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November 30, 2004
cautious joy!
Okay, this time it appears that a Tsubasa anime TV series is at last official. Confirmed by Weekly Shounen and everything. However, I will hold off on the Dance of Joy until I see actual model sheets.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 01:40 PM | Posted to Anime/Manga | Comments (0)
November 29, 2004
December NewType
Came home to find the December NTUSA on my doorstep. So while waiting for the can of beer to chill in the fridge of the Viridian Room, I flipped through it. Cover girl is Belldandy (now there's a blast from the past, though it's to promote the new upcoming series) and centerfold is GITS' Major Kusanagi - FULLY DRESSED! Finally, a NT centerfold that doesn't make me cringe! (I missed the Saiyuki one... 
There's also a brief mention of new R.O.D. The TV figures, of which I saw Michelle at Suncoast the other day and didn't get because she's, well... Michelle. She was the only one they had, but now I'm glad to find that Maggie (yay!!) and Anita are available too. Boy, am I glad now that I didn't plump for the smaller ones at AUSA. Thank you, otaku who bought them from under my nose. :D
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:00 PM | Posted to Goodies! | Comments (0)
Yay for filler
Ep 8 of Bleach has some long-awaited filler (and may there be more! Stave off that overlong Soul Society arc!) that really doesn't feel like filler at all - more like an unseen event from the manga. I wonder how much influence KT has on the anime storyline (or if they gave him Kon's role to shut him up XD).
Read more of "Yay for filler" [possible spoiler alert!]
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 01:10 PM | Posted to Bleach | Comments (0)
FMA en Ingles
I've had a chance to catch the English dub of FullMetal Alchemist for the past two weeks, and well... I'm going to be strung up and stripped of my otaku credentials by those possessing more discerning tastes than mine for saying this, but it's really not that bad. In fact, since I now have no credibility left to lose (like I had any to begin with)
I'm going to go even further and say that it's actually pretty good as far as English dubs for American television go.
Everyone sounds good and acts good. There haven't been any cuts that I can tell, which makes sense as it's part of Adult Swim and is followed immediately by GITS: SAC. As I missed the first couple of episodes, I cannot confirm or deny the alleged episode shuffling that occurred at Otakon, but they appear to be proceeding with the correct episode order at the moment. The only rough spot is that Ed's VA is a full-grown man with the vocal timbre that that implies, which makes it kind of odd in the episodes where Ed is still... 11? 12? and his voice is a little too deep (except when he's squeaking furiously about being called small - then he's juuuuuust right.:) It'll be easier to buy when they FF to when he's a teenager. However, Al is wonderfully spot on. (I think his VA is a woman.) And he always calls Ed "Brother", which I've always thought was a sweet touch in the original.
Time will tell how the rest of it goes, but AFAIC it's off to a good start.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:49 AM | Posted to Anime, American Style | Comments (0)
November 28, 2004
price hack-and-gouging
Prices for .hack//QUARANTINE are flippin' ridiculous on eBay. Most of them start at around $45 (original price is $40) - one bozo set his starting price at $106. $106! For a video game!!! And the bastard isn't even offering free shipping. Did Bandai set out to create an artificial shortage?
.hack// INFECTION is more fun than I thought it would be (I'm nearly at the end, but can't get past that blasted Skeith). Things were slowing down for a while until I finally got my Grunty. And oh, what happyfun joy the Grunties are. Not only do they provide safe passage to the dungeon, but they are accompanied by a jolly banjo theme that is so totally out of place in the grim setting (usually an Earth field, at night). And how they kick up their heels and fly. Now I want me a plush Grunty.:)
In addition there is a Japanese track, which I had to switch off after Black Rose started talking. too much Act-ing!!!, dear. Besides, Mistral's voice is fun and David Lucas, oops, I mean Stephen Jay Blum plays Sanjuro.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 05:45 PM | Posted to Games
November 23, 2004
A howlin' success
Hayao Miyazaki's Diana Wynn Jones' Howl's Moving Castle opened in Japan on November 20, and promptly broke all known Japanese box office records to the tune of ¥1400m (about US$13.5m - hey, the yen's rising!).
