Category — Industry

Have you seen the new look animeondvd.com? Earlier in the year, Chris Beveridge sold his site to this rather generic entertainment brand called “Mania.com” and just last night, their engagement was finally ‘consummated’ with… less than satisfactory results. Basically, the site looks abysmal.

When I started reading anime websites around 2002, mostly for reviews (and explanations!) of hard to fathom series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, AnimeOnDVD was the first website I really liked. Their style was never flashy or loaded with PR-speak, it was down to Earth and easy to digest. All that, and with their constant stream of updates, they were a pillar of the anime community, but looking at the site now, one feels that this “sell-out” might be the beginning of the end. I don’t blame Chris Beveridge for taking the money, we’d all love to write about anime for a living (and in relative comfort too, not out of a cardboard box on a street corner), but I wish he had been a little bit more discerning before deciding to cash-in.

It’s great news about Geneon hooking up with Funimation, but my first thought? Gankutsuou isn’t on their list. I hope this deal isn’t limited to just Geneon’s current and future releases.

The impetus for this post was that, lately, I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about Kaiba. Or rather, a lot more people than expected. Just looking through the Anime Nano archives, I’m really pleased to see that, in little more than two months, Kaiba has already well surpassed the total level of attention (in terms of blogging, at least) Yuasa’s previous anime, Kemonozume, collected during a period of two whole years (it aired in 2006). I think that’s great, if just because it (supposedly) suggests that today’s anime fan has slightly better taste now than in 2006. Evolution in action, I guess?

With this in mind and using the hard facts provided by fansub trackers, I did a bit of research into how Kaiba’s popularity compares to some other spring anime; my findings are listed above. I used the third episode of each series because by that point most fans know which series they want to watch. Also, the download numbers come from the first fansub group to release that specific third episode (i.e. they don’t combine the popularity of every fansub ever released for that one specific episode in the series).

Kanokon being above Kaiba bothers me, but then, porn has always been popular amongst anime fans. Still, I wish its popularity was a little bit higher. Also, I’m shocked at how little interest Toshokan Sensou has attracted, given it’s a Production I.G. series and actually quite good. If you’re watching both Kaiba and Toshokan Sensou; good on you and keep spreading the word. I mean, if you’re in a position to recommend anime, just take a moment and think about it; you can bet that 100,00 other otaku are screaming about Code Geass R2, so add your voice to that white noise if you must, but just keep in mind, every recommendation for Kaiba and Toshokan Sensou is that much more important and if we don’t speak up for them, no-one will.

Just when I think I’ve got it pegged, the anime industry comes up with something completely unpredictable. Later today, our family-friendly anime publisher Funimation (with emphasis on fun) is going to announce that they’ve licensed Shigurui. That’s right, coming to your local Walmart in 2009, sitting in-between that funny volume of School Rumble and the mis-placed tin of economy-value baked beans is our favourite self-fellating, incestuous murder-death-kill Shigurui. You can’t make this stuff up, but credit to Funimation for trying. I just remembered that they have released Mushishi too, so, clearly, they aren’t adverse to trying something new every now and then. All eyes turn to Baccano! this weekend.