Intense episode this week.

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©2008 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

In any case, the numbers are below the fold

Change in May in ()

Visits: 6,407 (-8.5%)
Pageviews: 12,191 (-1.6%)
Absolute Unique Visitors: 5,229 (-5.3%)

This amounts to the fewest visits since March (though it is still a 30.6% gain from then). On the flip side, the final full week of June was the best week since the first full week in April.

All of this translates into:

Visits/day: 213.6 (-5.4%)
Pageviews/day: 406.4 (+1.7%)
AUV/day: 174.3 (-2.5%)

Now, on to more specific statistics:

Top 5 Busiest Days in June (in visits):

1. June 30 (447)
2. June 25 (409)
3. June 26 (335)
4. June 27 (326)
5. June 14 (280)

Top 5 Non-Search Engine (and non-aggregator) sites from which I received traffic (in visits):

1. Piqmag.com (77)
2. Otakon.com (71)
3. Sea Slugs Anime Blog (50)
4. AnimeAddicts (28)
5. Comics Worth Reading (24)

Top 5 visited posts (in page views):

1. I Survived a Japanese Game Show (329)
2. PiQ Crashes and Burns. Is ADV Next? (279)
3. Summer 2008 Anime Preview (192)
4. Candy Boy - Episode 1 (175)
5. Candy Boy - Episode 2 (141)

This month I had visits from 100 countries, a gain of 2 from last month. The United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Germany, Malaysia, and France gave me at least 100 visits, while 37 other nations gave me at least 10.

I also had visits from 49 states and DC, with only North Dakota shunning me this month (Wyoming decided to visit again this month after forgetting about me last month). California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington, Illinois, and Virginia all gave me at least 100 visits.

Looking at browsers, 53.9% of visitors used Firefox, a minimal drop from last month. However, 23.7% of Firefox uses used Firefox 3, up from only 5% last month. 36.8% of visitors used Internet Explorer, a near 1% gain from last month. Out of those, 33% were still using IE6, down 2% from last month (what’s wrong with you people?) 4.8% of visitors used Opera while 3.7% used Safari.

Finally, my podcasts were downloaded 715 times last month, down 21.2%. The most downloaded episodes were Episode 76 (91 times), Episode 74 (86 times), Episode 75 (76 times), Episode 78 (71 times), and Episode 77 (66 times). Not sure what is causing the drop in podcasts this month. Last month I thought it might have been due to skipping it one week, but I didn’t skip it any in June. Could just be that the series that I’m reviewing aren’t necessarily at the top of people’s lists.

First off, the best way to describe Strike Witches is probably Sky Girls meets Moetan meets a dash of Kanokon.

First, the Sky Girls part: loli opposed to war is lured by cool military gadgets into fighting for humanity against evil invaders of some type.

Next, the Moetan part: Blatant loli fanservice. A lot of it. Apparently they’ve living in a time where pants of any kind are banned for all women except seniors. And I mean that. All women wear only panties or bloomers (with optional pantyhose or thigh-highs) below the waste. I’m guessing whomever rules the world at the time is a hard-core pedo.

Finally, the Kanokon part: apparently whenever the girls activate their magic, they sprout something that looks like a fox ears and tail. Not sure why yet, but it probably has something to do with trying to pander to every fetish known to man. I wouldn’t best against some lovey-dovey twin sister pair showing up or something at some point either.

I just had to face palm multiple times as the only battle sequence that was in the first episode had more panty close-up shots than actual shots of the battle, I think.

Oh yeah, and the acting and writing is horrible. And I mean horrible.

While this is a first impression, it may be a last impression as well as I would be hard pressed to put down over $30 to watch this series. It’s almost bad enough that I spent the $3 that I did.

I’m sure the loli and fanservice fans will eat up this series, but I can already tell that this would easily be a contender for worst series of the year if I kept watching it.

However, that has changed now with Strike Witches, with Crunchyroll now giving options to download the episode for $3 or for $5 (you get an added animated badge plus ipod and psp versions if you pay the extra $2).

Meanwhile, they may get more competition from BOST TV this time around, as BOST TV not only offers a better stream of the episode, unless Crunchyroll has improved theirs (though their stream is still free as far as I’m aware), but BOST is offering a PC-sized download for 150 bost points or, conviently, also just about $3 ($2.99 to be exact, I think, though you don’t get any badges or anything with it).

