Where do you get your Anime/Manga?

I was busy over on AnimeNewsNetwork.com looking at some articles when I stumbled across a really interesting interview [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/chicks-on-anime/2009-04-07] with the co-owner of a video store in Colorado and her experiences with renters, and some pretty harsh words directed towards users of services like Netflx and those that stream online [legally and otherwise] This evoked a lot of emotion in me and got me thinking about the changes that we have been going through in the community in the last few years, and where we are headed going forward.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years you know that a lot has changed with regards to traditional media, streaming, piracy, scanning, e-books, and of course DVRs have changed how we look at much of what we watch, listen and read.

Anime and Manga has been a lighting rod for this issue, mostly due to the fact what was once a very small niche hobby has gone much more mainstream. For a little bit of backstory, lets do a bit of a retrospective to how we got where we are today.

My first encounter with Anime like many people was with Star Blazers as a child, it was one of the few cartoons that my parents supported me watching because they were impressed with the story and it wasn't a mass toy commercial, unlike most of the others at the time. After this I wandered away onto other more mundane affair, but my love of Star Blazers never ceased. [ask my father about desperately trying to get the antenna pointed in the right direction so I could still watch my favorite show when it was on]

When I was 13 I started playing the ROBOTECH: RPG from Palladium Books, which got me into watching the old show again. We started a ROBOTECH fan club in Jr. High, and one night we were at the local comic store and I picked up a copy of Protoculture Addicts and I saw all these articles on other shows that I had never heard of, there was this whole world of animation geared to the more mature person and I had no inclination it existed.

From here I spent the next two years trying to get access to anything I could of the Anime variety, it was at this point that Viz Comics was getting into stride and I got a hold of my first issue of Ranma 1/2, Crying Freeman [really glad the parentals didn't look at that too closely] I was in love. During this time my father [a commercial airline pilot] worked with a guy who knew of an Anime club near my house, my father at that time found the whole concept fascinating, probably due to the fact this stuff was geared to a much more mature audience, so he was willing to drive me to the club meetings once per month.

The Club meetings were the golden age for me in the mid 1990’s, here were all these series that I had never heard of, everything from giant robot drama's Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory to slice of life shows like Maison Ikkoku. to the magical girl genre of Sailor Moon. What also made this time so interesting was the fact that almost none of what we were watching was commercial releases over here, what we were watching were Anime that had been copied directly off Japanese tv then subtitled on an Amiga computer for fans.

This was an amazing time, Arctic Animation the parent of our club was an North American power when it came to fansubbing, they were one of the only games in town, since at the time the few VHS releases available cost a fortune, it wasn’t uncommon for tapes to cost in the $50+ range, and we certainly didn’t have DVD’s. There wasn’t Netflix, and video stores were terrified of it [I was there when they had to explain to an angry parent that they thought Akira was a childrens cartoon] there was so little in the range of sources it was scary at times.

But the seeds were planted, even though the tapes cost a fortune, Manga Entertainment, Viz, Animego, Central Park Media, US Manga Corps, Central Park Media were the pioneers, they saw the future and jumped on it.

Manga was a slightly different story Viz had been around for some time releasing a few select titles, along with Dark Horse Comics but there was even less selection on this front, and what was available was fairly expensive.
Fast forward to today, and the landscape is much different, we have companies dedicated to bringing out Manga in its original digest form, for far more palatable price, and one only needs to walk into their local Best Buy or FYE to see the selection of Anime available. Even the video stores are getting in on the act with Blockbuster and Hollywood Video renting large selections of Anime.

Going a step further are the legal online services such as Netflix and Crunchyroll [though their background is a little more than dubious] offering on demand streaming, or direct to mail rentals.

Times they have definitely changed…

So my question to you is this, where do you get your Anime/Manga? Tell me where you like to buy, and why, what makes for a great experience, and what makes for a bad one.

Ooops! Sorry our bad!

Ok, sorry that we gaffed on the schedule the end of last week and the beginning of this one. We have some REALLY neat changes coming through in the next couple of weeks that are going to hopefully allow for a lot more content, and getting there is taking longer than expected.

There will be a feature article posted for tommorow, and there will likely be some extra content added over the weekend.

Again, sorry for the delays!

PS: The "WE" should give you a hint to the upcoming changes

NEWS: Bandai Streaming on Youtube!

This might not be big news, but with Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion going on hiatus from Cartoon Network it might interest folks to know that Bandai is offering the episodes as streaming content through their Youtube! channel.

