Well this is a first! I was just wondering what’s this all about after Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance went live almost a year ago.

And now I heard that its official DVD/Blueray discs have extended and uncut editions of the second Evangelion film (hence titled Evangelion 2.22!), which is about to be released on 26th May 2010, for Japan. While in Germany, it’s expected to be released by July.

Interesting to note there isn’t gonna be any US release anytime soon… So if you travelling anywhere in Japan or Germany around those months, do getyourself a nice copy in one of their DVD stores.  Or go to their Amazon Japan or Amazon Germany online to order one!^^

Source: ANN.com, AsianBlueRayGuide.com

Image Sourced from HB.qq.com

Within less than 3 weeks to go before its official release date, I ran into this Chinese post a while back.  It’s about how they expressed their view of bringing the good ole’ classics back into the TV sets.  Back to where it all began!

Here’s excerpt of the chinese article of what the article said.

From leading film production company, Cinematoday news, comes a television broadcast of classic mecha series lasted “Armored Cavalry Votoms” (1983 – 1984), which is recently released.   Its works are done and overlooked by Takahashi Ryosuke, Igarashi Purple Zhang, heavy Tiandun Division, Otsuka Tian Ting-style animation and other key staff fully played.  Serving as the main animation direcotyr Mr. Tsukada, who’s also the co-producer for  “Armored Cavalry Votoms Case: IRVINE“, “Votoms Viewfinder” and “Armored Cavalry Votoms“.  These three works will still be based on the original animated view of its original animation works, in the past based on the story that are not part of Jiemi further decryption. However, it will be part of the series  series of that represents a whole new dimension of depth that they’ve never done before, and the audience will find this very engaging and are eagerly looking forward to the show. The crowd get a sense that the old Votoms  production team with its superb production technology and performance techniques are proven to be a promise for audience to appreciate all the elements of human emotions that are moving and uplifting (which they originally wanted to do in the first place).

Source: HB.qq.com

Image sourced from My Cartoon.com.my

Now that it’s done in Hong Kong… We now have one in Taiwan!

That’s what my little birdie told me after it showed me this link from Sunrise.

Tracing back to the Taiwan’s link,  it’s said the Gundam Unicorn’s release is on 6th March 2010! Not only that they will be a massive nation-wide sales of Blue Ray/DVDs on the market for this 12 year-old franchise.  It’s available in Mandarin languages as well. (Huh, go figure. :) )

According to the Taiwan’s site, they originally had plans  for its advance screening, supposedly held on 26th Feb 2010.  However, it’s been revised and extended till the first week of March so many Taiwanese fans will get the better spectacle of fun on that day such lucky draws to get into its promotional DVDs stand, special booking and toy collection, etc, etc

For more latest, check out their pages.^^

Source: Sunrise Anime, My Cartoon.com.tw

Just followed this tweet in my Twitter account. The link says something about what’s coming to expect within the upcoming decade for the anime industry and where it’s heading towards…

Moe is a trend in anime towards the use of underage, often barely-clad heroines with no unique character traits.

One of the biggest anime of 2009, maybe even of the decade in Japan if we’re talking merchandise and media sales, was a little slice-of-life show by the name of K-ON. Animated impeccably by Kyoto Animation (home to other otaku favorites like the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series, Lucky Star and just about every good dating sim adaption,) it was a wildly successful in Japan, just as one would expect given it’s linage. Like previous Kyoto titles, its characters quickly shot to the top of favorite character surveys in Japanese magazines and on Japanese websites, otaku not only bought the usual swath of official figurines and unofficial doujinishi, but they bought replicas of the character’s musical instruments, even though they may never actually play them. Otaku in Japan even traveled to other parts of country so they could watch the broadcast in real-time just that much sooner.

However, six months later, this wildly popular show sits unlicensed in North America (yeah, I know the cycle is slower these days, but this was the big title of the season for otaku,) and even in Japan, K-ON is sliding down the character and TV series surveys in favor of the next moe-blob anime (a term coined to describe the rounded and almost nondescript design of many current otaku favorites.) Rather than a lasting Beatlemania-like popularity, K-ON’s reign feels more like the Monkees’ or maybe more tellingly Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ (or for our younger readers, K-ON’s success maybe more like Hanson than Green Day.)

Now, don’t get me wrong – I think K-ON’s a fun show, and when compared to other recent Kyoto adaptions of the slice-of-life-comedy genre, namely Lucky Star and the most recent season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (both of which had direction issues,) it’s one of their better titles. Solid animation, solid pacing and generally enjoyable, with little references for the music fans paying close attention. I’m actually hoping someone grabs it for a US release.

However, K-ON and it’s ilk can’t be the driving force of the anime industry, not even in Japan, let alone internationally.

Why? Because the otaku-oriented moe style doesn’t seem to work outside of otakudom. Within that fandom, it yields tenuous popularity at best (a corollary exists with the bishonen-driven style marketed to fujoshi [girl otaku] but considering they’re marketed to sparingly relative to otaku, it’s not an immediate concern to the anime medium.) You certainly can’t take titles like that to the broadcast outlets anime currently has in the US, and it’s TV exposure that changed anime in America from the niche hobby of nerdy college-age males, to something mainstream enough that manga like Fruits Basket and Naruto took Top 20 spots in the USA Today book sales charts. None of that was built on the back of being purely otaku oriented though, and some of the best titles from moe realm have ultimately not panned out, leading one to question the overall direction of the industry.

