So, Anime Central is this coming weekend, and the live programming schedule is up, so I now have a list of companies whose panels I’ll be attending (I’m so excited! They’re all on Saturday and they’re all in the same room. And there’s even a lunch break between them! Go ACEN schedulers!):

- Yaoi Press
- Bandai Entertainment
- FUNimation (coincidentally, Host Club panel– I assume fan panel –at the same time?)
- ADV (!)
- VIZ Media

Yes, ADV will actually be running a panel, if this schedule is correct. That should be interesting to sit in on. And no, don’t tell me to ask questions like, “how the hell did you f!@# up Gurren Lagann?” I don’t want to bully them, and if they’re willing and able to tell us they probably will. And someone else will probably ask it anyway.

Yes, yes, roundup-tastic– I’m back working on more database stuff for the new site, so a bit less time for the lengthy posts (though there’s always time for more CPM/Libre speculation!).

Anime:
- Man, we do a Spoiler-san for Haruhi on Japanator, and suddenly the Haruhi news just keeps popping up. First the Wii game, and now Canned Dogs reports that details on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, aka Haruhi Second Season, are due in the July issue of Newtype. Huzzah!

- A video for the Mashura remake is up.

- This one’s a day or two old now, but I sucked at getting it up (Golden Week makes me lazy!): Zune is going to carry some FUNimation titles, including Afro Samurai and Witchblade.

- Meanwhile, Bandai Visual USA plans to stream Super Robot Wars and Galaxy Angel Rune– just the first episodes –within the next few weeks.

- The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni third season OVA has been confirmed and will start being released this winter. (Via Moon Phase.)

Movies:
- ICv2 has details on the DVD release of Naruto the Movie 2.

- Ain’t It Cool News has a few reader reviews of the Speed Racer film. Here’s another and another and more and more and more…

Games:
- The Wii Fit is a bad, bad person machine. Seriously.

- Meanwhile, Japanator reports on a board game featuring characters from anime romcoms– and Project A-Kon and Dominion Tank Police. Sounds like someone got a little too wacky with their copy of BESM one night…

Misc:
- Various website updates: apparently ADV is now outsourcing its online shop to Right Stuf in yet another cost-cutting move (though FUNimation did it first). Meanwhile, Bandai Entertainment’s temporary site promises a new website at 5pm PST tomorrow, or else a firing.
- And in a final bit of “awww!” news, FUNimation has been visited by a very special VIP: Jay Dunn, a 15-year-old who visited FUNimation with assistance from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The image above is some of Jay’s art. How’s that for a warm-and-fuzzy way to sign off?

So, I didn’t have time to really speculate when I posted about it earlier, but given the lack of its mention in the press release and the nearness of the con (the 18th-20th), it looks like the American Anime Awards are not happening at NYCC this year, if at all– and the official website is gutted at best.

Now, I’ll be the first to say that the awards last year were iffy. They seemed to have things nominated from last year, five years ago, fifteen years ago…I think shows released within the last year should be the cutoff. I’d also like it if the nomination process was open to more than just the companies’ various PR departments. But none of that is unimproveable.

Then again, the company that put it together– ADV –kinda has bigger things to worry about right now, I guess.

Let me say straight up from the get-go: I don’t really give a damn about the Devil May Cry anime. I’ve never played the games. I watched the first episode and was amazed at the mediocrity of the visuals for an anime based on such a popular game franchise. (They weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either.)

That said: ANN has a new release list from ADV that includes the second disc of Devil May Cry, now due out on May 6th (both in a regular edition and an edition with a box).

But the IMPORTANT news is that there’s still no word on a release for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which makes baby Jesus cry. And baby Simon. And baby Kamina. SERIOUSLY.

Also, ADV is apparently calling Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (literally Kyoshiro and the Eternal Sky, Kyoshiro being a character of course) “Shattered Angels,” which is kind of silly. (If you had to give an English name, how about just “Eternal Sky”?)

Silly ADV.

So I got an e-mail from Gary Steinman, former editor-in-chief of Newtype USA and, until today, editor-in-chief of PiQ. In the e-mail he passed on info about the next person to talk to about the magazine if we have questions, and I noticed that it was at a new domain: PiQmag.com.

So there you have it: the official PiQ website has launched, or at least pre-launched since it’s mostly a placeholder. Still, I thought I’d let you know where to keep an eye out if you’re interested in the new mag.

Miss me? :D

Never let it be said that FUNimation lets an opportunity to pounce on some titles slide– ICv2 reports that Navarre has just begun negotiation to acquire some of Geneon’s catalogue.

