The only reason I picked this up was because of Stan Lee’s involvement, which I guess is funny because I’m not a huge fan of anything credited to the man. And most of the things credited to Stan Lee were made awesome by other people anyway. But it still felt obligatory. Maybe it’s because I’m graduating with a degree in comics and no one in comics ignores Stan Lee, as senile as people are calling him these days. Regardless, I wasn’t expecting much out of Heroman, which is why I don’t feel bad about dropping it at episode two.

Hell, I almost went ahead and dropped it at episode one.

Once again, I faced a protagonist I couldn’t sympathize with and whose circumstances didn’t interest me. Joey is a good and sincere kid, workin’ hard at a part-time job while going to school and being bullied by people bigger than him, blah blah blah. Pure-hearted characters with no apparent moral flaws bore me to death, and bullies being bullies for the sake of being bullies is also boring. Why should I care? Joey doesn’t even seem to really care about being bullied. Is it because he’s just that good? Or because he’s really afraid? If it’s the latter, he doesn’t do a very good job of showing it, so he doesn’t even have that going for him. I mean, it would be more interesting if he was seriously intimidated by the bullies, but he doesn’t seem to be, so whatever?

There was pretty much no way Heroman’s birth could have avoided being contrived and silly, so that didn’t bother me. The mech’s design is unique and kinda neat, and I think its serious business expression is a bit endearing. Unfortunately, its relationship with Joey is also boring. Joey gives impulsive, desperate commands, and Heroman complies. Joey doesn’t really do much beyond issuing the command, and Heroman doesn’t provide too much of a conflict point — he doesn’t disobey and he doesn’t overdo things. The perfect giant robot servant. Hurray. Snore.

At the end of the first episode, I was completely disinterested in seeing the second episode, but I felt like I should just so I’m not dropping on the first episode. I put it off. I got the second episode and still was disinterested in watching it. You know it probably isn’t worth it when you more or less have to force yourself to watch it just so you can say you gave it a chance, but there you go. In the second episode, it seemed like they were trying to play off the conflict as Joey being worried about having too much power, but it isn’t like Heroman really did much to warrant this worry. It just felt forced. And the aliens that have apparently come to destroy the earth? With no motivation given, I can only assume they’ll be a wave of generic “bad guys.”

I can’t decide what the target audience of this series is supposed to be. On one hand, the protagonist is in what, middle school? On the other hand, I would say much of Stan Lee’s works for Marvel had an “older teens” demographic, even if a lot of younger kids end up reading them. If Heroman is supposed to be aimed towards middle school kids, I guess I can pass it off as just something I’m not interested in. But if it’s supposed to be aimed towards a more general audience, one that might possibly include myself, then I will call it a disappointment. There’s nothing to set this apart from any number of other mecha action series and I’m bored.

In other news, I like how I always come back from long breaks with a “dropped” post.

So instead of that, here are nine series I kind of meant to watch at some point during the last ten years and never got around to, either because I was too busy or too lazy or too cheap or forgot about it. Maybe I’ll get around to some of these eventually, but some of them will probably just slip on further and further into the back of my mind where I’ll forget about them like I’ve probably already forgotten about a dozen other things I intended to watch at some point.

These are in no real order.

1. Voices of a Distant Star (2002)

After seeing 5 Centimeters per Second, I was very interested in seeing Makoto Shinkai’s other works. I was going to include The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004) in this as well, but I think I’ve actually seen a few minutes of that, either of the beginning or the end, I don’t remember. Voices of a Distant Star seems to have a theme similar to 5 Centimeters, which is depressing in that I can relate too well, but it also reminds me a little of PLANETES, which was considerably less depressing, perhaps because it slipped in a lot more comedy. Either way, this movie is definitely something I still intend to check out eventually. I really don’t know why it’s so hard for me to sit down with movies; I never feel like I have enough time.