Take for example the first season of Haruhi – it was incredibly well-received in Japan and internationally, at least if forum discussion and merchandise sales are any indicator of success. Even with that initial positive reception, we now see the US limited edition release on clearance at RightStuf for a fraction of what the volumes initially went for, and even less than original standard edition singles. Lucky Star is even more problematic: it’s limited edition volumes were canceled due to slow sales.

Now, to be fair, the whole anime industry was moving away from singles, and towards the high-end limited editions that many fans demanded (yet not many purchased as time went on) were caught in that shift. More pressingly, moe is probably here to stay – unless a huge shift or backlash in otaku tastes occurs in Japan, that market seems constantly ravenous for new, somewhat generic 2d-idols that you can make figurines and pillow cases out of. However, the notable issues with moe titles that seemed like such sure-fire successes makes it clear that the purchasing habits of Akihabara can’t dominate where the industry goes if you want shows to work internationally. Well, actually, maybe it can, but it’s going to require some give and take.

Time is Money

Plenty of American distributors have been candid about the problems they’ve had getting Japanese distributors to realize their niche title wasn’t worth the kind of money Pokemon, Naruto or Dragon Ball Z command. The pressure to get studios to more accurately gauge the value of their series upfront is more critical than ever with the move to box sets. To be fair, a lot of studios have gotten the message, and even on series that were very popular in Japan, they’ve begun to recognize that America isn’t the same country (with the retail price of box sets beginning to shift from the $120-$200 to $40-$70 dollar range.) But that’s only half the battle, maybe even less.

After all, you start with the fact that not every company in Japan seems to have gotten the memo that the anime bubble has burst. In spite of seeing some of their contemporaries and American partners go bankrupt, some Japanese studios and distributors don’t yet understand that the US market is very different from Japan. In fact, they’ve gone in the exact opposite direction necessary. While US releases are becoming inexpensive (some recent boxset MSRPs are similar to that of a Hong Kong bootleg,) major titles in Japan are still often at best 3 episodes per disc, and often runs between $70-100 a disc. Amazingly, 10,000 copies or more will move in first week sales with many Japanese otaku buying multiple copies of a disc at outrageous prices. Yet, some Japanese studios and distributors, even after the direct failure of Japanese-style marketing in the US (as seen with Bandai Visual USA,) don’t get it, and want too much for a title with limited marketability. This results in various titles of all sorts sitting on the side lines, losing their market value (as the longer it’s unlicensed, the less hype it has surrounding it, and thus the less likely it is to sell well) while the US company tries to hammer out a deal that will allow them to turn some kind of profit given the projected sales for that title.

Now, if moe is going to be an on-going and often dominant part of anime, then the price points have to give because you’re never going to get any crossover into the mainstream with these titles, and you simply can’t charge the consumer the same amount for this type of show. In fact, everything that’s not DragonBall Z, Naruto or Pokemon, even if it’s a really brilliant, unique niche title, has to cost less than it used to now. That makes things difficult because a lot of anime studios used to use the upfront payments and royalties from US firms to get themselves into the black on titles. Now, at the very least it’s going to be mostly on royalties (upfront advances just won’t cut it,) and those profit points might be out there for an uncomfortably long time in an industry already notorious for underpaying most of the talent involved. However, that’s the direction in which it has to head, and really, the Japanese studios need to understand that it’s better to get some money for a show than nothing. The longer things drag out, the higher the probability that they’ll get nothing for a title. For the studios in Japan with libraries of content that stretch back decades, the only way those classics will turn up is if the upfront cost is very low and the same can be said of a new but niche title (regardless of why it’s niche.)

There is a way for anime companies to get good money from US companies again, and diversify their offerings in the process. They might even reverse loss of talent (both in the US and Japan) to the video game industry. But the hardcore fandom might be a bit adverse to this, and it’s a big risk for everyone involved…

If there is a future, it’s not in isolation: co-produce or stagnate.

Co-productions. The idea has produced some amazing work that probably wouldn’t have been half good without upfront capital from multiple international companies. The Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series and films, Samurai Champloo and Afro-Samurai just to name a few owe their existence or at the very least their excellent quality to a combination US and Japanese companies putting up money from the get go. Now, it’s not always panned out – ADV’s Lady Death was roundly panned by critics, Eureka Seven was not the explosive success Bandai Entertainment hoped for and IGPX managed to be one of the most beautiful flops ever animated. Shame too, because at least IGPX and Eureka Seven were quite good and certainly fun.

Still, that money ensured diversity because by and large it wasn’t American co-pro dollars or even pre-license dollars going to bland moe titles – they can support themselves in Japan for the most part. No, it was going to the kind of shows that tend aimed for something fresh and unique while also shooting for a wide, crossover audience. If that influence disappears, anime viewers the world over will be lucky if there are two unique series a season, and of that handful, maybe one classic a year. Add to that the fact that outside of Fuji TV’s Noitamina block, a block explicitly created to have anime that’s outside of the typical demographics, there are not a lot of shows these days that are really trying to break new ground, and that can in part be chalked up to a lack of co-production creating an incentive to be different.

