Almost certainly the fact that the Higurashi games are going to get an English release – despite the fact that the first day of the convention is barely underway.

It’s just a shame the games are only going to be available of via MangaGamer. This isn’t a slight on their production or translation work – despite the slightly Engrishy pamphlet, I’ve heard that their work on Da Capo was pretty competent. Rather, it’s more about the other games they release. I’m no so prudish as to object to eroge or anything, but it just kind of strikes me that at least some of the titles they sell (not that there’s much left in their catalogue in this post-Rapelay world) are kind of, well, the type of thing UK law would now see as being rather squicky. Whilst I realise Higurashi doesn’t have that kind of content, I’d feel really, really uncomfortable about having my personal details stored on a site which sells that kind of thing and their main line of product.

All of which, I realise, is probably just me being overly cautious, but unfortunately my brain is just wired that way. Nothing much I can do other than forget about playing that game in English. Which is a shame, as I’d rather like to give them my money for it.

Regardless, I guess it’s a pretty good day for people who want to see more Visual Novels in English.

Apparently Utena director Kunihiko Ikuhara did the OP sequence for this show. I’d never have guessed.
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I guess the frozen tundra makes a change from all those beach resorts, if not exactly welcomed by all…

Apparently they are going to release My-HiME and My-ZHiME on Blu-ray in Japan. This is perhaps not too much of a surprise, given that releases of Zwei and S.ifr were already on the cards.

I admit that I’m sorely tempted to pick them up – I was planning to grab at least S.ifr anyway, and perhaps Zwei. Saying that, looking at my shelves, I realise that I now own the whole series on R2 DVD (that’s nine volumes of HiME, nine volumes of ZHiME, four volumes of Zwei, three volumes of S.ifr, the HiME Fandisk DVD, the movie re-edit of ZHiME TV and the movie re-edit of Zwei), plus everything that’s been put out on R1 (the singles releases of HiME and ZHiME, and the LE release of Zwei), and a single disk of the European release of HiME. I guess if there’s one thing I don’t really need, it’s another release of My-HiME.

Of course, for HiME and ZHiME TV the transition to Blu-ray will have limited benefit. Aside from the fact that they were animated in 4:3, all signs point towards them being animated in broadcast resolution as well – wording suggests that the video is going to be upscaled to 1080i. Admittedly, it’s still going to look better than the DVD release simply due to the reduction in compression artefacts the format tends to bring, but the gain over the R2 DVDs is likely to be minimal. S.ifr and Zwei appear to be sourced from actual HD materials, though.

Plus, you know, the sets are running at £200 a piece at the current exchange rate. That’s kind of pricey. I do love the show (quite clearly), but it’s a lot of money for a set providing a show in what will be marginally higher fidelity which I’ll only find the time to watch through once.

This new Aoi Hana thingy appears to be being made available on Crunchyroll shortly after airing in Japan, commencing in about… nowish. I’ll guess I’ll give it a watch – I’m pretty ambivalent towards yuri content, though – I don’t mind it, but if sole purpose of the shows existence is to pander to fans of that material then I am likely to find it more grating than entertaining.

I ended up watching the animated Transformers movie last night. I only really intended to watch up to the end of the Megatron/Optimus Prime battle, but ended up watching the whole thing. I realise that this is mostly nostalgia speaking, but I really do love that damn movie. It’s got that whole “constant barrage of crazy stuffs happening” going on that makes me love Sunrise productions, be even more-so – it’s kind of sad that the movie has more badassery in it’s opening half hour than both of the over-long live action movies do in their entire running times (and I liked the first LA movie, I’d like to add). It’s really kind of embarrassing how much of this movie I can still quote to this day, though I find it sad that I’ve yet to find myself in a situation where declaring “Turbo-revv’n young punk, I’ll straighten you out yet!” would have been an appropriate statement. I live in hope that it’ll come some day.

My latest order from CDJapan turned up today, containing the Yoko Kanno/Seatbelts Space Biocharge, the most recent volume of Kurokami (the show selling so badly I can’t find sales figures for it) and, of course, this months instalment of my present favouritist-thing-ever-that-isn’t-Escaflowne-or-HiME, Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.

The Sora Kake release continues to be disappointingly devoid of first pressing extras (kind of funny, given Kurokami is comparatively stacked), but as with previous volumes we do have the one picture drama featurette, lasting three whole minutes. Also in common with previous volumes, it sports some gratuitous nudity, this time Honoka. Presumably, keeping in step with the volumes cover girls getting the omake featurettes, volumes four and five will feature Takane and Nami in the fashion that these omake have featured people.

The real point of this post follows on from this, in so much as I’d like to point out the fact that episode eight, which features not one but two group bathing scenes, has seen a significant increase in the number of dehumidifiers installed in Leopards more water-rich environments. This is not only good news for the health of Leopards internal structures, but also for those whose boats are floated by the prospect of cartoon boobs on clear display.

You know who you are – you’re the one’s who have been watching Queens Blade.

Of course, in keeping with my own, prudish nature, this is a family blog, and as such I couldn’t possibly post any images from said episode. This post is, in fact, nothing more than a warning to ensure that my fine, upstanding readers are not corrupted by this filth.

I do hope you appreciate the things I go through for you people.

You know, it’s almost a shame that I don’t actually have a Master System lying around any more…

Well, perhaps not.
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But, hey, it’s the other one.

Natsu no Arashi concludes with an episode which is pretty similar to the shows opener, only even stranger.
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Hopefully the two people with the viewing requirements to understand this comic will find it amusing ^^;

The scene in this weeks episode of Saki where Mako offered Nodoka a banana had to be one of the fruitiest scenes I’ve seen in anime recently.

Sorry about that. The whole concept is rather suggestive, though, although it has been made quite clear on numerous occasions that Nodoka isn’t really interested in that kind of thing.

For those interested, it seems that the second English volume of light-novel anthology Faust has been snuck out onto the market. Not that my copy has arrived yet, but it is definitely out there.

Whereby “Collecting Data”, I really mean that I’m watching some Higurashi and I’d rather get back to it than spending my time doing a comic today. Well, that and I’ve not really thought of anything to do for the comic today.

No great loss, I’m sure. There’ll be a comic on Wednesday. Probably.

Hey, it’s Domon Kasshu and Master Asia from G Gundam. How about that.

Yeah, if you hadn’t guessed, with it’s return to the cafe, this weeks Natsu no Arashi provides the viewer with another sequence of constantly cycling background characters. This time, however, it’s on Hard Mode – or at least it seems to be for me. Whilst the costumes look distinctive enough that they have to be a reference to something, aside from those two, I had problems picking out anyone…
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