And in the category of "They like me, they really really like me", DVD.COM has a new article authored by yours truly about region coding for the new DVD user. And yes, I managed to sneak in some anime into it. Would you expect any less? They certainly didn't! You can read the article here at DVD.COM.

NEWS: 03/29/99

Be sure to check out my mini review for the DVD Video Single Superthruster from Palm Pictures!

Preliminary information for the T-shirt campaign is now up. You can check out all the early details here.

Those crafty people over at ADV Films have hidden another poll in their page. You can check it out here, but take the time to read the interview stuff as well. Excellent pages.

NEWS: 03/27/99 - 03/28/1999

There should be various updates throughout the weekend, so be sure to read the entire segment.

Beri Tomaszek sent in his alternate angle review of Record of Lodoss War, so give that a look-see.

Anime Journey's has sent me the graphics link for Venus 5, so the hentai crowd can go check those out.

Roman Martel sent me an email to let me know that there's something up with his most recent interview with Divi.... And then check out the brand new interview with Divi-chan that came in today!

In a fan driven effort, Anime on DVD is now holding a petition to be sent to Bandai to let them know of the growing customer base here that desires to see their shows on DVD. This is not limited to Anime Village titles. Other companies that have licensed titles from Bandai are being restricted as well from putting shows on DVD. CPM's "Birdy The Mighty" is the most recent example. Check out the petition area for "Bandai DVD Petition" and click on the # of signatures before signing to read the statement of intent.

From the Animeigo DVD mailing list, those who've ordered the movies and already have the CPM released Beautiful Dreamer disc, you'll be pleased to know that in the box set, there will be an open slot for this disc to fit in with the Animeigo released ones. Now THAT'S customer service!

ADV Films made a special addition to their July press release. The previously mentioned movies, Slayers and the Legend of Crystania, will street on May 25th. Of note in the July press release is the July 22nd release date of Queen Emeraldas, on VHS only. No day and date for this title for some reason, but there may be a retroactive announcement for it sometime. Hopefully we'll see more announcements soon...

And tomorrow, I'll hope to have a review up of Superthruster, an interesting disc from Palm Pictures & Rykodisc. A preview of what's to come from Pioneer and Platinum Entertainment's Animetronic line?

NEWS: 03/26/99

Is the Dominion Tank Police DVD from CPM being bumped back a month to May? According to an email I received from Animenation, their CPM rep let them know a May 18th date is likely and will have a meet the creator feature (One would assume Shirow, but isn't he a recluse whose never been photographed) as well as a character gallery. Possibly a price reduction from 39.99 down to 34.99 though...

And since Tenchi got bumped next week, I'll provide an alternative for those who need a DVD fix of some sort. I'm taking a trip back to my youth next week with two classics, the Black Hole (first time ever in widescreen on home video) and an excellent special edition of Time Bandits. Camp galore!

NEWS: 03/25/99

I've gotten a few emails from people wondering why I haven't mentioned the Space Adventure Cobra disc from Image being cancelled, as has been showing up on a few sites the past couple of days. I went and checked my archived news, and found that I had mentioned it way back on February 18th, after talking with Image.

Just a bit of a forum recap here today. There's indication that the Macross Plus release will most likely have an English 5.1 soundtrack to it. And before you get your undies in a bunch, it's probably due to the fact that Manga has instant access to the English dub's audio stems, whereas they Japanese ones may be harder to acquire, if at all. And strangely enough, I liked the dub for this show, though I hope that they really subtitle it as opposed to their dubtitling of the laserdiscs a few years back.

Also mentioned was some early impressions of the Barefoot Gen disc from Image. Be sure to check that out. And we also had a sort of official/unofficial confirmation that in either late Summer or by mid-Fall most likely we'll see an El-Hazard box set, pretty similar to Tenchi. Personally, I hope we get the 2nd OVA series with it, since that never made it to laserdisc and I keep telling my wife to not get the VHS...