The primary reason I stopped using BOST for Tower of Druaga was the lack of a quality download, and I didn’t feel like putting down $2 to watch it streamed at BOST and then put down another $1 or $2 at Crunchyroll so I could download it. This time, with the better download and an equal price with Crunchyroll, I can feel better sticking to BOST, who I think is much more worthy of my money than Crunchyroll is.

BOST release is a .mp4 file in H.264 at 872×480 resolution while I assume Crunchyroll’s is once again offering a .avi file in Xvid at 854×480 or similar resolution.

Meanwhile, back at Shibusen, Stein takes Maka and Soul Eater into a strange room with burning incense candles (which agitates human spirits) and basically tells them to verbally air all the dirty laundry that the two students have with each other so that they can get stronger, but it also runs the risk of being detrimental to their soul syncing. Both Maka and Soul Eater really dig into each other as Maka questioning Soul Eater’s desire to get stronger, but Soul Eater mentally reminds himself of that strange imp he sees in his dreams and the eerie feelings he has when the imp tells him to be consumed by power.

Afterwards, the two along with Black Star and Tsubaki head to London for some extracurricular soul capping activities, and Free makes his appearance over there to challenge the group. BS takes Tsubaki into Fey Blade mode to attack, but forgets that the snow on the ground makes for bad footing, so BS misses quite spectacularly. Maka and Soul Eater try to fight back after Free morphs into werewolf mode, but the unsyncing of their wavelengths from Stein’s exercise has SE burning in Maka’s hands in scythe mode. Fortunately for them, even though Free has some witch capabilities, his control of magic is quite rusty, and for whatever reason, he never goes in for the kill which gives Tsubaki an opportunity to sort out the argument between SE and Maka so that they could engage with Witch-Hunter. After hitting Free with Witch-Hunter, Maka drops SE and continues to attack Free even though he’s falling off the bridge, but SE is there to catch Maka before she plunges into the water. Free makes one last effort to stay afloat by grabbing Maka, but BS comes in time to chop off Free’s limb and send him into the water.

Free is such a goofy character despite being so dangerous and potentially powerful with a bit of dreamer as he imagines of digging out of jail with a spoon, just like in the movies . It’ll be interesting to see how Soul Eater holds himself together now that he’s accepted the path to gaining more and more powah.

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I just got the word this morning from ADV that the following new releases have been ’suspended indefinitely’:

Shattered Angels , Vol #2 DVD
Shattered Angels , Vol #2 DVD w Art Box
Kanon, Vol #6 DVD
Tokyo Majin, Vol #4 DVD
Welcome to NHK, Vol #5, 5th Conspiracy DVD

I did not inquire about releases out past 7/8. This is just a quick post, and I’m currently working to get some clarification on what’s going on.

Oh, damn it to hell that Kanon 6 is on the list. And I would agree with Robert on this point:

The ‘deer in the headlights’ deal we went through back in February isn’t going to cut it this time.

Especially since it appears to be yet another licensing problem. Apparently this only applies to new releases (Robert says they’re still getting shipments of the new box set releases, for example), but that is obviously still not good for ADV.

「美瑛より」 (Biei Yori)
"From Biei"

This picture is for decorative purposes and has nothing to do with the content of this post at all.

I went out to Kinokuniya today, mainly to post something and then go look for Superior Saturday, the latest book in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

I’m happy to say I achieved both aims today, with little hassle, except for the fact that Kinokuniya is really, REALLY good at tugging on my purse-.. or shall I say, my wallet-strings. Not only did they have Superior Saturday, but they also had Honey & Clover Vol. 2 (on 20% discount too!), The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross Vol. 6, ARIA Vol.2, Trinity Blood:RatM Vol. 3, Missing Vol. 2, Shinigami no Ballad Vol. 1, a bunch of interesting looking new titles and finally, Full Metal Panic! Vol.3. Dear god, I nearly crapped when I saw the big pile I grabbed after browsing through the manga section.

I swear, every time I go to Kino, I get a really huge urge to buy books. I suspect they have subliminal messages embedded in their store-wide music (mostly classical pieces) compelling me to buy, buy and buy.

In the end, managed to cut the purchases down to Superior Saturday, FMP! Vol.3, Trinity Blood:RatM Vol.3 and Hachikuro Vol.2, which came up to about RM 115. Sigh, if it wasn’t for the crap exchange rate making the prices of the books 3x higher, I’d have bought the whole stack I took, plus a bit more. Would’ve been funny if I descended to credit hell from buying all the volumes of Negima! or something, haha.