Pete Docter, who produced Monsters Inc, will lead the production of the Anglicized version. John Lasseter (a.k.a.) Ultimate Miyazaki Fanboy, has alas elected to work on Pixar's Cars instead. I'm not sure how to feel about this, as Monsters Inc was probably my least favorite Pixar (it and A Bug's Life are the lowlights of Pixar's portfolio IMHO, demonstrating maximum Disney meddling) but hey, it's Miyazaki. It will take deliberate malice to mess it up. And Pixar staff can be better trusted than anyone who's directly answering to Eisner.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 06:58 PM | Posted to Anime/Manga | Comments (0)
glee!
Aria vol 3 is out and in my hands. :D
Also got FMP! v6. Looks like more Fumoffu? than Panic! though.
Read more of "glee!" [possible spoiler alert!]
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 02:11 PM | Posted to Aria | Aria_All | Comments (1)
November 22, 2004
wings clipped
Someone who ACTUALLY SPEAKS JAPANESE has correctly translated the Shounen Weekly side note that got everybody excited about a Tsubasa anime. It was apparently an error of proximity - due to "anime" being closer to "tsubasa" than "XXXHOLIC", erroneous conclusions were jumped to by non-native readers.
Still, there's that Del Rey slip to think on. Unless they too got their info from that nefariously cryptic side note.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 12:53 PM | Posted to Manga Manga | Comments (0)
just in time for Black Friday
..the Big O II box set will be out tomorrow. can't wait to hear them all speaking Japanese.:D Also the final volume of Azumanga Daioh - with the Maya pin!!! Plus Chr(o)no Crusade (I shall NEVER get used to spelling it the R1 way) vol 2 came out last week, so I officially have a backlog of stuff waiting to be bought!
Plus street date for Aria vol 3 is tomorrow as well. *sigh* I wonder why ADV Manga put such a huge gap between the first 2 volumes and the third. There was a similar delay for Chr(o)no Crusade - the first volume came out in May and the second voume came out last month. Come to think of it, it's been a while since Full Metal Panic! vol 5 was released, too... Who knows what else they publish that I don't read that suffered a similar delay.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:41 AM | Posted to Anime, American Style | Comments (0)
...but will it have subtitles?
Viz (I seem to be spilling a lot of bits on them recently) is sponsoring an InuYasha cosplay contest with the main prize being an all expenses-paid trip to Japan for the premiere of the 4th IY movie (official translation: Fire on the Mystic Island).
What they haven't mentioned is how they're going to handle translation for the lucky gaijin winners. As I hardly think it will be English-dubbed, and because Japan is not in the habit of putting English subtitles on new films by default, I wonder A UN-style earpiece with simultaneous translation piped in? A row of translators sitting behind the winners whispering translations in their ears as the movie goes on? Or are they just going to explain it all to them after the movie?
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:17 AM | Posted to Anime/Manga | Comments (0)
November 20, 2004
Tsubasa Anime Confirmed!
According to the latest Shounen Weekly (not to be confused with Jump) a Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles anime will debut sometime in 2005.
This deserves a YAAAAYYYY!YAHOOOOOOOO!WHEEEEEE!Happy!Dance!:D I wonder if there will be merchandise by the time I hit Japan?
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 12:03 PM | Posted to Anime/Manga | Comments (0)
November 19, 2004
Bleach goods machine in high gear
I knew it wouldn't be too long before you could get your very own Kon plushie (attitude/KuboTite voice chip not included).
Ichigo fangirls are not forgotten; his studly image is available in a form suitable for pressing against your face every morning if you so choose. $16 is awfully expensive for a facetowel though.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:11 AM | Posted to Bleach | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
drive-by bleaching
Even if the manga is at a standstill, at least the anime is moving along briskly. Sometimes I wonder if KT only plotted out the first 5 volumes and is currently making the rest up as he goes along. Plus he is having way too much fun as Kon.
