The Shinsengumi Return in Blue Miburo, Plus the Joys of New Licenses

A late addition to the fall anime season is Blue Miburo, a new interpretation of the famed Shinsengumi.

From Kodansha USA:

It's 1863, the twilight of the shogunate, and Japan is on the cusp of monumental change. The streets of the nation's capital are soaked in blood as political upheaval and rising tensions between masterless, wandering ronin and government samurai set the stage for one of the most turbulent times in Japan's history. Young orphan Nio is no stranger to the harsh realities of the world, and yet he can't help but cling to his burning passion for justice and desire to change the world for the better.

One day, he crosses paths with two men who will become central figures of the coming revolution: Hijikata Toshizo and Okita Souji, two of the founding members of a group of hated ronin known as the Miburo—who would later become known as the Shinsengumi. Inspired by the efforts of the so-called "Blues Wolves of Mibu," Nio decides to join the ranks to help carve a path to the world he wishes to see. But with new betrayals and reversals every day, will Nio be able to stay true to his conscience?

The Shinsengumi have been featured in numerous manga and anime series, most notably in...

Kaze Hikaru...

Hakuouki...

... and of course Gintama.

It should be remembered that the Shinsengumi were a reactionary force and wouldn’t be looked on with favor these days. I myself tend to forget this when I drool over Hakouki’s Hijikata or laugh at Gintama’s Kondo and Okita. Yes, they were genuine heroes to a certain side in Japanese history - but that was long ago.

Nonetheless, I’m giving Blue Miburo a try. I can’t resist the Shinsengumi in any of their iterations.

Some unexpected good things have come out of paying for streaming subscriptions. By which I mean that I didn’t expect to find anime treasures at Disney Plus or Hulu, but they’re there.

Years ago, fairly early on in my anime fandom, I fell in love with a series called Nurarihyon no Mago (English name: Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan).

I don’t even recall where I watched it. It was probably Crunchyroll but maybe it was Funimation? Or the Anime Network? Regardless, there was only one season and I figured that was all.

... Until the other day, when I was tooling around the Hulu site and decided to check out their anime catalog. For some reason, even though I knew that Hulu and Disney Plus held a number of anime licenses, I never thought to look to see if they had anything that would fill in the gaps in my personal anime wish list.

I found to my delight that not only do they have Nurarihyon no Mago but that there is a second season of it. Remember, I date back to the days of anime fandom when it was catch as catch can. Before Crunchyroll turned legit, you had to hunt and search for episodes. If you were lucky, and remembered enough of your high school Spanish, you might get by with Naruto and Bleach episodes with Spanish subs on YouTube. It was like that back then.

In other words, I didn’t think to consider that times have changed. With the growing popularity of anime in the U.S. even older series are being picked up, including the later seasons of those series that never got localized before.

So I’ve started a “Rewatching” list to add onto my “Currently Watching” page. Because not only did I find Nurarihyon no Mago but I found two other old favorites with additional seasons.

Oh, I loved Bakuman when it came out. I just fell in love with the story. I bought a gigantic box set of the complete manga. I watched the anime, the first season, all 25 episodes of it.

Then... the second season got caught up in a legal mess. The season was dubbed into English but some situation came up that prevented it from being released/distributed. At that point (this was years ago), I gave up on ever being able to watch the second season.

Until...

I was gobsmacked and extremely happy to find out that Disney Plus is streaming all three seasons of Bakuman. I didn’t even know there was a third season. I never thought I would be able to watch S2 considering its past legal situation, let alone get to watch a third season.

Bakuman is about two high schoolers who create their own manga. The Bakuman manga itself was created by Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, the team that did Death Note, a story that is about as far from the light tone of Bakuman as it’s possible to get.

Bakuman is a gem. It shows the creative process as experienced by two young people and the challenges they face when they unexpectedly turn professional. I am just really happy that I’ll get to see the story brought to life in anime form, all three seasons of it.

Finally, from the same camp of unexpected good news, Disney Plus currently holds the Durarara!! license and I found out that Durarara!! has a second season! Really, I don’t know why they don’t publicize these new licenses enough. It makes me want to go through Hulu and Disney Plus and Crunchyroll and just look for new seasons of old anime series that I still love.

Best of all, they’re available in sub and dub. Sub (Japanese voice cast with English subtitles) is far and away my preferred way to watch anime. I wouldn’t have put it past U.S. anime streamers like Disney Plus and Hulu to just have the dub versions, but they have the Japanese versions too.