2. Seirei no Moribito (2007)

As with most series that manage to get on [adult swim], I intended to watch this when it aired there. Unfortunately, its debut coincided with me not owning or having regular access to a television set, and [as] didn’t care to provide it with an online stream like many of its other series at the time, including Code Geass. So I missed out for the while, and I guess it was just as well considering the various bullshit [as] put the series. I think they eventually did air all of it, but yeah, it definitely never got the respect or attention it probably deserved. To be honest, I really don’t have a good grasp of what the series is actually about or why it’s good, but ghostlightning, among others, assures me that there’s good character development and such, so I guess I’ll probably get around to it eventually. (Then again, ghostlightning, among others, also goaded me into Eureka seveN, so maybe I don’t trust his judgment anymore…)

3. Junjou Romantica (2008)

Actually, nothing about this series interests me. The premise bores me and the character designs bore me, and those are really the only solid things I have to go off of. It seems like a huge combination of all the things that would make a newcomer skeptical of the genre, and after having dabbled in a few other shounen-ai series, I’m inclined to think that maybe my fondness of Gravitation is a huge, huge fluke. Nothing else has appealed to me since, and in retrospect, I can accept that Gravitation really wasn’t all that amazing either. Junjou Romantica interested me solely because, for a while, it seemed almost as popular as Gravi had been in its heyday, especially in that a fair number of guys seemed to regard it with some positivity. It also managed to get a second season. It’s definitely not high on my list of things to see, but I may eventually check out a few episodes at least. Dunno.

4. Kino’s Journey (2003)

My brother’s read and recommended me the manga a few times, but I’m better about eventually seeing an anime than I am about eventually reading a manga, and Kino’s Journey is wonderfully short at 13 episodes. Observations of the human condition always tend to interest me and for one reason or another, I feel that this series has a whimsical nature to it. (Maybe it’s the talking motorcycle.) I definitely want to see this eventually. Eventually!

5. Gankutsuou (2004)

I really like Alexander Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo. Perhaps that is reason enough not to see this series. I mean, I hated Romeo x Juliet, though honestly, I think that hatred stems more from the atrocities of storytelling and character development than any offense I took to the utter bastardization of Shakespeare’s play. But Gankutsuou looks so like such a trippy visual treat! But I’ve already had Monte Cristo ruined for me once before a la the terrible 2002 movie adaptation. Not sure I want to deal with that again. Sure, I’d expect Gankutsuou to be a much looser adaptation, and really, as long as it manages to tell an okay story with okay characters, I probably wouldn’t be that pissed at whatever they end up changing… but by now I know that I’m a purist at heart, even when I try my best not to be. So will I ever see this series? Maybe.

6. Azumanga Daioh (2002)

I just feel like I’m missing out on a lot of Internet nerd culture references by not having seen this, y’know? That and not having read more than a few chapters of Yotsuba&!.

7. Yakitate!! Japan (2004)

When I’d first heard about this show and that it was about bread and puns, I really, really wanted to see it because really, who doesn’t love bread and puns? For one reason or another though, I was unable to do so immediately and so forgot about it and then put it off and then put it off. With a final episode count of 69, it now violates my usual rules for picking up a new series that isn’t currently airing, which are basically “it’s gotta be less than 27 episodes or a Gundam series.” There have been exceptions to this rule certainly, but the more I continue to put it off, the less confident I am that Yakitate!! will be ever an exception.

8. Xam’d: Lost Memories (2008)

I was excited about Xam’d being launched on the PSN and all, but that was mostly irrelevant to me since I didn’t have access. Still, as the series aired, I heard many good things about it. BONES’s animation looked gorgeous as usual and Michiru Oshima did the music! Not to mention the awesome, awesome theme songs Boom Boom Satellites provided. With all those technical goodies, I still haven’t really bothered to see what the story’s about. Maybe if it’s cool sounding, I’ll get to checking it out faster. If it’s forgettable, I’ll probably keeping putting it off and putting it off…

9. Chi’s Sweet Home (2008)

I think I just need more simple adorable sweetness in my life. It’s ongoing and already has like sixty episodes, but this probably isn’t a series for hardcore watching, analyzing, and discussion, so whatever, right? Maybe I’ll be able to sneak some episodes this year in between all the running around hectic and stressed. Who knows. Kitty is so cute.

Happy New Year!

Read it before you buy it? Or buy it before you read it?