Anyways, blazing through Superior Saturday now. Garth Nix doesn’t disappoint. The Keys to the Kingdom series must have one of the most original fantasy-sci-fi combo settings of recent young adult fiction titles. Gotta love Suz- sorry, General Turquoise Blue now :).

P.S.: Goddammit, I can’t seem to stop looping the Rinbu Revolution duet by Masami Okui and Nana Mizuki in Animelo 2007. I swear, the song is well meant to be a duet song, and this rendition by Nana-chan and Masami is just fits soooo well.

©2008 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Naeka tries the daring strategy of letting the twins hang loose, and at first the strategy is successful. The sight of the unsupported bouncy-globes draws Hendrick’s gaze and prevents him from hypnotizing Naeka until her sweat starts to make her white blouse see-through. Naeka is forced to decide between hypnosis or exposure, but fortunately Elizabeth shows up “disguised” as Strawberry Mask. Armed with one of Naeka’s bras that Kograshi supplied, Elizabeth discovers that all of Naeka’s bras explode when the ribbon is pulled, and so Hendrick is finally defeated.

Reaction:
Every time Kamen no Maid Guy puts forth super-cliche and stupid premises and yet manages to add something quirky and interesting to the mix. I thought the Hendrick’s checkmate was actually quite brilliant, and in the end he did get a full glimpse of the goods.

While Hendrick was your typical sister-baiting long-haired bishounen, the flashback where he promised to marry his sister was hilarious and painful at the same time. I came away amazed at his long-term planning and his ability to ditch his siscon completely in order to cut his losses. His plan to ban all female underwear was reminiscent of Roy Mustang and was very European (supposedly).

©2008 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

• Black Lagoon (both seasons)
• Elemental Gelade
• Ergo Proxy
• Fate/Stay Night
• Hellsing Ultimate
• Kamichu
• Karin
• Kyo kara Maoh! (2nd season only)
• The Law of Ueki
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (being released as Lyrical Nanoha)
• Paradise Kiss
• Rozen Maiden (both seasons)
• Shakugan no Shana (released as just Shana by Geneon)
• Shonen Onmyouji
• The Story of Saiunkoku
• When They Cry - Higurashi
• Zero no Tsukaima (being released as the Familiar of Zero)
• plus the live-action Ninja Vixens

Luckily for myself, I bought up the entire Shana series when Geneon shut down, but many of these other series I just haven’t gotten to yet. Most of these titles were the obvious choices to be picked up as well.

Also, apparently Geneon still holds the actual licenses to these series, but Funimation is going to do all the dirty work for them, including producing and distributing them.

The first titles are scheduled to start their release in Late Summer.

However, this brings up an interesting question…does this mean Geneon may appear on the licensing market again, but will just use Funimation to distribute, kind of in the mold of Kadowaka USA? That had been a possibility floated all along. I think it’s too early to know whether that is the case, however.

Added thought:

If I may, two glaring omissions to this list to me (which doesn’t impact me because I already have both series) are Haibane Renmei and Fushigi Yugi.  Just though I’d say that.

July 4th

11:00am - 12:00pm: Aurora Publishing
12:00 - 1:00pm: Viz Media
12:00 - 1:00pm: Honneamise (aka Bandai Visual)
1:00 - 2:30pm: Dark Horse
3:00 - 4:00pm: Nozomi/Right Stuf International
4:00 - 5:00pm: Bandai Entertainment
4:00 - 5:00pm: ADV Films
5:00 - 6:00pm: Digital Manga

July 5th

10:00 - 11:00am: TokyoPop
11:00am - 12:00pm: Go! Comi
3:30 - 4:30pm: Funimation
3:30 - 4:30pm: Broccoli International
5:00 - 6:00pm: ImaginAsian
5:30 - 6:30pm: Kadokawa USA
5:30 - 6:30pm: CMX

And there are other industry sponsored panels (though not necessarily Q&A panels about the companies themselves) at other times - especially on July 3rd.

And, of course, I apologize if I missed any industry panels.

P.S.:

Uh, oh yeah, those times are almost certainly Pacific Time, so add 3 hours to the time if you’re on the east coast like me.

The fact that the ADV rep at their Sneak Peak panel talked about how he hoped whomever ended up distributing those titles used the same voice cast was especially foreboding, since it seemed clear that the “whomever” may or may not be ADV Films.

They said they were still working on 23 different licenses, so it doesn’t sound like the company is necessarily in as dire straights as some people have feared, but as I said earlier, this definitely can’t help them.