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Anime Editorials

Dear anime industry, think before you tweet

My 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 exactly groundbreaking. But some (like the one pictured below) are blatantly commercial in a thoughtless way.

How not to tweet

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Anime Reviews

36 hours wasn't enough? Yet another Hunter x Hunter

Why 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 Hunter x Hunter wasn’t awful. Overall, it was a bland action show (note: you can read bateszi’s more positive impression here) that surprised me at times. It had a number of dark and edgy scenes, like when out of nowhere a ten-year-old ripped out his enemy’s heart. The show’s blandness is understandable given that it came out in the late 90s. What is surprising is why Madhouse would decide, ten years later, to reboot a show that already ran 92 mediocre episodes.

I am as confused as the main characters about why this show is airing

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Anime Editorials

Sorry women, distributors don't like you

I 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 shows and anything aimed at women tend to not work.”

Hetalia apparently doesn't count

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Anime Editorials

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 that anime fans get a backstage pass to see what an important license contract says. The language of this contract helps explain why, how, and in what form anime is released outside of Japan. Here I’ll discuss form, namely why 4Kids had the right to butcher Yu-Gi-Oh!. The short answer: TV Tokyo said they could.

This anime fan was forced to watch 4Kids' Yu-Gi-Oh! dub

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Anime Editorials

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 with a similar story.  It’s not perfect, but if it had come out eight years ago it could have provided a foundation for subsequent stories.  But this late in the game it is underwhelming.

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Anime Editorials

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 streaming as the primary source of Funimation’s profits.

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Anime Editorials Reviews

Feast or Filler? Full Metal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

New anime movies rarely come to southern California (they tend to go instead to Viz’s theater in San Francisco) so I jumped at the chance to see the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood movie at the Burbank Film Festival.  The movie, titled The Sacred Star of Milos, is the first Full Metal Alchemist movie set in the Brotherhood timeline.  Unlike the original FMA movie, this one is set during, rather than after, the end of the show.  While the producers managed to make a movie with an engaging plot and big budget visuals, they missed the chance to explore new themes.

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Anime Reviews

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 just there? Crimes against humanity you say? I’ll have you know I’m a professional! We know how websites should look!

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Anime Editorials Reviews

Back to School

September 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 couldn’t be more different. I looked back at three such shows, Azumanga Daioh, His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano) and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Each show could be described as a slice of life story about high school students, but each show is unique.

A little taste of Azumanga craziness

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Anime Reviews

Room for dinosaurs

I 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 good as Cowboy Bebop, you’ll enjoy it too.