Monthly Archives: January 2008

ADV Finally Speaks, sort of [Updated]

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 – 6:53 pm

ADV:

We know there are a lot of rumors swirling about, and that fans are looking for assurances that ADV will continue to distribute the anime series they know and love.

While we can’t go into any detail at this time, please know that ADV is working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases.

We thank you for your patience.

So it’s basically sounding like what I increasingly suspect - something went funky with the licensing and that this isn’t a money matter (ie, ADV isn’t going out of business). As I suspected too, it’s also something they probably can’t talk about until whatever they’re doing is done, so I’ll be interested in what happened here.

At least ADV finally decided that things had gotten out of hand to a point that they felt like they had to say something.

Update

More from the Robert’s Anime Corner Blog:

I have heard what I deem as reliable information this morning that ADV is close to a solution to the licensing problems and that there is a very good level of confidence that their existing catalog will remain in-tact with nothing more than a few bumped street dates. I’ve been doing business with this guy for 10 years and he never bullshits me, so I think this is as good of information as we can get less than an official statement. I have verified this info through a couple other inside industry contacts and it jives. ADV will probably not be able to make any official statement though until everything is wrapped up which could be a few more days.

By Josh | Posted in General Blather | Tagged | Comments (0)

More on the ADV ICv2 Letter

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 – 3:46 pm

ICv2 reported this to Anime News Network:

The article on Sojitz and ADV you refer to was one of several contingency articles we prepared and posted on a staging site…. It’s unfortunate because as this is written, the article isn’t true. It may still be one of several possible outcomes of the current situation, but as far as we know today ADV has not sent a notice to its retailers or placed the titles in question on hiatus and may not, pending the outcome of events that are still unfolding. We regret that our efforts to prepare for any eventuality led to this draft article becoming public before it was published and have taken steps to prevent such an event from happening again.

So this muddies the water of what exactly is going on even more. ADV still declines to comment on the situation.

By Josh | Posted in General Blather | Tagged | Comments (3)

Bandai Visual licenses Shigofumi, True Tears

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 – 2:32 pm

That was fast. Too bad this means that more money will be leaving my pocket to get these series. Also means I lose two series to watch fansubbed since I quit watching once they’re licensed. At least they’ll be coming out pretty soon - reportedly the discs will start being released in May.

By Josh | Posted in 2008 Anime | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

ADV Titles on ‘Indefinite Hiatus’? Or maybe not.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 – 10:55 pm

Yesterday, Anime News Network reported that several pages for many of ADV Film’s recently acquired series disappeared off of their website and store.

Apparently, also yesterday, ADV sent a press release to ICv2, which no longer appears on their website, but can be viewed using Google cache.

In it, ADV reported that 37 series were on “Indefinite Hiatus” due to ADV “suspending certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation” which ADV used to license nearly all of it’s new shows since ADV started their partnership with Sojitz.

The titles in question were:

009-01, 5cm Per Second, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy, Air Gear, Air Movie and TV, Best Student Council, Blade of the Phantom Master, Comic Party Revolution, Coyote Ragtime, Devil May Cry, Ghost Train, Gurren Lagann, Guyver, Innocent Venus, Jinki: Extend, Kanon, King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven, Kurau Phantom Memory, Le Chevalier D’Eon, Magikano, Moeyo Ken TV Series, Moonlight Mile, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Pani Pani Dash!, Project Blue, Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Synethesia, The Wallflower, Tokyo Majin, UFO Princess Valkyrie - Third and Fourth Seasons, Utawarerumono, Venus vs. Virus, Welcome to the NHK, and Xenosaga.

ADV Films still continues to refuse to comment, according to ANN.

However, before people start panicking, Robert from the Anime Corner Store had this to say on the ANN forums:

The letter was NOT sent to retailers. It was pulled at the last minute. The pulled article on ICV2 reflects the bleak situation as of last Friday, but things have changed since then and I’m sure ADV was hoping they could rectify the situation before too much of this became public and caused a panic.

Obviously it is impossible to know what this means for these licenses until ADV decides to speak, and perhaps not even they know the answer to that question. Hopefully the totality of these statements suggest that it looked like titles were going to have to wait, but maybe that isn’t the case anymore. ADV may not talk until whatever dealings they need to do are finished.

In any case, the only thing we can do is wait for official word from ADV before we know anything for certain. Unfortunately they’re keeping quiet for the time being.

By Josh | Posted in General Blather | Tagged | Comments (3)

Anime DVD and Manga Releases for January 29 - February 4

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 – 1:10 pm

Anime DVDs

January 29, 2008
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad DVD Volume 6BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad - Volume 6
Naruto - Volume 20 (dub)
Ragnarok The Animation - Volumes 2 (2 disc)
Ranma ½ - Season 5 Box Set
The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye - Volume 4
Witchblade - Volume 4

Manga

January 29, 2008
Aqua Knight Manga Volume 1Coyote Ragtime Show - Volume 3
Family Complex - Single
Hell Girl - Volume 1
Infinite Ryvius - Box Set
Penguin Revolution - Volume 5
Puri Puri - Volume 4

