Special Halloween Edition of Anime Today with Joe Digiorgi of Headline Sound!
Posted on: Friday, October 27, 2006
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Episode run down:
Chad returns with What’s Hot followed closely by Kris and Judy’s creepy tale from Himeji Castle in the Anime and Gamer’s Guide. Shawne braves the daylight to drive a stake through your credit card, and then sit back and listen in to the second part of our special interview with Joe DiGiorgi, the Director of Boogiepop Phantom. The supernatural commentary continues with Marie’s review of the Land of the Blindfolded and then Kris and Judy stir the cauldron of questions and choose one regarding 4Kids Entertainment. Rich, Nick and Marie conjure up this episode’s Net Comics winner and bring you all the updates for the tempting contests for Fall. Kris and Judy return with the conclusion of Joe’s interview and then Rich reveals this week’s featured Geneon soundtrack at the end of the show.
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Headline Sound
http://joedproductions.com/
What's Hot?
The week after Thanksgiving is full of “after-the-feast” delights starting on November 28th! From Gainax, the minds behind FLCL and Evangelion, comes a high-school rivalry/romance like none other! Yukino is a charming girl who always gets the best grades, takes part in several clubs, and helps everyone she can. But... it's all an act. In reality, she's addicted to the praise and admiration that people shower upon her. Then, one day, he appears... Souichiro Arima, the boy who steals away her place as #1 in the class! The fight is on, and nothing will stand in Yukino's way back to the top in the complete 26 episode Thinpak Collection of His and Her Circumstances!
Its year 70 of the Cosmic Era. The economic friction between genetically enhanced Coordinators and unmodified Naturals has erupted into a full-scale conflict. The Natural-dominated Earth Alliance struggles to catch up with the Coordinators' superior technology and has secretly developed five Gundam mobile suits at a neutral space colony. Through a twist of fate, a young Coordinator named Kira Yamato becomes the pilot of the Alliance's prototype Strike Gundam and finds himself forced to fight his own people in order to protect his friends. On November 28th, get the Gundam SEED Movie Trilogy Box Set plus the trilogy soundtrack!!
Thanks to the machinations of Ieyasu Tokugawa, the age-old truce between the Kouga and the Iga clans is no more - and now a fight to the death will decide who will reign supreme. Oboro has blinded herself in order to avoid having to kill Gennosuke, her lover - and her rival. Meanwhile, Gennosuke has urged the Iga clan to join him on a journey to Sunpu to find out the real motive behind Ieyasu Tokugawa's orders to fight. But the Iga has other plans in the 3rd graphic novel of Basilisk. On November 28th, the epic battle of blood and betrayal continues!
The year is 2075 AD. The dream of working and living in the vast openness of space is now a reality. However, a new threat has arisen and if left unchecked can prove fatal: Space Debris. An undetectable screw struck and disabled a passenger space flight causing disaster and death to the ones on board. A space debris collection agency is formed but it's a money losing venture for the corporations. Follow the men and women of the "Half-Section" in the Complete Collection of Planetes on November 28th!
Mars is no longer the Red Planet. Now covered in a never ending ocean, those who dwell upon the planet are forced to live upon vast city ships where crime, poverty and corruption rule. In an attempt to combat the rampant corruption, many have taken to the seas, living the pirate's life. In an attempt to curb the outlaw behavior of the feared Ship of Aurora, a team of elite military pilots have been sent from Earth to hunt down and eradicate them. Within giant combat mechas known as round bucklers, these forces will wage war against one another in the Complete Collection of Mars Daybreak. On November 28th, join the adventure while doing what pirates do best, hunting for treasure!
Fifteen-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghosts - he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow, a malevolent lost soul, Ichigo encounters a Soul Reaper and absorbs her powers. Now, he's dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping tortured souls find peace on November 29th in the 1st DVD of Bleach!
This is the story of Sara Pezzini, a New York street Detective, and how she came to wield the most powerful artifact in the universe, the Witchblade. On November 30th, her journey will take her from the murder-filled alleys of New York to the highest towers of society as a supernatural war is waged within her own soul in the 2nd graphic novel of Witchblade!
Save 25% on these titles and more by preordeing them from RightStuf.com at least 10 days before their street dates. Get another 10% off by joining the Got Anime purchasing club for Frequent Buyers.
The Anime and Gamer's Guide with Kris and Judy
Shawne's Specials
Here’s a sale so good, it ought to be a crime! Save big on current and upcoming Funimation titles! Classics like Lupin the 3rd, and new blockbusters like Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Basilisk, Negima, and many more are easily yours at low prices! Not quite theft, but probably the closest legal thing!
From now until November 6, 2006, you can get at least 40% OFF the retail price on all Funimation DVD titles!
Just use the reusable coupon code THEFT when you check out through our online store. Plus, as always, if you're a Got Anime Member, you get an additional steal - your discount will stack on top of the sale price! Click the link graphic on the top right of the page labelled "Steal of a Deal Items" to browse through all of the great titles included in this offer!
So load up your cart and get the getaway car ready to go - remember, this sale ends November 6.
Holloween’s coming, and the mask is off on our new Boogiepop Phantom thinpack collection. Get the entire spooky Boogiepop series, along with the great liveaction Movie, "Boogiepop and others" for a super low price. Be sure to check out our other great new releases, including the thinpak collections of Comic Party, Gravitation, and His & Her Circumstances! They make great gifts too!
We’re whittling down the leftovers on the Geneon Bountiful Bargains sale, and to top it off, I’ve restocked the Bargain Bin with a whole bunch of items. It’s all about the savings that can be had - and remember, manytimes the quantities are very limited within the bin, and new items pop in often, so check back frequently!
