Posts in July 2006 News & Notes Category
July 28, 200611:30AM: A bit of news before I head downtown to have lunch.
New Nanoha Project? (via MOON PHASE, hat tip to moetron)
The October issue of Megami Magazine (on sale August 30) will apparently have some big announcement about a new Nanoha project of some sort... could it be a third Nanoha anime? :)
Already the end of the month... where did the time go? (^^;;) Up rather early this morning since I was pretty much out after getting home from work yesterday, so I got caught up with Ouran High School Host Club and The Third. Still need to get caught up with Simoun and Kami-sama Kazoku here... completely forgot to grab Binbou Shimai Monogatari yesterday, too... once you get behind it's hard to get caught up, but I never learn (^^;;) Once I get home today I'll do Innocent Venus. If you want the quick summary of what I thought... Sana kawaii yo Sana! ;)
Anyways, how about a very quick roundup of what I'm watching but not blogging now? ;)
Animal Yokochou
Pretty much the usual crazy stuff, especially the first part of this week's episode. It was a "backstage" look at Aniyoko where we find out that Ami's parents are CG, Matsumoto-san (that big giraffe) is a cutout, that talking fish dakimakura is animatronic, so on, so on. Don't destroy the dreams of the kids watching, really (^^;;)
Appropriately for the middle of summer, next week's a swimsuit episode.
ARIA The NATURAL
It's the usual very relaxing ARIA :) Brought back Undine (the OP from the first season) for these past two episodes where Akari said goodbye to her gondola -- it worked very well 。゜・（ノД`）・゜・。 ED also changed -- Akari's seiyuu singing this time. One question -- when's Ai-chan coming back to visit? ;)
Inukami!
Is that a poster of two machos dressed up as Fate and Nanoha in the background? (^^;;) Yup, it's the usual Inukami! -- lots of homo situations and machos.. lots of machos... but if you can put up with that it's pretty funny. GJ getting Norio Wakamoto (Gar-kun@Yoshinaga-san'chi no Gargoyle, Onsokumaru@Shinobuden) to do the voice of the hentai magician Keita and company are up against now :) Animation quality has been up and down, not nearly as good as Nanoha, but still acceptable for the most part from Seven Arcs. Ganbatte! I'm still holding out hope I can see a nice battle, but since we're talking about Inukami that might.. probably won't happen, hehe ;) Staff really seems to be having fun with things now -- looping a shot with a zou-san from the episode for the background of the sponsor message and such. Please, enough already ;)
NHK ni Youkoso!
Satou-kun... don't put your collection of ero pics in your My Pictures folder, and don't give the folders obvious names like "ero", "moro", and "loli" (^^;;) I'd like to know how he filled up 120GB (was 30GB in the manga) with just pictures in the first place.. Anyways, this last episode was the closest it's come to the feel of the original work so far -- they went about as far as they could, farther than I thought they'd do. It's rather odd to hear Yui Makino as Misaki-chan doing those kinds of things when she's also Sakura@Tsubasa Chronicle and sings the very nice and relaxing OP for ARIA (^^;;) Good quality from Gonzo so far, but we'll see if it stays that way. OP and ED are in heavy rotation on my playlist.
Ouran High School Host Club
The usual silly antics from Tamaki and the rest of the Host club. Haruhi's cute as usual, middle school Haruhi especially :)
Simoun
...get back to me after the weekend since I need to watch 4 episodes or so to catch up (^^;;;)
Strawberry Panic
Poor Tamao-chan... again... Nagisa seems to be set on Shizuma anyways... I'd much rather see Nagisa x Tamao or Nagisa x Chiyo-chan ;) Can't stand the evil lesbians, global warming girl -- Kaname's nickname after that weird speech in whatever episode it was -- and Momomi :P
Always the quiet ones that surprise you ;) Kagome-chan gets more and more interesting -- builds ridiculously big sand castles, is a pro at thumb wrestling, and now playing Romeo but talking to her bear instead of Juliet (played by Tsubomi-chan). Very cute :)
The Third
Left: The usual omegakawaii Milly-chan
Right: Milly-chan this time
Milly-chan finally wears a cute skirt, but... ＿|￣|○ Like episodes in Seven Arcs shows where Yoshinari Saitou is animation director, the animation director this time has a very different style than the original character design (even moreso than Saitou-san). I would understand better if it were an episode with a lot of action since the movement was very good, but still... if Milly-chan ain't cute it's no good! ;) Things look to be back to normal next time, though. Anyways, I do like the show :) XEBEC's done a pretty decent job with things so far.
Tonagura!
