Just letting everyone know that Geneon products are starting to reappear in stores.

I saw a few volumes of Black Lagoon earlier today.  Not interested in the show, so I didn’t get them, but they are most certainly out there for those of you who are willing to look around.

I just really really really love the Rabbids.

As everyone knows Toei started doing stuff OnDemand via Direct2Drive.

After getting a few of these, and being underwhelmed by the horrid video quality, I now need to ask this very serious question.

Is Toei USA committing fraud?

I show you this screenshot that is on the Pretty Cure sales page.  This is supposed to be a screenshot from the show, to be used as a gauge on the video quality, to help you decide if you want to buy it or not.

Relatively nice picture quality isn’t it?

So what is the problem?

Well… here is the same picture, taken by me, from the first episode of the series, as it is available to buy.

Ignore the credits, afterall, it would be fair for them to use a scene from the opening, but remove the credits to help people gauge the video quality.

Compare the actual picture quality.  The resolution is bigger, but let’s ignore that.  The screenshot they have as an example has bright vivid colors and is very clean.  The episode itself has rainbowing, artifacing issues, is pixelated, and may have very well been copied from a VHS tape.  Compare stuff like the girls’ hair, the sunlight, the pipe in the bottom left.

This is dishonest advertising at it’s worst.  This is an unacceptable way to do business, especially when you are trying to sell a show with an extremely niche audience anyways.  The video quality for Toei OnDemand’s other three shows: Digimon Adventure 02, Slam Dunk, and Fist of the North Star, is also very poor, but the screenshots from those shows are at least accurate in showing that.

I suggest fans of Pretty Cure and anime in general vote with their wallets and not purchase episodes of the series to show this isn’t acceptable.

So what do you think?  Is Toei USA committing fraud by being dishonest like this?

For the third time now we have a batch of DVDs that seem to work randomly.

I’ve seen plenty of people complain about V.2 of Gurren Lagann (mine works), the new Zegapain, and V.1 and 2 of Code Geass (mine don’t work), and it’s been a few weeks and Bandai despite recalling some, and claiming to ship replacements to stores has been silent to the customers, but no more, Bandai is gonna set things straight and make sure we know what is going on.

After an examination, Bandai Entertainment reported that there are discs circulating with an error during Vol. 2, though the exact extent of the error in the batch is still being assessed. If any consumer is experiencing a problem, please go to http://www.bandai-ent.com/ and in the upper left hand corner there is the standard customer service box which says “Contact our Customer Service.” Indicate the nature of the problem and a replacement disc will be issued. Customers without internet access can call 714-816-9500 and ask for “Bandai Entertainment customer service.”

….Great, thanks Bandai.  You gotta wonder how they have sent replacements out if they don’t know what the issue is (and not mentioning the issues with the other DVD).

Rob Riggle is a funny guy, although I’m suprised he could keep a straight face during this.

After going over ADV’s changing boxart, I realized another company is doing something in regards to their packaging.
 
Funimation has been emulating DVD packaging styles.
 
Let’s take a look at what they’ve done. Continue reading →

To celebrate the upcoming major upgrade coming to the game, know as “The Heavy” Update, the weekend starting Friday, August 22nd the game will be available to download and play for free on Steam.

The Heavy Update will be adding new weapons, achievements, a new gameplay type, and multiple new maps.

So when you bought Bionic Commando Rearmed (the remake of the original game, review coming soon), you got to download a special trailer for the new game (the TRAILER is called Evolution, the new game is just called Bionic Commando).

If the game is half as good as it looks in the trailer, playing it may result in a ludicrous amount of enjoyment.

You know, Family Guy really should do more alternate openings.  They’ve only done a few and this one was really good simply because, no way anyone saw it coming.

Hey, Sports fans! It looks like the time has come for me to make my debut on the FBR, so I am going to kick things off with the 1999 animated series Blue Gender, which was localized by Funimation in the US between 2001 and 2003.

Today we’re going to take a look at the very first episode of the series, the episode that started it all, and see what it’s all about.  The episode is at the bottom of the review, so if you want to watch it before reading the review, scroll on down (it’s split into pieces, all are down there).
Continue reading →