PA Lending Library - New Anime Suggestions

[samus]

I looked on the website, out of curiosity, to see what you all have got in the library. The series there are a few years old, with very few recent ones. What series is the committee looking to purchase at the moment?

Some of the current series that are good/hyped (but which I don't necessarily know all the details of):

- Wolf's Rain ('Werewolves', the future, snow, Yoko Kanno music. I saw a few episodes, and it was intriguing. Set to be shown on cable TV, and released this summer on DVD.)

- Naruto (This one is really popular at the moment - so many people wearing Naruto costumes at cons, you wouldn't believe. It's like the new Trigun. Possibly worth looking into, but I don't know much about it.)

- Witch Hunter Robin (Secret organisation investigates paranormal activity and fixes problems related to such. Set in the future. This will be showing on Cartoon Network soon.)

- Azumanga Daioh (Okay, I know Project Anime members generally like comedies. And I think you all know that I don't often take a shine to them. Azumanga Daioh was a comedy that I actually liked (from 2 epsisodes I saw). Look this one up!)

- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (How can one NOT like Ghost in the Shell? Based off of the manga, more than the film. This is also going to be shown on Cartoon Network, I think.)

- .hack//Sign (Something about computer games. Sci-fi.)

- Shoujo Kakumei Utena (What can I say? I'm a fan of this. ^_^)

A lot of these series are easily obtainable through IRC or BitTorrent. You could hook up a laptop to the projection device, and show DivX anime. A lot of anime clubs/cons show anime this way. Some of them are also licenced and/or are soon to be licensed commercially.

- Initial D (Car racing anime. If you like cars, this one's for you.)

- Chobits (Farm boy comes to the city and finds a 'pasocon', a computer in human form, in a dumpster. She's called 'Chi', and there's something odd about her. Why was she thrown out?)

- Cowboy Bebop (I can't beleive that you guys don't have this yet. Admittedly, I haven't seen all of it, but it's a good one from what I have seen!)

- DiGiCharat (I cannot believe I am suggesting a cute, nonsensical anime based on a mascot for a video game store in Tokyo. But I think you all would enjoy it. I did. ^_^)

- FLCL (Another exceedingly hyped anime. Very weird and funny. I can't explain it. There's this guy... and a guitar comes out of his head... and he plays baseball.)

- Haibane Renmei (Girl wakes up and finds herself in a strange place. No memories. And she has wings. Same character designer as Lain.)

Films

Millennium Actress - Satoshi Kon's (Perfect Blue) latest film. Released last year.

Tokyo Godfathers

Junkers Come Here - Supposedly good film from Geneon Entertainment (formerly Pioneer).

Anything Miyazaki!!

Ghost in the Shell 2, aka Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - keep your eyes peeled for this one. Not released yet.

Evangelion: Death and Rebirth and End of Evangelion - really no excuse as the Eva films have been out for at least a year. And you know you want to understand them! Oh and there's a 'director's' cut of Eva that supposedly explains it a bit more.

Anyway, for more info about the series/films, you can go to Anime News Network's Anime Encyclopaedia. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/index.php

[hr]samus

[General Porkov]

Speaking as a former society President, there are problems with some of your suggestions.

Firstly, unless the Students' Association has got a new projector (I'm in Tsukuba, Japan, so I can't confirm or not), I don't think you could connect the Union projector to a computer, unless some technical issues were fixed!

As for downloading, as some of these series are licenced or soon to be licenced, you wouldn't be able to download them. So, you'd have a hard time with some of them. Fansubbers tend to pull licenced series as soon as the licence is announced so they don't get their asses sued to hell!
(I'm having some fun, however, downloading anime through IRC through my broadband connection in Tsukuba which has a top speed of 6 megabits or 0.75 megabytes per second that I know of. I've downloaded about 11+ gigabytes of anime in just over a month)

Some of the series are not complete and others haven't been released at all or in their entirety in the English-speaking world.
I would not recommend importing the anime DVD's from Japan, as they would be ludicrously expensive (£30+ for a 2-3 episode DVD, and that's what you would pay if you went to a shop in Japan and bought an anime DVD. Also, it's 9-13 DVDs per 26 episode series)

I liked the reference to DiGi Charat, based on a mascot for a Tokyo video games store. I've seen the store and I have visited it (spent almost 20000 Yen or more on first visit). It is called Gamers, has 7 or 8 floors and is in the Akihabara area of Tokyo, very near to Akihabara station. The creator Koge Donbo also created Pita Ten (another funny series).

The society showed Cowboy Bebop in 2002-2003 but it was someone else's copy and not bought by the society.

Doom Lord General Porko Porkov
Figuring out occasionally how to buy cheap anime DVDs in Japan and getting the occasional bargain. Also getting manga cheaper than in UK!

[samus]

Also speaking as a former society President, I think that the lending library needs updating. Fair enough if you've shown recent anime series that belong to others, but at the very least there should be significant additions to the library each year. Infrastructure is important to every society, and anime is what this society is based upon. I'd advocate at the very least acquiring more films. Those are relatively easy to find, and cheaper than investing in series.

Now, I was only offering a few options, and you've pointed out that not all of them are workable. The Dollar/Sterling exchange rate is actually pretty good right now, and you could think of importing from the US. I agree with you; I would not recommend importing from Japan because you get less value-for-money. Fewer episodes for more money. DVD players these days are often such that you can play Region 1 DVDs if the player is 'cracked' or already comes Region 1 playable out of the box.

I've found more and more that there are fewer 'ethical' fansubbers. You still often see licensed series floating around these days, if you look hard enough.

If the society is interested, I can look into NTSC video fansubs for you. I'd have to look at what's out there on video, as these days I more often download, rather than order fansub videos. The offer is there if you want to take it. ^_^;;

[hr]
samus