Strike Witches Contest + Predictions

No, I'm not dead, just got lazy again. I have an excuse though, I gave blood recently! The turn out was pretty low. Kinda depressing.

Depressing like my predictions for the future but we'll get to that in a second.

Everyone, I am officially opening a contest to win a copy of Strike Witches on DVD! When this series was first licensed by Funimation, I made a vow to buy 3 copies to support it. (I considered this license a very bold move and one I wanted to support.) I now have 3 extra copies of Strike Witches on hand.



I'll post photographic proof of such later on. Every blog post until the contest's end will include a minor contest update from now until July 4th. This contest will be open for ANYONE to enter. I will ship to any location ON EARTH! (That can in fact be reached by some postal service.)

Contest Disclaimer and Baseline Rules:

Although highly unlikely, I reserve the right to cancel this contest at any time. This contest is open to any person with a mailing address, prizes will be shipped anywhere! Winners' names will be posted here at Blog Of A Heretical Dub Lover but mailing addresses will be provided only to professional postal staff of my choice. No one else will be told.

Winners' addresses and E-mail addresses will be erased once the prizes have been shipped. Non-winners' names, E-mail and mailing addresses will not be given out to any one and will be erased when the winners have been confirmed. Non-winners will not be contacted, spammed or harassed in any way. I am not interested in ordinary humans! I reserve the right to retroactively add new rules in the unlikely event that they become necessary.

One entry per person/mailing address.

The DVDs are Region 1.

The DVDs include both English and Japanese dubs, English subs and a commentary track. And you might even get an iron-on patch. Of course, you're also getting this:



Sexy girls, sci-fi alternate history plot and plenty of action with a healthy dose of fanservice. Want to get all of that? Send an E-mail to my E-mail with Strike Witches Contest in the subject line. Include your name and address. Also, please post a comment with your thoughts on this contest or my future predictions! There will be 3 winners so you've got a great chance of getting some free anime!

Now, on to my predictions for the future.

First, VIZ will drop the Shonen Jump magazine, leaving us with no monthly manga anthology magazines of note. I believe this will happen before the end of next year, possibly before the end of this year. Why? Well, VIZ layoffs mainly and the growing trend in that direction in general. VIZ already killed Shojo Beat and Yen Press recently made Yen Plus a soon-to-be online magazine rather than a physical media title.

I believe the trend is clearly against Shonen Jump's continued publishing in the US. I have seen it removed from store shelves in numerous places, primarily Wal-Mart, providing anecdotal evidence.

My second prediction is that Bandai Entertainment will cease to exist. It may hold up until after the new Haruhi releases come out (they recently announced Haruhi-chan and Churuya-chan shorts) but I wouldn't take bets at this point. I've been convinced they were going downhill for quite some time, in fact I started thinking about it right after they started doing more sub-only. I thought that would be a coffin nailer.



My evidence? Well, they've become the sultans of delaying tactics, with virtually every anime they've released since last year being delayed multiple times. We've seen their number of licenses drop significantly, their sub-only catalog grow by leaps and bounds and now they are apparently selling off some of their licenses to Section23! Although these were formally Bandai Visual licenses, Bandai Entertainment did more or less take over Bandai Visual's holdings when it died. Clearly these license were sold for quick cash. (To fund the Haruhi franchise or a mysterious other new license? Only time will tell!)

Frankly, I think a combination of the fansub leeches and the poor economy (which the federal government keeps insisting is getting better) is responsible. I believe that with several of their licenses being series with strong fansub communities (and thus larger leech populations) and with the drop in people's personal incomes due to job loss, higher taxes and general economic depression, they're simply destined to die. I fear for the future of all of the companies but they are currently the most vulnerable in my opinion.

While I believe they will complete their work on Haruhi-related projects, I'm not sure about anything else. By next year's end, possibly sooner, I think we'll be talking about closure plans. I believe Bandai Entertainment as the US branch of Bandai Namco Holdings, will not see the 2012 elections.

My third prediction: I have a feeling that Section23 will announce another English dubbed production before the end of the year. This is just a hunch. Evidence suggests they are recovering from the ADV fragmentation trauma, which surprises me a little (though they are still in need of outside capital, suggesting they remain vulnerable to death.)

Well, that's it for this blog post! I'm Richard J., your Navigator, signing off!

Look for next week to make up for my laziness from this week! No lies!

Bye-ni!

Strike Witches Cast/Character Breakdown!

Hi ya'll and welcome to another epic fail blog entry! I'm you're host, Richard J., wishing he were half as cynical as Akira Kogami as it would help to keep his expectations down.

Then again, with an English dub cast this nice, who needs cynicism?

Yes my friends, Funimation has done it again! Yesterday they announced the English dub cast for Strike Witches and ooh boy, they picked some amazing talent for it. (Clink the link for the trailer!)

Here's the Cast/Character breakdown!


Cherami Leigh as Yoshika Miyafuji



Excellent choice and truthfully the one I was hoping for. Cherami has a natural cuteness to her voice that she's used before as Makoto in Sasami Magical Girls Club and as Patty Thompson in Soul Eater. However, as her work in Bamboo Blade as Tamaki Kawazoe and in Strain as Lottie shows, she can handle a hard-hitting action girl.

Yoshika Miyafuji is a mix of cute and sweet with an ability to kick butt so Cherami's a perfect choice.


Kira Vincent-Davis as Mio Sakamoto



Well this was a surprise. Kira Vincent-Davis is best known to all of us as an ADV cast regular. Hire her for instant awesome. Guess Section 23's dubless state is sending talent fleeing to Funi. And thank God for that.

