The anime thread sequel (it's still not as good as the Manga though),

When i went to Japan 5 years ago it was 245yen to the pound today its 117 .. I swear it drops every time I look. Kind of dashes my hopes of going back on day and then there's the effect it has on import prices =x

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=JPY&view=1Y

I cant say anything from the winter anime season has really grabbed me so far,
Senhime Zesshou Symphogear which is a bit of a macross f clone is probably I have seen so far.
 
memyselfandi said:
If they released the fancy sets at a premium and then simpler sets without the extras a lower price 6-12months later, (like NISA have been doing), it would probably work better for them outside Japan. You get the high price sales to start with and then you get the people who couldn't afford that down the line. But there's been little indication that that is what they are going to do.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good plan.

It's just that in the UK we are at the absolute other end of the scale, pushing out only releases at rock bottom prices in the most basic format.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
PlanetAxel just gave me a $5 discount voucher out of nowhere so that'll be Clannad BD ordered come payday then, and I can buy AS on DVD from Manga later in the year if there's no sign of an AS BD from Sentai.
Click to expand...

Personally I woundn't expect After Story on BD from Sentai until the second half of the year, probably mid-Autumn. But I would expect them to release it eventually.

@kayomani

Yes the exchange rate against the Yen is very depressing at the moment :( At least the Japanese government seems to realise now that the Yen is to strong at the moment and it's hurting exports but the last time they tried to do something it only rose up to around 126 to the pound before dropping back again :(
 
Finished watching Modern Magic made Simple last night. Overall, it was ok ... the characters were reasonable but I found the plot messy and unclear at times, (particularly the jumping between times), and whilst the characters were reasonable the series could have done with being 2 cours instead of the 1.

Generally it was a reasonable watch but could have been quite a bit better.

edit:

Started watching Kobato last night ... only watched the first few episodes but it seems pretty reasonable so far (and very typical Clamp ...hmmm that apartment block seems familiar, as does the landlady ... and her daughters ...) :)
 
Last edited:
I'm almost finished C3 now.

Whilst I realise 100% it rolls in tropes etc, I'm actually quite enjoying it. It's definately a series for preconverts to anime, but for what it is I've found it quite enjoyable if not exactly a classic or a series that will be remembered for years. It's KIND of like what you'd get if you mixed Toradora with Black Lagoon, and threw in a supernatural/eastern spiritual vibe. For a throwaway anime, it also looks pretty good, especially in HD, even if it won't be winning any awards.

In fact, I'm almost surprised Fear ISN'T voiced by Rie...
(Semi-Loli, Passive-Aggressive [sometimes just aggressive], Tsundere)

For those who wanted something with a bit of blood, it also suffices capably there at various points.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for DP, but so people realise there IS a new post, I noticed today Sendit are doing a LOT of anime on offer to celebrate Manga's 20th anniversary it seems.

http://www.sendit.com/dvd/offers/manga-s-20th-anniversary.list?sortOrder=price&sortReverse=false

DVDs from £1.49+P&P :)

I've not had a massive route through yet (partially as I'm close to skint and dont want to find more temptations) but looks to be some good deals on films etc.
Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of the £1.49 DVDs, Sky Crawlers on BD is £4.99 etc.
 
Last edited:
Alexrose1uk said:
Sorry for DP, but so people realise there IS a new post, I noticed today Sendit are doing a LOT of anime on offer to celebrate Manga's 20th anniversary it seems.

http://www.sendit.com/dvd/offers/manga-s-20th-anniversary.list?sortOrder=price&sortReverse=false

DVDs from £1.49+P&P :)

I've not had a massive route through yet (partially as I'm close to skint and dont want to find more temptations) but looks to be some good deals on films etc.
Girl Who Leapt Through Time is one of the £1.49 DVDs, Sky Crawlers on BD is £4.99 etc.
Click to expand...

Thats odd. I'm sure there was a 'Manga 20th Anniversary' sale..last year, by Zavvi. I bought Eden of the East from them. How can there be a 20th Anniversary this year as well :S.
 
:)

Finished watching Kobato this evening on Sentai's DVD release. The series is about a young woman called Kobato who must fill a glass jar with little jewel like things which she gets if she brings happiness to someone. If she fills the jar within the time limit then her wish will be granted. She has a sidekick who appears to be a blue stuffed dog toy (who has a very short temper and can breathe fire). Throughout the series she helps various people and has a lot of involvement with the local playschool.

Ok, so it's a Clamp series ... with all that goes with that. You have stories which seem simple on the surface but delve a bit deeper and they're not. You have back stories which are never full explained but rather tantalisingly hinted at. You have cameo's from other Clamp series, (off the top of my head we had some Tsubasa, some xxxHolic and a lot of Chobits (Kobato lives in the apartment building from this series for example)). Visually the series is reasonable for the most part with some scenes which are extremely good. The character designs are as you would expect. The characters themselves are generally very good and have some depth to them, (even though the main character is clumsy and, at times, has the intelligence of cheese)

It's not a series which is packed full of comedy and fanservice. There are some funny moments but you're more likely to cry than to laugh for quite a bit of it. It is more light-hearted drama, with points when it becomes not so light. One thing Clamp series tend to do pretty well is tugging on heart strings and this is no exception.

I really enjoyed the series immensely.
 
Watched a couple of other things this weekend as well ...

Initial D Fourth Stage ... bring to the end my watch through of the Funimation S.A.V.E. releases of Initial D. More of the same down (and up) hill street racing on mountain roads. Overall I preferred this series to the earlier ones, although I am still not too keen on the art style used for the characters nor the 3d animation of the cars. I wouldn't see that this whole set of series will rank far up there in my collection but I think that it was definitely worth a watch.

