September 20, 2007
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
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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)
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)
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)
Posted by: Griffin at September 20, 2007 06:11 PM (dz2zY)
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)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 20, 2007 07:39 PM (+rSRq)
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!)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at September 20, 2007 08:23 PM (PiXy!)
Posted by: Tancos at September 20, 2007 08:25 PM (R1viu)
Posted by: Jim Burdo at September 21, 2007 01:26 AM (x1HDF)
Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)
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