Dogasu's Backpack (07-01-2008) - "A Maze-Ing Race!"

"A Maze-Ing Race!" comparison, new Region 2 DVDs announced
July 1st, 2008

Dogasu @ 07:05 JST -- Good thing I typed "no promises, though" in my last update, huh?

So the past week was crazy busy for me. It started out with me having to do lots of extra lessons outside of school which really isn't anything to complain about since I get extra money for each one I do. Later in the week, I got sick with some kind of cold...or something. I'm feeling a lot better than I was, but I'm still not at 100% yet...like, I'll wake up each day with one less cold-like symptom but will then develop another one as the day goes on. Might have to go to a doctor if this keeps up because Japanese OTC drugs are wimpy.

So anyways, on to the real reason you checked this front page: the comparison for "A Maze-Ing Race!" is up. Other than an odd screw-up toward the end of the episode, there really isn't too much to say about the English version. I've also updated the List of Anime Episodes with a few more English titles.

In addition, I've updated the Region 2 "Best Collection" DVDs with information on a third set of stand-alone discs. This set of eight discs share a broad theme of "Stories That Remain in Your Heart" and includes episodes like...um...that early Potchama filler. Or the Fuwante episode. And who could forget the heart-rending...Röntora filler episode? It really seems like Media Factory is struggling at this point to come up with themes for these individual releases, and I honestly don't see why they don't just start doing a proper DVD release of this series. It's quite obvious that there is some amount of fan interest in owning the series.

Speaking of these "Best Collection" DVDs, I've added some cover / disc art for the second set of stand-alone discs.

I'll do my best to prevent another week-long break and try to get "Sandshrew's Locker!" up before too long.

"Ill-Will Hunting!", General Edits
June 20th, 2008

Dogasu @ 15:02 JST -- Sorry for the long wait! I had actually finished the "Ill-Will Hunting!" comparison quite a few days ago. After finishing that, I decided to update the General Edits page with a quick note about the TO BE CONTINUED... edit, but in the end I just went ahead and pretty much rewrote the whole page because the old one sucked. So the page now has a lot of information that it didn't have before and some pretty DVD caps to liven things up.

I'm starting to get tired of still working on Season 10 comparisons because it feels like I've been doing them forever. So, at the beginning of next week, I'm going to do my best to try to start on some daily update schedule again so I can get that season over with. No promises, though.

In the meantime, check out the awesome Giratina and the Sky Bouquest, Shami shirts that Uniqlo stores across Japan are selling now. If I was a ten year old Japanese kid, I'd be all over that ish.

"NEWS, everyone!"
June 12th, 2008

Dogasu @ 07:05 JST -- Finished my One Piece watching for the moment, so I'm gonna start jumping back into the whole episode comparison thing in the next day or so. But before that, I wanted to get through some news items.

First up: manga stuff!

The English version of the manga adaptation of Pokémon The Rise of Darkrai came out June 3rd, apparently. This one pretty much slid in under the radar (has anyone seen any advertisements for this anywhere?) but is worth a purchase just so you can say that you're supporting the release of English versions of the manga in the U.S.

August 5th, 2008 sees the release of the English version of the manga adaptation Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. Don't know why Viz is releasing these in reverse order, but whatever; "better late than never" and all that.

Finally, September 2nd, 2008 sees the release of Volume 02 of Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Adventure!

In other news, My Pokémon Ranch (the slighly more selfish-sounding English title for Everyone's Pokemon Farm) was released on the North American WiiWare service this past Monday. Since I never play the games enough to have storage issues, this one's going to be a pass for me. Information about the game's been updated on the Wii Downloads page.

I've also added the newest episode titles to the List of Anime Episodes. It looks like they're really rushing through some things in order to have everyone's team be up-to-date for the movie coming out next month.

Other than that, there's that Platinum stuff that every other site on the web is wetting themselves over and would therefore be redundant for me to cover here. I just never understood how adding a few areas and making some simple cosmetic changes equals "OMG MUST BUY!," but that's the fandom for ya. In any case, I've updated the Nintendo DS page with the most recently revealed information.

I'll try to have a new comparison up sometime around Friday or Saturday. Emphasis on the word try.