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

Just finished re-watching (again) a certain Undine related first series ... nice, calming ... good music (although would have been nice if Nozomi had matched the sound levels for the English credit roll) .... just bobbing along ....

And I'm in agreement with NuclearWinter regarding the new Eureka Seven Ao series ...
 
I'm probably going to aim to rewatch the Undines again soon :)
At the moment I can't watch much with subs as my aging cheapy DVD player is going odd on subtitles (I suspect the video memory used for the subtitle overlays is overheating/failing as only the subs are affected but they glitch), so I've just ordered a cheapish Phillips blu-ray player for £60 as I know I can make it DVD region free easily enough :p

I'm currently watching Utena set 3 which is fun, but only managing about 2 episodes a day (largely because by the time I get to sit down alone, I'm looking and sounding like an extra from The Walking Dead).
 
It was one of those times when I wanted to re-watch something I knew was good and relaxing ... so I thought I'd throw in the Undines ... but having watched it I'm now tempted to run through the second and third series too :)
 
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I'm hopefully optimistic about the new E7 series. The original worked well as it didn't fall into the usual list of stereotypes with it's characters.

It will be interesting to see how the new series compares. I hope they do't go down the in your face moe route as we've seen how that ruins an IP with the new Last Exile.

I'll also be interested to see if it fits in with the original series or if like the movie and the likes of the Gundam franchise it's set in a different continuity.

- nothing against moe but it has its time and place.


On another note there is a very good article over at ANN explaining how anime actually gets produced and fininanced. Quite an interesting read.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/feature/2012-03-05
 
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memyselfandi said:
Just finished re-watching (again) a certain Undine related first series ... nice, calming ... good music (although would have been nice if Nozomi had matched the sound levels for the English credit roll) .... just bobbing along ....
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I ended up skipping over the English credit roll on my third run through since I got fed up with muting the TV every time.

And in other news after UP disappointed with a week plus delay after release for getting stock of ef ~ A tale of memories I got a shock when I got a e-mail stating that the melodies collection has shipped two weeks before it's actual release date (I just have to hope that the squid girl season 1 BD set doesn't ship between now and Monday since the money I had on reserve was for that).
 
demonix said:
I ended up skipping over the English credit roll on my third run through since I got fed up with muting the TV every time.

And in other news after UP disappointed with a week plus delay after release for getting stock of ef ~ A tale of memories I got a shock when I got a e-mail stating that the melodies collection has shipped two weeks before it's actual release date (I just have to hope that the squid girl season 1 BD set doesn't ship between now and Monday since the money I had on reserve was for that).
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Yep, mines shipped as well this morning. I strongly doubt that the Squid Girl season 1 BD will ship in that time frame as it hasn't appeared on their RSS feed for new releases yet and there's normally enough of a lead time on that to take us through next Monday. If it popped onto there this afternoon I still wouldn't expect it before next week at the moment. But it is a Media Blasters release so, given the email exchange I had with UP last time I ordered a MB release from them, I'd expect it to be delayed in being received and shipped out anyway ...

It's quite interesting to see what UK releases they have added to their catalogue today though; UK releases for Clannad pt 1, Angel Beats (inc BD UK release), Spice and Wolf Season 1, Baka and Test, and K-ON complete series ... nothing that I'm planning on getting as I've already got other releases of all of them but it's nice to see these things coming up for release in the UK instead of the endless stream of Naruto, Bleach, etc ...
 
I'd forgotten S&W was getting a UK release.

the big question is, do I triple dip on the first season?
I love the series and want to support the release, but I've already got it on DVD and Blu.


My new cheapy blu-ray player arrived this morning (I've got two in my bedroom now, the new one is mainly for DVD's*), which means I've got to tidy up the cabling behind the TV tonight.
Joy.
At least I'm now down to just one device using Scart leads, and I've finally got an excuse to properly tie up the cables (velcro make a "self gripping cable tie" roll that you cut to size**), and replace the overly long network cables with the shorter ones I've had sat on the side for months.

*It's about £40 for a half decent DVD player I can make region free, or £60 for the Phillips blu-ray which is easy to make region free for DVD's.

**I bought a 5 metre roll of that, and 100 of the Velcro ties last year and they are a joy to use compared to normal cable ties (and because they're not branded for computer cabling, but plain black, cheap).
 
I do wonder with some of the titles how well they'll do given the number of English language releases they have already had. Even ignoring the Japanese BD release Clannad has half and full season DVD sets and a full season BD set in the US ... I'd have thought that a lot of the people who are likely to get it will have imported the DVDs. Similarly for Spice and Wolf.
 
Aye, that's sort of part of the reason I want to try and support the UK industry in the hope they'll do more, but sooner in the future.

I never would have thought Clannad would see a UK release at all, likewise Spice and Wolf.
 
Aye, thats the reason I'm going to pick S&W up at least too. Not because I want to reward Manga for being so damned slow, but at least register there is a demand for shows like this here.