Standard love comedy with lots of pantsu and a tsundere lead in Hazuki. If I were to rank the male leads this season in terms of coolness, Yuuji would be near the bottom with all the hentai stuff he does :P And what's ARIA Company doing here? Alicia and Akari's seiyuu from ARIA are here as Hatsune (usual onee-san character for Sayaka Oohara) and Marie respectively. Marie, Yuuji's military otaku gun-toting little sister, is definitely my favorite character :)
Utawarerumono
...Dori and Gura are girls, right? Poor Oboro can't get a break, hehe.. having to drink that stuff Eruru made, then being told by Yuzuha that she doesn't like onii-chan. Pretty hilarious episode, and Hakuoro's harem is growing again with the addition of Kuuya. Hakuoro-sama is the king of lust, after all ;) Didn't quite understand some of the stuff Kuuya was talking about, throwing around names of things and such, since I haven't played the game or anything... and what the heck was that thing that Hakuro-sama turned into? Anyways, animation by OLM Team Iwasa is top quality, characters are interesting (and quite amusing), so this is one of my favorites :) And if you must know... Aruru >>>>>> Eruru >>> Yuzuha >>>> everybody else
Good evening, y'all :) It's cooled down a bit outside, but it's still rather muggy inside since the AC is still not working properly here.... have a fan in my face pretty much all day long to deal with it.
One day away from the computer and you get behind ＿|￣|○ Spent most of Sunday with friends trying to finish characters for a D&D campaign. This time, I'm a dwarven psychic warrior that specializes in firearms (using some of the Iron Kingdoms setting). Figured that might be fun to do, and the party needed another ranged fighter anyways. See how it works out whenever we start the campaign.. I have a knack for getting critical hits and killing bosses in one hit ;)
Anyways, that aside, some of the news from the past week (or more).
Comic Con Manga/Novel Licenses (via ANN)
Quite a few new manga/novel licenses announced, and here are some that caught my attention.
Del Ray continues to acquire more younger shoujo titles with Kitchen Princess (Natsumi Ando/Miyuki Kobayashi), Mamotte! Lolipop Mamotte! Lollipop, and Shugo Chara (PEACH-PIT), all of which are serialized in Nakayoshi. I haven't read Kitchen Princess or Mamotte! Lollipop, only read one chapter of Shugo Chara, so I don't know much about any of them. Would like to read more of Shugo Chara, though -- first volume was released recently. Anyways, I'm glad to see someone cares about this market.
Viz picked up both the Shakugan no Shana novel and manga. Y'all have fun translating all the terms there ;)
Gift eternal rainbow Site Open
...why are Nemu and Sakura there? I know I'm not the only person that thought that ;) Kidding aside, the seiyuu have been changed from the original game. Notables include Ui Miyazaki (Aishia@DCSS), Ryoko Shintani, and Ai Shimizu. OLM Team Iwasa (currently doing Utawarerumono) will be handling animation, so that's good. Some of the stuff other OLM teams have done recently hasn't exactly been great... Gift is scheduled to start in the fall.
Happiness! Site Open
And continuing with more anime based on erogame stuff, Happiness!. Unlike the Gift anime, the cast seems to be mostly the same as the game (which means I don't recognize any of the seiyuu). Artland (Mushishi, Bokura ga Ita) will be handling animation. Happiness! is scheduled to start in the fall.
Negima!? on DS
I'm surprised more games like this haven't come out on DS -- there are so many different ways you could utilize the touch screen ;)
NHK ni Youkoso DVD Negative Pack
The first NHK ni Youkoso! DVD will be released October 27 in both regular and "Negative Pack" versions. Among the extras included in the "Negative Pack", are a "doki-doki" Misaki-chan jacket drawn by the character designer, an illustration sheet by Kenji Ooiwa (did the manga) and full-body tights so you can be one of those Hikikomori aliens... I don't know why you'd want to do that, but anyways ;) Both releases will be uncensored... makes me wonder what episode 3 will be like on DVD (^^;;;)
btw, there's now a site for Henshin Mahou Shoujo Pururin, the anime inside the anime ;)
And one more thing here -- I'm going to have a new laptop soon :) My current HP pavilion ze4125 -- XP Home, Athlon XP 1600+ (1.4GHz), 15.4" 1024x768 screen, 512MB RAM (I added another 256MB stick), 40GB hard drive, CD burner/DVD combo drive, Radeon IGP 320M (integrated graphics) -- is about 4 years old now, and technically belongs to my dad as well. It's served me rather well, but I figured it was about time to upgrade (I don't really care about Vista so I didn't feel like waiting for it).