This brings me back to the earlier years of my anime fandom, before there was so much isekai and before the long-running shounen anime series I loved like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist concluded their stories and entered the annals of anime legend.

Not to mention that the fall 2024 anime season is a good one and I’m still watching those series too. It’s a good time to be an anime lover. :-)

Supporting the Industry - What I Did in December 2014

Here's the Supporting the Industry post for December, even though it's nearly February. I meant to do this before now but the other posts for January got in the way.

I spent quite a bit of money supporting anime and manga in December. Starting with the small stuff...

I really like anime playing cards. I have them from Hikaru no Go and Gundam 00 and I'm always on the lookout for cards from my favorite series. I was in Anime Jungle and saw these KnB cards and had to get them.

While there, I also spotted this thermal drink tumbler from K. Merch from K is always high on my list. This tumbler shows the Blue King of Sceptre 4.

Yeah, that's a Bleach poster on the wall behind the tumbler. XD

I made two other purchases and one pre-purchase in December. The big purchase was a manga box set.

First, a bit of history. I loved Bakuman and watched the first season and part of the second season before I pledged to support the industry and not watch fansubs anymore. If you view my anime list at MyAnimeList you'll see that among my "Dropped" titles is Bakuman, which I rated a 10 out of 10.

Who drops a show they consider among the best? I didn't want to, but it was a fansub and I had to.

I bought the first DVD of Bakuman when it came out. The second DVD has been held up in the U.S. by licensing issues. And Viz, who owns the rights in North America, has never shown Bakuman on its streaming site. Thus, I left Bakuman's story at around the one-third mark and never returned to it.

Until now.

The box set lid has Mashiro and Takagi making goony faces, yelling "WHOA?! BOX SET!"

The cover art for volume 7 is one of my favorite illustrations ever. It shows the boys in the thick of the creative process, the detritus of a famiresu diner meal strewn across the table, in the grip of the story they're trying to write and draw.

Okay, here's a better picture of it.

I bought the Bakuman manga box set, all 20 volumes, the complete story. It's the biggest manga purchase I've ever made at one time. Though yes, I would've preferred to watch the rest of the anime, at least now I can read the manga and find out what happens with Mashiro and Takagi and their creative careers. I'm very happy to have made this purchase.

I also bought the complete DVD box set of Zettai Karen Children, or Psychic Squad as it's known in the U.S. I had assumed that it was out of print here, but I was basing that on going to Amazon and finding a hodgepodge of Psychic Squad DVDs, some of which looked decidedly gray market.

Then I went to Right Stuf and was surprised to find new licensed DVDs and at a very inexpensive price.

There are four DVDs. Yes, one is missing - Right Stuf was out of stock for volume 2, so I have to wait for it. :/

But actually, I can already watch those episodes again if I want to. I've mentioned before that I'm a paid subscriber to The Anime Network and that I subscribed some years ago solely to watch Zettai Karen Children. The fact that I will now own the series on DVD means I have no reason to keep paying for this subscription. I need to look at what other series The Anime Network offers that I can't watch legally anywhere else to see if subscribing still makes sense.

And finally - I pre-ordered the sequel to Zettai Karen Children. It's one of my favorite anime series in recent years.

It's a series that goes by different names: The Unlimited, Hyobu Kyosuke: The Unlimited and the longest title - Courtesy of Zettai Karen Children - Hyobu Kyosuke: The Unlimited. But since Zettai Karen Children is known here as Psychic Squad, unfortunately Sentai decided its North American name should be...

The series doesn't deserve this horrid clunky name, Unlimited Psychic Squad, but take my word for it - it's one of the best series I've seen in the past few years. It ships in April.

So I did quite a bit of supporting in December. XD

Supporting the Industry - What I Did in July 2014

July was a hodge podge of things for supporting the industry. I bought the above Zettai Karen Children art book at a local Japanese bookstore. Along with paying my usual $6.95 to the Zettai Karen Children Network, a.k.a. the Anime Network, of course. =D

I also attended Anime Expo and incurred the expenses associated with going to a convention. In addition, I bought a few items in the Exhibit Hall and Artist's Alley.

I found a dealer that sold some nice licensed Kuroko no Basuke merchandise, like the fan above, and clear files from Hozuki no Reitetsu and Bakuman.

