The Banzai Beat Anime Podcast
Murder isn't for everyone
This podcast is a proud member of the Blueberry Network. That is Blueberry with no ease.com. Blueberry with no ease.com. Remember, you drop the ease. You're listening to the Bonsai Beat, your weekly window into the world of anime, featuring all the latest news, episode reviews, and discussion. And now, broadcasting live from an abandoned love hotel, your hosts, Pats and Jellicoon. Well, that's kind of wrong now, unfortunately. Um, Mr. Jellicoon, saying welcome to the Bonsai Beat, this episode 29 for April 1st, 2009. And no, this is not an April Fool's joke, as if you're a listener. Um, Pats will no longer, or very sporadically, be on the show anymore. Um, due to real life commitments of his, uh, you know, he's going to school and what not like that. So, you know, um, real life commitments, of course, always take precedence over something fun, like a podcast, which I totally understand. So, in today's, uh, show, um, we're doing the news, I also have a review of Murder Princess, and, uh, DVD Bix is always, but first off, I want to say, um, hello, uh, we are streaming live on Ustream, so, it's always a good thing, I guess. It could expand the audience a little bit, so, uh, welcome to anyone new. Um, so, uh, yeah, so let's just, uh, go ahead and move in to the news. Okay. Okay. This week in Anime News, brought to you by Anime News Network. Anime News Network, yeah, okay, well, thanks again to Anime News Network as they provided us with news, so it's a good thing because, hell, I can come from my own. Okay, okay, there we go. Well, North America's 2007 anime market is pegged, or was pegged at, uh, $2.8 billion, um, unfortunately, only $316 million of that, oh, that 2.5 billion, made up DVD sales. Uh, not very good. The Japan External Trade Organization, a group affiliated with the Japanese government, reports that March 30th, on its March 30th state of the content market in North America, 2008, 2009, uh, the white paper, well, the white paper is for an anime market for the region, uh, for the North American region, was stated at, uh, 2.82, basically, uh, 2.83 billion dollars annually, about 280 billion yen, um, in the year 2007, now, honestly, I don't understand why they're going back, you know, now it's been two years, um, they're just veering all this out now, but they are, um, uh, basically, the anime market was also, it's largest in 2002, in, uh, 2003, when it stood at 4.84 billion, so there was, you know, in that small timeframe, there was a almost 50% market share loss in anime goods in North America, and that's not very good, um, so, you know, that's the, uh, basically breakdown, um, character goods made up a very large portion, VHS, um, oh wow, in 2001 VHS was, uh, 288 million, um, it's down to zero, in 2007, um, these figures were, uh, pretty astonishingly, when you look at the, uh, VHS, how quickly it died out, um, the 30 best gel, uh, basically the, the 30 best, uh, selling DVDs in Japan, or we see it in America, with the Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children, House Women Castle, Fomenoka Alchemist, the movie, Pokemon, uh, Luciano the Mystery of Mew, Dragon Ball Z Fusion, reborn, my name is Totoro, Inunasha, Inunasha, Inunasha the, uh, movie Vog4, Heavy Galian, the Platinum Edition, from ADV Films, uh, another Dragon Ball Z movie, Spirited Away, it was the top 10, I'm not gonna go in all 30, um, let's look into the list, a lot of Vlogmas, uh, Samar Shampoo, Esquiflone, Elastar, Naruto, Volume 1, um, yeah, Dragon Ball Gans, Street Fighter 2, so, um, yeah, um, that was 2006, in 2007, uh, the number one was Robotech, the Pro-Culture Collections, and Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Z, Seasons, House Women Castle was number five, Pokemon, the Mystery of Mew was number six, after, after Shifamurai was number seven, Pokemon Ranger of the Temple, another Robotech, and finally, Final Fantasy Seven, the Evan Children movie, um, really basic again, so, um, you know, I, I dread to see what it's gonna be like for the next year, when the, when the, uh, numbers finally come up for 2008, I, I'm really surprised it took them this long to, uh, come up with 2007 numbers, honestly, um, the 2006, Harui's first episode was listed as the very first and then episode, in the 2009 run, um, it's been reported that the first episode of Harui that's gonna be re-airing is the, uh, Mikua Asahina Adventure episode 00, and, uh, people are all up in arms because that's not the broadcast order, and if you remember, if any of you in America watched the series on DVD, that was the first episode that was on the DVD as well, and I remember all the hoopla that you had to buy the, um, proper, you had to buy the, uh, more expensive special editions to get the proper broadcast order for the Harui