For anime, how many of your DVDs contain series you haven’t seen at all until you bought them? The number of series being broadcast on television has been dwindling for a while, but more and more companies are streaming their goods online, in whole or part, so there are still plenty of legitimate ways of seeing a series at least partially before buying it (and in addition to DVDs, there are now also budding download-to-own schemes for various platforms). Does anyone walk into the store without an idea of what they want to get? Does anyone just decide to buy a title coincidentally sitting next to the one they intended to get, thinking that it kinda looks interesting?

For manga, there are less legitimate routes to sampling. There are companies that have begun putting their comics online, but they’re almost never in complete collections: some will have a few pages; some will have a few chapters. The few manga magazines we have left and scanlations fill in the gap… along with grazing in the manga section of the bookstore, i.e., sitting around in the aisle and reading the book at the store. How many people buy comics without at least flipping through them first? Who goes off of cover design and backflap synopsises only? Because a vast majority of series are contained over several DVDs or graphic novels, I find it hard to take the risk of buying a single volume of something I may end up disliking. It’s an investment every time I buy something; I don’t buy something without the intention of buying all of it. A four DVD anime series (approx 12-13 episodes) can run up to $100 if they’re particularly expensive. A twelve volume manga series will be least $130. That’s a significant lump of money. Thus, sampling beforehand is pretty much required for me.

Movies and other television shows work similarly. How many people buy DVDs of movies without first having seen it in theatres? Who buys TV dramas without having seen the television broadcast or online streams? Or from a rental? From watching a friend’s copy? There might be exceptions in the five dollar discount bin, but hey, I can buy a sushi lunch for those five bucks instead of picking up a potentially crappy movie that no one else wants either. Music is also similar. Stores have listening stations. Online stores have clips. There’s the radio, Pandora, and related services. Except the cases where they’re already very familiar with the artist, few people will buy an album without sampling it first.

Books might be the trickiest bit. Libraries make them some of the easiest to sample entertainment items ever, and some publishers will have excepts ranging from a page or two or an entire chapter. And yet, most people that read books from libraries probably won’t bother buying a copy of their own, perhaps because the rereadability of books may be less than the rereadability or rewatchability of other media, at least over a short period of time. All the same, book buyers may be among those that are most likely to spontaneously purchase something based only on a synopsis or a book review or a recommendation. Those things certainly influence anime, manga, movie, comic, music, and other buyers, but certainly not to the same degree. Perhaps because paperbacks are among the cheapest of media, book buyers are just be less picky and more willing to take a risk? There’s also much less commitment. Even books in large series are often self-contained enough to buy on their own.

Assuming those assertions are true, it’s interesting that the media that’s easiest to get free is also the media that’s most likely to be purchased without sampling. For the former, is it just a rereadability issue? For the latter, is it just the price point? Is it because library users and book buyers are just different kinds of readers? And are those readers just different from the consumers of other media? Would a book buyer that often buys books based on reviews buy a movie based solely on reviews?

And then there is the question, how many of those that sample anything actually end up buying? Do they not buy because they’ve already sampled or did they just never intend to buy at all? For many media, samplers are usually pirates, but I don’t actually think that matters much. Sampling is sampling, whether or not the means are legitimate. In the end, they can all be split into the following groups:

1) Those that sample something because it’s available. They have no intentions of buying anything ever. Most steretypical pirates probably belong to this group. They download everything because they can. They don’t ever intend to buy anything. If they can’t download it, they just won’t watch it. No big deal for them. They don’t care. These are the people that go into grocery stores and eat all the free samples without ever intending to buy the product. Companies don’t really lose sales over these people; these people were never their customers.

2) Those that sample something because it’s available. They don’t necessarily have intentions of buying it, but might if they really like it. Most respectable fans probably belong to this group. They might watch broacasts or download fansubs and scanlations or ebooks or whatever. They aren’t necessarily looking to buy something, but it’s never out of the question. They are not adverse to supporting those that entertain them. It’s within this group that much of the illegal sampling debates center around. The big question is: how many people are on the fence about buying but end up not doing so because downloading is just easier and cheaper? They might feel guilty, but they still do it. Morality VS Money is a difficult thing. But if they don’t sample anything at all, how will they ever be exposed to something they might want?

