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I actually saw the Xenosaga dub at animefest this year and it was AMAZING! Chris Ayres had such dedication to the dub and from the stories he told us about it went leaps and bounds to make sure that it stayed true for it's fans. Not only that but his voice actor choices were spot on in most cases and he very much seemed to avoid using the big named voice actors in roles they didn't fit. He used actors that fit the characters rather than just the weight of their names, which makes all the difference nowadays.

BTW That goat video is gold Anime hyper

I laughed so hard!

The only thing I've destroyed in a fit of rage is my dad's pride (Almost his face) and a window all in the same outburst with an aluminum fold-up chair. [Note: Oddly, we haven't had an argument since. Two and a half years now. Best thing I've ever done]

For shelf obsessed, do I send it as a file or can I use a photobucket link or something?

Gao Gao Stegasaurus!!!

Just clarification, no matter how hard you try, you cannot "sleep" with multiple girls in the game in one run-through. Each run-through is one-on-one for the good purpose of "comforting" the poor girls in their "grief." Twisted Evil

With that said, Air was the show that established Kyoto Animation as "best anime studio ever" for me back in 2005. Definitely looking forward to the next Rightstuf ADV sale :p

Unholy_Nny wrote:

For shelf obsessed, do I send it as a file or can I use a photobucket link or something?

Whatever's more convenient for you.

Key wrote:

The rating of Wings of Honneamise initially shocked me, until Bamboo made it clear that she was mostly referring to its marketing by BV. As much as I'd love to own that one, the cost is just too prohibitive and offering it only in a combo package is ridiculous. Why not offer the Blu-Ray/HD disks and the regular disk separately? It would certainly sell better that way, since Blu-Ray and HD players aren't that common yet. (I know of no one lacking a game console who owns either, and I have several friends who could well afford them.) The movie itself is one of those grand films that should be in every anime fan's collection, so I hope BVUSA will eventually come to their senses and release the regular disk separately.

I'm seriously baffled by their marketing decision for this movie. When you read the back of the box description, they say, "This combo pack comes with both a Blu Ray disc and a regular DVD!" It's like they expect you to appreciate that they've tacked on a standard def DVD as an extra-- only you're paying an arm and a leg for that extra.

I'm not sure how the price breaks down. At $80, that's like saying that HD = $40, and DVD = $40-- though generally HD costs more, so $45/35, $50/30? Even then, if they only sold the HD version, it's still (at least) $40, but that's at least easier to swallow than $80 in one go.

I just don't get it.

icepick314 wrote:

BV sure isn't good at releasing products in US...their price is turn off and the video/audio quality isn't all that high according to few of the reviews despite HD releases...

I thought the quality on the Gunbuster 2 discs was excellent. I didn't notice more than 1 or 2 subtitle errors, despite what people seemed to indidcate, and both audio and visual quality are way above par for anime releases. I paid $30 per disc at Rightstuf.

[silly sarcasm warning for the text-only impaired]

I've also been confused by the high prices for this movie. I just looked at ReallyHugeOnlineRetailer.com for Wings of Honneamise, and they're showing it for $55.95 for both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD sets. Not particularly interesting, I know, discounts do happen.

Except for the fact that sandwiched between them is the original Manga Video DVD from 2000 being sold by 3rd-party sellers. All used. The LOWEST price for that is $49.99, and there's a Collectible- Like New copy available for only $96.00!

Now I'm really upset that no review of this movie has noted that addition to being viewable, this movie also: gives backrubs on request, cooks delicious and healthy dinners nightly using nothing but ramen, love and water for ingredients, and will do your Christmas shopping for you.

And if you go with the new BV release you get all that plus the HD version for just a little bit more! Shocked

I think Slayers is one the best D & D type fantasy series out there-NEW or old, granted-it does have some shortcomings-as do all series. I'd rather rewatch it than a lot of the drivel circulating now.

Xenofan 29A wrote:

I thought the quality on the Gunbuster 2 discs was excellent. I didn't notice more than 1 or 2 subtitle errors, despite what people seemed to indidcate, and both audio and visual quality are way above par for anime releases. I paid $30 per disc at Rightstuf.

but Gunbuster isn't on HD yet...and still Gunbuster 2 with $30 a disc you only get 2 episodes with Japanese audio only.....for $30 RETAIL, you can pick up a TV series with 4 episodes WITH English and Japanese audio....still doesn't sound right...

what i was complaining was their HD releases which few titles got lousy reviews despite their high prices...most of the bad reviews came from AnimeonDVD....

