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The Mike Toole Show - Why Did This Come Out?


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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:22 pm Reply with quote
Most of Sentai Filmworks' catalogue is "Why did this come out?" titles.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1869
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:34 pm Reply with quote
Hey, I like Tattoon Master! Sad

And say what you want about Monster Rancher getting an uncut, subtitled release. I am personally thankful that Discotek is putting it out. While I do adore the dub and think it is one of the better dubs put out by the Ocean Group, let's face it! The show was edited with some edits not making any sense to the context of certain scenes, namely the fights against the Big Bad 4. I'm still annoyed with the fact that they had a scene with Suezo asking his comrades in spirit to give him all his strength to fight Naga only to have the next scene showing him lying on the ground with no explanation as to what happened. I say bring on the uncut Monster Farm.
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AnimeMaine



Joined: 11 May 2009
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:45 pm Reply with quote
I, unfortunately, own Meltylancer. I got the second half as a freebie. So I looked for and ordered the first half. The "plot" is totally incomprehensible. I have now lent it to an anime club, and told them that it would make a good Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie.
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No Comment



Joined: 19 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:51 pm Reply with quote
While I haven't seen anything you mentioned, more of it is on my Want To See List than I would like to admit. Lets see... Twin Signal, Kirameki Project, Seraphim Call, Fortune Quest, Sola, and Eden's Bowy. I don't how long they have been or why I put them on there, but I guess that's besides the point. They're in the elite group of titles with the priority of "eventually". Things get added and removed from my To Watch List at about a 25:1 ratio, so I imagine they'll be staying on there for a while even though you just subconsciously talked me out of most of them. It's not like I haven't completely avoided all the obscure junk that's been rotting on my To Watch List. You could've easily put in something like Hyper Police among all the shows that mentioned and I would've made some half-assed attempt at defending it.

I have nothing against super weird forgotten stuff like this, but usually I know not to give the benefit of the doubt.
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AnimeMaine



Joined: 11 May 2009
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:58 pm Reply with quote
No Comment wrote:
While I haven't seen anything you mentioned, more of it is on my Want To See List than I would like to admit. Lets see... Twin Signal, Kirameki Project, Seraphim Call, Fortune Quest, Sola, and Eden's Bowy.


I would recommend Kirameki Project. It is a slightly off-kilter take on mecha. I have watched it a few times with friends and family.
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zeo1fan



Joined: 02 Sep 2011
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 8:59 pm Reply with quote
What could go wrong with releasing Monster Rancher here? Aren't Mons popular in America?
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Mikeski



Joined: 24 Sep 2009
Posts: 608
Location: Minneapolis, MN
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:05 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
is there anything sadder than a tie-in product for a larger project that never even gets finished?

The strategy/dating game did get finished several years later, but the Galaxy Angel anime came out so far ahead of its "parent" game that they ditched the whole story and just made an absurdist comedy with the same characters.

And it was actually pretty good.

(Edit: oh yeah, I'm supposed to admit what I liked from the original article. I liked Kirameki Project, and I didn't hate Sola or Hyper Doll, or what little I saw of Corrector Yui.)


Last edited by Mikeski on Sun May 05, 2013 9:08 pm; edited 1 time in total
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MeggieMay



Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 607
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:06 pm Reply with quote
I'm pretty sure I saw part of "10 Tokyo Warriors" (or at least taped it at one point) because it use to air ad nauseum on the Starz! digital networks back in the mid 2000s (wiki says it was Encore Action in 2007, so my memory was close on this). A lot of Media Blasters licenses use to show up there back in the day and it would be interesting if someone had a list of what all they did air compiled some place (one for G4-TechTV would also be nice but it may actually exist over on wiki somewhere, for all I know).
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Sakura Shinguji



Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 190
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Well, I'll step up and say that I enjoyed Wild Cardz. Not because the story set my world on fire or anything, but simply because I found something appealing about its ability to shamelessly revel in frenetic, well-animated action that was clearly going nowhere, as so many other mid-90s OVAs do.

And Mike, as long as you're devoting so much time to questionable licensing decisions by Media Blasters, both past and present, it would be a shame to forget that very recently as part of their amazing self-proclaimed return from near-closure, they picked up that much-desired (not) gem (not) of a title called Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. It's just a loosely-assembled collection of cutscenes from the game with which it shares a name, and was unwanted and unremarkable years ago when it was released in Japan towards the end of that once-popular game franchise's life. I can't imagine anyone here is just so excited about it being released at some point.

Incidentally, since you touched on a couple of situations of licensing confusion (not the main topic of this column, I know, but anyway), here's another one to remind folks of. Back in 2002, folks had been badgering Manga Entertainment about when they were going to pick up the WXIII film since they'd released the original two films, and Keith Burgess would gamely field those queries with a lot of "not if but when" teasing. During one of the summer cons, Manga finally stated at their panel that they were still in negotiations but were close to closing the deal. Later during that same con, then-Pioneer officially announced they had already acquired the title for release. Ha.
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deathfromabove1993



Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 120
Location: Chicago, IL
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:27 pm Reply with quote
I didn't know Machine Robo was an accidental license. No wonder, it was released subtitled only and never got finished. I would've love to seen the show in complete form.

