mail? No! You should remain in contact with her throughout the whole process. If you did not provide your own material, ask for photos of the types of trim that will be used (in this case, three different widths of white eyelet lace). The local fabric store might not have something that is identical to the original, so make sure you like what your seamstress has selected.

work in progress

Ask to see photos of the work in progress. If you are happy with your dress during the sewing stage, it’s likely that you will be happy with the end result. It may be possible to change a few details while the garment is under construction, but those same details may be near-impossible to change when the whole thing is said and done. If your seamstress is not as communicative as you would like, realize that her workload may be particularly heavy and try to be understanding.

On the happy day when you finally receive your dress, inspect it for obvious flaws. Try it on and make sure that it fits perfectly. If there is a problem, you should already be aware of the post-completion policies of your seamstress. If you are unsatisfied with the finished product, do your absolute best to work it out with her directly. If you are overjoyed with your purchase, don’t forget to send her a gushing email and a photo of yourself modeling her excellent work!

About Curiosity: Curiosity Valentine is a contributing Lolita fashion writer with extensive knowledge of Lolita fashion. She’s spent time in Japan studying the subject matter and learning the language. She’s also the lead singer in the Gothic Lolita Industrial Jazz band, Curiosity. If you have any questions please feel free to comment below!

Pink Dress photo © Copyright In the Starlight.

Posted by Me on 06-03-2008 12:07:34 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

In October I wrote about the State of the Anime Industry in the US. I mentioned that it was difficult to get compiled statistics about the trends in anime sales in the US. ICv2, the retailer information site, would release limited information semi-annually. The full statistics and analysis would only be available to subscribers of their publication.

However, ICv2 has finally presented a free version of their compiled findings at the first annual ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: Inside the Otaku Generation. It was held on Dec. 6 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. This was the day before the start of the first New York Anime Festival. ICv2 CEO, Milton Griepp, presented a white paper which discussed “the latest North American trends in anime and manga, with a look ahead to 2008.”

The actual text of the paper has not yet been released, but here are some highlights as collected by ANN:

Manga sales in the US:

• 2002 - million
• 2003 - 0 million
• 2004 - 5 million
• 2005 - 5 million
• 2006 - 0 million

Anime sales in the US (does not include revenues from theater box offices or TV broadcast):

• 2002 - 0 million
• 2003 - 0 million
• 2004 - 0 million
• 2005 - 0 million
• 2006 - 0 million

Mr. Griepp did mention that the anime market for both theatrical releases and broadcast TV looked healthy.

Manga releases in the US:

• 2005 - 1088 volumes
• 2006 - 1208 volumes
• 2007 - 1468 volumes (projected)
• 2008 - 1731 volumes (projected)

The paper did mention that while the volumes released has been increasing, available shelf space at the retailer shops has not been keeping pace. ICv2 speculates that this may cause some manga to be distributed by direct sales rather than through bookstores.

Anime releases (DVDs) in the US:

• 2001 - 439
• 2002 - 562
• 2003 - 727
• 2004 - 733
• 2005 - 756
• 2006 - 617
• 2007 - 500+ (projected)

Mr. Griepp concluded with a look towards 2008. Though the manga market is still expanding, the main issue for manga in the US is if it can continue to expand to other demographics. He noted that some publishers were trying to attract adult customers. As for anime, here is an excerpt from ANN’s article:

“In his [Mr. Griepp’s] words, anime is now facing a ‘best and worst of times’ kind of situation. Market penetration is excellent, and there are more licensed products being sold for different properties than ever before, but the market for DVD sales is steadily declining. This decline is driven by a contradiction, as fans demand the kind of season-set pricing that is now commonplace for American television series, but the inherent costs of licensing, producing, and dubbing anime make this difficult. How to compete with online downloads of fansubs remains a major question for the industry, and declining sales across the home entertainment market mean that American anime companies often cannot afford to engage in experiments that may not be successful. Griepp also criticized Japanese anime production companies for continuing to insist on pricing many licenses without taking into account the actual potential of these series in the current U.S. environment.”

So, at least for the short term, manga’s future in the US looks bright. Anime, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. The TV and theater sectors are healthy, but DVD sales are looking a little grim.

