The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya News

Well, it's been a hectic 12 hours since Anime Vice when all Hellen Keller. No could write much of anything. I was even right in the middle of working on this week's Anime Vice Japanese Lesson. While that's still coming, I wanted to share with you some of the latest purchases I made in the world of manga and anime today.
 
Back when I first reported on Anime Vice that Yen Press would start releasing Highschool of the Dead to the US. I was really excited. I wanted to start covering that and I looked forward to the release for Jan. 25 since I first heard that date last month. I waited all month and held off using any of my holiday gift cards. I drove to my local Borders only to find that Borders will not be carrying Highschool of the Dead in store. You can only purchase it online. Now, that is irony. I held off pre-ordering, because I wanted to get it on it's release date, in place of waiting a week or so for delivery. I really wanted to write a review of Volume 1 and submit it as an article for Anime Vice. Saying I was disappointed would be an understatement.
 
I did order Highschool of the Dead online, but through Amazon. Borders.com wanted $13 for this. I got it on Amazon for $8.26, and yet Borders still wonders why they can't compete. Once you have removed the convenience factor of having the product same day. They're pretty well screwed. While I was at it, I also pre-ordered Summer Wars on blu-ray, which if you been following the Oscar buzz was denied a nomination. Good news, I'm getting two things I wanted. Bad News, to get the free shipping. I will have to wait until February to get that Highschool of the Dead volume with my Summer Wars.
 
I did use my roughly $90 worth of gift cards today, anyways. Borders was having a special of Buy 4 Manga and Get 5th Free. I really couldn't pass up on that kind of deal. So, here's what I got.
I know some of you are probably going to be pretty shocked about what you might see here. The selection is a bit random. I tend to buy volumes that have scenes I really enjoy and fill in from there.

FoxxFireArt's Pull List

• Fairy Tail Vol. 5
• Fairy Tail Vol. 12
• Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 10
• Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 17
• Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 21
• The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan Vol. 1
• One Piece Vol. 46
• One Piece Vol. 53
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Vol. 2
• Soul Eater Vol. 4

 
That's right, mixed in with the Del Rey and Yen Press books are VIZ Media mangas. I've been considering for a long time relaxing my boycott of VIZ manga. Just seemed as every time I started to soften. Someone would make an absolutely ignorant comment to make excises for censorship. New Flash, people. There is no excuse for censorship of books. Censorship has never improved anything. The ball started rolling with just how great Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood way. I recently finished the anime and was very impressed.
Just don't get the false impression that means I'm not going to keep commenting against VIZ Media any changes I get. Nor am I going to stopped using scanlations for VIZ series. Here's the funny thing. Since it was a "Buy 4 and Get the 5th Free" deal. I technically paid more money to Del Rey and Yen Press. I didn't pay anything for those two volumes of One Piece.

It was hard to select which Fullmetal Alchemists to get. I kind of went with a theme. One is Riza Hawkeye, Olivier Milla Armstrong, and Lan Fan.

I plan to read and review all of these volume for Anime Vice. I've currently written 64 reviews on Anime Vice and I have a have a 96% recommendation rate on my reviews. No one on Animce Vice as written as many reviews, and I'm not even staff. You can see complete list of all my reviews HERE
 
I kind of wish I could be a staff writer for the site. I could afford to then buy more manga and anime and write even more reviews. I am a little green in the eyes how Tom Pinchuk was sent a big batch of anime DVDs by FUNimation. Still, I'm happy for him, too
 
So, that was my day. How was your's?

-Kristoffer Remmell ( FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ animevice / @ FoxxFireArt

Bandai Entertainment has answered the prayers to all of those who have been expecting Haruhi's second season to be available to take home. Starting this past Tuesday (9/14) the Bandai Online Store is selling The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 for $45.49. 

Online Item Description: 

Haruhi continues her search for exciting ways to keep her world from being boring. Unfortunately, for Kyon and the rest of the SOS Brigade, they are forced to go along for the ride. On the night of the Tanabata Star Festival, Kyon is transported back in time by Mikuru Asahina to what may be the source of what led Haruhi to search for aliens, time travelers and espers. In the last two weeks of summer vacation, Haruhi leads the brigade on a dizzying list of summer time activities that leads the brigade into experiencing what they think is dejavu but they’re actually re-living the same two weeks of summer over and over again. It’s up to Kyon to figure out what’s missing to get them out of this endless loop. As fall rolls around, everyone prepares for the school arts festival, but Haruhi isn’t content with their class’s survey project. She, instead, hatches her own plan for the SOS Brigade to film and screen their own movie. Step behind the camera to see what went on to create the cinematic ‘masterpiece’ that is The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00. 

