Anime Fans Online

Just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna try to play some catch up the next couple of days. I know my posting has been irregular, to say the least.

The reason is because I haven’t had much of a chance to read manga or watch anime recently. I’ve had less time to write about it. Oddly enough I’ve missed the writing about it almost as much as the anime and manga.

The good news is that I have some manga waiting to be read and anime ready to be watched. I’m really looking forward to getting into a couple of ‘em. I’ll try to get at least a few of ‘em read and reviewed in the next couple of days. The reviews might be short, but they’ll be as informative as I can make ‘em.

I’d better get to work.

Here are some of the manga reviews you can look forward to seeing on Anime Fans Online in the near future. Since I mentioned earlier that I got a chance to pick up some manga, I figured it was only fair to let you know what manga was purchased. I’ve even included a short reason about why I picked these books.

• Hell Girl Volume 1.

I’m looking forward to this one. I really like the anime and I want to see how the manga fairs by comparison.

• Ral Grad Volume 3.

Read the first 2 and I want to know what happens. Pretty simple.

• Maid War Chronicle Volume 1.

This one caught me off guard and I had to pick it up. The odd setup makes this one a win-win. If it’s good, that’s great, but if it’s bad I can laugh about how bad it is. That’s why insane story concepts rule.

• Wolverine: Prodigal Son Volume 1.

I’ve always been a fan of this character in the Marvel comics. There is no way I could pass up a chance to read a manga version. It could go bad. Very very bad. I’ll try to be optimistic though. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Wait, There’s More!

In addition to those I also have a few that I’ve picked up, but haven’t had a chance to read and review.

• Black Lagoon 005.

Plan to read ‘em all, this one was next.

• Wild Ones Volume 6.

I want to finish this story too.

• Switch Volume 1.

The blurb on the back made it sound like a decent cop drama. We’ll see…

There’s plenty of manga review goodness coming up. Not to mention anime, giveaways and other goodies.

Posting should pick up soon. My g/f has had to stay off of her leg for the past few weeks. That means I’ve had to do quite a bit more, both around the house and to try and get her patched up. I’ve been doing a lot of driving to the doctor’s office, the hospital and somewhere with a fax machine. The fax is for insurance purposes. All of which leaves less, if any, time for watching anime and reading manga.

The Good News

There is good news however. Today’s errands took us close to the book store, so I popped in there for a few minutes and did some quick manga shopping. I’ve got some manga that look pretty interesting. I just hope they’re half as interesting as the descriptions make them seem.

I should have some time to read them soon. My g/f has a couple of appointments that should take a good long time. After that there might be some more spotty posting while she recovers, then things will be back to normal. We’re all looking forward to things being back to normal.

Looks like there’s a new comic store opening up near me. Keep your fingers crossed that they’ll carry manga and anime. I went in to check it out the other night, but they haven’t stocked much of anything yet. I did see a few used anime VHS tapes, so there’s a little hope there. It was Dragonball Z mostly, but a few other titles were sprinkled in.

I hope that they’ll be open to stocking the otaku items along with the regular shipments of DC, Marvel and Magic: The Gathering. I’d love to be able to run to the store and pick up the orange Kasugai gummies I love so much or some almond crush pocky, but I’d settle for a few keychains and a shelf of manga.

The Power of The Web

Maybe I should offer a write up of the store in exchange for stocking a small selection of anime and manga. Shoot, I could try outright bribery. I’ve got the skills to build ‘em a fairly good website. Think I should try to barter my web skills for a small local manga haven?

Patience Is A Virtue (Just Not My Virtue)

It might not even be necessary to do all that. There might be a nice little otaku corner just waiting to be set up. Manga, snacks, toys and anime all in one place, and all closer than a two hour drive. That would be great.

I’ll just have to wait until the place is stocked, then I can figure out how much begging I’ll have to do to get ‘em to give up a shelf of Batman for a shelf of Bleach.

For those that want to help spread the word about our latest giveaway, here’s some code you can copy paste.

