These days, picking anime with teenage female casts is like walking through a minefield. For every show that’s good on its merits, another show is called good because “it is what it is.” When nobody differentiates between the good and the bad, how am I supposed to avoid the crap? Whatever happened to standards? There’s [...]
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A lot of really fun stuff came out or was licensed in 2009, but not eeeeverything. Here are some items that I feel someone needs to pick up the slack on. In some cases, they could/should have been licensed ages ago...I've also mentioned whether I think it's likely that they'll get picked up, and who might license it. I've got ten each for manga and anime. These aren't all-inclusive or even "top" 10 lists, mind, so be sure to include your own license requests in the comments below. Oh, and these are in alphabetical order, by the way.  Manga  GE ~Good Ending GE ~Good Ending. This shounen romance was recommended to me by a friend and I picked up a few copies of Weekly Shonen Magazine and really enjoyed Kei Sasuga's art. The story is neither particularly unique nor completely boring, but it looks like there's a lot to play with in the characters: a shy young man wants to get close to his crush, and a gorgeous classmate makes it her mission to pick him up and help him out. This is a Kodansha title so it could go to Del Rey, or perhaps Kodansha would publish it themselves...then again, it might stay unlicensed. Who knows? LIKELIHOOD: 5/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Del Rey Manga/ Kodansha.  Gegege no Kitarou Gegege no Kitarou. Credit goes to David Welsh for pointing out that this one is unlicensed, but Kitarou is a classic manga and it's responsible for a lot of Japanese peoples' views on what youkai look and act like-- and that includes uber-popular shows like InuYasha, for example. Having learned some about Shigeru Mizuki's classic manga at the New People Center and from the popularity of its recent movie, I'd really like to get a chance to read the manga myself.  Gurren Lagann Gakuen-hen Gurren Lagann Gakuen-hen. I was impressed that I liked the main Gurren Lagann manga so much, but let's face it: a lot of us are itching for new content, not rehashes of old (even if it's well-done). So how about this version of Gurren Lagann, in which the characters are all Japanese students? It also doubles as a sort of parody of the Shinji Ikari Raising Project (and the Neon Genesis Evangelion episode that inspired it). LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 7/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Bandai Entertainment.  Hataraki Man Hataraki Man. I hear a lot of debates about Moyoco Anno's works, and having enjoyed a few episodes of the Hataraki Man anime back in the day, I'd really like a chance to see that work first-hand myself-- I'm much more interested in the trials and tribulations of a workaholic female journalist (ahem) than in the cuties of Sugar Sugar Rune or the love life of the young woman in Happy Mania (though I'm sure they're strong works too). LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 4/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Del Rey Manga/Kodansha.  Hetalia Axis Powers Hetalia Axis Powers . A zany comedy featuring countries personafied, generally with a vaguely World War II aesthetic. With its own cult fandom-within-a-fandom, I can't help but be curious about this manga, whose anime has turned into such a popular item as well. Published by Gentosha in Japan, who I believe has worked mostly with TOKYOPOP (Rozen Maiden, Gravitation). LIKELIHOOD: 9/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: TOKYOPOP.  Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu (The) Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan. See what I said above about Gurren Lagann: this manga is selling WAY better than the manga based on the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya novel/anime is. Why? Because it's cute, funny, and new material! So let's get this one out here too. It'd probably be a great tie-in with the second season and movie, cough cough...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 7/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Yen Press  Ookiku Furikabutte Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup). I really enjoyed FUNimation's release of the anime, about a young man who would be pitcher but, while he has perfect control of the ball, has no idea what pitch to pick when and lacks a bit of speed and power...until he meets the catcher of his dreams. I'd really like to read the original manga as well! Yet another Kodansha title, so...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 6/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Del Rey Manga/Kodansha  Princess Knight Princess Knight. A perennial entry on these lists, Princess Knight is one of Osamu Tezuka's most well-loved works and one of the hardest to find in English, although Kodansha International did release a bilingual edition in 2001-- out of print and hard to find now. VIZ published a "preview" in the July 2007 Shojo Beat, but since it's owned by Kodansha, competitor to VIZ owners Shogakukan and Shueisha, it's unclear whether VIZ would be given the opportunity to do a full release. Honestly, I'd bank on this on coming out as a Kodansha Comics release someday, but if Kodansha doesn't plan to do that, I hope Vertical gets it.. LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 4/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Kodansha  Saint Oniisan Saint Oniisan. I've talked ab out this manga before, several times: Jesus and Buddha take a vacation after the turn of the millennium and become roommates in modern Japan for a bit. A surreal but very sweet comedy, for some reason readers assume it's too "risky" to license in the US. I think it's just too hotly contested...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 9/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Del Rey Manga/Kodansha, with a possible surprise from Vertical.  