The Best Anime Never Watched
Last week, I put a question to the anime community via Facebook and Twitter which sparked a serious discussion: what, in your honest opinion, is the best anime (series or film) never watched? And boy did that discussion take off! There were some really (politely) heated debates on certain titles, passionate agreement on others.
The whole post on Facebook is well worth a look over if you've missed it, there are some really good tips and titles in there - however, I figured I'd round up the ten most popular titles mentioned, which in a post about never watched anime is a bit..... weird. Anyway, to the list!
In no particular order, the ten most discussed, liked and agreed upon titles are:
- Monster
- Heat Guy J
- The Macross franchise
- Baccano
- Capeta
- Angel's Egg - this caused an interesting, if rather heated debate!
- Urusei Yatsura (bonus points for anyone who remembers the Glaswegian indie band by the same name!)
- Wandering Son
- Fist of the North Star
- Area 88 (OVA)
Cowboy Bebop did get a few mentions, but I figured I'd leave it out of the list due to the plethora of other choices. However, it is a fantastic series and if you're curious or wholly unaware that it will be soon coming out on blu-ray, it is now available for pre-order on Amazon UK!
I did find the agreement on Monster interesting - since I get the feeling that it's likely to become a lot more known pretty soon if the HBO collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro takes off. Which, if anyone was going to do it, that pairing makes the most sense eh?
This list is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of quality titles mentioned - I heartily recommend reading the Facebook post and our Twitter timeline (we RTd some suggestions). Anything missing from the list? Feel free to add to it on Facebook and Twitter.
Once again we're back with the latest sales figures - this time May! It's been a very interesting month in anime and we'll summarise the actual noteworthy points at the bottom.
| TOP SELLERS OVERALL | ||
| RANK | TITLE | COMPANY |
| 1 | DRAGON BALL Z - SEASON SEVEN | MANGA UK |
| 2 | POKEMON 4EVER | CANAL UK |
| 3 | MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO | CANAL UK |
| 4 | HELLSING - ULTIMATE - VOL 5-8 | MANGA UK |
| 5 | THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME | MANGA UK |
| 6 | BLEACH - COMPLETE SERIES 10 | KAZE |
| 7 | BLACK ROCK SHOOTER - COMPLETE SERIES | MANGA UK |
| 8 | SPIRITED AWAY | CANAL UK |
| 9 | PENGUIN DRUM - BOX SET 1 | KAZE |
| 10 | AKIRA | MANGA UK |
| MAY TITLES | ||
| RANK | TITLE | COMPANY |
| 1 | DRAGON BALL Z - SEASON SEVEN | MANGA UK |
| 2 | HELLSING - ULTIMATE - VOL 5-8 | MANGA UK |
| 3 | BLEACH - COMPLETE SERIES 10 | KAZE |
| 4 | BLACK ROCK SHOOTER - COMPLETE SERIES | MANGA UK |
| 5 | PENGUIN DRUM - BOX SET 1 | KAZE |
| 6 | K-ON - SEASON 2 - PT 1 | MANGA UK |
| 7 | BODACIOUS SPACE PIRATES - PT 2 | MVM |
| 8 | MAYO CHIKI - COLLECTION | MVM |
| 9 | MAJIKOI-OH SAMURAI GIRLS COLLECTION | MVM |
| 10 | HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD - COMPLETE | MANGA UK |
NOTES FROM ANDREW:
- Overall - top seller of this month sold just over 1,000 copies, not bad for something that came out in the middle of the month!
- Overall - lowest seller had to shift just over 350 copies.
- For May titles - top seller was the same as overall for once!
- For May titles - lowest seller was about 144 copies.
- We think there's a statistic glitch and High School of the Dead may actually have been the top seller but based on its release date a lot of the sales had not yet been processed in the system. We expect its actual result was in excess of 1,400 units in fact.
That's all for now, see you in June for more of the anime charts!
Title announcement: A Letter to Momo Coming to UK Cinemas in 2013
Anime Limited is very excited to announce the upcoming UK theatrical release of the acclaimed anime film A Letter to Momo.
A Letter to Momo follows the adventures of Momo, an 11 year old girl whose entire world has been rocked by the untimely death of her father. Forced to leave her life in Tokyo and move to the small island of her mother's childhood, Momo is haunted by a letter her father wrote to her - a letter containing only two words: Dear Momo. Soon after her arrival on the island, mysterious goings-on begin to torment the residents and Momo decides to uncover the truth behind them once and for all.