Detailed Info:

 Features

• Bonus CD with OP/ED song tracks!
• Interactive Menus
• Japanese Language Dialogue
• English Language Dialogue
• Optional English Subtitles
• Location Scouting Videos
• Behind the Scenes of Aya Hirano’s Music Video
• Endless Eight Prologue
• Special Event Video
• Promo Videos
• Commercials
• Adventures of the ASOS Brigade Episodes

 
 BONUS

• CD includes Super Driver / Tomare!

 
 DVD Disc Specs

• Audio: Japanese, English
• Subtitles: Full English
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
• Total Run Time: Approx. 350 min.
• Region: 1 (North America)
• Rating: 13 Up

So what are you waiting for? Go buy it here! 
I know you want to! 
-- Geo ( sora_thekey), long time user, blogger, wiki editor of the Whiskey Media Sites, and an all time geek!  

On other Whiskey Media sites I've been doing wrap ups of Movies I've watched and comic books I've read. Well here on Anime Vice I'm going to change it up a bit...
I am trying a lot to contribute to this site as much as I do to the others, but I don't watch as much anime as before, and most of my money goes on comics rather than Manga. So I decided to add it all up into a Blog post so you all can see what I've been up to Anime Vice-wise...

Reviews

Manga

Kingdom Hearts Vol. 1 
by Shiro Amano
Tokyopop
I read this manga originally a few years back, and when I was into the video game KH craze (believe me it was worse before) so I took this old manga out of my bookcase and re-read it, so then I thought about it and decided to review it here on the site. I found it funny that this time around as I read it I found that the adaptation was not as great as when I first read it, because I realized that the seriousness was taken away to an extreme. 
So, be sure to read my review on this KH adaptation of My Favorite Video Game Adapted into a Comedy.  
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. 
 
Anime
 
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 
Season 1 Episode 2 - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I
FUNimation 
This is one of my favorite anime series and I've watched every episode except The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie. Today I was bored and decided to watch the first episode (or the second rather... it's all very confusing) again. So, I reviewed it and ended with an "I'm Intrigued!" expression. Be sure to check out the Review!
Rating: 4 out of 5 
 
 
Movies 
(Originally posted on Screened.com for my blog post: Sora's Movie/TV Wrap Up #3)

The Last Airbender (2010)
Cost: $5 
Boy do I regret watching this movie! I am a huge fan of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series and like all of those who read the book then watch the movie, by the end you have some complaints. Well I had more complaints than the complaint box at Avon! M Night Shyamalan has lost his sense of movie-making completely. Not only that but I had to endure the movie with bad Dubbing into Spanish because there were no screenings in English! I will admit that the movie had great CGI scenes with all the elements but the whole movie's pace was so slow that even the climatic event of the movie was horribly dull for my taste. The acting was not bad at all but the story was horrible and did not follow the series for the exception of the first 10 minutes of the movie. I thought I was able to get past all of the things that were going to be changes and that I knew was going to be changed but in no way that was possible!
Rating 1 out of 5  

Articles

I don't know if you know this, but even us users of Anime VIce can submit an Article for the front page. Well I submitted one: 2010 Anime Fall Season Preview 
I noticed that the site was in need of new material and stumbled upon the Anime Fall Preview somewhere on the internet. So I went on an anime hunt on the the internet through various anime -related sites and it took about 2 or 3 days to find images for every anime, a plot description for every anime and as many trailers as I could find.
I hope you've seen it and you have commented on it!
If not... what are you still doing here?!?!
 

Wiki Submissions

• I organized a bit the Zettai Ryouiki concept page
• Added Shiro Amano's page to the site

 
So that's what I've been doing here on the site. 
Just like me I invite all of you to do something similar so we can all see what you do to contribute to the site in a compressed, blogged manner!
What do you think of my first Wrap Up here on the site?
-- Geo (sora_thekey) 2 year user, blogger, wiki editor of the Whiskey Media Sites, and an all time geek!