shows, but, um, it looks like that, uh, in Japan, they're doing the same thing now, um, but, um, I'm not gonna be watching all that until I got on the DVD, I'll enjoy it that way, um, uh, Yen Press is gonna re-issue the, uh, Azumanga Dial, in new English edition, um, if you're a big fan of the Azumanga Mango, or, uh, anime, you'll probably like the manga series, I haven't read it personally, but, uh, it was as good as the, uh, anime, I'll definitely, at least, check it out, um, basically, it's coming as one omnibus book, which could probably have everything from the original manga run in there in one nice, uh, book. A new edition will ship in Japan to mark the 10th anniversary of the manga, or the new exclusive artwork, but the Yen Press is not indicated, its version will be based on the new Japanese edition, or not, so, uh, it's still caught up in the air, but, uh, I had more Mango in one area, it's always good, enough to buy the, uh, individual volumes. Uh, finally, Gonzo is gonna be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, um, basically, Gonzo, has been hemorrhaging money, and recently just announced that they were gonna stop their game division, swatch that, well, it turned out that it wasn't good enough to, uh, stop being delisted, and, uh, make any kind of money, uh, turn around, so, unfortunately, they are being delisted, um, it actually won't happen until June, um, well, the paperwork is gonna be done until June, so it probably won't be until July, until the actual, uh, de-listening occurs, um, sucks, I mean, Gonzo is a well-known, uh, anime, publisher, I don't even know, they were, uh, public, but, um, they're gonna look solely on work on anime, and anime related, uh, uh, topics, or, you know, where it works, and just gonna focus on that, get out of the game division, and, uh, focus on just anime, um, so, that was the anime news, not too much, um, we do have the, uh, spring season coming up, look for our next show to, uh, just kinda review the, uh, spring season, and I'm not really sure it's a review, but just kinda take a quick wash over it, uh, explain what's coming up, but that's really about it, there's been a lot of trailers released, a lot of teaser videos released for the upcoming shows, um, other than that, it's been relatively quiet, and, uh, not too much going on in the way of anime news, um, there we go, okay, well, I guess I can do our DVD picks here, so, um, I'm trying to do two things at once, it's not fun. It's another week, and more DVDs are being released, what should you get? It's time for the Wheelie DVD picks, so, the DVD picks are gonna be from, um, March 30th to April 5th, um, March 29th to April 5th, and, uh, for this week's I would definitely say go pick up, uh, De Grey Man, season one box one, or season one part one, um, very good show, very fun to watch, uh, action failed, it's really neat, and it's kinda about a bazillion episodes, which makes me wonder, it's gonna be like Naruto, I'm gonna go to like, getting, uh, you know, 25 bucks, that's to complete the dance of the show, um, but, uh, it's finally hit in North American shores, it's still airing in Japan, so, um, if you're a big fan of De Grey Man, this is your week to go pick it up, so, UPU, um, it's really good, it looks good, there's a lot of, um, series coming out, full box, that's complete ups, or complete series box, that's, um, Gravatron is coming out, um, alright, it's not really fun, it's like, too much this week, but there should be more next week of, as always, um, so move on here to, um, give you the game of showin' to you, uh, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, so like I mentioned, I'll be reviewing murder princess, it's the opening theme from it's, uh, very catchy, if you're in a rock, so it's kind of rapy, kind of, kind of upbeat, you know, really catchy, uh, opening theme, it gets the show up really well, so yeah, like I said, it sets the show up really well, uh, it's really, really catchy, um, the show was only 6 episodes long and 30 minutes a piece, so I mean 3 hours, um, easily able to, uh, watch it once sitting, it was released here by, um, the manga was released by broccoli books, the anime was released by Funimation, and, um, so you can't pick it up now, it's only like 20 bucks on right stuff, um, I watched in Japanese, um, I wouldn't be interested in seeing it again in English, just to see how well the, uh, dubs and whatnot were, um, pretty simple show to follow, um, first off you gotta be like, you gotta not be offended by blood, um, it's talking about that, it's not GANS over the top gory, but I mean there's blood and there's a lot of fighting, um, other than that, there's not too much that we look out for, um, basically the plot revolves around, um, this doctor, named Dr. Akamish, Akamish, um, he's like this weird