In fact, if you took Noitamina out of play, the past few seasons in Japan would’ve been pretty dry for titles that aren’t moe fodder or kids shows or both. You’d have Michiko to Hatchin, Darker Than Black and uh… hmm. There aren’t even good number of shoujo anime titles, especially borderline josei-titles like Honey And Clover, Nodame Cantabile and Kimi no Todoke without that one block. Anime’s diversity shouldn’t hinge on so little because it’s too easy for that to dissappear with one management change (much as Cartoon Network’s programming diversity shouldn’t have hinged on essentially Toonami.)

Now, with Funimation announcing a head of original development, that might be exactly what is needed to keep things diverse, high-quality and therefore more viable, but it’s got to be original development. It’s going to take hard work, a commitment to working with people may not give a care about executive notes, and the courage to soldier on inspite of the occasional dud. It’s certainly not going to work if the game plan is to just license some generic US teen literature series or some random manga, and then throw that at any old studio and director with a bag of money. I don’t think they’ll do that either – they supposedly insisted Akitaro Daichi return for any Fruits Basket continuation they put their money behind, and upon hearing that Natsuki Takuya, Fruits Basket’s manga-ka, wouldn’t support that, they dropped because they knew a shift in staff wouldn’t work. However, that same stringent standard will be essential in making sure they make good, marketable work.

Part 4: So what if the industry stays moe and overpriced?

Somehow, in spite of the fact that a lot of the old generation of the anime fandom has dropped out from attending cons constantly, and even a notable percentage of the anime boom era fandom seems to be cutting back on con attendance and spending (to put it another way, I’m a boom era fan and many of the friends I made through anime don’t care about it much any more,) anime cons keep getting greater attendance from coast to coast, and it begs the question whether diversity really matters. Maybe everything can be reverse harems, yaoi and shota for the girls, regular harems, yuri and lolis for the guys and slice-of-life high school anime for everyone. Shoot, even with those restrictions, it not like some good shows aren’t made – shows like Gunslinger Girl, Ouran High School Host Club and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya all have their explicit target demographics, but they are all also wonderfully done shows with great characters, fantastic settings and all the technical points locked down. However, I think if you want to get any of the old generation or even a lot of the anime boom generation interested again, it’s not going to be with the easy otaku and fujoshi plays, even the really fantastic ones with spot-on technical skill. Too many long time fans have been their and done that, and they came to anime because it was doing something bold and new, not holding to tropes in lock step. I think even the newer fans will burn out on it if their isn’t a commitment to being smart and emotionally complex as well, and well, that growth will level off if not reverse.

Even in Japan, various artists have ranted about how empty the scene seems right now. Some might argue it’s been that way for a while – Hayao Miyazaki bemoaned that anime was too focused on objectifying the characters rather than developing them for decades, and he probably still does to this day. The difference is, when Miyazaki started his complaints, a whole generation of brilliant auteurs seemed to take that as a challenge and frankly proved him wrong about the medium falling towards emptiness. Yes, the fandom would and always will objectify the characters, but the directors could use that tendency to get people not only to watch series and movies that were vastly more brilliant than they may have initially made clear, but get them to love that work for having pushed those boundaries. However, no one seems up to the challenge of building on the legacy that directors like Hideki Anno, Kazuya Tsuramaki, Shinichiro Watanabe, Satashi Kon and others from that mid-1990s-to-mid-2000s era have left. There are new geniuses out there to be sure – Masaaki Yuasa, Makoto Shinkai, Saya Yamamoto and so on, but they can’t be geniuses lauded for their brilliance and then left on the edges of the industry. If anime is ever going to have another boom, if talent is going to stay at companies and deal with the mediocre pay, horrific hours and outright poverty that tends to come with being an animator or even often with being a VA in Japan, the crazy geniuses have to be running things, not the accountants happy to market yet another toyetic moe series in a bid to sell otaku 10 copies of the same blu-ray disc with different postcard pack-ins. After the global recession, outside of the truly obsessed that marketing tactic won’t work anymore, and so casual anime fans are your incentive to stay diverse and ultimately make more money by doing that.

I mean, after all, the generic titles from the 90s, even the really good ones, are falling by the wayside when it comes to what gets reissued in hi-def and which licenses gets expanded or extended. But those groundbreaking titles? Those shows are insanely perennial, and you can keep putting them out ad-nauseam in new formats. Make a Cowboy Bebop or an Evangelion, eat for decades. Make a K-ON, eat very well for maybe a year. Sure by pushing boundaries, you might make a Koi Kaze and be lucky to eat at all, but that’s the risk. To me, the choice is obvious though, because studios like Ghibli in Japan and Pixar in America don’t think in terms of making temporary titles – they aim high. Not every studio may have the talent to stick that every time, but even once in while is enough to keep a studio secure.

At the very least, if anime is going to be an internationally viable medium to the extent it was at it’s peak in the early-to-mid-00’s, the trends in motion must reverse.

- Source: Toozone

Looks like it’s going to be another rough wave for the anime industry.   If they don’t sharpen up their talent pool a little bit, that is.

After reading this headline from MyAnimelist,  there will be some drastic changes going on with the way anime business is conducted in Japan with the recent announcement of Bandai’s dropped plans to broadcast Unicorn Gundam on TV.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Instead, they  decided to do two things.  One, having its theatrical release,   Two, having its online streaming.  With these approaches, they claim that they can combat with the industry-wide issue of declining DVD sales in the current market, hoping that things will turn around for the anime industry.  One of the arguments also suggests (and supports) past outstanding performances by Kara no Kyoukai would prove to be the solid indicator on how much more other anime firms can benefit from this so-called new-found business model of online media marketing.