The Twelve Kingdoms ... the third and final part of the Media Blasters BD release. I would say that this third part of the release was probably my favourite of the three and the first half of it, at least, was reasonably interesting. I just don't find the overall series as a whole that good, not helped by not really caring about any of the characters and not being than enamoured with the art style. Again I'd say that the series, as a whole, is worth a watch but it's not up there amongst my personal favourites.

edit:

And for something completely different I finished watching the Sentai release of MM! this evening. Amusing little series with some really oddball characters, some fanservice (although not very strong), and lots of comic violence, innuendo and humour. A nice complete change from the other series I was watching over the weekend.
 
Last edited:
Well, I watched the live action Space Battleship Yamato movie yesterday.

Although it had it's corny moments and it dragged the ending out, overall as far as Sci-Fi movies go, it actually wasn't that bad. It plaguarised and sometimes the CGI was a little suspect, but some of the space battles etc actually looked pretty good for what was most likely a relatively low budget production, especially compared to a lot of western productions.

As someone who's never seen the original Yamato series, I was quite able to enjoy it for it's faults.
7.5/10

Also finished off Baka to Test with my brother today:
Whilst it was somewhat sweet (I'm a sap for romance), and there were some funny spoofs, as a comedy, I found this a bit dissapointing overall.

As it's the US BD release, for the cost over the non-BD release, it's actually not too bad and didn't cost much extra, and some of it looked OK, especially the bits which were meant to look pencilled.
The covers for the discs do rely way too much on fanservice though, which is a shame, and kinda unnecessary IMO. Like I've mentioned before, the actual idea of fanservice doesn't annoy me (I'm a guy afterall), but loads of use unecessarily and detrimentally...that's annoying. Given the overall tone of the series, even if it does occasionally play on said jokes, the cover art just seems a bit out of place IMO, it's too much.

Not sure whether to keep this, it's probably the only series in my physical collection I've actually thought of reselling, simply because I can't really see myself rewatching it having watched it once, it just didn't click with me.
 
I thought that the live action Space Battleship Yamoto was pretty good really, (I have it on BD). It was good, slightly cheesy sci-fi.

Baka to Test ... I agree that it looks pretty good on BD but I thought it was a pretty reasonable series overall and I look forward to the second season. I can't say that the fanservice on the disk covers particularly annoys me ... it sits on the shelf and I can see the spine ... if I want to watch the series then I'll get it down and watch it ... not sit there staring at the packaging.

Finished watching the second half of Denno Coil earlier on Siren Video's R4 release. It's a nice sci-fi series and I don't really see why this hasn't been licensed for media release in the US market. There is a nice fast paced interesting story and reasonable characters ... and the story is reasonably different from other sci-fi series I've seen (this is basically hacking at elementary school although the actual plot is way more complex than that).

The R4 release is nicely presented in two parts with stiff cardboard covers for each. There is also a nice disk of extras, (behind the scenes stuff, interviews, tv spots, NCOP, NCED etc), which makes a nice change nowadays.
 
I said it earlier in the thread, but I love Dennou Coil and it still surprises me how ignored it's been by western fans (though largely down to the baffling lack of licensing). Yet it's had nothing but praise from most people who have actually seen it.
 
Like all things with comedy, it's going to be to some people's tastes more than anything.

I can't say I disliked Baka to Test, but I think a lot of the humour wasn't necessarily to my tastes, and whilst it's indeed true that I don't exactly spend all my time looking at the covers disc cases, I just feel its a distinct shame that Funi decided that was either the nature of the show, or was the best way to appeal to the fanbase buying the show. In fact it seemed rather bizarre given the nature of the show.

Finished Blood-C this evening, as I more or less marathoned the last half of the series.
Got to say, given the negative vibes I've heard off people, and the fact that I wasn't that fond of the film, I went into this quite apprehensive as to whether it'd be something I could enjoy or not.

I actually quite enjoyed it, its definately in the vein of Madoka in the terms of dark fantasy, in that its a series that starts of light, and gets progressively darker througout, although I wasn't entirely fond of all the designs.

I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing what the film does now, and I found Nana Mizuki's ED reasonably decent, certainly one of the OP/EDs I've enjoyed more out of recent shows.
 
I enjoyed both series of Baka to Test to be honest, must just be the correct style humour for myself.

I also got round to watching Bakemonotagari too, very weird anime but some of the characters I really enjoy watching and find intriguing. Nisemonotagari will hopefully will be more of the same.

On another note Katawa Shoujo has really got me hooked on the story even though I have never played any games like it. Enjoy how laid back it is so you can just relax on an evening whilst playing it. Have others enjoyed it? Many more games like this in English?
 
There are some which have been translated (officially) and are available from people like JList or MangaGamer. I believe that "my Girlfriend is the President" is one which has been released recently (I've seen various talk about it online) although this time of year Snow Sakura is sometimes mentioned.

Personally I don't tend to play games so can't really comment (I own a few just never get around to playing anything).
 
Finished B Gata H Kei earlier on Funimations BD release. At first impression the story of this series makes you think that it'll be really bad but actually it's quite amusing. Despite the main character spending the entire series wanting to get laid there is remarkably little real fanservice (until the final episode ... which even then it isn't that bad).

Most of the time it the usual selection of misunderstandings which this sort of series normally generates. It's hardly original but it's amusing none the less.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom