In my continuing series of approving and disapproving of the job North American companies are doing, I am looking at two companies in this one. Both are relatively small when it comes to the shows in their respective catalogs. Today I am giving a strong vote of confidence to both Nozomi Entertainment and Aniplex of America. One company I have admired for many years and the other has left a great first and second impression on me.
The first company is Nozomi Entertainment, who has released amazing shows like the MariMite, Aria franchises and released other shows like Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Dirty Pair, Emma, and Gravitation. Upcoming titles include Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sora no Woto. The company is number one when it comes to quality, service and public relations. They earned the position through hard work and guts.
I have always been a rampant fanboy of Nozomi Entertainment. They have a great taste in titles that I do not mind blind buying from them. They have not failed me once and I do not see that ever changing. I may not be interested in Sora no Woto but I am buying Utena. I look forward to what Nozomi has on the docket in 2012. It should be pretty amazing and I simply cannot wait!
The second company is Aniplex of America, who has with quality and almost exact replicas of the Japanese releases even in terms of audio and video quality, has accelerated to a vote of confidence with ease. They have released shows like Durarara!! and the Gurren Lagann films on DVD, The Garden of Sinners, R.O.D. TV and Baccano! on blu-ray. While i have not always bought from them, what I do own is exceptional in quality and worth continuing to support when possible and when they release something I truly desire.
The only releases I own are the two regular edition Gurren Lagann movies and the Baccano! blu-ray box set from Aniplex of America. Both are superb quality through and through. I do not regret the purchases a single bit. I only wish I could have bought the Garden of Sinners blu-ray but the lack of OSTs made it a deal breaker. It could have been easily justifiable there. I shall hold out hope that a DVD release is forthcoming and they will include the OSTs. As for not purchasing R.O.D. TV and Durarara!!, well, I like my Geneon DVDs just fine and I did not care for the last third of Durarara.
There you have it, two companies I put a lot of faith in and give them a vote of confidence. Keep doing a great job and you will keep my vote and my wallet without fail. I certainly do not mind being broke to pay for quality in virtually every area and imported/authentic Japanese releases. Give yourselves a pat on the back because you got my vote of confidence! Thanks for reading and keep checking back for my next post in the series. It will be coming in the next two weeks.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
A Vote of No Confidence: Bandai Entertainment
In my continuing series of how much confidence I have in the North American series, let us look at the past few years of the Gundam-centric Bandai Entertainment USA. I will say right off the bat that I have no confidence anymore in them as a company. They have, in the past several years, let down both loyal and new fans. I was a diehard Bandai Entertainment supporter since their founding, but I cannot say that right now in the year 2011. I had faith that they would get their act together in 2010 but it seems I misplaced my faith in them.
In 2010, they had nothing but delays but I accepted these delays in exchange for working discs and work they did. However, as time went on, I began to tire of the constant delays. I knew better, saying and reminding myself that everything will be okay. They were fairly quiet for much of 2010 until the summer conventions of San Diego Comic-Con, AnimeExpo and Otakon followed by New York Comic-Con/Anime Fest later that year. I was sure 2011 was going to be a great year!
How could I have been so foolish and so naive? They have gotten worse, their output is much less than it used to be, they do not communicate well with the fandom and let's face it their online store is one big disaster. They failed to communicate that K-ON! would have lossy, non-HD audio. I am convinced they don't know what they are doing. Haruhi Second Series and the Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san discs were Japanese mono. That's inexcusable. Thankfully, they have apparently fixed the issue but it took them months to respond.
I fear for Bandai Entertainment's future, with Star Driver, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Turn-A Gundam and the bilingual original Gundam coming down the pipe, I can only cower in fear as to how badly crapped up these releases will be. They manage to screw up television series when it comes blu-rays, but not movies so maybe the biggest release of the year, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, will have a top tier presentation.
They could be doing much worse, but they are getting down to the bottom of the barrel. At this time, I give Bandai Entertainment a vote of no confidence. I don't see that changing anytime soon either, I may add. I am very disappointed in the company who got me more involved into anime than anyone else. I take that back, I am not disappointed - I am saddened and stricken with grief.
In 2010, they had nothing but delays but I accepted these delays in exchange for working discs and work they did. However, as time went on, I began to tire of the constant delays. I knew better, saying and reminding myself that everything will be okay. They were fairly quiet for much of 2010 until the summer conventions of San Diego Comic-Con, AnimeExpo and Otakon followed by New York Comic-Con/Anime Fest later that year. I was sure 2011 was going to be a great year!
