Episode 7 of the podcast is up.
You can download it directly from the following address (15.2 MB):
Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast Episode #7
You can download the rss file for the podcast here:
http://www.joshsanimeblog.com/podcast/podcast.rss
Also, I have re-reviewed the anime Last Exile, increasing it’s score from 90% to 94%
Also, my podcast is up on itunes. If you search for anime under podcasts, you should find it as Josh’s Anime Blog Podcast.
Enjoy!
Yeah, I know I forgot to do this Friday, and yeah I know I didn’t get to doing the anime and manga releases on Tuesday. I’ll do a combined one for this past week and next week on this upcoming Tuesday.
On August 6, 2005, I popped Volume 1 of DNA2 into my DVD player. That disk was the first one I watched after starting renting from Blockbuster online, and is the first time that I voluntarily chose to watch an anime series while realizing that it was an anime series. It was, by most accounts, the start of my anime viewing.
So, how far have I gotten in 1 year? I’ve rated 17 anime series or movies (of course, this site has only been up for the last 6 of those 12 months). I’ve completed 14 others, and I’m currently watching 9 more.
If my counting is correct, in the past year I have watched 503 anime episodes or movies for a total of something around 200 to 215 hours of shows (or between 8 and 9 days).
I own 9 anime series and part of another as well as 2 movies:
- Ah! My Goddess: The Movie
- Ai Yori Aoshi / Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi
- Angelic Layer
- Cardcaptor Sakura - Clow Book (Season 1)
- Chobits
- DNA2
- Fruits Basket
- Koi Kaze
- The Place Promised in our Early Days
- Please! Twins
- Last Exile
- The World of Narue
There are also several shows on my to-get list:
Not finished, but I know I’ll buy it
Cardcaptor Sakura - Sakura Book
I”s Pure
It’s either still too expensive or I just haven’t gotten around to buying it
Howl’s Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Licenced but not released
Rumbling Hearts (Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien)
Not licenced yet
I”s Pure
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Name: Last Exile
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Episodes: 26
Released: April 7, 2003 - September 29, 2003
Based On: N/A
Director: Koichi Chigira
Produced By: GONZO
US Distribution By: Pioneer/Geneon
Claus Valca: Mayumi Asano
Lavie Head: Chiwa Saito
Alvis E. Hamilton: Anna Shiraki
Alex Rowe: Toshiyuki Morikawa
Tatiana Wisla: Eri Kitamura
Dio Eracles: Junko Noda
Mullin Shetland: Shinichiro Miki
Lucciola: Tomoe Hanba
Sophia Forrester: Wakana Yamazaki
Maestro Delphine: Michiko Neya
Claus Valca: Johnny Yong Bosch
Lavie Head: Kari Wahlgren
Alvis E. Hamilton, Tatiana Wisla: Michelle Ruff
Alex Rowe: Crispin Freeman
Dio Eracles: Joshua Seth
Mullin Shetland: David Lelyveld
Lucciola: Mona Marshall
Sophia Forrester: Julie Anne Taylor
Maestro Delphine: Kirsty Pape
Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: 9/10 (x 1 = 9 pts)
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)
Total: 183/200 (91.5%)
Last Exile is an excellent series about two kingdoms, Anatoray and Disith, who are fighting each other (under the watch of the mysterious Guild) almost literally “in a galaxy far, far away.” It’s a mix of futuristic flying battlewagons with 1930s German technology.
You may have to watch this series twice to fully understand what’s going on, and even then a lot of what’s going on is rather mysterious, but it is still a good story. Alex Rowe, the caption of the neutral battleship Sylvania is on the quest to find Exile, a mysterious ship lost in the grand stream, a swirl of violent winds that seperate the two kingdoms in the hour-glass shaped world of Prester, beliving that finding the ship will bring an end to the rule of the guild.
Part of the key of unlocking the power of Exile is a girl named Alvis. Two vanship pilots - Claus and Lavie - take over a job to deliver Alvis to Alex Rowe after the original pilot given the job was killed by the guild. At first, Claus is determined to stay on the Sylvania to make sure that Alvis is safe, but soon Claus gets interested in Alex’s quest, over the objections of Lavie who believes that they should keep themselves out.
The series progresses as Alex collects the four Mysterion - a question and answer riddle entrusted to the original four noble guild houses in Prester. When the question in each Mysterion is answered by a chosen descendent of one of the four original guild houses in the vicinity of Exile, Exile activates and returns to it’s true form.
Overall, this is an action packed series with very few negatives.
The animation is amazing, even for a GONZO production. I am still not sure if I have seen an anime of any sort which has the overall quality of animation that Last Exile does. The 3D CG on the 2D background sometimes doesn’t look great at the start of the series, but for the most part the integration of 3D and 2D animation is fantastic. All the ships, from the Silvana to the Anatoray and Disith fleets, to the vanships are very detailed, and character designs are fantastic.
The soundtrack is also fantastic with vibrant music which is one of the best I’ve heard in an anime series. The coherence of the series is pretty good, and each episode continues on a single story. As far as the English dubs, everyone’s dubs are great, with the exception of Dio’s, which I didn’t really care for.
If you’re into creative action/fantasy anime, or even if you’re not, you’ll love Last Exile.
First Watched: January, 2006 - February, 2006
Do I Own: Yes
Do I Recommend: Yes
I went back and looked at when the anime that I have purchased, or in the process of buying, were first released in the US to see if they were relatively spread out or bunched together.
Well, it appears they are bunched together. The anime I purchased, at least in their original releases, totaled 45 DVDs, here is the list:
Ai Yori Aoshi (8)
Angelic Layer (7) [I bought the 5-disc re-release]
Chobits (6) [I bought the 8-disc thinpack release]
DNA2 (5)
Fruits Basket (4)
Koi Kaze (3)
Last Exile (7)
Please Twins (4)
World of Narue (1 - they dont sell the 4 DVDs individually)
= 45 discs
So, how many of those were released, by year?
