Summer is the time for anime conventions and a time when companies usually like to announce as many licenses as possible. AnimeExpo was this weekend. Here’s what we’ve got.

FUNimation:

Trigun: Badlands Rumble (Movie)
Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail (OVA series)
Toaru Majutsu no Index
Toaru Majutsu no Railgun
Hellsing Ultimate (continuation, 4-7)
Darker than Black 2
Shana 2

FUNi-Simulcasts:

Sekerei 2
Sengoku Basara 2
Kuroshitsuji 2
Moyashimon drama
Shiki
Legend of the Legendary Heroes

FUNi – Geneon recoveries:

Hellsing TV
Serial Experiments Lain
Texhnolyze
Ai Yori Aoshi
Lots of Tenchi stuff
Armitage III
Haibane Renmei

Bandai:

K-On!

Sentai/AnimeNetwork

Highschool of the Dead + simulcast

Nozomi:

So-Ra-No-Wo-To
Revolutionary Girl Utena (rescued from CPM)

Viz:

Nurarihyon no Mago

——-

So let’s see. I almost called all those simulcasts. LotLH was a bit of a surprise, but the rest of the FUNi simulcasts were almost a given as I had recently posted. Highschool of the Dead was also an easy pick to see done by Sentai/AnimeNetwork.

I have quite a bit on K-On. Yes, it’s definitely a title Bandai would get, sure. But I see this as Bandai’s final stand. If K-On fails them like Haruhi and Lucky Star did, Bandai USA/Ent is out of the anime market. They had to pay quite a bit of money to get the license for that title, and since they have already been failing in the past year, I don’t see how they could manage to stay open any longer if K-On does not bring in some money for them. Sure, it has a large fanbase, but so did Haruhi and Lucky Star. The problem is, that fanbase is fanbase who uses the internet for their pleasure — to hell that they’ll actually buy DVDs. That’s the problem I see that lies ahead for Bandai.

I’m really surprised at the number of titles FUNi picked up for simulcasts. I’m sure that all those sequels will eventually be released to DVD/BD as well with a dub, but nothing has been made clear yet with press releases. Hellsing! Gah, I was seriously talking about the dub last night with a group of people and telling them how much I thought it sucked that it was still in limbo land on being continued. Ah! It’s so awesome, can’t wait. I’m pretty sure FUNi will be able to get the original dub cast back for it, Black Lagoon, and Trigun no problems. If they can do the Slayers, they can do anything. Can’t wait for those! Madhouse is awesome. I might actually pick up Lain too. I’ve heard a lot about it, but haven’t ever had the chance to pick it up. Definitely will be watching the noitaminA block’s simulcast as well. Looks good, FUNi.

Was thinking that CR would get Nurarihyon no Mago before someone else, but it seems that Viz has jumped the gun and will be simulcasting it. Though, I guess it still could be on CR like Naruto and Bleach, though more likely on their vizanime.com site.

Stream of the Week – Monster

I’m a huge Naoki Urasawa fan – HUGE. Definitely my all-time favorite mangaka beating out even Tezuka. I have all 18 volumes of Monster manga on my shelf, the first DVD Box from Viz, all 8 volumes of Pluto, and the current 8 volumes of 20th Century Boys. Plus, I have all the dubbed episodes of Monster that aired on SyFy saved on my DVR downstairs. I even gone as far as to write an essay of the series for my Comp class last semester –it’s pretty crazy. So when Viz decided to upload DUB (which is a first for Viz – everything else they stream is subbed only) Monster I was overjoyed to have the chance to legally share this epic series to everyone I knew.

Plot Summary:

I always have a difficult time in getting the ‘umph’ that is behind such a great series like Monster into a summary. Whenever I try to give one it sounds just boring, so let’s see (a bit long, in hindsight).

Enter the emergency room of Dr. Kenzo Tenma, the leading neurosurgeon at Eisler Memorial Hospital smack in the middle of Düsseldorf, Germany. One late-night case comes in with a set of twins whose parents had just been murdered in-front of their eyes, along with one of the twins having a bullet lodged into their brain. The one in need of the operation is the young Johan, while his sister, Anna, is lost in shock. Tenma rushes Johan into the operating room, putting off another dire operation of the mayor of the city, and attempts and successfully saves the boy. Days later, Johan and his sister are gone and Tenma never sees them again until another late night years later. Tenma enters a parking garage to find a suave young man holding another man to gunpoint. The young guy shoots the other with Tenma standing there. Tenma then recognizes the young man as Johan, and realizes that he saved a brutal monster. Half of the hospital staff is then murder and everything is put on Tenma. Now on the run from the law, Tenma starts his journey to stop this Monster from reeking havoc over Eastern Europe and to vindicate his name.

