Continuing to highlight some older series anime watchers may have missed I give you Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase. If one were to try and fit this into a single genre it would be difficult to say the least. You have comedy, horror, action, magic, and drama all in one package. It is technically a vampire anime, but most of the vampires are not very traditional, but at least they don’t sparkle in the sun… Wait… Maybe one does. These vampires transform, perform magic, and… Wear masks??? Like I said… Not very traditional, but still quite interesting.

The show is centered around the main characters Hazuki and Kouhei. Hazuki is a young vampire girl who is being held captive by the rest of the vampires in order to protect the secret she possesses. Kouhei is a photographer from a family of psychics and magicians although he has no apparent special abilities himself. When the two meet at a haunted castle in Germany the fun begins.

The show was produced by Shaft, so you can expect their usual touches. These are typically things like stage props poking into the scene, cut away views of buildings, cardboard cutout looking background elements and characters, spontaneous chibi transformations, and plenty of wash pans falling from the sky. Honestly these are the things I like about Shaft, and why I seem to be drawn to shows like Negima!? and Pani Poni Dash. The most awkward feature of the show is the opening sequence. It has what I think is one of the oddest opening theme songs ever. “Neko Mimi Mode” created by Dimitri From Paris, and sung by Chiwa Saito (the voice actress for Hazuki). That and the opening animation itself is just seemingly a compilation of randomness. When asked about the opening the director Akiyuki Shinbo said that he was given several openings to choose from, and he chose the most outrageous one on purpose. Gotta love rebels.

The show itself is a roller coaster ride to be sure. It can go from deadly serious to absolute hilarity in the blink of an eye, so it can work on the nerves occasionally when a really creepy suspenseful scene ensues only to end in a rain of wash pans or some visual gag. But if you simply take the show for what it is and just don’t overly think about the contrasting elements it is a lot of fun. The show is very much inspired by the TV show The Drifters (similar to The Monkees in the U.S. or Monty Python in the U.K.).

Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase is available from Funimation in a DVD box set, and can be viewed for free streaming on Funimation’s video Portal as well as on Anime News Network and Hulu. All three sites have subbed and dubbed versions of all episodes, so everyone should be happy. One thing that I will mention is that this is one of the few shows (and I know I’m asking for it with this statement) where the English dub is actually better than the original Japanese. Funimation really went all out on this one, and I think Monica Rial really did an amazing  job voicing Hazuki.

So you have no reason now not to check this out. Besides… I get tired of people saying “WTF are you talking about” when I make Moon Phase references.

By the way… The original manga by Keitaro Arima is quite enjoyable as well.

There are a lot of views out there on the topics of anime and manga piracy these days, and just as with what I guess would be called “domestic” piracy there are are extremely polarized viewpoints on both sides. I like to think of myself as a middle ground type person. I kinda see the points of both sides, but the extreme viewpoints sometimes just leave me with nothing more than a nasty headache.

So I feel a lot of mixed emotion right now about certain events that caught my attention, and want to add my two cents into the mix. Unfortunately my long-winded-ness won’t allow this to fit into a 140 character Twitter post or even a dozen of them. The beginning of this article for me started with a post on Twitter which got my attention. Someone ratting out a manga scanlation site about having licensed material up. As I researched into the causes of the event I found some things which kind of knotted me up inside, but I decided to hold my tongue and go on with my life pretending to be blissfully unaware of the ridiculousness of what I saw. The second event was the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” for me, and has spawned my own entry into this foolish behavior, and yes I am aware of how foolish it all sounds to the average person. This second event is something that is still on going, and will be my first point of discussion.

Many may or may not be aware that several days ago Roger Ebert wrote an article reviewing The Miyazaki film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Included in his article was embedded the entire film streamed from Google Video. Now several sites immediately began to carry this story, and several advertised it as “Free and legal”. There were some however on Twitter who question the validity of that. I myself question whether it’s something Google actually has permission to stream or simply something they missed when cleaning up after they stopped allowing users to upload videos. The fact that the film as well as several other Miyazaki works were uploaded 2 to 3 years ago seems to support my second theory. Just something Google missed, and could easily be remedied by someone reporting the video to Google. They would probably have it down within the hour, but the way of the world is that people decided that they would rather grandstand and bring attention to themselves by sending out messages on Twitter about it (the one that got my attention has wasted a couple days posting on the subject now).

Now some may say… Well… Why don’t you report the video yourself instead of writing about it. I could even be accused of grandstanding myself. But the truth is… I am not going to report it because I simply don’t want to. I don’t have a problem with the video being there. Personally I watched Spirited Away for the first time on Youtube, and it only made me want to go out the next morning as soon as the video store opened to purchase the DVD and a few other Miyazaki DVDs as well. Aside from the fact that it’s blown way too out of proportion by now to matter much. One of the funnier aspects of the story is that Anime News Network contacted Walt Disney Pictures to confirm whether the stream was legal, and basically got a response from Disney saying it was none of their concern and ANN is now contacting Studio Ghibli (rather than simply diffusing the entire situation by contacting Google about it).

All this leads up to one of the points I’m trying desperately to make… The current state of fan subbing and anime piracy in the U.S. If you go back a few years you would find a point in time where fan subbing was not all that controversial, and was actually sort of a noble thing to participate in. The reason for this was simple… Most fansubbers were only subbing unlicensed material thus bringing works to the U.S. that would otherwise be unattainable by legal means (not to mention a fluent knowledge of the Japanese language). Even licensors have mentioned on occasion that they “used to” like fan subs. It didn’t interfere with their business and they sometimes used it as a gauge to figure out which shows were popular among fans thus giving them a means to research which titles would be worth seeking licenses for. Now I can’t say what the feelings of the original creators of these shows in Japan thought about all of this… To be honest it seems many were unaware that piracy was even occurring until very recently, and even then it’s a rather difficult process for  persons in one country to seek a lawsuit against persons in another country which is why most issues of anime piracy have stayed for the most part in the domain of licensed shows with the license companies policing the industry pretty much on their own.

These days things have changed… Now that licensing companies are streaming simulcast episodes of new shows themselves the fan sub community is looking more like a thorn in their side. Especially since the newer breed of fansubber doesn’t seem to care whether a show has been licensed in the U.S. or not. One thing that has obviously changed is the disappearance of the fansubber’s “code” At the beginning of episodes there was always a message that asked that the episode or series stop being distributed once it became licensed. Whether it actually happened or not at least they seemed to care back then.

Another thing that has changed recently is the birth of the “rippers” as they are called. These people pass themselves off as fan sub groups, but they don’t actually sub anything. They rip the streamed subbed video directly from websites such as Hulu, Funimation, The Anime Network, Crunchyroll, etc. Once they have the video they either upload it directly to the internet, or they will time the subs to a high quality Japanese broadcast rip of the episode and upload that. So in essence these days anyone with a little software knowledge can become a “fan sub” group without even the slightest knowledge of the Japanese language.

Now there are still quite a few real fan sub groups out there, but even they seem to have been poisoned by the attitudes of the piracy/anti-piracy groups and their viewpoints, and seemingly sub things just for the sake of annoying one group or the other. Some these days don’t even seem to care about the shows they are subbing as much as who will get upset that they are subbing a show in the first place.  Which is a rather amusing concept in itself that someone would put forth the effort of subbing a show just to spite others.

And now more on the first event which spawned this diatribe. (you didn’t actually think I was finally done rambling did you?) So I’m checking posts in Twitter and come across a post about a manga site that is uploading licensed manga to their site. At first I think well… Just another nosy person who can’t mind their own business. Out of curiosity I visited the site in question and found out this person was also trolling the site’s forum basically telling the site owner what can and can’t be on their site as if they had some ownership over the content. So while perusing the forum reading through this (rather annoying) busybody’s posts I found something that concerned me even more. Now I’ve never bothered with manga scanlations myself… I don’t have the time for that. Any manga I’ve read I purchase as something to read when I’m bored, so I’ve never had the desire to bother with scanlations.

What I started noticing was that these scanlators actually “demand” that a site gets their permission before they can upload a scanlation on a particular site. This strikes me as both audacious and plain and simple stupidity. These people are actually making demands about a product that they reproduced, translated, and distributed illegally. And they actually demand (or send their minions in their place) that sites take down works which they translated. I’m sorry, but I think it takes more balls than you’d find in a gay bath house to actually put limitations on something you did illegally in the first place.

