It was a good Friday, a very good Friday — one that featured a trip into the city, time spent with loved ones, and a meal at a terrific Chinese noodle restaurant that we more or less blundered across by accident.  And what good would a trip into the city be without a visit to Book-Off and a load of nifty swag?

• Brave Story
  . Adapted from Miyuki Miyabe's epic young-adult novel, now in English, and distributed by Warner Japan but with no American distribution deal lined up as far as I know.  The Japanese DVD has English subtitles, so fire up those multi-region players!  (Look for a long, detailed review of this in the future.)
• Hinotori
  . Music from the TV version of Osamu Tezuka's epic manga that spans millennia and continents, which was also made into a number of other movie adaptations (none of which I've seen yet, though).
• Legends of Toei Action Movies Original Soundtrack Collection
  .  Big-band brass, Morricone guitars, and tough-guy swagger by the truckload.  Stuff like this draws me right in, and the price was right (a mere $10 for a CD that normally goes for twice that).
• CDB (Character Design Bible) #4.  A hard-to-find collection of character-design work from a whole slew of artists.  The big attraction here is the inclusion of the image that inspired the character Tomoe from Summerworld!  Plus images from Otogi-zoshi, Gantz, Speed Grapher, and tons of others.  At this rate I may collect the whole series of books if I can get my hands on them.