<a href="http://www.animefansonline.com/anime-fans-online-anime-giveaway-march-2009/" title="Anime Giveaway at AnimeFansOnline.com">Anime Giveaway</a>

If you want to make your own links for the giveaway, we’d appreciate any help.

Surprise Coming

Just want to give you a little advance notice to read the posts at the end of this week/month. It may not be a big surprise, but it’s something you might want to be aware of. If for no other reason than to mock my piteous lack of suspense building skills and take pleasure in my inglorious, probably inhumane, treatment.

I’m sure most of you suspect what’s coming. If you can’t figure it out, then you have even more reason to read the blog. You will also have even more reason to interact with the blog. Remember, mockery is a form of interaction, though a hurtful one.

Excuse me, I have to go purchase a quart of Starbucks® Coffee Almond Fudge ice cream in preparation of my, all too possible, upcoming humiliation.

Anime At Closeout Prices

I’ve mentioned before that closeout stores are a good place to pick up some cheap anime. I don’t go in looking for popular titles, because the popular ones rarely end up at these kinds of stores. The ones you’ll find are usually the fringe titles. That’s why I like to check the DVD shelves for anime I might not have seen, or even heard of, before.

Anime DVD Jackpot

The last time I checked for anime DVDs at my local closeout store was just a few days ago. I was going to leave with only a cursory examination of the DVDs, but my girlfriend suggested that I do a full on anime search. She’s a lot smarter than I am so I followed her advice.

I’m glad I did because they had several different anime titles. Some of them I’d not only heard of, but liked. I even found a very nice limited edition box set that I’ll be writing more about later on.

One of the DVDs they had was Burst Angel Volume 6. Sure, it’s buying a DVD out of order since I don’t have the first few volumes, but at $3 I wasn’t about to pass it up. How could I find a deal better than that?

Theft

A couple of days later I found out how I could save even more money. I could have stolen the DVDs like the douchebag that cut open Burst Angel Volume 6 and took the DVD out.

WTF?

Yep, someone had cut open the DVD case and removed the disc. I was so busy being impressed with all the anime I found, that I forgot to check the packaging. It happens all the time, or so I found out when my girlfriend called to ask if I could exchange it.

Lesson Learned

When buying from a closeout store, always check the packaging to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for.

That’s a lesson I won’t forget anytime soon.

Anime, DVD, Bargains, Closeout, Limited Edition, Box Set, Burst Angel, Theft

Story

Some tensions build between Revy and Rock when things go wrong during an illegal salvage operation on a sunken Nazi submarine. Apparently tension isn’t good for Revy, she turns psychotic. Dutch tries to get the situation under control soon, before his crew start killing each other.

Meanwhile…

When someone starts targeting members of Hotel Moscow, Balalaika takes things personally. Even if she manages to track down the assassins or the person that hired them, will she be able to do anything about it? Will she be able to fend off this attack before the entire city erupts in all out gang war?

My Opinon

While the story kicks into high gear, so does the graphic nature of the manga. Violence, sex and language all contribute to Black Lagoon 002 earning it’s M rating. Let me be as blunt as possible.

This manga is not for kids.

There are a few elements of this story that adults are going to find revolting. This manga is about a dark underworld that polite society does not go, so it’s only natural that some of it will be disturbing.

On the bright side, the violence isn’t as gory as you might expect to see in a horror comic. Hellsing, for example, has more blood and guts. So if you’re just squeamish about things like that, don’t worry too much.

Is it worth it?

Black Lagoon 002 is worth it. Just be aware that it is not kid friendly. It may not be suitable for some adults Those that are easily offended should look elsewhere. Everyone else will be treated to action and mayhem along with a pretty entertaining story.

Manga, Reviews, Action, Adventure, Pirates, Guns, Explosions, Viz Media, Rei Hiroe, Black Lagoon, Rated M, Mature Readers, Sex, Violence, Adult Themes, Adult Language

You might remember me complaining about getting a GetBackers volume that was bound wrong. Then I posted an update with TokyoPOPs response to an e-mail my girlfriend sent. If you don’t remember, or didn’t read those posts, you can catch up with the first post and the second post.