How could I have been so foolish and so naive? They have gotten worse, their output is much less than it used to be, they do not communicate well with the fandom and let's face it their online store is one big disaster. They failed to communicate that K-ON! would have lossy, non-HD audio. I am convinced they don't know what they are doing. Haruhi Second Series and the Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san discs were Japanese mono. That's inexcusable. Thankfully, they have apparently fixed the issue but it took them months to respond.
I fear for Bandai Entertainment's future, with Star Driver, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Turn-A Gundam and the bilingual original Gundam coming down the pipe, I can only cower in fear as to how badly crapped up these releases will be. They manage to screw up television series when it comes blu-rays, but not movies so maybe the biggest release of the year, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, will have a top tier presentation.
They could be doing much worse, but they are getting down to the bottom of the barrel. At this time, I give Bandai Entertainment a vote of no confidence. I don't see that changing anytime soon either, I may add. I am very disappointed in the company who got me more involved into anime than anyone else. I take that back, I am not disappointed - I am saddened and stricken with grief.
Monday, April 18, 2011
A Vote of Confidence: NIS America.
I will be the first to admit NIS America's anime releases had me hesitating but until now, they had not licensed a show I wanted Well, it looks like that has changed with them releasing Katanagatari and Arakawa Under The Bridge on July 5th in glorious DVD/Blu-Ray combo packs at $69.99 suggested retail price. I am then faced with the question: what should I do? I never had much confidence in them following their continued messes but I had an ephihany if you will. They really are not that bad at all.
In retrospect, I have some confidence in them. Toradora/Persona -ts- Part 1's had bad video discs and they fixed it free of charge, no hassle. If you got scratched up discs, they replaced them again free with no hassle at all. Part 2's for each series were perfect in every way. They can put out a perfect and capable product. That much has been proven.
Then we have the second slate of titles with Our Home's Fox Deity and Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts was a show with heavy grain and was animated in dark setting or tone. What NIS or whoever was over production aspect in the quality control, lightened the picture through filters. There was never a replacement or change to this, but this is the only legitimate mark I can give them on their record.
Moving onto Our Home's Fox Deity, the first set had zero problems and was perfect. The second set had no problems with the DVDs themselves - it was just the hard case, which really is not a big problem, just a moderate to small and easy to fix problem. After all, you pay $40-50 for this set and you want what you paid for. I cannot really mark them off for a bad case as the DVDs and content were still in great shape. They have since worked on fixing the problem.
Then we have Wagnaria, it seems to be select players with playability problems. It seems highly likely it is the same anti-piracy software that Geneon, Bandai and sometimes even Funimation has used it. It causes slight pauses to sometimes just total problems. It's an inconvenience but a very easy fix and I expect they will issue replacement plan soon. There was also the note of video color drop in one episode but it was only for five minutes and the rest of the disc was perfectly fine.
Now taking all this into account, NIS America may have a spotty record but they have been extremely good to people and have gone well out of their way to gain trust and consumers back. They are going to great lengths to make us feel comfortable buying from them. I do not see much reason to avoid their releases as even if something is wrong, they have proven they will do what they can to fix what is wrong.
I will be pre-ordering Arakawa Under The Bridge and Katanagatari in the hopes they use the last few and next few months ahead to perfect these releases and put out an outstanding product. I am hopeful that the DVDs will be great and the blu-rays will be even greater. My pre-order and following money symbolizes more than a vote for more anime from NIS America, it will be my vote of confidence to them as a company.
In retrospect, I have some confidence in them. Toradora/Persona -ts- Part 1's had bad video discs and they fixed it free of charge, no hassle. If you got scratched up discs, they replaced them again free with no hassle at all. Part 2's for each series were perfect in every way. They can put out a perfect and capable product. That much has been proven.
Then we have the second slate of titles with Our Home's Fox Deity and Pandora Hearts. Pandora Hearts was a show with heavy grain and was animated in dark setting or tone. What NIS or whoever was over production aspect in the quality control, lightened the picture through filters. There was never a replacement or change to this, but this is the only legitimate mark I can give them on their record.
Moving onto Our Home's Fox Deity, the first set had zero problems and was perfect. The second set had no problems with the DVDs themselves - it was just the hard case, which really is not a big problem, just a moderate to small and easy to fix problem. After all, you pay $40-50 for this set and you want what you paid for. I cannot really mark them off for a bad case as the DVDs and content were still in great shape. They have since worked on fixing the problem.
