J1 An-Ex 4 Review

So what do we know November for? We know it as the month that holds Thanksgiving and as the second to last month of the whole year. But on Friday the 18th, anime fans throughout Philly knew it as the fourth installment of the J1 Anime Experience (J1 An-Ex 4). Returning to the Hawthorne Center in South Philly, hundreds of anime fans gathered to celebrate and enjoy the monthly mini-con once more.





For starters, the game room was (as always) a room packed with contenders ready to duel on the sticks. This time, with the premiere of Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, the chaos was taken up a notch than before. From over-the-top combos to amazing come-backs and even a lawyer shouting "Objection!!!", things got a bit crazy in there. And for the non-fighting game fans, the card game room was packed with players ready to duel in Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon and more. Virtual Tournament Fighters (VTF for short) made its return to the An-Ex, letting players experience the fighting game based dueling that the president of J1 Studios created.



Cosplayers lined up for a photoshoot!



But nothing was more entertaining than the Cosplay Competition. We were greeted with some creative costumes from a Catwoman cosplayer, a Ms. Kreuger cosplayer and a Dr. Stien cosplayer for all the Soul Eater fans. Even though there were no panda sightings this time around, we still had an enjoyable competition.

Finally, possibly the more noteworthy event of the night was the discussion of Anime, from past to present. Held by the president of J1 Studios, he broke down what anime is now in comparison to how it was in its Golden age. From the funny comments - "How many ninjas do you know wear orange jumpsuits" - to the more informative parts, he taught the crowd a thing or two about anime. Overall, it was a great discussion.



The president of J1 Studios schooling fans on anime in the discussion panel.

  For a small convention, the J1 An-Ex brings out a great crowd. From returning fans to the newcomers, the An-Ex continually expands each and every month. And there's always something new that happens each and every month so you don't want to miss one.

J1 An-Ex 2 Review



(Right to Left) Katara Cosplayer, Gaara
Cosplayer and an attendee striking
a pose.



Friday, September 9, 2011 was the date of the J1 Anime Experience 2 (J1 An-Ex 2 for short), the mini-convention hosted by J1 Studios. A day where hundreds of anime fans came from all sections of Philadelphia to fill the Hawthorne Recreation Center with their love of anime, video games, and all things Japanese. And while hundreds of people came out, there were plenty more that missed out on the second installment of the An-Ex.





So what happened on this month's An-Ex, you ask? Well, for starters, the premiere of REDLINE, a title that has been in development by MADHOUSE studios for 7 years. The movie had the audience in awe with it's crisp animation and insane action. Plus, the president of J1 Studios tested out card game series of his own titled Virtual Tournament Fighters (VTF for short). The card game, which took a lot of fundamentals from fighting games, was well received by the participants who tested it out, some even asking for a release date.

Yet nothing topped the chaos in the video game room. It seems to be an unspoken rule that when you enter in, you must bring your A-game because competition is fierce. Players went at it in Street Fighter 3rd Strike: Online Edition, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, showcasing an intense level of competition.
The main room held the vendor area, where artists displayed their best work for sale. From comics, posters, jewelry, and even Pokeball cupcakes, you could find some unique stuff. This time, the An-Ex was graced with the presence of female wrestling superstar Annie Social, who brought custom-designed T-Shirts and merchandise with her for everyone to buy.

Pokeball Cupcakes, courtesy of one of the vendors in the main room.

The major highlight was the cosplay contest, where the brightest and unique cosplayers showed off their costumes. From a Jigoku Shoujo cosplayer, to an FLCL cosplayer, and even a guy in a panda suit, there were great cosplayers that came out to this event.

The one thing about this event is that it keeps getting bigger and better with every month. And while there's a lot of the same faces that show, there are always new faces that attend with each event. So if you missed this one, show up to the one next month. Because there's always something different and better that happens each month and you don't want to miss out on it.



Cosplayers taking a picture in front of a vendor booth.

On Stage with TAKII 11 ~ Stage On! ~

So it seems that Philadelphia is starting to blow up with events for the anime/video game fans and Asian culture enthusiasts. Small video game tournaments have been popping up for the video game fans and for the anime lovers and Asian culture enthusiasts…there’s The Asian Karaoke Idol Invitational! Returning for its 11th season, TAKII has hit the scene with only two words for its fans to remember: Stage on!



A few cosplayers and TAKII attendees posing for a photo shoot.



