So, the arguments regarding Endless Eight continue to escalate. Some thinks it’s brilliant, some think it’s cute, but it seems that those who are simply getting annoyed by it are increasing in numbers on a weekly basis.

It’s hard to know exactly what to make of the reactions to it, really. Well, okay, it’s hard to know exactly what to make of the reactions of those who think it’s a work of genius, the others being a little easier to understand. I’m not going to disagree with any group – I’m largely ambivalent to it, though I admit it makes me think thrice about whether I wish to collect the DVDs – but I do wonder how much of this is simply The Cult of KyoAni at work here. There’s an assumption, which is admittedly based on a relatively sound history of consistently good work, that anything coming out of KyoAni is going to be good. I have to wonder how many people are saying that Endless Eight great simply because it’s KyoAni doing more Haruhi, whilst secretly being annoyed at it, assuming that the stance makes them somehow more intelligent. Superiority complex and all that, or at least the illusion of it. Even putting that aside, though, I think there’s no doubt that if any studio other than Kyoto Animation attempted this, they’d have been critically mauled for it. As it is, they are very quickly squandering a lot of the good will they’ve built up over recent years.

Not that I’m accusing everyone who actually thinks that Endless Eight is great of being a moron pretending to be clever or anything – I’m sure there’s plenty of people who are genuinely enjoying it, and I’ve read a number of well-written pieces detailing the various acts of cleverness they have been performing within it. There’s an awful lot of people who are enjoying it for pure troll value as well, which I guess is genuine enjoyment of a sort.

After a week of Bandai teasing that they knew who the website belonged to, but it wasn’t themselves, it turns out that the OMGITSCOMING website was, in fact, Bandai’s way of announcing it has licensed Kannagi. This surprised no-one. Much has been made about the fact that the DVDs of the show are available NOW, but only from RightStuf (Amazon Marketplace, though that’s just direct from RightStuf as well).

One thing to point out is that the actual press release does state that the two volumes will be bundled together for general release next year. This is something that many people seem to have managed to miss, though I admit it’s a fact hidden within a vast wall of text.

Still, it does mean that there’ll probably be a good six months to a year where the show is only available via RightStuf. I can understand the reasoning behind this somewhat – Bandai themselves mention that it reduces the issues surrounding retailers returning product they’ve overstocked on, which the anime industry has really suffered from recently with Best Buy cutting back their anime sections dramatically. I dare say that the profit margins are likely far, far better for them this way as well, given that it cuts out a whole bunch of pesky distribution issues, and the lack of competition means they’ll not be under pressure to offer massive discounts on the product.

Basically, they are milking the core purchasing audience of early adopters (basically, nutcases like myself) for all they are worth, as between the RightStuf and Amazon (even if it is Marketplace) options most of these people will be able to find somewhere they are comfortable buying it from. The fact that everyone else will have to wait until next year to get a chance to purchase the show is probably neither here nor there for them, given that they’d have probably waited for a cheaper boxset anyway. Given they’ll have already had a good few month selling the show when they push out the bundle, they’ll at least also be able to make realistic judgements regarding the amount of product they’ll need to push out to the general retail market without over saturating it as well.

Finished reading the second volume of Faust. I think it’s probably better than the first volume. Need to write a review of it.