Kira Vincent-Davis has a natural strength to her voice as well as an ability to play a subtle gentle quality. This is perfect for Mio Sakamoto who is stern but fair, often coming across as a fatherly character. (At least this is my opinion.) I'm expecting something between Ruri of Martian Successor Nadesico and Najica of Najica Blitz Tactics for this role.


Kate Bristol as Lynnette Bishop



Kate Bristol is a surprising choice for Lynnette, at least to me. I was actually expecting someone more like Carrie Savage. However, I do believe Kate is a good choice.

Her work as Kisa in Fruits Basket shows Kate can really crank up the woobie factor when she wants too. That's important to Lynnette's early appearance and a gentle nature is needed later as well.


Jad Saxton as Perrine Clostermann



Oh hell yes. I just have a feeling this is perfect casting. Jad Saxton has a great stern voice she can use but also sound soft with, like with Masako in Ghost Hunt. I have a feeling she's going to steal scenes.


Jamie Marchi as Shirley Yeager



Inspired casting choice. Jamie's voice is very warm but also has a quality that gives her that tomboyish edge that makes it possible to imagine her working on a Striker engine. Shades of Meg from Burst Angel and Integra Martel from Solty Rei? I'm looking forward to it.


Trina Nishimura as Francesca Licchini



If I were still only familiar with Trina Nishimura from roles like Shigure in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple and Akira in School Rumble, I'd be going "what the hell?" right now. Fortunately, I've been exposed to her work as Nadie in El Cazador de la Bruja. This actress has RANGE. Seriously, she can sound like a stoic badass or a cutesy girl without a problem. Hope she does lazy troublemaker well!


Jennifer Forrester as Sanya Litvyak
Caitlin Glass as Eila Juutilainen



Jennifer Forrester is a name I haven't heard before so I can't really even begin to speculate. Sanya's not a chatter box girl either though. Singing talent is important here as well as the ability to sound perpetually a bit tired.

To be honest, I expected Caitlin Glass to be playing Sanya! Rather surprising to make her Eila, a character with a bit of tsundere in her if you ask me. (Which you didn't.) I think her work as Triela from Gunslinger Girl might be informative of how she'll sound as Eila though as there's a motherly aspect to both characters.

My head does tilt a bit though. Someone in casting must be sick of the folks whinning about Funimation's casting choices being predictable. (Which begs the question: why is consistency of quality a bad thing?)

Last three, one could argue I saved the best for last!


Stephanie Sheh as Gertrud Barkhorn
Luci Christian as Erica Hartmann
Anastasia Munoz as Mina



Did someone order a plate of awesome served with a side of shock? Apparently so as we have Stephanie Sheh cast as Gertrud Barkhorn! Mainly an LA actress, Sheh is A-list talent in my book and capable of handling all kinds of roles. (I ask all of you to check her out as Nanoka in Koi Kaze, she's credited as Tiffany Hsieh.) Seeing her cast here is a bit of surprise considering her previous roles for Funimation have been pretty small parts. Also, Barkhorn is one of my favorites in the series.

For some reason I suspect the voice she'll use will be a little like how she sounded in Ultra Maniac playing Ayu Tateishi but a bit more serious.

Another voice actress we know and love, Luci Christian, will grace us with her voice to bring English life to Hartman. It will be interesting to see how her voice will jive with Stephanie's since both will be playing characters from the same homeland, the Strike Witches' version of Germany.

Somehow I expect Luci to make Hartman sound like one part Yukari from Azumanga Daioh and two parts Suomi Kitano from Diamond Daydreams. That might sound odd but Hartman is. . . well, she's not taking things too seriously for such an ace pilot.

Anastasia Munoz ends my exploration of the cast. She's another surprise though by looking at her ANN filmography she doesn't seem to be a newbie. Mina's VA needs to have a commanding voice and a good singing voice (trust me) and I hope this actress can handle it. I imagine she was cast knowing these things though.

Her casting is another I'm going to be watching to see how it comes out.

Well, that wraps this up. If you haven't already checked out Strike Witches, watch a few episodes on Funimation's Video Portal!

Oh, you noticed the Contest tag? Well, that's there because I'm going to buy 3 copies of this show! (Yes, I am determined to support this one like crazy.) One will of course be going on my shelves but that leaves two copies.

I wonder what I might do with those. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Stay tuned.

Bye-ni!

Ani-Father's Day (Okay, Not Really) But The Contest Isn't a Lie.

I didn't have time to think out a good fun list of anime fathers like I did for Mother's Day so instead, for Father's Day, here's two things that make fun of Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass.

As your Navigator, I apologize for failing to put together an awesome list of Ani-Dads but I got distracted by the addiction of being able to play The Sims 2 without it crashing. (Ooh, Apartment Life rocks my socks!)

First, a personal favorite scene ever:


And here's what may be the funniest damn fansubber error of all time! (My they are really so professional ;) )


You can't imagine how much laughter that one generated.

Now, since I failed to come up with a great list of Ani-Dads, how about you, my readers, tell me who I missed?

I'll even reward one lucky person! Yes, this will be the first minor prize giveaway! Yah! Banzai!

Rules: You must give me the name and series of the Ani-Daddy you think is a great father in his series. You must write at least a decent four sentence paragraph explaining why you think he's a good daddy.

I'll pick a winner at the end of the month. (I want maximum time for entries.) The Prize will be a copy of Afro Samurai Uncut on DVD.

Don't forget that Funimation themselves are doing an awesome giveaway with HipHopDX. Go here for details.

That's it for me this time folks. Go tell everyone you know about the contest please!

Bye-ni!