I recently read about the fact that AnimeEigo was loosing the license to Kimagure Orange Road… boy, that just made me feel really sad. It goes back right to what snagged me into anime in the first place (it was an add for KOR at the tail end of a Urusai Yatsura tape from a rental store). I still have all my old VHS tapes for the KOR OAVs and stuff. I never did actually acquire the DVDs of the TV series, and its been on my ‘i really need to get that’ list for a while. It’s a shame that it took this news to motivate me into looking into getting the series on DVD finally.
What surprised me was that they have all of these DVDs on sale for some amazingly low prices. If you ever considered checking out KOR, pick up the OAV DVDs - at 6 bucks per DVD, you cant beat it. I have to admit to feeling somewhat guilty at buying the set at this kind of low price… i went ahead and got all 12 of the TV series DVDs, both OAV DVDs and the Movie DVD. It’ll be sad to see what was once really one of the main staples of everyone’s anime collection now become unavailable, relegated to the background as ‘old school’. Same goes for the manga, which it is a shame may never see the light of day on these shorts. With so much crap that has been brought over, it saddens me that they couldnt bring KOR over as well. Sure the art of the first 2 books is crap, but its still a good story. Once again, so many manga acquisitions seem to rely heavily on how it looks over how it reads. Americans are shallow, remember? If its not pretty we wont read it because we’re like that -_-. (grumble)
I guess it kinda bookends an era for me - first discovering anime through an ad for KOR on a VHS tape from a rental store, to aquiring the VHS tapes of the OAV, to getting online and finding out that there had been a whole TV series of the anime, to going to my first Japanese bookstore and buying the hard bound tankubons of the series, to getting into fansubs, to the KOR translation mailing list, to my first real CG artwork of Manami an Kasumi for the KOR Mailing list T-shirt, which got me to buy my first Wacom tablet, to all the other things that has led to me doing what i do today… to now, here at the end of Animeigo’s run with KOR to buying the whole set on DVD at the end of it all… can’t really describe how it makes me feel, personally.
Oh, and i just found out about another bit of something from the past that has past away. One of the Hildebrant brothers has died - Tim Hildebrant. If you are familiar with fantasy art at all, you will already know about the work of the Hildebrant brothers. I still have a very old Toliken calendar that inspired me when i was in high school. People like TIm Hildebrant brought to life a lot of the fantasy in people’s lives, and its a very sad loss.
I guess i’m just going into today feeling more thoughtful that usual.
pirotunes: Steve Roach - Quiet Sun
That’s what really depresses me about what you might see on a shelf in the manga department in a store in the states. I feel like I’m missing out by not reading much of them, and then when I hear that we get the short end of the spectrum it becomes daunting. It’s like a good 90% of television on nowadays. I remember back when I was younger (okay I know, I’m not really that old) back in the early 90s I remember seeing some great shows that really molded who I am. Now I see pretty much filth all around. Sure there are some diamonds in the rough, but I’d rather not wade through the garbage to find it. Maybe that’s why I’m so behind in reading manga or watching anime. Too much out there to sort though. It’s one of the primary reasons I overdue what I like. Bah, there I go, talking about myself and boreing people. Either way just know your thoughts aren’t ignored and sympathized with.
TTL
What’s really hard with the stuff that hits our shores is price. Take stuff like Rurouni Kenshin, which wasn’t half bad. It costs about $350 to get the whole series (the newer sets cost a little less…). Manga is kinda pricy too, usually about $10 or so. What makes me jealous are the Korean exchange students at my school who tell me, “yeah, I like going to the stores around my home (back in Korea). They let you borrow the books for a few bucks. It also comes out almost as soon as it does in Japan.”
At any rate, there are so much trash available. Thank goodness for the fansub groups. Sure, we’re breakin copyright law, but at least I can watch something worthwhile.
I had a similar bookend-making experience a few monthes ago when I bought Green Legend Ran, which was the first anime I saw and got me started. It felt good to have the beginning of my journey in my collection. There’s so much great anime out there from long past, but I’ve avoided much of it (even KOR) because the graphics looked crusty. Maybe I’m too spoiled and need to give them a try…
Lack of selection at B&M stores has been the big reason I don’t have much manga. My only choice is to go online where there’s no real preview of what I’m buying.. There’s nothing like fansubs in the manga world, so I can’t get any previews and don’t know what to buy.
I have yet to see KOR. Hrm, I wonder if Netflix has it. I can’t really afford to buy a lot of DVDs right now with just starting a business.
A friend of mine has the Sure e2c’s which are about $100. He swears by them and believes them to sound beautiful. Sure also makes the e3c which is a step above I beleive. Sure makes some pretty good equipment all around. You probably can’t go wrong with them.