For those who don’t know, TAKII is a local Asian culture gathering held at the Rotunda right in the heart of University City. Created by Damien "D-Chan" Christopher, it's been running for 5 years on a bi-yearly basis, reaching its 6th year with its newest installment. Anime fans throughout the city come to this event to meet up with others and embrace their love of all things anime and Japanese on this two day event. And it's not just sitting back and watching anime, there are events ranging from a talent show contest (Asian American Idol), a cosplay competition, live concerts, a video game tournament, and even a rave for all the ravers in the building.

Now, I’ll be honest with you. The first two seasons I attended (Season 9 and 10) were great, the second more than the first. And entering in the Rotunda, I was expecting to have the same, if not a greater, experience this time around. And I can easily say that I wasn’t disappointed this time. From the events, the performances, the video game tournaments, and even the random hilarity that occurred, it just held an air of – for lack of better words – epicness that you couldn’t help but get swept away in.

One of many things that I enjoyed was the Asian American Idol part of TAKII, the otaku talent show that’s one of the highlights of the festival. Contestants showcase their talents to the audience and judges, and then get tested on their vocal, dancing, and improvisation (acting) talents as well. This event is one of the events that you can’t help but cheer, applaud, and laugh at because things have a habit of getting randomly funny. One of those random moments that stood out was when two of the judges performed “Don’t Stop Believing’”, only to have two of the contestants judge them harshly in return. It left the crowd – and one of the actual judges – in tears.

A dose of their own medicine, I guess.



Sebastian and Ciel waltzing while ElderBerry performed on Saturday's
Makenai Concert.

However, the more memorable moments of TAKII had to be Saturday’s Makenai concert. TAKII legends were out this time to give the crowd a show to remember. From ElderBerry, who performed “Again” by YUI (the opening theme of FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) and had two Black Butler cos-players waltz on stage as she performed, to Mario Bueno performing an English/Japanese performance of Romeo X Juliet’s theme song “You Lift Me Up” and other songs, it was definitely a concert to remember. Add to it a performer by the name of Lanie who did an ASL set for the audience and it was a night to remember.

But the memorable moment of the Makenai concert was when D-Chan, sung an acapella version of “Life is…” by Hirai Ken as a tribute to his family, who were on stage with him as he sung. What that signified…I have to tip my hat to D-Chan on that one.

Sunday was the perfect way to end the entire festival. The Cosplay Competition was a colorful affair, both in costume and actions from the contestants who were definitely in character. And there were some creative costumes, from a Canti cosplayer in a suit, a Team Fortress Sniper, and a pink-haired cat-girl in a kimono. Add in a sword-fight between a Cloud cos-player and another cos-player and you have what was a good contest.



Contestants of the Cosplay Competition lining up for a photo shoot.

Following that was an encore performance that Lady AI, another TAKII legend, opened. And when I say opened, I mean that she rocked the house. Especially her last song, “Howl” which had everyone in the room on the feet either dancing, clapping, or howling like wolves. And the return of Mario Bueno, who kept the energy going with “Heart of Sword (Rurouni Kenshin Ending Theme)”, “Colors (Code Geass Theme song)”, and the Power Rangers theme, just set the mood for the final event: the video game tournament.

For space constraints, I won’t go into that much. And I’ll bet that there will be a few people who will be laughing at that statement. The tournament games were Mortal Kombat 2011 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the action on both games was insane. The Marvel 3 team tournament, however, was a complete landslide victory for the first team as they completely annihilated their opponents in a Survivor Series type battle. This is not to say that the matches weren’t crazy, just that the second team wasn’t prepared for the first team.




A cute cat-girl cosplayer posing for a picture!!!



The one thing that I do enjoy and is probably the main factor that'll keep me coming back to TAKII is the open atmosphere. I stated in my review of TAKII 10 that it feels like a gathering of friends and it still holds true. Everybody is free to be theirselves with no pressure of any kind and no care to what anyone else thinks. You’re just there to enjoy yourselves and that’s all that matters.

Well…that ends my review of TAKII 11 ~ Stage On! ~. While the first season may be over, the second season is still on its way for everyone’s enjoyment. And while I’ll still be laughing over the countless pics and videos that I’ve taken of that event, I’ll be anticipating what happens on October 22nd and 23rd. So mark that down on your calendar as TAKII 12, check out the pics and videos that will be posted up on TAKII 11 on the J1 Studios Facebook Page, and check out the TAKII website for more info: http://takii.pdnmz.com

Hope to see you there next season!