ANN Story: ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga - ICv2 White Paper

If you are interested in reading more, Mr. Griepp was interviewed by Publishers Weekly Comics Week shortly before the conference. He talked about the conference and discussed some of the issues that he would later present in the paper. Here is an excerpt where he answers the question, “Where do you see the anime DVD market in the short run?“:

“There?s a great future but the old model for DVD sales?single episodes on a DVD released every three months?is breaking down. These days you can?t wait that long to release the episodes, and the price is just too high. There?s a shift to DVDs offering a full-season collection, which lowers the per episode cost. The market is in transition, split between the two models, but it will eventually go straight to a season DVD collection.

There will be more legal anime material on the Web, which will help cut into the illegal download traffic. And anime companies are differentiating the content and the extras they sell on DVD, so that may help evolve that business model. The bottom line is that digital delivery is becoming more important than ever, from video on demand to streaming video and downloads, and how that affects DVD sales is an open question. What is the impact of digital delivery on the sale of physical products? We’ll be looking at all of this at the conference.“

Picture of Milton Griepp from Publishers Weekly.

PWCW Story: Inside the Otaku Marketplace

On the Geneon front, there is a small bit of good news. In the rush to release Fate/Stay Night, Volume 6 Limited Edition before the November 6 cutoff deadline, quality control suffered a bit. Some of the Saber Clocks, which were part of the extras, were defective. Fortunately, though, everyone whose order came with a defective clock is eligible for a gift certificate to RightStuf.com courtesy of Geneon.

Here is the link to the actual pdf form. The deadline is December 31, 2007.

Posted by Me on 03-03-2008 12:03:30 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Christmas in Japan is a weird creature compared to the one we Westerners celebrate. It’s an imported holiday that isn’t as revered a tradition as in the West and doesn’t have the same roots and meaning.

The Japanese do have some similarities between the way they celebrate Noel and the way we do:

We have Christmas trees- real and otherwise- they have Christmas trees- otherwise. We have a shopping season which starts the day after Thanksgiving, they have a shopping season starting the day after Thanksgiving.

We have Christmas carols in English, they have Christmas carols in English. We have public displays of lights, and so do the Japanese. We have a fat, old white dude with a beard, dressed in a red suit delivering gifts and they have, well, some guy in a red suit delivering gifts.

The similarities pretty much stop there, hit a brick wall and explode into a million candy canes. The differences between our Christmas and their’s is beautifully summed up in the latest anime from TNK: Itsudatte (Always) My Santa! - just in time for the Christmas season!

plot summary

Santa is alone on Christmas Eve, and I don’t mean Santa Claus. Santa is the name this kid’s parents dubbed him the night he was born; Christmas Eve. So not only is Santa alone on Christmas Eve, he’s alone on his birthday! But season’s greetings and good cheer bound his way in the form of Mai, a Santa-in-training.

Mai wants to make Santa happy on Christmas, and promises to cheer him up if he spends the night with her. It’s not what Santa thinks, however, as Mai conjures up saury and staffs (anything beginning with “S”) to put a smile on her chosen Scrooge’s face.

Mai works her Santa magic along with the help of her stuffed sidekick, Pedro. The two tirelessly work through the night to grant Santa’s Christmas wishes. Will Santa believe in the magic of Santa Clause before the night’s through?

review

Itsudatte (Always) My Santa! is a cute, two episode long anime about the meaning of Christmas- in Japan. It’s a great example of how the Japanese view and celebrate Christmas and is sure to leave most Westerners, especially Americans, perplexed.

The story is classic anime and blends a couple popular genres to create this short Christmas tale; namely magical girl and magical girlfriend.

Mai wishes to make Santa happy using her magic powers, which also endow her with certain physical attributes. The two end up exploring the true meaning of Christmas through self-sacrifice and Santa power.

Character Designs

Who knew Santa Claus was a hottie, or should I say, hotties? The Santa Corp includes well-endowed ladies with a Christmas flair. Very festive. The downtown scenes are decked out in Christmas decorations and lights, a shimmering slice of Japan in winter.

Animation

The animation for this brief OVA, done by TNK, is average but is well done for the brevity of the anime.

Itsudatte My Santa, isn’t a deep anime aimed at creating a Christmas miracle; but it does have enough good cheer to put a smile on any humbug’s face.