Yet, in the forum, people were not wholesomely enthused with Bandai’s ‘enthusiasm’ to conduct such business practices as they believed the reason Kara no Kyoukai fares so much the better just because of its one-hit wonder of success so it would be very hard for Bandai to emulate that level of success.

Read more from the forum.

Source:  MyAnimelist.net

Transformers: ROTF DVD/Blue Ray

This is not really ‘new’ news. It’s been out for quite some time (more like 9 days ago) as I read from this Transformers 2 Facebook fan page. Been busy with work at my new workplace for the past week.

A couple good prices offer from Amazon and Ebay.

It comes with two disc special edition. It has about 9 discs in total vs the single edition which has 14 discs in total. Both of them come at a price of USD $39.99, but Amazon now offers a slash price of 45% discount (USD $21.99), which is a good buy to have. Comes with either in blue ray or dvd.

Not too sure how long will they arrive in New Zealand stores. But I’m keen to get these so I think I’m going to get them online within the next few days.

Are you looking forward to getting your copy of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?

Source: Facebook.com, Amazon.com, Ebay.com

A while ago, I signed up with a web-based anime cataloguing system, MyAnimeList.net, gives you end user the ability to organise all your favourite anime, customise the layout and design of  your profile pages, receive all the latest and most up-to-date information on the anime industry from Japan and the rest of the world.  It’s a very good site with plenty of bells and whistles on them.  They got a lot features you can use to present your views and opinions on various subjects such as blogs, reviews, anime, opinion polls, recommedations etc.

But that’s going to be on a separate blog post, which I’ll probably plan to write as a review in the future.

For now, the main agenda on hand is looking at Japan’s DVD/BlueRay rankings for the past 4-5 weeks.

Keeping track of MyAnimelist.net feeds, I filtered the results for “Shin Mazinger Z (aka the new Mazinger Z series)” and I found only one result there.  Its DVD popularity ranking stood as 24th, whilst its BlueRay ranking stands at 11th. With Gundam’s counterpart, its DVD ranks (for all Mobile Suit Gundam series),  was in the top 20 since the end of June till the middle of this month. Same is true for Blue-Ray counterparts.

Here are their official ranks (sourced from MyAnimelist.net feeds)

DVD

Jun 29 – July 5

*1, 502,228 502,228 Gake no Ue no Ponyo Normal Edition
*2, *19,861 *19,861 Clannad ~After Story~ vol.8 Limited Edition
*3, *10,172 *10,172 Sengoku BASARA vol.1
*4, **4,377 *18,877 Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows DVD
*5, **3,713 *24,031 Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone DVD
*6, **3,689 *18,599 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.5 DVD
*7, **3,225 925,172 My Neighbor Totoro
**, **2,466 **2,466 (Donald Duck Chronicle vol.3 Limited Edition)
*8, ***,*** ***,*** Kuroshitsuji vol.6 Limited Edition
*9, ***,*** ***,*** The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya vol.2
10, ***,*** ***,*** One Piece 9th Season vol.19
11, ***,*** ***,*** Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.6 Limited Edition DVD
12, ***,*** ***,*** Junjo Romantica 2 vol.6 Limited Edition
13, ***,*** ***,*** Gintama Season 3 vol.11
14, ***,*** ***,*** Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S vol.1
15, ***,*** ***,*** Naruto: Shippuuden Mitsuo Shutsugen no Shou vol.2
16, ***,*** ***,*** Chrome Shelled Regios vol.4 Limited Edition
**, ***,*** ***,*** (Wall-E)
17, ***,*** ***,*** Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou vol.3

July 6 –  July 12

*1, 138,262 640,490 Gake no Ue no Ponyo Normal Edition
*2, **4,026 **4,026 Minami-ke Okaeri vol.4 Limited Edition
*3, **2,941 928,113 My Neighbor Totoro
*4, **2,569 *26,600 Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*5, ***,*** ***,*** Clannad ~After Story~ vol.8 Limited Edition
*6, ***,*** ***,*** Asura Cryin’ vol.1 Limited Edition
*7, ***,*** ***,*** Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows
*8, ***,*** ***,*** Sengoku BASARA vol.1
*9, ***,*** ***,*** Castle in the Sky
10, ***,*** ***,*** Kiki’s Delivery Service
**, ***,*** ***,*** (Wall-E)
**, ***,*** ***,*** (Monsters Inc.)
11, ***,*** ***,*** Princess Mononoke
12, ***,*** ***,*** Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
13, ***,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.5
14, ***,*** ***,*** Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Pikachuu Koori no Daibouken
15, ***,*** ***,*** The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya vol.2
16, ***,*** ***,*** Spirited Away

