Anime Review Roundup
Manga Entertainment Reach Out and Touch Someone
It's all about media presence these days, engaging with your fans, and with your customers, and Manga Entertainment have been the most active of the UK anime distributors in doing this, with an active... at times overactive presence on Twitter and Facebook. This week they took it a step further with their inaugural podcast. Manga Entertainment's head of acquisitions and marketing, Jerome Mazandarani joined author of the Anime Encyclopaedia and Schoolgirl Milky Crisis, as well as audio commentator extraordinaire Jonathan Clements, to talk about all things anime, and Manga Entertainment in particular. It's well worth a listen, and you can click the link here if you have a couple of hours to spare.
They were also teasing the forthcoming Midlands MCM Expo, where Manga Entertainment will have six announcements to make. Speculation has been rife on what these may be. On Twitter, Manga mentioned Blue Exorcist as a title which will be sub only and released in two sets, but in the podcast it's only a potential title on their wish-list. Fractale is another name that has been thrown around, and once again Dragonball Z has reared its head, a title which often gets Manga overactive on Twitter as they race to cover up a leak. This week the leak came from Toei Europe itself, quickly deleted, but not quickly enough for some forumites to snag the page from Google's cache.
And Angel Beats has been delayed due to last minute snags with the contracts, explained in more detail in the podcast. Originally lined up for April, it is now due in June, and the Blu-ray is still on track for UK release.
There's been a slow up in the anime schedule of late, which is why this round up is a rollover from two weeks ago, or rather three weeks ago given that my last post was devoted to Crunchyroll. The physical releases haven't really served to inspire me, and I've been trying to figure out a way to write about them without being excessively snarky. I'll probably fail at that. Especially given the first title I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom: Part 2. 2011 was a year replete with disappointments from Manga Entertainment, not least of which was the Blu-ray situation. But also, they somehow managed to pick up a brace of shows which had great premises, brilliant build-ups, and stunning Part 1s, only for things to go pear-shaped when it came to the Part 2s. It could just be that Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom is the biggest disappointment of them all. Click the review to find out just why.
Then this week, I took a look at Bleach: Season 8 - Part 1. Disappointment is the recurring theme, as with Season 7 - Part 2, it seemed that the show had found its mojo once more, and was delivering the experience that once drew me to it, way back in season 1. Alas, this instalment shows that to have been an uncustomary blip, and we're back to normal mediocre, dull, and repetitive tedious service. There are two more volumes of Bleach before summer, as well as three movies to come, on Blu-ray as well. Be still my racing heart.
Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom: Part 2 came out last Monday, while Bleach Season 8 Part 1 comes out today, both courtesy of Manga Entertainment.
It's all about media presence these days, engaging with your fans, and with your customers, and Manga Entertainment have been the most active of the UK anime distributors in doing this, with an active... at times overactive presence on Twitter and Facebook. This week they took it a step further with their inaugural podcast. Manga Entertainment's head of acquisitions and marketing, Jerome Mazandarani joined author of the Anime Encyclopaedia and Schoolgirl Milky Crisis, as well as audio commentator extraordinaire Jonathan Clements, to talk about all things anime, and Manga Entertainment in particular. It's well worth a listen, and you can click the link here if you have a couple of hours to spare.
They were also teasing the forthcoming Midlands MCM Expo, where Manga Entertainment will have six announcements to make. Speculation has been rife on what these may be. On Twitter, Manga mentioned Blue Exorcist as a title which will be sub only and released in two sets, but in the podcast it's only a potential title on their wish-list. Fractale is another name that has been thrown around, and once again Dragonball Z has reared its head, a title which often gets Manga overactive on Twitter as they race to cover up a leak. This week the leak came from Toei Europe itself, quickly deleted, but not quickly enough for some forumites to snag the page from Google's cache.
And Angel Beats has been delayed due to last minute snags with the contracts, explained in more detail in the podcast. Originally lined up for April, it is now due in June, and the Blu-ray is still on track for UK release.
Phantom: Requiem For The Phantom: Part 2 came out last Monday, while Bleach Season 8 Part 1 comes out today, both courtesy of Manga Entertainment.
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