Blah blah blah, Bandai Visual USA + sola, $49.99/disc, three episodes per disc, June 10th, no dubs, etc.

Does anyone else think BVU is really moving to the (relative) mainstream of anime? I mean, look at their past titles: Patlabor, Gunbuster, Demon Prince Enma, Wings of Rean, Super Robot Wars, MS Gundam IGLOO, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers, Galaxy Angel– all space, mech, sci-fi, adventury, kinda “big” series.

And now look at their most recent license: Harukanaru Toki no Naka de, Shigofumi, True Tears, sola. The first two have some adventure and stuff, but none of these are “big” titles (yes, I know sola was voted top anime of ‘07 on Yahoo! Japan, but I just can’t take that very seriously), and True Tears in particular is an absolute slice-of-life romancey thing. I guess what I’m trying to say is, all of these recent licenses are of moe shows, which is so different from what BVU has done in the past.

Now, True Tears and Shigofumi were both produced by Bandai Visual Japan. But sola is not– which may make it the FIRST title ever to be released by BVU that is not related to Bandai Japan in some way. The closest would be HaruToki, which was only distributed by Bandai Japan. But everything else Bandai Visual USA has was either produced by Bandai Visual or by one of its subsidiaries like Freedom was done by Sunrise and Super Robot Wars is based on games made by Banpresto.

Well, we’ll see if this means anything. Just thought I’d point it out for you industry-watchers. :)

After I got a comment from DiGiKerot, I went and poked around some more sites– specifically the Japanese wikpedia entry for sola –and they list Bandai Visual (Japan) as one of the production companies. The English sites just haven’t caught up to it yet (and it’s not mentioned on the official Japanese site either). So, so much for that! Sorry for the red herring. ;)

Posted by gia in Anime, Licenses, Manga, News • Comments (5)

…Just kidding. Daddy can’t take my T-1 away anymore! (Besides, I have DSL now. BTW, Qwest DSL sucks!)

Anyway, on to more interesting developments, like the fact that this post is #666. FEAR THIS POST. And now, on with the lulz:

• Either ICv2 or the CEO of FUNimation fails to know what Hellsing is. Either way, I’m laughin’. Oh, and FUNi wants to acquire some Geneon licenses, etc.
• At first glance, I thought this was about Yuko Goto, and I was all, “Mikuru pulled a Winona Ryder!?” But alas, it was just some Jpop guy.
• Bandai (JP) is doing some redecorating: they’re merging Banpresto into Bandai Namco Games, and they also want to buy up all of the Bandai Visual (JP) shares to pull the company off the public stock market. I don’t think that’ll mean much to individual BVU/Bandai Entertainment consumers in the US, but there you have it.
• Isn’t the guy singing in this video the same guy who sings in Metal Koi no Mikuru Densetsu? If not, they could be voice doubles of each other!
• Aaaand Media Blasters may or may not have licensed Doujin Work. I’d guess yes; it seems like a title that would suit them well.

Further updates as events warrant, natch.

Alrighty, I’m waiting on the FUNimation panel, starting at 2:30 PST (forum thread is here, and I’ve been told that they will announce something significant, so they’ll have a solid trifecta of series from the three big summer cons). In the meantime, here are a few items making the blog rounds:

Current Mood:  Approving

Now, admittedly, I’m no expert on the figures scene. But even I know potential big figure news when I see it.

In the linked article, Heisei Democracy spots word on a Japanese blog that Bandai Visual (Japan) has allowed a second-party resin kit of C.C., a character from Code Geass, to go on the market. Bandai traditionally doesn’t allow second-party figure sales, but as HD notes, this could mean that we’ll see Geass figures from other companies, if not characters from other titles.

But more excitingly, it means we could get Nendoroid figures - you know, those SD ones, like L and Yuki - of Geass characters. Which would make me a very happy gia indeed. ♥