Currently they are offering 25 episodes with English subtitles, I have embedded the player here into the blog so that you readers can watch the series from the comfort of Blossom of the Sakura

NEWS: Mandalay Pictures Options Full Metal Panic Movie!

Ok I am REALLY hoping this was a very late April fools joke! From Anime News Network:

The Mandalay Pictures production studio has licensed the film rights to Shoji Gatoh's Full Metal Panic! high school action comedy light novels. The story centers around a brusque young sergeant named Sousuke Sagara who must protect an assertive high school girl named Chidori Kaname by masquerading (somewhat unsuccessfully) as a high school student himself. Actor Zac Efron (High School Musical, Hairspray, 17 Again) is reportedly discussing the project.

Shikidouji illustrated the original novels, and Retsu Tateo adapted them into manga form. Three television anime series, several spinoff manga, and a video special have since released. ADV Manga released both the first manga series and the Full Metal Panic: Overload! manga spinoff in North America. ADV Films and Funimation have split the North American DVD releases of the different anime series between the two of them.

This is more than a little scary, once again Hollywood gets an idea to remake a popular Anime series, and well, Speed Racer shows how that can go.

We will see what we shall see on this one I guess.

MANGA REVIEW: Tetragrammaton Labyrinth Vol: 1

From the Back Cover:

When darkness falls on the foggy streets of London, demons and monsters emerge to prey on human life. But demons aren’t the only ones prowling the streets. Two women have picked up the fight as humanity’s front line defense against the darkness--a young gun-toting nun named Sister Meg and her mysterious, eternally youthful partner Angela. Together, they have made it their life’s work to spend their nights hunting the vile demons that stalk mankind.


Introduction


I am not going to lie here, I have a soft spot for occult/religious Manga, especially when it involves cute girls with guns, and even more so when they are nuns. So it should come as no shock that when I first saw Tetragrammaton Labyrinth that I immediately picked up a copy. The cover art alone had me giddy with anticipation, as did the description on the back of the book, if only the rest of it lived up to these expectations.


Story - 4/10

Tetragrammaton Labyrinth is the story of sister Meg, a nun, and her supernatural partner Angela. The story is based is London England during the first part of the 20th Century, where apparently demons are running rampant and the Catholic church is obviously needing to train their clergy in the use of high powered weapons.

During the first volume we see them take on a pair of cases relating to the underworld and what looks like it may be the beginning of a larger overriding story arc, that's about it, and therein lies the problem.

The story, is at the same time interesting and frustrating. There is no back story given until near the end of the first volume, and even then you are left with far more questions than answers, which wouldn't be a problem if the characters were more interesting, or more well fleshed out, but sadly they aren't. Meg is the Anime stereotype nun-with-guns nothing new here it seems in the first volume, Angela on the other hand, looks like she belongs at a Goth Lolita convention and runs around cutting demons to bit with a giant scythe, sadly they just aren't that interesting.

Another point of distaste is that to this point a lot of the story [and in one glaring case character design] seems to have been lifted directly from Chrono Crusade, I would like to see something a little more original and not so overtly plagiarized.

Story takes a bigger role near the end, where we get a hint that somehow the two protagonists are linked in some way, with Angela kept alive by Meg's need for her, and I can only hope that the slow and somewhat boring pace of this first volume, along with the main story arc pick up in volume 2.

Art - 7/10

The Art in the first volume fairs better than the story, with the characters being drawn very well. I have to say its nice to see a nun who is actually dressed like a nun for the most part, rather than with cleavage exposing clothing no clergy member would be caught wearing. I found Angela a bit oddly clothed in that she would stick out like a sore thumb in any society, let alone London of the early 20th century, but these are minor nit pickings on the character designs as a whole.

I do have an issue with some of the action scenes which are framed a bit oddly at times which can lead to a "what the heck is...Oh! Its a dismembered arm!" moments. Also I found that some of the backgrounds could have been better detailed, but these are minor nitpicks overall.

Parental warning, there is a substantial amount of blood and gore in this series so far, its definitely not one for the kiddies.

There isn't an exceptional level of innovation with the art in the series, its nice to look at, but nothing ground breaking either.


Final Conclusions overall - 6/10 [Not an average]
I want to like this series, it has a lot going for it in terms of setting and possible storyline, but as of volume one its hard to recommend it as anything above an average Manga release.

+ some nice artwork, interesting setting, and

- Story is more than a little flat, some of the artwork is oddly framed, story seems to have been lifted directly from Chrono Crusade


Publisher: Seven Seas/gomanga.com
Cost USD: $11.99
Rating: 16+