Coming June 21, is the follow up to Pokemon Black & White. On the back of the B/W 2 game. ANN notes that familiar faces of past series' will make a return.

• Misty
• Cynthia etc...

article
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...ere-on-june-21

I hope we can see Digimon again!

On this day in Fictional History, a young hero named Goku defeated the supreme source of evil, King Piccolo/Piccolo Daimao.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u74PWpeIkQ

Truly a fantastic end to not only a great arc, but a great villain as well.

Let me preface my complaining by saying I owe a lot to DBZ. Had it not been for it's success, FUNI might not have gone back and redubbed all of Dragonball and I might not have discovered this vastly superior anime. They also actually were a much better company by this time so they gave DB amore respectable dub.

Now I know what some of you might be saying. "There is no Z in the manga!" Indeed, and there is no Shippuden in the Naruto manga. That doesn't change the fact that a timeskip brought with it a gigantic dip in quality.


Let's start off with the obvious. What do you think people today would do if Oda or Kishimoto said "oh, by the way, Luffy/Naruto is an alien and that is why they are all special. We just didn't mention it until several hundrd chapters in"?
Otakus everywhere would borrow money from their parents so they could go to Japan and smack them for being so dumb. So why did AT get away with it? I can only assume it was good will leftover from the fantasticness of DB.

So DBZ/DB Part 2 starts off with a pants-on-head-retarded plot twist. Not a very respectable beginning to be sure but things only get worse from there.

"Luke..I am your brother! And now I am dead, never to be relevant again."

Fantastic storytelling there Toriyama.

I could go on and on about things I hate about DBZ but I will limit them to two more.

1. Adult Goku is not nearly as good of a hero as Kid Goku. Gone is the sweet and pure child we all came to love. In his place is a bloodthirsty warrior who will let genocidal maniacs go so he can fight them again.
Remember when Tambourine killed Krillin and Kid Goku immediately set off to avenge his friend by killing the monster?
Well Adult Goku let Vegeta go after the latter had been responsible for three of his friends dying. All so he could fight him again someday....

2. And you know this series is called Dragonball but the Dragonballs were always a very difficult to collect plot device. It took entire story arcs.
Well forget that in DBZ. The Dragonballs become the single worst plot device in anime or manga history. Why? Because they literally negate anything the villain can do. Billions of people are murdered? No biggy, we can just revive them with the Dragonballs! Main characters are killed? Again, just revive them with the Dragonballs!

How can death mean anything in such a series? Simple answer is that it cannot.

Now that I've blasted Part 2, let me praise the original Dragonball.

If you wanted a very deep story with complex characters you'd probably be better off reading or watching Yu Yu Hakusho. Nevertheless, for what it was, DB was extremely well-done. It was funny, it was cute, and it had lots of great action. There was no ki blast spam - there was actual hand-to-hand combat! While it was always "the strongest fighter wins", the fights in DB at least had a great deal of variety with a lot of special and unique attacks.

The plot, while very simple, was well-told. Toriyama did a great job of alternating between more comical and serious bits. The introduction of Tao and later King Piccolo marked seamless transitions from comedy to a more straight story.

In this black-and-white world we had a wonderful cast of characters. Not only was Kid Goku adorable beyond words, the rest of the cast were quite colorful too. (they were also useful, something none of them were come DBZ) Bulma was a great source of fanservice, Krillin was actually a decent rival, Tien had wonderful character development in the 22nd Tournament, and so-on.

Phew. I think I'm running out of steam here. I think I'll leave it at that and see what others here think.

I shall leave you all with the best opening in any Dragonball anime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddqKLZrswDo

For a few weeks now, FUNimation's Lance Heiskell has been building what I think is a great & interesting contribution to anime fandom on his "Practice Makes Awesome" website. He's basically collecting scans of a whole lot of stuff from the past and posting it, offering everyone a window into a time when anime marketing & fandom were very different and a lot of things that we consider classics today were not-so-old or even pretty new at the time.

Heiskell explains his Anime Archive Project thus:



So far his efforts are dominated with scans from back issues of Animerica magazine, a great publication from Viz that ran from 1992 to 2005, starting with the original issue zero that had Macross II on the cover.

