treatment

hmm.

will it be a kit-only release or a complete gpb-1j release next year? If it's a kit-release, then the FAST-pack kits for the older 1/60's should be released as well.

I already have two 1/60 1J.

All I need is the GBP kit.

well, i need to complete the 1/48 line, too. but no moneys, yet.

thanks for the replies so far.

Tho I do have steady hands and have brush-painted stuff before, I am kinda leaning towards spray-paint this time as it seems more convenient and easier than a brush-on. I'm just not sure about which brand to get, as I've not really spray-paint a toy or a model.

I see cheap sprays from testors. I still got a bunch of regular krylon, i think. Haven't seen a Tamiya spray, yet.

Guess it's about time I find and visit the local model-shops (if any) around here.

placed my order. havent ordered for awhile from hlj. not sure about their shipping.

came up to 2600+g for weight on my order. we'll see if they charge me sal or ems on that. and how much.

--treatment--

So does this ruling really mean and affirms that Yamato toys (excluding the 1J) can be retailed here locally now without anymore undue interference from HG?

I like to see a toy/anime shop again displaying both and not being harassed by HG.

HG can retail their Robotech Macross-TV toys and Yamato can retail DYRL/Plus/M7/M0 toys.

And all will be good.

---

what's up with this thread's borked sizing? No wordwraps.

It's sold out from the Walmart I visited earlier. bastards.

I'm thinkin of finally paint-customizing some discarded chunky-monkeys re-issues and contemplating on getting some Hase-models in the near future, hence the question.

Of course, it's the usual Max and Kakizaki colors stuff.

--treatment--

babelfish is always funny. great source of humor.

This is a region-0/hk-bootleg dvd-review. The anime hasn't been licensed in Region-1. It's currently +ACQ-30 for 3-discs/12-episodes. My copy is of AC.

Scores:

-- Art

[*] A : A pretty good Mahoromatic-esque character art here.

-- Video

[*] A : Colors are bright and vivid. Animation-level is standard.

here're some snapshots of

child Warukyure:

adult Warukiyure:

Warukyure and Katsuoto:

-- Audio

[*] A : good stereo mix

-- Voice-acting

[*] A : pretty good Kanon-esque vocals.

-- Subtitles

[*] B- : Fansub-quality, with some spelling-typos here and there in some episodes. Seems that Warukyure's and Haidori's were in translated Chinese-names ( Flower Akirei and Edla, respectively). Grammar structure gets a bit engrishy in some places. It's easily followable.

-- Story and Presentation

[*] A : The story is a sci-fi romantic/drama comedy.

-- Fanservice:

[*] B : There was a goodly amount of fanservice here being set in a public-bathhouse setting. Catgirls in maid-outfit. Naked human and anthropomorph girls. Lolicon-heavy.

-- Verdict:

[*] B : as long as you keep your lolicon-bias in check. Otherwise, it'll be a C-grade because of the lolicon-fantasy premise.

: This is a very interesting series, to say the least. It's chockfull of fanservice. It's lollicon-heavy with some pedophilia-vibe that the series acknowledged itself. Despite it all, the series is funny and engaging.

High-schooler Tokino Katsuto inherited and runs a public-bathhouse from his grandpa. He's managing it with his sister. He gets pretty much gets killed or mortally-injured in the first two episodes establishing the story. Warukiyure's the reason. She crashlanded her ship on the bathhouse and gets him killed/mortally-injured again while playing hide-and-seek. Warukiyure imparts to him part of her soul for him to survive. The consequence is that Warukiyure becomes a kid and Katsuto becomes her legal-guardian. Haidora's seems to be related to her and was fighting her until Akina (Katsuto's shinto-priestess childhood (girl)friend) put a spell on her and transform her into a child. It gets a little awkward, to say the least.

Beware: The critical misgivings I have for this series was Warukyure's character-premise of child/adult transformation. It's a little unsettling as it conveys pedophilia-fantasy, despite the innocent understanding/acceptance of high-schooler Katsuto as the main lead guy in the story. That stuff pretty much distracted me at first viewing while trying to enjoy the series as it pretty much got to my head of "WTF?! That was too blatant!".

Oh, well. I'm not sure if I'm being a little too overly critical of this series, even tho I enjoyed it. I just didnt appreciate the subtle implication of trying to justify lolita complex thru the Warukyure's transformation.

Despite that critical misgiving, the series is really enjoyable.