Caught up? Good.

We got the new copy in the mail the other day. Other than being a little bit damp from all the rain lately, it was fine. It seems to be bound in the correct order. I’ll be re-reading it and posting a review very soon.

Extras

It seems that TokyoPOP tried to make things up to us by sending us a few extra items along with the replacement book. My girlfriend got pretty excited about that, she loves free stuff.

Initially I was in agreement with her about how awesome that is, and a small part of me still agrees. They could have just told us to take it back to the point of purchase and been done with it. That they didn’t do that and owned up to the mistake makes me want to buy more of their books.

The part of me that can’t help being nitpicky forced me to go through the stuff that was sent with the book. Here’s a run down of what we got.

• 1 Princess Ai bookmark w/ tassel and beads.
• 1 Sgt Frog bookmark, plain.
• 1 I Luv Halloween bookmark, plain.
• 1 Princess Ai credit card sized bookmark, plain.
• 7 Note sized promo cards for various manga.
• 2 “Thank You” postcards from TokyoPOP featuring Fruits Basket and Love Attack.
• 4 Manga sized cards featuring different manga covers.
• 2 TokyoPOP Presents books. Spring and Summer 2007. (Over a year out of date)

I can always use more bookmarks, so those and the smaller cards will probably be used. The rest of it just seems like junk mail to me. The Fruits Basket postcard is a thank you for sending them fanart. That makes it seem less like cool freebies to make up for a mistake and more like someone was cleaning off their desk before sending out the book.

Once again let me say that I’m very happy with the way they owned up to their mistake. I will be buying more TokyoPOP titles in the future.

Manga, GetBackers, Get Backers, TokyoPop, Misprint, Customer Service, Freebies, Princess Ai, Sgt Frog, I Luv Halloween, Fruits Basket, Love Attack

Happy New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year. 2008 could have been better for me, but it could have been a lot worse too. I’m thankful that I was able to be a part of Anime Fans Online this year, and I’m looking forward to next year.

Anime fans have a lot to look forward to in the year to come. Legal anime streams, both paid and free, are becoming more accessible. A few shows are in the works that I’m really looking forward to. We have some cool movies to look forward to as well, including a live action Dragonball movie (I’m trying to remain optimistic).

I hope you have a great 2009, and I hope you’ll stick with Anime Fans Online. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Hot on the heels of my discovery that I’d gotten a bootleg from Amazon, I found out that the Genshiken Box Set I received might be defective. I made it through the first disc just fine, but halfway through the second disc it crapped out.

I was watching the second disc when I noticed that it was taking a long time to go to the next episode, so I went back to the main menu and chose the beginning of the next ep in the scene selection menu. After a couple of seconds I got an “unable to read disc” error.

I thought it might be best to try it in another DVD capable device so I popped it in my computer. It seems to be doing fine in the DVD drive. Whew! Dodged that bullet, but now I’m worried about my PS2. The PS2 was the player that had trouble reading it, so now I’m wondering if it’s because it’s going to die on me.

Could it be time to switch over to an X-Box 360? Nah, I’d probably just get a Wii and a DVD player.

A few days ago I wrote about some of the cool anime stuff I got for Christmas, and about how Amazon’s wish list feature helped me to receive said coolness. Since then I’ve started to open up and use some of those goodies. When I opened up my FLCL DVD I found something odd.

I’d decided to wach a couple of episodes and maybe take a few notes for a DVD review. Mostly I just wanted to watch the anime, because it is awesomely twisted. When I cracked open the DVD case I found the DVD in a paper disc protector. I thought that was a bit strange and I became suspicious. I popped the DVD in and it went straight to the menu, that was another clue. I then checked the packaging for any company logos and found none. I was now convinced, but had one more thing to check. I went to the Amazon listing for the DVD and sure enough, right in the customer reviews conclusions were confirmed by a couple of other people that bought it.

