September 20, 2007

Media Blasters Fan Club

I have a lot of fun at the expense of Media Blasters, what with referring to them as "bottom feeders". Of course, that's not entirely unwarranted given some of the stuff they've released. But I have to confess I'm glad they're out there, and they have released quite a lot of stuff I have liked a lot.

They did the first season of Ah! My Goddess! and those releases were superb quality. They released Grenadier, and I did enjoy that very much. In fact, I've bought quite a lot of their stuff recently. (Besides which, who else in R1 would have released High School Girls for us?)

I was just looking at the "recent license announcements" page on AnimeOnDVD and saw a new entry, just today. Media Blasters has licensed a show called "Tweeny Witches". Switching over to their news section, I found this:

John Sirabella is the master of sneaking in some license news in a rather amusing way when people least expect it. In a discussion thread about titles we listed earlier today, he posted, "OH Yeah...almost forgot we just got the materials in for Tweeny Witches... I never mentioned it at the cons. Do not worry the titles announced will be coming and more on the horizon..maybe even some bigger ones to announce..who knows."

So I looked it up. It doesn't look bad. But it was a very odd format, one I haven't seen before. 40 episodes, 9 minutes each.

Nine minutes? We've been seeing 15 minute shows, some good, some crap. "Adventures of MiniGoddess" was 7 minutes. But what kind of format is 9 minutes? I guess that would fit three into a half-hour time slot -- except that 40 doesn't divide evenly by 3.

Regardless, it's got Kawashima Houko in it. Here's hoping she's at last escaped from being typecast into emotionless girl roles.

Media Blasters has actually given us a lot of things I wouldn't expect anyone else to license: Ramen Fighter Miki, for instance. And High School Girls.

And they definitely get big points for Grenadier. So, Media Blasters, even though I tease you, I'm glad you're in the business. Keep bringing us the offbeat, the things no one else will touch!

UPDATE: Like Magipoka! Come on, Media Blasters, how about it?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 02:33 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 383 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Media Blasters is licensing Tweeny Witches?! Holy cow, I'd never thought that series would ever be licensed in the U.S.! I've always felt that this was one of the best magical-girl series that wasn't licensed in the U.S. when I watched it during the spring of last year (2 years after the original broadcast).

The episode format is definitely strange. It didn't have an OP on the broadcast, and I don't think the 90 second ED is included in that nine minutes. The R2 DVD releases had an OP that was basically one of the main orchestral themes of the series played behind a montage of scenes from the series. Each episode was paired up between the OP and ED. So this gave each "half-hour" episode on the DVD about 21 minutes of running time, still quite a ways short of the full block. I have little idea of how it was originally broadcast, though I'm sure there was no commercial breaks within each episode.

It was fairly quick-paced, but it never got too confusing while I was watching it.

If you want a bit of a taste for it, here's the promo (it was a promo, so I don't think any of the depicted scenes ended up in the final series, but it does represent the feel of it pretty well).

Here's the ending theme.


The song is "DuDiDuWa*lalala" by KOTOKO.

Posted by: Nick Istre at September 20, 2007 04:01 PM (PIlC1)

2

What 15-minute or less shows have you seen that you liked?   I've only seen about three such series, and they either didn't engage my interest (Neo Ranga), or worse (Magical Play).  (I don't think the running time allows for any good story ideas to really get up to speed.)

I can see how a running time like that would work for short, disconnected shows--I liked Panyo Panyo DiGiCharat--but Tweeny Witches sounds like it wants to do some serious storytelling.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at September 20, 2007 04:25 PM (kLWtB)

3

There are a fair number of shows which are effectively 15-minute, where they pair two such into a single half-hour slot, but where the first quarter hour and the second don't necessarily have very much to do with one another.

Potemayo is supposed to be like that. Ninja Nonsense was like that. In the case of Ninja Nonsense, there was a single OP run at the beginning of the half hour, a title board for each 15 minute segment, and a single ED after that.

As a format I think it works best for comedies, but much less so for drama or adventure. For a comedy it means that they don't have to try to take a given comedic idea and try to stretch it to a full half hour. Some ideas can come off as fresh in a fifteen minute format but would feel stretched and leaden in half an hour.

Which is why Ninja Nonsense mostly worked, but Steel Angel Kurumi stunk. Or one of the reasons, any way.

Tweeny Witches seems to be a comedic drama, with a long term plot arc. It'll be interesting to see how well it works, once the DVDs start coming out.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 20, 2007 04:54 PM (+rSRq)

4 I've watched the first few episodes of Tweeny Witches / Mahou Shoujo Tai, and it's quite intriguing so far.  The general style and mood is a magical girl anime in the style of Tim Burton or Time Bandits.  Definitely different.  Good to hear it's licensed.  Between this and Ramen Fighter Miki, I have to join you in applauding Media Blasters.

Posted by: Griffin at September 20, 2007 06:11 PM (dz2zY)

5

Muteki Kanban Musume is another of those shows which puts two unrelated 15 minute episodes into each half hour.

Bottle Fairy was fifteen minute episodes.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 20, 2007 06:37 PM (+rSRq)

6 My memory is working slowly today. Magipoka is yet another show which put two 15-minute segments into a 30-minute slot.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 20, 2007 07:39 PM (+rSRq)

7 Tweeny Witches is a remarkable show and I'm delighted to see it getting licensed.  Definitely not your standard shoujo anime; it's visually exuberant and sometimes a little disquieting.  Griffin says it's Tim Burton does mahou shoujo, and that's a pretty good description.  It uses a mix of 3d and 2d animation, and while the styles are quite distinct, the combination mostly works.

I have high-quality versions on the promo, opening, and ending, and I'll put them up on my blog later today.

I'd definitely recommend you give it a shot.  Even if you decide that the story isn't to your tastes, you won't regret seeing the first few episodes.

Houko Kawashima plays Sheila, who might not be a genki girl, but certainly isn't emotionless.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 20, 2007 08:17 PM (PiXy!)

8 Oh, and I couldn't remember which one was Sheila (though none of the major characters could be called emotionless), so I looked up the show's web page.  Which is all in Japanese, so I had to translate the katakana.  Shi-ra.  Aha!  Another twenty, thirty years and I'll be ready to start tackling kanji.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 20, 2007 08:23 PM (PiXy!)

9 I wonder if the fifteen-minute format is actually more common for featherweight comedies. Some more examples: Keroro Gunsou, Animal Yokocho, Galaxy Angel Z and A, Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge. The insane series Sekushi Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo! Masaru-san uses 9-minute episodes.

Posted by: Tancos at September 20, 2007 08:25 PM (R1viu)

10 Unfortunately, one of the biggest companies, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc., is in trouble. Their deal with ADV Films has been cancelled. One commentator in the forum declared it to be the end of the golden age of anime in the US. If the effects are bad enough, offbeat things like Magipoka and Tweeny Witches might have a hard time getting licensed. On the other hand, Media Blasters might be able to take of Geneon's distribution in place of ADV.

Posted by: Jim Burdo at September 21, 2007 01:26 AM (x1HDF)

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