I was looking over the Media Blasters catalog over the ANN encyclopedia and most of these shows I've never heard of. Like Space Pirate Mito, I saw a bit of it and didn't like what I've seen.

I guess now that Bandai is gone, Sentai can put back Sola in-print (at least I think if they might still own it).
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:28 pm Reply with quote
I noticed the trend in this article is picking out a bunch of obscure one-shot or such OVAs. Licensing an entire show seems a bit different, that's 300 minutes versus maybe 60. As forgettable as some 1-cours series are, a boring or uninteresting 40 minute OVA leaves even less of an impression and will only be recalled if you add it to some OCD anime list... It's especially different in anime's environment today where even titles like Rio can still have a few thousand people watching legal streams or grabbing fansubs. It's gotta be harder for something like that to go entirely unnoticed.

Quote:
Another title that shares that dubious honor is the remarkable Spectral Force.


Of the 1,500+ various anime I've seen, that's the only one I've given the honor of rating a 1/10. I've never hated anything so much before.

I have one sticking point: a few people seemed to genuinely enjoy sola and it got enough buzz when it aired for some reason. It's definitely not nearly as unwanted as a Shattered Angels or what have you.

Two anime I enjoy always get shit flung at them wherever you go are the Urushihara OVAs Lemnear and Plastic Little. People just seem to hate these, and I understand why, but I'll never agree. Those man's designs are exactly what I want in anime so if you're not onboard with Urushihara's 25 year old sameface, they'll never push your buttons and understanding why anyone could like them will be lost on you.


Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Sun May 05, 2013 9:43 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1293
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:33 pm Reply with quote
I'm geninuely amazed Eiken is nowhere on this list. I mean that's one show where you REALLY have to question why it was brought over and who it was for. Even people who generally like fanservice shows found it disgusting and it's incredible that it was not only brought over but dubbed too.

The stuff on this list is pretty bizarre though. Especially the show that was a sequel to a game that never came here, and the show that took Bandai 8 years to release. Strange stuff Laughing
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Primus



Joined: 01 Mar 2006
Posts: 2758
Location: Toronto
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:45 pm Reply with quote
Anime Crash and Anime Who really are fitting names in hindsight ...

also dan doh, c'mon guys.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:47 pm Reply with quote
I've seen or at least own a few of the titles listed here, and since Mike wants to hear people's thoughts on them I guess I'll join in.

Discotek licensing Monster Rancher has my interest mainly because I remember watching it years ago when it was on TV. As for the sub-only release, it has my interest simply from a curiosity perspective. Yeah, it's the original "uncut" version of a kids show, but I think it's neat that Discotek is willing to give it a try.

Just to point out, Kirameki Project (a very fun parody/mix of mech anime & cute girls) was sub-only, not dubbed. Early Reigns was a neat little OVA simply because honest-to-god westerns are rare in anime, but not much else other than that. Fortune Quest was the last title to come from Media Blasters' infamous working relationship with Enoki Films USA, hence why wwe only got one volume of that.

Spectral Force was the first production of Idea Factory's attempt at doing their own anime productions, mainly to act as promotional material for their games. For the most part they were average-at-best & complete crap at worst, but there were a couple of admittedly solid titles, like Kingdom of Chaos - Born to Kill, a 4-episode OVA that actually focused on telling a story that surprisingly got pretty mind-twistingly cool in the final episode. If anything, we should have gotten Kingdom of Chaos, because that was actually a good production, IF's best in fact, even if it did use Idea Factory's usual habit of putting 2D-animated characters on top of CG backgrounds.

I own Melty Lancer but haven't seen it yet. Clockwork Fighters: Hiwou's War, though, I will certainly defend. I found it the story interesting, the characters handled fairly realistically, the clockwork "mechs" cool to see in action (especially since the show handled their operation semi-realistically), and I didn't find the character designs "jarringly ugly and strange-looking" one bit. Oh, yeah, and the music was also really catchy; that OP theme is definitely one of my favorites.

Yeah, essentially none of these titles needed to get released over here but like you said, Mike, it does result in little gems getting released over here. Sometimes taking a route on the less-traveled path is a good thing to do.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sun May 05, 2013 9:50 pm Reply with quote
I remember Encore Action would air stuff like this on Fridays without any real rhyme or reason. So one week you'd get Akira, one week you'd get Gunsmith Cats, and then one week you'd get something absolutely wretched like the Shadow Skill OVA or some 45 minute OVA about spacefaring that went nowhere. Still, I actually remember it being fun because it was a sort of mystery box. Did you get something awesome, or did you get the Grappler Baki OVA that doesn't even mention Yujiro? (Actually, that was fairly fun to watch, albeit mindless and plotless. It just doesn't hold up at all now that the TV series is out).

And yeah, they did air Eiken one week. No context, just an OVA to promote a manga that isn't available here...probably because it would make friggin Tarot look subdued and family friendly.
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