NEWS: 03/24/99

Ok, ok, there was some new news when I poked back online later in the evening. Some preliminary work is being done in regards to the Overfiend movies from CPM. Originally slated to have both languages with a dubbed subtitle script, it looks like it will contain both languages, but we won't suffer with an inaccurate script. The movie version will be aimed towards the "mainstream" and then sometime thereafter, they will reproduce the long out of print and still sought after Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection, which will be subtitled only. The difference? The movies are shorter edited versions of the five OVA's that make up the perfect collection. So I doubt many people will be upset at it not having a subtitle track. Did that make sense? :)

Unless things change drastically after this update, there's no real news to speak of today, so I'll be off lining early and hopefully taking in a DVD or two. I got a brief bit back from CPM about a couple of things. They're going to be reminding their team that there are fans out there that want to at least see the main credits in English for things like voice actors. The multi-angle on Judge is the first step in trying to tweak out some things based on suggestions provided here by visitors and in our reviews. The second part was regarding the apparent lack of titles listed for May and I believe June. They're still working on getting their pressing plant problems worked out (as Panasonic isn't accepting new orders until the end of the year due to being booked solid). They do intend to get back to their two disc a month release schedule as soon as possible though.

And for the couple of Australians that I know read this site, check out this link here to see some good news about some local releases for you!

And yes, as speculated about early on in the forum today, and confirmed in the afternoon, the Tenchi DVD Box Set has been bumped back to April 13th.

NEWS: 03/23/99

While there were no anime DVD updates in this weeks Pioneer announcements, they do have two listings for import CD's they'll be bringing over. Check out their Lain offerings here!

Curious as to how the Japanese release of Armitage III OVA Collection stands up against the U.S. & Australian version? Michael Daub presents his second region 2 release for your pleasure.

Gary Neuwirth has supplied me with links for some new images he has on his site. You can visit his site directly here, or read the reviews for the titles here or here and then check them out!

As promised yesterday, here's my review of the latest Anime 18 title, Twin Angels.

NEWS: 03/22/99

Color me surprised! When I went to get my new package of DVD's today (Pleasantville and Antz), I also found a copy of Twin Angels direct from Nutech Entertainment. With luck, it should start showing up any time now from places like Animenation. And yes, it is bilingual!

And just to make a complete 180° turn from Twin Angels, here's my reviews for Pokemon Vol. 2 - The Mystery of Mount Moon and Pokemon Vol. 3 - The Sisters of Cerulean City.

NEWS: 03/21/99

Michael Daub has sent in his first region 2 review today. A vision of things to come? Check out this review for Pioneer Japan's release of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVA DVD Collection!

According to reports over at the Fans View site, Anime Village mentioned at Animazement yesterday that they are looking into acquiring DVD licenses so they can sell the titles online. Make of that what you will.

NEWS: 03/19/99

Pioneer has teamed up with Platinum to bring out something that's being coined "Animetronica". Click here for the official press release. Looks interesting to me, but it may be a "your mileage may vary" kind of thing. It's one way to get your anime in DD 5.1!

Not much else new in the anime DVD community today. Next week has nothing on the block for us, though we're ever closer to the Tenchi box set! As I've done before during quiet weeks, if you're looking for something a bit different to try, I heartily recommend Pleasantville. I caught it theatrically last year, and I think it's one of the top three movies I saw last year.

NEWS: 03/18/99

While checking out the Judge DVD today, I tried the web link feature that's included on this disc. I may be mistaken, but it's the first one (and it's both MAC and PC compatible) from CPM. While there's nothing that's screaming amazing, it's a very well done presentation. Some of the information is out of date, but I found two titles listed as "coming soon" that we hadn't heard before. Looks like CPM will be releasing Battle Skipper and Darkside Blues sometime this year.

For those of you on the Animeigo DVD mailing list, this is already known, but for those not, here's some of the things that came out of the most recent digest.