Then we have Wagnaria, it seems to be select players with playability problems. It seems highly likely it is the same anti-piracy software that Geneon, Bandai and sometimes even Funimation has used it. It causes slight pauses to sometimes just total problems. It's an inconvenience but a very easy fix and I expect they will issue replacement plan soon. There was also the note of video color drop in one episode but it was only for five minutes and the rest of the disc was perfectly fine.
Now taking all this into account, NIS America may have a spotty record but they have been extremely good to people and have gone well out of their way to gain trust and consumers back. They are going to great lengths to make us feel comfortable buying from them. I do not see much reason to avoid their releases as even if something is wrong, they have proven they will do what they can to fix what is wrong.
I will be pre-ordering Arakawa Under The Bridge and Katanagatari in the hopes they use the last few and next few months ahead to perfect these releases and put out an outstanding product. I am hopeful that the DVDs will be great and the blu-rays will be even greater. My pre-order and following money symbolizes more than a vote for more anime from NIS America, it will be my vote of confidence to them as a company.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
2011: The Year My Interest in Anime (Pretty Much) Died.
Taking on a new hobby is easy, but leaving another is harder than you can possibly imagine. This has become a long film to watch as my interest in anime has died over the course of the last three to four months. Every day for the last few months, I have begun to question and contemplate what type of future I will have with anime and the answer has been clear. It did not hit me until earlier this past week that I simply do not care for anime anymore. There are still a few select series and films I will buy, but otherwise my interest no longer exists in the bigger picture.
This has begun to show in my monetary budgets for the month. I find that my monthly anime DVD/Blu-ray budget is slowly withering away bit by bit. That is coupled by the fact that nothing I really want is coming out on DVD or Blu-ray. My tastes have become so, for the lack of a better term, sophisticated. I am not seeing much for the next several months that are "gotta have'ems" and that in and of itself is troubling to see. It appears that will be an average of one to two anime releases a month I will be buying. That is down radically from five to six last year. That is a considerable and problematic drop in percentage.
It has also begun to show as lack of interest of watching newer shows and supporting them legally or watching them through not as legal means. I find myself simply not caring to watch shows I was once excited and ecstatic for, such as Fractale, Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It has gotten to the point that I do not care. Troubling but nothing particularly new actually as I have always been partial to waiting for DVD or now Blu-ray releases of anime. I am going to experiment with the Spring season by not trying any shows and just wait to see what gets good reviews or press and all that jazz. In retrospect, I do not really need legal streaming or fansubs and fully intend to implement this experiment for the coming season ahead.
My interest in anime has been declining for the last year for another reason too. That reason is, as I hinted at in the second paragraph, lack of anime that appeals to me coming out here domestically and in Japan. I am averaging one to three shows a season which comes to four to 12 shows a year. That is not a good sign at all but I think you get the picture. Perhaps my standards are ridiculously high, but so be it. Japan has once appealed to my tastes before (2000-2003 are good places to look) so why not again? Those years were fantastic with 15-20 shows each I want to own or already own.
My interest in anime is fading and bleeding out without much to help it stop. Will 2011 be the year that my interest in anime dies? People do change as they grow older and perhaps this is a case of that. I just never imagined my time would come so soon. I thought I had a good ten more years. Ah well, I will try my experiment to see how it helps. Sure it means I will not be current with things, but if it can save my interest and fandom, it is worth a shot. I have tried just about everything else.
What say you? Chime in!
This has begun to show in my monetary budgets for the month. I find that my monthly anime DVD/Blu-ray budget is slowly withering away bit by bit. That is coupled by the fact that nothing I really want is coming out on DVD or Blu-ray. My tastes have become so, for the lack of a better term, sophisticated. I am not seeing much for the next several months that are "gotta have'ems" and that in and of itself is troubling to see. It appears that will be an average of one to two anime releases a month I will be buying. That is down radically from five to six last year. That is a considerable and problematic drop in percentage.
It has also begun to show as lack of interest of watching newer shows and supporting them legally or watching them through not as legal means. I find myself simply not caring to watch shows I was once excited and ecstatic for, such as Fractale, Hourou Musuko/Wandering Son and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It has gotten to the point that I do not care. Troubling but nothing particularly new actually as I have always been partial to waiting for DVD or now Blu-ray releases of anime. I am going to experiment with the Spring season by not trying any shows and just wait to see what gets good reviews or press and all that jazz. In retrospect, I do not really need legal streaming or fansubs and fully intend to implement this experiment for the coming season ahead.
