The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

IncendiaryLemon said:
I didn't know a show similar had been licenced. Who's putting it out?
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MVM are supposed to be releasing Hidamari Sketch Season 1 some time next year. The Blu-rays were out from Sentai a little while ago (still no xHoneycomb/Season 4 though, not to mention the later special) so they'd presumably be a similar release. I'd be disappointed if they just released the DVDs, I'd try to buy a Blu-ray release just to support it but I'd be hesitant to get spare DVDs (I already have the original Sentai DVDs as well as the Blu-rays).

I guess you could say Hidamari Sketch is similar to Non Non Biyori in the sense that they're both "cute girls doing cute things"/slice of life type shows. That said, I'd also say they're quite different but then I'd also say Kinmoza and Non Non Biyori are quite different so it may not be the sort of differences a casual observer would notice.

Hidamari Sketch has a strange kind of art style, I guess it's "artistic" in a way and that kind of makes sense since it's about art students. It's also not in chronological order (at least for the first two seasons) so you'll often hear reference to a character or event and then find out about what actually happened later (for example, the episode where the main characters meet is not the first episode). I guess you get a hint of how it works from the recent Non Non Biyori Repeat first episode. Hidamari Sketch also has a great Yuri pairing, it gets bonus points for being obviously mutual although it does technically stop just short of blatantly stating that they're a couple (though you could argue it's more realistic in some ways because of that). I guess Hidamari Sketch might also be the longest running show of the genre, with 4 Seasons and a few special episodes.

There's a manga released as "Sunshine Sketch", it's interesting because while many of the events are similar the anime has a fair bit added since it started pretty early in the run of the manga (around the second volume or so I think). I think the manga even incorporates some of the anime additions later on. I haven't read all of the manga yet because I didn't want to get ahead of the anime.

Hmm, I probably didn't need to go on about it so much (especially with the UK release being ages away and possibly only covering Season 1) but I love Hidamari Sketch (it was basically my second show in the genre and the one that confirmed for me just how much I enjoy this stuff).

Oh, possibly also worth mentioning is that the author of Hidamari Sketch (who seems to be pretty well involved in the anime, she even appears in it) is the one who did the Madoka character designs.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Sounds good. I'll have to check it out once it eventually comes out.
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Hmm, on one hand it's a pretty long wait but on the other hand it'd be nice if the MVM release is successful so I'm not sure if I should encourage you to watch it now or just try to contain my enthusiasm (well, maybe it's a bit late for that) in the hope that you buy it later. Sometimes it's tough to be an anime fan.
 
Manga UK have added a trailer to Nisekoi Series 1 Part 1 on their YouTube channel:


The thing is, it's basically just the textless opening song. Funny thing about it is that the opening always gets taken down on YouTube unless it's sped up.

Out now on DVD. Contains episodes 1-49 of the English Language Broadcast version only of the programme.
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Uhh wut? :lol:
 
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I wish more effort was taken in regards to trailers. An opening theme doesn't really tell you anything about a show in the way that you'd want a trailer to.

At the very least, they could have re-purposed Aniplex USA's pre-broadcast trailer (their home video one is admittedly too long for my liking):

Then they just have to clip off the ending about the broadcast and replace it with their release details.
 
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Do any of the UK anime distributors wish to explain why there's a Sailor Moon poster in the window of my local HMV?

Sadly the store was closed, so I couldn't get a better look. It was near an Attack On Titan one though, so I'm guessing Manga UK or Animatsu, if it is anything?
 
Joshawott said:
Do any of the UK anime distributors wish to explain why there's a Sailor Moon poster in the window of my local HMV?

Sadly the store was closed, so I couldn't get a better look. It was near an Attack On Titan one though, so I'm guessing Manga UK or Animatsu, if it is anything?
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My local HMV has an Attack on Titan poster, I think it's by whoever handles UK merchandising rather than Manga UK, because it's not to advertise the BD/DVD release of it. It's just a poster you can buy, with keyrings and other crap nobody really wants or needs.

Not that you'd be able to find it my local HMV anyway, they're always moving stuff around. At one point it was in the films section, now it's in the TV section, but surprisingly not in the anime section they had for all of about a week...
 
Buzz201 said:
Joshawott said:
Do any of the UK anime distributors wish to explain why there's a Sailor Moon poster in the window of my local HMV?

Sadly the store was closed, so I couldn't get a better look. It was near an Attack On Titan one though, so I'm guessing Manga UK or Animatsu, if it is anything?
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My local HMV has an Attack on Titan poster, I think it's by whoever handles UK merchandising rather than Manga UK, because it's not to advertise the BD/DVD release of it. It's just a poster you can buy, with keyrings and other crap nobody really wants or needs.
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It is true that I've seen stores selling that kind of tat for Attack On Titan, but seems odd to have that kind of merch for a series that isn't available. I guess of course, there are the adult fans of when it was on Fox Kids who might want tat for their Uni dorms and such.

Interesting though.
 
Joshawott said:
It is true that I've seen stores selling that kind of tat for Attack On Titan, but seems odd to have that kind of merch for a series that isn't available. I guess of course, there are the adult fans of when it was on Fox Kids who might want tat for their Uni dorms and such.

Interesting though.
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From what I've seen Attack on Titan merchandise sells quite well, and my local HMV did have a "HMV loves Anime..." section last time I went in, so maybe they're pushing for the anime market.
 
Big name titles sold cheaply will always perform well like that - I think it was Ouran that sold 4000 copies last year alone even though it's been out for ages.
 
Makes me wonder if the new Blu Ray will sell or not. On one hand, the DVD is incredibly popular, so it might sell a lot but on the other, these high sales means that a lot of people will have it already and likely won't double dip. I also don't think it's helped by the fact you can import the Region A/B US Blu Ray set for half the price of the upcoming UK Blu Ray release.
 
I already have the US Blu-ray set of Elfen Lied but one of the reasons that's putting me off it is the tin case it's in, it's not a steelbook so it doesn't have a title on the spine. If it was in a rigid artbox i might consider buying it and selling my US set but it's not. Don't forget most casual buyers/fans of anime probably don't even know the US set would work on UK players.

The price it's at on Amazon atm (£39.99) is quite a fair price tbh.
 
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