What an ugly cover.

A recent article from Yen Press reveals the cover for the new English version of Spice and Wolf, and boy does it suck. Do people really buy novels based on the cover? Unfortunately, yes. It’s a rather shallow way of approaching literature; no, rather than shallow, I’d have to say contradictory… Therefore I can understand their reasoning behind why they would pull something so daft. Many people are less inclined to buy novels with anime characters on the cover, including myself. However, I’m sure whoever gets tricked into buying spice and wolf will feel betrayed upon seeing the inner illustrations, so I think pulling that move was rather stupid and unnecessary on Yen Press’s part.

Not to mention, I’m pretty sure a lot of potential buyers didn’t buy the Haruhi novel because the cover for the paperback sucked. Besides, even though the cover was not anime-oriented, they still stuck it in the “manga” section of every bookstore I’ve gone to. It seems everything is just working against these people’s genuine efforts to bring Japanese light novels to a wider audience. Oh well, I don’t think too highly of any of these children’s books to begin with, so I’m not too affected.

To be entirely frank, I’m not completely enamored of Spice and Wolf, and its elementary economics, or its token furry heroine. I don’t care if the series gets ruined because it got a horrible eyesore as a cover, or the fact Yen Press’s logogram experts can’t come up with a title design that does not look like some early 90’s RPG. Let’s just say, I’m content with what I see. Hah!

Well that title says it all. Spicy Wolf’s second season is coming this summer and I for one can’t wait. This was deffinatly a sleeper series a few seasons ago that never really gained as much attention as it should of. At least that I saw. Naturaly the same VAs will return, with most notably being Ami Koshimizu as sexy wolf god Horo. Just remember though that japanese summer is american winter (if I remember right).

Since the current amount of shows I am following is only around 2 or 3, I thought that mabye there are some of interest to people that have been missed, or not heard of. I’ll try to go by genre to help speed things along.

Action

Claymore – A show that is based around female demon hunters who are themselves half demon. Plenty of action, awesome fight scenes coupled with some very pretty visuals and a nice style to top it all off. As you can see from the picture below when the women use their demon powers their eyes turn yellow and cat like. The more power the use, the closer they become to turning into a demon themselves. Interesting no? If you’re a fan of this genre then this should be the first to check out on your list

Illena, Noel & Sophia fighting Terasa of the Faint Smile; my favorite character

Hellsing Ultimate – Hellsing has had a rather akward past when it comes to its animated version. While the original series was rather… ok… it was just so different from the manga that it never really sat well with me. Even back when I had never read any of the story and the final “villian” was as interchangable as a pair of clean underwear. Hellsing Ultimate fixed this and attempts to follow the manga a tad more closely. By which I mean sticks pretty damn close to (I assume, I only have the first 3 manga) Anyway each new OVA, 2 of which are apparently released each yeah, seems to condense roughly 2 books worth of material so It moves rather fast which is good. Again it has greaty quality, wonderful voice acting (japanese I mean of course) and a very distinct style to it that should be seen by all. Only thing is that it has a fair bit of blood in it so may not be suitable for youngens. 

Rather big visual upgrade from when this was in the first series huh?

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