--treatment--

This is a region-0/hk-bootleg dvd-review. The anime hasn't been licensed in Region-1. It's currently $30 for 3-discs/22-episodes. Some shops sell it up to $40 (not worth $40). There are several bootleg-versions of this show. My copy is of MI (Manga). You'll be better off getting it from the fansub-circuit.

Scores:

-- Art

[*] A : A pretty good updated tenchi-esque character art here.

-- Video

[*] A : Colors are bright and vivid. Animation-level is standard.

here's a snapshot of Shao-rin:

-- Audio

[*] A : good stereo mix

-- Voice-acting

[*] B : pretty standard tenchi-esque vocals. Ruan's vocal is Ayeka of Tenchi.

-- Subtitles

[*] B+ : Fansub-quality, with some occassional very minor spelling-typos here and there in some episodes. Grammar structure was pretty good for the most part in the early episodes of disc-1. Then it gets engrish-heavy in the last episode (the ruann cat-training episode) of disc-1. Disc-2 seems to start off with good grammar-subs again.

-- Story and Presentation

[*] B- : The story is about some variation of the Genie-myth. Very kid-friendly fantasy comedy. A little boring in the earlier episodes. No fan-service.

-- Verdict:

[*] B

: This is a variation of the Genie-myth/story. You guys seen the 60's live-action sitcom I Dream of Jenie, right? Basically the same stuff, but set in the anime-standard high-school setting.

Tasuke's dad sent him some Chinese artifacts that contain the moon-spirit and sun-spirit guardians. You got Shaorin as the moon-spirit and Ruan as the sun-spirit competing to be their master's, high-schooler Tasuke, only guardian and have his favor. Shao-rin becomes a student and Ruan becomes a teacher. They pretty much trash the high-school building (again and again) with their fights. The series drags along in the earlier episodes and really doesn't get interesting until Izumo (pretty boy adult shinto priest) got interested in Shao-rin. Ruan's an adult, too, btw. Tasuke's two buddies have crushes on Shao-rin and Ruan, respectively.

I haven't finished all of this series, yet. I'm a little dis-interested with it at the moment.

--treatment--

Exactly what jsarclight said above.

meh!

I'm gonna wait for AoD's actual review of this upcoming Mangle-package. I ain't gonna pay twice for the same crap as Mangle's Plus-movie.

--treatment--

I'm assuming the 1/60 Strike will be the Roy again and not the Hikaru, right?

Anyway, any info on any improvements on the 1/60's?

Uhmm, Valkyrie's are a multi-role weapon?

I mean, the destroids seems to be only good for static/limited-movement ground combat, i.e. traditional tanks and missile-boats.

And, yeah. Valkyries are friggin' kewl!

SWEET!

Can't wait for ep-3.

choose yer poison...

[*] FLCL ^_^

[*] Golden Boy ^_^

[*] Mahoromatic

[*] Samurai X Rorouni Kenshin Trust and Betrayal OVAs

[*] Ranma 1/2 1st tv-season and Nihao My Concubine movie .

[*] Cowboy Bebop (Best Sessions and Movie)

[*] Chobits (in japanese-dub!)

[*] LA Blue Girl and LA Blue Girl Returns.

and the best recommendation is....

[*] AZUMANGA DAIOH !!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup. It's rated T 13+. Whatever that rating means.

Anyway, I really suggest checking it out from your local barnes-n-noble (or any bookstore that allows in-store reading in your area) before making a decision to purchase.

Imho, Osaka's humor was basically ruinned with that stupid establishment of the Bronx/Brooklyn shenanigan of a localization in this initial volume. I'm now alot more scared of ADV's upcoming english-dub of the AzuDai anime.

The only consolation of this manga was that the rest of the characters were pretty much similar to the anime.

review:

Well, I bought the manga today. It's $9.99 for about 160+- pages. Manga's not cheap, no?

Anyway, I'm just halfway thru reading it.

The translation starts off a bit slow and quite dry. Yukari's teaching Spanish language for some reason. She's an english-teacher in the anime.

And Osaka was presented as having a nu-yohkah akcent:

fuhgeddaboutit??? yo, how _you_ doin'? ????

WTF?!

Geezus friggin krizt on a bike! That's the most horrible representation of Osaka's character. Osaka would've been better accepted/translated as having a Georgia or Tennessee twang, rather than a weird Bronx or Brooklyn that they wrote in on the manga.

Other than those above, it's ok. The manga humor was a bit slow on the start. Then it gets better about 20 or so pages into it. If you'd seen the anime, that is.

Verdict:

-- is it worth it? ---

[*] Only if you're a manga-fan/manga-collector or a casual Azu-fan.