2002 - 1
2003 - 21
2004 - 17
2005 - 6
Also, as many as 4 series were being released at the same time, with Fruits Basket, DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, and Chobits all being released at the same time between March 2003 and May 2003; as well as on October 14, 2003, when 2 series ended and one series began, thus having DNA2, Ai Yori Aoshi, Chobits, and Angelic Layer briefly being released at the same time.
The biggest individual day? October 14, 2003, which saw the release of DNA2 #5 (and the box set), Ai Yori Aoshi #5 (also ending the release of the first season), and Angelic Layer #1.
The only other month which saw 3 releases was November 2003, with Chobits #5 (11th), Last Exile #1 (18th), and Angelic Layer #2 (25th).
I suppose the most “modern” anime I’ve been watching are Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which is scheduled to begin it’s US release in October 2006, and I”s Pure, which isn’t even licensed yet.
Alright, now we’re talking. The other package may be small enough to fit in my mailbox, which I haven’t checked yet, but I did get the other package at my door this morning (usually the mail doesn’t come until after I leave for work. They must have been eager to get it to me today).
This package included the thinpack Last Exile collection as well as The World of Narue collection which, while it’s not a thinpack, is still packaged to save space.
So thats complete series #6 and #7 in my anime collection.
I’m also going for a set of 5 Ai Yori Aoshi DVDs which are on ebay for pretty cheap. Now they’re set up, the shipping will end up being a little much (it’s full price for first item, and 50% off other items, which means if I get all five, shipping will still be around $20), but given how cheap it looks like the actual DVDs will go for (2 already had bids, but the other three I got with Buy It Now for $4.95 each). Unless bidding on the other two DVDs go insane, I should still save more money than most auctions over the 5 discs together.
I also got Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum volume 4 and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventures volume 3 from blockbuster over the weekend. Why Volumes 4 of NGE had only 3 episodes, I’m not sure, but I suppose there is a logical reason somewhere.
That means I now only have 2 volumes of NGE left and 1 volume of Dual! left. Neon Genesis Evangelion #5 was sent out by Blockbuster Thursday, so I should get it in another day. Blockbuster should send the next movie on the list to me next, which should be Dual! Volume 4, which will finish that series up.
Some other notes:
I was (finally) able to find an (English) subbed version of I”s Pure episode 2 (thank you c1anime!). They said episode 3 should be out soon, so, hopefully they’re right about that.
I haven’t really decided what anime to start watching after Dual! and NGE. After the last volume of Dual! is shipped, then the last volume of NGE will ship. Other than Volume 3 of Cowboy Bebop, which has been sitting in the #1 slot of my queue with an availability of “Long Wait” for months, I need to select 2 or 3 more series to watch.
One already on the list (just stuck below NGE and Dual!) is Cardcaptor Sakura, since it’s CLAMP. The biggest problem with this series is that it’s 16 volumes long, which means that it’ll probably take something like 4 months to start watching it.
Other series on my short list to add to the top of the queue include: Fushigi Yugi, His and Her Circumstances, Ah! My Goddess! the TV series, and Kaleido Star.
Another option that I’m thinking is to re-rent some anime which I’ve already seen but haven’t heard the English dub to (either because I didn’t listen to it when I rented before, or I downloaded a fansub which didn’t have English on it). This list would include, out of anime I’ve finished, Dears, and anime I haven’t finished, Girls Bravo.
The only thing left to say is that there is no anime review today (duh!) and tomorrow is Tuesday, thus it is the big anime DVD/manga release date of the week, so I’ll list the major releases for that. The next review may come on the 15th.
Since I really don’t have very much to talk about dealing with anime today, I’d just like to say that, after my initial experience buying anime from ebay, which was excellent, recently it seems to have gotten worse. I don’t know if the mail is slow or what, but I’ve purchased 3 anime things off of ebay, all shipping either Monday or Tuesday. I (finally) got the first one today (via media mail, which I guess the other ones may be being sent too).
This one is the Fruits Basket set, being the 5th complete anime series I have in hand (DNA2, Chobits, Angelic Layer, Onegai Twins - in that order). The next shipment includes the Murata boxset of Last Exile, which are in thinpack packages, and the World of Narue collection. The final shipment has volumes 2 and 3 of Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi.
I blew my chance to buy the Ai Yori Aoshi first season set. There were two items on ebay, one with a starting bid of $15 and one with a starting bid of $30. The two other times I’ve seen them on ebay, they went for something like $70, so I put an opening bid on the $15 one for $50 thinking “no way either will go for less than that.”
Well, at first I thought I was going to get a break. Going into the last day, the one I was bidding on was at $26 and the $30 had one bid. The $30 (which ended first) ended up going for that, so I was like “yeah!” Nope. Bidding on mine started going up dramatically. I was sitting there like “why didn’t you bid on the other one like that?”
Mine ended up going for like, $64, which was a little more than I was in the mood to pay, considering the same thing sold for less than half that just a couple hours earlier. So i learned my lesson: even if I think something will go for a lot, unless its the only thing there, don’t bid a lot on the first bid (and even if it is alone, there is a chance a new one may pop up). Unfortunately I haven’t seen the set (other thank cheap HK knockoffs) on there since.
One item I just bought yesterday was Koi Kaze volume 1. Again, it is rare to see the whole set on there, but one will occasionally see someone selling a particular volume for cheap, and I got this one for $7.99 including shipping, which, considering my thought was about $10 to $12 per DVD in that set, isn’t a bad deal.
