Winter Anime 2015 Season

Ring a ding ding, it's time for the Sentai Filmworks' Shameful Marketing report!

Today I bring you Soni-Ani, Super Sonico the Animation!


What's that? An anime series advertising itself with celebrity talent? I mean, Afro Samurai is one thing, that was basically Sam Jackson the Animation first and foremost, but this is just catering to western cosplay fanatics.

Quote :

Special Features: English Sonico Reveal Commercial Collection, English Radio Spots, Narrated Trailer, Recording with Jessica Photo Shoot, English Outtakes, English Blooper Reel, Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation.

My my, what an astonishing array of extras, considering that we're lucky to get bloopers these days (Durarara!! is the latest I can name since Resident Evil Degeneration) and most extras consist of single episode-per disc commentaries. There's even an assuredly-classy and tasteful...Photo shoot? Of a recording session? Does that make any sense? I mean videos I can understand, Persona Q had some amusing skits with Yuri Lowenthal and Erin Fitzgerald, but I don't understand how photos are supposed to communicate the dubbing experience that these quality extras are definitely trying to share with us...I bet I know who's narrating that trailer, though!

So there were reveal commercials for the English dub, and even radio ads? Let's check out the only one I could find ON THE INTERNET:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTMgbOQvEOk

WOW! Apparently the entire cast is voiced by her! I mean obviously there ARE Sonico's bandmates, it's not like this video should focus on Sonico only, so clearly they only hired one actress. What an outstanding achievement in modern dubbing.

I can't wait to view the rest of these quality extras:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEaup_WYim0

Kill me now.

Hahahaha, well yeah. Sentai is what's left of ADV, and ADV dubs back in the day were terrible in comparison to shows I watched from other companies such as Central Park Media or Media Blasters. Which infuriated me because ADV jumped on every license they could get their mitts on, which prevented the better companies from getting it. This of course inevitably lead to their demise when the anime bubble burst.

Sentai's dubs are much better than they were during the ADV days, but they're often hit-or-miss. Super Sonico is clearly a miss.

ADV wasn't the best, but they had some really amazing productions and licensed some really obscure stuff (eventually going a bit too obscure with Ghost Stories.) The problem is that they had the spread that FUNimation has these days, but not the funds and array of talent to back it up, using a very small pool of actors. I have very few complaints about the ADV shows I own, but I do own mostly unknowns like Rune Soldier Louie, Yugo the Negotiator and Soul Hunter (Houshin Engi)...Kino's Journey, Get Backers and Chrono Crusade are probably the biggest ADV productions I have, and most complaints about ADV I heard with regard to more mainstream stuff.

I actually have far more complaints about Sentai, but maybe I'm just holding a grudge because they didn't license anything beyond the core 13 episodes for Kino's Journey, and didn't dub Allison and Lillia. The fact that they keep re-releasing stuff is a problem (whether it's to apply a dub for a show they previously released sub-only, or releasing a collector's edition for their hit shows like Highschool of the Dead and Chuunibyo, it disincentivizes my reason to buy Sentai products soon after release.)

Oh and check out this happy accident, oh Sentai-kun~:

New Aria is all I need.

Didn't feel a need to create an anime purchase thread.

So, RightStuf had a massive sale like usual around Christmas and I wasn't really buying many games during the holiday season and decided to splurge.



It was pretty satisfying to look at (I shuffled a few things around before deciding to take a picture, you'll notice that the Index movie is out of order and isn't flush with the rest of the cases, and the gap on the right is because I removed the packing materials.) I find it interesting how the packers decided to match up BTOOOM!'s title with the rest of the cases, it's the only one where the title (when rightside-up) is toward the bottom after all. They even credit their "pickers" and "packers" now when they ship something (Tonye and Anita respectively,) which is interesting also.


Edit: http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/N7XJ9K=1bLKIgL7mFs/browse/item/104863/4/0/0 BANDAI VISUAL LIVES (this is not Bandai Visual USA but they were pretty closely related in the first place) also Pony Canyon is directly releasing stuff out here now. Aniplex really paved the way for these guys unfortunately, expect more $80-for-4-episodes releases. =/

So I started watching The Devil is a Part-Timer! finally. The dub is really something special, a lot like Haganai, it spruces things up with a bunch of clever dialogue and disarming pop-culture references (Maou totally says WELL EXCUUUUSE ME PRINCESS to Emi at one point, his manager gets his attention by going Yo yo Ma! at another point, and when discussing something with Ashiya, Maou says "not a snowball's chance in home.")

The plot has already gone to places I wasn't expecting, and I really like the shounen aspects (I've stated before that I'm a big fan of characters revealing their secret identities to friends.) I really hope that we get a sequel anime eventually.

Edit:
"Urushihara and his interwhatever, I don't get how he can find information so quickly..."
"Yeah, it's like a series of magic tubes!"