Review:

As I said above, I love Urasawa. His unique and detailed art style, his dark and psychological storytelling — everything just melts together into one of the best stories I’ve ever come across in my life. I always tell people unfamiliar with manga or anime (and even to some who are but are iffy about watching it), that if Monster was not told through the medium of manga and anime, but rather novel, there is no doubt in my mind that it would go a international bestseller. It is so enthralling and elaborate that even without Urasawa’s detailed art with adds a whole delicious layer to the tale, the story alone could hold audience worldwide.

With that aside, I have to say this is one of Viz’s finer dubs in recent years. It wasn’t dubbed by Bang Zoom, though, but a smaller company named Salami Studios. They did the dubs for Honey and Clover, Busou Renkin, as well as Viz’s newest dub Kekkaishi. Even though the dub is from a rather small company, some ‘big name’ English voice actors came on to give this series an overall pleasant dub. Liam O’Brien really is able to get into Tenma’s character and really bring out the rather mixed emotions he has at time, and Karen Strassman, whom at first I didn’t think really fit the role of Anna, really is able to pick it up and get her solidly down. Also to note that no accents were used in the dub even though the series occurs all throughout Europe. Was really hoping Roberto at least would have an awesome accent as his voice actor, J.B. Blanc, did the voice of the Vatican’s hard-arm Escariot leader Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing, but alas, none of that for Monster. Another note is that some of the music used in the Japanese version was unable to be licensed for an English release. Although it is a pity, if does little effect on harming your experience of the series. Seeing it for the first time in English, you won’t even notice (for you who have seen the Japanese version, a few certain BGM were replaced, ED1 is instrumental, and ED2 is non-existant). No biggie there.

Where to Find It:

You can find Monster online on Hulu or YouTube. This, of course, is only the English dub. There currently are no streams for the Japanese version with English subtitles. If you care for a dual-audio experience, head on over to your favorite anime retailer and pick up the first box which includes the first thirteen episodes. Viz has yet to release a second one, but hopefully they will continue.

Sanctuary – Vol 1

Sho Fumimura & Ryoichi Ikegami Published by Viz

Story:

Set in 80′s (90′s maybe?) Japan, Sanctuary follows the path of a duo that have the dream to change the Japanese government from being full of old geezers to a younger group of fellows. In this duo, there is the educated and extremely wise political man Chiaki Asami and the yakuza gang leader Akira Hojo. Outlining the dark-side of Japanese government during this time period, Sanctuary grasps just how closely the mafia and the state heads ran two-and-two.

Presentation:

Presentation is really a killer for me. If something doesn’t look nice, I’m not going to waste my money on it… unless it truly is a classic and I know it is. I had never really heard of Sanctuary before, never seen it in stores, nothing. So when I ordered it, it was really off how the cover looked and the description. No wonder I hadn’t seen it in stores! It was published by Viz Communications in 1993. 1993. Almost 20 years ago! Viz isn’t even Viz

Comm anymore but Viz Media. Being so old, I did have to go through a random seller on Amazon to get it. I really wasn’t sure how it would look — was expecting yellow pages, small and ugly little thing.

How surprised I was when it came in the mail. It looks like a modern Viz Signature volume. It’s the larger format size, embossed lettering, and is overal EXTREMELY NICE. Gah, I really am blown away at how nice it is. It is flipped, now reading left-to-right, but that doesn’t bother me… and shouldn’t bother true readers. Most of the lettering on the pages (text in the bubbles) was fine, though sometimes it was cut off by the edge of the pages. Viz apparently published this three times. Once as a two chapter “comic” format, again as a combined “comic” format, and finally in a volume-sized version which I have. I’m sure cutting it down to fit in a volume probably is where the proble

m arised. Not a big problem though. Oh yeah, the pages aren’t yellow either! They used acid-free paper… which is amazingly awesome since things I have from just a few years ago from Viz are already yellow

Other Rambles:

So there’s a LOT of sexual stuff in this series. Almost every other chapter there’s sex or some boobs. It’s not too extreme… only lasting a few panels or something, but it’s there, so this is definitely for an older audience.

Also gotta say that I really wasn’t expecting much out of this series. I actually had ordered the second volume before even reading volume 1, then decided to cancel it. After finishing volume 1, I went back and re-ordered the damn thing. It really is just that awesome. I can really see the plot developing into a nice thriller. It’s only 9 American volumes long, so it won’t take me forever to read it, I suppose.

