Anime Review Roundup

Manga's Man In The Know Speaks

Manga Entertainment's public face, Jerome Mazandarani is gearing up for the forthcoming MCM Expo by talking to the Anime Chronicle Podcast. UK Anime.Net have the link to the podcast, as well as a transcript for you to peruse. It's well worth a listen as the man in the know, and at the heart of the industry talks about the state of anime today in the UK, the future direction of Manga Entertainment, and some of the goodies that we have to look forward to come 2011. There are also some tantalising hints of the three new licence announcements coming this weekend.

Manga Entertainment Licences TO

This isn't one of the three by the way. This week Manga announced that they had licensed the 2-part OVA TO. TO is based on the hard sci-fi manga 2001 Nights, and is directed by Fumihiko Sori of Ping Pong, Ichi and Vexille fame. Just like Vexille, this is a fully computer animated 3D CG work, although apparently it's more of a space opera, which immediately engages my acquisitive instincts. Again it's UK Anime.Net with the news.

Gundam Unicorn Part 2 is Incoming

Something I noticed on Otaku News and then everywhere else is that the second episode of Gundam UC is imminent, that newest incarnation of Gundam that is enjoying a simultaneous-ish worldwide Blu-ray release. Because of BBFC issues, Beez had to release Part 1 through their mail order store only, and I hope that won't be the case this time. Anyway, The Bandai Channel has a preview of the first 14 minutes online, and if you click the link, you can get your Gundam on too. Warning, it's an annoying link that will resize your browser window.


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What's that lyric from Daydream Believer, "Disappointment haunted all my dreams" or something? That pretty much sums up my week of anime, beginning with D. Gray-Man Series 2 Part 2. Disappointment one, it brings us up to the halfway point of the series, but neither Manga Entertainment, nor Funimation have licensed the second half, which could just mean that this is all we ever get, and the story is left hanging. Disappointment two, D. Gray-Man turned out to be nowhere near as good as it promised at the start of the series. Find out if it is still good enough to warrant a purchase by clicking on my review.

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It was a trip into the back catalogue next, as I got my mitts on the Fantastic Children Complete Collection boxset, a really quite gorgeous artbox from Beez, released in the UK in 2008, with all six Amaray cases within. We don't get a lot of artbox action in the UK, so you'd think that it would only be afforded to those extra special series. Instead, Fantastic Children turned out to be my disappointment number three. It's a mystery series which simply mustn't be spoiled, so other than a bunch of white haired kids who keep appearing through history, looking for a special girl, and an orphan who is haunted by one particular image that she keeps drawing, that's pretty much all I can tell you. You won't find out too much more by clicking on my review, but you will find out just why watching it left me a little deflated at the end.

Manga Entertainment released D. Gray-Man Series 2: Part 2 last Monday 18th October, while Beez Entertainment's Fantastic Children Complete Collection boxset came out in 2008. It's currently bottoming out in a bargain bucket, somewhere online.

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