Someone pointed out that the seiyuu for Orihime was also Osaka in Azumanga Daioh. Talk about typecasting (personality-wise, that is.).
Vol 4 is scheduled to come out Nov 24 (rightstuf), Dec 7 (amazon), or Dec 9 (viz). I can't seem to find two street dates that agree, and Viz's is usually the least likely to be right. At any rate I hope they translate that wacky "Bo ha ha ha ha!!!" correctly.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 10:41 PM | Posted to Bleach | Comments (0)
November 16, 2004
I guess I'm going to Katsucon after all
... because Range Murata will be GOH! (and may I add, I just love Pocky's LJ icon.)
I was considering going to Japan instead, but I've decided to wait till Pop Japan announces their spring Tokyo/Kyoto tour.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:26 PM | Posted to Conventions | Comments (0)
new life for the Iron Giant?
As a tie-in to The Incredibles (can't wait to see that) a new spiffed-up DVD edition of Brad Bird's The Iron Giant is being released Tuesday.
This is abso-freakin'-lutely wonderful news. I usually disdain such clearly money-motivated tactics, but this one is well timed and, I want to believe, well intentioned. (depending on how they advertise it - if they advertise it.) TIG has a better chance of finding a wide and more appreciative audience now that anime has whetted mainstream appetites for more sophisticated storytelling in animation.
The only problem is, will the nouveau otaku elite dismiss it sight unseen as just another simpleminded American product, or will they actually see it and embrace it as a tribute to its humanistic iron man predecessors Gigantor and Astro Boy? Only time will tell.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 04:30 PM | Posted to Anime, American Style | Comments (0)
November 15, 2004
argh
I really really really want to throttle Kubo Tite right now. Who freakin' Cares about Soi Fon vs Yoruichi? Back to Ichigo! or at least Rukia! NOW!!!
:calms down:
OK, they're his characters, and he can do whatever he wants with them, and I really don't want to be dragged back into the sordid world of fanfic. But... pacing, kiddo, pacing. The characters we grew to love and who we really care about what's happening to them are Ichigo and Rukia. Chad. Ishida. Possibly Orihime. And what is Kon up to back in the real world with the Kurosaki family?! Have they figured out yet that he's not Ichi-nii? (I really love that in Japanese, Ichigo's little sisters call him Ichi-nii. that's so sweet.)
Basically, I rant because I care. really.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:53 PM | Posted to Bleach | Comments (0)
in the blink of an eye
Viz updated their shojo list, probably after realizing that they hadn't added at least half their catalog and were doing a shojo survey. I know Here is Greenwood and Descendants of Darkness weren't there five minutes ago, because I was looking.
Anyway, I'm trying to think of stuff that I can trust them not to mess up (too badly), so that means stuff that's not set in Japan. Maybe Aqua. and maybe YKK (though I'm not sure that counts as shoujo). I'd like to see Someday's Dreamers and possibly Whisper of the Heart translated, but those are set in Japan and are shoujo and... I just don't trust them.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:32 PM | Posted to Manga Manga | Comments (0)
Viz Needs Women
Viz is doing another shojo title survey. They're taking suggestions now.
Viz, wellll.... I'm not too fond of the way that they Americanize names. Not by making Hikaru Harry, for example, but by making everybody address each other by their given names when I know that in the original they were using family names. It's weird to see Hikaru calling Tsutsumi Kimihiro or Mitani Yuki. Or for that matter, calling Akira Akira. It's not just a Japanese thing, it's a matter of... protocol. The only manga where I know they've not done that is Kenshin (for which ANY change would surely get Viz torn apart), and InuYasha and Ranma, where nobody has any formality whatsover, it seems. (when you're queen of manga like Rumiko Takahashi, I suppose you get to make up your own protocol )
But when it comes to pure shoujo, well...switching from family name to personal name is usually a Big Frickin' Deal. And I'm not sure that Viz is up to the task of understanding - or respecting - that nuance.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 07:50 PM | Posted to Manga Manga
November 11, 2004
an exception to the rulebreaking
With all the rampant street-date breaking that's being going on with manga releases lately, I rather naively expected to find Aria vol 3 on the shelves by now. But alas, no luck. Maybe I'll try B&N today.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:45 AM | Posted to Manga Manga
November 05, 2004
Tsubasa... the anime?!
