01.11.2011

November 1, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s November! At least, in Australian time.

 

NEWS

⚫ Seems the Railgun PSP game has had its release date pushed back yet again (to the 23rd of November now) (source)

⚫ Aquarion EVOL, the upcoming sequel to Sousei no Aquarion, has had its main staff announced. The director will be Kawamori Shouji again, and Mari (Okada Mari) is in charge of series composition. Interesting to see Okada Mari involved here, but I’d say its good news – she has a very strong history to back her up. In what seems to be a growing trend it has two character designers/chief animation directors: Ishida Kana and Hirotaka Marufujo. Neither of them have a full-blown representative work, so it’s difficult to gauge how this will look. (source)

⚫ This year’s comiket arrangement has been released and it reveals a huge area for Tiger & Bunny (the vast majority of that being female-oriented of course). In fact, the number of circles release Tiger & Bunny books this comiket is over 1400! This comiket has also seen a bit of a drop in the number of Touhou circles (which has traditionally been the largest parody). But there’s still more than 2600 for Touhou, so fans shouldn’t panic!

⚫ Collaboration between Fate/Zero and net-game, FEZ. Pics here. As many on 2ch pointed out, it’s not very inspiring.

⚫ The original work (manga) of Nyankoi is to be resumed! (source) People hoping for a season 2 are in high spirits!

 

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Intake 31.10.2011

October 31, 2011 6 comments

So.. remember how I said I was back? I LIED. For some reason I’d gotten it into my head that I could juggle work, studying for exams, AND keeping up with anime and blogging. Guess I forgot to factor sleep into the equation! But now the storm has truly passed and I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine. I’ve dropped the Daily off the post because social engagements probably mean I can’t live up to that promise. So basically they’ll be just as intermittent as they were before!

Last weekend I went HARD MODE on catching up with this season. I probably should have set the bar lower, but I can say that I’m on the frontlines of Last Exile, Guilty Crown, Haganai, and Working .. also Phi Brain for some reason. Fate Zero goes without saying .. or at least it would if I didn’t feel compelled to put my fanboy drool into human words. The series is fucking awesome. The action has been really great, and there’s a strong undercurrent of tension which I fully expect to turn into a full-blown tidal wave of badassery by the end of it all. I’m actually glad I’m not a big Type Moon fanboy in general, or I’d be doing more than just drooling (and you don’t want me to put that into words).

Guilty Crown is another stand-out performer for me this season. It’s a thrilling story of rebellion, romance and all the usual shounen coming-of-age bs, but interspliced with some nice moments of retarded writing to remind us all that it’s no Gits SAC. It feels like wants to be the new Code Geass, which I can’t say is an angle I’m fully aligned with. Another acute observation: it looks sexy as hell!

 

NEWS

⚫ The new season of Last Exile from a resurfaced studio GONZO seems to be going upward in the amazon preorder rankings, having risen to 112. That’s not a terrible position – I do hope GONZO can at least break even on this one, although I wouldn’t say this new season is particularly worthy of being a huge hit.

⚫ Madoka Magica has actually been nominated for the annual Japan SF (Sci-fi) awards, which is quite a recognition indeed when you bear in mind that these awards aren’t just for anime or TV but literature (including manga) as well. Having a quick look at the winner’s list, the only anime that jumps out as having won is Innocence (Ghost in the Shell). The reactions on 2channel ranged from being impressed to wondering if it was a little out of place in Science Fiction! (source)

⚫ I’m not sure of what the delays have been, but if you’re a Getbacker’s fan, you might be interested to know that the mangaka hasn’t been drawing due to being in a state of depression. That much was revealed in some blog posts they made. (source)

⚫ Check out the embedded nicovideo movie here. Comparison of Saber vs Lancer from Ufotable vs DEEN.

⚫ Yosuga no Sora’s main staff are putting out a doujin at Comiket 81 with a genga (animation drawings) from that series. Here’s the pixiv page for the release: LINK.

⚫ Studio Khara says that, based on people who are getting in touch with them, Japan is considered a paradise for animators by many foreign animators. Based on their pay though, it’s more of a paradise for animation fans than people actually doing the work.. (which is a fucking shame). (source)

 

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Intake 16.10.2011

October 16, 2011 3 comments

Hello, world! I have returned from a busy week of work and study! I haven’t quite hit the light at the end of the tunnel yet, with exams coming up shortly, but I’m near enough to put my feet up more often and return to blogging! Actually, I have managed to keep up with this anime season quite well. As some of you might have discovered, that’s a lot harder than it sounds. There’s a plethora of entertaining anime airing this season.

