Kin'youbi Mosaic Returns Again! 2/7/14 Weekly Ramblings

Oh hey, my Weekly Ramblings series is back again! Real life has been busy lately, hence the lack of updates lately, but for now, have some assorted news and ramblings.

Speaking of news, I've replaced the news feed on the side of the blog with my Twitter feed. I do reblog news on my Twitter account, so you'll still get various news, as well as various other things I tweet about. And, of course, if you have your own Twitter account, you can also click that Follow button to follow my feed on your account.

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Is This A Zombie was one of Funimation's shows that they released DVD-only at first. (The reason has to do with the distributor, Kadokawa, wanting to protect the sales of the show's Blu-rays in Japan; see my post on reverse importation for more information.) However, some time has passed since then, and now, Funimation has solicited a Blu-ray/DVD combo of the first season under its Anime Classics line. Click here to see some different places where you can buy this release.

Here are a couple of other things newly available for pre-order:

If you missed out on AnimeSols's crowdfunding project for old, classic anime, this is your chance to reap the fruits of their efforts: the first 13-episode DVD sets of Creamy Mami and Black Jack are available for pre-order. And while you're at it, why not consider helping out with the pledge drive for the final Creamy Mami set? You can even add on one of the first three sets for $40 apiece, which is cheaper than the prices for the pre-orders linked above (though you'll have to wait until set 4 ships to get them).

And following in the tradition of the first two movies, Aniplex of America is offering an import release of the third Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie. There are a couple of options here: if you just want the movie itself and don't care for the various fancy extras, you can order the standard edition Blu-ray for a relatively-reasonable-for-Aniplex-standards $55. If, on the other hand, you want such bonuses as a soundtrack CD, artbox, and booklet, plus other stuff, there's also the Limited Edition sets, available for about $95. There are a couple of different places to get the Limited Edition, each with different prices and its own additional bonus: Rightstuf (clear files w/theatrical poster art, $95), Animate (B2-size wall scroll, $98), and C&L Internet Club (key holders, $121.50).

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Curious about how well various anime are selling in Japan? This site is a site dedicated to sales data for Japanese anime DVDs and Blu-rays. The data on this site is incredibly comprehensive and goes back quite a number of years, though it is limited by the fact that it can only give data reported officially by sales-tracking company Oricon. You can check out the Sales FAQ/Guide on that site for more information.

For now, though, I'll quick-link to the average sales of all 2013 anime so far. A number of those shows, particularly those that aired during Fall, are still being released, but from there you can tell what are the big sellers in Japan. Shingeki no Kyojin is even more of a hit over there than it is here, and perhaps you might not have expected Free! and Love Live! to be such major hits.

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Crowdfunding anime is always something I like to draw attention to in these posts, and in addition to the aforementioned Anime Sols,  the latest project on this end is the movie Mai Mai Miracle, this time on Kickstarter. It definitely looks like a nice, charming movie, and it's certainly very popular, with the base $30,000 goal being met on its first day out, and the show already close to meeting the $60,000 stretch goal for an English dub. The jury is still out on what other stretch goals might appear, but this is definitely a project to be keeping an eye on.

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And in completely random news, cat cafés are coming to the US! These cafés will house adoptable cats that visitors can be in the company of.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Films on Blu-ray and Aniplex of America import releases

The latest news on the North American anime-on-home-video front comes courtesy of Aniplex of America, who have announced that the first two Puella Magi Madoka Magica films will be available on Blu-ray on July 30^th, 2013. For those who have heard of Madoka Magica but don’t know too much about the films, these two films, spanning a total of 240 minutes (4 hours), basically retell the entire TV series in a somewhat more streamlined way. I have yet to actually see the films, but I have seen the TV series, and as many others can attest to, it is a great series that turns a lot of typical “magical girl” tropes on their heads, while the ending is one of the most beautiful endings I have ever seen in anime (and for Christian viewers, it even reflects the Gospel to some extent!).

But this isn’t so much a post about Madoka Magica as it is an anime industry post (the first on this blog), so let’s talk about this upcoming Blu-ray release of these movies.

Just from hearing about it, I’m sure Madoka Magica fans will get excited at first; after all, Aniplex of America (henceforth referred to as AoA) just conducted a bunch of screenings across the continent; having the Blu-ray release come so soon… that has to be too good to be true, right?

Well… maybe. You see, the July 30^th Blu-ray release of these films will be the latest of AoA’s import releases.