Anime Freebies & Sales

The freebies this time around have been available for a while.

First, an early work by director Makoto Shinkai, She and Her Cat, is available as a stream. Shinkai-san’s other works include Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in our Early Days, and the recent Byousoku 5 Centimeter. She and Her Cat is a short feature (4 min. 46 sec.) which was released in 1999. It won the Human-Grand-Prix in SKIP Creative Human Award 2000 and the Grand-Prix in 12th DoGA CG-Animation Contest. It took 5 months to make and he used a PowerMac 7600/120 with After Effects, Photoshop, Lightwave, etc., which shows the power of consumer desktop computers…though I’m sure the render times were rather lengthy. The story is a “slice of life” from the cat’s perspective. Note: the stream is raw (no dub or sub). “Cat” is voiced by Shinkai-san and “She” is voiced by his then-fiancee Mika Shinohara.

Translated Source:
Makoto Shinkai Fan Web

Photos from:
Other Voices (Japanese)

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Wowio is a site which provides free downloads of ebooks since August 2006. According to their about blurb:

“WOWIO is today the only source where readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted ebooks from leading publishers for free. Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles.”

One of their offerings is manga. It is not a large selection and it is mostly western manga but, hopefully, the selection will grow and diversify. Some of the selections include:

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Estancia 01 by Jihoon Kim

“On a bullet train fighting off zombies, the fugitives on this train have only one hope in life … to reach the Promised Land, Estancia alive.”

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Grounded Angel by Steve Horton, Vivi Erlanita, and Johnny Lowe

“Grounded Angel is a shoujo, or girls’ manga, starring GLORIA, an insecure junior-high girl who suddenly discovers her angel powers.”

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Oz: The Manga by David Hutchison

“Dorothy longs for something more than the gray plains of Kansas, but when her wish is granted, she gets both her fondest dreams and her worst nightmares! “

You may want to read David’s review of Oz: the Manga (from Feb. 2007).

You can look at their selections here:
http://www.wowio.com/users/comicshome.asp
Choose “Manga” from the genre drop down menu.

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Now on to the sales..first, here are a couple of deals with a tight deadline:

Robert’s Anime Corner Store is having an “Anime Summer Super Sale”.  You can save up to 10% off every item in the store…including preorder and existing sale items.  Here are the coupon codes:

• For 3% off orders over $69, use:      SUMMERSAVE3
• For 5% off orders over $199, use:    SUMMERSAVE5
• For 10% off orders over $399, use:  SUMMERSAVE10

An additional 10% is taken off orders of any in-stock items from the Figures & Toys section.
NOTE: Sale ends Tuesday, July 31, at midnight (ET).

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Another item with a fast approaching deadline is a coupon for Target.com.  You can get $5 off any purchase of $50 or more.  The coupon code is  TCFLVE43.  It expires on August 1.

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Now here are some sales with a less urgent deadline:

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Animenation (their new banner is a little creepy) is having an ADV DVD Sale. You can save 40% on ADV titles. This sale is for a limited time only (no end date given).

Also, Animenation is still having their Geneon DVD Sale. This is also for a limited time and quantities are limited as well. Again, no end date has been given for the sale.

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YesAsia.com is having a Summer Sale. You can save up to 85% on a wide variety of items (DVDs, CDs, figures, books, games, etc.). The sale ends August 31.

Note: Anime is only a portion of what is offered. Also, it would be a good idea to research the item(s) you are interested in purchasing since the site offers items in a variety of languages.

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AnimeVillage.com is having a Pre-Grand Opening Sale (actually three sales). First, there is a Summer Sale which offers 40% off a select list. Then, there is a 30% off sale on May and June releases. Finally, there is a general 20% off sale on all DVDs and CDs. Also, all orders over $100 (US) will get free ground shipping. No end date for the sales has been listed…though quantities for the Summer Sale are limited.