In the Artist's Alley, I came across a young teenage artist who did chibis of Naruto characters. Her No. 1 fan, a.k.a. her dad, sat next to her in the booth and beamed at me as I spoke with his daughter.

I had to buy her Sasuke chibi. Later on, I saw another young girl in cosplay followed by her smiling dad, who carried all her packages for her like a royal retainer. XD It's great to see parents who support their kids in their interests.

In July, I also attended the theatrical premiere of K - Missing Kings.

And finally, one of my most anticipated anime DVD purchases arrived in the mail.

Yeah. Here's a better picture.

I've discussed Mononoke before, but sometimes pictures speak louder than words. The art in Mononoke is so amazing that it creates another universe for your mind. Here are some images.

I am thrilled to own Mononoke on DVD. I definitely feel a Mononoke marathon coming on in the very near future. =D

News Roundup - Kuroko S3, Hozuki OVAs and Hybrid Child Staff

Kuroko's Basketball's third season has been greenlit. =D

No date set yet, but season 1 aired from April 2012 to September 2012 and season 2 aired from October 2013 to March 2014. So there was almost one year between the first two seasons. I guess it would be too much to expect that S3 would begin airing this October - ? We can hope, certainly.

In more good news, Hozuki no Reitetsu will have three OVAs released in 2015! The OVAs will be based on volumes 17-19 of the manga.

Finally, an announcement regarding the anime adaptation of Hybrid Child:

The anime adaptation of Shungiku Nakamura's Hybrid Child manga was greenlit some time ago, with the following cast:

Kotaro Izumi - Nobuhiko Okamoto
Hazuki - Daisuke Hirakama
Ichi Seya - Ryohei Kimura
Yuzu - Tsubasa Yonaga
Tsukishima - Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Kuroda - Yuuki Ono

The director will be Michio Fukuda who directed Nurarihyon no Mago, and the script will be by Aki Itami. The production company will be Studio Deen, the producers behind the anime adaptations of Nakamura's other BL manga series, Junjou Romantica and Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi.

In my Hybrid Child review, I discussed the difficult themes involved in the three stories that make up Hybrid Child, particularly the second story with Ichi Seya and Yuzu. Though in the Edo period relationships between adult samurai men and their "juniors" were commonly accepted, I'm wondering how the producers will handle the scenes between the adult Seya and the child-like hybrid Yuzu.

I am definitely looking forward to Ryohei Kimura as Seya and Yuuki Ono as Kuroda. Kuroda's story, the final one of the three, is a truly beautiful and heartbreaking love story.

With the anime production of Hybrid Child coming soon, and with series like Kuroko's Basketball S1 and Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi being released on DVD in Japan, I'm seriously considering getting a Blu-ray player so that I can purchase and watch Japanese DVDs. Even a series like Hozuki no Reitetsu, which I enjoyed but probably not enough to buy - if I wanted to buy it, I would like to have that option. Not to mention Bakuman, which I had to stop watching in its second season since I pledged not to watch fansubs anymore to support the industry. Bakuman had one DVD release for the first seven episodes of S1 - which I bought - and that was it. Bakuman has never been legally streamed here in the U.S.

I'm just finishing up the first year of Japanese language classes (it's the second time I've taken first-year Japanese actually), and I'm understanding a lot more Japanese dialogue when I watch anime these days. If I keep up my studies, it's conceivable that I could watch Japanese anime on DVDs at some point in the future - because of course - Japanese DVDs won't have any English subtitles.

And I can't think of anything that would spur me on more to keep studying Japanese than the prospect of watching anime in its native language. ;-)

Anime Expo 2013 Report

Anime Expo 2013 was held July 4-7 this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

It was a packed four days. One of the most fun moments - for me at least - came on the first day at the Shonen Jump panel.

If you've read the Bakuman manga or seen the anime, you know Hisashi Sasaki, the veteran Shonen Jump editor. Sasaki in Bakuman is based on the real-life Hisashi Sasaki - the veteran Shonen Jump editor. ;-) In the panel, we learned that among his many achievements in Japanese manga publishing Sasaki discovered Nobuhiko Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, as a teenager in a local talent contest(!).

Sasaki uses his manga character as his avatar in his Twitter feed and mentioned in the panel that manga artist Takeshi Obata made the editorial staff look "one thousand percent better" in the manga and anime.

