
So ever since the official English site for Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens came out, I was expecting the US release to be announced. And when it was, last Thursday the 16th of July (one day before the release date of the Magic the Gathering 2010 Core Set) I ordered it on Amazon (technically, from RightStuf) like the good shrine maiden fan that I was. I even ordered other shrine maiden stuff to go with it.

It shipped a couple of hours after I made my order. It arrived today (Tuesday, 21 July) by USPS, in a bubble wrap envelope from “Customer Service, Bandai Entertainment”. The disc played fine on my PC and on my Xbox 360. After the horror stories about Bandai as a licensor and RightStuf as a retailer, I guess I should feel lucky. The rest of my Amazon order, consisting of additional volumes of the Shrine of the Morning Mist manga, didn’t ship until Sunday(?) the 19th.

Some complaints, though:
1) No English voice track? I am aware that the Japanese voice track is better like 99.9% of the time, but I actually like playing anime in the background while I draw, and since I’m not looking at the screen, I can’t get what’s going on. And the last dub from a Bandai license I got, Lucky Star, was excellent – enough to make it my default background noise while drawing. “Rice cakes are stretchy.”
2) Seven episodes on one disc? I know Azumanga Daioh pulled that stunt, but doesn’t the image quality suffer when you do that?
3) Why can’t Nagi wear her shrine maiden outfit by default? You’ll lose points to Kamichu and Shrine of the Morning Mist if your shrine maiden main heroine doesn’t dress properly. The red hakama (split skirt / kimono pants) looks so much better than that miniskirt.
That is all. Now to watch.