I got a bootleg DVD. From Amazon.

I thought I could trust Amazon. It’s not like it’s an auction site like eBay, where bootlegs are rampant. I thought I could shop at Amazon without worrying about that kind of thing. I was wrong. Now I need to go through my wish list and check out the DVDs a bit better.

Lesson Learned

Be careful what you buy, even at Amazon. Anime bootlegs are everywhere, and they’re useless as well. If I’m gonna spend money on anime, I want it going to support the anime industry. If I want to get anime through illicit means, I’d download fansubs.

Buying an anime bootleg is the worst possible way to get your anime.

Anime, Bootleg, Amazon, Wish List, DVD, FLCL, eBay, Fansubs, Fan Subs

I’m writing about this again thanks in part to some of the very opinionated posts I’ve read about the upcoming subscriptions over at Crunchyroll. Along with the supportive comments there are a lot of folks that don’t want a chance to support anime.

I was shocked to see people saying that they would never pay for anime. Would. Never. Pay. For. Anime. In a perfect world they’d never get to watch anime either, but we don’t live in anything even close to a perfect world.

This is why those of us that are willing to support anime are paying such high prices. It’s the result of widespread digital copyright infringement. Kids get used to downloading fansubs and somewhere deep down start to think that anime is supposed to be free.

Then there are those who think that just because it was on TV that it should be free. I’ve heard this before… “They make their money from commercials” or “People in Japan watch it for free, it’s on TV”.

It seems that some people just don’t understand how things like this work. I’ll take a second to point out a reason why this kind of logic wrong.

TV Isn’t Always Free

Do you get all of your TV channels free? If you get a lot of channels, then probably not. If you get any premium channels, definitely not. Whether satellite or cable, most people pay for their TV service. Some countries even charge a tax or license just to own a TV, I’m not sure if this applies to Japan though. Does anyone believe that all the anime is shown only on free over the air channels? Then how can it be free?

Would you pay for anime? Take our poll and let us know…

Anime, Opinion, Poll

Comfort and joy, with a side of peace on Earth, is all well and good. This blog is about anime, so I’ll be sticking to the gift giving aspect of Christmas. This year I received quite a bit of anime related gifts. I’m happy with that. I love anime.

Loot

I laid out some of my anime stuff and took a picture. Yeah it sounds weird, but hey, I got a blog to write and pictures help. Besides I wanted to share my anime x-mas happiness with ya’ll and this is a good way to do it.

Items Pictured

• Genshiken Box Set
• Ouran High School Host Club (Part 1)
• FLCL
• Remote Control Mach 5
• Negima! Mahora Academy Crest Keychain
• 3 Star Dragonball Keychain
• Azumanga Daioh Osaka Keychain

A wide variety of stuff there, and all of it something I love. There’s not a thing there that I didn’t, or wouldn’t, want. I’d call that a successful Christmas haul. A big part of that success can be summed up in three words…

Amazon Wish List

I finally broke down and set up an Amazon wish list this year. I can now see how well it works. I know shopping for people can be pretty darn tough, so I’m willing to do what I can to make things easier on people that want to shop for me. It must work, because I was told a couple of times that the stuff came from my wish list.

I’ll write up my thoughts on the DVDs when I can get a chance to watch ‘em. Right now I’d better go update my wish list. I’ve got a birthday coming up.

Anime, Christmas, X-Mas, Gifts, Amazon, Wish List, Genshiken, Ouran High School Host Club , FLCL, Mach 5, Negima!, Mahora Academy, Dragonball, Azumanga Daioh, Osaka

Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be back to the site shortly. I’ve got a short break before the new year, and a birthday in January, so I should be able to get a few reviews up. After all of the rushing around I’ve been doing for the holidays it’ll be nice to get back to writing again.

I’ll write up a post on the anime stuff I got for Christmas. Thanks to my Amazon wishlist I had a very anime Christmas.

I hope your holidays have been as good as mine.