Just last summer, I shared my thoughts on why Glasslip was a complete failure. Since I already explained why it was so bad, I may as well make a final review mocking the whole show.
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strawberry sundaes
Glasslip – Episodes 12 and 13 (END) – It Ends…
At last, the show finally ends! Did we ever find out about the secrets behind the fragments?
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Ore no Imouto 2 OVA – I can’t believe my Star-Crossed Lovers Romance Story can be this Tragic!
After witnessing the massive disappointment from the second season’s finale of Ore no Imouto, there is something that I came up with while watching the OVAs. Basically, I felt that this show is literally a tragic love story as Ruri, Ayase and Manami have their dreams crushed by a forbidden incestuous relationship between Kyousuke and his little sister.
This makes me wonder, was it worth it for him to go through all of this? My analysis says otherwise. (Image Source)
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Ore no Imouto 2 – Episode 13 (END) – The Unsurprising Flashback…
It seems that Ore no Imouto dived further into the sea of disappointment with its finale.
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Nogizaka Haruka’s Secret ~Finale~ – Episode 4 (END) – Final Test of Love
At last, Haruka’s parents tests how strong the love between Yuuto and Haruka really is.
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Nogizaka Haruka’s Secret ~Finale~ – Episode 3 – More Painful and Overused Misunderstandings
This episode was so painful that I had to watch the rest of it at 1.5x speed.
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Nogizaka Haruka’s Secret ~Finale~ – Episode 1 – Time for More Disappointment
I’m dreading every moment of this considering how bad the second season was. Still, I’m obligated to finish it, which is why we have four original video animations to finish it. As a matter in fact, the original source material concluded several months ago, which can explain why they wanted to finish the Anime. Believe me, there will be a lot of fireworks going once this is done and it took only three years in the making to get here.
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Dropped: Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai – Thanks but no thanks…
After watching 8 episodes of Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, I am really crazy to continue watching this show this far while everyone else in the blogosphere stopped at episode 2 or even late as episode 6. The reason I kept watching is the cute girls in the show. However, when somebody asked why I am still watching this with the addition of a rather disturbing scene in Episode 8, I said enough is enough. I’m finally dropping this show once and for all! (Image Source)
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Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai – Episode 6 – Catgirl Naru and the Awakening of Garuda Darkblack
The plot deepens for the male lead when the archbishop of R-Wings is out to get his friends with the potential of awaken Garuda Darkblack inside Hiyato…
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Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai – Episode 5 – Hawk Cyan Blue’s Fantasy World of Confusion
It seems that Takashi has been out of the spotlight for a long time that we must find out his lovely relationship with Asuka or rather, Princess Asuka and Hawk Cyan Blue.
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Taste Test Part III – Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
Episode 3 cannot possibly get any more disappointing than the last episode. Sadly, the episode was extremely boring and unexciting that I practically fell asleep…
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Taste Test Part II – Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
This show cannot possibly get any more confusing and duller than this…
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Taste Test Part I – Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
With a show like Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai that is based off a Visual Novel by Navel, you can foresee what will happen in this episode. If you guess gratuitous amounts of panty shots and fanservice, then you are correct!
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Opinion: Elitism and the Aniblog Tourney: What happened?
In light of the drama, I felt that I needed to write this editorial because things went out of hand. People arguing each other saying that Listless Ink doesn’t deserve this victory and that Random Curiosity should have won. I have discuss this on my sideblog that I won’t go into detail (just read the post on my Sideblog if you are still interested). Still, this argument keeps going and going, which disturbs me. This editorial won’t be about Random Curiosity and Listless Ink, but other things that bother me about the whole situation.
Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 紅雪
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Review: Little Braver Single
General Information
Album Title: Little Braver
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0055
Release Date: June 6, 2010
Tracks
- Little Braver
- Shine Days
- Answer Song
General Thoughts
If you haven’t heard enough of the rather mediocre music from Girls Dead Monster, there is more! A few weeks back, there was a promotional video on Little Braver, but I didn’t take a look at it because I don’t want to go and spoil it. Several weeks later, the single is released. Have LiSA improved her rather mediocre and rather forgetful performance of the “Thousand Enemies” single? It’s only slightly better, but I am still not convinced if it’s good enough. LiSA seems to sound good on the lower notes, but she still goes slightly out of tune in some areas. Not as bad as Thousand Enemies, but that is saying too much about it. The songs are still pretty forgettable and made me wish that they had better singers singing these songs…
Little Braver is the song that was shown in the promotional video. It starts off with a calm intro and when LiSA enters. This is where the good composition gets drown out by the mediocre vocals. It does sound slightly better than Thousand Enemies, but it’s slowly goes downhill from there. The songs feel pretty dull and the higher pitches like with the previous album sounds slightly ever out of tune. Not only that, Little Braver is pretty forgettable several minutes after. Little Braver is an okay song, but it doesn’t try to go beyond the mediocrity of Girls Dead Monster.
The intro of Shine Days sounds pretty well like the intro to Alchemy and it’s a pretty upbeat song. This is probably the best song out of the whole single, but it’s hardly perfect. It still have several flaws like the slightly out of tune pitches on the higher octaves and it’s slightly dull. It’s an okay song, but still forgettable like the rest of the songs LiSA has sung. It’s worth mentioning that at 4:30, her vocals are barely audible…
Lastly, we have Answer Song, which is probably the most disappointing song out of the whole album. The performance of the song felt a bit messy and somewhat dull. I don’t feel any energy in this song, except mediocre singing that could put me to sleep. Probably the worst song I heard from LiSA.
I don’t know what they are getting at by not letting the seiyuu sing! I’m pretty sure Eri Kitamura and Miyuki Sawashiro are fully capable of singing, but no! Lets pick two amateur singers that doesn’t necessarily represent Japanese Indie scene and fuck up all 9 songs! Thats how I feel about the whole Girls Dead Monster thing and it’s a big disgrace. Jun Maeda does a wonderful job in composing these songs and these singers go out and ruin the work he worked hard for. It’s just like making a good game with good game play, story and graphics and the orchestra go and fuck the music up. Like I mentioned in my rant in the last paragraph of my Pure Pure Heart single review, they choose singers that can’t sing properly and resulted in the mediocre and disappointing performance of these songs. Girls Dead Monster will never reach the appeal of Houkago Tea Time because their songs continue to have flaws with the vocals, which make them rather forgettable. Houkago Tea Time is simply more polished, sounds better and the vocals don’t go out of tune so many times that it makes me cringe.
Not only that, there is more Girls Dead Monster singles that is coming out and what can you expect out of them after hearing the first 9 songs? More disappointment. They are making a mockery out of Girls Dead Monster and milking it what its worth from the hype. Believe me, My Soul, Your Beats!/Brave Song sounds like heaven compared to the mediocrity of all the Girls Dead Monsters songs combined.
Verdict
7.0/10
Game Review: CLANNAD SPELUNKER
Just don't ask why the hell I'm playing this…
On Wednesday during the week of finals, someone on Twitter was playing this game called CLANNAD spelunker, which is essentially a Clannad themed version of the original Spelunker on the Atari. If it has Clannad characters, it must not be that bad… you will be mistaken when I show how hard this game really is.
Warning: There is a lot of swearing when I made the post.
It is pretty odd to have a game such as spelunker and slap Clannad characters in it… Well, yes… it’s so out of place… Now to the gameplay:
Character Selection Screen
Although I can’t read Japanese, it doesn’t really matter since its pretty obvious. In Clannad Spelunker, you can play as Nagisa, Kotomi, Tomoyo and Yukine. I’n guessing that each character has different abilities… I don’t know… but whatever.
The Gameplay
The goal of this game is to explore caves, collect treasures and defeat enemies… Sound easy, right? You will find out sooner…
What? I just died from that jump? WHAT????!!!!!