Spring Anime Review (Part 1)

There is 4 times a year that the Japanese release new Anime, correlating with the seasons. Of the 4 seasons, Summer and Winter are typically filled with filler anime, titles that are cheep, easy, and not very important, in order to fill the timeslots with so-called "new material", until the important big-named titles can be released in the Spring and Fall seasons. Within that pretext, the Winter season (released in January), the season of Transition where kids graduate school and people get new jobs, is the season that collects some of the worst Anime's of the year. Not counting a few gems that persisted, this last winter season managed to live up to that image with overused concepts and poorly executed ideas and terrible production budgets.

On the other side of that coin is the Spring season. Spring, the season of new beginnings (April, when the School year starts) is typically the season that gets the very best titles to be expected throughout the year. With that in mind, it is with high hopes that I dive into the budding premier season of new Anime.  In the previews, there were quite a number of big titles to look forward to, and the others had interesting premises, but a preview never does the title justice one way or another.

----

Battle Girls - Time Paradox

2 out of 5

Gurk! It's bad! That has to be some kind of a fluke! Well, it's not the worst anime I've seen yet, but so far I can only hope that this one was made intentionally bad to help prop up the majesty of the titles to follow.

A high school girl named Hideyoshi (after the famous general from the warring states period of 16th century Japan) accidentally gets sucked back in time to the very same period by her Teacher, who in turn tried to go back in order to change history in another warlords favor. While in the past, Hideyoshi meets and teams up with all the famous lords of the period (who are all sexy young women) and ends up changing history anyway as she is swept along by the creation of it.

The purpose of this anime seems to be to teach Japanese History to its' viewers, and in that regard it is a success. Names, dates, places, and events are all kept historically accurate, except where the anime deviates, however they take the time to properly explain what "really" happened in order to add to the tension of that event having been changed. The characters, too, are all very colorful and memorable and pleasing to the eye.

This is where the show falls apart. The modern girl falling into the past idea has been used too many times before (Inuyasha, Escaflowne, Magic Knight Rayearth to name a few), and Hideyoshi is the worst of the bunch in how she seems to not even notice. You'd think that the lack of electricity, paved roads, cars, or buildings made of anything but rice would tip her off, or that maybe she'd be a little understanding when everyone around is wearing armor and wielding swords and killing each other but doesn't seem to understand what a "cell phone" is. The historical badasses being represented by sexy ladies thing was done before, too (Ikkitousen in this case), but the presentation is another failure. All the characters are sexy women, but their looks are never exploited. Not a single panty shot, no attention given to busts, no bath scenes, but plenty of bulky armor and baggy clothing around to protect their modesty.

The action scenes were almost nonexistent, consisting of an old movie trick to make a character look badass (appearing through a fire) and nothing else. The rest of the time was spent in dialogue or an expose about how terrible Hideyoshi thinks her life is. Katanagatari proved that Dialogue can be the winning formula of a ragingly successful title, but Battle Girls proved that it can be quite the opposite, too. Dialogue was simple, repetitive, poorly acted, and many times so out of character that I began to wonder if this wasn't in fact written by a lousy fanfic author?

The character designs are appealing enough, and I like the history lesson involved, so I can only hope that the rest of it can catch up. 2 out of 5.

SKET Dance

1 out of 5

FOWL!! I Cry FOWL!  SKET Dance is such a blatant and unrepentant rip-off of PCP (Perfect Crime Party) From the manga Bakuman. If you haven't read that far into Bakuman, first of all: Shame on you. Second: let me break it down.  PCP is about these three kids (two guys and a girl, one of the guys wears glasses and has cell-phone accessories) who perform amateur crimes (and gets away with it). SKET Dance is about these three kids (two guys and a girl, one of the guys wears glasses and has a computer) who perform amateur anti-crimes (helping people...and gets away with it).

A major difference is the protagonist of SKET dance, who is this plain, ordinary, shy, and nerdy Transfer student who get's sucked into the SKET clubs antics.  This guy is so plain and ordinary that I nearly blanched the very first moment I saw him, and did blanch on the second and subsequent moments. It's like they took the nerdiest dweebs to ever be bullied and blended them into a nearsighted twerp so pathetic that *I* want to bully him, and I abhor bullying.

