I’ve been watching what really amounts to pathetically little anime recently. It’s little to do with the quality of shows airing, as if I’m honest I’ve not even watched a single episode of most of them, but after having watched practically All The Things last season (well, enough so that I was watching at least couple of episodes of stuff every evening), a certain degree of prioritisation had to happen so that I could actually clear out the ton of work, personal projects, and other obligations that I’ve been sitting on for way too long. Also, video games (and I’ve not even started TitS 3rd yet…)

Still, I’m watching a few things. Not a ton to say about a lot of them, and it’s pretty safe to say that anything I don’t mention I probably haven’t even found the time to watch a single episode of thus far. Should probably at least watch some Worlds End or Alice or Eromanga, I guess. As atrocious a habit as it is to get into, I’m only really posting for the sake of having something to post as opposed to having a specific point to make about something, but whatever.
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From episode 9 of the newer series of Blue Exorcist. Nothing particularly exciting about it, though.

It appears to be over the best part of two months since I’ve posted anything. Whoops. I’d feel guiltier about it, but I’ve been rather busy and preoccupied the last few months with an assortment of things I probably shouldn’t talk about. Even then, there’s so much in the way of English language commentary regarding anime from folks who are way more knowledgeable or better informed that there generally feels like there’s little worthwhile for me to add to the conversation anyway, so whatever. I’m glad to have folks with more time and/or linguistic talent writing stuff to read, honestly.

Still, there’s Mikan Boxes to continue cataloguing.

Also AX to go into a few weeks, and boy, am I ill-prepared for that…

From this weeks episode (episode 9) of Akiba’s Trip (or AkibasTrip), used as a make-shift card gaming table.

I like the AkibasTrip anime, though admittedly this is a statement coming from someone who hasn’t played the game which shares it’s name, and has little interest in actually doing so. I gather this qualifier is necessary, as aside from the soft Akihabara tourism aspect and the stripping of clothes being necessary to defeat the villains, the anime bares little resemblance to it’s namesake in terms of characters and plot.
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This tweet of an e-mail from CDJapan has been floating around this morning, stating that they’ve been asked to stop sending Avex Pictures-related material to their foreign customers. I got this e-mail as well, for what it’s worth.

This isn’t actually entirely new a situation – Amazon JP have actually been quietly cancelling a number of Avex pre-orders for the last few weeks. I know a few who have had their copies of the surprisingly great Scorching Ping Pong Girls recently cancelled out from under them, for example. This kind of just makes the situation here rather more clear, given that Amazon used to have a habit of over-reaching some of their shipping exclusions whenever someone published game-soft out-of-character in the past. This is actually deliberate rather than an accident for once.

As a part-time WUGner, and someone who has a habit of import PriPara CDs, it’s rather a frustrating situation, with both of those properties being under the Avex umbrella. It’s also pretty weird given that they’ve been things like WUG events in Taiwan in recent months.

Avex have a lot of pokers in a lot of fires, though, which makes speculation as to what exactly is going on here somewhat fruitless. The price disparity between Japan and the rest of the world when it comes to the video media does tend to make me wonder if it’s something to do with near-neighbour territory music licensing moves, though it could just as well be about foreign market exploitation of PriPara or other children’s cartoon properties.

It’s kind of an annoying situation all around, though.

…And it’s SideM, which is probably going to make a few Million Live fans a little salty.

Still, from a business expansion point of view, it probably makes sense at this point – it’s not like they particularly struggle to fill large venues for any of the other iM@S properties at this point (heck, there’s a Million Live event at the Budokan in a months time), and there’s competitors in the market like Uta-Pri are still shifting units that show there is an audience there. There’s a market to exploit there with a fairly high ceiling which isn’t going to cannibalise the audience from things this particular franchise are already selling to people. To a degree, Million Live would just be preaching to the choir.

Anyway, more details will be released about it next month. I’ll give the show a fair shake regardless, but obviously the most interesting thing about it will be the staff. The original aniM@S and Cinderella Girls both pulled in a bunch of stellar talent, and it’d be nice to see something of the same level for this. For as much as most of my bubble don’t really pay that much attention to the Guy Idol anime (though I’ve heard from more than one person that the SideM live events are a blast), there’s a surprisingly high bar in terms of doing unusual or interesting things set by shows like Shounen Hollywood in that market. As much as some folks like to look down on things they see as fujoshi-bait, it’s not necessarily a market you can be lazy about.

Also, real curious as to if, or perhaps rather how, they’ll approach the whole Akizuki Ryo thing.

(Although I’ll insert the usual disclaimer here that I don’t really follow Million Live, so I was never personally going to get salty regarding anything what goes on with that…)