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Shelf Life - Ultra Maniac


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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:50 am Reply with quote
300 dollars each for both Magi series. Yeah, more love from Aniplex.....

That diorama looked nice.

Got to get School Live! now.

As to that other Aniplex title, SAO, I might have to pony up to that despite it's Aniplex price tag. It might not go any lower than that.
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Akcoll99



Joined: 28 Feb 2011
Posts: 218
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:56 am Reply with quote
Ah, Ultra Maniac. I liked it when I first watched it but upon repeat viewing, the terribleness came to the fore. It reminds me a lot of the 90's Sabrina The Teenage Witch series, and all of the awful "comedy" that I associate with that series. Still, UM is bright and pretty and I could see a pre-teen or tween girl liking it...

And looking over the pictures in the Shelf Life segment, I see the old CPM series "Maze." That's another show I liked back in the early 00's a lot, but unlike UM, I think it holds up a bit better. I'd personally be interested in somebody like DiscoTek or Nozomi getting the rights to the home video version and re-releasing it in R1...
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 11:20 am Reply with quote
And so the Time Stranger film is rescued once more! Discotek's next resurrectional acts in the anime graveyard are anticipated with some interest.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:04 pm Reply with quote
Discotek does it again, putting out a home release of quite an ancient artifact like Go, Panda!. Praise be to their work. I also need to pick up Sea Prince and the Fire Child.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:06 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
300 dollars each for both Magi series. Yeah, more love from Aniplex.....


It's $240 for all 50 episodes. It's a crappy release design wise, but that is absolutely the lowest price point I've ever seen for an AoA release. It's less than half what they usually charge.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4064
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:13 pm Reply with quote
Akcoll99 wrote:
Ah, Ultra Maniac. I liked it when I first watched it but upon repeat viewing, the terribleness came to the fore. It reminds me a lot of the 90's Sabrina The Teenage Witch series, and all of the awful "comedy" that I associate with that series. Still, UM is bright and pretty and I could see a pre-teen or tween girl liking it...

And looking over the pictures in the Shelf Life segment, I see the old CPM series "Maze." That's another show I liked back in the early 00's a lot, but unlike UM, I think it holds up a bit better. I'd personally be interested in somebody like DiscoTek or Nozomi getting the rights to the home video version and re-releasing it in R1...


Maze, the "OMG, I'm so into my spoiler[brother that he ended up inside me!] Literally!" anime? That Maze is better than Ultra Maniac?

I liked Ultra Maniac the first time I saw it more than a decade ago and I liked it when I watched my Diskotek copy. It's exactly what it should be, a shoujo romance with a light heroine who's the heroine because its her series versus "collect them all" magical girl from another world series but above all else, it's a comedy and it's very adept at that.

If this is perishable then we need more shows like this and less "This is a ten episode commercial for something you'd never want!" or "Ever wanted to go to another world? Well, now you can... because no other show ever thought of it! Ever!" or shounen that's so straight shounen you can tell when its polls listing started affecting the plot.

At least Ultra Maniac tries. It does fall into the category of "This is such a tech marvel that I got to make a story out of it"... PDAs or personal digital assistants in this case... and that dates it even more than the early computer coloring. But it works in favor here because I think it makes the whole work kind of charming.

On the other hand, I also like Seven of Nana and Stellvia so maybe I just like "shoujo romance crossed with genre x" series.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5286
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 12:54 pm Reply with quote
How does AOA expect to stay in business? Surly not enough people are buying these sets for them to turn a profit.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2073
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:05 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
How does AOA expect to stay in business? Surly not enough people are buying these sets for them to turn a profit.


From everything I've heard, they're selling plenty. Much less than they'd sell at $3 an episode, maybe, but the increased profit per sale seems to more than make up for it.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:11 pm Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
TarsTarkas wrote:
300 dollars each for both Magi series. Yeah, more love from Aniplex.....

It's $240 for all 50 episodes. It's a crappy release design wise, but that is absolutely the lowest price point I've ever seen for an AoA release. It's less than half what they usually charge.

Yes, you are right. Though according to Right Stuf the retail price is 299 dollars for each 1-25 episode series, which would be a total of 598 dollars for all 50 episodes. Right Stuf merely got permission to sell it at 110 dollars for each, which makes what you said quite true.