Rating

Itsudatte (Always) My Santa! gets 3 outta 4 Kasugai™ gummies!

Additional Reading

Funimation’s My Santa Sub-Site

Buy It!

Buy the My Santa DVD from Amazon.com!

Posted by Me on 03-03-2008 12:03:30 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Sometimes, the term “adaptation” is used to describe an anime-to-live-action production, when in fact, “inspired” would be more apropos. Casshern, the 2004 live-action “adaptation” of the little known anime of the same name, should actually be termed an “inspired” film.

The 1973 anime, which takes place in the future, features the titular character fighting robots who threaten to destroy humanity. The modern LA film, while taking the essence of the anime into the movie, follows its own path for the most part.

plot summary

For fifty years, a war has been fought between the Great Eastern Federation and Europa. The Fifty Year War, as it’s been dubbed, has finally ended, but instead of the hoped for peace, terrorists from Zone Seven are attacking and undermining the government.

Tetsuya Azuma, son of the talented bio-engineer, Kotaro Azuma, answers his inner call to duty and enlists in the army to combat terrorism; leaving behind his betrothed, Luna Kozuki.

Dr. Kotaro Azuma has been spending the last few years researching neo-cells in the hope of finding a cure for his sick wife, Midori. His research has caught the attention of the government and he now works under their supervision.

However, Dr. Azuma’s work is only possible if he obtains cells from the inhabitants of Zone Seven, aka, Original Humans; a fact which makes many leery of his work.

One day, an unfortunate twist of fate from the heavens brings into being more than just neo-cells: Neo-Sapiens, created from the cells, rise angry from the sludge which spawned them, bent on inhuman revenge. They resurrect machines and hatreds from the past, and wage war against those who denied their right to exist; the human race.

Luna’s father, Dr. Kozuki, is caught up in Dr. Azuma’s work, and helps him save Tetsuya from Death’s grasp, thus making Tetsuya super-human in the process. Now, Tetsuya once more is called to the frontlines - to do battle for mankind - as the guardian spirit Casshern!

review

Anime gets lost in translation when it’s made into live action: The movements aren’t always as smooth, the action isn’t as believable, the emotions aren’t always correct, and the environments aren’t as awe-inspiring as their anime originals. The Matrix came damn close to approximating what an anime should be when it’s put on celluloid. But if the Matrix was close to getting anime-to-live action right, Casshern was dead on target.

character development

The story for Casshern is an old and familiar one, but it’s pure anime. Nothing says anime like a tortured soul called upon to do super-human battle(against his will) with evil, equally tortured and super-human (yet sympathetic), souls. Nothing.

Tetsuya does his best to do the right thing, ends up doing the absolutely wrong thing, then gets a chance to make it right. His nemesis might not be the enemy he takes him for, his father might not be the man he thought he was, and his mother might be happy where she’s at. The confusion, angst, and twists are strong throughout the movie, but it’s at the end where Casshern proves its worth as an anime turned live action flick.

character designs

Story aside, the world for Casshern was also straight from the Anime Playbook. Futuristic environments coupled with imposing mecha technology are the traditional setting for this genre of anime, and the live-action version of Casshern was apparently taking good notes when said criteria were established.

The style is a cross between World War II Era technology and Steampunk. The robots are heavy and frightening when they lock step across the battlefield. The clothes are also reminiscent of the 1940’s. The propaganda hanging throughout the cities and the menacing technology give Casshern an oppressive air.

The actors’ fight scenes, exaggerated expressions and movements also pay proper homage to Anime. The characters in the movie are archetypes of the medium and were well acted as live action anime. This one aspect of anime- the emotions, facial expressions, and movements- always seem to be played down on film when in fact they should be over-exaggerated to be done properly. If live-action anime is played “straight”, it’s not live-action anime anymore; it’s a movie. A regular, boring, run-of-the-mill movie produced for the mindless mainstream masses.

At first glance, the story for Casshern is confusing: How can lightening be solid? How do those Neo-Sapiens know how to work those machines? How is Casshern able to do what he does?

However, step back and look at the movie as if it were an undiluted anime and it makes perfect sense. These themes are commonplace in anime and if we can accept them in an animated art form, why can’t we project them over a live-action movie? How does being live-action negate the mind-blowing logic we’ve come to accept as a matter of course in anime?

