It’s been a pretty light week as far as news go, so this week’s Ramblings will actually be a more dedicated one to a show I recently finished watching… a certain show called Sword Art Online. I’ll cover some quick news first, and then, I’ll move onward with a very spoiler-laden post on my opinion of the show’s two arcs.
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First, the news. Probably the most notable thing to talk about here is Aniplex of America’s upcoming releases of more Monogatari properties; specifically, the four-episode Nekomonogatari (Black) TV special that aired at the end of 2012, and the four-episode-plus-one-recap Nekomonogatari (White) arc that starts the Summer 2013 series known as Monogatari Series Second Season.
These two arcs will be released separately, with Black due on April 22nd and White on June 24th, as Blu-ray only, sub-only Limited Edition boxsets, with extra items limited to booklets, illustration cards, and the otherwise very solid-looking packaging. Black can be bought for $50, White for $60. As usual for Aniplex of America, those can seem like rather high prices considering how few episodes there are in each release—that, plus the fact that they seem to be releasing each arc individually, one can probably expect to be paying a total of about $250-$300 for all of Monogatari Series Second Season (and that’s not including Nekomonogatari (Black)). It’s certainly a steep price to pay for anime these days, and it’s ultimately up to you if it’s worthwhile… but hey, at least the damage will be spread out over a year or so.
Also available for pre-order is Haganai NEXT! I’ve brought this show up a couple of times before in my Best of 2013 posts, mainly noting that it is quite an improvement on the first season, so I am definitely looking forward to picking this one up in May.
Next up is my discussion of Sword Art Online. Warning: major spoilers for Sword Art Online after the jump!
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| Nowhere near as good as Summer 2012's other show about fairies. |
