Midseason Review of the Dead

Sort of a part 2 to the post below this one.

Zombies Are In The Details (High School of the Dead)
>Review in short: good but slooooooooow
This show has a lot going for it: decent characters, good plotting, and violence. It is too bad that this show has the pacing of classic Dragon Ball Z episodes. It litterally takes them 2-1/2 episodes to leave ONE building. And guess what? The first half of episode 4 is review! This anime gets caught up in small, useless conversations and events and then spends whole episodes on them. In conclusion, this anime can be enjoyed, but one needs to appreciate that the plot is too slow to drive the show. Oh, and try to ignore the animation shortcuts, ugh.

Janguru wa Itsumo Hare nochi Bunmei (Occult Academy)
>Review in short: unwatchable
The jungle was always nice, and then came Bunmei. But unlike the show I stole this title from, Bunmei doesn't make the show but instead utterly destroys it. The first two episodes of the show introduce a strong, confident, and cool female lead named Maya... who by episode three gets pushed aside as the main character by a weak, cowardly, lying, pathetic worm of a man named Bunmei. The show's intriguing supernatural mysteries take a backseat to Bunmei's pathetic rom-com misadventures. In honor of this tragedy, I am going to start using 'Bunmei' as a word of its own, e.g. "oh wow, that is so freaking stupid; that is so Bunmei".

Vampires For Everyone! (Shiki)
>Review in short: Best show of the season O_o
Remember the movie Signs? Remember how the first half of the movie was spooky psychological fun, and the second half was an irridemably stupid trainwreck? Thusfar Shiki has the first half down pat. It does it so well it actually drives the show and makes it fun it watch. This show may be violence-free and bloodless (lol), but the show does not need them because it lets your mind do all the gruntwork, not unlike classic horror movies. Now I just pray this show never replicates the second half of Signs.

The Truth Is There Is No Review (Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail)
>Review in short: There is no review because there is no show
*Facepalm* My bad, episode one was only a preview. This show streaches over multiple-seasons of anime so this show can't really be watched right now.

Gotta Have Vanilla! (Digimon Xros Wars)
>Review in short: unremarkable fun
This show is exactly what we thought it was. This show gets major props for finally mixing-up the Digivolution formula and therefore giving us something that changes episode to episode, but otherwise this is a typical if not slightly dry season of Digimon. This show is entirely episodic, and thus each episode progresses in the exact same exposition-enemyattack-climax pattern. So, while this show has little to no depth to speak of, it does suceed in being fun and, frankly, I hope it gets Digimon back on American Saturday TV. It deserves that much.

Violence & Horror Makes a Comeback

The new anime season has begun (summer 2010), and it is looking miles more promising than the previous season (spring 2010). Thus far I'd say while summer 2010 has half as many shows, it has many more worth watching.

Anime Worth Noting (in no certain order)

High School of the Dead

Genre: Horror, Ecchi

Themes: Zombies

The Good: (A) Zombies finally get some anime love! Here's hoping this is a trend! (B) No doubt this show is toned-down, but it is still plenty violent.

The Bad: (A) Ecchi and super-violence...at the same time...WTF (B) Weak female lead

Available: The Anime Network Online (first two episodes free, every other episode subscriber only)

Occult Academy

Genre: Action, Horror

Themes: Demons

The Good: (A) Kickass female lead (B) satisfying violence

The Bad: (A) Horror and humor...at the same time...WTF (B) is that a catchphrase? Please God no.

Available: Crunchyroll (free)

Shiki

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Themes: Vampires (spoiler?)

The Good: (A) Everyone seems to like it but me. (B) Not shojo. Not Twilight-related.

The Bad: (A) An irritating main character (B) boring side characters (C) a little slow paced

Available: Funimation (free)

Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail

Genre: Action

Themes: Mercenaries, Guns

The Good: (A) Super-fun over-the-top gun violence!

The Bad: (A) A plot that gives 2-bit side characters the best parts (B) I've read the manga, it gets crappy not long after this. A low in the Black Lagoon series.

Available: Illegally!

Digimon Xros Wars

Genre: Adventure, Kids

Themes: f-ing Digimon

The Good: (A) extremely flashy animated-effects (B) enemies universally use a darker pallet (C) already better than last few seasons

The Bad: (A) show's pace feels rushed (B) smells like a plot hole...already. (C) slightly boring digi-destines

Available: Illegally!

Quakes in the Anime Industry

Now, this isn't exactly as bad as the Geneon collapse, but this has been one heck of a worrying week for the anime industry.

Tokyopop Loses All Kodansha Titles

"As of August 31st, Tokyopop no longer has rights to sell Kodansha manga in the U.S." -icv2.com

Meaning that Tokyopop will print no more of Kodansha-owned titles, and once the current stock is sold, there will be no more from Tokyopop.

Tokyopop's lost titles span over 60 series, and include:

• Chobits
• Love Hina
• Samurai Deeper Kyo
• Rave Master
• A.I. Love You
• FLCL

This is the result of Kodansha allowing its contracts with Tokyopop to expire. Kodansha has yet to issue a reason for its, erm, lack of action.

Dark Horse lost its licenses to the Akira and Ghost in the Shell mangas in a similar manner, however they have been given many of Tokyopop's lost Kodansha CLAMP titles including Chobits.

Kodansha's new super-best-friend, Random House aka Del Rey, has been given Samurai Deeper Kyo.

A more complete list of the lost titles and their new American publishers are here:
http://manga.about.com/b/2009/09/01/the-kodansha-tokyopop-split-which-manga-are-left-in-limbo.htm

However, it is notable Ken Akamatsu titles A.I. Love You and Love Hina have yet to be assigned a publisher.