July 20 – 26

*1, 32,408 723,532 Gake no Ue no Ponyo Normal Edition
*2, 17,163 *17,163 Hetalia Axis Powers vol.3 Limited Edition
*3, 14,137 *14,137 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.6 DVD
*4, 12,307 *12,307 Gintama Season 3 vol.12 Limited Edition
**, 10,694 *10,694 (Madagascar 2 Special Edition)
*5, *8,922 **8,922 Kuroshitsuji vol.7 Limited Edition
*6, *8,347 **8,347 Toradora! vol.7 Limited Edition
*7, *7,883 **7,883 Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 Special Edition Zero Requiem DVD
*8, *7,791 **7,791 Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou vol.4
*9, *7,527 **7,527 Lupin III vs Detective Conan DVD
10, *6,634 **6,634 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack 30th Anniversary Collection
11, **,*** ***,*** La Corda D’Oro ~secondo passo~ Limited Edition
12, **,*** ***,*** Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.2 DVD
13, **,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam F91 30th Anniversary Collection
14, **,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space 30th Anniversary Collection
15, **,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam I 30th Anniversary Collection
16, **,*** ***,*** Pandora Hearts vol.1
17, **,*** ***,*** Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.7 Limited Edition DVD
18, **,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow 30th Anniversary Collection

Aug 31 –  Sept 6

*1, 7,125 **7,125 Sengoku BASARA vol.3
*2, 6,307 802,388 Gake no Ue no Ponyo
*3, 6,213 **6,213 Saki vol.3
*4, 3,836 *20,100 Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.1 -20th Century-
*5, 3,585 *25,397 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 Sasanoha Rhapsody Limited Edition
*6, 2,899 **2,899 Valkyria Chronicles vol.2
*7, 2,830 *16,186 Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.1 -21st Century-
*8, 2,324 **2,324 07-Ghost vol.2 Limited Edition
*9, 2,291 *14,869 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood vol.1 DVD

Sept 7 – Sept 13

*1, 4,731 807,119 Gake no Ue no Ponyo
*2, 2,058 *22,158 Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.1 -20th Century-
*3, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.1 -21st Century-
*4, *,*** ***,*** My Neighbor Totoro
*5, *,*** ***,*** Asura Cryin’ vol.3 Limited Edition
*6, *,*** ***,*** Saki vol.3
*7, *,*** ***,*** The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 Sasanoha Rhapsody Limited Edition
*8, *,*** ***,*** (Madagascar2 Special Edition)
*9, *,*** ***,*** 07-Ghost vol.2 Limited Edition
10, *,*** ***,*** Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood vol.1
11, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack 30th Anniversary Collection
12, *,*** ***,*** Sengoku BASARA vol.3
13, *,*** ***,*** (Monsters Inc.)
14, *,*** ***,*** (no data)
15, *,*** ***,*** Usavich – Season 3
16, *,*** ***,*** Crayon Shin-chan Movie 10: Arashi wo Yobu Appare! Sengoku Daikassen
17, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space 30th Anniversary Collection
18, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow 30th Anniversary Collection
19, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.7 DVD
20, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam I 30th Anniversary Collection

Sept 14 – Sept 20

*1, 5,845 **5,845 K-ON! vol.3 DVD
**, 5,580 **5,580 Winter Sonata Making Video
*2, 4,245 811,364 Gake no Ue no Ponyo
*3, 3,056 **3,056 Hayate the Combat Butler!! vol.2 DVD
*4, *,*** ***,*** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Mirai-hen X vol.6
*5, *,*** ***,*** Zettai Karen Children vol.14
*6, *,*** ***,*** Utsurun Desu. vol.2
*7, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.1
*8, *,*** ***,*** Dragon Ball Kai vol.1
*9, *,*** ***,*** Nintama Rantarou 16th Season vol.7
10, *,*** ***,*** Nintama Rantarou 16th Season vol.8
11, *,*** ***,*** My Neighbor Totoro
12, *,*** ***,*** Fresh Precure! vol.4
13, *,*** ***,*** Chi’s New Address vol.3
14, *,*** ***,*** Mameshiba The DVD
15, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam OP/ED Collection vol.2
16, *,*** ***,*** Cyborg 009 (1979) DVD Collection vol.2
17, *,*** ***,*** Crayon Shin-chan Movie 10: Arashi wo Yobu Appare! Sengoku Daikassen
18, *,*** ***,*** Tears to Tiara vol.4 DVD
**, *,*** ***,*** (Madagascar 2 Special Edition)
19, *,*** ***,*** Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack 30th Anniversary Collection

Blue Ray

Jun 22 – Jun 28

*1, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*2, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.5
*3, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows Limited Edition
*4, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows Normal Edition
*5, Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.1
*6, Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.6 Limited Edition
*7, Tales of the Abyss vol.5
*8, Utawarerumono OVA vol.1
*9, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo vol.3
10, Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity- vol.1
11, Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari vol.2
12, Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas – Meiou Shinwa vol.1
13. White Album vol.3
14, Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children: Complete Normal Edition

Jun 29 – July 5

*1, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*2, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.5
*3, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows Limited Edition
*4, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows Normal Edition
*5, Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.6
*6, Tales of the Abyss vol.5
*7, Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.1
*8, Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children: Complete Normal Edition
*9, Utawarerumono OVA vol.1
10, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo vol.3

July 6 –  July 12

*1, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*2, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows
*3, Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows Limited Edition
*4, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.5
*5, Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children: Complete Normal Edition
*6, Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.1

July 20 – July 26

*1, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.6
*2, Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 Special Edition Zero Requiem
*3, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*4, Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.7 Limited Edition
*5, Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.2
*6, Lupin III vs Detective Conan
*7, Tales of the Abyss vol.6
*8, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo vol.4
*9, Xam’d: Lost Memories vol.1
10, Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch Special Edition Black Rebellion

