Friday, June 30th, 2000

New titles from Bandai (06:23 PM EST)

Thursday, June 29th, 2000

A  word from Bandai (05:26 PM EST): With it being the day before Anime Expo kicks off, Jerry Chu at Bandai took a moment from his busy schedule to drop us a line for all the readers of this site:

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Our booth exhibit will feature two high definition plasma monitors featuring not only our latest home video offerings on DVD, but  a made for DVD preview of upcoming releases. Bandai America will be on head  to demo its upcoming video game entries for the first time to the public.  Want to check out those Gundam Wing action figures you've been hearing  about, have no fear! Bandai America will be unveiling its new line of Gundam  Wing action figures, as well as the Gundam Wing Endless Waltz Model kits,  and the impressive Gundam Wing DX Transformable Action Figure (Its huge)  Various Japanese guests from Japan will also be on hand to sign autographs,  and who knows what else, at the Bandai booth. 

In addition to our limited Escaflowne and Jubei-Chan the Ninja Girl  T-shirt giveaways, there will be an abundance of giveaways, posters,  stickers, and other little goodies to hand out. Be sure to stop by the booth  and grab a Bandai bag, a free Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy animation cel used  in the actual production will be inserted into each bag in order to  commemorate its upcoming release on DVD later this year!! 

Bandai Entertainment will be attending three panels this year:  The Escaflowne the Movie Production Panel, Anime on DVD hosted by  Megazone, and the Bandai Entertainment industry panel. If you going  to Anime Expo, be sure to especially step by the Bandai Entertainment panel,  you wouldn't want to miss out on the new Gundam Wing announcements, or the  slew of new title acquisitions, or even the new DVD announcements....hey,  we'll even throw in a few T-shirts for the heck of it! 

Stop by and say Hello! 

Jerry Chu 
Bandai Entertainment 

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Kicking things off early (05:24 PM EST): This past year has seen some serious growth on the anime as a business, and Bandai's taking it to another step with a new PR firm. With Anime Expo knocking on the door, they've got three new press releases, which you can find here.

Early review (05:23 PM EST): Dwight Chapin got his hands on an early copy of the Patlabor Movie 1 disc and has done the right thing in sending in a review! Check it out here.

AX tidbit (05:20 PM EST): The folks at New Generation Pictures will have something interesting at the panel on Saturday at 1:00. They produced a dub in the form of a four minute pilot of the very odd Super Milk-Chan show. It's been described as a cross between Power Puff Girls and South Park. Episodes average 4 minutes in length, and there's approximately 4 30 minute tapes worth of material. The folks at Pioneer are using this preview as a way of getting feedback about pursuing this project, so take some time and check it out. And check out our existing region 2 review of the show!

Wednesday, June 28th, 2000

Kenshin slips (07:26 PM EST): According to the Right Stuf site, Rurouni Kenshin Vol. #3 has slipped from it's 9/26 release to a 10/31 date while their live action Rikki Oh disc shifts from a 7/18 release to a 9/26 release.

Newly reviewed (07:24 PM EST): It arrived a bit later than expected, but our copy of Garzey's Wing has gone under the review blade and is now up and available. We should be getting our copy of Legend of the Last Labyrinth by this weekend and will have a review for it then.

Manga specs (06:10 PM EST): The full specs for the upcoming Manga releases have become available. Patlabor Movie 1 will have Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound English, Japanese Stereo, English Subtitles and special Japanese trailers. While I find it extremely unfortunate that it's not anamorphic, it will be presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio which is high on the importance list as well.

The Sword For Truth disc will definitely contain both languages presented in their original stereo mix and with it having a running time of sixty minutes, will retail for the lower price of 24.95$.

AX this week (05:31 PM EST): The big bad west coast con, Anime Expo, kicks off this Friday with its four day schedule. A lot of readers from the site are going, and I certainly hope for a lot of con reports and pictures. And I mean that, pictures! Especially of the anime on DVD panel. We'll provide updates every evening as the news comes in from the various panels, of which there should be plenty. In chatting with most studio folks, there should be some really cool announcements made over the course of the convention. And everyone be sure to say hi to Ladycat at her first convention appearance at the anime on DVD panel!

Ventura, Ventura, DVD! (05:30 PM EST): The Urusei Yatsura DVD Box Set is now in transit from the replicators to AnimEigo, and they should have them Wednesday or Thursday. They may have a few sets with them at Anime Expo as well to show off. Depending on how quickly they can process and ship out the sets, fans could be watching Lum by the end of next week.

