A new feature for our site, a review blog of sorts where we can put a few comments and thoughts down that simply wont fit in the normal reviews on the site. Looking at titles we've
reviewed in the past, title's we are currently reviewing and perhaps a few comments about titles coming up down the line.
Live action anime - You buying?
19/07/09
As opposed to releasing the real thing, or maybe as an attempt to break into the mainstream market, it seems to be the latest trend for UK publishers to release live action films based on anime and manga. Of Japanese origin or otherwise, live action adaptations from such sources have had a patchy history, with a generally low average of films being anything near worth watching. This trend has shifted over the last few years, so while the average cinema viewer will go out enjoy the likes of Spiderman, Batman and X-Men, you have to wonder just how many people will go out and see something like Blood: The Last Vampire based on their previous knowledge of the franchise?
True it’s one of the most known anime titles in this country, but up against the scale it’s a virtual unknown. The only recent attempt that stood a chance of being noticed are Dragonball and to a much lesser extent Death Note. But a quick glance at the upcoming titles this year makes you wonder who’s supposed to be buying this stuff? Coming up we have:
20th Century Boys 2 - Based on a highly respected recent manga series and for those who bought the first film. Only a few volumes have been translated so far in the west so it’s predominantly the online scanlation crowd who really know much about this. They’re not exactly the strongest candidates to vote with their money…
Dororo - Based on one of Osamu Tezuka’s manga works. All three volumes of the manga are out in America so hopefully there are enough readers in the UK who will venture out for this (though it must be said Tezuka fans are surprisingly thin on the ground). Could be a hidden surprise depending on the upcoming Astro Boy CGI film.
Kitaro - As far as I know, no form of this epic franchise has made it to western shores before. Who will buy this apart from people who have lived in Japan or like to buy on the blind?
Chanbara Beauty - Not based on anime or manga, but instead takes inspiration from a series of budget-label video games that get unanimously poor reviews. Regardless it’s a guaranteed seller die to the scantly clad girls.
I don’t want to sound negative and I hope these films find the audiences they deserve based on their individual merits. But if distributors are hoping to sell their titles based on established fan bases, then they might be in for an upset. That said if they want to bring us some live action Devilman or the recent Detroit Metal City, I can guarantee at least one sale!
Posted by:
Chris
Where’s Blood+ post 2/2
02/07/09
Okay so we’ve had the OVA and now the live action so where’s Blood+ the 50odd episode blood TV series? Yes it’s licensed by Sony “world wide rights – except Europe) and has been on adult swim in the US more than once now but the DVD release is severely lacking with a box set ½ released in the US holding half the series, released more than a year ago with still no sign of part 2, you’d think they’d capitalise on the awareness of the live action movie but no.
I keep hoping that with manga’s good connections with I.G. thanks to GitS that they will pick it up, but it looks about as likely as BEEZ licensing Scrapped Princess.
So I went to see this yesterday and was quite impressed, I haven’t seen an 18 rated film in ages so that in itself was refreshing, B:LV follows the anime pretty closely in places with some scenes like the opening subway slaying almost shot for shot. But being longer still only 89minutes though the plot is expanded to include a revenge plot for Saya. It has a few anime sensibilities like bits of melodrama and the Cg I places is a bit ropey but the way it’s filmed and cut the ropey Cg kind of suits its style.
The cinema was pretty empty and there were lots of people on there own, granted it was during one fo the hottest days of the year so far, so I hope it was a fluke and this is pulling in the numbers as really…
Finally out now in the UK after a ten month wait from the near simultaneous US/JAP release back in last august the anime style J-RPG of the xbox360 is coming out. I did read on one forum xbox.com someone who was going to vote with their wallet and not by the game because bamco have been in no hurry to release it here so they were in no hurry to buy it and that kind of got my back up, I mean why.
Vesperia has taken so long as 1 reason says due to low sales of the game in the US so why would it sell here? And you all know that IF the next obscure J-RPG comes out on 360 from bamco they will look at sales of Vesperia and go hey it didn’t sell well so lets not bother. So for the love of gawd don’t be spiteful or what not and go buy it.
I was also in town yesterday and only spotted one ONE store selling it which is abysmal.
Posted by:
Damian
Ghost Hunt, turns the lights on.
19/06/09
Okay so the other day when xbox live was down I watched a whopping 10 episodes of Manga’s Ghost Hunt, 3 full stories, now if you’re a regular to the side you’ll already know I really like ghost stories particularly the Japanese type as it really is the unseen that scares you. So bedtime comes around and it’s like 1.40 am. Every night I have to put the dog to bed as she stays with me until I do, and every night like auto pilot it’s a case of venturing downstairs without turning on any lights, after 10 episodes of Ghost Hunt and getting really into it, yes, hallway, livingroom and kitchen lights all went on on that night.
Violent and gory say almost all the review quotes I’ve seen for this, don’t know if it was because I was tired but 3 times I’ve tried watching this now and it’s bored me to sleep. Saw and hostel and evil dead 2 are gory, sure this is in places but the visual style reminds me of an inverted texhnolyze I.E bleached white is not very appealing plus for “swordplay” it was mostly stills.
