Category: Anime

Wanna download it?

I just got this press release from Viz stating that the Death Note anime has been licensed and that it’ll be available for download while the series is still running in Japan:

San Francisco, CA, January 10, 2007 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV) the Download to Own (DTO) and Download to Rent (DTR) rights for the United States for the smash hit DEATH NOTE anime series, currently airing in Japan.

The deal is significant because it marks the first time a well known Japanese anime property will be made legally available to domestic audiences for download to own while the title still airs on Japanese television. VIZ Media will seek to make the series available to consumers through a number of online providers in order to reach the widest audience possible.

Like the press release says, this is significant because American audiences will be able to watch the anime before it’s even finished airing in Japan. While this is slightly cool, I have a feeling that the actual downloads will be DRM’ed to hell and only available in English dub form.

I think the ideal solution would be to offer subbed downloads on the same day of airing in Japan. Surely this wouldn’t be a problem for the company itself, as they would have access to the scripts. They would beat the fansubs (and even speedsubbers) to the punch, and I’d assume their translations would be fairly accurate. If pricing was decent (like $1 an episode?) I would totally buy it.

Previously on Basugasubakuhatsu:
Death Note – Anime First Impressions
Death Note Vol. 1 – Manga Review

Nodame Cantabile

Nodame Cantabile is that music anime that everyone kept on saying was better than Kin-iro no Chord. It’s about the lives and romance of two musicians. One is a formally trained conductor, and the other is a play it by ear kind of pianist. It’s like the odd couple, except with music! I’m a pretty big band nerd, so I’ll be watching this for sure.

So apparently, the anidb list that I used for the first part of the Winter 2007 Anime Preview was overly optimistic. I guess I should’ve been wary when I saw so many shows premiering on January 1st… I’ll just use Moetron’s list for the rest of my posts.

Saint October

An orphan, a pop idol, and a mysterious girl walk into a bar… Well, subtract the bar and you have the cast of Saint October. The plot seems to involve stopping the end of the world and solving the mysteries of an amnesiac. There’s not much to say about that, but the character designs look decent. This is a “might check out” if the season is really slow.

As one anime season (and year) draws to a close, another is just beginning. There’s a whole lot of anime coming out for the Winter of 2007. Here’s the first chunk of my Winter 2007 anime preview:

Gothicmade

At first, I thought “Gothicmade” was some kind of play on words about a Gothic Maid. Apparently, it’s about women on some planet who must receive and pass down memories to other generations. From just reading that, Gothicmade sounds sort of similar to that book I had to read in middle school, “The Giver.” Gothicmade also has mecha in it, which probably means this anime will go into my “ignore unless people say it’s awesome” pile.