I ordered a Dell Inspiron E1505 configured as follows: XP Media Center (w/remote so I can be lazy), Intel Core Duo T2050 (1.6Ghz), 1GB RAM, 15.4" widescreen WXGA display, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 Hypermemory (128MB means 64MB discrete, up to 64MB system memory.. not really a gamer so it'll do), 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive, 8x CD/DVD+-R burner.
Pretty much the specs I wanted, in my price range, and for less (had a coupon) than what I had seen around here. A good bit of what I've made working close to full time over the summer will go to paying for it, so less buying anime goods, less going to have lunch downtown, but you've got to sacrifice once in a while... well, wouldn't exactly call it that, but whatever ;)
A good "Happy Friday" to everybody, as my Korean teacher always says, though I can't remember what it is in Korean... haven't read or listened to much of anything in Korean since class ended last semester. Kinda a problem when I'm taking the next class of it in a month (^^;;;)
Anyways, some news and then a good time-wasting activity for when you're bored (as I am now)
New Kanon Trailer (hat tip to moetron)
Check it out on the show's website (direct link). Looking really, really good as expected. Ugu~ ;)
Innocent Venus Promo (Innocent Venus Official Website)
Watch it here. OP is sung by Yousei Teikoku, the group that did the OP song for Magipoka. The show starts July 26 (Wedneday) at 24:00 on WOWOW.
Magic MD5 - MD5 Battle
And here's another good time-waster for when you're bored. Type in the names of two things you want to pit against each other, hit the 戦闘開始 start battle button, they'll be given RPG-ish stats based on their MD5 checksum and fight each other. For example, let's do an obvious one first:
PS3 vs. Wii
[PS3] 攻撃:77 素早さ:89 防御:25 命中:94 運:15 HP:215
[PS3] Attack: 77 Agility: 89 Defence: 25 Accuracy: 94 Luck: 15 HP: 215
[Wii] 攻撃:34 素早さ:72 防御:100 命中:59 運:73 HP:282
[Wii] Attack: 34 Agility: 72 Defence: 100 Accurary: 59 Luck: 73 HP: 282 (unexpectedly high defence there)
PS3 vs Wii 戦闘開始！！
[PS3]の攻撃 HIT [Wii]は52のダメージを受けた。 (PS3's attack hits Wii for 52 damage)
[Wii]の攻撃 HIT [PS3]は10のダメージを受けた。 (Wii's attack hits PS3 for 10 damage)
[PS3]の攻撃 HIT [Wii]は1のダメージを受けた。 (PS3's attack hits Wii for 1 damage)
[Wii]の攻撃 HIT [PS3]は132のダメージを受けた。 (Wii's attack hits PS3 for 132 damage)
[PS3]の攻撃 HIT [Wii]は59のダメージを受けた。 (PS3's attack hits Wii for 59 damage)
[Wii]の攻撃 HIT [PS3]は37のダメージを受けた。 (Wii's attack hits PS3 for 37 damage)
[PS3]の攻撃 HIT [Wii]は1のダメージを受けた。 (PS3's attack hits Wii for 1 damage)
[Wii]の攻撃 HIT [PS3]は100のダメージを受けた。 (Wii's attack hits PS3 for 100 damage)
[Wii]が[PS3]を倒しました(ラウンド数：4)。 (Wii felled PS3 in 4 rounds)
Well, that wasn't too surprising ;)
Now let's see how my favorite character from Futago Hime, Miruro, holds up against the others... more like Futago HiME with them battling, though ;)
Miruro vs. Fine
[ミルロ] 攻撃:34 素早さ:96 防御:13 命中:71 運:95 HP:101
[Miruro] Attack: 34 Agility: 96 Defence: 13 Accuracy: 71 Luck: 95 HP: 101 (Ack.. low HP, low defence)
[ファイン] 攻撃:21 素早さ:44 防御:71 命中:56 運:38 HP:202
[Fine] Attack: 21 Agility: 44 Defence: 71 Accuracy: 56 Luck: 38 HP: 202
ミルロ vs ファイン 戦闘開始！！
[ミルロ]の攻撃 HIT [ファイン]は1のダメージを受けた。 (Miruro's attack hits Fine for 1 damage)
[ファイン]の攻撃 HIT [ミルロ]は3のダメージを受けた。 (Fine's attack hits Miruro for 3 damage)
[ミルロ]の攻撃 HIT [ファイン]は1のダメージを受けた。 (Miruro's attack hits Fine for 1 damage)
[ファイン]の攻撃 HIT [ミルロ]は84のダメージを受けた。 (Fine's attack hits Miruro for 84 damage)
[ミルロ]の攻撃 HIT [ファイン]は28のダメージを受けた。 (Miruro's attack hits Fine for 28 damage)
[ファイン]の攻撃 HIT [ミルロ]は32のダメージを受けた。 (Fine's attack hits Miruro for 32 damage)
[ファイン]が[ミルロ]を倒しました(ラウンド数：3)。 (Fine felled Miruro in 3 rounds)
Of course she'd lose to one of the leads.... more after the jump.