God I love this script.

Also Aaron Dismuke surprised me, I've probably heard him more recently than FMA but he sure stands out in this show. Much like Haganai I couldn't imagine watching this subbed, I saw some clips and they were so bland by comparison.

Taiyz wrote:

Edit: http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/N7XJ9K=1bLKIgL7mFs/browse/item/104863/4/0/0 BANDAI VISUAL LIVES (this is not Bandai Visual USA but they were pretty closely related in the first place) also Pony Canyon is directly releasing stuff out here now. Aniplex really paved the way for these guys unfortunately, expect more $80-for-4-episodes releases. =/

Little late on noticing this but uh, I like how the description does not tell you AT ALL how many episodes you get for $100.

Episodes? Welcome to Bandai Visual.

Taiyz wrote:

Episodes? Welcome to Bend Over Visual.

...So you're saying Pony Canyon is effectively Bandai Ent USA come back from the dead, and rather than learning their lesson from having to close up shop, they are now, in fact, worse.

Wonderful.

Try 19: Dat Denial

WHATS WITH THESE 2 PART EPISODES DO YOU THINK THERES ENOUGH EPS FOR THIS GEEZ

Tenshigami wrote:

Taiyz wrote:

Episodes? Welcome to Bend Over Visual.

https://i.imgur.com/G2myWuC.gif

...So you're saying Pony Canyon is effectively Bandai Ent USA come back from the dead, and rather than learning their lesson from having to close up shop, they are now, in fact, worse.

Wonderful.

Bandai Visual is still the worst. $100 for a single episode OVA is absurd. Pony Canyon is charging a lot for four episodes, and Aniplex charges a TON for movie releases, their box set of Garden of Sinners was over $500 for example (but otherwise Aniplex's releases are reasonably priced for their content.)

Gundam: The Origin is from the ACTUAL Bandai Visual, not Bandai Visual USA. Pony Canyon is a separate company, handling two other series' currently.

Falcom wrote:

Try 19: Dat Denial

WHATS WITH THESE 2 PART EPISODES DO YOU THINK THERES ENOUGH EPS FOR THIS GEEZ

because 1 episode can't do enough justice for hiroyuki yoshino aaaaa best va. tales when?

wtf is denial's base? goddammit try, stop making new mecha im broke. color scheme pretty bland tho. and dat hair-wing thing, come onnn


Overall, I love the hand-to-hand fight scene in this season. That Shining Wizard ripoff back with Shimon was interesting enough, but Junya ripping off Ippo's Liver Blow to Gazelle Punch into Dempsey Roll combo? Oh my god, YES!! ALL OF MY LOVE. I mean, look at that, even the final blow is the same. Wow Try director, never change. btw, if you guys like sports anime/manga, give hajime no ippo a try, if you haven't already

Junya also got a pretty awesome theme song, with chinese kungfu-ish cymbal at the beginning and that flute. Need a heroic rendition of this.


btw, nice cameo, freedom color schemed justice gundam. too bad you're rekt by awesome 00-based team, yeah come at me bro

Fafner in the Azure: Exodus: Episode 7: Rocks fall...

Aaaaand it's starting to feel like Dead Aggressor/ Right of Left again!

King Cat the Sixth wrote:

because 1 episode can't do enough justice for hiroyuki yoshino aaaaa best va. tales when?

As much as I love him as a VA, whenever he voices a character, I only see him as Bossun from Sket Dance.

Hallelujah? Evil Bossun. Junya? Evil Martial Artist Bossun. Tarou-san from Shirobako? Irresponsible Bossun.

I swear to Gunpla Jesus Meijin Kawaguchi III, if Domon doesn't show up in a non-silhouette form next week, at least like talking to Ral-san or something, I'll strangle a gunpla.

Also, the manga prequel of BF that tells Tatsuya's/Meijin's story, BF Amazing, shows the 2nd Meijin building a Gunpla that's somehow similar to Denial. But then JunyaBossun said that he tuned up Denial for his fight with Sekai.

It'll be cool if it does indeed go back to the 2nd Meijin.

I just think "sono me...dare no me...?"

DylDawg wrote:

King Cat the Sixth wrote:

because 1 episode can't do enough justice for hiroyuki yoshino aaaaa best va. tales when?

As much as I love him as a VA, whenever he voices a character, I only see him as Bossun from Sket Dance.

Hallelujah? Evil Bossun. Junya? Evil Martial Artist Bossun. Tarou-san from Shirobako? Irresponsible Bossun.

Lmao even though Bossun was the first time I heard him, to me Tarou is like the most prominent role I can think of when I hear him xD
Tarou Junya is all I hear.

Also Meijin needs to do something beside being a sideline cameo character.

Meijin is already doing something mna.

He and Lady are basically the only characters who can spout the chessiness of Gundam while remaining cool and awesome.

