Since I’ve fallen a bit behind on my series review writing, I thought that now would be a good time to catch up on it all. As result, every day in the next 31 days leading up until Otakon (July 8th to August 7th, the day before Otakon), I’ll post a new series review a day.
This project will get me totally caught up on actually posting these reviews (though I’ll still need to update the pages with the links to all the reviews as well).
June was another rather slow month, largely due to sporadic posting until the last full week or so of the month. Hopefully we’ll start seeing some improvements next month now that I’m back to a somewhat regular posting schedule.
In any case, the numbers are below the fold Read More
I hope this thing doesn’t go on 4 or 5 month cycles or whatever. From Robert’s Anime Corner blog:
I just got the word this morning from ADV that the following new releases have been ’suspended indefinitely’:
Shattered Angels , Vol #2 DVD
Shattered Angels , Vol #2 DVD w Art Box
Kanon, Vol #6 DVD
Tokyo Majin, Vol #4 DVD
Welcome to NHK, Vol #5, 5th Conspiracy DVDI did not inquire about releases out past 7/8. This is just a quick post, and I’m currently working to get some clarification on what’s going on.
Oh, damn it to hell that Kanon 6 is on the list. And I would agree with Robert on this point:
The ‘deer in the headlights’ deal we went through back in February isn’t going to cut it this time.
Especially since it appears to be yet another licensing problem. Apparently this only applies to new releases (Robert says they’re still getting shipments of the new box set releases, for example), but that is obviously still not good for ADV.
Which series are you looking forward to most? (up to 3)
Total Voters: 128
Loading ...Web regulators were poised Thursday to usher in one of the biggest shake-ups in the Internet’s brief history in a crunch vote on allowing millions of new domain names, from .paris to .Pepsi….
If the change is adopted, the web’s 1.3 billion users would be able from early 2009 to buy an unlimited number of generic addresses based on common words, brands, company names, cities and proper names, according to ICANN.
However, new top level domains wouldn’t necessarily spring up like magic:
In theory, an infinite number of new domain names could be born, which would prove a boon for ICANN because it would receive payment for each one.
But in reality advanced technical skills and deep pockets would be needed to set up a new name.
Industry experts expect the cost — which has yet to be fixed — could reach into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Apparently, an application fee for a domain name could run from about $39,000 to $390,000 (€25,000 to €250,000), so no, Josh’s Anime Blog will not be the lucky person to control .anime. However, someone may take it up (but damn it, make it available for the public if you do!)
That, by the way, brings up this point: whoever controls those domains can control who can register domain names under it. For example, ebay wants to create it’s own .ebay domain. However, I would find it highly unlikely that they would allow just anyone to register a .ebay domain.
Also, if people thought that people trying to register cnn.com before CNN can was bad, how about someone trying to set up a .cnn domain before CNN could grab it? One would think that there would have to be some approvel process, at least regarding names that are copyrighted. Of course, the multiple thousands of dollars that is required to set it up is a sizeable barrier to such cybersquatting.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to create a .hack domain (or whether they would even allow it, thinking that it would be a haven for hackers.)
Yes, it is here again…the post no one but I and a few other people in the known universe care about…the web stats post! Get all the numeric goodness below the fold! (even if it’s a bit late this time)…
I’m just about caught up (finally) on episode reviews.
I’m 4 episodes back on Maid Guy, but that’s because that’s how far back the fansubbers are. I’ve blogged everything they’ve released. I think I’m 1 back on Nijuu Mensou, but again, I’ve gone as far as the fansubbers. I’m pretty much caught up on Special A. I think after today I’ll be two episodes back, with 1 episode left to catch up with the fansubbers.
Speaking of Nijuu Mensou, I just noticed today that several places I was spelling it “Nijuu Mensou” (like in the text of most of my episode reviews) as well as “Nijuu Menzou” (such as in the category label and the episode review post titles). I’m going through and switching them all to Nijuu Mensou just so it’s consistent.
Also, to show how far behind I am, I haven’t even gotten around to posting my May web stats yet. I hope to do that next week, possibly even tomorrow.