That is fucking bullshit! I died from that fall? Yep, I did and it wasn’t that high… Note that when you lose a life, you go back to a place in the level… Note that when you hit a checkpoint, you will get sent back there when you lose a life
The game fools you in thinking the game is easy. Compared to the original spelunker which is one hit and game over, Clannad Spelunker gives you 4 tries and you can replenish them by collecting the hearts. Not only that, its pretty hard to get on the damn ropes that you will end up falling when I realized that I need to use the double jump. You are going to use the double jump a lot to get to these places. However, the controls feels like shit that you will end up doing a single jump and lose a life because of the fall. That is fucking horseshit!
In Super Mario Bros, you can jump further without dying even if you fall from a high platform, but in Clannad Spelunker you die from a high jump. The developers made the game feel so hard that nobody can beat it in one sitting or without saving. Believe me, you are going to die a lot in this game. And yeah, if you lose all your lives, there are NO continues…
Forgot to mention, there is a save function, but I have no idea how to use it.
Seriously, this enemy looks stock…
It seems that the makers of Clannad Spelunker are not creative. We get stock characters like ghosts, bats, blobs and witches. Can’t the developers be a bit more creative? They should have added dangos or starfish… but whatever… Not only that, they have insane amount of hit points. It takes 6 hits just to defeat that ghost. Not only that, if you don’t hit them fast enough, they get you and you die… and you know thats bullshit!
Fuck! That is not fair! I just respawned there and I died just like that… Thats bullshit!
An enemy right near the checkpoint. When you respawn, you get hit again and lose a life. That is just fucked up.
What is a wedding head dress doing in a cave? Also, it looks cropped out of somewhere.
After dying so many times in getting to that treasure chest, I finally get to it and what I found? A head dress? What the hell is a wedding head dress doing in a treasure chest? I would have thought there would be something like gold, but no. I think they had done this since it’s Clannad themed. This wedding head dress from what I recalled is from Kouko Ibuki from Fuuko’s Arc. I grabbed the key and bullshit…
Fuuuuuuck! I fell and now its game over… I was so close, but now I have to do that over again? F that!
I died… I gave up afterwards since I couldn’t even beat the first level!
What is this game intended for? Certainly not Clannad fans or fan of Key…. It disappoints everyone just because the game is too fucking difficult! Even with the four lives compared to the original, it’s still too fucking hard. It even compare to the difficulty to Transformers: Convoy no Nazo, which is known to be the most difficult Transformers game out there. Clannad Spelunker is on the same level difficulty as the latter. Clannad Spelunker just redefines the definition of Nintendo Hard, a game that is very difficult and gives no mercy.
What would be my suggestion? Stay the hell away from this game, unless you like dying every time you fall or hit an enemy… This game is basically trial and error. Every time you play, you will get better until you get stuck again… and believe me… you will die a lot and I mean it!
Overall Picture
Pros: It’s a Clannad themed Spelunker game!
Cons: Intense difficulty, poor controls, stock enemies, unfair respawning, no continues (without saving).
Verdict
6.2/10, D-, Below Average
Dropped Anime Flashback: Kampfer or Add Moar Fanservice and Dumb Down the Characters
Ah, Kampfer… The Genderbending Anime that hasn’t been. Kampfer was a big disappointment across the board not only because of the excessive fanservice, but they dumb down the main character to intolerable levels so he would be hated just like Sakura… They did just that… They made Natsuru into a big idiot and a sucker for Sakura, who is obviously taking advantage of his female form. Also, he didn’t gave a sh** about the other girls who want the male Natsuru. Hell, probably the only sane character in this story might just be Shizuku… As I remembered, I only watched Episodes 1 and 6 before dropping this piece of crap… but I will go more in detail on why this show is a piece of crap.