3) Those that sample something to decide whether they want to buy it. They buy it if they like it. They don’t if they dislike it. I don’t actually know many people in this last group, but I’m sure there are a good chunk of them. After all, they must be the bulk of people keeping various entertainment industries afloat. These are the people that want to buy things, but aren’t sure what to get.

Maybe the trick is just to put out more products that people actually like love so that more people in group #2 will be compelled to buy. It doesn’t really matter whether or not people are getting a hold of something beforehand if the product kind of sucks. Or maybe people should somehow, impossibly, be forced to not download things and then we’ll see how many actually stumble onto products on their own? Who knows?

In the first place the premise bored me. It reminded me immediately of X-Men, among other things, and didn’t feel like it would take it in a particularly interesting or new direction. The art also bored me. The style reminded me a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh!, which isn’t bad, but it’s not exaggerated in a way I find aesthetically pleasing and not very interesting either. I couldn’t bring myself to actually pay much attention to what was going on in the first episode — the expository was exceedingly dull — but the action was fun in that absurd and hilarious sort of way, though I think it was more “I’m laughing at you” than “I’m laughing with you.” Either way, it’s hard not to laugh at ridiculously named Engrish attacks and excessive fanservice. I thought I might just stay with the series for that, but it kind of gets really old, really fast, especially when the characters are all kind of annoying. At least it isn’t the primary reason for droppage this time though.

The main kid is whiny and useless and has a sister complex, but honestly, he isn’t that bad. The chick and white-haired guy probably annoyed me more, but there’s more apathy than anything else. I’m not sure if apathy is better or worse than irritated; at least the latter has some emotional involvement? Is it better to passionately dislike a show or feel absolutely nothing towards it? The second episode was very much like the first. It had (more) fanservice and action and a bit of boring expository and overt shenanigans that at some point involved dramatically named attacks. But the reactionary amusement faded very quickly into the same apathy and I had no real desire to check out the third episode at all. It isn’t that I dislike Needless necessarily. I just don’t particularly care.

So I’m dropping it. And I guess this is the best way to drop a series because unlike the cases with Kurokami and Shangri-La, I don’t end up hanging on episode after episode hoping in vain that it could get better eventually before finally giving up in exasperation.

We had our first look at the art of the DOGS OAV back in December. It was questionable, particularly for Badou and Haine’s designs, but I decided to be optimistic. This optimism seemed to have paid off, as the short trailer that surfaced last month looked brilliant. There actually aren’t many shots of Haine in the trailer, but Badou, at least, looked terrific. (Camoflague print is still missing from jacket, but I’ll live.)

Now, some character sketches seem to have surfaced, and it looks like we took three steps forward just to take ten steps back?

Now, Mihai still looks great. His facial expressions and angles are great, and his outfit is pretty spot on as well. Naoto’s turnarounds look fine, and her facial studies aren’t half bad either, albeit a little generic-feeling. At first glance, Haine doesn’t look terrible either: I love the boots in his turnarounds, and the top row of faces on his facial studies looks pretty good. What gets me are his eyes on second row — especially on the left-most face. Also, that guy needs more forehead, man. The more I stare at it, the more I want to get into art kid super critique mode.

And Badou. God, look at Badou’s face! He doesn’t even look consistent from face to face on that design sheet! What is this freaky-eyed, long-faced monstrosity?

AHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

….

All kidding aside though, it’s really weird to see these sheets, honestly. I’ve always known character design sheets for anime to be pretty spot-on with their animated counterparts, and these just throw me for a loop because I just rewatched the footage from the trailer and Badou still looks great! What’s up with this nonsense? I almost feel like we’re being trolled. In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter how shitty these sheets look as the actual animation remains as awesome as it was in the trailer. I find these character sheets kind of insulting to Miwa Shirow’s art in general, but it isn’t like we haven’t seen huge style shifts from manga to anime before. It usually turns out okay, even if it’s a little different.

I’m just kind of fearful of some random cheap crap showing up in the backgrounds:

That’s what I immediately thought of when I saw that Badou. Do not want.

In reality, it really hasn’t been that many years. DBZ’s original dub run ended in April 2003. Six years. That’s not that long… right?