There were some heavy-hitting moments in the movie, which came like blows. The twists and machinations in Casshern are integral to the anime form of storytelling and added to the overall “This is Anime,” feel of the movie.

If Casshern had a weakness, it was that it was too high reaching. It tried to compress in two and a half hours what should have taken maybe twice that to tell. There was so much info, so much to explore, so much to see, that the alloted time wasn’t nearly enough.

visuals

The graphics for the movie were a mixture of greenscreens, enhanced with computer graphics and actual physical sets. Certain shots had bits of set mixed with greenscreen, or were totally greenscreen or totally set. The effect was an absolutely stunning movie which recreated the feel of anime better than any of its other live action predecessors.

acting

Yusuke Iseya, the actor who played Tetsuya/Casshern did a great job in the fight scenes; he really treated the character as if it were anime, and that’s difficult. In fact, the whole cast did a fine job in that regard.

music

The score for Casshern was filled with guitar-heavy anthems, highlighting the fight scenes and setting an angry mood. The ED was a touching, soft melody and brought the movie to a close with style.

With the way anime is being adapted into live-action, there’s bound to be causalities along the way. Some anime just won’t make the transition between their animated origin and the hoped for celluloid incarnation. Casshern, although not a verbatim adaptation, still kept the feel and essence of anime within itself, making it a triumph for the medium.

Rating

Casshern gets 3.5 outta 4 Kasuagi™ gummies!

You can buy Casshern on DVD from Amazon.com!

Posted by Me on 01-03-2008 09:02:23 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

The Anime Blog’s Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza is now over. We have 20 comments and the winners are drkxbunnii, Dalton6, and kidan!! Thanks to everyone who entered and keep reading for more giveaways!!!

In the spirit of giving, The Anime Blog is having a Christmas Giveaway Extravaganza! We’re giving away one of the following to three lucky readers. And unlike our other giveaways, where we require 60 comments before we draw names, we’re lowering the comment requirement to 20!!

To Enter:

• All entrants must live in the continental U.S.
• All entrants must be a registered user to win.
• Post a comment in the comment board below with the name of one of the articles being given away.
• For this contest you must have a second and third choice of prizes in case the first name drawn wins your first and/or second choice.
• One post and one item only per registered user. Flooding the board with multiple posts will result in deletion of all said user’s posts.

Deadline

• Deadline is numerical: 20 unique comments (minimum). The winners will be randomly drawn when 20 comments have been posted.

Winner

• Winners’ user names will be posted on the site and notified by e-mail!
• There will also be a second mystery prize included with all winnings!

Manga

• My Dearest Devil Princess, Volume 1

Anime DVDs

• Yu Yu Hakusho, Volumes 5-6
• Case Closed, Volume 3
• Kodocha, Volume 13
• Karas, The Revelation
• Glass Fleet, Volume 1
• Ikkitousen, Volume One
• Nerima Daikon Brothers, Volumes 1-2
• Tetsujin 28, Volume 1
• Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Volumes 4-5
• Witchblade, Volume 1
• Witchblade, Volume 2

Good luck and don’t forget to tell your friends! The more comments we get, the faster you can win!

Posted by Me on 01-03-2008 09:02:23 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

Tis’ the season for absolute craziness at the mall and gift-buying gone wrong. This time of year is nutty for everyone, no matter how low-key they try to be about holidays. Who doesn’t freak out (just a little) this time of year due to holiday stress and the need to find the perfect gift?

Wasn’t it easier when we were wee toddlers and told Santa exactly what we wanted, and then it magically appeared under the Christmas tree? How awesome would it be to have that option as adults:

Dear Santa,
This year, I’ve been ever so good and have paid my bills and mortgage on time. I haven’t had a parking ticket all year and have only pirated software from Bill Gates. You’ll also notice I haven’t been downloading as much hentai as in previous years. Please make a note of this when you slide your lard down my chimney with your bag of loot. I’ll be wanting the following: Haruhi figurines, Bathing Suit Rei Ayanami, Volumes One and Two of the Witchblade anime, and 12 varieties of Pocky.

Regards,
Anime Fan For Life

P.S.- Do you drink on the job or should I leave out some coffee?