Nogizaka Haruka Purezza’s fanservice may be bad, but it cannot compare to Kampfer. Kampfer is fanservice laden to beyond belief. The typical stuff from most harem anime plus clothing being ripped, more censor steam, boobs and then some. Not only that I heard they put references in completely random places. What kind of Anime does that? Oh wait…
From what I have seen from the two episodes I seen, It was a disaster. Girls randomly battling each other with more fanservice shots, Natsuru obsessing over Sakura, and girls obsessing over Natsuru and wants to dress him (or her) in outrageous outfits for example… That what I got from it and it definitely didn’t play well for me. What Purezza and Kampfer have in common is the weak male lead. Yuuto’s apparent flaw is that he let everyone else step over him and not being aggressive enough. However, Natsuru got to be the lamest, even Yuuto’s niceness can’t beat Natsuru’s pathetic life. Natsuru knows damn well that other girls in his harem (Akane, Mikoto and Shizuku) wants him, but he completely ignores them and go for the manipulative bitch called Sakura Kaede. Natsuru likes her because she is obviously the prettiest girl in the school, but you have to know that appearance isn’t everything. This can apply in real life. The prettiest girl ever can be the most manipulative bitch out there and wants you to do things for her all the time.
Not only that, the ending from reading it on various anime blogs shown to be a big disaster. What Ode to Joy have to do with anything? Funny thing is that Purezza took the same cue from Kampfer and did its Ode to Joy thing, but not nearly as lame as Kampfer. Want to power up, let’s take more clothing off… Bullshit! After that final scene, absolutely nothing is resolved… That is just bullshit. Not only that, people ask, what the hell we watched after looking at Episode 11. I wonder too, what did I watch/read about? A pile of shit!
I can go on with Kampfer, but there isn’t really much more to say. Kampfer disappointed everyone across the board. Not only that, they ruined the story by making the male lead even more of an idiot than in the Manga. It’s worth noting that not only the story is horrible, but the music too as what zzeroparticle said in his Kampfer Soundtrack Review:
Katou’s messing around with musical genres is a double-edged sword and while Kanno and Iwasaki are able to draw forth memorable music by doing so, Katou displays no such skill and ends up cutting himself badly because he’s simply not good enough to deliver wide-ranging music that consistently engages the listener.
And it shows when you listen to Kämpfer’s music. The task of composing a diverse musical portfolio taxes him to the limit and he doesn’t have a whole lot to give. In the early part of the track, there’s a glimmer of promise; the melody is solid, catchy even, and just when you enter the bridge, you come back face to face with the opening melody. Development? What development?
By reading this, you know that Kampfer is a pile of shit since it suffers from not so good storytelling, uninspiring and completely random music, an incompetent male lead and a horrible ending. From this, what do I expect out of Kampfer? Absolutely nothing, except watching it with other people for amusement on how shitty this Anime is. Nomad could have done a better job on Kampfer, but they bombed it like on the same level of Action 52… Maybe not as horrible as Action 52, but it’s still bad. So yea, Kampfer is probably the most horrible Anime I watched so far excluding the Endless Eight fiasco with Suzumiya Haruhi S2.
Notes: My plan was to originally rewatch up to Episode 6, but the problem is that most of the torrents by then were pretty much dead, so I have to use what I already know.
Fanservice and Nogizaka Haruka, What the hell happened?
A while back in June 2009, I wrote a lengthy editorial on how fanservice can ruin the overall story of an anime. Well, this becomes a reality with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.
I have watch both seasons and the first season was far better besides a few panty shots is that they focused on the over lining purpose of the story. Yuuto and Haruka sweet romance and also her Otaku interest. However, the second season lost it’s purpose completely. Like Kimagure said on Melative, “sweetness replaced by pointless fanservice.” The second season of Nogizaka Haruka just proved what I have said in my editorial I wrote in June of 2009 that adding lots of fanservice makes the over lining story alot worse than it would without the fanservice. All I got from this is more pantyshots, boob groping and other stuff that shouldn’t be in the anime. If I want to watch a fanservice-oriented anime, I would of watched titles like Ladies vs Butlers, Kampfer or even Chu-Bra! I bet one minute that 90% of the fanservice seen in the second season is not in the Nogizaka Haruka light novels (yes, the Anime is adapted from the light novel…)
The problem with the route they taken is that it’s completely unnecessary and the story can do better without it, besides the other flaws besides fanservice. I felt that Diomedea is trying to use fanservice to try to attract more audience to the show, at the same time, alienating its viewers who liked the first season and be constantly let down by every episode. If there is ever a third season, Diomedea better shape up and not add the fanservice and bring it back to what the story is intended to be in the first place because viewers aren’t going to take this excessive, overdone and redundant fanservice and panty shots anymore. There are already enough fanservice laden titles out there already, Nogizaka Haruka is a series that doesn’t need to go down that path too. We already have other anime that does that.