My interest in anime has been declining for the last year for another reason too. That reason is, as I hinted at in the second paragraph, lack of anime that appeals to me coming out here domestically and in Japan. I am averaging one to three shows a season which comes to four to 12 shows a year. That is not a good sign at all but I think you get the picture. Perhaps my standards are ridiculously high, but so be it. Japan has once appealed to my tastes before (2000-2003 are good places to look) so why not again? Those years were fantastic with 15-20 shows each I want to own or already own.
My interest in anime is fading and bleeding out without much to help it stop. Will 2011 be the year that my interest in anime dies? People do change as they grow older and perhaps this is a case of that. I just never imagined my time would come so soon. I thought I had a good ten more years. Ah well, I will try my experiment to see how it helps. Sure it means I will not be current with things, but if it can save my interest and fandom, it is worth a shot. I have tried just about everything else.
What say you? Chime in!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Several Notes: Disaster, Reviews and the Future of The Golden Waste...
First Note:
Yes, it is true. I write anime reviews. Although there are no recent ones due to my health problems. I have not moved into manga reviews for the simple fact that it is difficult for me to convey the proper words about certain manga series plus there is the fact I simply do not read much much manga. Anyway, you can find a list of reviews I have done at Anime-Planet under the official/my account. Here is a list. TheGoldenWaste's Anime Reviews via Anime-Planet.
Second Note:
As most of the internet knows by now, there was catastrophic earthquake-tsunami in Japan almost a week ago. Thousands are dead, injured and missing. Donations have not been stellar for the pivotal first four days compared to other natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast of the United States or Haitian earthquake. I urge everyone to donate to Doctor's Without Borders. I have continually donated to them in the past and they are a superb charity through and through. Here is a really good fundraising effort set up by All About Manga's Daniella Orihuela-Gruber (her website is allaboutmanga.net); Anime and Manga Bloggers for Doctor's Without Borders. Please help out Japan, they need it.
Third and Final Note:
Due to uncertain health issues, I may not be blogging much anymore. I will continue to be on Twitter, Anime-Planet (I will be rolling out more reviews soon I hope!) and I will still be open to pod casts (although I am shy as hell) so no worries I will still be around and as active as ever. I simply do not have much time for it anymore with my health in doubt and so many other factors which include my general declining interest in anime and manga. I will keep the blog open and continue to update my purchasing and favorite list pages. Beyond that, no plans for anything complex or complicated.
Thanks for reading!
Yes, it is true. I write anime reviews. Although there are no recent ones due to my health problems. I have not moved into manga reviews for the simple fact that it is difficult for me to convey the proper words about certain manga series plus there is the fact I simply do not read much much manga. Anyway, you can find a list of reviews I have done at Anime-Planet under the official/my account. Here is a list. TheGoldenWaste's Anime Reviews via Anime-Planet.
Second Note:
As most of the internet knows by now, there was catastrophic earthquake-tsunami in Japan almost a week ago. Thousands are dead, injured and missing. Donations have not been stellar for the pivotal first four days compared to other natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast of the United States or Haitian earthquake. I urge everyone to donate to Doctor's Without Borders. I have continually donated to them in the past and they are a superb charity through and through. Here is a really good fundraising effort set up by All About Manga's Daniella Orihuela-Gruber (her website is allaboutmanga.net); Anime and Manga Bloggers for Doctor's Without Borders. Please help out Japan, they need it.
Third and Final Note:
Due to uncertain health issues, I may not be blogging much anymore. I will continue to be on Twitter, Anime-Planet (I will be rolling out more reviews soon I hope!) and I will still be open to pod casts (although I am shy as hell) so no worries I will still be around and as active as ever. I simply do not have much time for it anymore with my health in doubt and so many other factors which include my general declining interest in anime and manga. I will keep the blog open and continue to update my purchasing and favorite list pages. Beyond that, no plans for anything complex or complicated.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Early Impressions: The Winter 2011 Anime Season
First off, let's start with the things I dropped after one episode or just didn't watch period. This list is huge because let's face it and not beat around the bush - I'm a pretty picky person. This applies to everything in my life really. Anyways, here's what has failed to get my interest or I'm not watching period because of some reason or another.
