Please License These Anime Series

Uchoten Kazoku (Eccentric Family) has one more episode remaining to air, but I already know one thing about it: it’s made one of my very exclusive lists.

Some would say I’m out of touch for even buying DVDs in this streaming age – but I still want to own as physical media the anime that I love.

Here is my “Please License This So I Can Buy the DVDs” list. I would buy the DVDs for the following series from U.S. producers even if they were crazy Aniplex-type prices (meaning hundreds of dollars per box set):

In case it’s not clear from the pictures alone, I would spend top dollar to buy Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, The Unlimited, K and Uchoten Kazoku. I think K will eventually be released by Viz Media, and I have hopes that Right Stuf/Nozomi will license and release Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi here in the U.S. as they did Shungiku Nakamura’s other boy’s love series, Junjou Romantica. The Unlimited is unlikely to be released here, as its predecessor series Zettai Karen Children isn’t even licensed for sale in the U.S.

As for Uchoten Kazoku, it’s been very popular and highly praised by critics here so I have my fingers crossed. I think it will get picked up. When it does, I’ll be waiting with my money. ;-)

I’ll post a review of Uchoten Kazoku (as well as of Free! and Attack on Titan) soon.

Seiyuu Appreciation Day - Kouji Yusa, Junichi Suwabe and Hiroshi Kamiya

I’ve decided to invent a new special once-a-month post called Seiyuu Appreciation Day.

The reason for this is that I want to write a lot of posts gushing about seiyuu that I love, but have it be somewhat under control. ;-) So on the 21st of every month, I’ll post about certain seiyuu and what I appreciate about them.

So without further ado…

Last winter, The Unlimited found its way into my heart as one of my favorite series and with it, its two main seiyuu – Kouji Yusa and Junichi Suwabe.

Kouji Yusa is one of those seiyuu whose voice you’ve definitely heard before, though you may not immediately connect the voice with the name. One of his most well-known roles is Gin Ichimaru in Bleach:

Yusa has a very smooth voice, a voice built to play charming villains. As often happens, once I became curious and looked up what he’d done before on MyAnimeList, I found that he’d played a number of characters I’d already seen and remembered well: Sanosuke Harada from Hakuouki for one, and Ayumu Toujo, a very amusing supporting character in Gintama.

And just as what seems like every seiyuu out there – he sings beautifully. This is “Before Forever,” one of the character songs from The Unlimited:

Junichi Suwabe has a rough, very masculine and sexy voice. After becoming intrigued by his performance as Andy Hinomiya in The Unlimited, I found by viewing his page on MyAnimeList that I’d already heard him in numerous episodes of The Prince of Tennis as the arrogant rich boy Keigo Atobe, the leader of Seigaku’s rival school Hyotei’s tennis team.

Suwabe was also the lead character Hiroshi Inaba in last winter’s madcap Cuticle Detective Inaba.

This season, Suwabe plays the eldest son in Uchoten Kazoku (Eccentric Family).

Both Kouji Yusa and Junichi Suwabe are veteran seiyuu who have played mostly supporting roles throughout their careers. It’s great that they had the chance to shine as leads in The Unlimited and I’ll certainly keep an eye out for them in their future roles.

Hiroshi Kamiya is one of the most famous seiyuu in Japan. Known also for a successful singing career, his popularity is such that according to Mew at her Hibiki blog, Kamiya is called “Asia No. 1.”

Two of Kamiya’s most well-known roles are Izaya Orihara in Durarara!!...

And Takashi Natsume in Natsume Yuujinchou.

The amazing thing about Hiroshi Kamiya is his versatility. His natural speaking voice is somewhat nasal and acerbic. The roles closest to his real voice are probably Izaya Orihara and Tieria Erde in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. His singing voice however is light and pleasant, as you can hear in this video:



[Edit: Alas, You Tube has taken this video down already! I recommend searching for Kamiya's pop songs on You Tube - they are definitely worth listening to.]

From that pop song, compare how different he sounds in his Tieria Erde character song from Gundam 00, “Elephant”:



And if you need more convincing as to how drastically he can change his voice – here he is as Penguin from Shirokuma Café:



His character voices in anime range from the sly Izaya Orihara and aloofly superior Tieria Erde to the soft-voiced young shonen Takashi Natsume in Natsume Yuujinchou, the scheming interloper Yuu Yanase in Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi, and countless other roles that are very different from one another.

Recently, while watching Attack on Titan, I suddenly realized that Levi is Hiroshi Kamiya. His voice as Levi is so understated that I didn’t pick up on Kamiya’s distinctive timbre until I’d seen Levi in about four or five episodes.

With his pleasing boy-next-door looks and incredible voice talents, it’s easy to see why Hiroshi Kamiya is one of Japan’s most successful and famous seiyuu.

Fall 2013 Anticipated Watch List

So the fall 2013 season of anime is hurtling towards us like a speeding train, leaving me, as usual, not quite prepared. ;-) I'm still trying to get used to the fact that Attack on Titan will be ending soon (with another season - if not more - to come at some point obviously), as will the other series I've been watching this summer.

Be that as it may, here come the fall offerings regardless. Here's what I plan to take a look at in the coming month or two.

