Ecchi blu-ray release dates for July 2014

seikoku-no-dragonar

Will Eco give us uncomfortably huge doses of uncensored goodness in Seikoku no Dragonar  volume one?

Will ARMS right the wrongs of Wizard Barristers  with Gokukoku no Brynhildr ?

And just who exactly is going to be featured in the final Maken-ki! Two  blu-ray special?

 

July 2nd

 

Seikoku no Dragonar vol. 01

 

Will they show Eco’s nipples?  I’m guessing they will, though it’s worth noting that the manga left her boobs blank in the early chapters (the scruples don’t last long, by the end of volume two Eco nudity accounted for about two-thirds of all nipple sightings from the manga version).  Then again, the anime is based on the original light novel, which may not necessarily be 100% the same as the manga.  So who knows?

Eco, totally naive of human sexual sensitivities, walks around completely nude without the slightest bit of shame for relatively long periods of time in the early episodes.  Drawing her in a more explicit manner on BD would dramatically alter the “feel” of those early episodes.   For all the casual fans who felt uncomfortable with cliched and harmless faux tentacle rape, I can only imagine how awkward it will be when they are practically forced to stare at a loli’s exposed and uncensored chest for several minutes straight.

But for ecchi fans, this is a unique opportunity for a series to break new ground.  Sure, we’ve seen characters run around naked for extremely long periods of time before (Lisara from Boku H  battled her arch-nemesis for over an entire episode with her breasts exposed and uncensored the entire time).  But we’ve rarely seen a nudist level of sustained uncensored nakedness for a loli character before, and when we did, it wasn’t really intended to be erotic (Dance in the Vampire Bund, Elfen Lied). So seeing uncensored Eco for long stretches during those early scenes is going to be a weird, if even a bit uncomfortable, of an experience.  Or for some of you, a fuck-king awesome experience.

It’s worth noting that the quasi-uncensored AT-X scenes were careful to avoid ever showing Eco’s nipples, while simultaneously giving us a nude scene for Lucca, proving they had nothing against lolicon service.

Barring additional added scenes, the only candidates for nudity in volume one would be Eco or maaaaaaybe Navi during that dream sequence ecchi scene.  Given the importance of the first volume for hooking buyers into the series, it seems unlikely to me that an outright ecchi anime like Seikoku no Dragonar would avoid nudity completely here.  And if they wimp out on Eco’s nudity, that would basically make volume one non-nude.  Which is why I think it is pretty likely we’ll be seeing what Eco’s nipples look like some time in the next few days.

 

July 16th

 

Akuma no Riddle vol.02

 

This anime contains some extreme themes and has some surface level similarities to Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, a show that surprisingly added nipples to a few episodes on blu-ray.

My gut feeling is that nudity won’t be in the cards for this anime (which released its first volume on June 18th).  But if it does, there won’t be a better chance to add nudity than the series’ second volume, which contains a noteworthy onsen scene in episode three.  If episode three remains non-nude, I won’t hold out too much hope for the rest of the series.

 

July 23rd

 

Knights of Sidonia vol.03

 

Volume one briefly revealed a nipple, which as it turns out was perfectly in sync with what the manga did during an early episode changing scene.  I haven’t watched this series or read much of the manga, but it’s been said that the series likely has more nudity on the way, though I’m not sure if it will be in this volume or not.

 

July 25th

 

Maken-ki! Two vol.05

 

The final volume of Maken-ki! Two may end up the most intriguing of the series.  The box art will feature Azuki, which I guess makes sense since episode 11 was somewhat dedicated to her character.  In all four previous volumes, the cover girl was also the subject of the fanservice OVA that came bundled on blu-ray.

However, according to CDJapan and other sources, the title of the BD extra for volume five is “P – Shigoto Kimi Hen.”  The previous titles for the BD extras were “P – Shigoto Haruko Hen”, “P – Shigoto Inaho Hen”, “P – Shigoto Aki Hen” and “P – Shigoto Kodama Hen” (emphasis mine).  This trend would strongly suggest the fifth volume BD extra will focus not on Azuki, but on Kimi.