January 30, 2008
Aqua Knight - Volume 1
Translucent - Volume 3

January 31, 2008
After School Nightmare - Volume 6
Black Sun, Silver Moon - Volume 4
Monochrome Factor - Volume 1
Neconoclasm - Volume 1
Night of the Beasts - Volume 6
Spiral: Bonds of Reasoning - Volume 2
The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls - Volume 2
TRAIN+TRAIN - Volume 5
Tsubasa, RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE - Volume 16
Variante - Volume 2
Voiceful - Single
Walkin’ Butterfly - Volume 2
Zombie Fairy - Volume 1

By Josh | Posted in Anime & Manga Releases | Comments (0)

Shion no Ō - Episode 13

Monday, January 28, 2008 – 8:43 pm

It’s episode 13 of Shion no Ō. Shion and Saori both lose, so it’s the end of the three girls in the tournament, right? Well, lucky for them, 3 extra players have to advance to the final tournament on top of the 9 finalists to make it an even bracket, so they each have a chance to advance, but will they do so? And Saori gets a note that Ayumi’s mother is in the hospital and goes visit. Unfortunately for Ayumi, his mother doesn’t know anything about him playing shogi, nor does he dress as a girl at the hospital.

I'm in trouble...
Yes you are, little girl I lost. Oh well! ^_^

Read More »

By Josh | Posted in Shion no Ō | Comments (1)

CLANNAD - Episode 15

Sunday, January 27, 2008 – 5:54 pm

It’s episode 15, and Nagisa tries to restart the drama club once again, with the help of everyone deciding to lend their name to the club, giving it the 5 student requirement. The only problem now is finding a faculty sponsor, but Nagisa ends up having a clash with another start-up club in an attempt to pick one up.  And apparently the school uniform designer also watches Evangelion a little too much.

The robot
The girl The field of light

Read More »

By Josh | Posted in CLANNAD | Comments (5)

Shakugan no Shana II - Episode 15

Sunday, January 27, 2008 – 3:59 pm

It’s episode 15, and you better fasten your seatbelts and put on a helmet for this episode, as everyone shows up to have fun, including Bel Peol, Hecate, Fecor, and the mad scientist. What is Margery’s reaction to the Silver coming out of Yuji, and we finally find out what exactly Fumina is.

That sucks
Wilhelmina is pissed Margery can't wait to meet Silver again

Read More »

By Josh | Posted in Shakugan no Shana | Comments (2)

New Poll: Podcast and Series Reviews

Sunday, January 27, 2008 – 1:24 pm

I decided to post a new poll asking about series reviews. It’s been a while since I’ve posted one (October actually), but I have quite a few lined up to add. However, I’m wondering about whether people would rather have me post reviews to the blog first, and then re-review them during my podcast later (how I currently do it), or review shows on my podcast, and then post that review on my blog afterwards. Or maybe a mix of both?

The plus for the first option is that I may be able to do a better review in the podcast if I re-edit one I’ve already written. Of course, the negative to that is that it may take a while for newer series to be reviewed on my podcast.

In any case, I’ve put up a poll to see what people can think. If you think it should be a mix of both (keep posting reviews to the blog first, but feel free to review a new series on the podcast), you can select both options. The poll will close in a week, and you should be able to track the poll’s results on the sidebar.

Which series are you looking forward to most? (up to 3)

  • Someday’s Dreamers: Summer Skies (13%, 16 Votes)
  • Slayers REVOLUTION (12%, 15 Votes)
  • Blade of the Immortal (11%, 14 Votes)
  • Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~ (9%, 11 Votes)
  • Hidamari Sketch x365 (8%, 10 Votes)
  • Natsume Yuujinchou (7%, 9 Votes)
  • Birdy the Mighty Decode (7%, 9 Votes)
  • They all suck (7%, 9 Votes)
  • World Destruction (6%, 8 Votes)
  • Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (5%, 7 Votes)
  • Sekirei (5%, 6 Votes)
  • Strike Witches (3%, 4 Votes)
  • Antique Bakery (2%, 3 Votes)
  • Ultraviolet: Code 044 (2%, 2 Votes)
  • Ryoko’s Case File (2%, 2 Votes)
  • Neo Angelique Abyss -Second Age- (1%, 1 Votes)
  • Mission-E (1%, 1 Votes)
  • Koihime Musou (1%, 1 Votes)

Total Voters: 128

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By Josh | Posted in Polls | Tagged | Comments (5)

Anime Theme Competition - Quarterfinal Set 1 Results

Sunday, January 27, 2008 – 11:28 am

It’s time to announce the results of the first two quarterfinal matchups. Clips for the last 4 songs in the quarterfinals are after the jump.

And just a reminder, I’m choosing these songs since I found that coming up with a top 10 list of favorite songs was a rather daunting task. So by “results” I mean “my favorite.” Just thought I’d mention that again.

The songs which advanced to the Quarterfinal/Seventh Round are in bold. Also, see the full bracket.

“Waltz”
by Kanako Itou
School Days

vs.

“Michishirube”
by Yuumao
 Kashimashi

and

“Presence”
by The Indigo
Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~

vs.

“Ameagari”
by Moeko Matsushita
 Angelic Layer

So Michishirube from Kashimashi and Ameagari from Angelic Layer make it to the final four and will face off in the first semifinal in two weeks.

Read More »

By Josh | Posted in Anime Theme Competition | Tagged | Comments (0)