New MyAnimeList Style… Hell no!
This is annoying. The guy adds new stuff instead of fixing broken stuff. Makes me want to write my own MAL…
– FSX
This is something I didn’t realized when I woke up and after watching some anime, my MyAnimeList client broke for some reason… Well of course!
Earlier today, MyAnimeList, one of the popular Anime/Manga cataloging website looked different. I thought that this was a dream, but it wasn’t. I don’t care much about the new design, but I perfer the old design. This is bringing back memories of Facebook forcing it’s users to use the new layout, but the difference is that Facebook is more open to the developers… MAL on the other hand… well, it broke every MAL client out there since people are using it instead of the website, meaning less revenue from ads.
What the hell they are smoking? This is the main reason I actually HATE MAL… because they are not freaking open to the developers! WHY THE HELL UPDATE THE FREAKING LAYOUT WHEN YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A FULLY IMPLEMENTED API FOR GOD SAKE! This is making developers life’s like myself even harder. Not to mention, the freaking API is so hard to use that it’s not even funny.
Suggestion, stop using MyAnimeList and go for the alternatives like AniDB or even Melative, which does Manga, Anime and even other media such as light/visual novels, dramas, etc. While I’m at it, I’m making a desktop client for it to make it even easier, so when I’m finished, there is no need to ever use MyAnimeList. Until whoever makes MyAnimeList cleans up their act and actually make a USABLE API for developers to use, they owe me 8 strawberry sundaes.
And yes, it’s an extension to the other rant I made about MAL and it’s APIs.
Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Final Impressions – Grade: F (5.93/10)
Once upon a time in May, we were excited that Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was going to be aired after we waited a whole 3 years for a second season. The first new episode was well received. When June came around, Endless Eight aired and we thought that episode was the only one… We were mistaken by despair as Endless Eight repeated for most of the summer, which made fans go on a frenzy outrage by raging at Kyoto Animation, Kadokawa or even both. Some fans go so far and smash Haruhi figures and rip apart the light novels. We have thought that the series have finally jumped the shark and the whole series was ruined forever, but fortunately, Kadokawa wasn’t insane enough to do that, so it ended in the 8th episode and the week after that Sighs aired, which is apparently the lowest part of the light novel series because primarily, Haruhi becomes the biggest b$%#& in the whole world that everyone wants to have and/or avoid, until Kyon straightens her up and finally conclude the recording of the film, which was miraculously edited. After the airing of the last part of Sighs, it seems that most fans are in despair since Disapparence have disappeared (no pun attended).
In the review, I will be reviewing some positives, but mostly negatives because Kadokawa could have done better in managing this so that it won’t become a complete disaster like it is. Some Haruhiists may disagree, but this is my take… it’s F%$%ing horrible!
Content
This is the weakest point in the whole season, honestly… mainly because of Endless Eight. Rhapsody and Sighs (although good, but not very good) was the only arcs that did fine in this season. The rest is a disaster, because Endless Eight repeated more than 8 times which is completely unnecessary. I would rather watch K-ON! than watch this piece of s$%^ Endless Eight and that is my feeling on Endless Eight. Endless Eight in my opinion is a middle finger from Kadokawa saying, “HA! Do you want Disappearance, but you aren’t getting it!” Every time Endless Eight repeated, It makes my blood boil and want me to rage about Kadokawa again.
I found that the repeating of Endless Eight 8 times was completely unnecessary, it should have been at most 3 episodes and one loop. The light novel does not repeat it more than 3 times, so why should it repeat 8 times in the Anime. Thats because, Kadokawa is the biggest trolls on the planet.