Urusei Yatsura Urusei Yatsura. This is another more classic manga: Rumiko Takahashi's first series of length, and in many peoples' opinion her best. (In mine: definitely a favorite.) VIZ released some of it a while back under the title LUM but never finished it, and I know I'm not the only person who would REALLY like to see some more of it come out, or at least reprints of the original English releases-- especially with all the Rumiko Takahashi blitzing of Rinne and InuYasha the Final Act. Technically it is "licensed," however, so we'll say LIKELIHOOD OF RELEASE: 5/10 LIKELY RELEASER: VIZ Media. Honorable Mention: Rose of Versailles. I just ran out of room, honestly, but let's face it, anyone with any interest in shoujo manga probably wants to read Rose of Versailles, or perhaps should. It's a Shueisha title, so LIKELIHOOD OF RELEASE: 2/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: VIZ Media. Anime Aoi Bungaku Series. Look, this retelling of four works of Japanese literature is animated by Madhouse and features some of anime's greatest directors and designers, include Death Note's Takeshi Obata, Bleach's Tite Kubo, and Gunslinger Girl's Morio Asaka, to name only a few. Why wouldn't we want it? That said, it may not be very accessible to the mainstream anime fan, so I'm betting it'll go to one of the studios that aims more niche. LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 5/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Media Blasters or Nozomi Entertainment.  Bakemonogatari Bakemonogatari. Immensely popular. Brought to you buy Shaft and Akiyuki Shinbo a la Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and others. And it's based on a NisiOisiN light novel series? Sold. Done. Let's do this. And unlike Zetsubou I don't think it's QUITE as intensive in dialogue and background text and whatnot, so it's probably actually dub-able. Section23 picked up MariaHolic and the last rumor was that Media Blasters might have Zetsubou, so let's see...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 9/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Free-for-all. Could be anyone.  Bokurano Bokurano. In the tradition-- if you can call it a tradition --of Ender's Game, Bokurano takes the idea of kids taking on the responsibility of saving the world and takes it to its natural-- and dark, and cruel --conclusion. VIZ is releasing the manga, so now let's get into the anime, which has a somewhat different ending as I understand it. LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 7/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: VIZ, but if they decide not to go for it, FUNimation will take it.  Dragon Ball Kai Dragon Ball Kai. Dragon Ball Z, minus all the filler episodes and minus all the filler junk within episodes? The only mystery is why FUNimation isn't already printing this; it's like solid gold bricks to them. But perhaps they're waiting for the current Dragon Ball Z release first? LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 9/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: FUNimation.  Kaiba Kaiba. I hate to throw around terms like "absurdist" and "surreal" in the same sentence, but both can be used to describe this futuristic take on the human condition and our views of our identities, set in a world where people who can afford to will upload and download memories into the bodies of their choosing. Might do better with the art house crowd than the mainstream anime viewers though...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 3/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: ...  Minamike Minamike. A cute, goofy comedy about three orphaned sisters makin' it on their own. It's more about their wacky selves than about them being orphans or loving each other, and that's what makes it a great comedy. I'd love to see someone pick this one up, even though I'm sure it's more of a B- or perhaps even C-tier title to anime licensors...LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 6/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: I could see this going to Section23, unless it goes to FUNimation as part of a larger package. If they pass it up, perhaps Media Blasters or Nozomi will run with it.  Revolutionary Girl Utena Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV). FUNimation rescued the license of the movie from Central Park Media, but there have been so many different releases-- and some of them are hard to find and really expensive to boot. How about a nice affordable slimpack for those of us who'd like to (finally) get around to watching? LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 4/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: FUNimation.  Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Rumor has it that Media Blasters picked up this title, but we haven't heard any word lately, so I still want it to get picked up. Unfortunately the sheer speed of the dialogue combined with all that stuff in the background means that companies that rely heavily on dubs (FUNimation, VIZ) seem unlikely to expend the effort. LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 8/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Media Blasters, but Nozomi, Section23, and Bandai are all candidates as well.  Taishou Yakyuu Musume Taishou Yakyuu Musume. This was a title I was really excited about for the summer '09 season, and then I heard absolutely nothing about it. At the time I was in a big baseball phase (thank you San Francisco Giants and Big Windup), plus the music in the trailer was super cool and jazzy. So, how about someone taking this one on? LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 4/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: FUNimation, licensor-of-all, or perhaps Section23, although with this one I can also picture Nozomi snatching it. Valkyria Chronicles. Maybe it's just lingering guilt over never playing more than a couple of hours of the game, but it was so pretty! And I love Marina Inoue! And it's sort of AU historical fiction, which is also awesome. I'm kind of surprised no one's picked this one up yet. LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 7/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Could go to anyone. HONORABLE MENTION: K-On!. I feel obligated to point out that K-On! is still completely unlicensed, though it's easy to forget considering how many people have watched the show in its entirety (cough, cough). LIKELIHOOD OF LICENSE: 9/10 LIKELY LICENSOR: Bandai did well with Kadokawa's Haruhi property, but Lucky Star didn't sell quite as well, so it could go to BEI, but they could shift to someone else instead. Whew! Hope you guys enjoyed the list, and be sure to share your own license requests in the comments!