Once I started seeing these things going on in the scanlation sites I start to understand why manga creators are lashing out at piracy, and even kind of understand why (one in particular) would wish cancer on those who pirate their works. It’s one thing to pirate material and distribute it, but it’s an entirely different matter when you start to treat another’s work as your own. I find that terribly insulting to the original artists.

So to sum up… You have the anti-piracy people being attention whores ratting out everyone on the internet… To other people on the internet rather than reporting it to the people who might actually do something about whatever they are whining about. Which frankly pisses me off a bit… This is exactly what is wrong with this country. You have a lot of people talking, but nobody actually putting forth an effort to do something even if it’s as simple as sending a message to the person who has your panties in a bunch. Instead of being pro-active I’ll just tell all my internet buddies about it so they will make a big stink that I can take all the credit for when someone actually does get around to fixing the problem. It reminds me of that commercial a few years back where a group of people stand around a piece of litter complaining about it rather than just picking it up and putting it in the trash.

On the other side you have the piracy folks who are getting sick of the anti-piracy people’s grandstanding… Their answer is to simply pirate more stuff and shove into the anti-piracy people’s faces… Even going to the extreme of pirating things that don’t even need to be pirated in the first place. Which is leading to more and more people on that side doing stupid things like showboating their activities, and basically downright insulting the original artists.

And then you have the creators and licensors trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on, and the typical reaction to confusion is to lash out at the first opportunity that arises. It makes me think of someone being told to clean up a house that is filled with trash from floor to ceiling and that person standing there trying to figure out where to start cleaning.

I’m getting a feeling lately that things are coming to a boiling point rapidly, and that something interesting is bound to come from all of this. At any rate the meltdowns on all sides should at least be fun to watch. Someone pass the popcorn.

So after listening to the full Mitsudomoe OP I realized it reminded me of something… Which lead me to do something completely un-original with it:

I felt like I missed out on the whole Caramelldansen thing, so there is my one contribution to the foolishness.

It was actually kinda fun and killed some time though.

Kotobukiya will release it’s Mina Tepes figure from Dance In The Vampire Bund in November of 2010. Most retailers are taking pre-orders at around about $105 USD.

They are cute… They are fuzzy… And they are deadly.

After seeing the trailer for this around a year ago I have been patiently waiting to see this series. Based on the manga of the same name this is a made for Youtube series.  Although those of us in the US will notice right away that the page is blocked here (I assume it is only available to those in Japan).

The original manga was based on the Vietnam war, but the adaptation has been based on the 1979-1981 Iran hostage crisis. The American soldiers are portrayed as rabbits which is a bit of a pun as the Japanese word for “rabbit” is usagi which in this case also stands as an abbreviation of US Army GI (USAGI). The Iranians are played by… What else??? Camels.

The lack of political correctness in this show is what makes it so amazingly awesome. The accuracy of the weapons is surprising as well. From the M-4 rifle right up to the Hind M-24 helicopter. I found it quite interesting just to check out the detail on the weapons. But then… Who doesn’t enjoy seeing cute bunnies firing RPGs?

While Pixar and Dreamworks won’t be shaking in their boots over this the computer animation is rather impressive, and the action is quite good. Of course there is already one aspect of the show that is creating an uproar online… For those that saw the trailer there was quite a bit of blood splattering about, but apparently in order to appease (Youtube I’m guessing) the blood has been cut out in the webcast. If that detracts from your enjoyment of this show then you are probably going to have to wait until it eventually gets released on DVD/Blu-ray.

It is uncertain as of now how many episodes or what the release schedule will be.

K-On’s new Ending credits are a Mio festival. She just looks too damn cute trying to thug out in her purple hoodie. It has kind of a vibe like The Ring to the whole ED. Pretty fun to watch. The song (No, Thank You) is pretty good too, and I think will give Don’t Say Lazy a run for it’s money. We also get to see a pony tailed Asuza in this one, but as with all the K-on EDs to date Mio definitely steals the spotlight.

The show also got a new opening, but… It’s kind of hyper fast forward chipmunk sounding Yui sort of like the first OP of season 2.

Here is the new ED http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-xNybD8kho&fmt=22

And the new OP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyOLb8D8ezI

Okay… I’ll admit it. This article is just to give me an excuse to post a massive gallery.

Well… Today I got a package from UPS containing my copy of CLANAAD DVD Complete Collection, and will share my thoughts.