Sources:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/15747.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-08-31/tokyopop-confirms-its-kodansha-manga-licenses-will-end

ADV Films Dismembered

"A.D. Vision, the parent company of ADV Films, has announced that it is shutting down after transferring its assets to several other companies that will continue its operations." -AnimeNewsNetwork

"SXION 23 (Section 23 Films) has all of ADV's former licenses and most of its staff, but not ADV's former owner John Ledford. SXION 23 will continue to distribute the current orders and future pre-orders that ADV used to fulfill, without changing their schedules." -AnimeNewsNetwork

AEsir Holdings now owns ADV Film's intellectual properties, so they may opt to continue using the ADV Films label on products they release with SXION 23.

Additionally:

"Valkyrie Media Partners has acquired 100% of ADV's Anime Network television unit, while Seraphim Studios has acquired ADV's Amusement Park Media production unit." -AnimeNewsNetwork

Source:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-09-01/adv-films-shuts-down-transfers-assets-to-other-companies
http://icv2.com/articles/news/15752.html

LOL Piracy

This is from the anime Spice and Wolf. Thus far it has been in both of the most recent episodes.

Click on image to start.



Edit: Bugger, in making the previous, I've seen it so many times it doesn't look that bad to me :p
Here's a less animated one:

Endless Eight is OVER!!!

The following post is all about the recent horrors surrounding the sequel to The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

[To those of you who aren't oblivious to the anime industry, this first part will be review]

Kyoto Animation, the japanese animation studio that could do no wrong. Every television anime it produced were instantly massively successful and their fans were the most ravenous in the industry.

It was about time they cashed-in on those poor fools.

Among their greatest successes was the juggernaut that is "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi". KyoAni teased their fans on and off with a new season of the title, and some three years later a new "season" did eventually arrive. However this new "season" was not what fans were bargaining for.

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? Yes you. Have you seen it? It is that movie from 1993 starring Bill Murray. In it he is stuck in a time-loop of sorts; he wakes up everyday to find the previous day has simply started-over. This is the basic premise of Suzumiya Haruhi season 2, except with the critical missing bit that when Kyon (Bill Murray's replacement) wakes up, he does not remember that his day (or week in this case) has started over. This has caused essentially the same episode to be reanimated and reaired 7 weeks in a row with only very minuscule random differences to differentiate the episodes. In fact, the episode count is something I am simply taking someone's word for because I can't tell which episode is which.

[/review end]


The top 5 things fans thought would happen:

5. It ends next week. It ends next week. It ends next week. It ends next week...
4. An entire season of Endless Eight
3. Yuki gets fed-up and kills everybody
2. The ark ends at nine episodes
1. Endless Eight remains unconcluded and is resumed at a later date
   

The 5 most interesting thoughts from the mouths of random fans:

5. Endless Eight is called Endless Eight because it takes place in August and a side-ways eight representing infinity, not because it is supposed to be eight episodes...
4. In the novels Endless Eight is ONE chapter or ~30 pages!
3. If these episodes still sell like hotcakes I am giving-up on humanity
2. Bandai, do NOT release these episodes like normal episodes. No one is buying an entirely Endless Eight disc or two... At least I hope not
1. Quoted from poster penguintruth on ANN:

1. The damage, as far as I'm concerned, is done.
   

The damage, as far as I'm concerned, is done.

They wasted this season with this nonesense, and dragged the name of this program through the mud with it. How can one even justify being a fan of the show after this crap? They've scuttled their own best title.

I know I'll probably end up watching whatever comes next out of interest in the other storylines of the books, but the show just feels a little dimmer now.

The nightmare may be over, but the melancholy of the fans of Suzumiya Haruhi will remain. Zing!

As usual, I believe Hitler says it best:


If you'd still like to watch the episode(s), may I suggest you save some time and watch them all at once XD
http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm7686292

Ultra Marin Takes Flight

Okay, so I was playing through Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Gameboy Color, maybe about 3-4 dungeons in, and I read something online so crazy that I just had to see it myself. So I promptly erased my save file to do just that.

But first things first, meet Marin:

"This maiden from Mabe village saved your life when she found you washed up on the beach. Marin bears an uncanny resemblance to Princess Zelda. She is a very musical woman who loves singing and yearns for life off the island. She has many friends among humans, animals and even some among monsters." – Zelda: LA DX instruction manual

So, needless to say, if there is an attractive girl Link’s age in a Zelda game she is single and she likes Link. Marin is no exception; Link and Marin are super best friends. Here they are enjoying a view, and falling down a well...

...Naturally with Link underneath. Ah such is love.

Now on to the juicy bits.
Okay, so here you are one day, like normal, hacking at the chickens with your sword with Marin in tow. As usual, she objects (you can tell I took this picture myself :p):

But then suddenly on around the 40th cut, she says... Something unexpected:

Marin: Koholint’s darling or future serial killer?...

Ultra Marin awaaay!

Site Expansion

Today marks a revitalization of the G3 Rag.
We first expand our rambling area's to include Anime, Manga, and Music; and we welcome two new authors; Who can introduce themselves below.

Hey Ninja here, some of u may know me from SP as Dark Rogue, while others from killing zombies in Cod: WaW. However some may not know me at all, and that is what this is for. I enjoy video games, board games, and the occasional airsoft game. I love watching anime and reading manga now, though haven't read in awhile. I also love to draw charaters from the anime i watch. Currently I"m working on Madlax and Revy which both are proving to be a slight challenge. That about sums me up i guess and i feel like i've typed too much so this is Ninja signing off for now. :P

Hi, SirGir also here, resisting temptation to edit Ninja's post into horrible things. I am exhausted, famished, and short-on-time here so I'll be brief for now. I am all about manga, anime, techno, and since my last college finals, I've been back into video games. I promise to not be verbose, to use bullet points, and to use plenty of pretty pictures.