Who’s written up their Christmas lists and who wants what? Which anime, manga or collectible are you hoping for? Have you been good enough this year for Santa to pick up a boxset for you? Or have you been a naughty child who’ll probably only be getting a Dragon Ball Z plushie? Which anime or manga is on your Christmas list?

I may not be Santa, but share what you want in the comments below!

Posted by Me on 28-02-2008 08:09:50 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)

You might wanna catch up with my reviews of E’S Volume One, Volume Two and Volume Three before reading my review of Volume Four!

Illusions are all around us in our daily lives, and what might seem benign in one light may be malevolent in actuality. It’s sometimes hard to tell friend from foe and our eyes can deceive us when we need to see the truth the most. And it’s always good policy, living as we do in illusions, to never judge a book by its cover…

plot summary

Things are heating up-literally- at the Tokagawa residence. Maria has come to ask for Asuka’s help when Maria’s fellow rebel psychic, Maxim, turns up the heat in a fight to win Asuka.

Maxim, like Maria, has been ordered to secure Asuka at any cost, but unlike Maria, Maxim’s willing to pay whatever price necessary to obtain Asuka’s powers.

Kai is still the prisoner of the corrupt priest, Lord Ghibelline, who has trapped the psychic in his underground church. Kai has agreed to be the priest’s “guest” in order to protect the other young psychics Ghibelline is also housing. Lord Ghibelline reveals to Kai the nature of the Sacrament of Calvarias and wants Kai to retrieve it for him.

Things at Ashurum are just as intense as Shen-Long discovers his beloved sister, Shin-Lu, is not quite herself of late. Not just that, but Shen-Long has three new teammates to contend with- new teammates who don’t like to play together…

review

Volume Four was much better than the previous volume. It had more action, more twists and more interest than Three and introduced three new characters to the E’S cast: Maxim, Sherry, and Kyo.

However, Asuka is becoming more moe with each passing volume; either that or she’s getting dumber. (Moe, dumb, same thing?) Either way, her clueless-ness has crossed the line from slightly obnoxious, to irritating.

I prefer female characters to be internally strong with what I call human moments, i.e. they can get weepy when a situation warrants it. Asuka, while being a sweet innocent child has been crafted to be too strongly moe. There’s a fine line between naive and innocent and just plain dumb; a fine, fine line. Hopefully, Asuka will be tempered in her moe-ness with the advent of her alleged power.

I had a strong visceral reaction to Maxim when he was introduced. The guy creeps me out- a lot. The way he’s drawn; his snide, sexist comments: “If you always act so tough, you’ll never find yourself a husband,”; his mannerisms; everything about this guy makes my skin crawl. All I have to say is if this guy were real, I’d make damn sure I wasn’t alone with him in a room, or a building, or a city, or a country. He’s just slimy and he has some hidden agenda.

Kai is just so mixed up in his ideals, it’s painful to watch. His intentions are pure, but, wow, bad decisions seem to be all this kid can make. Ideals sure can be brutal when they’re not mixed with reality and tempered with experience. Time will tell if what seems like a bad decision on Kai’s part isn’t actually a well-plotted plan…

Yuuki is my fave character thus far in E’S since he has ideals (helping orphans and making Gald a better place for them) but he also recognizes the reality of situations (working for gangsters to make money may be necessary to make ends meet) and he has experience (being a gun-for-hire). Asuka is too moe, Kai is too idealistic, Maxim is too creepy, Maria is too shallow,and Shen-Long is too crazy for me to connect with on any but a sympathetic level. I empathize with Yuuki and that makes him memorable to me.

Volume Four has as many extras as the previous volumes but there’s a new addition in the way of Yuiga’s “Saint Ashurum’s Academy Dairies“. I had a good laugh over this extra, but the truly funny thing is that if the “story” for it was developed into a full-blown manga, girls would be pushing each other down to buy it first.

The end of E’S, Volume Four has me wanting more, more, more, and has renewed my interest in the series, which was lagging after Volume Three. The series has been building up the angst and action and Volume Five promises to have even more angst and more action than Four!

Rating

E’s Volume Four gets 3 outta 4 Kasugai™ gummies!

Posted by Me on 28-02-2008 08:09:50 | Add your own comment, currently 0 comment(s)