Now, me being me, I think that if FUNi wanted to be a TRUE hero they’d consider stepping into ADV’s brief role as Geneon’s sales and distro team– though it may be that Geneon’s hole is deep to the point that their parent company Geneon Japan won’t bother with that.

Well, we’ll see. It’s not hard to imagine FUNi releasing shows like Black Lagoon or Rozen Maiden, and with ADV probably sitting between a financial rock and a hard place, this is a good opportunity for FUNimation to snag some of those fan-favorite titles.

Just…just don’t insist on putting Vic Mignogna in all of them, okay, FUNi? If there’s a dub cast already, just, y’know, leave it as-is…

Original source: ICv2

So upon Bandai Visual USA’s announcement of True Tears and Shigofumi, I calculated the per-episode price of each 13-episode series– six 2-episode discs at $39.99 each plus one 1-episode disc at $29.99 = $269.93, divided by 13 = $20.76 per episode. I later talked about Right Stuf’s release of Emma as being more reasonable and was brought back to a per-episode price, and it came up again on IRC with Blood+.

So I started wondering: how much does an episode of anime generally cost? In search of this answer, I went through all January US anime DVD releases and calculated the price per episode of each release (excluding movies and special editions). I DID leave in a Geneon release for comparison, as well as a couple of other cancelled releases (like Hikaru no Go).

Now, keep in mind that this is really NOT enough samples to get a really solid view on all the companies. I mean, sure, ADV, FUNi, VIZ, and Bandai Entertainment each put out a good chunk of releases, but BVU only had two, Geneon only had one that I could find enough info on to include, and TRSI only had one period. Media Blasters and Manga Entertainment also both had only two each, and Manga’s were both box set re-releases (which, of course, tend to be much cheaper).

The average price of a single anime episode, though, was $5.65. The most expensive company was, of course, Bandai Visual USA (at an average of $16.66 per episode– but again, only two releases in January to work with). The cheapest was Manga Entertainment, who again only had box set re-releases that averaged to $1.99/ep; Bandai Entertainment was in second with $4.70/ep.

The cheapest anime was the Medabots box set (if I got the number of episodes right) at $1.35/ep; second place was Noein at $1.84/ep. The most expensive were, again, BVU’s releases, MS Gundam IGLOO and Super Robot Wars OG Divine Wars, both at $16.66/ep.

The average per-episode price for box sets and rereleases was $3.19/ep; for new releases it was $7.05/ep.

Let me reiterate that this is all pretty unscientific– I really should go through, say, all of 2007’s releases to provide a more accurate picture. (Maybe I’ll get to it someday.) But this is a bit of a taste, I suppose. If you want to see my spreadsheet you can grab it here.

ICv2 reports that ADV Films has officially selected Blu-Ray as their high-def format of choice, and that their newest titles will start showing up on BD as early as this spring.

You know, it occurred to me when I was reading the article…they talked about who all was putting out what shows on what formats, and they mentioned Sony’s Tekkonkinkreet and Paprika Blu-Ray releases. I wonder if Blood+ will come out on BD? Hmm.

So apparently it took ADV until a few hours ago to come up with this excuse for the removal of major titles (Gurren Lagann, Kanon, etc) from their website: “short-term challenges.” But they still claim that they intend to release all of ‘em, so here’s hoping.

Odex: Some of you may remember a (longish) while back that Odex’s attempt to sue PacNet for the right to get user information to go along with the IP addresses of anime downloaders was stalled when a judge determined that Odex, being a licensor instead of a copyright owner, could not sue. Odex then added six Japanese companies (Gonzo, Kadokawa, Showgate, Sunrise, TV Tokyo, and Yomiuri) to the suit and PacNet has now agreed to give up the names. Odex continues to be reviled, and PacNet and Justice Woo Bih Li are no longer heroes of the anime community. If Odex sues all the downloaders and gets money from them, they could be up $9 million. Blech.
Source: TorrentFreak

ADV: ANN has an update on ADV’s title removal, including MORE titles that have been removed from the website. They also stumbled upon what was supposed to be an unpublished article on ICv2 (thanks, Google) that talked of financial problems between ADV and ARM Corp., a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment (JCI), which has also invested in ADV. The article, according to ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp, is not correct as it’s currently written, though it’s possible that ADV’s issues will turn out to be related– which is, of course, something no one knows for sure just now. ADV has still not commented officially, but ANN also notes that various anime retailers say they have NOT received any cancellation notices for these titles from ADV.
Source: ANN

Bandai Visual USA: Those prices are still crazy. Just thought I’d let you know.