Also, sorry for not posting any updates on where I think series rank this season, but I’m so far behind watching those that it’s not even funny. I’m trying to catch up on those one at a time. Meanwhile, it’s almost already the summer season. Expect one new blogging series to replace Maid Guy. This season I watched something like 8 new series or something. I may, at most, start watching 3 new series in the summer to replace the 3 that are ending.
I still have two semesters left of my class, so hopefully it won’t be too rough. After that, I’m home free (and with a masters degree!) Yay. But you’ll have to wait until next May for that.
Apparently trying to diversify from NewType USA was a mistake. Unofficial reports say that the current issue of PiQ is it’s last. So will those of us who still have an outstanding subscription get our money back, or are they going to herd us over to yet another publication.
PiQ had hoped to expand NewType’s subscription base by 10 times by diversifying it’s content.
My guess is that people who would by magazines like that had no incentive to buy PiQ over magazines that already existed that covered the same content, while PiQ’s already existing subscribers who were used to NewType ditched the magazine in droves. I had basically already decided to not renew my subscription when it was up myself, though I wasn’t going to go so far as canceling the subscription I already had.
Perhaps the more alarming news is that the person who made this public also notes that “apparently the parent company is going out of business.”
Now, last time I knew, ADV was PiQ’s parent company, unless there is a corporate layer between ADV and PiQ and that extra layer is what is being folded (assuming that part of the report is correct). ADV has been hurting for a while, and I noticed that my copy of Kanon 5 is already on backorder from RightStuf even though it was just released (though Amazon apparently has it in stock).
I really hope this doesn’t mean that ADV is going down as well. If so, that would mean we would effectively have only 3 major anime distributors left: Funimation, Bandai Entertainment, and Viz.
Update:
Apparently a PiQ LLC exists, with offices at the same address as and is itself owned by ADV. Whether the reference to “parent company” just meant PiQ LLC or meant to include ADV, I don’t know, and from the sounds of it, the author of the post doesn’t necessarily know for sure either.
Update II:
The PiQ webpage makes it official:
It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get a chance to see how successful PiQ could have been, but a combination of low advertising revenue, poor business management and a lack of proper marketing and promotion all hamstrung the magazine from the start. We, the editorial/creative/production staff, did the best we could to put together a quality publication, but as we’ve discovered, without a good financial backing, it’s all an exercise in futility.
So basically the reasons for this were:
As nckl notes in the comments, I’m not sure I would advertise that you basically drove your magazine into the ground via “poor business management” but oh well. Actually, it kind of sounds like some guy who decided to give ADV the middle finger just as he’s walking out the door to me. The “exercise in futility” especially seems to make it read like that. It’s not just a “we’re going bye-bye” announcement, it’s a “we’re going bye-bye, and these are the reasons why we are but didn’t have to if the people above me weren’t morons.”
Look at it: complaining about poor business management and bad financial backing…those would seem to be targeted at either the people put in charge of PiQ LLC or towards ADV itself - especially the part about financial backing.
As for those of us with subscriptions, they say they will have “more details later.” If they’re just going to refund money, I don’t know why they wouldn’t just say so, which means that we’ll probably eventually get our money back in some sort of round-about way.
It seems like forever since I did anything with this blog. I think I’m about to get on track, though. Right after I post this, I’ll start posting my next episode reviews. I’ll try to post another set this weekend and hopefully another set soon after. I’ll try to catch up soon, in any case.
Also, no podcast this week. Once Wednesday hits and I haven’t put it out, I just forget it for that week. I’ll do a double episode next week.
OK, this week has kind of been crazy, and it doesn’t help that I’m going to be gone and have sporadic access to the internet this weekend.
I should be able to post 4 episode reviews on Saturday or Sunday, since they’re basically done, but I just haven’t posted them yet. However, my podcast will be late and will probably come out Monday since recording my podcast while I’m away is basically impossible considering the circumstances.
I’ll catch up on all my episode reviews…sometime. I think I’m still 2 weeks back, but at least I have been posting them about once a week or so still. I’ll try to catch up next week (though I told myself that this past week as well).
I also hope to start posting more series reviews if I can soon enough. I haven’t sent my latest Netflix discs back in something like 3 weeks because I’ve never gotten around to watching them, and I have a 2 to 3 week backlog of fansubbed episodes to watch as well, just to show how behind I am. Some of that I might be able to take care of this weekend, but we’ll see.
