AIR TV site up!

ADV Films has posted the English site for AIR TV. For your reference, here it is. There's the usual fare, such as character profiles, a trailer (non-voiced) and a cast list. And since it's my job, I'll check it out.

Front Page

It takes a while to load the trailer, so while I was waiting, I checked out the layout. Very pretty, although the cut under Misuzu does look a little odd. The sky and 3 girls look great. The big ADV logo would ruin it, if not for the fact that you can only see it when you scroll down. On top is the AIR logo, which appears as it does in the OP, fading in and out. The only thing is, if you're on there too long, it loads faster and faster until eventually, it's going way too fast and becomes a distraction.

The trailer is pretty. It's set to the karaoke version of Tori no Uta and, like all ADV's trailers, features clips from the OP and episodes. If alarm bells are going off in your head, don't worry. ADV has far improved from their hideous, thrown-together trailers of a couple years ago. (Did anyone see the one for Angelic Layer? Terrible.) It's interspersed with various pieces of AIR-related philosophy like "We don't know which path to take" and "Breathe Deep." Pretty good.

The one thing they didn't need: "From the creators of The Melancholy of Hurai (sic) Suzumiya!". First of all, Kyoani created neither Haruhi nor AIR. Both are adaptations. Second of all, what's with "Hurai Suzumiya"? Did they not want to get sued? I'm getting flashbacks to last year's hentai game about Asamiya Haruka and her UFO-dan.

Story

"The Girl in the Sky" is capitalized. I guess that's because it's important, but I feel off about it. Maybe because the fansubs didn't capitalize it. And why is Kano important, but not Minagi? Not that I'm complaining. Kano's my favourite AIR girl. I roleplay her over at LJ. Either way, besides leaving Minagi out, the promo fits the tone of the series very well. Pass.

Trailers

Nothing to see here. It's just the one from the first page. I assume there'll be a voiced one later.

Extras

This loads oddly. Look at the buttons. We've got screenshots (which includes the shot of the Kanon girls. A hint for the next license?), character profiles, icons, wallpapers, and the like. I wonder at "BitTorrent (coming soon)". What would they put there?

There's an English cast list and interview. Personally, I think Haruko is the only one that's almost certainly well cast. Monica Rial as Misuzu and Vic Mignogna as Yukito are a bit iffy, but I'll give them a chance. There's an interview with Vic, and he seems to be very excited about the role, in any case.

Reviews

Two short snippets from Newtype and Newtype USA, respectively. The ADV-owned Newtype USA. Honestly, since AIR is so well-loved, can't they collect more reviews?

Buy

This just takes the top menu off. Understandable, since the DVDs aren't out yet.

Well, that's it. Overall, a nice site, and they seem to really be excited, but there are some things off. But come on, it's AIR! I'm excited too.

The Key 3, sponsored in part by Suzumiya Haruhi Hurai.

AIR got licensed, check it out.

I'm sure you've already heard about this, but ADV has licensed AIR TV and the movie. Too bad they're giving it a regular DVD release. One of my all-time wishes was to have AIR TV on prime time television and marketed to regular TV audiences. If anything, the right marketing with it would chase off certain people's perceptions, but yeah. Well, at least I'll be able to do another voice actor review. They'd better not mess up one of my favourite shows.

Oh, and Higurashi Kai comes this July.

Aimless Haruhi rantage and other things.

So the Tales of Symphonia The Animation trailer, which you've probably already seen, was pretty cool. I couldn't complain, anyway. And now my friends are fangirling it, so all is good.

What I do want to complain about is the Haruhi DVD order. I don't want to have to buy expensive special editions just to see the series in the order it was meant to be seen, but I guess Bandai is doing all they can, considering their contract. Maybe if everyone gets the special, this won't happen again and the next time something out of the ordinary happens in anime, the sellers will let it stay that way. (I might complain, but the absolute truth is that I wanted to buy the special editions anyway. But why do the DVD episodes have to be in chronological order?)

Speaking of Haruhi, they need to mass produce that Day of Sagittarius Haruhi figure. Because it simply looks awesome. That or the bikini Haruhi with the Super Soaker, but I'd feel strange with that one...

So Geneon's holding another licence guess contest. This is really getting old. Who wants to bet what it is? I don't get in a lather about licenses, unless it's a series I like. Personally, I think somebody should put AIR on primetime mainstream television, but that's about it. (It wouldn't even have any competition. What else is on TV in summer besides reruns? Canadian Idol?)

Feel the power of the 5-yen coin.