Eijun Sawamura is the 15-year old hero of Daiya no A (Diamond no Ace), a shonen baseball anime. I haven't watched a sports anime since The Prince of Tennis and I like the character designs I see here, so I'll give this one a try.

Ah, Meganebu! The series about five attractive glasses-wearing lads will begin airing the first week of October. Me and my glasses are ready. XD

Two high school girls, one giant scissors-sword and plenty of battles. This sounds really strange, so of course I'll have to take a look at Kill la Kill. ;-)

I do hope Crunchyroll picks this one up. Galilei Donna tells the story of three female descendants of Italian astronomer Galileo, who inexplicably have international warrants out for their arrest.(??)

Gah, I must sit down and finish watching the first season of Valvrave the Liberator because here comes the second season! Somehow Valvrave got lost among the other series I was watching and I just let it slide. It's actually a good series and worth seeing.

Okay, with a name like Samurai Flamenco how can anyone resist? =D An anime with a name that amusing deserves at least a look or two.

Phantom vampires, sword shamans and a... Lion King? Strike the Blood is based on a light novel and will begin airing on October 4.

Whoa, a story about a male law student and female law student in love? I am so there for Golden Time, if Crunchyroll gets off the schneid and realizes there are a lot of us out here who want to see adult characters and not teenagers all the time! Go get this one, Crunchyroll!

And finally...

Tokyo, 20 years after a nuclear meltdown. Now a ghost town, three girls from the special Coppelion unit are dispatched to the city to search for survivors. Oddly, they have no need of radiation suits. Hmm. Yeah, a great premise - and I'll be watching Coppelion.

So, a full plate to start with and who knows - I may add others later on. We'll see. :)

Incongruous Things - Dream or Nightmare?

Cosplayers on the Kyoto subway for the Kyoto Manga Anime Festival, August 2013. ;-)

Supporting the Industry - What I Did in August 2013

In August, I bought the new Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi manga, Volume 8, at Asahiya Bookstore, which sadly is closing its three stores in Southern California later this month.

This summer I donated a number of my anime T-shirts to a thrift store. I'm not a teenager anymore and I decided that wearing anime T-shirts was probably a bit age-inappropriate. (I did keep two that were favorites of mine, my old Sasuke T-shirt and a Hakuouki/Hijikata T-shirt.)

Of course, right after I made this resolution, I saw this in the Crunchyroll store.

Oh. My. God. Look at it. Look at it. It's a grown Sasuke and Naruto as the next Hokage. Dirty shonen-ai thoughts aside, it's just a great image of the two of them. So... I bought it. It's a brand-new design and will ship from Right Stuf on September 30. So much for my new resolution. XD

And as usual, I paid for my premium subscriptions to Crunchyroll and the Anime Network. I finished Zettai Karen Children ages ago on the Anime Network, but I can't cancel my subscription as there are other shows on there that I want to watch. I've been busy and haven't had the time to sit down and watch them, but I intend to soon.

Latest News - Shungiku Nakamura Projects, Meganebu! and K

As we head into the fall season, I wanted to mention some recent news about a number of anime projects in the works.

Hybrid Child has finally been cast. The anime adaptation of Shungiku Nakamura's beautiful and disturbing manga will feature the following seiyuu:

Nobuhiko Okamoto - Kotaro
Daisuke Hirakawa - Hazuki

Ryohei Kimura - Ichi
Tsubasa Yonaga - Yuzu

And finally - as Kuroda, the creator of the Hybrid Children, and his love Tsukishima:

Yuuki Ono - Kuroda
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka - Tsukishima

Hybrid Child is Nakamura's finest work to date. I wrote about Hybrid Child in detail in this post if you're interested. It's taken the production a while to get off the ground, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Junjou Romantica is getting another anime production:

And seiyuu Toru Furuya discusses Zen Kirishima, his first BL role, in the upcoming Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi spinoff OVA anime The Case of Takafumi Yokozawa:



The clip is from Furuya's panel at Anime Revolution in Vancouver, B.C. Listening to the clip, it's apparent that more fans in Canada (at least the fans that attended this convention) can understand Japanese than American fans, based on the waves of laughter at Furuya's answers before they were translated into English. ;-)

The info about his Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi role begins at 4:10. I love Furuya's reaction to the male fan who indicated that he knew what "boy's love" was: "OTOKO JA NAI??"

And - I'm not sure I can say that this anime is highly anticipated exactly... but in the footsteps of Free! comes Meganebu!



I can't get over how a seemingly innocuous thing like glasses-wearing can become a fetish, but only in Japan I guess. =D

And finally, updates on K. Or rather, I wish I had updates on K, because apparently there are none. There was a movie due out this summer (2013), but now that's been pushed ahead to 2014. And an anime series - allegedly a sequel to the original series - was supposed to be included in the fall 2013 schedule, but I've seen no confirmation of this so far.

There are prequel mangas, but they're not licensed in the U.S. at the moment. In other words there's not been much movement on the K front recently, with the exception of the English dub cast being announced at Anime Expo this summer. Meaning, at least the DVDs should be on their way to a release in the U.S. at some point which is good news. Even better news would be a new series in October as had been promised. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. =D