[*]Otherwise, it's a maybe. It might entertain you while you wait for the Azudai anime release slated for early next year.

----

I have no idea why the average price of manga (not just AzuDai, but the rest of US-released manga) is at $10. They should be priced at $8 or even $5.

Calvin and Hobbes books are still a better buy.

edit: seems like invision screwed up the format of non-alphanumeric characters. weird.

One important aspect to note, however, is how many of MWers got their yammies in either list -prices or sale-prices.

That aspect will somehow make the avg $953.73/collection a little invalid dollar-figure.

For example, I got my 1/48 for like $88 and a couple of my 1/60's under $29. Of course, my first yammie (1/60 1J/FP) did cost me $100 before I ever found out about MW and HLJ sales.

Yes there is an upcoming 1/48 Hikaru 1s.... or was it already out? It has black heatshield.

Hmmmm. Link me to a pic... The only Hikaru DYRL 1S toy I have ever seen was the one made by Bandai, and that had a BLACK heatshield.

Don't forget the Bandai 1/72 HCM VF-1S Hikaru, that had a red heatshield!

And of course, even Bandai later made a correct red clip on heatshield for the 1/55 VF-1S Strike Valkyrie. See here.

Banpresto made an SD VF-1S Hikaru with red heatshield and removable Strike Armor a couple of years ago.

Graham

ok. dagnabbit!

now i want that SD VF-1S Hikaru.

I live in SoCal, and I've had three orders from HLJ since they quit using UPS. So far my orders have taken 22 days, 24 days, and 20 days. I hate it, I used to get my stuff in less than a week back in the UPS days.

is that true?

last time i ordered from hlj, they were still using ups and it always took a week or so.

i'm a little discouraged with this SAL-stories.

Okay, I feel like I am the only one that has not seen Neon Genesis Evangelion.  It seems to come up everytime people talk about anime in general and it gets a lot of good reviews.  Before I dump a lot of cash for the whole series, I want to check it out.  Is there anywhere I can download quality episodes besides the p2p networks, like bittorrent or something?  I've tried using a couple p2p programs but am not having any success.  I don't use the p2p programs very often so I probably just don't know how to use them.

Dunno if some fansub-circuits still have 'em.

On the region-0/bootleg front, the best one (FX-perfect) is totally gone off the market and the remaining MI/MAC boots have totally crap engrish from what I've read.

You're better off getting it online in official Region-1 at DigitalEyes (they have the best prices). Here's the price and ordering page for volume-1:

http://www.digitaleyes.net/Details.cfm?info=DVDEV001

They're also selling the Eva-boxset for like a hair under +ACQ-100, too.

It'll be expensive (avg +ACQ-30/per volume) if you buy it locally on retail like in Suncrap.

--treatment--

How bad is that episode animated? Is it like watching an Anime Friend episode of Macross?

Well, no. Not animefiend-bad.

It's just the same art and animation that you will find in another anime titled Colorful.

edit:

fwiw, it's just one episode and I'm leaning on that they did that episode that way intentionally.

The plot went out the window somewhere in ep-1 or something and it was all bad-ass old-fashioned ass-kicking action from the Getters.  The death of Benkei still kinda makes me wonder why it was necessary to do so, tho.  The ending was a little too corny, tho, imho.

Actually, it was Musashi that got killed. Again.*

(*Musashi was killed at least once in the original series and on nearly every Getter Robo theatrical feature.)

I confused those guys' names again.

Man, this show rocked! It was all about pointless action and let the plot be damned!

Seriously, if you're looking for a good action anime to cheer you up after watching Now and Then, Here and There or Grave of the Fireflies then this show is your cure. I'm not familiar with the past Getter shows and it took a couple episodes to figure everything out, but I got sucked in by the over-the-topness.

Definitely agreed!

The plot went out the window somewhere in ep-1 or something and it was all bad-ass old-fashioned ass-kicking action from the Getters. The death of Benkei still kinda makes me wonder why it was necessary to do so, tho. The ending was a little too corny, tho, imho.

Overall, Shin Getter Robo is total fun old-school robot-action with enough angst and more than enough action to make it worth the purchase.

--treatment--

great show except there were like 2 or 3 episodes late in the series where the animation went to crap, half the animators mustve called out that week, but it gets back to normal so its all good

Yes, there's one episode late in the series where the animation and art went primitively bizarre. I'm not quite sure if it was intentional since the whole episode was dealing with the grey-area emotional issues of one of the lead characters (won't tell u who. )

or if the animation-house just went on strike or something.