The first episode consists of this one expose into the thoughts of the protagonist: "I'm a nervous shy kid who transferred into a new school and doesn't know anyone. On the first day however, the cool kids came up to me and invited me to be cool with them in the volunteer club! :-)" Need I say more? I shall. The art is ordinary and plain. The acting is half-assed like the Seiyu (voice actors) just didn't give a damn and weren't being paid enough. The character designs are overused and blend into the background (not to mention the sheer blaspheme of copying PCP so directly). The girl was rather pretty I'll admit, and she talked so openly and invitingly with the nerd (Shock!) but everything else just falls into the pits of failed plagiarism.

I rarely give a title 1 out of 5, but this one really deserves it, even if you discount the "ripoffness". The only reason I didn't give it a 0 out of 5 is because the characters spend a lot of time doing random acts of insanity out of boredom, which I wholeheartedly approve of.

Nichijou (My Ordinary Life)

5 out of 5

My Ordinary Life is exactly what the title says. The daily ordinary common occurrences around the life of some high school students, and some people in the neighborhood. Kinda like Lucky☆Star, Azumanga Daioh, and Minami-ke.  That is to say, if accidently bumping into someone on the street causes 25 megaton nuclear explosions and Marching on Washington in violent protest because someone voiced disapproval at riding a goat to school is normal.

Nichijou could very well be a skit from Who's Line is it Anyway brought to anime life. Certain every day logics like Going to School Every Morning and Eating a Variety of Foods to be Healthy are maintained, but everything else is taken to the very extremes of exaggeration, and then treated seriously. The aforementioned nuclear explosion literally threw the two bumpers to the other sides of the city, and debris managed to land in a suitably comical way on the head of yet someone else.

The art style is simple, which sometimes slips into grainy as the tension of the moment calls for it. For a comical title, the art is perfect. Breezy enough that nothing absurd would necessarily be considered out of place, but solid enough that the absurdities in the art itself can be treated as intentional, such as the wooden blocks used to tie up that one girls hair. The voice acting as well lends itself to the casual air of the style. Most characters sound like the extremes of the "moe" archetype, but pull off real emotion and shock as the scene calls for it. The Background music is probably one of the best features. Light and flimsy, like the comical orchestration behind a Loony Toons cartoon, but performed with the sheer quality of a Disney product. It does wonders to noticeably enhance the mood without synching up to the action like a musical.

The only problem I've had with this anime so far is the pacing of the gags. The gags are great and somewhat unexpected, but they concentrate on only one gag at a time. The show has the potential to literally flood us with absurdities, but they seem to want to pace themselves, and that lends to the feeling of the episode being somewhat short and unfulfilling.

All in all, considering the amount of real effort and time that went into the production, as well as the exploitation of what is such an open potential for any kind of gag, I give Nichijou a 5 out of 5. Seriously, I haven't laughed that hard since Family Guy.

Doronron Enma-kun Meramera

6.5 out of 5

 

Go Nagai! Go Nagai! Go Nagai! From the mind of Go Nagai, the man responsible for such cult classics as Devil Man, Cutey Honey, and Mazinger.

Monsters are coming to the human world from the Hell in order to get human spirits. As people's minds are getting dirty, being attracted by the dirty spirits, the monsters break the rule to go to the human world. Tsutomu, a boy who goes to Yokai Elementary School, is suddenly assaulted by monsters. Those who save him from the monsters are Enma-kun, the son of Enma, Yukiko, a snow woman, and Kappaeru. They are members of Monster Patrol that are sent to the human world to arrest monsters.

It is hard to pin down the target demographic for this title, other than "fans of Go Nagai". The overall feel is "for kids", if you didn't mind your children watching a show with penis fencing and bared breasts being stretched across the room. The visual gags (risque stuff not withstanding) are too simple to target an adult audience, yet the jokes would fly over the heads of someone who hasn't graduated college yet. Ultimately, I may have to say that the show is designed to target specifically "Fans of Go Nagai", but fear not. It will make fans as surely as his other works did.

The animation quality is something astounding! We're talking about a high budget production movie level of graphics and quality! I have never seen anything longer than a 6 episode OVA boast of such quality of picture, and most of them tend to pale in comparison! The art style may take a little bit to get used to for the uninitiated, but everything from the motion of the characters to the shine emerging from the windows in the background screams *Expensive*! Much like Akira Toryama, Go Nagai is one who stubbornly sticks to his style like a belligerent child no matter how much it may detract from the story, but unlike Toryama his style manages to somehow fit the radical change in genre.