First off is the packaging… Or lack of. The DVDs come in a standard stack pack case. For those that may not be familiar with this packaging it’s something that started appearing in ADV releases a few years back (my first experience with it was the Full Metal Panic - Heavy Metal Collection). It’s is basically a fat DVD case with all the discs stacked onto a single spindle. I guess getting the whole collection for $41 you shouldn’t expect much, but still… People… I (and I bet most others) would be willing to pay an extra $5-$10 for the older style thinpack box sets. Even Funimation has their cardboard fold out cases to cut the costs on box sets, and while cheesy they at least still look cool. I can see now why many who bought the original sub only release have opted to simply swap the discs out with the new one while keeping the old packaging. I just never liked the stack packs even back when they began using them for PC games. The discs are hard to get out, and sometimes I almost feel they will break.

Getting to the picture quality… It’s actually not too bad. Of course I am used to watching CLANAAD from 720p broadcast rips, so I expected there to be some loss in quality, but there really wasn’t much other than a few noticeable jaggies here and there. Maybe on a 1080p screen it would be more noticeable.

Also for those that saw the original US release and have been wondering… Yes the horrid yellow on black 80s style computer font is still there for the subtitles. Of course I’m more surprised that people expected that to be changed. US licensing companies typically use fonts like this for all subs, but now some fans are getting hooked on the cute fonts and fancy karaoke effects that fan subbers enjoy using so much that I guess it’s a shock to see the standard US release subs.

Finally… The whole reason I bought this particular release… The English dub. I don’t mind watching it subbed… Over and over and over… But I have always been curious as to how an English dub would be, so I refused to buy this show until one was added. I can say that I’m not disappointed… As with all dubs it takes a little watching to get used to it if you have already seen it subbed. They pretty much seem to be following the original dialog with only a few bits here and there that are completely different, and I am also glad to see that they stuck with the Japanese name etiquette (calling someone by first name only to those you are close to) as it was part of the original sub plot, and would have changed the story a bit if they had switched to first names from the start.

 Now I’ve only just started watching this, but there have been some things that I’m rather surprised by. First off… Luci Christian voicing Nagisa. While she is one of my favorite voice actors I am generally used to her playing loud or goofy roles. At first I couldn’t imagine her in the role of Nagisa. While it does take a bit of getting used to she does seem to pull off the role, but I keep expecting a loud outburst to come at anytime. For those that read the other story about the CLANAAD release a few months back you may remember that I suggested Robin Williams for the role of Akio… Now of course I knew that was beyond any reasonable expectation, but I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone else pulling that character off. That said Andrew Love does a respectable job in what I’ve seen so far. For those that may not be familiar with him he played the Alien Captain in the English dub of Pani Poni Dash among other roles (in shows that I have yet to watch unfortunately). Sunohara is played by Greg Ayers, and really what else is there to say… I haven’t seen a character played by him that I’ve ever complained about. Hilary Haag as Fuko is brilliant. She’s a voice actor that doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as she was a few years ago, and she has such a cool voice that I was elated to find out she was going to be Fuko.

All in all I am pretty pleased (other than the packaging) with this release, and hopefully they will have After Story dubbed this year as well.

Funimation has unloaded both barrels on the Anime Expo with a plethora of announcements. The following is a list of titles based on Funimation’s Twitter posts during the panel.

• Shiki
• Black Butler Season 2
• Sekirei Season 2
• Legend of Legendary Heroes
• Sengoku Basara Season 2
• Darker than Black Season 2
• Black Lagoon Third Series
• Trigun: Badlands Rumble
• A Certain Magical Index
• A Certain Scientific Railgun

I think the highlights are obviously that they picked up both Railgun and Index, and I think the surprise of the day was what they didn’t get. Since Geneon announced the US release of High School of The Dead today, and Geneon has pretty much lived with Funimation for the last couple years it seemed a certainty that they would get that license, but surprisingly Sentai Filmworks announced it at their panel earlier today.

Funimation did also announce a nice haul of Geneon titles as well:

• Texhnolyze
• Ai Yori Aoshi
• Armitage III
• Haibane Renmei
• Hellsing (TV)
• Serial Experiments Lain
• Tenchi in Tokyo
• Tenchi Universe
• Tenchi Muyo! OVAs
• Tenchi Muyo! movies

I can only think that the words of Tom Hanks in the film Apollo 13 fit this situation nicely… “And that gentlemen… Is how we do that.”