And it's another rather uneventful hot and humid summer day here, and my lack of sleep isn't helping things much. But that's the usual in summer for me ;) Anyways, we're through most of the new summer shows now with only a couple more slated to start at the end of the month. Aside from perhaps adding Innocent Venus then, I think my schedule is pretty much set. Not quite as many shows to really get your attention like there was in the spring, but good enough :)
And now a bit of news from the past week (or two, or more...)
Illumitoon Acquires Beet the Vandel Buster
It's somewhat unexpected to have a new NA distributor starting up nowadays, but here you go:
Three former executives from FUNimation have announced the formation of a new privately-held company, Illumitoon Entertainment Ltd., dedicated to bringing exciting anime titles to the US. Formed in January 2006, the company focuses on acquiring exciting anime from Japan, with the emphasis on making them relatable for an American audience.“Of course, we always want to include the original Japanese tracks with our shows, for the serious anime fan,” says Barry Watson, the company’s President and CEO. “It’s just that we want it to be accessible and engaging for a mass audience as well.
Illumitoon Press Release - Beet the Vandel Buster Coming to US
An emphasis on making shows "relatable for an American audience" sounds very much like 4Kids, but the indication that they intend on including the original Japanese is reassuring if they do end up acquiring something that I like. I doubt that'll happen, though, since most of the kid shows I'm watching (or have watched) probably wouldn't be considered marketable to a mass audience here. Shoujo and mahou shoujo doesn't sell here and all that... Oh well...
Coyote Ragtime Show Ep 3 Preview
You can watch it at the show's website. Click "story", then click the big button with "Next show time" on it (it's very good quality wmv). Wonder if this will continue for the entire series... perhaps they really need that extra time for the episode itself.
Otogi Juushi Akazukin Goods
You can have your own Sweetphone now and such... What, they're not going to sell the weapons Akazukin uses? ;) btw, OP single is out August 2, ED single is out August 8.
Negima! Website Renewal
Now with the character designs from the new season of Negima! that Shaft is producing. Official title: Negima!?. Don't forget the "?" ;)
Second Seasons for...
Himawari! (no mention of when) and Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club (in the Fall). From what I've read, it looks like the "last" episode of Sasami that aired today leads into the next season, so I'll treat it as just another episode (as episode 13 of 26) instead of doing a full wrap-up and review.
...too darn hot here again today -- 98F (37C). Hopefully there won't be another run of 98 (37C), 100 (38C), 102 (39C), 99 like there was last month. Hopefully the AC at home is working again when I get back there in a few hours... AC went on the fritz yesterday and only worked on and off, so it was a nice humid 85F (29C) in my room for most of the day (and night). That'll sap your motivation to do anything... did read through half of Zero no Tsukaima, so I'll be able to write a bit about the first episode of the anime later on today, as well as finish up Haruhi and maybe the other things left over from the spring season that finished up. And on the schedule of new shows for today (might not be able to watch them today, though, depends..), Coyote Ragtime Show and Bokura ga Ita.
And in other news, Anime Expo is going on so there's some license news and such to report:
ADV:
Nerima Daikon Brothers - After a few eps it kinda got old....
Paniponi Dash! - GJ! Y'all have fun subbing it and translating all the stuff on the blackboard ;)
Say they're still doing the ARIA manga, no comment on whether or not they have or will try to acquire the anime.
FUNimation:
Glass Fleet (Garasu no Kantai) - Did anybody watch this?
Geneon:
Black Lagoon - I hear it's good, yes? ;)
Paradise Kiss
Seven Seas:
Kashimashi manga
Shinigami no Ballad novels - Glad somebody picked it up :)
Kodomo no Jikan manga - A few months back, Kaworu Watashiya wrote in her online diary that an English translation was going to be released, but I didn't believe it when I read it. Hmmm.... I still have a very hard time seeing this actually being released and put on bookstore shelves.
Tokyopop:
AQUA manga - This would be the prequel to ARIA
And that's about it for now. If there's any more news out of Anime Expo I'll add it ;)
