Category: anime

I watched the last two DVD volumes (V6 and V7) of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2nd Gig) yesterday. I’d watched the earlier episodes on Cartoon Network a year or so back, but somehow I missed the last 5 or 6 episodes, so I picked up the DVDs. This is a pretty dense series. The episodes on V6, in particular, have a whole lot of exposition going on. The action ramps up in V7, and the series does indeed end with a bang, but there’s quite a lot going on beneath the surface.

One nice extra on the DVDs that was cut out of the CN showings is “Tachikomatic Days,” a bunch of funny little shorts that are stuck at the end of each episode. They’re almost funny enough to make me want to pick up the earlier DVDs just for these bits. (Maybe if I see the DVDs on sale cheap at some point.)

There seems to be a movie out that’s basically cut together from the 2nd Gig series. This guy has a review up, as does DVD Verdict. I’ll have to watch for this, if it shows up on CN or maybe Starz, though it sounds like it doesn’t contain anything that isn’t already in the series.

There’s a bit of a preview of the new PiQ magazine here. I mentioned this a little while ago — Newtype USA is basically being relaunched as “PiQ.” It sounds like it will be a more general “geek culture” magazine, with a smaller size and page count than Newtype, and a lower price. (And no bundled DVDs. Darn.) There’s one sentence in this preview that makes me a bit pessimistic about PiQ: “Essentially, the otherworldy Japanese ‘object’ that was Newtype USA is gone, to be replaced by something that very-much resembles Wizard in size… and in tone.” Um, that doesn’t sound good.

Right Stuf is having a blowout sale on ADV DVDs. They did this with Geneon a little over a year ago, and I would up buying a bunch of DVDs. I think I can manage to avoid buying 25 ADV DVDs. Most of the stuff from them that I like, I already have. I might go with the 10 for $50 deal though. There are a few things I wouldn’t mind paying $5 each for…

I let my subscription to Newtype expire about a year ago, but that was just because I was falling so far behind with my reading. It was a pretty cool magazine, with some great graphics. And I liked the job Gary Steinman was doing as editor. I can’t say that I always trusted the reviews, but the magazine wasn’t merely an ADV house organ or anything like that. Hopefully the replacement magazine they mention will be as good as Newtype!

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The NY Times had a review of Satoshi Kon’s new movie Paprika in Friday’s paper. It’s a fairly positive and reasonably well-informed review. Of course, regardless of any reviews, I’d still be dead set on getting out and seeing it ASAP, since Kon is my very favorite anime director right now.

As usual, this movie is only playing in NYC, and not anywhere in NJ, as far as I can tell. I caught a cold after going in to the city to see Once this past weekend, so I’m kind of hesitant to go back in and expose myself to all those big-city germs again any time soon. Oh well, maybe if I just take a megadose of Vitamin C, and avoid touching anything, I can get through it without picking up anything nasty!

Today, I finished watching the last few episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist that were on my TiVo. I’ve been working my way through the 51 episodes of the series on and off through most of this year. It was, apparently, a hugely popular series in Japan. It’s definitely worth watching, if you’ve got the time to sit through all 51 episodes. It’s got a lot of light moments, but also a lot of heavy ones. It’s got complex characters and complex themes. The ending is satisfying, but it doesn’t tie things up in a neat bow; it leaves you with a lot to think about.

After buying 25 anime DVDs from Right Stuf’s Geneon sale a few weeks ago, I went back and bought another 10. They just showed up in the mail, so I now have a pile of 35 anime DVDs to watch. Between the stuff I just bought, plus some stuff I already had in my pile, I now have complete sets of:

• Last Exile
• Paranoia Agent
• Ikki Tousen
• Stellvia
• Master Keaton
• Popotan
• Captain Herlock
• Burn-Up Scramble
• Big O

…all waiting for me to find the time to sit down and watch them! I suppose I should declare a moratorium on new DVD purchases until I put a dent in the pile. (Actually, I have watched most of the Master Keaton DVDs already, and some of the Paranoia Agent and Stellvia episodes.)

I just found out that Satoshi Kon’s new film Paprika is playing at The New York Film Festival today at 12:30. If I hopped on the next train to NY, I could maybe get there on time, but it looks like I probably wouldn’t be able to get a ticket, and I’m in the middle of doing laundry anyway. Oh well. I hope I get another chance to see it on a big screen at some point. I’ve seen all his other films in actual movie theaters, and I’d like to see this one in a theater too.

I’ve been thinking for some time that (legal) digital downloads of anime would be a great idea. The episodes are relatively short, and there are lots of them. There’s a relatively small but very dedicated fanbase. Animation compresses well, compared to live-action. It just seems to me that anime is a much better fit for the iTunes treatment than most of the stuff that’s already up there on the iTunes store. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any sign that Apple is interested in this.

ADV has just opened their own store for digital downloads. I’m a bit disappointed in their model though. They’re charging $5 per episode, which seems a bit high; I think $2 or $3 would make more sense. They’re using Windows DRM, too, so you can’t play the files on a Mac. Nor can you burn them to (watchable) DVDs.

I guess I’ll stick with watching whatever shows up on Cartoon Network, and buying the occasional DVD.

Right Stuf International has a bunch of Geneon DVDs on sale, 10 for $50 or 25 for $100. I have to admit I got sucked in on the latter deal. They had a bunch of stuff listed that I’ve been meaning to pick up, plus some stuff I was just curious about. I should be buried in anime DVDs in a week or two. Anything I don’t like can get traded off on Peerflix.

I was browsing through AMVs on Google Video today and found this FLCL AMV to the tune of “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus. I’d forgotten how much I like that song.