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Twas :( Not quite the level as some of the other Jun Maeda written stuff yet but it pulled on your heartstrings. Yuri really is a bit of a bully tbh, and it doesn't seem like some people are as clear cut as she makes out.

Will be interesting to see where this is going to lead, with this one not being based on an existing Visual Novel :) so no heads up on the story.
 
Guys slightly random question here, but has anyone heard anything on a legit *UK* release of Spice and Wolf series 1? I know series 2 is on it's way from Funi now in the US, so thats probably what most are focusing on, but R2 DVDs do generally look better than R1 and I'd probably be willing to pick the series up again if the picture was a decent enough step up (R2 DVDs seem to upscale much better on our TVs too because of the increase in res in the source).
Im sure there'd be a market for it here, with the books starting to sell, one of my mates is already interested in grabbing it (he mentioned hes check Lovefilm a few times too), but doesnt have a multiregion player and doesnt like importing.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Guys slightly random question here, but has anyone heard anything on a legit *UK* release of Spice and Wolf series 1? I know series 2 is on it's way from Funi now in the US, so thats probably what most are focusing on, but R2 DVDs do generally look better than R1 and I'd probably be willing to pick the series up again if the picture was a decent enough step up (R2 DVDs seem to upscale much better on our TVs too because of the increase in res in the source).
Im sure there'd be a market for it here, with the books starting to sell, one of my mates is already interested in grabbing it (he mentioned hes check Lovefilm a few times too), but doesnt have a multiregion player and doesnt like importing.
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I've not seen any reports anywhere that it is going to be released over here.
 
Well given that the R2(UK) companies still seem to be using the singles model so that you can probably get a region-free DVD player and a complete season boxset for less than a full R2(UK) series I fail to see why anyone should watch something by other means if it is licensed in English and available.

I have a large number of R1 and R2 anime DVDs and I see no difference in quality between the regions in the vast majority of cases even with upscaling, (in the times when the R1 picture quality isn't great is normally due to specific encoding issues with that particular release). Admittedly I am using pretty good quality kit to display on but I never noticed issues on the older kit either.

Spice and Wolf even has issues on Blu-ray in Japan as apparently it's an upscale from a 720i (yes interlaced, not 720p) master. Season 2 is apparently better in this regard though.
 
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Finished watching a couple of things today ...

Stellvia ... not a bad science fiction series nicely package in a tin. The main plots were pretty reasonable but it would have been nice if there had been a bit more character development over the course of the series.

You're Under Arrest - Season 3 ... excellent, absolutely excellent ... the guys and girls of Bukuto station do not disappoint. The second half of series 3 continues with the usual mixture of action, drama, comedy and girls in bikinis on rollerblades ;) ... what was also nice was a small melancholy story, investigated by Natsumi whilst Miyuki away for a day or so, which was very nicely done. Yes there were plots which other series would have turned in to re-occurring stories which then would have come up multiple times over the entire series but as usual YUA just stuck to what it does best.

Next, upstairs I haven't decided but have a couple of contenders .... downstairs I've watched about 3/4 of Madlax (from the depths of the ADV UK going out of business sale) today which has been ok for the most part, I'll probably finish that tomorrow.
 
I'm quite looking forward to Stellvia, it's currently in an order at Rightstuf with the full Tsubasa, Genchisken 1 & 2 and the Dubbed Clannad, wasn't there an OVA for it at one point?

Good to hear about YUA S3, I'm really looking forward to that (in yet another order at rightstuff), as I've loved the other YUA series :)
Which reminds me, i'm going to run out of new Anime DVD's to watch this week (at least until a couple of orders arrive in the post/ship), so I may put the original OVA's and TV series on :)

Re Madlax, aye I picked most of that up during the ADV fire clearance (I think it was one of about 30 disks I picked up), from memory it's pretty good if a little strange.
 
According to Wikipedia there was just the 26 episodes for Stellvia, there was talk of another series but it hit some sort of production issues and never came to anything.

Madlax ... I'm giving it another go this time .... last time I dropped it after disk one but this time I'm about 5 or 6 disks in ...
 
Ahhh Stellvia :)
one of my favourites ,must get around to re-watching it again
Today i have been mostly watching Karin,the blood giving vampire lol,childish but fun
 
Well I finished Madlax this morning. Well, not the greatest series I've seen but not that bad a mix of action and weirdness. It really could have done with some editing of the story to make it a bit more coherent at times (and the series as a whole could have probably been made 3-4 episodes shorter in the process).

After that, for something completely different, I re-watched Someday's Dreamers. For ages I thought I wouldn't be able to get this series as it's well and truly OOP but I picked it cheap from somewhere eventually. Nice little series about a girl who is a trainee mage in modern day Tokyo studying with a working mage over her summer break. Not to complicated but with nice touches throughout.

Next series .... well lets just say it's emotional heaviness time ...
 
By contrast I just finished watching Aquarion (I tend to watch most series through for completion sake unless they're truly awful), and...well I dont think I cant recommend it unless you love mecha.
The whole plot was contrived and some parts a little non-sensical, as well as many of the characters feeling like they were there for no other reason than to provide feature episodes or to fill out the cast, and a lot of the pseudo-philisophy used was utter garbage, perhaps it worked as an interesting point in the original (and some of the nuances might perhaps be a cultural thing), but translated through to english the series probably would have been better without them.