What are other people watching? Personally, I’m sold on Guilty Crown, Haganai, Fate/Zero, Working!!, Shana, Phi Brain, Persona 4 and C3! I doubt I’ll even be able to finish off all those..

 

NEWS

⚫ Noitamin’s opening night this season had ratings of 2.6%! That’s one of its strongest openings in a while. Perhaps Ano Hana has raised awareness of the timeslot again, or the newspaper ads have had an effect! Good news for Guilty Crown. I can tell a lot of effort and money has gone into that anime, so I want it to succeed! (source)

⚫ Volume 1 DVD & BD of Idol M@ster will come with the storyboard of eps 12 and 14. You can see a couple of the storyboard pages here. Frankly, they are quite amazing – even if it is for an ED.

⚫ With the season underway, let’s take a look at how the anime preorders are fairing by checking the Amazon bestseller list. As of yesterday, Persona vol.1-3 are at the top of the heap, followed by Haganai (Boku wa Tomodahi ga Sukunai), Working!! and then Horizon. Let’s see how this changes as the season powers along. (source)

⚫ The back of the packaging of the game the characters play in episode 2 of Haganai contains a nod to Steve Jobs in the fine print! You can see the quote and the image here

⚫ This year’s Ryousei festival attracted a record crowd, a significant portion of which was the estimated 3000 Ano Hana fans who turned up for the collaboration the festival organised with the anime, which included Seiyuu from the series gave speeches. (source)

 

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Sorry I’ve Been AWOL..

September 29, 2011 13 comments

Real life has sort of taken the helm for me over the last couple of weeks. I have a couple of assignment deadlines imminent (I wish I could say ‘looming’), and doing as much at work as usual, with weekends being taken up by a slew of social affairs. Being meguca is suffering..

Of course, you don’t want to hear about that, but I just need to say that this isn’t a matter of me losing the PASSION. But I guess I’ll announce a hiatus for the next 14 days!

I might do a small post here and there, so you don’t forget me~! (´；ω；`)

Oh yeah, Yuno What it Is!

Best anime mashup I’ve heard.

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Daily Intake 21.09.2011

September 21, 2011 4 comments

Long time no see! Sorry for going AWOL yet again. I attended a small one-day Tasmanian convention up in the North of the state on the weekend, which was incredibly fun! Although the event was quite low-key (around 260 people, I think), the company was as good as ever! In particular, I got to meet up with some great people I see very rarely. Drinks after the fact were also awesome. I think we easily took the cake for being the loudest and most insane group at the pub that night! I also got to meet a couple of cool anime fans who, as it turns out, live just down the road from me!

I’m hoping I can drag them up to my otaku base this Friday when another friend from WA drops by for a visit! I expect there to be drinking and Weiss Schwarz! Anyway, Monday was for recovering sleep which the weekend deprived me of, and last night I went out to dinner with friends (followed by a late-night of sharing Madoka fanart with a friend!).

So yeah, I’ve been busy!

 

NEWS

⚫ The Natsume Yuujinchou TV-anime is a fourth season which will start January next year. Will this show ever end!? (source)

⚫ Purchasing an advanced ticket for the upcoming Strike Witches anime movie will get you one of the badges/coat-of-arms shown here! There’s one for each of the witches units, including the 501st of course! They’re pretty awesome.

⚫ A Japanese fan has compiled a list of the scores given to this season’s anime by foreigners over the course of the season. The scores come from MAL. It’s interesting to see the scores compared from the start of the season (4th of August), through the middle (1st of September) to the end (21st September). Steins;Gate tops the list by the end, having risen significantly (to 9.06/10). Usagi Drop rose a little bit and took second place (8.77). Natsume Yuujinchou’s rating basically didn’t change but it still came third (8.73). Interestingly, Kaiji fell since the 1st of September (the bog effect!) but still came 4th with 8.48! Manyuu deservedly came last! (source)

⚫ Kamisama Dolls DVD/BD volume 1 release event today was cancelled due to the typhoon. (source)

⚫ Fate Zero will get same-night streaming on Nico-nico as its Japanese airdate! First episode starts on the 2nd of October! This anime is gonna be big! (source)

 

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Daily Intake 15.09.2011

September 15, 2011 2 comments

Waiting for Kaiji subs.. we’ll ride that train!