According to the latest Del Rey Manga newsletter:
"On the anime front, NEGIMA and TSUBASA are on track to debut as TV anime in Japan in 2005. Hopefully this will mean a U.S. debut in 2006, but your guess is as good as mine. As for XXXHOLIC, there's a movie in the works that I can't wait to see!"
XXXHolic and Negima I knew about, but Tsubasa's a new one. An overhopeful slip, a typo, or... classified information?! It would be too cool if it were true, but it's only up to volume... 8 or so at the moment. (although that never stopped the Chrono Crusade people, who then had to make up a whole new plot.)
Read more of "Tsubasa... the anime?!" [possible spoiler alert!]
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 02:21 PM | Posted to Manga Manga
Benihana!
Benihana's new anime commercial doesn't really talk about the food that much, but boy is it a hoot.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:45 AM | Posted to Anime, American Style
November 04, 2004
we need a Jump store
Messing around on eBay today, I found this nifty Bleach Pencil Case. Very cool. When I go to Japan, I must find me one of those Jump stores.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 02:31 PM | Posted to Bleach
mondo release schedules
Finally! I found a comprehensive release schedule thingy on Anime News Network. Best of all it shows all upcoming manga releases from all companies in one place.
I'd been looking for something like this for a long time, and was beginning to fear that I would have to make it myself. ^^; Yay ANN!
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 02:04 PM | Posted to Manga Manga
yay, NTUSA didn't screw up this month!
My November NewType finally arrived yesterday. Nice FMA cover with an article about the Funimation translation. otanoshimini shimasu!
Also it has the "official art of Chrono Crusade"! Whoopee!~
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:14 AM | Posted to Anime, American Style
November 03, 2004
Dear Santa...
I really really really want this for Christmas.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:28 PM | Posted to Goodies! | Comments (0)
November 02, 2004
Greenwood da!
I got the first volume of Here is Greenwood! 
So glad I stopped off at Pentagon City instead of waiting half an hour for the bus on the way home from Japanese class. At least something good comes out of this dark day.
Also got the 6th volume of Pita-Ten. This one... well, I'm continuing to read more out of morbid curiosity than anything else, because it's so different from the anime which was fluffy wuffy sparkly tinkly WAI!!!
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 09:58 PM | Posted to Manga Manga | Comments (0)
November 01, 2004
translating Aqua
Aqua *looks* like it would be easy to translate, but it actually has lots of fun SF terminology that has made me realize that my J/E dictionary isn't nearly big enough.
However, there are some things I can tell without actually having to read. Like Akari actually has been up to the floating island where the salamanders do their weather control thing. Also, that Akatsuki's nickname for Akari is actually "momiko" = "little sideburns", not "pigtails" (benpatsu). I still say that he likes her though. 
Read more of "translating Aqua" [possible spoiler alert!]
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 11:38 PM | Posted to Aria | Aria_All | Comments (0)
huh. that was easy.
So I decided to buy the legal Samurai 7 OST CD despite the CCCD copy protection on it.
Turns out that "copy control" is a joke. It is hilariously easy to circumvent, and hence it wouldn't bother the pirates a bit. More importantly, it pisses off honest people who actually shell out to buy the legal album. Avex nearly didn't get my money because of this. It's a good thing they've reversed their policy.
I'm not going to explain how I did it, since it would be obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together - and it's not that hard to figure out.
Posted by Innocent Sidekick of Evil at 08:10 PM | Posted to Samurai 7 | Comments (0)