More on Mononoke (05:29 PM EST): Well, apparently I was close in my speculation. According to an article over at Nausicaa.net, the Buena Vista Home Video group in Japan requested that the US DVD release not include the Japanese language version. This is primarily because of fears of reimportation of a low priced high quality disc where none currently exists. With the huge increase in DVD sales in Japan this year due to the easily hackable Playstation 2, it's no surprise that BVHV Japan is doing its best to protect its revenue. BVHV in Japan is the distributor for all Ghibli movies, as per an agreement a few years ago so it makes sense that they'd be the ones to request this. Of course, this does nothing but upset fans. There is information for fans to give their thoughts via email, which will be given to the new Disney Special Acquisitions gentleman who apparently will be meeting with some folks during Anime Expo. As always, civility gets you further than rudeness, so keep that in mind with your emails. An overview article can be read here.

Tuesday, June 27th, 2000

Good cop, bad cop? (04:44 PM EST): Reader "Ken" received a follow-up email from Manga regarding the upcoming release of Angel Cop. It looks like the only thing that is going to be removed is the commercial break eye-catches, and they are pursuing the rights to the Japanese language track to make the DVD version a dual language one. Only time will tell, but let's hope they succeed!

Alternate angles (02:33 PM EST): We've got a new batch of alternate angle reviews today for your perusal. Dustin Blaine Javier has a review for Cowboy Bebop Session 2, Brian Beckham on Tenchi Universe Vol. 1, Justin Emerson on Tenchi Universe Vol. 1, J.J. Sabadoz on Neon Genesis Evangelion Collection 0:1 and Ivan Oro on Slayers: The Motion Picture.

Starblazers look (01:21 PM EST): We got in our copy of Starblazers today from the UK, and hopefully this hands on look will help clear up some of the continual questions I've gotten since my initial posting on it last week. First up, there is no region or video format listing on the package itself. There is a BBFC rating and the Kiseki logo, but the contents themselves are copyrighted to both the original Japanese group and to Voyager Entertainment. The disc is NTSC and region 1,2,3,4,5,6,ALL according to my PowerDVD information page. This disc should be fairly easy to release in the US, as it's only the cover artwork and the disc silkscreening that have anything UK related on it. Heck, this UK release even has an FBI warning at the beginning!

As for the disc itself, after a cursory glance, I'd say it really depends on how good your VHS copies are. This show is over 20 years old and from what I hear, Voyager is still using the same masters. There is a ton of grain, lots of motion artifacting and plenty of film defects in the form of dirt, fingerprints and dust. Your mileage may vary, and it's the content that counts, and knowing Starblazers fans, they may be happy to finally retire those VHS tapes.

We're swamped (09:40 AM EST): The official word came out on the Princess Mononoke release from Disney. The disc will arrive on 8/29 and will contain English and French 5.1 language tracks. There is no indication of any Japanese track. We've gotten literally hundreds of emails on it overnight, and can't really read or reply to them all. Most of them are expressing an immense amount of anger over this while others aren't surprised at all. While I'm hardly a Disney defender, one thing to keep in mind is that Studio Ghibli may not have allowed a Japanese language track to be on it, as there is no Region 2 version available. With as hugely popular as Mononoke was in Japan, this would likely cause a lot of importing, especially with the high quality anamorphic release that Disney will have. Rumors have been going about for many months of a possible Japanese release of any Ghibli title in Japan (as opposed to the French Porco Rosso or the numerous bootlegs), and the lack of a Japanese track on the Region 1 version may be an indication of Ghibli's plans to release in Japan.

Of course, it's easier to just constantly bash the various studios and use all kinds of invective. I certainly won't dissuade that. But I'm not going to participate in it.

Press releases (09:35 AM EST): Two new press releases came in today. The first is information on Urban Vision's panel for Anime Expo, which I'm sure you Berserk fans will be sure to attend to impart the necessity of DVD and more than 2 episodes per release. The other is the latest announcement list from Right Stuf, all VHS.

Monday, June 26th, 2000

Pioneer updates (06:40 PM EST): Over at Pioneer, they updated their upcoming list today giving information on titles listed below at Right Stuf. They also list Trigun Vol. 4, confirming the 9/26 release date. Click here for the full press release. The PDF version confirms that Sakura is Japanese language with soft/removable subtitles and what may be the cover art for volume one. Dual, which also has cover artwork, will contain limited edition static clings of the characters. The cover artwork for Trigun and Key are also available and Trigun confirms volume four will contain a chromium card as well.

