This Week in Anime - October 14

There are several interesting releases this week, including a much-anticipated series from FUNimation. Here is what we have:

As far as new series go, the highlight of this week is the first volume of Claymore. According to Anime News Network's description of the series, this is a show based in a world full of deadly creatures called "youma." Clare, the main character, works on behalf of an organization to train halfbreed female youma and make them into warriors with the ability to destroy these creatures. Because of her rogue status (given to her for picking up a stray child and almost losing herself to her youma side through "awakening"), she is given the most dangerous of missions.

Granted, that's about all I know about this series so far - I haven't picked up the first volume yet. The FUNimation cast looks strong - with Stephanie Young and Todd Haberkorn filling the lead roles of Clare and Raki. Other well known names in secondary roles include Brina Palencia, Christine Auten, Monica Rial and R Bruce Elliott. As soon as I watch the first volume, I'll come back with my take on it.

One show I have seen and can highly recommend is Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Bandai is re-releasing the show this week as part of its Anime Legends collection. This is a true masterpiece. The show itself is very intelligently written and acted in both languages. The background and CGI are amazing looking. The music is beautiful, including the mostly-Russian open Inner Universe. The opening video is below this post. You don't see too many anime opens in Russian. It is an amazing series.

Dub Grade: A+. It just doesn't get much better than this dub. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is dead-on in the main role of Motoko Kusanagi. Richard Epcar (who is coming to Eastgate and I still can't believe it) is the perfect voice for Batou. Crispin Freeman plays one of the lone humans in the show, Togusa. The supporting cast is just as amazing, especially William Frederick Knight as the chief of the operation, Daisuke Aramaki. If you can pick this entire series up for cheap - do so. You won't regret it.

With the following week's releases a bit thin, I'll save a couple of this week's releases for then and skip right ahead to the one for which I've been waiting for months. When ADV and Sojitz split ways, Sojitz gave most of their joint licenses to FUNimation. After months of uncertainty, one of my favorite series of the year will come to an end with Volume 6 of Kanon. Describing this series could take a long time - so here's the short version. Yuichi Aizawa returns to a snowy town after seven years. The only problem is, he doesn't remember much about his time in the city during his youth. He moves back in with his aunt and cousin and meets several people with keys to his past, including Aya Tsukimiya, who seems to have the final key to a past buried years ago.

This show has taken me on an emotional rollercoster. It is absolutely hilarious one minute and absolutely heart-wrenching the next. I have no idea how this final volume will end - but I'm certain the rollercoaster will start again when I get this volume in the mail this week. Depending on the ending, this series could be knocking on the door of my top 10 of all time.

Dub Grade: A. Hard to find any fault in this one. Chris Patton is awesome as Yuichi. Jessica Boone is awesome in everything she is in, including here as Yuichi's cousin Nayuki. Brittany Karbowski is also very good as Ayu ... but after watching the first five volumes of this and hearing her in Shuffle, I kept waiting for every line of her's in Shuffle to start or end in "uguu", which is Ayu's trademark groan of disgust. Supporting roles are all well performed. Extra kudos go to FUNi regulars Caitlin Glass and Colleen Clinkenbeard who shine as Kaori and Amano, respectively. Also, high marks to Maggie Flecknoe as Shiori and Natalie Arneson as Sayuri because I totally dig her voice, for some reason. It should be an interesting finish.

That's all for this week. I'll have more next week.

Oh that tricky Ohayocon - Vic Mignogna headed to the Capitol City

Anime fans begged and pleaded on Ohayocon's message boards. They did everything short of staging a protest march.

Ohayocon has listened.

After repeatedly denying his attendance, Ohayocon surprised its future attendees today when it announced that über-popular voice actor Vic Mignogna is coming to Ohayocon in 2009.

If you close your eyes and listen ... you can hear fan girls squee-ing all over the Great Lakes region.

We had a chance to see Vic at Cleveland's Colossal Con last summer. He was very engaging and entertaining. His concert, while mostly geared towards his fangirls and megafans (known as the "Risembool Rangers" from his part in the anime megahit, "Fullmetal Alchemist") was a ton of fun. He sang everything from his cover of the D.N.Angel opening to his opus dedicated to minor voice roles everywhere (Soldier A). If he is in concert in Columbus, it is most certainly worth the time to see him.

I'll have more later tonight, including this week's picks in anime releases.

Wow ... what an AMV!

We frequently search You Tube for some of the best in Anime Music Videos (AMVs). This is where someone will take clips from an Anime and match it up with an unrelated song. When it is done well, it is a true talent.

We often times try to think of some random song and see if someone has used it in an AMV.

That brought us to this: A Cowboy Bebop AMV using Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing." It is nothing short of amazing. Note: This is the unedited version of this song, which does include language some may find offensive. If you know the song, you know what I'm talking about. It is the most amazing AMV I've ever seen:

WHO is coming to A & G Ohio???

My brother and I were stunned to learn that there will be an anime convention very close by in 2009.

A & G Ohio is moving its convention to the Holiday Inn in Eastgate. That is just around the corner from us.

Then, they announced that the voice of Master Shake, Dana Snyder, was coming to Eastgate. I thought that was as good as it could possibly get.

It just got way better.

Two of the absolute legends in the anime business, Richard Epcar and his wife Ellyn Stern, will be coming to what we're dubbing Eastgate-con. This is totally awesome.

Forget the fact we just saw them in Baltimore in August at Otakon. For them to be coming to Eastgate - that is just incredible.