Sighs was okay, but it’s nothing that hits home because some of the content was already presented in “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, Episode 00” in the first season. Sighs is just behind the scenes making of the movie, which some people may not find that interesting until towards the end of Sighs when Kyon finally blows up at Haruhi for smacking Mikuru around. Otherwise, Sighs is good and faithful to the original (hopefully) and also the same case with Rhapsody.
Characters
Theres not much to say, but the Sighs arc made me hate Haruhi forever… because she is a absolute b%$#& and why would anyone be around her if she is going to act that way… but she atleast shaped up…
The scene where Kyon flips out is probably a reason to admire the other character for taking Haruhi as being a jerk. Also, love the talking cat, which only talked briefly.
Animation
The animation was a disappointment just like Endless Eight. The animation and art style in Suzumiya Haruhi 2009 was mediocre/below average, mainly because, someone in Kadokawa decided… Hey, why not make it look like K-ON! The K-ON! art style works only with K-ON!, put it anywhere else and it surely won’t be well received… it would just be like using Lucky Star art style in something like Kanon… You sure get the fans raging…
The K-ONification of Haruhi was pretty much another debate that was happening throughout the whole season… Some may notice that the first episode had this treatment as well… If they going to use that art style, they should just rename the show, Haruhi-ON! and have the SOS-brigade eat cake and crumpets all day long and do moe stuff and of course, play music… oh wait… Thankfully it improved towards the end of the season, although there were faint elements from K-ON!
Music
The music was not great… Tomare was okay, but Super Driver is the WORST OP I ever heard (Yes, this tells you why it’s not good) and made my ears bleed. Personally, I’m not to fond with Hirano Aya’s singing, except the first season songs since most of her songs aren’t that great and she isn’t a great singer compared to other J-Pop artists.
Conclusion
Although Sighs and Rhapsody was good, Endless Eight, poor sounding OP, average to not good art style and the trolling of Kadokawa is what made the season downfall like a hubristic hero. Kadokawa’s arrogance with the amount of trolling they have done to the fans (for example, Second Season announcement in Newtype and showing the Nice Boat parody video) and hubris with the handling of the Haruhi Franchise after it became highly successful caused the franchise’s downfall as a whole with Endless Eight and Haruhi Franchise as a whole will never be at the height as it was three years ago ever again. It’s such a shame, really since I expected this season to be great, but it ended up to be a total disaster after Endless Eight repeated 8 times and I felt it was a waste of time repeating and reanimating Endless Eight because the resources can be used on adapting other interesting arcs, but Kadokawa had to blew it and give Kyoto Animation a bad rep because of it. If there is ever a third season, I will still watch it, but I won’t be expecting much after this disaster of a season.
This is why Haruhi 2009 got a big F, merely because it’s a big disappointment. If Endless Eight haven’t repeated so much and the art style was a bit better than what they shown, I would have give it a better or at-least a passing grade.
Overall Rating
5.93/10, F
Bandai Entertainment does not care about the fans, delays Sola again
After looking through the rightstuf orders again, Bandai Entertainment yet again delays sola again for another 23 days. Now it’s being released on September 29, 2009… That’s great since I have absolutely a lack of anime to watch in Fall 2009 since none of them interests me and there is no Key Adaptation… What am I supposed to do, bang my head on the wall several times and make sure it’s not a dream?
Unfortunately, it’s not a dream and I’m really angry on how Bandai Entertainment is handling the release, which is so ADV Films like… What R1 Licensors should learn from ADV Film’s shutdown is not to excessively delay the releases of the anime series or you may get loyally paying fans angry or even complain about it on the blog. I know Bandai Entertainment is far from becoming another ADV Films, but this continual mistake that ADV Films made so many time is just damaging their credibility. How simple is it to just translate, add the subtitles, press the DVDs and package them. The way they are handling it, they are having a hard time…
Until they ever release it, I’m never buying any more releases from Bandai Entertainment, except the ones I have already preorder anyways… If you actually read this, I want a formal apology once you release it to the fans for screwing with the fans so many times…
To people who want to buy these series: If Bandai Ent. never materialize these releases, I suggest complaining via written letter. The address is:
5551 Katella Ave
Cypress, CA, USA ,90630
By Email: support@bandai-ent.com
or mention them on Twitter with @bandaient
Okay, I’m done raging about them for now…
Commentary: Downfall of ADV Films… What caused it?