A beautiful animated feature film directed by Hiroyuki Okiura (of Jin-Roh: Wolf Brigade fame), A Letter to Momo is a magical, emotional and wonderful story. Anime Limited is very excited to bring A Letter to Momo to theatres around the country.
A Letter to Momo will be in cinemas from Winter 2013.
Edited to add:
Review by UK Anime.net
Review by Otherwhere
Trailer for A Letter to Momo
[youtube height="HEIGHT" width="WIDTH"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpzecZnRI44[/youtube]
Kenji Kamiyama Speaks to Reporters, Discusses 009 RE:CYBORG
With the release of 009 RE:CYBORG this week, director Kenji Kamiyama (dir Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) has been making the rounds in the UK press discussing his history, success in the anime industry and his experiences making this film. As you can imagine, the technical and visual feats conquered with 009 RE:CYBORG are hugely impressive - it's definitely one thing that unites the reviewers. Creating a classic anime film in 3D CGI to look like 2D cel animation is quite the accomplishment and does make for interesting discussions on the potential of similar action-based anime, such as 009, in the future. What is interesting about this accomplishment is the wealth of talent, the pedigree of the production team and the gamble taken by Production I.G in making the film 3D.
We've rounded up the various interviews with Kamiyama-san discussing 009 RE:CYBORG from the wild, crazy badlands of mediadom to save you scouring through the oftentimes frightening and foreboding wastelands of the internet. They make for very interesting reads.
SFX
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/06/04/009-re-cyborg-director-interview-2/
Den of Geek
Otaku News
http://www.otakunews.com/article.php?story=2074
Grolsch Film Works
http://grolschfilmworks.com/ca/features/kenji-kamiyama-director-of-009-recyborg
Don't forget, 009 RE:CYBORG is released this Friday, June 7th in cinemas and will be simultaneously available to stream online. For more details, check out our 009 RE:CYBORG page here
Cowboy Bebop competition
This summer sees the re-release of Cowboy Bebop in glorious digitally remastered Blu-ray and DVD! With all the excitement around the launch of Part 1 at the end of July, we thought it’d be fun to provide an outlet for the anticipation. Enter the Cowboy Bebop Vine competition (creative title eh?).
We’re running a wee competition for all you Cowboys out there - the rules are pretty simple and it involves the use of free technology; easy! If you take part you’re in with a chance to win a pair of Play Arts Spike and Vicious action figures! So, what is the competition?
The competition:
We want you, the fans, to recreate your favourite scene or favourite episode from the entire Cowboy Bebop series using the micro-video app Vine (you can download it for free on itunes and at Google Play for Android - hat tip to Gavin for pointing it out -Ed). Vine allows you to create 6 second videos, so you have 6 seconds to get your scene or episode across. You can do this any way you’d like - for example, you could use puppets, draw characters and stick them on straws, stop motion with toys, pets, your friends whatever works for you. Be creative and think different.
All approved clips will be embedded onto the competition page on All the Anime’s site and will be shared on Facebook and Twitter. So, what are the rules?
The rules:
- The clip must refer to a scene or episode from the existing 26 episodes of the Cowboy Bebop tv series. No Cowboy Bebop movie references please!
- Entries must be submitted via Vine - no scenes animated on computers or elsewhere and uploaded please. The link to the Vine video must be Tweeted or shared on our Facebook page (twitter.com/alltheanime and facebook.com/animelimited)
- We will embed all approved clips onto our own website and share them over Twitter and Facebook
- All entries must be above board and legal. For example, let’s not have real life recreations of the Mushroom Samba episode. You know what I’m talking about
- Entries will be subject to moderation and are at the mercy of the All the Anime team
- The judges’ decision is final and there will be no cash or alternative prizes available
- We reserve the right to exclude any entry for any reason at all
- Employees of Anime Limited and their dependents and employees and dependents of its commercial partners may not enter the competition
For inspiration, check out 5 Second Films on YouTube . You'd be amazed at what you can get across in 6 seconds!
You’ve got 2 weeks to submit your entry - so from today 03, June 2013 until midnight BST 16, June 2013. Winners will be announced the week following the last day for entries.
A special thanks to Square Enix for supplying the gorgeous Spike and Vicious figures!
Good luck and get submitting!