Needless to say, we'll be there in March (13-15, 2009). We'll have it all covered here. Of course, Ohayocon 2009 is up first at the end of January.

Ohayocon has listed 11 guests for the upcoming convention on its forums. Getting to meet Brett Weaver in person will certainly be awesome. Mike McFarland's improv is always a highlight of the weekend. The annual roast will feature ADV co-founder Matt Greenfield. It should be a ton of fun.

There are two previous guests not listed for 2009 that I'm hoping will be back. The first is Monica Rial, who has become one of my favorite female VAs in the business. The other is Chris Sabat, who was awesome two years ago, but a late minute cancellation kept him away earlier this year. Here's hoping he's back to run the dubbing panels like he was scheduled to do last year.

This has nothing to do with anime ... but Mike and I were talking about it so it had to be posted here. This type of news makes me want to celebrate like the guy in this video:

This Week in Anime

This is the first in what I hope will be a weekly column talking about upcoming anime releases. Of course, new DVDs are released on Tuesday so this is a column talking about releases on Tuesday, October 7.

Of course, there are many releases each week ... and many of those series are shows that I haven't seen. But if it is a show that I know is popular, I'll make note of its release as well.

I am using Mania.com's release schedule.

Here is what is upcoming this week:

Buso Renkin, Set 2. (Viz Media) I haven't finished watching set one, but it had a pretty good story and I will eventually get around to watching this. From the man who brought us Rurouni Kenshin, Buso Renkin is about an average high school student, Kazuki Muto, who is killed trying to rescue what looks to be an average high school girl. The girl, Tokiko, is actually an alchemic warrior who saves Muto's life by giving him the Kakugane to replace his heart. Of course, as you might guess, Kazuki joins Tokiko in her fight against the Homunculus terrorizing his city. Dub grade: B+. What I've seen of the dub is good ... some of my favorite VAs make an appearance in this one (Patrick Seitz, Spike Spencer, Liam O'Brien, Richard Epcar and more). If you like Shounen action, you'll probably dig this one.


Three different season sets are being released this week - shows all released in single-volume form earlier. From ADV Films, Mezzo TV was a TV series based on a Hentai release in Japan. The TV show is not porn (so don't worry). The three-member DSA will take on any case - as long as they get paid for it. When team member Kurokawa is an assassination target, the group must try to figure out who and why. The TV series is a lot of fun and features some of ADV's best voice talent. Dub Grade: A-. Luci Christian is especially good in the lead role of Mikura Suzuki. She is joined by a stellar supporting cast, including Andy McAvin, Jason Douglas, Sasha Paysinger, Chris Patton, Mike MacRae and Vic Mignogna. If you find this one at Best Buy and are looking for a funny, action packed short series, give this one a try.


Bandai is releasing a show that I had originally started watching on Netflix, but got so hooked on it that I had to buy the final volume the day it came out. Mai-Hime (or My-Hime) is a story about an all-girls academy populated with girls possessing special powers. One of those girls is the main character, Mai Tokiha. She, of course, is unaware of those powers at the beginning of the series but quickly learns she possesses the power as well. What follows is a very compelling series as those with the power quickly learn what they are expected to do with that power. Dub Grade: B+. Ocean Group doesn't produce a large number of dubs, but what they do dub is quality. This is no different. Carol-Anne Day really stands out as the main character Mai. Sometimes it is nice to watch something where you are not immediately familiar with the voices in the show.


FUNimation is releasing another show that I got caught up in - Suzuka . This is one of those, "boy gets dropped into a situation where he is surrounded by girls and one of them treats him bad but seems to like him" stories. They are a dime-a-dozen in anime. But I did like the story, and if you get past the feeling of "it's been done before," I think you can get into this story. Yamato Akitsuki travels to Tokyo to study alone and live with his aunt, who just happens to operate a public bath populated by all girls. He meets Suzuka Asahina, who is the school's top track athlete. The two cross paths early on ... and this leads to all kinds of love-hate fun. Dub Grade: A. Whether you like the story or not, you can't dispute the awesome voice cast that brings this story to life in English. The main characters - Suzuka (Leah Clark), Honoka (Brina Palencia) and Yamato (Todd Haberkorn) are all outstanding. The supporting cast (namely Carrie Savage and Colleen Clinkenbeard as his ... we'll say ... "fun loving" neighbors) are very good as well. Watching the show got me into the manga as well, which is a bit more mature than the anime. But it's not a bad show ... and if you can pick up the whole series for cheap ... it is worth it.


Two other new releases from FUNimation this week that I don't know much about yet ... but are highly spoken of on many message boards. Ghost Hunt (which will be released in a half-season set) and Jyu-Oh-Sei (Complete Series) are shows that FUNimation is giving viewers large amounts of episodes for a reasonable price. I may have to pick these up at some point ... if I do I'll post my review then. FUNimation has been pretty smart about releasing some of its "B" series in large chunks lately. Hopefully this a trend that will continue. They will still be releasing volume-by-volume on their biggest series - they need to make money after all. They also seem to be leading the way in digital delivery of anime as well.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon with more news from the anime world.

ADV sending mixed signals

My last post was about how ADV was rumored to have the series Clannad.

A week later ... things aren't much clearer.

One website was able to confirm that Matt Greenfield had announced the Clannad series license. However, at a convention today, David Williams used the old "unable to confirm or deny" when asked about the series.

Here's hoping we get something concrete from the company soon. All of us ADV fans are hoping for a massive comeback from the Houston, TX based company.