Author: dengar
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Perhaps there is a part of me that wants to see more
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Read More →: Perhaps there is a part of me that wants to see moreAfter a long absence, it is time for me to officially step away from writing here (just me, not the site’s other writers). As a parting post, I would like to share my thoughts on anime that stand the test of time. Even older titles that were created with a Japanese audience in mind can…
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The first rule of Bento Fight Club is: You do not talk about Bento Fight Club
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Read More →: The first rule of Bento Fight Club is: You do not talk about Bento Fight Club(Bateszi reviewed this back in November of 2011, I’m revisiting it in light of Funimation’s upcoming February release of the show) A strong signal that a series is great is that you can easily summarize the concept and get someone to watch it based on that short description. Ben-To is just that kind of show.…
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As long as we stay here in this world all that's awaiting us is death
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Read More →: As long as we stay here in this world all that's awaiting us is deathOn the blu-ray packaging, Funimation trumpets the Eureka Seven television series as “The Greatest Love Story Ever Animated.” Where that series is centered around love, the movie re-imagination, Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, is all about death. In particular, it is about the fear of death. Even the crew of the Gekko,…
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Ghost in the Shell: The College Years
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Read More →: Ghost in the Shell: The College YearsGhost in the Shell: Arise marks Production IG’s attempt to reboot the classic franchise. With multiple successful superhero and anime reboots out in the wild, it’s only a matter of time before others (certainly Dragonball) get remade. Movie and television producers reboot well loved shows to appeal to modern audiences. The story, the characters, and the special…
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Kickstartering the future of anime
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Read More →: Kickstartering the future of animeThis article is my third attempt at writing a piece about crowd funding and anime, each time I’ve tried to do so another development forced me to re-write it, illustrating just how quickly crowdsourcing is reshaping the anime industry. Kick-Heart, the anime kickstarter by Production IG, was the first big crowd funding success. It proved…
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Fractale: Beautiful and unfulfilling
Read More →: Fractale: Beautiful and unfulfillingFractale premiered in January of 2011 as part of the noitaminA animation block on FujiTV. The series’ inclusion in noitaminA led to high expectations. The block, putting aside its lame name (animation spelled backwards), has a reputation for interesting and innovative shows, including Honey and Clover, Eden of the East, and House of Five Leaves.…
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Read or Die: One Last Hurrah
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Read More →: Read or Die: One Last HurrahI’ve already reviewed Read or Die (aka R.O.D.), but wanted to provide an update now that Rightstuf is close to selling out of the Blu-Ray version. In my last review review I balked at the price of that edition, but this past December I broke down and bought it. For those on the fence I’ve…
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I Get to Burning For Nadesico
Read More →: I Get to Burning For NadesicoRightstuf is on a streak of licensing critically-acclaimed, but undervalued, shows. They released Utena in 2011 and announced the future release of Rose of Versailles. My favorite recent Rightstuf release remains Nadesico. Unlike Utena, Nadesico has always been available used at an affordable price even after the ADV release went out of print, so I was surprised…
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Cons thrive while the industry stagnates
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Read More →: Cons thrive while the industry stagnatesI attended Anime Expo for the first time, earlier this year. What struck me most at the convention was the number of fans and their high level of enthusiasm. Fans crowded in to see industry panels, but they also embraced fan-run presentations like the Old School Anime panel. Based on the enthusiasm I saw, I’m…
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Lost in Transition: Gunbuster the Movie
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Read More →: Lost in Transition: Gunbuster the MovieI had low expectations when I bought the Gunbuster movie on blu-ray. The visuals looked underwhelming, as did the plot summary. Still, I felt that as an anime fan I had an obligation to watch a Gainax classic, and I’m happy I did. Gainax could have created a forgettable story about girls battling aliens with giant…
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I'm scared of you, let's have sex: Time of Eve
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Read More →: I'm scared of you, let's have sex: Time of EveTime of Eve is about a Japanese society assisted by intelligent, human-form androids. It draws heavily from the robots of Isaac Asimov’s books. Asimov’s and Time of Eve‘s robots are bound by a set of three laws that prevent them from harming humans or allowing humans to come to harm. Both Asimov’s and Time of Eve’s…
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Girls with Guns: Men Please Apply Within