Vampire Princess Miyu is definitely on track for release this year Shonan Bakosuzaku is not going to be a 5.1 DD/DTS Special Edition as I had hoped (I was kidding in my request for this, honest!) There are some issues being looked at regarding how/who will release what (Videophonics appears to be getting a test run with UY before possibly doing the sub/dub releases), but AD Police Files and Bubblegum Crash are on the to do list as well Something that may be worked out (fan response may help) is getting the UY TV series (and others most likely) in 5 disc sets as opposed to 10 disc sets. Essentially, 125$ a pop for a box to see if more people would get interested From the Samurai Cinema collection, we should expect the Lone Wolf & Cub "later this year". This is great news by itself for a lot of fans

And to follow up my earlier mention of Judge, here's my review of this new DVD from Central Park Media.

Also today, be sure to check out Roman's alternate angle review of Tekken.

And while I'm at it, another round of kudos and job well done to the Anime Journey's site and their excellent pics of the anime DVD's. Definitely a good place to check out some top notch images.

NEWS: 03/17/99

Pete's sent in a new review today, trying to clear out some of his backlog. Check out the review for Master Mosquiton DVD Box Set.

I got in my copy of Judge today, and took a peek at their alternate angle, a first I believe for CPM (as was dual layered discs for Arslan). I'm very pleased to see the original credits being done this way, now all we need is a translated version. I know, I know, complain complain complain! :) The disc looks very excellent though, and I'll hopefully have a review up in a day or two.

NEWS: 03/16/99

Okay, I made myself sit down and watch all four hours of the Heroic Legend of Arslan today. So we've got the full review up now for you to check out!

NEWS: 03/15/99

What better way to start a Monday morning (especially if you're snowed in like me) than with a review of La Blue Girl DVD #2? And while you're at it, check out the third region 2 submitted by Pete this weekend, Voogie's Angel: Forever and Ever. Pete's definitely giving me more and more reason to pick up a region 2 capable player!

And if in the afternoon you're still looking for more, here's my just completed review of the final volume of La Blue Girl.

NEWS: 03/14/99

What better way to spend a Sunday morning than to read about a couple of sweet looking region 2 anime DVD's? Check out the reviews for Super Doll Licca-Chan Step 1 and Go-Senzo-san-e Vol. 1 presented by Pete Plank today!

NEWS: 03/12/99

Animeigo has added three new email lists for people to join. One of them is even DVD specific. Hop on over and sign up!

Congratulations to Joseph Chang, who won our first Anniversary contest consisting of all three Battle Athletes OVA DVD's! You can check out the answers to this contest here!

Is region 2 getting ready to explode? Regular visitor Sebastian Corbet sent me this link to CD Japan which has a lot of releases. The Tenchi Universe TV series is included in there, so there's a good chance we'll get that this year too.

Urusei Yatsura Petition, Part 2? Apparently Animeigo hasn't made a decision how to handle the UY 21+ releases. It's most likely going to depend on the success of the UY box sets. Personally, I'd rather see 21+ come out day and date or just thereafter from the VHS releases. Do you agree? Tell them here! Your voice was heard for the first 80 episodes, make it count again!

Though some places got them early (and street dates seem to have changed), both Judge and the Heroic Legend of Arslan should be out or due out Tuesday. All that's left for this month is the big bad boy, the Tenchi THX Box set!

Be sure to check out this alternate angle review of Demon City Shinjuku submitted today by Roman Martel!

NEWS: 03/10/99

Well, the obvious big news today is the fact that the Urusei Yatsura DVD's are becoming a true reality. They're going into the authoring/mastering stage as we speak! And when it hits the retail market sometime between 6-9 months after the collectors get it directly, you'll be pleased to note that instead of DVD-10's, they'll be DVD-5's, which means they'll retail for 29.95 each, or as low as 20.95 depending on how the distribution goes with some stores. I'm just ecstatic to get them all! You can check out the full skinny here at Animeigo! I hope my mass mailing last week had some hand in getting us over the 500 mark!

You may also have noticed that I've signed on with Reel.com as an affiliate. I've been buying more and more there lately, so I figured I'd see how well this works out. But in keeping with tradition, the banners will be minimal. What you see on the main page plus the forum is it for the big banners. There may be a small bar floating around in the reviews, but I'm trying to keep it relatively less of an eyesore. Animenation is definitely keeping a main position though as an excellent supplier of anime goods!

