FunBlog

According to an announcement on RightStuf, ADV Films has announced an updated release schedule, indicating that they have worked out at least some of their licensing problems.

We will know more when ADV gets around to updating their own web site.

In any case its good news. This debacle was bad not only for ADV, but for everyone involved in publishing anime DVDs in North America. Stopping a lot of series in mid-release hurts the entire market.

Update: ADV comments on ANN. (via.)

Definitely, Maybe is a romantic comedy with a twist. Or maybe it’s a twisted romantic comedy. Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), is a political consultant who is about to get divorced. He tries to explain the situation to his eight-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin). For complicated reasons she demands to know his entire romantic history.

Amazingly he agrees, but he changes the names so Maya won’t know which girl in the story is her mother. So we see the story unfold as a series of flashbacks, and it turns out to be pretty entertaining. It’s a story about smart but flawed people, which is naturally more interesting than the usual comedy about stupid people.
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At about the same time that the Air television series was released, an alternate version of the story, made by another studio, appeared in movie theaters. After renting the TV series I decided to rent the movie version as well to see how they compared.

After watching both, I definitely prefer the television series.
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I decided to rent this series because it was made by most of the same people who were responsible for Kanon (2006), which I liked a lot. As it turns out, it looks a lot like Kanon, particularly in the character designs, and the music sounds similar, but the story itself is sadder and darker. This is saying a lot given that Kanon has some pretty dark moments.

I have to give this series high marks for artistic quality and there certainly are a lot of people who love it. The series was very popular in Japan. (It may appeal more to Japanese than American sensibilities.) However I suspect that many Americans will hate it.

I described Kanon as a “fairy tale” because the universe of Kanon is harsh but not entirely unfair. No matter how bad things look, you can, if you are sufficiently brave and virtuous, earn a happy ending (though you may need to be very brave indeed). Tragic events occur, but life at other times seems pretty good, filled with happy moments and the companionship of good friends.

Air has a darker vision. Most of the people we meet are sad, and happy endings seem to be in short supply. Malicious acts reverberate down the centuries, causing suffering for innocent children. For some characters the only way to win is to face life’s hardships with courage and integrity and hope for a better deal in one’s next life.
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Persepolis is the first animated movie that I’ve ever seen that is a non-fiction film on a serious subject. It’s based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in Iran. As far as I can tell it’s all more or less true–at least as true as any autobiography.

The movie is a French production, in French with English subtitles. (It would be hard to imagine an American studio investing in a 2-D animated film on a serious subject, or indeed on any subject.) It is quite well done. It is sharp and insightful and dark and witty and ultimately rather depressing.

I should add that parts of it are quite funny. You can get quite a few laughs when smartalecky kids confront the sanctimonious representatives of a repressive dictatorship. But a lot of the kids end up dead.
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Earlier I made some disparaging remarks about the anime series ef–A Tale of Memories. I actually have a lot of respect for the show, but there are some things about it, particularly the ending, which really bother me.

For the benefit of the few people who may be interested I have put together some notes describing my objections. These are necessarily loaded with spoilers, so you should not read them if you have not seen the series and have any interest in watching it.

Spoiler Notes for ef–A Tale of Memories.