This Monday, ADV Films, a licensor of region 1 Anime announced that it would shut it’s doors for good and transfer assets to other companies. The announcement cause many people to be surprised and caught off guard. However this was expected because ADV Films for the past few years made several fatal mistakes that lead to the shutdown of ADV films.
So, what lead to ADV Films ultimately folding?
ADV Films was once a strong licensor and looked highly towards with the many successes with the dubbing aspect, but several mistakes they make caused them to ultimately cause them and their reputation to weaken in 2008 and ultimately crashing in 2009. The recession that worsen in late 2008 didn’t help either and made things a lot worse.
Ever since 2008, ADV had a bad year, ending up having to shut down the UK devision, suspending the Anime ADVocates program, ended the relationship with Sojitz (which may be the cause of not having enough funding, thus calling it the ADV Meltdown), and ultimately transferring 30 titles to Funimation since they aren’t able to continue distributing it.
On top of that, in early 2009, ADV flops again and said that Clannad won’t have a Dub which caused people to go in a frenzy and cause the reputation of ADV to go down even further, after they screwed up in 2008 with distribution of Anime availability. Lucky for them, Clannad actually sold better than expected despite fan reaction to no dub, but still didn’t stop the inevitable…
The problem with ADV is that a combination of mismanagement of their part and unable to meet the fan’s demands and giving them accurate information, it too contributed to ADV Films ultimately shutting down.
What mistakes have ADV done?
1. Not listening and informing the fans.
Besides from the negative reaction towards ADV for not providing a dub for Clannad, they never have a good system of informing the fans or even have any good communication by email. Another thing is that their website is hardly updated so fans could get accurate information.
Not to mention, ADV films for what I remembered never had a blog, unlike others. Funimation and Bandai Entertainment have one, so why not ADV? Perhaps they are too lazy.
2. Not providing accurate information
ADV is infamous of this for awhile. They pull the titles before they put the information back and also never give information about the schedule releases (going back with #1).
3. Decisions and Anime on DVD.
ADV seems to depend on listening users on Anime on DVD (now Mania.com) according to Zac Bertchsy, which is the worse possible way of deciding on what series to license/produce. (maybe too exaggerated, but they shouldn’t have depended on AoD too much)
4. Poor distribution and supply of DVDs and delays.
ADV also made this mistake… a lot. and they usually delayed various series with no explanation which was common in 2008 (aka ADV’s bad year). These delays, however cause negative reaction to fans, for example this post from the blog post of GAR GAR Stegosaurus… Great way to screw loyally paying customers.
5. Licensing more than they can handle.
ADV always seems to go and license a large amount of series and end up failing on a number of them. Instead of licensing a few of them and give them a quality release, they most likely do a wing job and just put it out in the market as fast as they can, which usually cause mistakes. This is also what contributed to their big downfall.
6. Depending way too much on Neon Genesis Evangelion…
and also ADV’s desire to make a Evangelion live action movie surely cooked up a disaster, which resulted in a big loss of money. You can only go so far with Evangelion…
7. ADV’s Mismanagement and Bad Business Plan.
If you have take a course in business, you know that the Business Plan. It’s what makes up your business and how will it operate. ADV took too many risky plans which resulted in a loss of money. Mismanagement on ADV’s part did not help either since they can’t seem to get the company on track and come up with a project that will be actually be successful.
What can Section23 Films learn from ADV’s mistakes?
Now since Section23 Films ultimately own all the companies that owned ADV’s assets, they need to learn from ADV’s mistakes and learn from them. They need to listen to the fans (through means of email, phone or even Twitter) and give accurate information instead of removing the listings and adding them again. Another thing is that they shouldn’t really take the suggestions from AnimeonDVD aka mania.com and figure out what would fans want instead of having a large number of failed projects. They also need to provide a well designed and regularly updated website with the latest information and also keep a blog on what they are doing. Lastly, they need to take their time on making a quality release instead of acquiring a lot of licenses and not being able to make a quality release.