Vic Mignogna and Brina Palencia (and Im sure there were some other voices I recognised too) probably won't look back on this one too fondly when they're recollecting the best series' they got involved with :p

The sound was all over the place as well, I'm all for dynamics but the person who mixed this really doesnt seem to have thought about that as they should, it's one of the few shows I've literally had to sit on the remote for, because one moment it'll be dead quiet, then it'll swing through to deafening [and Im using good kit] which sometimes lead to lines being hard to catch, because the vocal volume is suddenly much lower than what went before.

Also watched Disgeia disc 1 recently, well I dont think I'll be finishing that, one for the fans I think, what could probably have worked well in the game didn't transfer well to an anime.

Got the second disc of RomeoXJuliet to watch next.
 
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Ok, I said I wasn't going to watch it originally ... but I caved ....

.... just finished the final boxset of the Viz release of Nana.

47 episodes (+ a couple of recaps) of depressing shojo goodness ... the basic synopsis is a normal girl called Nana follows her art school friends to Tokyo. Through a quirk of fate she ends up befriending, and sharing an apartment with, a punk musician also called Nana. From then on its all band promotion and relationship chaos for all involved.

I thought that the first two boxsets were very nice and enjoyable. However a major event comes into play in the third boxset which knocks everything out of whack and there are a few odd things in the way the plot is handled where the characters reactions don't really feel right. The voice overs tend to becoming sadder at this point as they recall events and people. This continues to the end of the fourth (final) boxset.

The main issue is the ending is weak ... episode 46 to the "current day" portions of episode 47 don't gel together at all and there are to many things that must have happened in the interim which you don't see. If they had made another 5 or so episodes taking it up to a full 4 cours then they could probably have made it work but as is it just feels odd and disjointed.

Overall I liked the series more than I thought I was going to. Most of the characters were ok and the premiss was reasonable. Yes it has its weaknesses but I'm glad I've watched it. Would I recommend it .... a qualified yes baring in mind the weakness of the ending and that it can be quite a harrowing emotionfest at times ...


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Finished reading the newly released novel this morning; Genshiken: Return of the Otaku. I'm afraid that I cannot recommend this book as it just isn't good. The general premiss isn't too bad, although extremely far fetched and out of character compared with the normal Genshiken plot lines. But the style of the translation is poor. The writing does not flow at all and this makes reading the book a chore. There are also far to many footnotes for Japanese terms used, at least 50% of which add nothing at all to the story and just come across as the translator wanting to show off and these too just get in the way of the story. Compared with other translated novels I have read this is a poor example.
 
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If theres any saint seiya fans out there, theres a new ova out, the lost canvas. Its a prequeal to the original series. Much better than the old ova in terms of action and dialogue.
 
ANDARIAL said:
Ahhh Stellvia :)
one of my favourites ,must get around to re-watching it again
Today i have been mostly watching Karin,the blood giving vampire lol,childish but fun
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Had a look into this, seems a pretty good series atm, im enjoying it. Same studio as Heroic Age and Elemental Gelade to which i also both enjoyed :).
 
Well i finished witchblade and speed grapher, both great anime. Speed grapher was very good inparticular with its adult and mature themes but also very serious. Bit of a sadish end to it all.

Back on to Get Backers now. Coming on great. :)
 
I'll probably take a look at that Witchblade...from the bits and pieces I've seen it does look interesting, even if the Ecchi side puts me off a little [it can be...distracting especially if the artists focus on it].

Just started watching Vampire Knight too, guess I'm fond of supernatural stuff, vampires etc.
Going to take a look at Kimi ni Todoke as well, I've seen it mentioned a few time elsewhere when it comes to romance and good series to watch, and I'll admit I like a tale with a good romantic subplot, so it seems a decent series to go watch.

Might take a look at Chevalier D'Eon as well, it again seems to fall into the supernatural/gothic sector, but I think I'll wait until I've finished what Im about to start first I think.

I'm a bit of a series cram guy so given VK's a 12 ep show (I hate waiting on cliffhangers etc, call it an addictive personality), I don't think it'll take long.

Nodame Cantabile (or however its typed) is also on my possibles list, still not got round to watch it, but it does keep popping up when I look around, so I think that will make the list sooner or later.
 
erp, my resolve not to order any more anime in May lasted all of about 5 days, the chance of getting the GITS 2.0/GITS: Innocence blu-ray double pack for £11 was a little too much to miss.

I've been watching classic YUA for the past couple of days, I'd forgotten how funny it is (although I think I only watched it about 6 months ago???).
I may give it a miss tonight and watch Memories, as I've been getting an urge to rewatch that since spotting it in my collection the other night.

With a little luck Origin Spirits of the Past (blu) will arrive tomorrow, as I suspect there is not going to be much on TV ;)


Skeeter, I enjoyed witchblade, but not as much as i'd hoped, I think I was expensing something a little closer to the original comics :) (I used to read the Witchblade comic going back a few years, along with Battle Chasers*, Danger Girl, Gen 13, Spawn etc).


*Very anime/manga style, but extremely short lived, I think it lasted about 6 issues, with half of them being delayed months before the artist/writer ended up working on another comic.
 
Hahah, me thinks you have too much hobbie cash for your own good :D
Just don't expect too much from Origin, it was very pretty, but a bit hollow. Better than watching most of the cack on TV though, at least its visually stunning.
 
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