Though I’ve never seen the Japanese version of DBZ, I have heard its opening theme, and it really struck me just how similar in style and mood the new opening is to the original. I think it’s pretty amazing that they were able to do something like that — the nostalgia factor is definitely there, but it’s still a new song set to new animation, allowing for a new experience for everyone. The music is very energetic in that sweet, innocent kind of way: fun, but not that deep. The updates in animation are mostly apparent in the increased levels of shininess all around. It’s a great improvement while still maintaining all the charm of the older animation style — at the very least, no one is going to mistake this as a new series. It’s a remastering for sure.

The first episode contains a fair bit of recap and flashback since it’s only DBZ that’s being remastered and not Dragon Ball. It’s a good refresher though, especially since the beginnings of DBZ/K involve so many of the minor characters that don’t really make it to the second half of the series. Hearing the original voice cast for the first time was kind of shocking, honestly. Bardock sounds like his balls never dropped, and Goku is similarly afflicted (among other reasons, perhaps this is why everyone is so shocked to find out that Goku has a kid? :P). For the former, that’s just hilarious; for the latter, it’s humorously appropriate. Of course, both characters are voiced by women (the same one, in fact), and women voicing men in anime isn’t exactly a new or strange phenomenon, but considering how manly both characters are supposed to be, it’s kind of jarring?

Everyone else sounds pretty awesome though. Bulma doesn’t sound nearly as annoying in Japanese, and Gohan is actually kind of cute? (All of Toriyama’s silly name puns are also five times more obvious now, haha.) I am kind of excited to know that there will be no dealing with Cartoon Network’s censors this time around, so Roshi is free to be as perverted as he wants! The episode goes on to introduce both Raditz and Piccolo. Raditz feels so much more badass here — his voice is much, much more manlier than his father and brother’s, anyway. Meanwhile, Piccolo has been deemed weak and useless already, and I can already imagine the Internet’s resounding cheers when we finally get to the “over 9000″ part.

I don’t remember how the first couple of episodes of the original DBZ went exactly, but the tempo of the series does feel much quicker. They’ll be shrinking a 291-episode series into ~100 episodes; even with all the filler axed out, this is going to be some amazing compression job. Nothing in this first episode felt rushed though; on the contrary, it was a pretty relaxing and well-paced episode.

Overall, it was a pretty good time. I’m still kind of surprised at DBK’s existence though. It’s one thing to just remaster it digitally, but this is really more like an super upgrade than any simple remastering job though. DBK is renamed and re-airing in a different aspect ratio; it’s in HD. The series itself is being re-cut to better fit Toriyama’s manga, and it’s getting new opening and end themes to boot. Compare that to a simple renewed edition like the Blu-ray of Akira or a freaky remake like whatever’s happening to Fullmetal Alchemist (haven’t watch it yet; holding out for FUNimation’s official stream). I find it pretty interesting, too, that DBK feature’s DBZ’s original voice cast, but FMA doesn’t. This is going to be a pretty fun run, but I’m glad DBZ/K is getting the treatment it’s getting. I owe this series a lot, after all. I wonder if there’s any US-made cartoon that’s revered as much to even think about getting something like this.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to sitting down every week with my roommate to watch this, especially considering we first met seven or eight years ago, on the Internet, on a DBZ forum. ;D Oh, the memories!

I’m really curious to see how many fansub groups this official stream deters. Since the stream is only available for those in the US and France, there will likely still be foreign language sub efforts. It’s probably presumptuous of me, but I feel at least a little confident in guessing that a significant portion of fansubbers and leechers reside in the US. I don’t usually keep up with these things, so I’m not sure if any major fansub groups have already announced FMA:Brotherhood as a project, but if there have been, I wonder if any will drop it out right following this announcement.

Dattebayo dropping Naruto when Viz started its simulcast was a big deal. It’s exciting to see FUNimation starting to do something similar with a new series — especially FMA, which is already wildly popular in the States.

As for this series… I’m still kind of pessimistic about it; its very existence right now annoys me. Even though I’m a little relieved that it isn’t a sequel after all, the fact that it’s a remake doesn’t help that much either. The bottom line I have to repeat is that the manga still isn’t finished; why are you remaking the series now? If you’re going to remake a series so it’s more faithful to its source, why don’t you wait until the source is actually complete so you aren’t inevitably forced to start making stuff up like you did the first time? What’s going to change in this remake? Seriously, what’s going to change?