I... I feel so old reading that stuff about Slayers. *sigh* Where did my youth go... Anime hyper

Textbook wise, math text books seem to WANT to be treated as much. I know I've wanted to plenty of times, but reselling the book when I'm done with it has always kept my temper back. Ahh, if only I could afford to destroy it. I bet it would be very stress relieving.

SakechanBD wrote:

I'm seriously baffled by their marketing decision for this movie. . . .

I just don't get it.

Actually it's easy to understand. Very simple in fact.

BV USA knows what fans want and clearly this is it! Rolling Eyes

To be serious, I don't think they see any of this as a marketing issue. All they really seem to want is to act like the R1 market is the same as the Japanese market (Is it R2? My brain hurts from Exam of Doom.) They want a big return on a few episodes and to heck with us lowly English dub fans. (According to them, we're not real fans anyway.)

Basically, I don't think they really care about the genereal realities of anime in R1 so much as they do about appealing to the Uber Otaku who might see their releases as actually being some sort of collectible.

But my big question is it worth waiting for the domestic release in high definition if you can buy the Japanese releases well in advanced for about the same price. Why should I wait for the Patlabor movies domestic release when the Japanese (same region code for BD, no region for HD-DVD) are already available for about $80 and have the subs and dubs on them?

I ended up buying the Blu-ray edition of Honneamise from BVUSA because it was cheaper due to preorder prices and had free shipping from TRSI, but I wouldn't wait months to save a few dollars.

The second DVD concept is taking the current HD-DVD hybrids to the extreme. I hate the HD-DVD / standard definition combo DVDs that are currently available for the same reasons. I ended up buying The Departed on Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD since the non-combo Blu-ray version was $4 cheaper on amazon compared to the HD-DVD version which has the standard definition layer on it. I still have not bought 300, but will most likely buy the cheaper Blu-ray version of this film over the HD-DVD which has the standard definition also included on it. Why would Bandai think that we want to have a standard version included? Probably for the same reasons why Universal, Warner and other studios think that HD-DVD owners want to get a standard def copy with their films. I think the idea is simply stupid and contributes to me having a larger Blu-ray collection than HD-DVD.

Or just sit out HDDVD and Bluray and stick to regular dvds.

icepick314 wrote:

Xenofan 29A wrote:

I thought the quality on the Gunbuster 2 discs was excellent. I didn't notice more than 1 or 2 subtitle errors, despite what people seemed to indidcate, and both audio and visual quality are way above par for anime releases. I paid $30 per disc at Rightstuf.

but Gunbuster isn't on HD yet...and still Gunbuster 2 with $30 a disc you only get 2 episodes with Japanese audio only.....for $30 RETAIL, you can pick up a TV series with 4 episodes WITH English and Japanese audio....still doesn't sound right...

But that's a TV series. This is an OVA. Single shot OVAs are often released for $20 in the US, so $30 for 2 OVA episodes is not unreasonable in my opinion. Okay, I understand your frustration about it not having an english dub, but I frankly couldn't care much less. I watch most of my anime subbed, and thus the dub adds no monetary value to the disc in my estimation.

Would I rather have paid less? Yes, absolutely. However, this was Top wo Nerae 2!, which happens to be one of my three favorite GAINAX works, so I'd have a hard time passing up a release. Now, if each disc had been released for Japanese prices...yeah, I would have bailed. I have tuition to pay.

Should've tried to see what the buyback value was on that book Evil or Very Mad

W-General wrote:

Gao Gao Stegasaurus!!!

Just clarification, no matter how hard you try, you cannot "sleep" with multiple girls in the game in one run-through. Each run-through is one-on-one for the good purpose of "comforting" the poor girls in their "grief." Twisted Evil

With that said, Air was the show that established Kyoto Animation as "best anime studio ever" for me back in 2005.

I don't know about Kyoto Animation being "the best," as I tend to like different studios for different things, but I eventually classified them as "pretty darn good" when I later came to know them as "the studio that made AIR." I didn't pay attention to studio names back then; after all, I watched Full Metal Panic Fumoffu in May 2004 (in one day!) without ever knowing it was KyoAni.