And while you're here, take a trip down memory lane as Carter McKendry brings you an alternate angle review of Tenchi Muyo: Daughter of Darkness!

NEWS: 03/09/99

Grist for the rumor mill? Those of you who got this in one of the resource newsletters might recall I mentioned that El-Hazard OVA's might get the same treatment as the Tenchi Ultimate box set. I'm hearing them again from reliable sources, though nothing in the way of dates or features, but it looks like it might be a reality at some point this year.

I'm doing a little legwork right now regarding Maison Ikkoku. From what I'm gathering, it looks the magic number may be 2000+ on a petition for it to be taken as a true potential candidate, especially since it's a "weak" sales series. I'm trying to get more information about it so we don't end up with a Urusei Yatsura style situation though.

One of the visitors here, Xdragon, sent me an email today to let me know this site was reviewed recently in Mixxzine. The results?

Out of a 10, we got: 7.5, 7.0, 8.5, 9.5
Category: Anime
Updates: Frequently
Graphics: Light
Content: DVD info

Wired: DVD Releases
Tired:Boring Layout
Speed: High

If there was any other information about it, send it along as I'm curious to see what else they said. Too bad I let my subscription lapse (they call my layout boring? at least it's legible. Oops, don't want to go there!).

NEWS: 03/08/99

My reviews for the La Blue Girl #1 DVD is up as well as the Venus 5 review.

Jme Wheeler sends in his first alternate angle review of Tenchi in Tokyo Vol. #1!

I forgot to make mention of it last week, but I finally got in my Bubblegum Crisis keepcases. I'm extremely pleased with how they look. They definitely stand out among the DVD's I have and I'm glad that this issue is now behind us.

CNN's FN (Financial Network) did a piece recently that included Multimedia 2000 and apparently shows some BGC stuff along with it. You can check it out in their Digital Jam section if you have the Windows Media player. Unfortunately mine seems to be on the blink, so I can't say much about it other than kudos for getting some good publicity.

NEWS: 03/07/99

My March anniversary editorial is now up.

Couple of minor things here. It looks like the BGC #3 DVD is making its way back into retailers hands, so if you're still on the lookout for this disc, you may have some luck in finding it now.

Edwin at the ADSC has let me know that he's added Gunbuster and Mahou Tsukai Tai to the petition list, so make sure you add your name to the list. If you're having trouble with the petitions (some people are), we may actually be hitting our software limit and may have a newer more versatile version sometime in the future.

I've also been told that the BGC release in Region 2 is firming up. Apparently it'll have both an English dub and English subtitles. And the third disc looks to have a much longer running time, possibly containing the entire Hurricane Live shows. No word on region coding, but I'll assume that it will be. The price is also 4800 yen per disc, so for those who are interested, it's definitely a step up in price.

NEWS: 03/05/99

Check out the Pioneer news page for an update regarding the Tenchi box set. Essentially, the Japanese 2.0 track is being done away with for space reasons, which isn't much of a loss as the 5.1 mix will be easily down converted on everyone's player. They do make mention now that the Mihoshi Special is not on it, though as everyone will admit, it would have been best to say this at first. Still, this is my second most anticipated release of 1999! All I need now is Wings of Honeamise.

I know I'm not the only one out there... There must be a few PokéDVD fans out there. Rejoice with me, in that there are two new discs out next week!

And this weeks non-anime recommendation comes from Paramount. This week sees the release of Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. It's also the movie that really introduced me to John Woo and started me on the path to following his career. Though over the top in several places, it's a fun movie.

NEWS: 03/04/99

All right, let's see, what's up for today. As you can see in our upper left corner, the lovely Divi-chan is showing off the spring line of Anime on DVD Wear©. She's also popping up on our reviews page too... Be sure to check out the forum for information on some possible KISS work related to Divi, providing there's interest.