I've found it fascinating. At the risk of sounding kinda old, this stuff is way before even my time. Before Toonami, before I was even watching Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon in syndication, there was this and mail order forms for anime on VHS and full page ads for Gundam model kits!

So yeah, have a look. It's a window into a different era, and I guarantee you're going to see anime mentioned that you haven't heard of...for better or for worse. ;)

This month's AotM is the prequel to Fate/Stay Night:

The entire first season from Aniplex can be watched online via hulu, Crackle, and Crunchyroll (season two is also available there).

Synopsis:
http://www.fatezerousa.com/
Discuss your thoughts about the series, but keep all potential spoilers to a minimum. Also, don't forget to rate the series when you're finished.

ATTENTION!!: For the purpose of this thread, all discussion should be limited to the first season. If you wish to discuss the second season that is currently running in Japan, please do so in the appropriate talkback thread: http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?287791

Sorry to make YET ANOTHER thread about this subject. But this has been burning in my insides for quite long.

So long in fact, that this was just going to be an angry rant where I was going to go bananas on the "WE WANT KAI ON CN. NICKTOONS SUCKS" faction. But a voice in my mind said "Wait". And I decided that to make this more than a blind rant (That would have gotten me banned on first post).

And Now.... the topic to end it all.... NICKTOONS VS CN.

First things first.

EDITING.
This is the number one complaint people make about Nicktoons, and the one where there's a tie with CN.Yes ,a tie. Because admit it. Cartoon Network would have edited the show too.e Dragon Ball Z Kai is waaaaaay too brutal to make it to American Television unscathed. Okay, CN would have probably given it a PG V rating and called it a day. And yes, even on Y7 they allow A LOT like Blood and the like. But get this: Nicktoons edited the show to the extent they did so they could air it on Daytime without problems,marathon it and give it all the love it deserves (More on this in EXPOSURE). And for all the editing they did, they have also showed MAJOR balls.

Next in Line comes....

EXPOSURE AND RATINGS.
This is where Nicktoons beats CN By a landslide. True, in the golden age of Toonami, CN LOVED DBZ. But times have changed and CN is not what it used to be. In today's CN DBZKai would have found itself in a lone slot on saturday mornings at best. Nicktoons? Even now after it finished, they still air it quite trigger happily on weekdays like Toonami of old.This is why Nicktoons had to edit it so much.

And you might say: "Well, DBZKai doesnt get as much ratings as it would have on CN!"

Okay this is where it gets complicated.
On Nicktoons DBKai stands alone as the highest rated show Nicktoons has ever had with 750.000 viewers at its prime. However that's with a lot of promotion and careful scheduling. CN would have probably just put it on saturday mornings without any promotion and it would have sunk like all anime post Toonami.

Thus I think DBZKai was quite lucky to get rejected by CN! Nicktoons makes a much better home for it. But that's just me, what do you think?

This is the talkback thread for "Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (UK Edition)": When You Stare Into The Abyss, The Abyss Stares Back Into You..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4jjnSgY9kc

So I just finished watching Zoids: Chaotic Century/Guardian Force for the second time.

My thoughts:

GF is way better than CC. It doesn't have the slow start and it has a lot of continuous action. They do a great job at hammering home how nigh-unstoppable the Geno Breaker and then the Death Stinger are.

In addition I enjoyed Hiltz as the villain a lot more than Prozen. He was around since the first episode and he was almost always there in some capacity. Usually it was just to toy around with the hereos but it was cool because he pulls off the "smug villain" routine really well. It helps that he had every right to be smug since he was in control for damn near the whole season.

Ky favorite Zoids are probably the Death Stinger, the Genosaurer and the Ultrasaurus. The first and third are obvious why but the second I love because the whole Zoid is a BFG. This is obviously a glaring weakness but it's just so cool to see the entire thing transform.

They never did address what happened to Rosso and Viola did they? It looks like Rosso at least was wiped out by Hiltz.

The music in the anime is very good. Still think the best theme is probably that of Raven/the Deathsaurer but there are several great tracks.

The dub is...well, it starts off pretty bad but I think it gets up to tolerable and even decent levels later on. I liked that Irvine was voiced by the same guy as Domon from G Gundam.
I also loved Hiltz's voice. I loved everything about Hiltz really.

