Manga Caption Contest: The Super Aryan

Last week’s entries were pretty good, and choosing a winner was not easy.  However, Starlogic managed to impress us once again, followed by Taiga for a close second. Congratulations to both of you; here’s your prize!

This week’s page is from The Legend of Koizumi.  The Fuhrer has come down from the moon and is about to unleash his latent Master Race abilities. What could former Prime Minister Koizumi and his assistant have said to rile him up so fiercely? That’s where our readers come in! Fill in the blanks using the numbers provided. As always, keep comments PG-13 and safe for work. The winner will be announced next week, so take your time and come up with something good!

Manga Caption Contest: Kyon Punches Haruhi

There were so many good entries last week that it was hard to pick a winner. In the end, I decided to cop out and call a tie between Starlogic and Milktea, who both wrote hilarious captions. Congratulations!

This weeks manga page comes from an infamous Haruhi doujin, in which Haruhi FINALLY gets what’s coming for her years of antisocial behavior. But what are the events leading up to Kyon’s knockout punch? That’s for you to decide, dear readers! Using the numbers provided in the manga excerpt above, write your own funny, perverted or just plain silly dialogue to fit the scene, and post it in the comments below. Naturally, please keep it PG-13 and Safe For Work. The winner will be announced one week from today, just like last time. Good luck!

Haruhi’s Blu-ray Appearance Doesn’t Come Cheap

As reported by Sankaku Complex [NSFW], pre-orders for the October 22 release of the complete Haruhi TV series on Blu-ray have recently gone up on Amazon Japan. With all twenty-eight episodes of Haruhi in high-definition, extra content and English subtitles, it may seem like this is the release fans are waiting for.

But then there’s the price: 30,000 yen (or $338 USD). For eight Blu-ray discs.

The Project Haruhi staff has talked about Japan’s absurd pricing structure multiple times, but it bears repeating. What the heck are they thinking? Here’s a short list of other stuff you could buy from Amazon Japan for that amount of money:

Okay, you probably get my point.

What makes this frustrating is the actual release is great. It’s something I might like to own, and I’m not even that big of a Haruhi fan. The price, however, kills it for me. The even crazier thing is that, compared to the price of the DVD release of Endless Eight, this Blu-ray release is actually a bargain. Collecting the single-volume release of Endless Eight on DVD would cost the equivalent of $288 USD.

So, now the question is: how many people will actually buy the Blu-ray series? And if it sells poorly, will Kadokawa interpret this as disinterest in the Haruhi franchise instead of a rebellion against outlandish pricing?

The Melancholy of Aya Hirano

Editorial Comment

Hysterical Barbie

Fame is a strange bedfellow: some handle it as if it were part of life, and for others it becomes a daunting pillar which they spend their entire life trying to stand upon. Aya Hirano burst on to the world stage a mere four years ago at the age of 18 when she voiced Haruhi. Since that time she’s moved on to a singing career, reprized her Haruhi role several times, was Konata’s voice in Lucky Star and has been searching for her real self in real life.

What is real life you ask? It is that life not on the stage, nor in the studio, those nights sitting in front of a mirror trying desperately to figure out what to do next. There are usually thoughts of “Who am I?” or “How did I manage to get into this dilemma?”

It is the opinion of this writer that Ms. Hirano is suffering a massive identity crisis. Her sudden unexplained illness, canceling of appearances, and hair loss all point to this. Furthermore, the rather garish appearance of her latest album (pictured above) in which she’s adopted yet another unnatural hair color after she promised she would return her hair to its natural color (black), seems to support this conclusion.

More after the jump.

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K-ON! is licensed by Bandai

Are they laughing with Bandai… or at them?

I’m still in shock.

Despite their financial woes, Bandai Entertainment has just announced at Anime Expo that they’ve acquired the rights to K-ON!‘s first season. There’s no word yet if it will be dubbed or released on Blu-ray. Bandai also announced a series of live-action K-ON! marketing videos similar to the ASOS Brigade series for Haruhi. For these, they’ve cast Christina Vee as Mio, Karri Shirou as Yui, “Kix” as Tsumugi and “Briana” as Ritsu.