Aug 31 –  Sept 6

*1, 9,691 *9,691 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.7
*2, 5,221 *5,221 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood vol.1
*3, 4,498 *4,498 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex BD Box vol.1
*4, 4,094 *4,094 Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.3
*5, 3,725 *3,725 Higashi no Eden vol.2
*6, 3,506 32,110 K-ON! vol.2
*7, 1,987 *1,987 Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo vol.5
*8, 1,748 *1,748 Tales of the Abyss vol.7
*9, 1,583 *1,583 Xam’d: Lost Memories vol.2
10, 1,419 *1,419 AIKa: ZERO vol.1
11, 1,260 *1,260 Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen vol.1
12, 1,001 *5,053 Toaru Majutsu no Index vol.8 Limited Edition
13, *,778 90,189 Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
14, *,759 **,759 Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity- vol.3
15, *,690 38,237 K-ON! vol.1
16, *,642 *2,871 Hayate the Combat Butler!! vol.1 Limited Edition
17, *,374 **,374 Kurokami vol.4 Limited Edition

Sept 7 – Sept 13

*1, 1,114 33,224 K-ON! vol.2
*2, *,891 91,080 Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone
*3, *,824 *6,045 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood vol.1
*4, *,717 10,408 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season vol.7
*5, *,488 38,725 K-ON! vol.1
*6, *,345 45,148 Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children: Complete Normal Edition
*7, *,302 *4,027 Higashi no Eden vol.2
*8, *,294 *4,792 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex BOX1
*9, *,294 *4,367 Queen’s Blade: Rurou no Senshi vol.3

The ones highlighted in blue are Gundam and other real robot shows like Eureka Seven, Code Geass.  Another point I failed to mention here is that we have other super robot shows besides Shin Mazinger Z, taking some notable spots in the ranks as well ie Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell and Evangelion series.

So it’s fairly evident to say Gundam and other real robot shows are dominating the DVD sales charts as compared to the super robot counterparts.

Source: MyAnimelist.net

I’ve been meaning to provide my insight review of Mazinger Z DVD review since I got its DVD copy since June 2009.
For the past 4-5 weeks, after watching its series half-way through, I’d say everything’s a great fascination to me. Nothing short of disappointments to be found, other than the mere fact it’s a mecha show that was released on air more than 30 plus years ago. I still find myself dumbstruck asking this numbing question “Why of all mecha anime they had during the 80s did I not come across this one first before the others?” Clearly, it’s a revolutionary genre which sparked off several chains of super robot shows I watched such as Voltron, Transformers, UFO Robo Grendizer , Danguard Ace, etc.
That’s still a mystery to me why it never broadcasted in my hometown of Malaysia. One day I’ll find out that reason…
But enough about me and quibbling. Onwards to the main task at hand.
My initial thoughts about Mazinger Z were exactly the same as I would think for other mecha anime I watched in the early 80s. They got atypical good-guys-vs-bad-guys element to the plot and it never tires the traditionalists such as myself when watching them over and over again. Good guys with their powered-up set out the mission to protect Earth from evil forces of mechanical monsters or robots that threatens the very existence of peace and tranquility for the planet. Only this time, this one is more refreshingly raw and original.

We start off with our main protagonists here, Kouji Kabuto, who is said to be very hot-blooded, gets very eager to jump into upcoming battles with mechanical monsters, ready to fight them off with everything he’s got in order to save people from the evil clutches of Dr Hell, Kouji arch-nemesis, whose sole ambition is world conquest. We learned that his grandfather was the scientist who used to work well with Dr Hell as colleagues in the archaeological exploration of the ancient ruins of Greece, and they discovered the military secrets of the Greek civilization for keeping invaders at bay using Mycaene giants which are also called mechanical robots. When Dr Hell betrayed the colleagues and his grandfather, Dr Kabuto, he killed everyone except Dr Kabuto, who managed to escape alive by a tail of whisker by jumping on the lone boat and sailing far away from Dr Hell. Dr Hell got away with his evil deeds and Dr Kabuto, from then on, gave his life dedication to this super robot construction project whose purpose is to thwart the evil plans of Dr Hell for good. However, later in the show he died in the early part of the show as Dr Hell’s henchmen successfully disposed of him by blowing up his secret lab in the basement. Kouji witnessed the whole thing and was in complete grief that his grandfather was caught in this heated battle with a very dangerous enemy, and his last words to Kouji was that “It’s a shame I could not see you ride on Mazinger Z after I gasped my last breath”. This is truly sad. This impacts Kouji for the rest of his life and that probably explains why he’s always so hot-headed whenever he hears any mechanical monsters that try to threaten the peace and tranquility of his home country, Japan in every Mazinger Z episode. He never once wanted to step away from the opportunity to fight, especially if it’s justice he seeks. Very common trait of a hero wanting to set things straight with villains that there’s no room for enemies to prosper. And you always get the sense that he will never say a ‘no’ for every challenge Dr Hell wanted to give him relentlessly.

