AquaStar Blog

It’s been quite awhile since I last posted in this. With my exam finished back in March, these past few weeks have been about moving and getting settled into my new place, which is definitely a good change. Having more space in your room than you previously had is a good thing, though that’s probably going to get filled up with more stuff, anime related most likely. Guess that keeping busy moving into the new place takes my mind off waiting for my exam results in the mail. Let’s just hope the result is good.

The Anime Boston convention was this past weekend, which has quickly become one of the larger and more recognized anime conventions in the US. A good friend of mine has talked up this one and Anime Mid-Atlantic. If I had more money, I probably would have gone to Boston this weekend, though I’ve definitely made plans for Mid-Atlantic. Piece of news from the convention is that Zero no Tsukaima has been confirmed for the US by Geneon Entertainment. Now if they could pick up say Nanoha and a few other titles, that would be even better.

What have I been watching recently?

Fansubs:
- Lucky Star
- sola
- Nagasarete Airantou
- Nanoha StrikerS
- Touka Gettan

Recent DVDs:
- To Heart (finally got released! Yay!)
- UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Season 3
- Rumbling Hearts
- Pani Poni Dash
- Moon Phase

Shifting back to the US anime companies, I’m just wondering what the heck Bandai Visual is thinking. $50 for one volume of 4 episodes of a series and no dub? MSRP for most R1 anime DVDs is $30 for the same amount of material. Word from Sakuracon and Anime Boston is that they supposedly have done their research on the US market. Justification is that they’re going for Criterion type releases, the fact that they deal with both the markets in both the US and Japan, and based on their research. They really need to re-evaulate their business strategy as that price point is terrible, and the casual US anime consumer will not pay that much. Not to mention that they’ll probably have problems getting their products into retailers hands with that price point.

That’s the end of my short rant. Usually I don’t do it that often, but after seeing the transcripts from their panel this past weekend, I’m just in disbelief that they claim to know the market.

Now, if I can only get my connection for Final Fantasy XI Online up and running again…