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The Mike Toole Show - A Column About Nothing

For example, one of the last shows I saw was Heroic Age. It's not a particularly great series, to be honest, but I enjoyed the scale of the space/monster battles. Even though the animation and character designs were only mediocre, a couple of its sci-fi/fantasy concepts were at least interesting enough to keep my attention.

Their “people” are not knowledgeable; they are annoying.  The store “format” is entirely generic; perhaps a little confusing.  The stores and Websites are not “preferred destinations”—they are destinations, at best, of inertia, or in the case of exclusives, destinations of the only resort.  The “shopping environment” is the opposite of fun and informative.  It’s depressing and humiliating, as in “I can’t believe I had to go to Best Buy to get this.”

Best Buy’s tumble started when CompUSA and Circuit City went out of business.  Normally something like that should have been a good thing for business, but Best Buy totally blew it.  Best Buy killed both of those other electronics retailers, but then they didn’t keep on doing what they had been doing so well.  They replaced their mid range lines of consumer electronics with low cost, house brand junk.  They kept their name brand lines, but only stocked the high end stuff and priced it at a premium, abandoning the middle market that had been their traditional strength.

Speaking of Sekirei, who's watching that show anyway? I mean, the reasons for its popularity-- both of them-- are obvious, but I checked it out on Netflix and was mostly struck by its homely character designs and cast of characters who just seemed dumb and hapless. Do you watch Sekirei? Like, did you see it at the store, and pick it up, and look at the cover, and go "Hmmm, I wonder what this is about?" Or could you just tell? Did you only have to glance at the cover, and immediately think THANK YOU ANIME, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME THE EXACT THING I WANT YET AGAIN.

Man, remember when it was an acceptable business strategy to release stuff like Tokyo Project and Madonna? Actually, remember Tokyo Project? Because Jesus, I seriously don't...God, what the hell is this thing? What's it about? When did it come out? Did anyone out there see Tokyo Project at the store and think "Ooooh, this looks good!" I may have bought Eiken (IT WAS FOR RESEARCH, OKAY) but I didn't buy this

Speaking of things nobody bought: What anime are you NOT buying, both literally and figuratively? It just seems like an interesting question to me; what anime do you spy on the shelves, darling of critics and fans alike, and think "Meh."?

It's a shame that Heroic Age never became as popular as it should have as that was one of the best mecha series of that year (along with SRW: OG: Divine Wars, and Gurren Lagann). It was a great concept that actually lived up to it (Greek Mythology as told by giant robots).

So how about it, Viz? Where the hell is my Tiger and Bunny?!

Speaking of childhood, similar to how you mention, "Where's my Tiger and Bunny?" (which I agree with 100%), I'd also like to know, "When the hell can I finally buy all of Gargoyles?" ARGH, so frustrating!

Polycell wrote:

I personally never had any interest in Red Line either. Everybody keeps talking about how superspecialawesome it is, but nothing makes me want to see it(or even read the review, for that matter). Maybe it's the fact that nobody talks about the story or the characters and I'm not the type to watch something for the effects. I'm also not interested in the new Lupin III series, probably because I liked the one Adult Swim showed and I know it's nothing like that.

I watched it, and I felt it was average at best. It looked nice and animated well, but the story made no sense and there was little reason to care about the characters. If all you care about is mindless action, maybe you'd like it, but I care more about character interaction than anything and it really lacked that.

Well, I've ignored the new Lupin because the critical acclaim I've seen so far says the two main reasons for watching are: (1) pre-existing sentimental attachment to the series and (2) boobs. I'm not really into either of those.

but I care more about character interaction than anything and it really lacked that.

The other surprise was the nature of the special edition itself-- the box is a little weird, and does not comfortably fit on any of my shelves, but the hardcover artbook is delightful.

Anyway, buying anime by handing people money instead of clicking on the "check out" button made me curious about what was in stock at Best Buy these days, so I went and had a look.

In the meantime, allow me to summarize invalidname's argument.