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

Official: Grave of the Fireflies and Maquia are both better than Citizen Kane.

That's according to Rotten Tomatoes anyway. Recently an 80-year-old negative review was added to the website meaning the Citizen Kane lost its 100% rating, now going down to 99%. This has lead people to jokingly suggest that films with a 100% rating, such as Paddington 2, are now "better than Citizen Kane". If so, then Fireflies and Maquia also join that group, as they too have a 100% rating.
I also failed to spot another anime that also has a 100% rating - The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
 
As an aside I went on a retro movie binge a few years back and honestly found Citizen Kane to be over rated anyway. Orwells other well known story 1984 was a much better movie.

I realise that this is very likely a joke that has went over my head but I'm going to expose myself and say that Orson Welles and George Orwell have no relation to each other.

Citizen Kane is the best film ever made and yet not necessarily even the best film directed by Orson Welles. He was just that good.

orson-welles-portrait-a.jpg
 

Sold out?! I never knew the damn thing existed! I'd been keeping an eye out for Sentai to announce a physical release for years.
It was $700 and took nearly 3 years to sell out.

The madness of it was down to licenser restrictions.

Standards would probably have retailed for about the same price but would still have been more affordable with not having to spend it in one lump sum.
 
I would've gone for it but y'know. $800 + shipping and tax just isn't worth it. I'm happy enough to watch it on HIDIVE
I just used Paypal Credit so I could make 6 monthly, interest-free payments of $134 to get my set. I'm not a big fan of that ugly, oversized box the set comes in, but everything inside - the four chrome-finish chipboard boxes, the digipaks, the book, the lenticular cards, and the coins are all really nice.

Doing the math, the set figures out to about $4.50 per episode, so it was not much different in price than any other Limited Edition anime release - equivalent to about £38 - £40 for one-cour/12-episode box sets.
 
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We have a not-insignificant number of people on this forum who splurged on that LotGH set! The box is stupidly large, it doesn't fit sensibly on any of my shelves in any orientation at all. But I don't regret buying it compared to some of the other shows I've purchased in the past and my budget is way less tight now that most of the stuff being licensed doesn't suit my tastes. Not surprised that it sold out after that stock warning since it was selling quite briskly on initial release and all of the scalpers would have jumped on the last few. $800k over three years with no discounts at all probably isn't terrible as a return on investment (I would guess that it made a fair bit more in raw profit than a lot of budget releases, sadly).

Glad they put it on HIDIVE too though, premium sets with no non-premium way to watch aren't good for fans.

R
 
Yen Press has announced a new Yen Audio branch: audiobook versions of Yen On titles. The first titles revealed are Solo Leveling, coming out in July, and Sword Art Online in August.

ETA: Overlord will be released in September. The Miracles of the Namiya General Store will be released in November. The Saga of Tanya the Evil will also be released in November.

ETTA: Rakuten Kobo lists the audiobooks as being unabridged, but makes no mention of who will be reading them.

 
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We have a not-insignificant number of people on this forum who splurged on that LotGH set! The box is stupidly large, it doesn't fit sensibly on any of my shelves in any orientation at all. But I don't regret buying it compared to some of the other shows I've purchased in the past and my budget is way less tight now that most of the stuff being licensed doesn't suit my tastes. Not surprised that it sold out after that stock warning since it was selling quite briskly on initial release and all of the scalpers would have jumped on the last few. $800k over three years with no discounts at all probably isn't terrible as a return on investment (I would guess that it made a fair bit more in raw profit than a lot of budget releases, sadly).

Glad they put it on HIDIVE too though, premium sets with no non-premium way to watch aren't good for fans.

R
I presume it was only available direct from Sentai? I've never ordered from them, so that was the one place I never checked to see if such a thing existed.

Then again, I think I'm just residually freaked out about missing out on it, rather than actually being desperate to own it at this point. It's a show I'd wanted to see for decades, but I subscribed to HiDive about 9 months ago just to watch it... and have only bothered with the movies and the first dozen OAVs so far. It's an interesting story, but soooo dry, and it doesn't help that it has such basic meat-and-potatoes direction for the endless talking heads scenes.
 
It's a show I'd wanted to see for decades, but I subscribed to HiDive about 9 months ago just to watch it... and have only bothered with the movies and the first dozen OAVs so far. It's an interesting story, but soooo dry, and it doesn't help that it has such basic meat-and-potatoes direction for the endless talking heads scenes.
A very similar experience to my own. From everything I had heard about it previously I expected LotGH would be right up my alley, but I just found it pretty dull and plodding myself. I'm glad those who enjoy it got an ultimate of ultimates edition, but I'm equally glad I didn't blow the best part of a grand on it.
 
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