Read More →: Girls with Guns: Men Please Apply WithinFor a different perspective on Phantom see bateszi’s review here. After eight years, three series, six girls, and lots of guns, Bee Train has revolutionized the girls with guns genre by adding… a guy. Men, you too can aspire to be a professional assassin, the last bastion of gender inequality has officially fallen. Joking aside, Phantom:…
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Veteran Creator Meets Disruptive Business Model
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Read More →: Veteran Creator Meets Disruptive Business ModelCaptain Harlock’s recent availability on Hulu and the release of OZMA highlights the career of Leiji Matsumoto. Matsumoto had a role in seminal 70s and 80s works like Captain Harlock, Starblazers, Galaxy Express 999 and Space Battleship Yamato. With OZMA, Matsumoto returns with a work that harks back to his earlier successes. The series is…
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Hot Topic Meets Anime in Ergo Proxy
Read More →: Hot Topic Meets Anime in Ergo ProxyRemember when goth, and by extension Hot Topic, reigned supreme? Ergo Proxy is basically an anime peopled by fans of Hot Topic. The setting is gritty, and the main character wears black outfits, steal tipped boots and heavy mascara. The color palette skews towards grey and black, and even when the show uses other colors,…
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Giving Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence a second chance
Read More →: Giving Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence a second chanceWhen I first saw Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence I left the screening unimpressed. At the time, it felt like a confusing trip through a philosophical morass. I disliked the Major’s lack of screen time as I loved her central role in the associated TV series. Still, when I heard that Bandai planned to…
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Madlax aka What's wrong with the anime industry
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Read More →: Madlax aka What's wrong with the anime industryYoung women with gun skills? Check. Mysterious organization that runs the world? Check. Quasi-religious mysticism? Check. Noir only lasted one season, but if you started watching Madlax and thought it was Noir Season 2 I wouldn’t blame you. Madlax isn’t a complete copy of Noir, it does tread new ground after about 20 episodes or so. And…
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Does Bandai know something Netflix doesn't?
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Read More →: Does Bandai know something Netflix doesn't?About a week ago I posted that 2011, for all its problems, was a stable year for anime. It turns out that stability was short lived. In an interview with Justin Sevakis and Chris Macdonald on AnimeNewsNetwork, Bandai Entertainment President and CEO Ken Iyadomi announced Bandai’s decision to stop licensing and releasing shows. Some bloggers (including…
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Anime Trends 2011: At least no one (of note) went bankrupt
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Read More →: Anime Trends 2011: At least no one (of note) went bankruptAll told, 2011 was a stable year in the anime business. No anime company of any worth (so 4Kids doesn’t count) went bankrupt, although over in the manga world TokyoPop bit the bullet. The tsunami and resulting nuclear incident will unfortunately overshadow anything else that happened with anime this year. While there were no dramatic…
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Lost Along the Way from Utena to Star Driver
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/ AnimeRead More →: Lost Along the Way from Utena to Star Driverbateszi has already ruminated on the connection between Star Driver and Utena and while I’m a bit late to the party, I wanted to add my own reflections. Right now I’m watching Utena for the first time while finishing Star Driver on Crunchyroll. Fortuitously, I just finished Episode 4 of Utena a few hours after watching Episode…
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Darker than Black is the new black
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Read More →: Darker than Black is the new blackDarker than Black is an enigma. The more I watch it, the less I understand how I feel about it. I wanted to write an article extolling its virtues, for example its deep characters and beautiful art. Then I went back and re-watched season 1 and did a double take, was this the same show…
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Dear anime industry, think before you tweet
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Read More →: Dear anime industry, think before you tweetMy name is Dengar and I have a problem. My problem has a name, Twitter. Ever since I joined, I’ve been addicted to getting rapid news updates. It’s particularly convenient as a way to track anime news from companies like Funimation, Aniplex and Viz. Most of the tweets from the companies are acceptable, if not…
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36 hours wasn't enough? Yet another Hunter x Hunter
Read More →: 36 hours wasn't enough? Yet another Hunter x HunterWhy base your new show, video game, or movie on an innovative new idea when you can instead re-release a 10 year old one? That is the logic behind making endless sequels. It’s the thinking that brought us Call of Duty 8, Super Mario 10 and now a reboot of Hunter x Hunter. The original…
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Sorry women, distributors don't like you
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Read More →: Sorry women, distributors don't like youI love when the mainstream media tackles anime. Tomorrow’s New York Times’ features a story about the business opportunities in streaming anime. In its discussion of what shows work, the articles drops this great quote: “The small but avid audience is made up of mostly male viewers aged 18 to 34. Distributors said comedies, sports…
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How many lawyers does it take to screw up an anime series?