The story felt a little rushed. A cursory mention of a ghost in the school is given, a quick introduction of recurring extras going to the school, then BAM! Everyone has their face's stolen and the surviving girl begins the madness associated with meeting, being introduced to, then following along with the actions of the Monster Patrol. A little more time spent fleshing out the other extras might have been nice, but Go Nagai has never been one to take his time, no matter how much we might have sometimes wanted him to. That aside, the main characters had more than enough time to show off themselves and introduce their personalities and quirks.

For the guts to make a title however the hell he wanted to hell with the target audiences, and to fund the work himself (since there's no way any animation studio would devote that much capitol towards a single title) I give this show a 6.5 out of 5. They say that there is power in names, and Go Nagai proves this by having an entire 2 points added to the score on the power of his.

----

4 titles so far. 2 of them really really bad, and 2 of them uncharacteristically good. It's hard to say how the rest of the season will pan out with such a radical shift in quality to be among the first seen, but if that's the trend then I give my stamp of approval! Admittedly, I can be biased when it comes to titles associated with certain famous members of the industry (Masami Obari, Go Nagai, Rumiko Takahashi, and CLAMP to name a few).

Stay tuned for introduction reviews to other spring titles.

'Ben

Last Caress – Hellsing Volume #10 Review

A year-and-a-half can build mighty powerful expectations, the types of impossible hopes and desires even the most talented individual could never completely fulfill. Kohta Hirano is a very fine manga-ka. He has an artistic style that slams you in the face like a freight train and a willingness (or maybe lack of restraint) to lose himself in absurdity for the sake of telling an entertaining tale. But even with his considerable talent, Mr. Hirano is still more the court jester than master storyteller, one possibly hamstrung by a medium demanding lighting-fast output and oftentimes immediate positive feedback.

In the intervening period between Hellsing Volume #9 and this climatic Volume #10, I chose to avoid any mention of the ending, wanting instead to go into this book a blank slate, looking for a pure reading experience. With this in mind, Hellsing Volume #10, taken alone, presents a decidedly rushed summation of the decisive battle between the Hellsing organization’s remnants and Millennium’s freakish super monsters and hoard of nazi-vampiric ghouls. It’s not a particularly satisfying read, nor does it deliver any especially memorable moments.

To be fair, one should remember manga is made for Japanese audiences who can follow a series, before ever compiled into tankoubon, through fairly regular magazine installments—they receive a more natural exposure to a story’s ebb and flow than U.S. consumers with our irregularly released graphic novels.

As a whole, Hellsing has always moved at an electric pace, speeding through material and storylines, while abandoning much attempt at denouement. Still, it should be considered, regardless of how events developed, the series is essentially relating a single encapsulated narrative over ten distinct volumes. The first two books are largely autonomous, introducing characters and establishing concepts, but by the third and fourth we’re already delving into issues involving the Millennium group; and volume five sparks the remaining events that carry us through the rest of the series.

Possibly due to manga’s unique publishing nature, and stresses placed on creators to meet insane deadlines, there often seems to be a tendency of titles evolving into their stories, instead of having well-planned dramatic arcs. In the case of Hellsing, the resulting product has been somewhat lopsided. Before ever reaching these closing chapters, four books have been entirely devoted to Millennium’s invasion of London and the ensuing battle. That’s a ton of pages detailing scant else besides carnage and death, all leading into this last tome tasked with an unenviable job of resolving the remaining mess. Wrangling the existing plot together and creating a smooth resolution isn’t helped, either, when the three main protagonists are all presented in their own self-contained vignettes.

Volume #10 essentially stitches together the final throws of each character’s ordeal: Alucard faces-off against the traitorous Walter, Seras struggles to overcome the superior fighting prowess of a Nazi werewolf, and Integra pushes towards her fated confrontation with the Major. Even though this trio may share a similar goal, the lack of cohesion about their movements leaves one with the impression of jumping between three separate stories.

Further complicating matters is the climax of their individual trials came in the preceding book—Volume #10 is merely on clean-up duty. Alucard (as has been his routine throughout the manga) was going easy on the physically youthful butler—and besides, his true rival was the now-defeated Alexander Anderson, taking a good deal of wind out of this battle from the start; Seras had already found the inner resolve to vanquish her beastly opponent; and there was never any doubt who would win in a physical confrontation between Integra and the Major, it was only a matter of the steely heroine remaining alive long enough mount her attack on the bloated warmonger’s zeppelin. Much as compiling these portions is an obvious necessity, when they comprise the entire contents of a terminal text, what ultimately exists is far from a compelling read.