It'll make it easier to show to UK friends too who don't have a multiregion player or want to play it in a PC without messing around too :)
 
NuclearWinter said:
Bakemonogatari was one the more annoying series I've ever sat through, so I pretty much have no interest in Nise. I find it pretty hard to understand why people rate it so highly, but I guess it's just not for me. A lot of people clearly enjoyed it.
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I thought the dialogue was clever and well-written, the characters were interesting (some more so than others, but I liked how they all appeared like cookie-cutter anime stereotypes at first and then other aspects of their personality were revealed), the art style was phenomenal, and the direction and editing of each episode kept me on my toes (though I admit I struggled to read all the text in the black screens)
 
manveruppd said:
I thought the dialogue was clever and well-written, the characters were interesting (some more so than others, but I liked how they all appeared like cookie-cutter anime stereotypes at first and then other aspects of their personality were revealed), the art style was phenomenal, and the direction and editing of each episode kept me on my toes (though I admit I struggled to read all the text in the black screens)
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Fair enough. Personally I found the characters unlikeable and the dialogue uninteresting, which is a shame for such a dialogue heavy show.

I agree that the art was quite nice in places though.
 
I've been watching a couple of things this weekend, (as well as keeping up to date with various current series).

Wolf's Rain ... on the Beez DVD release. It's an interesting series and whilst it was all right I think that there were times when it could have been better. The characters were not overly likeable and there were times when it just felt like things could have been done better whilst keeping the overall plot the same. The series could have been really, really, good but it just missed the mark for me.

Undines 2 - This Time It's Buoyant (not really it's A__a The Natural but seeing as the forum's filter mangles the title anyway) .. on the Nozomi two part DVD release. It's a typical quality Nozomi release with nice artboxes and booklets :) The series itself continues the stories of Akari, Aika and Alice as they go about their daily lives learning to Undines in Neo-Venezia. It's for the most part a gentle, relaxing, watch ... although it does have the occasional emotional moment (not as bad a series 3 though ... which is up next). The odd bit of humour is added into the mix, normal with the use of comic character designs, but all the characters seem real and consistent through the stories. I still can't believe that they managed to make three series without anyone other than President A__a falling off a gondola ...

Also been having a bit of tidy up ... I won't post images (as there's quite a few) but here's a link to a slideshow :) (note some of the pictures are bit blurred due to awkward angles)
 
That is far too tidy....

I would love to have the space to have a dedicated media storage/display room, especially given how well Billy's work for displaying DVD's, books and models (at the moment my DVD's are mainly stored for maximum efficiency).

I'm still slowly working through Utena, mainly because it's subbed and I'm barely managing 2 episodes a night of sub viewing.
 
It's not that tidy and needs a good dusting in places :) Fortunately I have a spare bedroom which is normally only used when my parents come to stay so most of the things go in there ... but I don't really have enough space (I'd need another two tall Billy's to get the rest of the figures and the Japanese disks out and everything displayed properly).
 
Finished Bodacious Gondola Undines this evening with the last half of ... the Origination (I had thrown the OVA in for good measure prior to starting the last series). Again on the nice Nozomi boxset.

I find the third series to be a lot more emotional that the first two. Whist they are, for the most part, just gentle "nice people doing nice things" stories here we actually get some plot development and things happening which affect the characters. The second half of the series in particular is an emotional roller-coaster and I always end up in an emotional mess by the end.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend marathoning all three series in one go ... you get just two caught up with the characters which means the third series is almost too hard to watch. Do i recommend the series' though ... well no real fanservice, no mecha, no action ... yes I do, most definitely. A__a is one of my all time favorites and is likely to stay that way for a long time.
 
:) I would argue though that whilst you do have a space problem your collection is actually tidy ... trouble I have is there's always something more being added and there's a limit of the amount of extra space available, I can't buy any more figures as I have the top shelf of a three door warddrobe packed with figures and misc merchandise and a big divan drawer packed with (most of) the JP DVD/BDs which won't fit my latest purchase in that area ... there's never enough space how ever much you have! I don't really want to do what I think Werewolf has done and consolidate the disk packaging.

Trouble is the rest of the house has way to much non-anime/manga DVDs/books/etc (which there isn't enough room for either ... the bottom 1.5ft of the warddrobe is nearly solid sci-fi/fantasy books as the four six-shelf bookcases downstairs are full to overflowing). I really need another two rooms to sort things out properly but short of a lottery win that's not going to happen anytime soon!

And speaking of more stuff I see Sentai have solicited the first half of K-ON!! (season 2) for June along with Fate Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, both on DVD and BD, the latter of which will make some here happy (and the former makes me happy as it's a half season set after the Bandai release model for season one).
 
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What Arrietty? (I'm at work so cannot follow the Youtube link) ... the UK DVD/BD release was in January and it's widely available so if you want to see it then do.

It is an ok Ghibli film but I did leave me wanting more story and personally I think that there are better Ghibli films. I was fortunate enough to watch it subbed in the cinema though :)
 
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