In my (limited) experience with these games, I agree with what W-General is saying. Maybe in the straight-up wankfest porngames it's possible to go through and bang all the girls, but that's not the case in the games more respected for storyline. In story-driven games, if you try to be the pimp and be everything for every girl, you'll usually wind up with the "no girl at all" ending. Like at one point you'll get the choice of "Do nice thing for Girl A" or "Do nice thing for Girl B," and later the choice of "Go to festival with girl A" or "Go to festival with Girl B." If you choose different girls at those two points, you're screwed (and not in a good way). Anime adaptations like AIR and Kanon tend to obscure this fact because they present a little bit of the "secondary girl" storylines before moving on to the final decisions between the leading ladies. The closest I've come is in "Hitomi ~My Stepsister~" where you can get Stepsister + Classmate, Stepsister + Stepmother, or any of the girls individually.

That said, I'm glad to see AIR's "official" reception hasn't been completely frosty, as evidenced by this Shelf Life. I was hoping for Rental at best when I saw the column listing on the main page.

Xenofan 29A wrote:

With the episode I saw, I couldn't help but think of it as a visual novel adaptation because of all those visual novel-style shots. It annoyed me, frankly, and stunk of lazy direction.

When I saw Death Note, I couldn't help but think of it as a manga adaptation because of all those manga-style shots. Come to think of it, the same thing happened with Bleach, Naruto, Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh, Sailor Moon, DN Angel, and a bunch of other series. I can't believe all those lazy directors making anime that somehow resemble their source material, how annoying. Which begs the question: Are visual novels inherently worse source material than manga and other static visual media?

Quote:

It's not the next great masterpiece, but if the summer wind could somehow materialize into an anime series, it would look something like this.

I agree with this -- I first watched AIR in May 2005, and it perfectly captured that "summer" feeling of the time. Much like seeing Please Teacher! in May 2004.

Key wrote:

hope Bamboo's more positive outlook on Air satisfies those who were grousing about my take on it a couple of weeks ago. Rolling Eyes

Rolling eyes aside, I did agree with some of the objective points from that review -- I just hope that people will give it a chance the same way they would other "slow paced at start without much hint of overall plot" series like Haiabane Renmei and Mushishi.

Slayers: I never saw it in the 90s (didn't see it until late 2006 - early 2007), but I still think it has plenty of value even today. Slayers proves that back in the 90s, anime didn't need super-special-awesome 3D CGI to be entertaining, and it's a great showcase of all the staples of 90s fantasy/comedy anime. It's certainly much better than other entries like Maze and Gokudo from that era. While it doesn't match up to the modern graphics and dramatic/epic storyline of, say, Scrapped Princess, I can't think of many other 2000s Sword&Sorcery anime that are truly "better" than Slayers. Sure, I love sad/serious anime like AIR and its brethren in the moemoe game adaptation genre, but sometimes it's good to cry from laughter instead of sadness Laughing

Zalis116 wrote:

Xenofan 29A wrote:

With the episode I saw, I couldn't help but think of it as a visual novel adaptation because of all those visual novel-style shots. It annoyed me, frankly, and stunk of lazy direction.

When I saw Death Note, I couldn't help but think of it as a manga adaptation because of all those manga-style shots. Come to think of it, the same thing happened with Bleach, Naruto, Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh, Sailor Moon, DN Angel, and a bunch of other series. I can't believe all those lazy directors making anime that somehow resemble their source material, how annoying. Which begs the question: Are visual novels inherently worse source material than manga and other static visual media?

If something is to establish itself as a good anime series, it must have a visual style that works to its advantage in telling its story. The "visual novel" style, specifically, having a straight-on shot of a character while they're talking, does not often make for interesting visuals. More than that, unless there's a reason for doing it, it is lazy directing. Maybe it's intended as an homage to its source material, but then I'm not the right audience, having not played the game.

On the other hand, I fault Xenosaga: The Animation for differing too much from its source material. The original game was storyboarded much differently from its anime counterpart, and in (nearly) every scene, I remembered how much better the game looked.

I know you love Air. I'll get around to watching the rest of the series eventually, and I'll form my opinions then. I'm not going to blindly attack the series; after all, I said that it "stunk of lazy direction," not that the series was lazily directed.

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