2012: My First Quarter in Anime
Apr. 2nd, 2012 07:08 pmThe year started off with troubling portents for anime fans (at least however many of them still cling to the middle ground of buying "domestic releases" in between streaming on one side and spending grand sums to import from Japan on the other, with the less reputable ways of watching anime lurking out there too) when Bandai Entertainment was shut down, Media Blasters laid off a good number of people, and Funimation sued Sentai Filmworks in connection to the "somebody ripped off somebody" tangle of the end of ADV Films. That treated me to a demonstration of how Sentai, assumed to be the innocent and put-upon party, is better-loved among anime fandom at the moment than Funimation, condemned as the greedy agressor taking on a company that doesn't take the Japanese text out of the opening and closing credits. With time, though, the worry seemed to fade somewhat. Interesting titles do continue to be licensed, and I kept watching.
( Back to the action: GaoGaiGar and GaoGaiGar Final )
( Continuing on: Gasaraki and Aria the Natural )
( Up to the minute: Bodacious Space Pirates, Waiting in the Summer, and Rinne no Lagrange )
( The comparison effect: Clannad After Story and Spice and Wolf II )
( 'Oldie but a goodie': Aim for the Ace! )
( Feature-length experiences: Gunbuster, Redline and Mardock Scramble )
( Back to the challenge: Revolutionary Girl Utena )