Right Stuf updates (05:20 PM EST): The folks over at Right Stuf have updated today with some new dates for upcoming DVD's. Key The Metal Idol Vol. 2 will hit on 9/19, Gundam Wing Vol. 3 on 9/19, Dual Vol. 1 containing four episodes will hit on 9/26 and Card Captor Sakura (subtitled only) with four episodes will debut in its true form on 9/12. Our confirmed upcoming page has been updated accordingly.

CPM bits (04:14 PM EST): We got in our copy of Garzey's Wing today, and while we haven't done more than skim through the overall product, the disc itself looks quite good. Of note, is the trailer section. Unlike Geobreeders, this disc actually contains the Lodoss TV animation, tied with the gorgeous Maaya Sakamoto opening song. Also included as previews on this disc are Maze, Photon and Slayers. With luck we should see Photon on disc by the end of the year, more than likely in a collected version making it better priced than the VHS release. Patience is rewarded, young grasshoppers!

You size 'em up (12:37 PM EST): Now that the first half of the year is over, which studio do you think is the top of the heap? Check out our latest poll.

Ask da 'Cat (11:06 AM EST): Christy is back this week with another Incredible Mini-Column of Ask Ladycat!

Top ten (10:39 AM EST): We've updated our top ten for the month of June. Bandai has snared the top two spots with both of their June releases (with Cowboy Bebop 2 selling 3 times as high as the second title). Pioneer and ADV make very respectable numbers with their latest entries as well. Tenchi Universe #1 even made it to the #9 slot on the Express.com top 15 this week.

Crono's column (10:31 AM EST): Crono has whipped up the "Editorial Replies" page for his first column entry on censorship in shoujo anime. You guys spoke out on the editorial, and these are your comments (along with talkback from Crono). There are many interesting points brought up in this bacth of letters. Check it out here.

Region 2 English (10:26 AM EST): We've updated our Region 2 English DVD page this morning with a few new additions, so those of you with multiregion players and the desire to see some stuff not yet available in your region, take a peek!

Sunday, June 25th, 2000

Gainax does more (01:26  PM EST): Reader "Makoruso" wrote in today following up on the FLCL information posted yesterday. According to Sazuma, the third volume of this six part OVA series will also contain English subtitles. It's unfortunate that the first part didn't, but if parts 2 - 5 do, I'm sold on it.

The FAQ Project (01:24  PM EST): We've added a new section to our forums yesterday to get reader input on our FAQ redesign and to get the most common questions asked and answered. Take a moment or two to browse the start of our new FAQ as well as participating in the forum!

Saturday, June 24th, 2000

More English in Japan (08:02  PM EST): Just when you thought it was little coming, some new titles in Japan on DVD contain English subtitles. The Pokemon hybrid movie release came out a few days ago, and we just got that little bad boy into our hands. We're currently trying to decode the menu options, but so far it looks like audio and subtitles on the fly have been disabled, so there are some weird selections. Japanese, Japanese with Japanese subtitles, English with English subtitles and English. Grumble grumble! On the plus side, it's not a very difficult story to follow, and the main feature looks gorgeous in anamorphic widescreen.

The big surprise though came last night in the forum as there was a confirmation that the second volume of the hot new Gainax series, FLCL (or Furi Kuri as it's being called), actually contains English subtitles. The first volume didn't, but hopefully future volumes will. One way to encourage them to do this is to email them! With luck, I should have my copy from CD Japan within a few days, as the Pokemon movie from them only took 3 days to arrive from there.

More on uncut DBZ (07:55  PM EST): The folks over at Toriyama.org have some new information up on the upcoming Dragonball Z uncut dual language DVD's. Apparently they may not be solicited as Dragonball Z but as the titles of the disc, such as Double Cross or Ginyu Attack or somesuch.

Friday, June 23rd, 2000

Digital ninja (06:42  PM EST): We've just gotten in confirmation from Bandai that the upcoming Jubei-Chan DVD's will contain a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The newly mixed English language track will be in full glorious 5.1 while the original Japanese language track will be presented in its original form. Purists vs. 5.1 fans, mark your territory.

Hello nurse! (06:40  PM EST): A link that's been floating around recently is this one that shows a number of pictures to the upcoming Amazing Nurse Nanako from Pioneer. This show looks like it runs the gamut from serious to completely silly to highly sexual. Hubba hubba, check it out.