Haha, honestly, I think I’m now more excited about FUNimation’s stream of the series than the series itself. There’s been a lot of experimentating with the digital streaming, and it’s been confusing because most companies will have a site stream in addition to a YouTube and Hulu channel. I actually really like FUNi’s video site though, so I definitely look forward to having a completely legitmate way of watching this series as it airs. I almost wish FUNi had more ads on its video site — I do want to support them, and if I can do it without actually buying anything (hey, we’re all struggling, y’know?), then all the better. These are still experiments — they are undoubtedly still messing around and seeing what works — but I want them to succeed.

The animation looks gorgeous and, for me at least, erases many of the doubts that came with the first look at the artwork a few months back. The character designs are very faithful, as are the backgrounds, and the action. The music reminds me a lot of Baccano!, which threw me off a little at first — it’s very energetic, upbeat, and kind of hookey, which clashes with some of DOGS’s darker undertones. But considering that the OAV will only follow the storyline from “Stray dogs howling in the dark” rather than Bullets&Carnage, the humorous energy isn’t all that misplaced.

The trailer itself isn’t a great indication of story, so those unfamiliar with the manga probably won’t be impressed by much, though the action does looks nice. I’m really eager to see a trailer that will show more general background music and that will show speaking parts. I listened to the first drama CD again not long ago; it still sounded great, so I’m excited to see it all match up with their animated images. Gleeeee.

In the meantime, I’ve got “volume 0″ of Viz’s release of the DOGS manga on preorder and can’t wait to get it~.

It’s a shame, I guess, because the animation is pretty damn slick and the music is interesting. The fight scenes are pretty from a distance, but they’re painfully boring to me. It’s because I feel utterly detatched from all of the characters involved so I don’t care about the outcomes. I don’t care about Keita because he’s whiny and generic and I just couldn’t bring myself to feel sorry for his sobstory. It’s just too convenient. I don’t care about Kuro because she tries too hard to be cute and there’s nothing about her personality that’s interesting at all. I don’t care about her desire to kill her brother, and I don’t even care enough to want to find out more about whatever the hell she is.

The premise was all right enough. The idea of dopplegangers sounded neat enough, but the series has been moving too slow on that front for me to care. The cleverly disguised (or not) antagonists are sneaking around in the background with those snatches of plot, but it isn’t prominent enough to be meaningful. It’s a damn shame. I might continue with the manga since it’s so vastly different from the anime — I don’t doubt that I would have had an easier time sympathizing with Keita if he had been a good-natured computer programmer instead of an emo high school student, and being able to sympathize with the protagonist is pretty key for me. Unfortunately, it’s harder for me to sit down and read manga than it is for me to pop in an episode of an anime.

It’s further disappointing because Kurokami was the only new series I picked up this season. Now that I’m dropping it, the only current series I’m following are Soul Eater and Gundam 00 S2, both of which will be ending soon (well, for the latter, I guess it’s kind of a relief). I have no idea how well the Kurokami dub’s been doing on IATV, but it seems to me that they could have picked a much better series to be groundbreaking with. Then again, they never did announce any kind of official online stream, so maybe it was all irrelevant after all. Not enough people get IATV for it to matter.

Man, today’s been quite the lame day. :\

There is merit in being sneaky and unexpected, and honestly, I’d say Higurashi’s story and plot is pretty unique, but it really failed at getting me to care. Because I felt nothing towards any of the characters, I wasn’t really even inclined to try and solve the mystery myself, especially when it wasn’t even obvious that it was a mystery at first. It was just, lol retcon! Is it just me? Am I just too stupid to figure things out myself or too stupidly impatient to not wait and see? Maybe, but I have a hard time imagining that anyone was really drawn to the cast. It was a generic assortment of moe girls and your usual loser guy. Who cares? Why should anyone care?

Maybe I’m just too used to characters driving the story and not the other way around.

I’m really curious though, did anyone else start Higurashi and not feel like finishing it at all?