 

NEWS

⚫ A ranking of total sales of TV-anime belonging to different anime studios from 2010 onwards. Unfortunately the ranking is only based on the total sales of the first volumes of all of the studio’s anime during that time, so it’s not a proper indication of overall revenue. Naturally, due to the Madoka Effect, Shaft dominates the ranking:

Shaft - １０７３６４ – From memory Madoka accounts for about 75% of this.
A-1 Pictures – １０７２１６ – Despite a number of duds they had a few strong sellers: Kuroshitsuji and Ano Hana ( and Ao no Excorcist?)
AIC - ６５０００ – Includes all the various AIC studios. Therefor this total is from quite a number of works. The majority would be from OreImo and Strike Witches.
P.A Works – ５１０００ – Strong performance from this studio, which is rapidly gaining fans. Angel Beats was their big winner.
KyoAni - ４６０００ – Keep in mind that they only did two anime in this period – and Nichijou didn’t sell very well at all. So this is all thanks to Keion.
JC Staff - ４５０００ – Quite a poor figure given the number of anime they produced in this time. I think Index would be their strongest performer, but not exactly a huge hit.
Sunrise - ４２０００ – Although it doesn’t specify, this figure here tells me that this ranking is TV-anime only. Otherwise Sunrise would be 2nd or 3rd. So this is mostly Tiger & Bunny.
8-bit – ３８０００ – Infinite Stratos only!
Production I.G – ３３０００ – Thank Sengoku Basara and its fujoshi following. Still, a dissapointing figure for one of the better studios.
Brains Base – ３１０００ – Durarara, mainly.
White Fox – ２４０００
BONES - １８０００ – Kind of a depressing position for BONES, given how much respect I have for this studio.
Seven Arcs – １７０００

(source)

⚫ Ano Hana is getting a surprise rebroadcast where they’ll show the entire series over four consecutive nights! Nice. (source). Speaking of rebroadcasts, Tokyo MX will start airing Bakemonogatari again from the 8th of October, including the DVD episodes (so all 15). (source)

⚫ The next issue of manga magazine YanGan will include a big announcement for the upcoming second season of the Saki anime. Hopefully we’ll find out the studio and staff! (source)

⚫ Volume 9 of OreImo LN sold 79,000 copies in its first two weeks! (source)

 

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Daily Intake 14.09.2011

September 14, 2011 7 comments

Evening, everyone! How are we all? I’ve been busy, but still trying to catch up with anime. Watched some Hanasaku Iroha on the weekend, which was actually really great. Episodes 18,19 and 20 were just fantastic development for Nakochi and Minchi! I also wathed a couple of eps of IM@S yesterday – and they surprised me too! The eccentric and action-packed 8th episode really came out of nowhere!

Tonight the goal is to finish off Steins;Gate once and for all! (until the movie..) I’m kicking myself that I forgot to get a can of Doctor Pepper after work!

 

NEWS

⚫ Well today’s biggest news is obviously the announcement of the Steins;Gate movie! I haven’t seen the final episode of the series yet, myself, however given the amount of potential story left hanging after 23, I’m going to assume the movie will follow on (and I hope this is the case!). The movie was announced prior to the episode airing by Chiyomaru Shikura, 5pb’s head via twitter (source), for which he was apparently lambasted by some fans who claiming it was a spoiler of soughts (source). It was then formally announced in a teaser following the final episode (LINK)

Exciting stuff. Steins;Gate is just another example of the new movement to the silver screen for anime.

⚫ The Idol Master OP single (Ready!! – 764PRO ALLSTARS) has now sold over 40,000 copies! The only other single from this seven on that level (over 46,000 actually) is Uta no Prince-sama’s MajiLove1000%. Beware fangirl buying power! (source)

⚫ Sunday has announced a new fantasy series from Matsuena Shun, creator of Stringest Disciple Kenichi, which will also launch with an anime DVD. The title is Waza no Tabibito, and the first release will be in colour. The announcement has claimed this new manga has been in the works for 13 years! (source)

⚫ Yumekui Merry’s author made a controversial tweet: ‘Kamisama no Memochou has issues too’ (source). The reason that is controversial of course, is the commercial (and some would argue creative) problems that went with JC Staff’s adaptation of Yumekui Merry. A couple of days ago, KamiMemo’s author posted some negative comments on their blog about the original content/changes that JC Staff added to the anime version. I think they even said they were tempted to refuse the whole thing. JC Staff has these issues because they do so many adaptations of light novels. Authors must realise that anime adaptations require changes, but if the series isn’t a success it must be easy to be blame the studio’s meddling.. I don’t often here much praise when JC Staff get these changes right. Still it must be hard for an author to see their story being handled by someone else, so I do sympathise.

⚫ A couple of days ago, some information came out of an interview about the new OreImo game, including that it would contain numerous ecchi (H) scenes! Then there was a tweet from the official OreImo Kirino twitter account saying, “I wonder who will get pregnant this time?” (link). Interesting.. but also kind of scary!

 

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