Later on, I learnt more interesting facts about how Kouji tried to pilot his mecha for the first time. And the series dedicated the first 5-10 episodes just to see how he managed to control his robot’s simple movements such as walking, running and landing his rocket punch on the enemy. There were some really funny scenes of this and I didn’t know whether Go Nagai was intently trying hard to infuse the viewers to comprehend the struggles Kouji gets when learning to ride his robot as compared to riding a motorcycle or a car. As if the viewers were ‘educated’ to understand that controlling the car’s movements can never compare to the likes of controlling robots when you’re dealing with 50 different controls to operate. Along the way, we starting to see how Kouji develops friendships with allies he meets along the way and they assisted him to fulfill his objectives as well. In the midst of all this, Kouji gets pretty settled in Dr Yumi’s lab and soon we started to recognize the infamous scene where the pool opens up and Mazinger comes up rising from the pool and Kouji’s hovercraft also known as ‘Pilder’ lands on top of Mazinger Z’s head, acting as Mazinger’s brain (see below).

Friends

As our hero gains confidence in making full use of Mazinger Z’s fighting abilities, so are his new found friends and allies growing their confidence in him defending the earth from evil forces of Dr Hell. We have Professor Yumi and daughter , Sayaka Yumi, who always prepare to give advice to Kouji whenever he’s in any imminent danger, even though at times Kouji appears to be not interested in listening to the things Sayaka says about his reckless and sometimes boastful behaviour which could lead to further troubles ahead, unnecessarily. Sayaka Yumi, like Kouji Kabuto, who also programs her own robot, Aphrodite A, to engage in battle, but lack the necessary firepower in order to sustain any ‘practical’ damage on the enemies. Aphrodite A is useful in several occasions where Kouji/Mazinger Z could not handle things themselves. We have three amazing scientists, best working colleagues of Professor Yumi, who assisted Kouji a lot in his quest for peace and justice, by regularly reviewing, analyzing and enhancing Mazinger Z’s fighting capabilities. They’re really indispensable bunch! Then we have our big former-foe-but-turned-to-a-friend-of-Kabuto-Kouji, Big Boss and his two sidekicks, who respects Kouji a lot when he’s in the battlefield when facing tough opponents. But on the ground level, Boss’s envy on Sayaka’s love interest on Kouji, is really apparent that he would take every step to prove his affections for her is better than Kouji. After all, Kouji did seem at times getting pretty cheeky and arrogant about this achievements with Mazinger Z, Sayaka’s taking the short end of the stick for the credit and Boss did try to take advantage of this so things would come out favourably for him.

Enemies

When there’s hero in need to the rescue, there will certainly be villains that stirred up the troubles. There’s no other greater evil than Dr Hell(first inset), the evil-doer who started this whole world conquest vision (starting from Japan), using the ancient technologies of the Mycanae empire, along with his most loyal subordinates, Baron Ashura(second inset) and Count Brocken(third inset). Together, they will bring a huge force of army that’s very menacing that they can completely dominate the entire world with his fleet of giant robots, if it wasn’t for Mazinger Z( that keeps on thwarting them everytime). Very focused individual, trying to devise several strategic ways to eliminate Kouji, Professor Yumi and Mazinger Z during the series Z, but only to result in failure in misery. Baron Ashura, his most trusted subject, earlier who follows every Dr Hell’s instructions to create destruction and despair amongst citizens of Earth (or Japan in this context) and executes them without question. His loyalty and dedication to his master, Dr Hell is almost admirable that it reminds you how soldiers were at that time WWII occurred, they’re willing to put their lives at stake in order to fulfill their commands of the commanding officer, just as he’s willing to give his life to Dr. Hell. Throughout the series, we see him struggling to defeat Mazinger Z, Baron Ashura was seen humiliated and defeated that we have Count Brocken, who’s surfaced to replace Baron Ashura and Ashura’s seen demoted. Both of them are not getting along together because of this tension for Dr. Hell’s appraisal’s for one’s achievements. Count Brocken, a cyborg with floating head seems to be a very calculative and devious (just like all villains) with a Nazi-complex (the uniform was give away), tries to prove he’s far superior to Ashura when it comes to fighting Mazinger Z with results Ashura struggles to achieve.

Mechanical Beasts

There’s so many mechanical beasts this series introduced (I’m still half way through them) and I think it requires a different post to dedicate this topic. However, if I were to give a review on this, I would say they are very pretty impressive. Especially considering it’s an official fact that this one sets out the standard for all mecha shows to feature new monsters or villains every week, dubbed as ‘monster-of-the-week’. Every mechanical beasts that come out to battle Mazinger comes with any unique abilities to deter Mazinger and eventually destroy him as part of its attempt everything from boomerang sickles, giant monsters inspired from Ancient Greek times, flying monsters to light-saber-enhanced scythe, etc. Here’s a brief list of Mazinger’s villains.

Overall comments

Looking at the whole series so far up to this point, I find it very good and it delivers what a mecha anime ought to be ie weekly monster feature, battle cry weapon commands eg Rocket Punch, male hero gets robot that’s invented by his father scientists, used it to serve the purpose of protecting mankind etc. This ‘formulaic’ approach works very well for Mazinger Z and that probably explains why Go Nagai deserves full credit for this and receives so many honorary awards after so many years in anime business. I highly recommend it to people who’s truly into this subgenre and very passionate about their favourite mecha shows of the past (which Iam) and learn its historical influence which contributes the growing number of mecha/super robot shows in the past 30 years.  I’ll give a rating of 4.5/5.