Slaine going downhill!

Waiting for Slaine to live up to his name.

Anyway so in some ways this season of anime is great - in other ways it sucks. Anyone else notice the sheer number of shows this season based on the "high school for teens with special powers" trope? I can name at least three - Absolute Duo, Unlimited Fafnir, and World Break. Those can be fun, but three in the same season? Jeez.

Probably the most enjoyable shows I'm watching this season are leftovers from last season - Log Horizon (of course), Akatsuki no Yona, and Garo.

I think everyone knows how much I love Log Horizon and want to insert myself into its database, but I haven't really talked about Akatsuki no Yona.

Akatsuki no Yona is just... Wow. It feels so much like a classic anime from the golden anime era of the 90s-early 2000s. The show's atmosphere reminds me of Fushigi Yuugi in certain ways, except it hasn't devolved into a horrible show like Fushigi Yuugi did. It's been a slow process,  but watching Yona evolve from defenseless princess to intimidating badass has been thoroughly enjoyable.

Then there's Garo. Garo can be kind of a mixed bag at times, but I really enjoy the medieval setting. That's all I can really say about it other than that Leon is actually a pretty horrible protagonist. He's just sort f been all over the place as far as character development and it seemed pretty forced.

bftry 22, oh god, all sort of win in this episode

sakai's kabe-don is unexpected, and him groaning at his hand afterward is pretty funny. fumina secretly ships these two the way she blushed slightly

and that gattai bgm change, oh my god that gattai bgm. "You have no shred of romance or aesthetics", i'm sorry sakai, for all the time I made fun of villains not attacking the heroes during transformation/gattai scene. turns out the villains had more nobility and romance in their bones than me.

"zettai bakuhatsu saikyou muteki no tryon 3" sunrise make this a new series already

new theme solely for sakai's battle, i think sunrise staff really wanna make a gattai anime.

"head beam cannon thing"
"oh no you dont, winning beam + double rifle beam thing"
"you activated my trap card, DOUBLE CANONADE"
"not really, FULL POWAA"
"haha scrubs, LIGER GLARE"

and that's not even his hissatsuwaza

Try Fighters were the villains that episode. They dared to attack Tryon 3 while combining.

Advantageous or not, you simply don't attack the badass robot when its combining.

And I'm so glad that they all got their asses handed to them by Tryon 3. That particle bs cop out was the only reason Tryon 3 lost. (Same for Full Cloth).

I'm just waiting for Sei and Reiji (and the old cast) to appear. I was excited that the second half was gonna be a lot better than the first, but Try has been disappointing more and more. As much as I love the God Gundam references with the Junya fight, II wasn't excited by the arsepull Sekai (with some help by Sei building Hax) pulled to win.

The pacing killed this second half. Seriously.

Hope the hints of Season 3 Allan and Meijin have been dropping won't disappoint. New cast with better personalities than Try Fighters please.

BF1 >>> BFTry

DylDawg wrote:

BF1 >>> BFTry

So true.

The only thing better this season is the animation style, like some battle scene has this really fiery shounen style and I dig it.

OST is pretty lackluster this season too, but Six Times the Passion of Ordinary Flamenco is too high a hurdle to overcome. I liked Junya's battle theme and (oh god)G.U.N.P.L.A, but it's pretty lacking compared to Fellini's Graceful Assault, The Signal to Counterattack, and speed-star. I guess this one can also be blamed to the season lacking really good side characters.

Yeah honestly couldn't give two shits about ANY of the main characters.
BF1 I was much more attached to Sei and Iori, and loved Aila too. Characters were much more memorable. Try does have some cool battles but... I don't know.... *shrugs*

Despite the victor being obvious, the fight was pretty close and exciting compared to last week.

You do not. DO NOT, interrupt a gattai sequence.

This is what I feel about the second half and Team Try Fighters after all the arsepulls.

Still had a lot of fun and hyped watching the show though (along with Crossbone and Tryon 3 love)

Spoilers for Tokyo Ghoul and Cross Ange (about what happened in the last/last 2 episodes)

Tokyo Ghoul

In Tokyo Ghoul, we get a couple of "flashback", traditionally reserved to those who are about to die. We usually get a glimpse at their life and why they are like this. We get it for the 2 worker and for the old man (can't remember their names). Well, it turns out that none of them are dead (yet).

Cross Ange

We get a similar thing with Cross Ange. I was honestly shocked! 2 characters that had a lot of screen time just died within 5 minutes! The rest of the episode was about Ange remembering her time with Momo"ka"(?) and Tusk. I joked with my brother that Tusk would come back to life (saying that he's the same as Embryo-sama). Well, turns out none of them died. Another "troll" flashback making us believe they died... Next time, I'll need to see their lifeless corpse being decapitated before believing it...! I guess I should stick with this Anime rule: If you don't see their corpses decapitated, they may not be dead