I was aware of this growing problem for the past two years, but it really hit home for me the moment I went on Amazon to see if any companies managed to license Nanoha THE MOVIE, and release it on BluRay for a reasonable price. I typed “nanoha” in the search query and was blasted in the face with the most atrocious of filth:

Not only are the old Funimation prints of the first two series being sold for nearly 240$, but the only version of the Nanoha movie available for order is the Japanese edition. I understand it comes with “English” subtitles, but now I have to pay extra for importing fees. I could not believe my eyes, so I went to Rightstuf to see just how dilapidated the anime market had become. With the exception of a few titles from Sentai Filmworks, there was hardly any anime that I had considered worth buying available for a reasonable price.

The only anime that caught my eyes from among the shallow cesspool of bullshit, was Fate/Zero published by ANIPLEX. So without thinking, I added it to my shopping cart, in hopes that there might still be redemption for the American market… and gasped at the price. The box set for Fate/Zero turned out to be $370.00 for the first thirteen episodes! I can not remember anyone ever having to pay so much for anime outside of Japan. I asked around online, and it seemed this was the official “English” release… so I punched in my credit card number while rather piqued. All these neat little extras that come with the bundle are great ideas; but releasing only in Japan and charging dirty foreigners extra on importing fees to circumvent money lost through third party distributors is just dirty.

I have dealt with ANIPLEX before, when I made my decision to purchase the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series a while back. The Madoka Magica series was broken into three limited edition sets each going for around 70-80 dollars. The reasoning for the steep price, was due to the BD/DVD combo, Original Soundtrack, illustrated post cards, the cheap non-corrugated box it came in and the fact that I am stupid enough to fall for it. Why release BluRay at all? I understand that I am getting my money’s worth in paying this ridiculously large sum, because these BluRay/DVD combos are not the run-of-the-mill cheap American mastering that I begrudgingly dished out 18-30 dollars per disc to purchase back in the old days. However, most anime watchers are not bright enough to notice a significant drop in quality to cartoons, and I find it ridiculous that there are bluray releases of televised anime series in the first place. I am more understanding of animated full-length movies warranting a bluray release. Once again, only a good handful of people would be able to notice the difference in the first place. But at some point, someone has to point out: it’s just anime.

So while this may sound blasphemous, and wholly counterproductive to the progression of anime in the United States of America:

Mr. Big Publishers, please retrogress the quality of anime, and start releasing them in small clunky DVD compilations encased in cheap plastic for the standard low-wage American audience. This is for the sake of the anime community.

Oh, but they’re not the only sinners. The rest of you better stop streaming anime, get a job and start buying shit. Otherwise, the fate of anime in the United States is doomed. All the best anime will never make it to American shores, and the price will only drop once the company that released them goes bankrupt and disappears. Or in the case of Nanoha (Geneon), cost you $240…

From what did manage to jump the Pacific onto American soil, despite the constant sabotage by you fucking pirates, here are some of the more “decent” titles you may consider buying:

Angel Beats
AnoHana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Eden of the East
Highschool of the Dead
Infinite Stratos
Occult Academy
Arakawa Under the Bridge
Baccano!
Star Driver
Squid Girl
The World God Only Knows
Princess Jellyfish

There are still so many titles I have yet to see make it to America…

Anime Gerad is looking for new writers to provide more diversity and enjoyment. We’re searching for fresh bloggers or those with wish to get into blogging. What is looked for in applicants:

1. A love for anime, manga, and similar topics like Vocaloid.
2. Editorials, reviews, humor, news, and opinion is Anime Gerad’s forte and focus. Episodic writing is not discouraged, however episode post so far on Anime Gerad have been reserved for special moments in an anime than for each episode.
3. Writing style, grammar, experience, and ability to proofread are factors. No blogging experience required, but it does not hurt.
4. Although there is not any set number of posts to be made in a period of time, dedication and frequency in writing will be considered.
5. Most of us in this community are easy going peeps, so friendly and accepting character is great.

Apply with our contact form or send a private message to Jura on the forum. Please include as much of the following as possible:

1. Methods of contact like Twitter, email, or Windows Live Messenger.
2. Sample or samples of writing. It can be the first blog post you wish to make on Anime Gerad or something written in the past.
3. An introduction, history with anime, tastes, preferred types of writing, and how often you are available to write.

No deadline to apply. All written content is to be exclusive to this site. Accepted bloggers will be introduced to the community and given any assistance needed in getting started.

Arcana Heart 3 never took off like I hoped and prayed it would. People were just too afraid of getting vanned.