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I never thought I’d be utterly sucked in by an anime with the genres of sports, comedy, and slice-of-life. After all, I’m hardly a sports fan, and I’m a believer that comedy and slice-of-life is best viewed in a balanced and drawn-out pace. But tonight, on the first day of my winter-time anime catch-up spree, [...]
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Taishou Yakyuu Musume didn’t have a large audience, but it certainly had some die-hard fans. The Taishou setting is not just for show–it provides an environment where Akiko and her friends are compelled to prove themselves to everyone. But aside from the baseball, there is a cute little romance subplot that involves Koume and her fiancee, [...]
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I’ve been curious about the buildings that were shown in the opening skit from episode 1 of Taishou Yakyuu Musume but I never felt like I’d know enough information to track them down. (Silly me, this is the internet we’re talking about.) Suguru’s comment about the identity of the building in question from yesterday’s [...]
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Despite having a load of free time during Thanksgiving I didn’t really watch much anime even though it is customary for me to marathon a series or two. Strangely that urge to catch up came later than usual after I had already returned to school. Having caught up on Sasameki Koto for my next project [...]
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In recent year or two I found it difficult to raise interest about more than one show… IIRC in 2009 Spring I followed Arashi, and in Summer it was GA:GADC (in theory Taishou Yakyuu Musume is still on the running list, but it’s stuck on 03). So thinking calmly I know that it’s going to [...]
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Anyone watching Taishou Yakyuu Musume 01 saw how girls were shocked at the violence of the sport after a player was knocked out with a ball. Also, I recall some bloggers mentioning anachronistic aluminum bats in TYM, although I didn’t watch far enough to see them myself. Now, check out this: In 2003, an 18-year-old [...]
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<meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.4 (Unix)"> <style type="text/css"> </style> Last year, one of our anime club members told about how he got into a heated argument with a representative of another club during the Clubs and Societies Fair. Apparently, the representative of the other club told him that there was no meaning in being a member of an anime club and that it was a silly thing to do. This, of course, led to an angry response from our member and the whole thing turned into an unsightly name calling competition. After he told me about the incident, I promised to write an article about the use of anime in real life in response to the claims made by the other club representative. I admit it's a bit late but better late than never. While I don't claim that anime or manga would have a life changing effect, I must stress that they can have a really positive effect on the life of the individual depending on how that individual uses them. The true power of anime and manga is that they are arts that can inspire people to improve. History, Geography and Culture Any self respecting anime and manga fan knows that the stories in those two mediums can (and do) take place in every imaginable place on this planet. This means that the cultural settings of those arts are as varied as the arts themselves. Only people who are not fans of anime or manga would make the mistake of thinking that all the stories in anime and manga take place in Japan. I've mentioned many of these titles in previous articles but I'll mention titles like Monster, Gunslinger Girl, Rsitorante Paradiso, WMT titles, Yugo the Negotiator, Otoyomegatari, Historie, Master Keaton, Black Lagoon, Michiko to Hacchin and Emma as examples here in addition to the countless titles that take place in Japan or neighbouring China (I'll talk about the significance of China in a later post). This unique feature alone opens the door to countless learning possibilities. A curious anime or manga fan would start reading about a particular culture/country because he/she was impressed by the anime/manga story that that takes place within that culture/country. He/she can then easily start a conversation with a another person person from said culture/country if they happen to meet such a person simply because they have read about said culture/country. There is even a high probability that the anime/manga fan will start learning the language of said culture/country and I don't need to stress how important the skill of mastering foreign languages is in today's world. In short, anime and manga help bring people from different backgrounds together. New Skills and Knowledge Just as the variety in anime/manga story settings encourages fans to learn about other countries and cultures, the huge variety in the story topics and themes also encourages fans to learn about many other things. The stories in anime and manga fall under every imaginable genre and cover every imaginable topic you can think of. This provides a golden opportunity for curious fans who enjoyed the theme in a certain title to pursue that theme further or learn more about it in real life. I can think of some very good examples which I will outline below. There are a ton of sports related anime and manga tiles and some of them are of very high calibre like Bamboo Blade, Ashita no Joe, Hajime no Ippo, Yawara!, Happy!, Slam Dunk, Major, Taishou