Hang on a second… Christina Vee as MIO? She’s got a great singing voice, but their personalities couldn’t be more different. This is going to be most interesting…

I think it’s likely that Bandai will give K-ON! a dub, probably recycling many of the cast members from the Haruhi and Lucky Star dubs. However, in my opinion, their English version of “God Knows” was ear-splittingly painful, especially when compared to the original Japanese song. Given how music-oriented K-ON! is, I’m hoping they can track down some voice actors who can actually sing. Of course, I’d also be perfectly happy with a sub-only release.

Oh, and Bandai? If you try to pull the same “no Japanese audio track” crap that you did with Kurokami, I’m not buying it. Period.

[Via ANN]

Bakacast 6 – Robots in Hell

That’s right, it’s the episode everyone I have been waiting for… we finally review Casshern Sins. But because even we can’t fill up an hour with Casshern discussion, we also review Venus Wars and tackle some important issues with the help of special guest Chris (aka Kagami on Project Haruhi): manga aggregationabsurd Haruhi DVD pricesthe “loli bill”, Japan’s search for new creative talent and—of course—beards.

Truly, we are the pinnacle of moe- and beard-related content. And if my script for a new slice-of-life show about lumberjacks gets green-lit, we may finally get to combine our passions!

As always, you can download the episode directly, follow our RSS feed or subscribe to us through iTunes. Head on over to our forums to discuss this episode in detail!

The music at the end is “ROBOTS” by Dan Mangan and is available for digital download on Amazon.

Haruhi’s One Night Stand In LA

One night. One place. 300 people, some of whom WILL be cross dressers. Sound exciting? Yes, our favorite brigade leader will be in Los Angeles on the 24th of June, starring on the big screen for one night only. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the recent feature length film from Kyoto-animation and Kadokawa, will be making a short and un-dubbed debut in the Laemmel Sunset 5 cinema in L.A.

Thats fantastic for the people in L.A, but what about the rest of us? Sure there some of us are closer to the west coast then others (*glares* @ Ritsu), but I am in a completely different country, let alone hemisphere. Where is that DVD release, Kadokawa? Hmm?

For those of you who are lucky enough to grab some tickets, be sure to drop us a line or something. It would be interesting to hear what sitting through a movie will be like whilst in the seat next to you there is a 6’5″ man dressed as a Japanese school girl.

–Via ANN

We’ve been online three years

April fools day 2007 was the day we decided to go live with this site and in the three years we’ve been around a lot of things have happened. We’ve witnessed a second season, movie and Endless Eight. However the future seems pretty dark for this series, yes I know the Second Season is coming over to the U.S. and the Movie will be in English one day as well. As you can see in the past months we’ve changed the look of this site gearing up for the day when Haruhi might not be popular, there are some who say that day has come, maybe it has, I don’t think it has but…

I’m hoping to be here for the long run however long that run might be… Happy third birthday to us. Although coming from myself it might seem a bit self-serving.

Our prayers for a speedy recovery go out to Miss Aya Hirano… You’re missed already…
To Miss Christina Vee, one day you’ll be Haruhi… Right now the establishment doth calleth the shots…

Girls’ Generation / F(x) ‘Chocolate Love’ (MV)

This year we are celebrating Valentines Day a little differently. The song is called ‘Chocolate Love’ something near and dear to those who want something special on valentines day. These two examples are also indicative of chocolate as well, Light and Dark. Enjoy, and from all of us. Happy Valentines Day.

Haruhi Valentines Greeting

Haruhi ranked 7th for opening weekend

You like me with long hair eh?

The Disappearance of Haruhi was shown at a mere 24 screens, and 60,306 watched the movie this weekend. Reviews are still mixed but these numbers rank it 7th in showing for the weekend. So you say 7th? Why not first? Simply put anime movies don’t make into the top ten in their first weekend unless they are established franchises. This initial showing proves the fan base is still there. Here’s hoping once the reviews start coming in, the ‘endless 8’ fiasco will be forgotten.