There is a slight unexpected twist, involving the crimson-clad bloodsucker and a certain Nazi catboy, but the turn is employed in such a forced manner and so late in the proceedings it provides little impact on the occult war that has decimated the misty British city. Sadly, this minor episode seems to exist purely as an excuse to add a bit more meat to the volume’s flagging epilogue, which shoots us about two decades into a future where Millennium’s chaos has been cleansed and Hellsing’s ranks have mostly been restocked.

I do appreciate Hirano not ending things on a dour note, an affliction I find unduly plagues too many a manga and anime. Hellsing isn’t meant to be highbrow stuff, and while one can legitimately question whether the battle in London should have raged across such a vast quantity of pages, the series overall has been just as good a piece of horror business as anything else you’ll find throughout the comic book medium. It’s just a shame the chapters in these last few volumes couldn’t have found themselves with a more judicious ordering, one that maintained a sense of dramatic tension and delivered a more dynamic finale.

via: John H. Zakrzewski  |  Junker Woland, a horribly delightful blog.

Whole Lotta Shaking Goin’ On – Toradora! DVD #1 Failure

This certainly wasn’t what I intended for my first update in over a year, but right now my sinuses are getting besieged by a brigade of goopy-yellow mucus, which isn’t helping my brain focus on finishing a review of the final volume of the Hellsing manga (hopefully I’ll have this done in a day or two).

So instead of my patented overly wordy critiques of the dreadful world of Japanese comic book entertainment, I’m dishing out a quick alert on the video issues plaguing the first two anime DVD releases from NIS America, namely the relatively wonderful animated adaptation of light-novel series, Toradora!, and the fairly awful quasi-related-to-the-video-game series, Persona ~ Trinity Soul ~.

Before getting into the more meaty portions of this post, let me prefix by saying: you might want to hold-off on buying either Toradora! or Persona, as the inceptive DVD releases of both shows will be getting remastered to cure some serious visual ailments.

Wanna know more, keep reading…

For the blissfully unaware (and those who no longer care about legally procuring products), NIS America—you may know them as the USA-based arm of the outfit that keeps finding horrific new ways to port their Disgaea games onto any device that connects in some fashion to a video screen—announced back in February they’d be entering into the capsizing domestic anime market, riding on a wish and a handful of new products.

Toradora! and Persona were the initial shows on-deck, each series designed to be released over two beefy DVD collectors’ sets, loaded with artbooks, posters, and other stuff that sits on your shelf and becomes a home for dust mites. Technically, the premier DVD volumes of both anime aren’t slated to hit stores until July 6, 2010, but thanks to the magic of the Internets, people started receiving their bounties this week.

What many of these intrepid pioneers soon discovered was the encoding on the sets was far less than adequate. While various theories have been proffered concerning the cause, the end result is discs that can show an abundance of ghosting (or after images) and aliasing (or jagged edges). The issue is further complicated, though, because the severity of these issues largely depend on one’s A/V setup or computer software (for those who never like to leave their captain’s chair).

Seeing is believing, of course, so here are two links offering proof of the problems in action: Linku 1, Linku 2.

Keep in mind these are still frames. The ghosting may look extreme, but in motion and depending on the hardware/software used to watch the discs, it won’t be as noticeable (and for some, the phantom bodies apparently go by completely undetected).

Thankfully, NIS America has in the span of three days put most other US anime distributors to shame. Instead of barricading themselves in their Santa Ana-based tower with covers over head, waiting for the hoard of angry anime trolls to stop pounding on the digital doors, the usually upstanding company has already announced the sets are being remastered and that a replacement program is in the works.

Those (like myself) who haven’t yet partaken of their animated offerings can follow the quest for remastering on the following webpage: Linku.

And those with faulty discs and giant collectors’ box in-hand can get an early jump on the replacement process: Linku.

It’s always unfortunate when a young horse breaks its stride right out of the gate, but I’m glad to see NIS America isn’t calling it a day. I’m sure their quick response—to what really is a major problem in a largely hobbyist-supported market like anime DVDs—will win them much good tidings and greater financial support in the long-run.

Courtesy of JunkerWoland