Actually, I disagree. Here's the panel. I took the final picture of Sasaki-sensei from close up:

And here's Sasaki-sensei as he appears in the Bakuman anime and manga:

I think the real-life Sasaki looks much younger than his artistic renderings and told him so after the panel. He laughed. =D

A lot of good panels were held on Day 1, including Digital Manga Inc.'s:

DMI announced that they are seeking to publish all Osamu Tezuka books as ebooks in conjunction with Tezuka Productions. In addition, they said that Yaoi Con would move back to the San Francisco Bay Area next year in October.

New streaming site Daisuki also held their panel on the first day of the convention. Chaired by Robert Napton, the panel featured Shaft president Mitsutoshi Kubota who announced that Monogatori S2 would stream as a simulcast on Daisuki. They gave out some cool freebies, including the Madoka Magica clearfile above.

One of the Copic-sponsored art panels focused on what it's like to be a mangaka in Japan. Three mangaka women demonstrated how to draw skin, eyes and hair with Copic markers. In the Q&A, I asked whether the depictions of mangaka in Bakuman and Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi were accurate, and one of the women answered that "everything that happens cannot be told." Hmmm. XD

A delightful new feature was a drawing wall, located near the West Hall entrance. Each day people drew on sheets of butcher paper that had been tacked up:

Here are a few close-ups - some people are quite talented, aren't they?

The best thing was that each morning... clean new sheets would be put up, ready for more drawings.

One of the academic lectures focused on the origins of the symbolism in Fullmetal Alchemist.

The lecture was very good. The presenter's website is AllysonFloyd.com, if you want to take a look at her work.

Veteran seiyuu Kazuhiko Inoue appeared on Day 3:

Inoue walked to the table holding a Nyanko-sensei doll from Natsume Yuujincho, and occasionally answered questions using his Nyanko voice. :)

At first, many questions from the audience were on his work in Zeta Gundam, to the groans of the non-Gundam enthusiasts. Inoue got a big laugh when he stated that he could barely recall the role, as it was thirty years ago.

He also said that Nyanko is a middle-aged cat, and he is now a middle-aged man so he could relate to Nyanko quite well. When asked what it's been like to work on Naruto for the past ten years, Inoue said Junko Takeuchi (Naruto) was just starting out when she got the role, but is now a veteran. He added that the cast was like one big family.

He concluded by singing part of a song, and offering advice to an aspiring voice actor: "People think voice acting is just using different tones, but you should study acting - it's about learning to act." Very much a class act, Inoue was laid-back, smiled often and was the professional that you would expect him to be.

The gaming room at AX this year was simply cavernous. The following picture doesn't do it justice:

A new card game called Weiss Schwartz was very popular. Weiss Schwartz involves using card decks featuring anime characters.

Both the tabletop games and video games were held in the same room:

Now, on to some cosplay photos. Here's Chiho from Hataraku Maoh-sama:

And a few more. Don't know how the Dalek found himself in an anime convention...

A helpful new addition to the convention were electronic boards announcing scheduled events:

LA Live was as lit-up as ever:

And this year, Lounge 21 was held in a very large ballroom.

Around Saturday, Day 3, I could have used a cup of coffee around this size:

Here are some more cosplay photos:

Sentai Filmworks brought their own tank to promote Girls und Panzer:

I was tired by Sunday, Day 4, but I made a last circuit of the Exhibit Hall and happened upon a group that indie-published their own manga, Ronin Galaxy:

Looking at the manga book, handling it and examining the spine, the color illustrations on the front and back and the print and paper quality of the interior, I couldn't see any difference between Ronin Galaxy, Vol. I and any manga volume from DMI, Tokyopop or any of the other publishers I've worked for as a freelance editor - none. Indie publishing has come a long way, and as an indie publisher myself I am extremely excited for the future. When a small group of independents can put out a quality book like this, the sky is the limit for all of us creators. =) Their website by the way is: RoninGalaxy.com.

I'll probably post a little more this month about some things I experienced at AX 2013, but a few last words. Each year, AX has scheduling and organization snafus and this year was no different. I missed seeing the Blue Exorcist movie largely because it was screened in a smaller room than it had to be, considering how enormous many of the rooms at the LA Convention Center are. (I also arrived to line up fairly late, but still...) Also, I missed seeing Makoto Shinkai's The Garden of Words even though I arrived an hour early. The line was already long enough that they determined the room would be full. And again - it was held in that same rather small room, while other events that didn't draw as many people were held in the large rooms.

All in all though, it was a very good convention and I thoroughly enjoyed myself for the entire four days. =D I'll look forward to next year's convention.