Hey Guys! 
After watching and really enjoying Angel Beats! and hearing that The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is made by the same guys I thought I'll give it a try. I have once before but well the home movie they made for the first episode kinda put me off. Even still now I haven't managed to watch it all. It's way too cheesy although Mikuru's laser firing skills made me smile. 
Anyways aside from that I did rather enjoy the series as a whole and quite like putting the story together. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. They give you all the pieces in a random order and you have to slowly put it together. Which I thought made it very unique and helps it stand out from the crowd although I don't think it was as great as people made out it to be. Yes the jigsaw idea was neat, the animation was good and the musical score was pretty good as well but I felt the story was a bit lacking.
The whole idea of Haruhi being a bored Goddess but not knowing it was cool but I felt they could've done a lot more with it. 
The power she welds is only glimpsed at and just when things start to heat up the series was ended. All in all the ending felt rather anti climatic especially compared to Angel Beats! Plus we seem to learn hardly anything about the characters backgrounds. Every time you thought 'yes finally were gonna learn about a character!' turns out that information is 'classified'. This meant I found it hard to truly relate to any of the characters bar Kyon (Although now I come to think of it that may have meant to be the case).   
Although I did really like Kyon. He made me laugh on a number of occasions just because how he reacts to Haruhi's mad capped ideas.
Maybe if I watch ' The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya' it'll help fill in some of the blanks for me. Although I heard thats just a re telling of the original story with another arc on the end that over stays it's welcome *EDIT* Sorry I got confused with the release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and the title above = P
Anyways I feel like I'm going to be totally hated now for writing probably not the most positive post about one of the most loved anime series out there! I just hope they can see my point before they start throwing stones at me X D 
Anyways till next time! 
 
The Triforce Fighter 

Hey Guys,  
 
I've just finished Angel Beats and well I really liked it! I think it was best described by GodLen when he said '  Basically, this anime is a roller coaster of emotions' as that sums it up so well. It has you laughing one minute and crying the next(I loved the Looney Toons -isque slap stick humor in episode 2!). The whole show felt very well crafted together and the animation was top notch, although it is a shame that they kinda teased us with uber awesome animation during the Girl's Dead Monster gigs and then don't apply them in any other scenes (like the action scenes for example), although thats just me picking holes. 
I hope I wasn't the only one with tears in their eyes when Yuzuru was left all on his lonesome, although it's all good if you watch after the credits cos he finds Kenade. 
Now I've heard this being compared to 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' and although I have tried to watch it I couldn't get past the first episode and its cheesy home movie isque feel. Or maybe more to the point it caught me off guard I guess. I might give it another shot... Would I miss out if I skip the first episode and maybe come back to it as I heard the episodes are kind of mish mashed together. 
Anyways I should get a Angel Beats! review up soon (fingers crossed) and maybe a Code Geass: R2 one as well if I can compose myself.  
Till next time!  
The Triforce Fighter

I like many, has been considering myself a lil bit Otaku, I have made my last push into An Otaku
 ( I am being called otaku, and I`m being harassed by some guy who hates anime.)
I made this push earlier this month, I began taking AMV`s seriously, but thats nothing, THEN! I went tro my local EB (think gamestop), And used my diplomatic prowess and charismatic ability to obtain an already ordered copy of Record of Agarest War: The really naughty edition. (the guy hadnt some in for a while and wasnt answering the phone),
Next! I pre-ordered V5 of Lucky Star (the Manga) and was excited to get it... (I havent finished yet... taking it slow... Wanna enjoy my fav manga...)
I then proceeded on by going through great lengths to order a Gundam Figure (I consider this tough cuz many online sites for stuff like that dont ship to Canada). Now if that doesnt proove enough that im Otaku, then here is my last card, I have completely tricked out my Desktop, it covered in  anime related apps including a Miku pic thaat sings along with the songs, so I`m happy about that, I also have a lil Konata icon that tells my how well my computer is running, and another one of Konata dressed as Haruhi that indicates my computers power level, I got  a clock thing with Mr. Anizawa on the inside (manager from Lucky star).... all of this has been thrown onto a big background of Haruhi!
Please lemme know if you would consider me at all Otaku.