looking scientist guy, and he's plotting a coup against this, this castle, and um, he's got like his 2 like sidekicks, or like his 2 little girls, and they come in, and they blow shit up, and they kill the king, well, the king's daughter is standing next to him, and he says go get your brother, who is a prince, um, but he's off in another land doing diplomacy work, or some BS, well, she runs from the castle, and ends up bumping into a, um, um, into a bounty hunter named Feliz, and um, basically, um, the prince name is Alita Forland, um, kind of a weird name, um, basically she's running and running and running, uh, this monster like attacks, uh, Alita, um, Alita, and as she's running for the force away from this monster, she bumps into Feliz, um, and they both end up falling over a cliff, well, as they're both falling, a huge light ensues, and when they wake up from falling down this huge cliff, I don't know how the fuck they survived, but they did, they have switched bodies, well, you know, all that Feliz wants is some cash for trouble, and she says well, if you help me, uh, you know, take care of this cool and protect our land, and protect our kingdom, uh, make it worth your wild, and she says no, I don't want to, she says nothing for me, I don't care about your money, um, well, she says okay, well, you can have me then, everything, um, it's a little bit of comedy, a little bit of eegee, um, them getting used to each other's bodies, and them fooling who's who, um, she gets the nickname though Murder Princess because she fights the battles, she protects the, uh, the townspeople, she protects the kingdom, she goes back to the, um, she goes back to the, uh, castle, um, and basically just starts kicking ass, taking names, and very good resorts, um, and basically everyone's shocked, like this little princess has, you know, kicking everyone's butt, um, she beats the bad guys and they go away, why everyone's shocked when, what the heck just happened, well, they both played off like, uh, nothing happened, and they don't bother mentioning until a little bit later that they've switched bodies, because they try to keep the trade up as long as possible, but they get found out, um, but like I said, it's a six episode show, and there's not too much I can really say, um, much more without having to start ruining the story, um, it's a little bit of comedy, there's a little bit of itchy, there's a little bit of, uh, there's a big twist in it that's, uh, I don't know if you can call it, if you can call it a predictable, but I mean it was, you can't be guessing, you know, only six episodes, they gotta run the plot pretty quick, but uh, you know, uh, it was still a good watch, uh, the artwork was done really well, um, the fighting scenes are really well done, there's a lot of, uh, background music, a lot of speed metal and, uh, instrumental speed metal that just company the, uh, fighting scenes, and there's a lot of fighting scenes, some of them are better than the others, like some ends end up really retarded, some of them are really well done, um, there's, uh, some supernatural elements where they're fighting these big monsters, and we're not just fighting people per se, but, um, I would say definitely check it out, it's a good watch, like I said, it's only like three hours long, you can't, can't complain too much, and it's only like twenty bucks, again like I said, Funimation has it here in the States, um, if I had to rate it, I would give it a, probably a three out of five, it's good, it's a nice watch, but there's nothing I can get, there's nothing really like, not necessarily memorable, it's just a lot of action, it was nothing, it's just kind of there, um, not terrible in any sense, but not a masterpiece in any sense as well, so, um, that's basically a murder princess, in a nutshell, um, other than that, that's all I really have for a show today, now that I am doing each episode by myself, um, there will be a lot more consistency, um, maybe one or two shows a week, depending on, um, what's going on and what not, and, uh, hopefully Pat will join me off and on, um, but if you're interested in joining me as a co-host, uh, if you're free to drop me an email at, uh, jellacoon@bonazab.com, or, um, saying something on the website, as, uh, you know, multiple people can make a break a show, make it a lot more interesting, I'll say the least, each one of them has their own opinion, um, other than just mine, and, uh, it'll be a good thing, also get more interviews done, that's always another good thing, so, uh, call it a short show here, uh, just because I didn't have a lot of plans, not a lot of news, not really much going on, so until next time, this is Jellacoon, thanks, Sayonara, and, uh, look forward to more episodes of the show. Bye! [Music] [MUSIC]
Jellokun reviews Murder Princess