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Read More →: How many lawyers does it take to screw up an anime series?Licensing agreements are usually kept top secret for business reasons. That is, until one company (allegedly) breaches the agreement and then goes bankrupt. At that point the court system takes over and the dirty laundry become public. That is exactly what happened when 4Kids got Yu-Gi-Oh! from TV Tokyo. The upshot of the fighting is…
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Quantum is .hack as it should have been, albeit now too late
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Read More →: Quantum is .hack as it should have been, albeit now too late.hack//SIGN was one of the first anime shown by Cartoon Network and it left a lasting, negative impression on me: an otherwise brilliant show with a plot that went nowhere. .Hack//Quantum is the latest iteration of the series. It is .hack//SIGN as it should have been. It’s not a remake, just a three episode version…
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Streaming is good, streaming is right, streaming works.
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Read More →: Streaming is good, streaming is right, streaming works.Digital is the future of video media. Funimation’s announcement of a new premium streaming service this weekend shows that it recognizes what it needs to do to maximize its profits. Up until now, Funimation mostly used streaming to advertise its physical disc releases. I think this announcement reveals the company’s true online strategy, to use…
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September 2011: What we're watching
Read More →: September 2011: What we're watching(dengar) Our monthly (more like quarterly or semi-annual) anime feature continues with an update on several current series we’ve reviewed previously. Read on for a return look at Steins;Gate, Tiger & Bunny and Mawaru Penguindrum. (bateszi) I hope you enjoy the lovely colours I’ve used to mark our names this time! …What was that you mumbled…
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Back to School
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Read More →: Back to SchoolSeptember in the US means the end of summer vacation and the beginning of the school year. Kids spend more of their lives at school than anywhere else and I’d wager that more shows are set in schools than in any other setting. Even though school based shows have the same setting, some of them…
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Room for dinosaurs
Read More →: Room for dinosaursI saw Outlaw Star when it aired on Toonami back in 2001. I think I was attracted to it because it was a space based show that didn’t have Gundam in its name. What I found was an enjoyable space western that didn’t take itself too seriously. And once you accept that it’s not as…
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There Will Be Blood
Read More →: There Will Be BloodBlood+ landed amidst a resurgence of the vampire genre. It came two years after the conclusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 3 days after the release of the first book in the Twilight series. It was beautifully animated and had a decent storyline, even if the pacing crawled at times. Today, almost 5 years…
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Bargain Bin Anime
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Read More →: Bargain Bin AnimeMy love of anime means I spend a great deal of time watching it and a great deal of money buying it. But the price of anime can make buying it new difficult. My budget wouldn’t last long if I bought discs with 5 episodes for $30. Happily, the industry model shifted to a wallet…
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Allison's Journey
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Read More →: Allison's JourneyAllison & Lillia: Generation 1 had potential. The show was set in a fictional Germanic country and was based on the light novels of a noted author. The two main characters, Allison and Will, explore a pastoral world with WW1 era propeller planes. Their country is in a constant state of conflict with a neighboring country, but…
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Welcome to the Financial District
Read More →: Welcome to the Financial DistrictThe Japanese economy is currently in the middle of a huge transformation. A generation ago, a Japanese person could finish school and seamlessly transition into a company job. The job might have grueling hours, but in return it offered lifetime employment at a good wage. Japanese men sacrificed their time with their families so that…
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Much Ado About Blu-Ray
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Read More →: Much Ado About Blu-RayThe holidays are long over and I bet some of you are enjoying brand new anime you received as gifts. For me, this year meant a leap from watching anime on my tiny computer screen to watching it on a beautiful LCD TV. Along with my new TV, I was also excited to pick up…
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Winter Impressions Part II
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Read More →: Winter Impressions Part IISlowly but surely I am getting around to previewing the rest of this season’s shows. For this post I tried to preview some series that people seemed excited about in the comments to my first winter impressions post. That entry is available here.