If so, this would be a pleasant surprise as Kimi is one of the show’s least utilized characters.  She’s had so little screen time it probably wouldn’t be a stretch to call her a minor character, and she’s only appeared nude a small number of occasions over two full seasons of the anime.

If the special does feature Kimi, it would be a pretty big surprise given director Hiraku Kaneko’s famed preference for exploiting ridiculously huge oppai.  Kimi is even flatter and more lolicon than Himegami is… for Kaneko to end this series by featuring the two lolicon characters prominently would be an interesting twist given his reputation and the 100+ cm bust sizes found in this anime.  That said, if anybody can qualify for delicious flat chest, it’s Kimi.

 

Kenzen Robo Daimidaler vol.01

 

We’ve probably already seen at least 99% of the TV episode nudity for this series, but BD extras seem very likely to add more.  I’m also personally interested to see how this anime sells.  Is TNK invincible?

 

Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun vol.02

 

On one hand, this anime was co-animated by the same company and same director as FREEZING.  On the other hand, it was also co-animated by the same company and same director as Slayers and Shakugan no Shana.

JC Staff has gone almost ten years now since the last time they animated a nipple.  I don’t think this show will snap that streak, though the opportunity for nudity is certainly present, and A.C.G.T. certainly has a track record for nudity to consider.

 

Blade and Soul vol.02

 

Volume one came and went without any fanfare on the interwebs, so I’m assuming the special that came bundled with it did not contain nudity.  Or maybe it did and nobody noticed.

I won’t have more than a token amount of interest until the potential nude scene from volume five, but it might be worth following these early BD releases just in case.  The odds of nudity from this series are pretty low, but a couple shows seem to surprise every year; maybe Blade and Soul can be one of them.

 

July 30th

 

Gokukoku no Brynhildr vol.01-03

 

ARMS has been taking it on the chin lately with sales, and it’s manifested in the studio taking some desperate measures to get things back on track.  First it was an exploitative female pro-wrestling anime (thinking about this still makes me shout “fuck yeah!” involuntarily), then it was a return to the creators of ARMS’ two biggest successes (Kite, Elfen Lied).  Sekatsuyo  and Wizard Barristers‘  blu-ray sales bombed horribly, and if a rock solid anime like Gokukoku no Brynhildr  tanks too I’m going to start getting worried for these guys.

As an attempt to appeal to economical sensibilities, ARMS is skipping the pricey limited edition blu-rays in favor of box sets that sell at “buy two, get one free” prices.

Unfortunately, I fear this tactic will backfire on ARMS.  American anime distributors have sold anime box sets at rock bottom prices for years now and the result has been massive long term decline.  Many American anime distributors got out of the business, and even Funimation (who own roughly two thirds of all U.S. anime licensing) had to slash their staff to a skeleton crew.

Sure, low prices are great.  But free is better.  And right now, anime is free.  Maybe not 100% legally free in every case, but free nonetheless.  If you want to sell stuff, you have to appeal to collectors, not slash prices.

But anyway, good luck ARMS.  Those who do buy this first BD box will get a first look at several enticing fanservice scenes that are 99.9% likely to be uncensored.  Well, that is unless ARMS drops the ball, like they did in Wizard Barristers volume two.

For us freeloaders, a six episode release means a nice jump start to a series that has had more nudity potential than initially expected.

 

Strike the blood vol.07

 

This volume covers episodes 19-21.  Episode 20 has a heavily censored bathouse scene for Yukina that is likely to deliver.  Episode 21 shows Asagi in the shower, as well as her tastefully nude self just after leaving it.

 

Queen’s Blade – Vanquished Queens vol.04

 

Could this be it for Queen’s Blade ?  I hope not.  Supposedly the last OVA will focus on the snake-wearing Echidna.  I haven’t been able to confirm the exact release date, but going off memory I think it was July 31st.

 

~

 

Summer season debuts

 

The summer season is upon us.  Here are some of the season debut dates for series that are likely to be ecchi or otherwise contain R-rated type content:

 

July 6th:  Akame ga Kill!

July 7th:  Himegoto

July 8th:  Momo Kyun Sword

July 10th:  Psycho-Pass New Edit Version

July 11th:  Tokyo ESP

July 14th:  Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance

August:  Kantai Collection – Kan Colle