Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

…and I don’t really know what to make of it. I think I just can’t really grasp the fact that it ended. The ending is mostly good, but I’m unsure of the events that happen after the final fight. My Japanese is shaky, so I’m going to wait for subs before I pass judgment.

But, overall, fucking awesome series. I guess me hyping this thing to hell back in summer 2006 wasn’t all that off the mark.

(more…)

This is the smartest thing he’s said in the entire series so far.

Just finished episode 8. It’s pretty funny how things just go from bad to worse, only because these kids are just a bunch of fucking morons.

Anyway, on to epiosde 9…

http://www.project-navel.com/navel/news/events/index.html

Navel is selling a Kaede dakimakura cover at Dreamparty.

I will get it at all costs.

Now the more sane of you will wonder why I would fork over stupid amounts of money for what amounts to a piece of cloth with a girl printed on it. Well, let me tell you that it is WORTH IT. It is. It just is. For the LOVE OF MY LIFE, it is.

Original Post

Funny I finish this comic right as Geneon’s Nice Boat sinks. Ok, that was horribly forced. Anyway, this comic is a cheapshot, as usual. This should have gone up when I got my first Black Lagoon DVD, but I guess it took me a while to notice the subtitles in the opening. I forgot how bad those lyrics were. I kinda like the art. I wanted to make the colours a little muted, and I think it works to some degree. Expect a comic about Geneon’s TRAGIC DEMISE soon™.

Not much to say. I watched 6 episodes of Pani Poni Dash last night at MIT, which is a true test of Otaku endurance. I may do an individual post about the entire screening later, but I’ll just say now that my energy gave out around the fourth episode. That show is exhausting. Also, I think I’m the only one who gets some of the sight gags, as I’m sure I’m the only guy laughing sometimes…

I got the rest of School Days on deck. I may just finish it all today. I need to see this sick ending everyone is on about.

So, with that, I am off.

In the eternal words of Isao Sasaki, “Goodbye, my darling”

More than  ~200 votes would have been nice, though…

Amazon reviews make for good reading…

“ai yori aoshi and ai yori aoshi enishi are such great shows i feel that this show has something for both the guys and the girls and the voice acting is pretty ok, so i would definetly recomend this to anyone.geneon had a good idea when they decided to make these shrink brick sets, and they did i know that a lot of people prefer thinpaks and all but i really love this idea becuase usualy when i get a thinpak one of the dvds will come lose and start rolling around in the case and get scratched (expecialy with bandais packaging) but that almost never happens with regular dvd cases, and this is the first time that Geneon has made something so affordabel, these really do have a good price.”

That is the best sentence. It doesn’t need a qualifier like “ever”, it’s simply the best sentence.

“It had romance, comedy, and some situations I myself would not find! But, overall, I liked it alot!!! And I do recomand it to all!!!”

And I do recomand we all write like this from now on.

Darker Than Black can be really worth it sometimes. That part is funnier if you know all the stuff leading up to it, though. The episode itself was fairly good. The show has been mostly hit or miss with me, and I can’t ascertain whether it’s just me, or the quality of the show itself. Probably a bit of both. Well, not like it really matters, since I probably won’t be watching it ever again.

Somehow I ended up watching episode 7 of School Days. Only five more to go before the big finish, I guess! I have them all downloaded, too. Sounds like a nice way to spend my Saturday…

I think the show would have been better if it was a just a crazy sexy comedy… on a boat.

What follows are some horrible and unfunny photochops.

I’m so sorry…

…so much better than the anime.

Geneon is dead.

For those who may not know, over the past couple of weeks US anime distributor Geneon has made a couple of strange business decisions. It started with their merger with ADV, to their immediate breaking off with ADV, to their withdrawal from the US anime market just today. All the fine details can be found at the usual places.

I am actually really quite bummed about this, as Geneon titles make up a decent part of my collection. Not only that, but I had my sights set on Karin, Black Lagoon, Zero no Tsukaima and the Nanoha shows. What really bothers me is that Karin and Black Lagoon are being canceled mid-run. I can kind of stand having Karin incomplete (I’ll be slightly angry over the half-empty box) as its animation quality doesn’t really demand a DVD release, but I’m pretty mad over Black Lagoon. The DVD video is such a quantum leap in quality from the fansub video, that it’s a shame to see it crap out, and right before the best bits, too.

Another thing that bothers me is that Geneon had such a great con presence. I couldn’t really get close to a lot of other companies, but I could easily talk with the guys at Geneon. In fact, I had a lot of great conversations with them at this past Otakon. I loved their panels (especially After Dark) so it’s just a shame to see their personality up and leave the industry. I hope they have plans for their out-standing licenses. I can see other companies picking up some, but I worry for the fate of prelicensed titles like Black Lagoon. I kind of hope they rebuild themselves under a new name, but I doubt it.

It’s rather strange how they dropped off so suddenly. I guess they were keeping their financial troubles as secret as possible. All the DVDs I’ve gotten from them seemed to be of awesome quality, so I assumed they had money to burn. Maybe that’s just it– they were putting in too much effort and not getting decent outcome.

With the fall of a such a big player in the industry, I fear for the rest of the US anime industry. In 10 years will we have to go back to only watching anime on unofficial releases? I hope not…