This week is like an early beggar’s night for anime shoppers. We’ve got a great deal running on the limited version of Aquarian Age the Movie - more than 63% off. Plus great box sets, and the adorable Chi in her Party Dress figure. And don’t forget the great bundles - Cardcaptor Sakura, Read or Die, Licensed by Royalty, and Tenchi in Tokyo! Check out the whole list of specials now at www.rightstuf.com/specials.
As the holidays approach, it’s busy here in the lair as the minions go about their work draining wallets all around the planet. Will your wallet escape? Only time will tell.
See all of Shawne's Weekly Specials!
Check out the Bargain Bin!
Marie's Manga Review: Land of the Blindfolded
“If there were a land of blindfolded people, would they understand the concept of sight?” And with that simple opening line, high school student and main character Outsuka Kanade introduces Land of the Blindfolded’s central metaphor, running theme, and handy excuse to draw plenty of pretty ribbons, all at once.
As she explains it, Kanade feels like everyone is walking around blindfolded, unable to see anything but the present. But while she’s wearing a metaphorical blindfold too, every now and then, when she brushes up against someone, her blindfold will “slip,” allowing her to catch a small glimpse of the person’s future. Some of these glimpses are completely trivial - nothing more than brief snapshots of inconsequentials to come - but others herald more dire events, covering everything from bad breakups to fatal accidents. Kanade can’t bring herself to stand still while someone else gets hurt, but if she attempts to warn people of their fates, how can she possibly explain how she knows what they can’t see?
Unfortunately, she can’t, which limits her number of saving techniques to two. She can either nicely ask people to avoid doing whatever they’re planning on doing and hope they listen, or she can hurl herself bodily between them and harm and likely get yelled at for her efforts, if not injured herself. The entire process is both emotionally and physically draining, but Kanade sees the alternative as even worse. The strain, however, has begun to wear her down, and Kanade has taken to avoiding human touch as much as possible. But all that changes when she accidentally bumps into Naitou Arou, who knows in an instant about her secret abilities.
Why? Because Arou’s blindfold isn’t only slipping, it’s completely gone. Unlike Kanade, he sees the past, not the future, and his power is strong enough that he can see the histories of objects as well as people. But seeing the past is just as wearing as seeing the future, and Arou avoids people even more than Kanade. After all, he doesn’t even have a chance to try and change his visions, and in response he’s developed a complete “hands off” approach – both figuratively and literally. It’s a policy that worked well for him until he met Kanade and found himself falling for her almost as fast as she fell for him. Now their only problem is reconciling their resistance to touch with their desire for human contact…
Written by manga-ka Tsukuba Sakura, Land of the Blindfolded combines the introspection and relationships of Kare Kano and Fruits Basket’s deft intertwining of supernatural and ordinary life with its own strong plotline and characters to create an incredibly compelling story.
Said story is mostly told by exploring several different running themes in each chapter, including issues of trust, the difficulties of doing what’s “right” versus what’s easy, and the acceptance - or lack thereof - of fate. It also looks deep into the more mundane, but equally important, questions about maturing from teenager to adult. How do you tell someone you really, really like them? How do you even know if it’s just a crush or something worth pursuing? Or, more depressingly, what if the person you fall in love with is already in love with someone else?
There’s a lot of unexpectedly heavy material mixed in with the main love story, but Kanade’s constant bright smiles and Sakura Tsukuba’s beautiful artwork keep the series from falling into a dark abyss of despair. The manga-ka surrounds her characters with comforting leafy gardens and frolicking puppies, contrasting with their dark thoughts or giving them hope as the series progresses. Fine lines and subtle shadows further emphasize the atmosphere of peace and optimism, while the delicate style fully brings out every emotion that crosses each character’s face.
Sakura Tsukuba honed her techniques in manga one-shots prior to working on Land of the Blindfolded, and several of these stories have been included at the end of each of the first few volumes of Blindfolded. Although these stories naturally focus on entirely different characters than those in the main manga, they feel surprisingly right at home with the rest of the series. While none of the briefly introduced characters can see the future or past, all are high school students who are still learning about the way love works, and the relationship themes from the main series carry over gracefully. It’s not a stretch at all to say that if you like Land of the Blindfolded, you’re pretty much guaranteed to like the accompanying shorts as well.
Sweet and philosophical, Land of the Blindfolded was made for curling up with on a rainy weekend or enjoying after a long day at the office or school. It’s shojo in its most pure and refined form, so if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll feel right at home from the moment you start turning the pages. And if you still need extra encouragement, well, the pretty boys aren’t bad, either.
Right Stuf Contests and Updates
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Enter this episode's NETCOMICS contest! |
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Enter the latest CONTEST on the official Ninja Nonsense website! You could be 1 of 5 random winners of a Ninja Nonsense figurine! |
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We’re half-way through October, and that means only two more weeks are left to enter our fantastic Eureka Seven “Keep an Eye on the Sky” contest. And if the chance to win the entire first season of this high-flying series weren’t enough, we’ve upgraded the prize package!
Along with the first five volumes on DVD, five lucky winners will now receive not only an exclusive shirt and lanyard, but the first two volumes of the Eureka Seven manga and the brand new Playstation 2 game, The New Wave.
See the Contests page for more details. Good luck and keep an eye on the sky! |
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Check out the NEW Boogiepop site and enter the CONTEST! |
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Hang out with Bad Luck on the Gravitation site and enter the CONTEST! |
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Anime Today Q & A
If you have a question for us, call 1-800-338-6827, extension 7424. Also, you may send us e-mail at animetoday@rightstuf.com. If your question is selected, you will receive a $10 gift certificate to Right Stuf’s online store!
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