And what else can you say?

While I couldn’t go to the Anime Expo I have been gleaning as much info as I can find from the relative safety of my secret base.

Bandai Entertainment had their panel yesterday, and had several announcements and tidbits of info.

Most of their announcements were just things most people already know about. The more interesting bits are regarding the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise. Bandai has announced that they will be releasing The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 in August 2010. And I’m sure the fans are happy to hear that it will be released as a complete set… Which is the rather obvious choice since most fans in the US have pretty much made it clear that they would not buy singles due to the Endless Eight episodes. The original English voice cast has returned for the dub.

It was announced that after the sell out of the San Fransisco screening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya that it will receive more screenings in Hawaii… I guess if you happen to be going there you may be able to check it out. No other US screenings have been announced at this time.

And there was also an announcement that the Haruhi Suzumiya-Chan and Nyron Churuya-San shorts will be released on DVD dubbed in English by the Haruhi cast.

And the big news from the Bandai panel was the announcement that they have acquired the license for the first season of K-On! as well as introducing the English dub cast. Christina Vee will play Mio, Stephanie Sheh will play Yui, “Kix” will play Mugi, and “Briana” playing Ritsu… Kix and Briana??? No last names??? C’mon… This isn’t the 80s, and you aren’t Prince. No word on who will play Azusa yet that I’m aware of.

Bandai will be streaming a series of promotional live-action videos on their web site for K-On! starring the voice actors similar to the ASOS Brigade videos they did for Haruhi.

Bandai Entertainment’s president Ken Iyadomi apparently wants to encourage more fans to buy DVDs… Well… Release more. I mean if you go to the typical store Bandai’s shelf presence is rather minimal with Funimation and Section 23/Sentai/ADV taking the most space. I remember the nightmare I had trying to find the Lucky Star DVDs as they released. Even if it’s older stuff you guys really need to just get more in the stores. It’s kind of sad that I can go to my local Best Buy and see more ADV logos even a year after the label became defunct than Bandai titles.

The Kiss X Sis TV series which broadcast during the 2010 Spring anime season was quite bold, offensive, inappropriate, and just downright hilarious. Most people by now should be familiar with the manga series and the OVAs this show is based on, so to keep the story short…

Keita Suminoe is a middle school student in a curious situation. He has twin step sisters Ako and Riko who are completely infatuated with him. The sisters are a year older than him, and the storyline of the TV series is about how Keita is trying to study so that he can pass the entrance exam and be accepted into the same high school his sisters attend. Basically continuing right where the first 3 OVAs left off.

While the OVAs mostly dealt with how Keita related to his sisters the TV series goes a little more towards a harem setting by introducing several new female characters to add even more mayhem to the already outrageous circumstances. Included are: Mikazuki Kiryū who is a loli-ish underclassman at Keita’s school, Yuzuki Kiryū who is Mikazuki’s older sister as well as Ako and Riko’s high school home room teacher, and finally another of Keita’s school mates Mikuni Miharu who seems to have a bladder control issue (to a hilarious although sometimes gag inducing extent).

The show was quite a bit bolder than I expected from a broadcast, and aside from the blatant censoring (which involved the strategic placement of chickens and teddy bears) the show was not any less steamy that the OVAs were. It seemed that each week the show attempted to top the previous episodes outrageousness (to good effect I might add). The show definitely pushed limits of comedy as well as bad taste. There is also an OVA that was released during the series which fits between episode 9 and 10 which takes us out of the realm of implied incest between non blood related siblings to actual yuri incest between the sisters. I hope readers will take that last line as either: a spoiler, a warning, or a reason to watch… I leave it up to you to choose which.

While I will say that the show is not exactly the most well made show it does keep you coming back just to find out what insane thing will happen next. If you are a fan of this type of comedy (I guess the term “potty humor” fits) then you will definitely enjoy the show. Someone more conservative may just find it offensive. Personally I found it all quite hilarious. I admit in real life most of the things in this show would disgust me, but hey… It’s just animation, and being politically correct all the time is quite boring.

There is also a 5th OVA scheduled for September (if I remember correctly), and it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll be watching… If for no other reason than just to see how far they are willing to stretch the limits in this series.