*.) Infinite Stratos
Slightly interesting mecha battle turns into high school hi-jinx. That's wasted potential right there.
*.) Freezing
Eh, I don't like fanservice anime. That's pretty much what this is and it is dropped.
*.) OnoKoto
Incest anime. No.
*.) Dragon Crisis!
Rie Kugimiya voicing a tsundere girl and the boy character's name is Ryuji. WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS?
*.) Kimi ni Todoke Season Two
Never finished the first season and have no will or drive to do so. Sorry about that Sawako.
*.) Cardfight!! Vanguard
Eww, another card game anime. Doesn't Japan have enough of them already?
*.) Wolverine
I wasn't impressed with Iron Man, so I don't bother with this crap anymore.
*.) Rio - Rainbow Gate
Not going to touch this one with a ten foot pole. Looks, sounds and has been panned awful by almost everyone.
*.) Mitsudomoe Season Two
Never watched the first season.
Moving on to better news, here's the stuff I liked after the first episode and have deemed them worthy of a second episode. Now, they may totally fall flat and end up getting dropped, but they met the expectations I had for them. They can survive, but only if they get better in the second episode. It's tough to get out of this category once a series is in it. Let the best, oh second episode and so on, win.
8.) Beelzebub
It can either get really generic and become stale really quickly, or it can continue to be most fun and interesting. It's a shounen series, so I don't see it going very far. I fully expect it won't survive. It'd be nice if it did though. Did I mention how freakin' cute the interactions between Oga and Beel are? HNNNG.
7.) Yumekui Merry
The "so bad that its good" show of the season. I could only laugh at how ridiculous the thing was. That's all I could do the whole time. The opening and ending songs were nice and competent. Designs were just, ugh, generic in every way. I don't see it going much further. Merry is cute though, don't get me wrong.
6.) Gosick
The pacing problem was glaringly evident and Victorique is pretty annoying sometimes. The first mystery was just plain boring. Although I'm interested to see where it goes, this series is on borrowed time. It was one of the "core four" of my most anticipated, so naturally I'm quite disappointed with BONES here.
The following below are pretty safe as well and have bought themselves even more time as the first episode really wowed me and went above and beyond my expectations. I'm willing to give them a chance until the end, unless they royally screw up in later episodes, which has been proven to happen.
5.) Level E
It looks to be going into interesting territory. It had me engaged and enthralled for the entire episode. I couldn't take a break or anything, it was just spectacular. I really felt Men in Black vibes from the entire show, even the opening animation and song felt MiB to me.
4.) Kore wa Zombie desu ka?
The "sleeper" of the season as far as I'm concerned. I was laughing the entire time. Aikawa and his mannerisms and fantasies were easily the most entertaining portions and if they keep these elements fresh, it could be a real treat and heck, even a dark horse to win the season.
Last but certaintly not least, the top three shows this season. These shows had enormous expectations going into it and they managed to meet or beat those expectations. These shows are not exceptions either, they can just as easily fall into another tier. No series is safe from this scale. Not even the noitaminA series, which I have dropped before.
3.) Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Whoa. This has some potential to be a really dark magical girl series. Not to mention being absolutely gorgeous, but thats SHAFT and Shinbo for you. Music was pretty solid, the sniplets of the ending song were fantastic. The fights, wow, the fights. Spectacular stuff right there. Again, as usual from SHAFT-Shinbo.
2.) Wandering Son
A surprising upset. I was fully expecting this to be at the top of Winter, still time for such to occur but seems unlikely after a strong first episode from Fractale. Anyways, best animation of the season. Hands down. It reminds me a lot of Makoto Shinkai's works, from the animation to the general atmosphere. That's an excellent thing, by the way. It looks like a show that will merit constant rewatching.
1.) Fractale
Last but certaintly not least, the winner of the beginning of the Winter anime season - Fractale! From the beautiful opening song, to the interesting doppels running around to the trio of bumbling villains to the gorgeous ending song. It looks to be a real contender for best Winter series. It oozes originality in every corner of it. It felt very Ghibli to me in some aspects, which is certainly a positive thing. I am very interested to see where it goes from here. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous. It's every reason why I love anime.
That does it for now, I'll be posting again in mid-season to see where everything stands. It should be quite interesting to see where everything will be five or six weeks from now, don't you agree?
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