sickVisionz (Level 24)

Starting today (2/5/2011) and continuing for two weeks, Cat Shit One will be available for free HD streaming on YouTube.  The story follows two private military company employees, Botasky and Packy, as they attempt to rescue hostages in the middle east.  As oxymoronic as it may sound, if you're a fan of CGI, cute animals or serious takes on modern military conflicts, this show has something for you. 
 
Blu-ray and DVD versions, with Japanese and English audio along with English subtitles, have been released and are available online as well. 
   

In between watching Japanese versions of cartoon theme songs, having probably one of the poppiest songs outside of the Macross Frontier soundtrack running in a mental loop, and watching cartoon and movie intros from when I was a kid, I decided to blog about the anime I purchased last month.  In chronological order...  

Time of Eve OVA (BD)

ToE is one of my favorites and when I saw that it was getting a BD release that actually had English subtitles, a rarity for Japanese releases, I jumped on it.  There's a surprising amount of English on the packaging, considering that the show hasn't been licensed or scheduled for release yet.  It also came with no less than 8 different covers that made the cardboard case bulge like it was about to bust.  I believe this is still available for free on Crunchyroll if anyone wants to check it out.

Katanagatari vol 10 (BD)

A really hq series with an interesting story and characters and some top notch animation.  This and the remaining two volumes are some of my favorite episodes of the series.  Every volume comes with something that I assume is a Kabuto card, an audio CD with the voice actors, the 4 panel flyer you see and a perhaps the hardest and shiniest cardboard case in the world.  







 

School Days vol 2 & 3 (DVD)

I could go on forever about School Days but I'll just say that I'm halfway through the series now.  As far as bonuses go, I like the ones that come with this series the most.  It's similar to Katanagatari in terms of bonus items but the booklet is about 10 pages long with interviews that I can't read >_< and sketches galore.  If I had a scanner I'd post pics of it, but I don't so I can't. 

Sengoku Basara (BD) & Dragonball Kai vol 3 (BD)

I wasn't planning on buying these two this month but they were on sale so I picked them up.  Sadly, Amazon.com continued its longstanding tradition of sending me anime in busted up paper sleeves with these two.  I returned them and they sent me two more in even worse condition so I decided to quite while I was ahead.  The bonus items fell in line with what I typically get from American anime releases anime releases such as commercials/flyers for other shows with them being too classy to included something as petty as a booklet or single-sided flyer for the actual series being purchased, a wonderful survey that you have to pay postage for if you want to submit it, and a luxurious paper collector's sleeve that's thinner than a greeting card. 

Collection So Far

My mother is still borrowing Shigofumi so it's not included, but this is everything else.

Next Month

I'm pretty excited for next month since it starts it's the point that I decided to start collecting Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and I'll get one of my favorite episodes; Les Diaboliques.  Aside from that I'll be grabbing Katanagatari vol 11, the next two volumes of School Days and hopefully they'll be a sale on Naruto Shippuden or Bleach Boxes at the time.  I'm starting to fall super far behind on my Bleach collection so hopefully there will be some non-Bount boxes on sale.  
 
Edit Actually, the US releases I plan on picking up will be Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs along with Cat Shit One on blu-ray.
 
In a conclusion that will only make sense to me, I'll leave you all with a movie intro that side tracked me for about 20 minutes, along with watching 80s cartoon themes over and over, while making this post.  Ahh, the memories of being a 5th grader sitting in a pitch black movie theater with a bunch of other little kids who are about to explode with excitement for the movie to start.  Easily one of my favorite ways of revealing the movie company logo. 
  

I was browsing some youtube clips the other day and I came across a compilation of 80s cartoon theme songs.  Amidst all of the awesomely cheesy power rock, a true diamond in the rough stood out: Jem and the Holograms.  I was of cartoon watching age in the 80s but this my first time actually seeing or hearing anything from it.  I don't know what it is, but this song has been stuck in my head all week and I've been playing it over and over.  I've always liked a good pop tune and this one is actually pretty decent 80s material.  I also get a kick out of how much they say "Jem" during the song (15 times in a song that only lasts about 42 seconds, that's more than 1 utterance every 3 seconds), how awesome the writers think the word outrageous is and how there seems to be a band dedicated solely to being bitter haters of Jem.
  
Like I said, I missed out on this cartoon but I'd be interested to know if anyone here watched it when it was airing on television or had any memories about the toys or the popularity of it. 
 
 
I've only seen part of one episode but in terms of anime, it reminds of Chance Pop Session with way more insert songs and a magic computer woman that made hologram clothes.

 

Just curious as to how many of you all went to see this in theaters.  I'm just getting back from checking it out and had a good time despite the fact that I saw it at an indie theater so video and audio wasn't quite up to the standards I expect from your typical super huge 24 screen SDDS THX certified stadium seating theater.  
   
 
 
 
Even with all of that, it was pretty fun to see it on the big screen with friends and a theater full of fans who got a kick out of every fanservice shot or action sequence.  Fun enough to make me regret that this wasn't the first time I'd seen the movie.  Most of the theater stuck around for the post-credits parts which was nice to see and plenty of shhhsing went on as soon as Space Pirate Asuka Harlock made her appearance. On top of all of that, the night ended with us going out for sushi and getting free sake on the house, which was the perfect ending for an anime night.

 
For those who have seen it in theaters, how was your experience?

This used to be pretty rare but nowadays we seem to get blanketed at least once a year.  All the schools closed down but surprisingly I haven't seen too many kids running around outside, which seems crazy considering that there's a massive "break your neck if you try to sled this" hill in my neighborhood that would seem like the perfect spot for kids to have fun while putting themselves in crazy danger.  I blame it on the sky being gray so everything looks more depressing than it did the last time it snowed 
 
Anyways, I'm at home bored with no work to do.  When I was a kid, the county shutting down for bad weather was like the best day ever.  Now that I do contract work for the county I feel very bah humbug about it since it really just means that

• I can't turn in these invoices and if they stay closed tomorrow that will add an extra week to when I get paid
• I don't have any projects to do at home so I can't even earn money accrually
• I won't get the check I should get this week if they stayed closed until Thursday