Question though, will the greatly reduced price remain that way once the pre-sale period ends. Or will it sell for 299 dollars for each 25 episode section once the show is released for sale. If the price will rise, then now is the time to buy during the pre-sale.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 3:53 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
relyat08 wrote:
TarsTarkas wrote:
300 dollars each for both Magi series. Yeah, more love from Aniplex.....

It's $240 for all 50 episodes. It's a crappy release design wise, but that is absolutely the lowest price point I've ever seen for an AoA release. It's less than half what they usually charge.

Yes, you are right. Though according to Right Stuf the retail price is 299 dollars for each 1-25 episode series, which would be a total of 598 dollars for all 50 episodes. Right Stuf merely got permission to sell it at 110 dollars for each, which makes what you said quite true.

Question though, will the greatly reduced price remain that way once the pre-sale period ends. Or will it sell for 299 dollars for each 25 episode section once the show is released for sale. If the price will rise, then now is the time to buy during the pre-sale.


I'm my experience it's extremely uncommon for the price to fluctuate much from the store price on rightstuf for Aniplex products. Most of the stuff I bought years ago is still sitting at the store price that it was back then. This is definitely a bigger discount than we usually see, looking at the MSRP, but I wouldn't expect that store price to change much at all.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11286
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 5:14 pm Reply with quote
As much as I hate buying anything from AoA, and knowing it's a bare-bones release probably packaged in an envelope, I'll probably jump on the Magi boxes, and the Blue Exorcist box too. ::sigh::

The one that's really killing me right now is the Kuromukuro half-season box, which is so out of bounds at over $9 per episode, double what AoA is asking for Magi. Some nice extras, but not enough to justify the price. PonyCan seems to be eyeing AoA's business model and doubling down on it.
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CheezcakeMe





PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 6:03 pm Reply with quote
I recently received the entire Ultra Maniac manga set but haven't read it yet. Anyone vouch it's better than the anime or should I not waste my time? I got it for free so if it's crap, whatever.
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 6:25 pm Reply with quote
^
The Ultra Maniac manga and anime were both very good for me. I have enjoyed each of them at least three times, probably more.
I do not consider either of them to be significantly better than the other, but they are different. The anime added several characters and a new story in addition to what was in the manga.

If a romantic comedy featuring teen-aged magic users sounds interesting to you then give it a try.
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NeoStrayCat



Joined: 14 Sep 2011
Posts: 608
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 7:50 pm Reply with quote
CheezcakeMe wrote:
I recently received the entire Ultra Maniac manga set but haven't read it yet. Anyone vouch it's better than the anime or should I not waste my time? I got it for free so if it's crap, whatever.

Its alright for what it is, other than being my first SB title to read (or anything Shojo in particular, lol.), its fine for how the story goes.

Though I can also vouch that the author is a very passionate PPG fan, lol. Though the differences in the Manga/Anime versions may vary.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, and have read both the Anime/Manga for Ultra Maniac, its not Nina Sakaya, its Nina Sakura.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6863
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 11:35 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
This anime adaptation of Ultra Maniac is being released on DVD by Discotek and uses the 2004 English Dub from Animax, and though it follows the manga's broad strokes, it also makes its own changes to the plot and characters.
Animax? I know it's easy to make the "bad dub = Animax" association, but Ultra Maniac's dub was done by Bang Zoom.

As a fan of cute and/or Magical Girl series, I did like Ultra Maniac enough to buy the 7-disc Geneon version after watching the TV fansubs. (It probably wasn't one of Geneon's better sellers, though that didn't stop Discotek from licensing Psybuster, either.) That said, I don't really disagree with the review, except to say that it's not the show's fault that the reviewer got the wrong impression from the title. Ultra Maniac isn't just a throwback to the 90s, it's more of a throwback to pre-Sailor-Moon Magical Girl series. Though one of the major changes from the manga was the addition of a "Dark Magical Girl" rival to Nina and corresponding action elements.

Akcoll99 wrote:
And looking over the pictures in the Shelf Life segment, I see the old CPM series "Maze." That's another show I liked back in the early 00's a lot, but unlike UM, I think it holds up a bit better. I'd personally be interested in somebody like DiscoTek or Nozomi getting the rights to the home video version and re-releasing it in R1...
Unfortunately, it seems that the home video version of Maze is Lost Forever at the studio/master level, as is the movie. That's apparently why CPM got the TV version, because that's all JC Staff had available. Downloading some laserdisc rips is about the only way to get the home video version at this point.
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