So now I have to place my hopes on the next craze from Japan: Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, also known as “P4U” for short. It is a collaboration between Atlus (Shin Megami Tensei, Digital Devil) and Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, BlazBlue) to milk the money train that is Persona.

I did not play Persona 4, but if it plays out like the Shin Megami Tensei series, then it’s probably a repetitive dungeon crawler. I don’t really care for the background of this animu fighter, but I like jumping on bandwagons, so I’ll pretend to be a Persona fanboy just long enough to work my penis into the pants of one of these annoying Persona fangirls.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/-VQYA-vPm9U[/youtube] [youtube]http://youtu.be/bXW6Y0b2d-M[/youtube]

Remember to pre-order your copy today! more…

So I lost all interest in posting here after losing that aniblog tourney. Or so I thought. The truth is, I just found better things to do, like catching up on old series and getting to the next level in competitive gaming. But only for today, I am back to highlight a great show called Queen’s Blade Rebellion. I remember not liking the first Queen’s Blade, and if you consider yourself of fine taste then you probably share the same sentiment.

If one was “man enough” to watch the first Queen’s Blade series in its entirety, then there really isn’t a need to explain why he should watch Queen’s Blade Rebellion. For the ones who were smart enough to watch the first episode and skip all the way to the second season, here’s one reason why you should watch it:

Legal Loli.

Finally, possibly for the first time in fantasy, we get treated to Dwarfs that do not resemble hobbits! They’re far less furry than the lawn gnomes that mine diamonds in your yard. I bet they taste positively divine… and the best part is that they are completely fucking legal. They are older than your mom; and possibly your grandma.

But let’s be honest here, half the reason I look forward to every episode is for a special guest appearance by an old Queen’s Blade competitor. So far, we have seen Claudette, Elena, Leina, Risty, Ymir, and most importantly:

Formerly an evil queen. Currently a loving housewife.

Aldra was freed of her demonic possession and thus lost her eternal child-like body. I am particularly not happy with that.

I wanted to feign ignorance about the massive e-penis battle called Aniblog Tourney, but in three days we will be going head-to-head with some Super Care Bear blog called Dah Fook. You have to be a true fan to remember their URL by heart. They may know their way around Photoshop, but there was once a time when I was young and nubile and thought myself a graphic designer as well. Once my grand and glorious leader Jura returns from his pilgrimage to the land of beautiful little boys, we’re sure to have something up our sleeves in terms of website design… I hope. For one thing, I really want to allow nested comments.

In eager anticipation that I am absolutely correct, I have some preliminary designs already in the works:

I’ve done away with all the unimportant tagging, clouding, and other neat features that make this site look more professional and decided to go with the personalized blog look. After all, I’m the only one that matters anymore. Not only will it convey the sarcastic humor I’ve grown accustomed to in a more loving way, but it will increase the cuteness factor by about ten fold. I guess the forum module has to go, in order to make room for the massive amount of hentai I’ll be using the server to back up. Hentai is hotter when it’s streamed. I’m not paying for the bandwidth, so who cares? I’ll also be streaming random J-pop music to distract the readers from pointing out rather obvious grammatical errors and the like.

Oh, the possibilities are endless. I’m sure there’s seven portions of happiness waiting for me at Uncle Josh’s ranch!

Moral of the Day: Fuck it, fire it.

A few months ago, I may have admitted that I hate sequels, but a recent discovery made me change my mind. Whilst talking to the few scattered anime fanboys located in various back alley apartment buildings across Southern Virginia, it occurred to me that any time a sequel, spin-off or remake was mentioned their eyes went dead; almost as if they were shooting blanks. As far as they knew, the ‘F’ in Zero no Tsukaima was a decorative piece, there was no Dragonball before Z, and Nazo no Kanojo X is a sequel.

Case in point: Eureka Seven AO. All I remember of the first series was surfing robots and masturbating to Anemone doujinshi. Yet somehow, I was beating all these naruto/bleach fantards in general knowledge; despite the fact that Eureka Seven aired on cable television. If I had to somehow describe this sandbagging with an analogy, I would have to liken it to a wild mustang mounting a chihuahua.

The lack of good conversation partners is almost making me regret getting banned from all those anime forums.

So back to Eureka Seven Ao. The series starts off with a blue-haired Renton assembling the key pieces of his multi-colored hairem starting with his childhood friend, some skinny girl with asthma. Somehow the story has shifted from a fantasy world full of living rocks that spew green energy, to the real world, a dystopia divided by political strife, satellite television and seagulls. When was the last time you saw a real animal in the first Eureka Seven other than those weird-ass sky fishies?