I was lucky enough to come across this excellent video a few weeks ago via a post on Danny Choo’s Facebook fanpage. At the time, there was no subtitled version available, but the overall beauty of the work drove me to contact the creator to see if he had any plans to make one. Surprisingly, not only was Tohru Hanayama kind enough to respond to my question, but he was also kind enough to produce a subtitled version for English speaking fans such as me less than a week a later.
After the new video went up, I was contacted by Mr. Hanayama a second time to let me know about it. Curious to learn more about the work and the story behind “Crossword”, I asked Mr. Hanayama if he could provide me with some insights into the short film that I could share with you folks. Please hit the jump to read his response.
I honestly don’t think I have ever seen an anime series as unrepentantly smutty as volume one of the Queen’s Blade series. Up until now, the short anime series Eiken was the benchmark against which I measured all fan service based anime series. Sadly, that series has now been thoroughly unseated by Queen’s Blade’s obsessive attention to the nude female form and fetish oriented combat scenes.
UPDATE – 07/22/10:
NIS America has announced they will be remastering volume 1 of both Toradora and Persona to address transfer issues with both sets. For details, go here.
Persona -Trinity Soul- TV series is supposed to take place ten years after the events detailed in the Persona 3 videogame. I say “supposed to” because after watching the first thirteen episodes of the Trinity Soul series, I’ve concluded that there’s very little connective tissue between the two stories. Folks who played the game will notice nods to the source material in the first episode of the TV series, such as when Shin meets the ever-mysterious Igor in a dream. Other than a few nods here and there though, the TV series is nothing like the game, which I guess is good for newcomers to the series, but can be off putting for fans attempting to mentally align the events of the game with those in the TV series.
UPDATE – 07/22/10:
NIS America has announced they will be remastering volume 1 of both Toradora and Persona to address transfer issues with both sets. For details, go here.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I sat down to watch Toradora! I’d heard a lot of positive buzz around the internet when the show was originally on the air in Japan last year, but I’ve learned over the years that fan hype should never be taken at face value as a sign of quality. Thankfully, from the very first episode, any fears I had about the series were quickly put to rest as I became completely engrossed in this engaging and delightfully rambunctious anime series.
According to a recent press release, the second and concluding volumes of Toradora and Persona -Trinity Soul- will be released in late August of this year. Both releases will contain the last thirteen episodes of each series and will come packaged as part of premium boxset complete with hardcover art books. Preorders for both volumes are already available at select retailers on the internet.