But what about DVD's themselves? Well, ADV made their formal notice on their website yesterday regarding the Slayers Motion Picture and the Legend of Crystania movie. Big kudos to ADV and big thanks to the folks out there for letting us know about this almost a week ago.

Pioneer put up a few new announcements today as well. I'll get there information pages up this weekend, but in mid-May, expect to see two more volumes of the dub-only Dragonball Z TV series and 2 dub-only volumes of the Pokemon series as well. I know what you're thinking, where's the good stuff? There should still be an announcement for a Tenchi in Tokyo TV for that month at the least. I'm betting we'll hear more as we go into June, but they may surprise us with another title for May.

NEWS: 03/03/99

Our one year anniversary (which is owed all to you, the visitors here and the regular contributors of articles and general wackiness) is upon us. March 6th be the day that we get to a point I honestly didn't think would happen. Not for lack of fan input, but I just never saw myself really committing to this as I have. But you guys and gals out there keep me going, as well as the sheer joy of having more anime on my favorite media. So, in honor of this, we're throwing out biggest prize contest yet. Click on the link here to learn how you can win the entire Battle Athletes OVA series!

Animania sent me an email to let me know that they've gotten in their copies of the two new Pokemon discs. They look good! I can't wait for more Pikachu personally.

NEWS: 03/02/99

According to today's update from Laserviews, it looks as if Cybernetic Guardian has been put on the postponed with no new date list from CPM. This follows after the same happened with the Strange Love disc last month. I'm guessing it still has to do with Panasonic and their recent change to doing only a select few companies discs. Hopefully we'll get a new date for them sometime later in the year.

If there's a lack of news over the next few days, don't panic. I'm just stuck in an overly long work week this week and may not have the opportunity to do too too much with the site. I should have up our anniversary contest tomorrow (Does 3 free DVD's interest anyone?) and hopefully towards the end of the week there should be some new reviews for Arslan and the Anime 18 titles. Time has just simply escaped me this week.

For those interested, Animenation also got in their copies of Arslan as well as Judge this week. If you want to pick 'em up early, head on over!

NEWS: 03/01/99

Are you calling those folks at Pioneer bastards for not releasing Bastard! on DVD yet? If so, go get your mouth washed out by your mother! Seriously though, I put in a polite inquiry to them today, and was told that it was initially slated for LAST December, but some copyright issues are holding it up (issues not specified). Considering the length of time it took to get this series even onto these shores due to the music related issues, I'll happily wait a bit longer. They're still planned, but no date.

I received a response from CPM regarding the Slayers TV series. As some of you may know, ADV made an informal announcement that the movie would be coming to DVD most likely this summer. Many wondered if this would affect the CPM series. I've been told that the movie and the TV series have different licensors (not at all unusual) which is why ADV could swing it and CPM is still trying to resolve it. And I do want to stress that, they are trying to get it resolved.

The March calendar is now up. While not as packed as one would hope, there's some goodies in there. Two nice big box sets for this month. There's also a chance any of the three "missing" titles from DVD Ltd. might make it out as well at any point, so keep that in mind.

Check out this link from the folks at IGN about the upcoming Playstation 2. While it's a rumor to some degree (the price makes me wonder the most), this could have some impact on the anime world. I'd certainly buy an import version that would let me play the Japanese games AND region 2 anime DVD's....

Here's a tidbit to keep people going. Mentioned in the forum, it's the official unofficial status of Fushigi. Remember, things may change very easily at any point with this. Supposedly there are two box sets of 13 episodes planned for Fushigi Yugi for this fall. I'd estimate that they'd run the same kind of price as the Tenchi box set (i.e. 120$ each, or 240$ for the entire set).

One thing I've mentioned in the past couple of days is the fact that there isn't a group in the US or Canada that accepts deliveries for people outside of there to accept delivery of anime and reship it off to wherever they need to go. With over 50 replies so far about UY petitioners having this problem, I wondered if anyone would step up to the plate for this. Someone has! This person here is taking a limited number of requests to do this. You can email him here to see what the deal is.