Further Reading
What’s Happening with ADV Films – Anime News Network
Like always, Bandai Entertainment yet again delay the release of sola again.
Yes, this is facepalm worthy, but yet again, Bandai Entertainment yet again delayed sola another month, which now releases on September 15, 2009 from the orginally posted date, August 18, 2009 (found out on rightstuf. Is Bandai Entertainment pulling another ADV since they have delayed prerelease due to financial trouble? I’m 100% positive that Bandai Entertainment is not in any financial trouble in contrast of ADV which is was due to a big fiasco. Reguardless, Bandai Entertainment should have released sola by now.
Was it necessary to delay the release another month? How hard is it to just subtitle the whole series, author them onto DVDs, press the DVDs and package them? As mentioned in a few posts back almost about a week ago, I was asking, what is going on here? This latest delay make me ask the same questions over again, when it will ever come out? At the rate they going, sola will never materialize which is sad because I’m interested in watching that show and there isn’t really that much to see in the Fall season because it’s so lackluster… so, if they delay or cancel it one more time, I’m canceling my order completely along with my second volume of Kannagi as a punishment and they won’t get any more money until they formally apologizes for the delays.
To people who want to buy these series: If Bandai Ent. never materialize these releases, I suggest complaining via written letter. The address is:
5551 Katella Ave
Cypress, CA, USA ,90630
By Email: support@bandai-ent.com
or mention them on Twitter with @bandaient
Also, I suggest boycotting any of their releases if they don’t release them. Delaying it 3 times is more than enough… This will probably be enough to have them listen
The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi: Endless Eight is Endless
Now I’m totally hopeless… because it’s all Kadokawa’s fault of deciding to repeat it more than 6 times when it’s supposed to be 6… Even six is too many episodes.
Seriously… Endless Eight is a big waste of money and time to animate… I rather have Kyoto Animation dump Endless Eight and start putting their efforts to animating Little Busters!, but I still wonder how much money they wasted animated Endless Eight crap… I mean… a Little Busters! anime will be alot better than a whole season of Endless Eight.
Now, KADOKAWA owes me 7 strawberry sundaes to forgive me now! (No, I’m not referring to the 7 strawberry sundaes in the Kanon VN)
Fan Reactions
resoLv777 from AnimeSuki made a downfall of Haruhi.
Also, CCYoshi (the author of Mega Megane Moé) also made two of them,
Haruhi S2 dropped to a 7.50 within one week.
This Music Video by Jinto from AnimeSuki pretty much sums everything up
Cartoon Leap: Endless Eight is still Endless and NICE BUTT!
At AnimeSuki, Episode 5 remains the most negatively voted episode with Episode 7 trailing 5 in ratings.
Endless Eight in a Mathematical Sense
Also, Mathematical proof that Endless Eight is Endless (using Calculus)… Take a limit of f(x)=15527+x as x goes to infinity. x represents how many times Kyon does not do his homework… The solution therefore is:
Infinite, meaning Endless Eight is Endless and will never end.
What’s wrong with the picture? Have Haruhi truely “Jumped the Shark” this time?
Ever since Endless Eight started, we have thought that it would end on the second episode… Instead, the Endless Eight arc have dragged on for so long that people started to blame someone (Kyoani and/or Kadokawa) on the handling of the Haruhi S2 anime… Believe me, Endless Eight is what made the Haruhi series jumped the shark… It will never be the same ever again since expectations have lowered across the board… so, good luck on selling those DVDs, Kadokawa….
In conclusion, This is got to be worst stunt for Kadokawa to play… while hurting Kyoani’s reputation with it, but they will recover someday, but for Kadokawa… not so much. (does this part give you the sense of deja vu?)
If Endless Eight doesn’t end next week, just watch something else so you will keep your sanity… It will eventually end when pigs fly.