Yakyuu Musume and Evil Heart. These titles present the sports in an attractive and interesting manner and that could certainly encourage fans to pursue these sports in real life (if they are of the type who are not sports inclined). I don't think the importance of sports in daily life requires any justification. Another interesting example is the unique place the art of cooking holds in the world of anime and manga. Only god knows how many anime and manga titles deal with the art of cooking, be it general or specific. From the ultimate authority in bread making, Yakitate Japan to the sweet romantic cooking story of Kitchen no Ohimesama to the ultimate saga in global cuisine, Oishinbo; there is a title for every imaginable form of cooking. Such titles can easily inspire fans to try out one form of cooking or another which is always a very useful skill to have (not to mention it's always satisfying and healthier to make your own food). The final example I would like to mention is more specialised. I started reading the Hikari to Tomo ni manga for personal reasons. I have to admit that it's one of the most powerful and engaging stories that I have ever read and I would recommend it to anyone. I also have to say that this manga opened my eyes to a mental condition that I have often heard of in the news but never quite understood. I think you can learn more about autism from this manga than you would ever learn from a medical book. Even parents of autistic children around the world acknowledged that the manga gives a realistic depiction of the condition and what they had to go through to raise their children. A manga that promotes an understanding of a medical condition that is a mystery to most people can't be a bad thing now right?! I can give other topic related examples but there isn't enough space here to go through all of them so I'll leave it at that. Drawing Anime and manga has influenced many fans lives in a more direct manner by inspiring them to pursue the arts of drawing, painting and sketching or graphics arts in general. Drawing lies at the heart of anime and manga and it's not an exaggeration to say that some of most beautiful works of art can be found in anime and manga. This beauty has left a deep impact on many anime/manga fans and led them to pursue drawing seriously and refine their skills in this field. Some of them have even managed to have their work published in Japanese manga magazines. Writing Another aspect in which anime/manga help to improve a person is exemplified in this article and in all the articles in this blog. The passion for anime and manga can inspire people to write! I can not stress enough how much my writing skills have improved since I started this blog! Writing in this blog has trained me in writing in a well structured and attractive manner. That's why, to this day, I feel more comfortable communicating my ideas in writing than verbally and even some of my emails tend to look like detailed reports. I don't need to stress how important the skill of good writing is in modern society or where it can get you in terms of advancing your career (as many of the non anime fans know very well!). Some Interesting Anime/Manga Applications Over the years, the Japanese have found some very interesting applications of anime and manga which go beyond telling a good story. I have listed some of the recent ones below: 1) Using manga to summarise world and local news 2) Using manga as official company manuals 3) Teaching citizens about the newly introduced jury system 4) Using manga to educate children about the work of the Japanese Foreign Ministry 5) Using manga to promote the Nuclear Non-Proliferation cause 6) Using anime to encourage Chinese tourists to visit Japan 7) Using manga to explain the 2008 G8 Summit in Hokkaido 8) Using anime/manga to promote safe travelling 9) Using anime to promote local tourism I have to say that the P. A. Works videos are quite nice as one would expect from this new yet highly energetic animation studio. Well done P. A. Works! 10) Using anime to celebrate the UN 60th anniversary OK, Robotech is not a pure anime as most fans know but it's still an amalgamation of 3 anime titles so it still counts even if the work was done by an American company. 11) Using manga to explain technical subjects I'm not sure how good these books are but apparently they were written with direct input from a specialist in each of these subjects. I still prefer to use regular textbooks since I'm an old school type of guy. 12) Using manga to make fun of George Walker Bush and his good for nothing father! This last one isn't really an application but I decided to include it anyway since it's quite funny. It really made my day when I read it (^_^) I hope the benefits outlined above are enough to convince “non believers” that anime and manga can truly have a positive impact on one's life. I have to stress, however, that it depends on the person in the end and that the fan must make the effort to make the most out of his/her hobby or he/she will, otherwise, be missing out on a lot. The final wisdom of the day is: “Anime and manga are what you make out of them”.
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Taishou Yakyuu Musume. OST  – Ongaku Shuu Tracklist: 1. Romantic Strike. (TV size) 2. Taishou Hiyori 3. Painopainopai (Tokyo Bushi) 4. Ichinichi no Hajimari 5. Asou no Machi Name 6. Otenba de Shitsurei! 7. Karen na Ojou 8. Touhou Seika Ouka Kai 9. Tokorode Yakyuutte Nani desu no? 10. Umaku Ikimasen wa… 11. Play Ball! 12. Pinch desu wa… 13. Futari no Kyori 14. Nagare Yuku Jikan 15. Yarazu no Ame 16. [...]
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