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Big Robots on the Big Screen
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Read More →: Big Robots on the Big ScreenThe first time I watched Evangelion I I hated everything about it. Most of all I hated the characters and how slowly the series seemed to move. The disconnect I felt with Shinji and his eternal state of depression did not help either. When I heard that the creators’ were rereleasing the show in a…
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Winter '11 Impressions
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Read More →: Winter '11 ImpressionsI don’t have Bateszi’s gift for intros, so let’s jump right into the Winter Preview. This season does not have any wildly anticipated shows, nor have I seen something of Star Driver’s caliber. Still, even if the shows don’t blow you away, anime is definitely still well and kicking.
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Black Lagoon II: Judgment Day
Read More →: Black Lagoon II: Judgment DayBlack Lagoon’s original run impressed me. The show was beautifully animated, included an interesting cast, and had enough violent gun battles to give a child nightmares. I also think it had the best crew of any recent show. What it lacked was length. Its 24 original episodes, stretched over two seasons, were fun to watch…
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Girls with guns but not much else
Read More →: Girls with guns but not much elseI started out intending to write a review of the show Noir, but while researching (okay, I’ll admit using Wikipedia) I discovered Noir’s spirital successors, Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja. Each show was animated by the studio Bee Train. I thought, great, I can do one big “girls with guns” trilogy review, but…
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I need a job so I wanna be a mangaka writer
Read More →: I need a job so I wanna be a mangaka writerDragon Ball Z, Slam Dunk, Bleach, Hajime no Ippo. Most shonen series are based on physical activities like sports or fighting. Surprisingly, the general shonen formula can also work well with a non-physical activity. In Bakuman, J.C. Staff and NHK successfully tell a shonen-style story about two aspiring manga creators. The result is an interesting show…
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No DVD drive on your Macbook air? No problem.
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Read More →: No DVD drive on your Macbook air? No problem.Free. Legal. And released within a week of the show’s Japan air date. Streaming video is something that I have craved ever since I started watching anime. I always feel guilty about not doing enough to support the industry, even if I do buy more anime than a normal person should. Watching streaming anime gives…
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Good morning, angels.
Read More →: Good morning, angels.In honor of Aniplex’s recent announcement of a new Read or Die (“ROD”) Blu-Ray box set I thought it was high time to review the television series. The box set itself deserves a mention, all 26 episodes of the Read or Die TV, the 3 part OVA and a booklet, all supposedly identical to the…
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I was made to hit in America
Read More →: I was made to hit in AmericaBeck: Mongolian Chop Squad. Talk about a mouthful. The name may be a tribute to the author’s favorite band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, which also has four words in its name. In any case don’t be scared away by the name, this series about a rising rock band is a treat even for non-music fans.
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Can you make a giant killing happen inside of you?
Read More →: Can you make a giant killing happen inside of you?This is a show about football (out of respect to Bateszi I’ll avoid using the word soccer…). The featured team, East Tokyo United (ETU), is dysfunctional. ETU’s fans are running away, the team keeps losing managers and players and worst of all, they just can’t win. At this point in the summary, anyone who has…
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Play it safe. Stay inside. Watch anime.
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Read More →: Play it safe. Stay inside. Watch anime.After tackling time travel in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mamoru Hosoda returns in Summer Wars to the more provincial and realistic world of the Internet. Luckily the Internet here is not the boring, text heavy internet of our time, but a more garish and interesting Internet of a not-too-distant future. Pastel colored avatars, corporate headquarters…
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Japanese apology? Maybe next year…
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/ AnimeRead More →: Japanese apology? Maybe next year…Senkou no Night Raid is at a glance a show with great potential, beginning with its unique setting: Shanghai, 1931. Japanese occupied China showcases the height of Japan’s imperialist power and ambition. However, the show cries out for an in-depth commentary on Japan as an imperialist power. Such a narrative would provide a window into…