The art is extremely realistic. I truly love my more realistic artists than my big-eyed ones (though Tezuka is great). Ryoichi Ikegami (who did Crying Freeman, as well as other works with Buronson) really gives off a feel of Inoue’s Vagabond art mixed with Urasawa’s Monster… it’s just awesome awesome awesome.  The story too! This guy wrote Hokuto no Ken for crying out loud (even though I haven’t read it, it’s apparently godly). I was able to fly through this first volume in no time and I went to Amazon to grab volume 2 as soon as I was done. If you want to read this amazing thriller, grab all the volumes at once! Seriously.

Oh yeah, if anyone has volume 7… and they want to sell it to me for under $20, hit me up. People on Amazon are crazy… and I can’t find it anywhere else. All the other volumes are easy to find, but volume 7 is gone from /everywhere/. Thanks

Since this was published in 1993, it’s really hard to find. Amazon still has a few of the later volumes in stock (like 1 copy each), and there are a few sellers on there for the rest. Volume 7, however, is gone from everywhere :\

Apollo’s  Song

Osamu Tezuka / Published by Vertical, Inc.

Story:

Shogo Chikaishi has been sent to a psych house for his extreme tendencies to kill animals whenever they appear to ‘loving’ each other. To try and ‘cure’ him of his illness, he is treated with shock therapy. During the treatment, he enters a dream where he stands in front of the goddess Athena who questions him on his hating of love which eventually traces back to his get-going mom. Shogo then undergoes other ‘treatments’ which put him in a dream-like state, in which he becomes a Nazi, an assassin, a to-be-athletic runner, a sex slave, and many other things, and is finally able to learn what true love really is.

Presentation:

I’m a total fan of Vertical. Their release of Apollo’s Song follows their high standard and is magnificent. The cover art is by Chip Kidd, as many of their titles are, and really captures the spirit of the story (though I did notice that the images on the cover art are unflipped, unlike what is actually inside on the pages). And although the manga is flipped, it really doesn’t bother me much – aside from Nike being on Athena’s left instead of right. It’s Tezuka, he’s a classic mangaka, and to even have his works released in any format in English is enough. I see no point in fussing about it. The book weighs in at a 540-and-some-odd-pages, but it seems much larger since  the paper is pretty thick. Excellent work.

Other Rambles:

I’m not one to really go on and on about the plot of the story. I try to keep it short and to the point, so when you actually read the book, you can experience it yourself. I never like it when I see a review and almost all it is is a recap of the story – who wants that? For that reason, the ‘Story’ section above is fairly short. I was able to fly through this extremely fast – maybe two hours? I’ve read a few Tezuka works (random Phoenix and Buddha volumes) and they usually take me longer, but Apollo’s Song was really easy to get into. If you’ve never read anything by Tezuka, go ahead and grab this before anything else.

When I about half way through the book, I was wondering why the story was called ‘Apollo’s Song’ because the only reference to any gods or goddess was Athena at the beginning. I get a little farther into it and there is this battle against the sun, so I thought, “Okay, maybe the Sun = Apollo and such, but then what’s the ‘Song’ business about?”. It wasn’t until the end when it talks about Daphne and Apollo did it click – which it should with all. Oh, a gripe I had: it says the Greek myth, but then uses Roman god names? (Jupiter = Roman, Zeus = Greek). Same business happened in Viz’s release of Phoenix, too.  Not sure what is up, it might be Tezuka himself… or it might be that they are going off of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which is Roman with Roman names based on Greek myths… or something — I don’t know, it just caught my attention.

So yeah, the whole reason I picked this for today was obviously because Valentine’s Day was yesterday and this whole book centers on the world of love. It was actually my first ‘omnibus’ of Tezuka’s I’ve read as well. I own Ode to Kirihito and MW, but I have yet to get around to them. Maybe I’ll do Ode to Kirihito next, as in AS, Shogo goes from an animal-state of insaneness to loving human; while in Kirihito, I think it’s the opposite? Bah, we’ll see. Truly enjoyed Tezuka’s story – definitely one of the better ones that I’ve read so far. He’s truly a god… even reading his works 40 years after they were published, it’s amazing to see how they do not age. I’m positive Tezuka will stay a classic for many decades (millennia?)  to come. Can’t wait to dive into another work of his.

Be sure to grab Apollo’s Song from Amazon, Rightstuf (currently having 33% off Vertical publishings), Randomhouse, or the many other bookstores out there! Also, be sure to check out Vertical’s site for a free preview!