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Right Stuf is having their annual fabulous holiday sale, and of course I'm finding tons of things I want to buy. One bargain particularly caught my eye today: all four boxsets of Yu Yu Hakusho on sale for $11.99 each. That would be just $47.96 for 112 episodes! ($59.95 if I also buy the movie/OVA set, which I'm not all that interested in at the moment.) Awesome deal, right? I have watched the first 28 episodes (the first boxset) through Netflix and liked what I saw, but I'm not sure if I like it enough to want to risk blind-buying the rest of the series, no matter how great the price is. If you have watched the entire series before, what did you think of it? Does it get better as the series goes along? Stay about the same? Go sharply downhill after a certain point? Is the ending complete as is, or one of those series where you have to read the manga to get the real ending? (That's probably a dealbreaker for me. If I'm going to buy and watch 112 episodes, it better have at least a decent ending.) Would you recommend it for me, based on what you know of my tastes? I'm not a huge shounen fan, but some shounen series I've really liked in the past are Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist (both series), Rah-Xephon, Evangelion, Trigun, Code Geass, Full Metal Panic, Slayers, Soul Eater, Blue Exorcist, and Rurouni Kenshin. (Speaking of Fullmetal Alchemist, I have to squeal over the deal I got on the manga boxset earlier this week: $110 for twenty-seven volumes of manga, plus an bonus light novel! Too bad it was only that price for a week. EDIT: It's no longer that price at Right Stuf, but it turns out that Barnes & Noble is also holding a 50% off select Viz manga boxsets sale where you can get the FMA boxset for the same price I paid. It only lasts until Wednesday, though, so if you want to take advantage, do it fast. That really is a ridiculously good price.)

The sale continues until Dec. 28th, so I do have plenty of time to think it over, but I would like some opinions to help me make up my mind. Thanks!
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Does this couple remind you anyone?



One more pic )

They're totally Helios and Chibi-Usa, right? I mean, of course they're not exact clones, but their coloring is similar -- even if Helios' hair is more white than blue -- and the long strands of hair framing her face kinda look like Chibi-Usa's pigtails. It's not just me, is it?

So, who are they really? Olivier and Ohri from a fun 2-part OAV I watched last night called Gestalt. And the similarities don't just stop with a vague physical resemblence. Olivier is a priest, and Ohri is a sorceress who is voiced by none other than Kae Araki, who was Chibi-Usa's seiyuu! That Kae Araki connection really blew my mind because even though I thought there were moments when Ohri sounded a bit like Chibi-Usa, I just assumed my brain was playing tricks on me because of their similar looks. Then I saw that saw that it really was Kae Araki while watching the end credits and squeed. Sadly, Taiki Matsuno did not play Olivier. (How awesome would that have been?) Takehito Koyasu was his seiyuu instead, but that's only a minor disappointment, because he's just amazing. (Love Takehito Koyasu! He's one of my favorites.)

You know, a part of me wonders if Naoko Takeuchi was a fan of Gestalt and maybe took inspiration from the characters to create Helios and Chibi-Usa. The OAV came out in 1997, but the manga it's based on started in 1992, just around the time she started Sailor Moon, so it's not totally out of the question. Speaking of which, it looks like the manga was released here a couple of years ago by Viz. I may just check it out. The OAV ended in a decent enough spot, but two episodes definitely wasn't enough to cover all eight volumes. By the end, I was intrigued enough to want to see the rest of the story, which reminds me a bit of Slayers. (Now that I think about it, rather than Chibi-Usa, Ohri's personality reminds me more of a more competent, less annoying Marina, with maybe a pinch of Lina thrown in for good measure. And Olivier is like a male Sylphiel, only more assertive.)

On second though...maybe not. Just read a review of the first volume at ANN, and it seems like Ohri is actually male, which kills my Chibi-Usa/Helios comparison buzz. (Although I wonder how the mangaka -- Yun Kouga of Loveless fame, BTW, so the BL is kind of expected -- explains the obviously real boobs... You can't exactly fake them in the outfits he/she wears. Magic, I guess?) Looking back, I guess it was kind of hinted in the OAV as well. I just didn't really get that part. Oh, well. The story still interests me, so who knows? Maybe I'll give it a shot after all, even though BL isn't something I'm interested in. I don't know.
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Some people like to celebrate the holiday by making resolutions. Me? I prefer splurging on anime. ^_^ I used up two of the three Visa gift cards I got for Christmas on orders from Right Stuf.

With the $75 card my sister gave me, I bought:
CLAMP South Side Artbook - I've been wanting a CLAMP artbook forever, and since it was in the Bargain Bin, the price was right. Unfortunately, they don't have the North Side artbook. Guess I'll have to find a copy at Amazon Marketplace.
Slayers OVA Collection - I picked up all five seasons of the main series thanks to that amazing deal during their 12 Days of Anime sale, and I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far -- I'm almost finished with the second season -- so getting the OVAs was a bit of no-brainer, especially at only ten dollars.
Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 of Hare + Guu - This anime is HILARIOUS! And since Netflix is missing some discs, buying them is the only way I'll be able to watch the whole serious. Too bad they didn't have Vol. 5, though. Guess that's another thing I'll be picking up at the Marketplace.
$1 Blind Box item - Eh, I had a dollar left on the card, and it'll be fun to see what I get.

And with one of the $100 cards from my parents, I ordered:
Kaze no Stigma boxset
Bamboo Blade boxset
Gurren Lagann boxset - I almost got Spice and Wolf instead, but Gurren Lagann has more episodes for the same price and I liked it a little more.
Keychain of Light from Death Note

Pretty nice haul for $175, right? I'll probably leave the last gift card for ordering stuff from the Marketplace.

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