Posted by:
Damian
Second series a vicious circle
05/06/09
Sequel series and the vicious catch 22 situations. There’s a small number of series released in the UK that have second or even third series to go along with them - that sadly remain unreleased. It’s been cited on numerous occasions that the licensing of the second series depends on sales of the first, a fare point as it’s logical the distributors and those in charge wouldn’t want to release a more of a title that already isn’t proving to be all that popular. But then, and this is where we get into my opinion, we loop round on a vicious circle as fans on the whole are collectors and invariably will want “all” of something. And so the logic stands that in many cases fans wont commit to buying a series unless they know they are going to see all of it released and that includes the second series.
Oooooh! Something new and shiny! No real idea about what I should write for a blog, but cobbled together my latest anime-related thoughts for your reading pleasure.
Lately life has been busy and stressful, and as the years have gone by free time has only gotten scarcer. Gone are the days where I could spend hours poring over the latest issue of Manga Mania, or re-watch Space Adventure Cobra, Laughing Target or Battle Angel Alita for the umpteenth time. And despite the bitching and moaning of various online communities, there is still a wealth of choice for the modern anime fan even in the middle of the current quiet phase… I’ve gone way off from what I wanted to say already, a typical symptom of trying to do something constructive in the small hours after a long day at work. *sigh*
The brain gets tired easily. It needs love, care and attention. Moreover, it needs to be coddled and spoon-fed as much as possible to prevent it from going into complete meltdown or send its host into a psychotic rampage. And this is why in my rare moments of free time I’ve been trying to cram in episodes of Dragonball Z, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho and Bleach (but not One Piece… yet). It’s sprawling tournament-based shonen fighting action for the masses, and I absolutely love it.
With no offence intended to fans who watch these shows with a sincere hand on heart and a straight face, but there’s something wonderful about being able to indulge in a show so completely simplistic and mindless. Something so cool and amazing that it will tell you in block capitals twice, no, three times, just how cool it is. This cool moment can then be stretched for an episode, or even an entire season, with its characters repeatedly reminding you with commentary and flashbacks just how cool everything about the show is.
They think they’re awesome for doing it. Your brain thinks its awesome for bearing witness to it. Your ego is soothed and massaged because all of the world has now been boiled down to noting apart from what is ‘cool’, and what is ‘awesome’. If you’re really lucky you’ll also catch a bit of that ‘do your best’ vibe that runs rampant in many of these series, and a bit of positive mental attitude can never do any harm.
Watching one of these shows when you’re feeling lively, upbeat and happy and you’ll be driving pencils up your nose in no time, but that would be missing the point. You’ll never admit it, but I know you’ve all got a random copy of Baki the Grappler or something knocking about the back of your collections. It’s probably not even been taken out of the wrapper since you bought it on a whim on some random online sale. But for those moments when you want nothing else than for the whole world to stop - that DVD is your emergency ration for a mental breather. We all need a reminder of just how awesome we are from time to time and shonen anime fit’s the bill perfectly.
Just resist the urge to try out a Kamehameha on the bus next time its running late…
Posted by:
Chris
Singing Slayers
02/06/09
I’ve been a long term fan of slayers since buying the subtitled VHS releases of seasons 1 and 2 in NTSC format, seen all the OVA’s and movies courtesy of ADV too, over the years though my taste in anime has changed and Slayers doesn’t hold as big of an appeal as it used to. What does still hold the appeal though is the gorgeous theme songs by Megumi Hayashibara. I was quick to pick up the Megumix 3 CD set which has her singing most of the themes and it’s a CD set, particularly the first CD where the volume of the CD players increases incrementally with each song. So if you’ll excuse me … “GET ALONG!! TRY AGAAAAIIIIINNN!!!”
A trio of titles from MVM was announced a couple of days before the London Expo and with all the news and bits’n’ bobs coming from there they may have gotten a little bit swept away with it all. One of these shows was “Moribito” or Seirei No Moribito or Gardain of the sacred spirit, take your pick, it’s a 26 episode TV series from 2007 and made by Production I.G. A historical fantasy drama that its apparently rather slow paced, not a bad thing in my book going off the lush visuals. Going back it was originally a Geneon license but never saw a release of any kind before Geneon went belly-up, in limbo for a while it was then picked up by Media Blasters, the show unlike a couple of their other licenses around the same time also had a dub, probably a reason why it’s made it overt here.
Anyway, after falling in love with the visuals from the few seconds worth I viewed of the fansubs I’ve been waiting for this show for a good while. But media blasters have gone and messed it up a little, the video quality, not something I usually worry about is apparently quite bad and the release schedule has been a mess with numerous slippages already and it’s only on something like volume 3, worst still is MB have chosen to release it on a whopping 8 volumes, 8 bloody volumes, no-one in there right mind does that now, box sets are becoming the norm, look at FUNimation in the US and consequently Manga in the UK, Slayers is apparently doing well for MVM but that’s a long running fan favourite, is this show really going to follow suit from the US and come on 8 volumes, it’s always been hard pressed releasing a show on 6 let alone 8, but in these recession times?, so c’mon MVM how about 4 2-disc sets? Otherwise I’ll have to wait even longer for the eventual box set.
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Naruto’s back in the game with another solid set of episoes (minus the two pants ones).
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