So that's me. How about you all? You seen the anime?

Here's what we have this month:

5/1:

Pokemon D/P: Sinnoh League Victors--Set 2
Psychic Squad Collection 1

5/8:

Dirty Pair: Original Features Collection
Get Backers Complete Collection
Guin Saga: Complete Collection
Guin Saga:Complete Collection (Blu-Ray)
Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Fox--Complete TV & OVA Collection
Queen's Blade 2: Complete Series

5/15:

Book of Bantorra Collection 1
Cat Planet Cuties: Complete Series (Combo)
D. Grayman: Season 2 (S.A.V.E.)
Fantastic Adventures of Unico
Unico in the Island of Magic

5/22:

Bakuman: Season 1, Part 1 (Blu-Ray)
Dragon Ball Z Kai: Complete Season 1
Dragon Ball Z Kai: Complete Season 1 (Blu-Ray)
Dragon Ball Z Kai: Complete Season 2
Dragon Ball Z Kai: Complete Season 2 (Blu-Ray)
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: 4 OVAs & Comic Theater (Combo)
Whisper of the Heart (Blu-Ray/DVD Combo)
Castle in the Sky (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
The Secret World of Arrietty (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)


5/29:

Black Cat: Complete Series (S.A.V.E.)
Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (Combo)
Gintama: The Movie
Gintama: The Movie (Blu-Ray)
Kenichi, The Mightiest Disciple: Season 2 (Classic)
Shiki Part 1 (Limited Edition Combo)
Shiki Part 2 (Combo)

So, what's everyone gonna get ths month?

As for me, I recently picked up a couple of sets from my local Best Buy here in Burbank. I'll wait until the responses begin before I mention them. When I get back from cruise later this month, I really would like to get the new S.A.V.E. version of one of my favorite Funimation titles, Black Cat.

Seemingly on the way this November, cheaper than ever at that. Miyazaki's Topcraft-animated 1984 movie came from this comic he created, which goes far beyond where it stopped. More than a few feel that, as good as the movie is, the completed work in manga form is even better.

Jason Thompson discusses it fabulously here; just avoid the final three paragraphs if you want to dodge spoilers. Me, I'm excited as I've been wanting to get to this for awhile & now it's going to come along in a cheaper/more accessible, hardback release, the latter of which is really rare for manga. It's great to see a veritable classic get that sort of treatment.

http://www.toonamifan.com/toonamiadvancingrobotics.html

Does anyone remember this or is it just typical fan site stuff?

Licensing as follows

FUNimation Entertainment

• Eureka 7: AO (Astral Ocean) - Presented via simulcast on FUNimation.com
• King of Thorn

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/pres...-anime-central

I guess this means Bandai Entertainment is thoroughly toast for real. I still feel kinda numb about it. I wonder if FUNi will hire Bang! Zoom! for dubbing duties or use the (almost) entirely new cast as an excuse to record in Texas. Stephanie Sheh should return though as she's done work for FUNi and Eureka does appear.

As for King of Thorn, I've read the manga. Other than its left-field ending is one hell of a ride. I have no idea how faithful the anime is to the manga though.

X-Men Anime arrives on home video!



X-MEN ANIME
Release Date: April 24th, 2012
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Synopsis: The X-Men are reunited following the death of a teammate and are summoned by Charles Xavier to Japan following the abduction of Hisako Ichiki. There, they confront the U-Men, a lunatic cult that steals and transplants mutant organs to further strengthen its own army, and the battle for justice is on. Discovering a series of bizarre occurrences in the area they X-Men investigate only to be confronted with a terrible truth that will force them to confront long buried secrets. X-Men Anime features the voice of actor Scott Porter as Cyclops

Bonus Features:
• Re-Examining The X-Men takes viewers behind-the-scenes of creating X-Men’s mutant tales.
• X-Men: A Team of Outsiders provides an in-depth exploration of Marvel’s most heroic and infamous mutants.
• Special Talk Session round table discussion with the creators of Marvel anime's X-Men and Blade.

Discuss the DVD release and included episodes here!

Related Discussion:
-Marvel Anime News & Discussion Thread, Part 2 (Spoilers)