Seriously. I never thought this would be possible. Having Bandai Visual boasting about having to compress all 400 mobile suit gundam models into 6 DVDs. It sounds incredibly unbelievable when I first heard about it from this link from Animenewsnetwork.com

The official Japanese Gundam website has announced on Thursday that the Gundam MS Movie Files (Gundam MS Dōga Zukan) video profiles will get DVD and UMD releases. The website has been posting approximately 30 to 80 seconds of video (viewable from Japanese Internet addresses only) about each of the various robotic mecha in Gundam — about 400 mobile suits in all. The videos, which are narrated by Nobuyuki Hiyama (Gundam: The 08th MS Team’s Shiro Amada, Gundam Seed’s Muruta Azrael), are compiled from footage in the various television series, video projects, and theatrical films in the franchise.

Bandai Visual will start shipping the seven monthly DVD/UMD releases on October 27; the distributor aims to produce 200,000 copies overall. The discs will feature the files and mecha database information, divided by timelines and eras, in an interactive menu.

The Mobile Suit Gundam robot anime franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Source: Walker Plus

It’s crazy. But nevertheless, it’s worth to find out wouldn’t it? I’m hoping there’s plenty of copies left for me to pick before the deadline approaches. I really want to grab hold of it so I can compile all the great mecha ever produced in the real robot series as much as with super robot series as an my own online encyclopedia. Or in this case, ‘mechapedia’. :)

Been meaning to post on Saturday evening, however it became such a mission for me to upload the photos on my Wordpress online, I realised this is not gonna be an easy 5 minute job…. And finally here I am.

This is something I dont’ see that often. For the past 15 years since I live in the ‘land of the long while cloud’, anime was word that’s unknown to many general people of NZ and certainly the contrast was incredibly obvious between my adopted country and home country of Malaysia, where anime is seen as a common household product in the neighbourhood of 20 million plus people. Here, to get a manga book was certainly a rarity for these and the closest thing you can ever find them (which I vaguely remember) is from a Taiwanese shop that sells parallel imported goods or from Taiwanese high school friends I used to went out with, and they get the latest trends of manga imports.

Now fast-forwarding the clock 15 years later…. Things have changed. It has changed a lot.

Thanks to the introduction of Pokemon and Dragonball Z into the NZ youth market towards late 90s, the anime space was exploding that was never seen before. It broke all barriers and soon many new young New Zealand fans are spreading the word of ‘anime’ in the community like wildfire. They learn many things about manga, otaku, shonen, doujinshi, cosplay and the culture of Japanese animation so quickly. I feel like I’m no longer a visitor to my new found homeland anymore.  Everything I do here is almost like being back at home! And what better way for them to get into this pop culture phenomenon, is to have our very own local anime convention centre in the Southern Hemisphere, right in the heart of Auckland City.

It’s probably our first anime convention centre ever in New Zealand’s history. At least, that’s what I found from this link at AnimeCons.com. So New Zealand has come a long way with this and we see a rising number of young fans that mould in very well in this array of ‘Japan-esque’ fun everything from dressing up your favourite anime characters as for eg Sailor moon to owning your very first 1/1 scale Mobile Gundam model! (I was kidding about the 1/1 scale part. Lol.)

Nevertheless, my curiosity for discovering the world of anime in New Zealand never dissipates so I decided to venture out on the quest to see just how much New Zealand as a whole learnt much about anime.

And after the first two hours of almost non-stop (well not really, I had to recharge my parking fare every hour (long story) so I had to rush out and rush back in) photo-taking, and a few hundred of photos later, and countless hours of uploading, here’s the entire album below.  Broken into 4 categories.

NZ Doujin Overload 2009

Local Doujin convention centre in New Zealand

10 Photos

Local Anime and Cartoon Artists in New Zealand

Talented NZ anime artists showing off their drawing talents

26 Photos

Cosplay and Dance

All the cosplays, dancing 'Japanese' high school girls and music etc...

30 Photos

Anime Videos, Models and Merchandise

DVDs, Gundam and Mecha Model Merchandise etc..

82 Photos

This is great start for New Zealand.  As I walked around the room, letting my curious gaze linger from one desk to another, prying on the marvellous artworks by these bright intelligent artists, who clearly show their desire and passion in drawing, I sense something’s good is bound to happen for these talented young guns.  I asked every person I met on each desk about their age and how long they love to drawing, and you hear the same answer over and over.  14-18 year olds love to drawing since they were little kids getting their first drawing pencils and continue to excel their ’scribbling’ into great works of anime/manga art.  They’re incredible, I tell you.  (which you will soon see after you look into my album).

They got a number of cosplays going on there from Japanese high-school outfits to one guy dressing up as Vincent, a character  from Final Fantasy VII.  Plenty of dances going on too (which I need to find the time to upload,  if I’m lucky enough to be busy).  And last, but not least, there’s a section of all mecha toys and models that I could finally find (YES!!!) in our local shores, ie no need for E-bay buying anymore for sure.   Apparently, NZ market is actually small so having a NZ as a young market for youth products like this is a foregone conclusion.  There’s still potential for this before we could rival our so-called “big brother” of the Oceania region and their much bigger show of anime. (see Youtube clip below).

At the end of the day, I did not go home empty-handed, for I certainly did make lot of purchases, if anything not overtly-exorbitant like buying myself a 1/1 Gundam model and put in my frontyard! I’m planning to post this on another page as there’s a lot of great material including magazine of Japan’s wonderful world of modelling hobby.

So stay tuned.

Source: AnimeCons.com