IT'S VOTING TIME AGAIN

Any wannabe rock star trying to pull off a really tricky guitar solo knows that, when you mess up, all you need to do is repeat that mistake a few more times until it sounds like you totally meant to do it in the first place.  In that spirit, remember when I screwed up the Weekly Anime Comic voting settings, and tried to make up for it by doing some extra pattern comics about a DIFFERENT anime, and letting upper-level patrons vote on THAT?  Well, let’s do that on purpose this time!  That way, I can justify the stuff I bought at Animazement this year as something OTHER than having new stuff to watch at Anime Night!

Now, as just a quick disclaimer to keep people from getting confused, the poll isn’t actually on this blog post here.  I wanted to make THIS visible to everybody, patron or not, and I don’t think there’s a way to do that without making a separate post for the actual poll.  So yeah, there’ll be a link a the bottom to take you to the place you do the voting, if you’re a patron at the right tier.

And if you’re not yet, well, lemme give you a peak of what you COULD be taking part in if you were!  I picked up one TV series, one OVA series, and one feature film at Animazement, and the voting public is going to decide which of the three I’ll watch and draw some extra comics about!  All patrons will be able to read the finished comics, but I’m not gonna be posting these to the wider Internet the way I have with the regular Weekly Anime Comics.  And, obviously, lower-tier patrons will just be along for the ride.  If you want to actually have some say in what the comics themselves will be, you gotta join the illustrious ranks of upper level patrons and make your voice heard!

But what ARE these anime those happy few will be choosing from?  And more importantly, how MUCH of those anime will I be watching?  There’s kind of a big difference between one movie and a whole TV show.  Didn’t I think about that disparity when I came up with this idea? …no, I did not.  But we’ll try to work around it anyway!  Also, just like the last time, I’m not committing to a specific number of COMICS, just the amount of anime I’ll be watching to get comics from.  In other words, 6 episodes of a show does not necessarily equal 6 pages of comics.  It all depends on where inspiration leads me.  So, here are the three options:

1. Voltes V

This late 70s mecha action series isn’t hugely known over here in the Western world (at least, not among the circles I inhabit) but it was and is the stuff of legend in other regions, especially The Philippines.  So there must be something to see, right?  What’s more, this is one of those shows that, along with the original Gundam, tends to be cited as one of the major stepping stones in mecha anime moving away from being half-hour toy commercials and into the world of serious, grown up science fiction.  I’m definitely all about that.  Now, Voltes V is easily the longest option here, at 40 episodes.  I am absolutely NOT committing to watching that whole thing in one blast, just the first six or seven episodes.  I’ll leave the total count a BIT up in the air, just in case I need to avoid cutting the comics off at an especially obnoxious cliffhanger, though given what I’ve read about Voltes V’s broadcast history in The Philippines, that might actually be really appropriate.  Of course, that all depends on whether or not Voltes V even winds, and not… 

2. Gunbuster

Okay, this is the one nominee that I’ve seen already, several times, in fact.  What’s more, it’s the one thing I bought at Animazement that LITERALLY EVERYBODY ELSE I KNOW ALSO BOUGHT.  Seriously, EVERY SINGLE PERSON whose con haul I saw had the Gunbuster Blu-ray.  But why not?  It really is one of those things every serious anime scholar needs to get in their collection at some point, and it’s about dang time we finally have it back in print.  But how much of Gunbuster will I be watching?  See, this is the tricky thing.  If I commit to the same amount of watch time, I should be able to watch all of Gunbuster in the same amount of time as the Voltes V episodes… but that’s not what I’m gonna do.  Rather, I’m just going to commit to the first three Gunbuster OVAs… FOR NOW.  See, just in case my enthusiasm earlier didn’t clue you in, I will almost certainly have a LOT more to say about Gunbuster than either of the other options here.  Me getting more than one page per OVA is a very real possibility, and that will get out of control REALLY fast if I don’t set some ground rules.  So if Gunbuster wins, I do comics about the first half.  And if that goes over well enough for people to want the REST of the series… well, we’ll blow up that galactic core when we get to it.  But speaking of the other options…

3. Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer

Compared to the other choices, a single movie probably seems like a bit of a meager offering, but everything I’ve heard about Beautiful Dreamer says there’ll be a lot to chew on.  I’ve actually been wanting to see this movie for ages.  Back in the day, it was the ONE Urusei Yatsura movie that Netflix didn’t have in stock, almost as if everybody who’d rented it just felt like keeping it.  Also, Ususei Yatsura was first not-blatantly-for-kids manga I ever read, so finally getting to see what’s frequently hailed as the best movie in the series is a tantalizing prospect.  So of COURSE I’ve just left the disk sitting on my shelf until somebody actually pays me to watch it!  And yes, the last time I watched a movie for one of these things, I DID manage to get enough pages out of the experience to make me feel okay about putting Beautiful Dreamer up against two longer choices.

So those are your choices!  If you’re a patron, head over to the poll and let me know which of these you’d least mind seeing clog up the feed.  And if you’re NOT a patron, now’s the perfect time to join up!  Hurry up and tell me what to do!

VOTE HERE!