New title announcements (05:56  PM EST): ADV Films has let loose its latest press release today. The first portion contains DVD releases announced for September in the form of Bubblegum Crisis 2040 Vol. #1 and Lost Universe Vol. #1. The October portion lists a release for SiN: The Motion Picture for a 10/24 release date, the same as the dub VHS (no sub VHS listed, the DVD is dual language). SiN will likely sell quite well considering how heavily it'll be marketed at the gaming sector. I'm a little disappointed that it's getting the full markup to 29.95 instead of 24.95, considering the length and the lack of a sub VHS release. Please keep in mind that this is likely not the full extent of ADV's October DVD commitment, as they tend to do retroactive announcements (such as this release with the September titles)  and we could see at least one if not two more titles for October.

Region 2 (05:51 PM EST): Tong Lin has sent in his latest missive on a region 2 title, this time the three episode compilation of the Blue Seed 2 OVA's.

AX  footnote (05:41 PM EST): Jonathan Klein of New Generation Pictures dropped us a line this morning about their Anime Expo panel. To celebrate their two year anniversary of working in the anime translation/sub/dub business, they're going to do a contest during their panel and give away things they've worked on in the past, both on VHS & DVD. Very cool news! And don't forget about our raffle at Otakon during the Anime on DVD panel where we'll be giving away over 500$ worth of anime DVD's to people!

Thursday, June 22nd, 2000

Manga bit (06:51 PM EST): A second confirmation has come in regarding the upcoming release of the Patlabor movies. In the Anime North con report and in a couple of separate emails copied to me, it's been confirmed that both Patlabor movies will be letterboxed, but they will not be anamorphic.

New next week (06:30 PM EST): Next week should see a few anime releases, though as usual dates are all over the place. Delayed from last week, Garzey's Wing from Central Park Media and Legend of the Last Labyrinth from Media Blasters should arrive. Burn Up W from ADV will definitely hit. Please Save My Earth from Viz has apparently slipped to 7/11. Aren't street dates fun? The A2K Checklist has been updated accordingly.

Ask the 'cat (06:30 PM EST): LadyCat is back again with another mini column with all kinds of additions, addendums and new questions!

Wednesday, June 21st, 2000

Digital omake (07:37 PM EST): One that we've omitted for awhile, Mike Diaz has sent in how to access the hidden trailers on Blue Submarine No. 6 Vol. 1.

New title announcements (06:00 PM EST): The folks over at Diamond have updated for their newest catalog and list a bunch of titles for a September timeframe. They don't include dates, so they could show up anytime. Some of them we already known and have dates for, others we didn't know when they'd hit. So let's jump right to it: Blue Submarine 6 Vol. 4 Ocean floor, $19.98, Cardcaptor Sakura Vol. 1 (Sub) $29.98, Dual Vol. 1 Vision $29.98, Escaflowne Vol. 1 Dragons and Destiny $29.98, Jubei Chan Vol. 2 Heart of Steel $29.98, Lost Universe Vol. 2 $29.95, Pokemon Vol. 21 Po Ke Corral $24.98, Pokemon Vol. 22 Hang Ten Pikachu $24.98, Trigun Vol. 4 Gun Ho Guns $29.98, Angel Cop The Collection $29.95, Black Jack $29.95, Cowboy Bebop Session 5 $29.98, Gundam Wing Operation 3 $24.98, Macross II The Movie $29.95, Maze Vol. 1 $29.99, Outlaw Star Vol. 1 $44.98, Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 3 Shadow Elite $29.95, Shinesman $29.95, Slayers Collection 4 DVD Set $129.99 and Wings of Honneamise $29.95. As always, we'll update our upcoming section when the actual street dates are confirmed. As expected, Outlaw Star is going to be 44.95 for 9 episodes on two dual layered discs (from what I've gathered). A surprise in that list is the second volume of Lost Universe from ADV. Thanks to "Genji" for letting us know Diamond updated and providing the list to the forum.

Starblazers, where are you? (06:00 PM EST): One of the more frequently asked questions is just where is Starblazers at? Most people were pretty surprised when it was released in the UK and not in the US. There's no release indication for the US at all at this point. Reader Brent Carnes wrote in today to tell us that not only is the UK release (dub only of course) region free, but NTSC. What does that mean? It's like most other domestic anime releases out here, you simply need to get it through Amazon UK or Blackstar.

Speculation: From some of the varied tidbits I've been getting from numerous sources (reliable and unknown) and tied with this new information about the UK release has really strengthened one thing in my mind; Voyager may not have the domestic rights to this title anymore. I've read various people indicating that Voyager has no contact with the original Japanese licensor (and this title has switched hands through legal means in Japan as well, if I recall correctly). With the lack of a US release, but the backdoor way of getting sales from the US with this trick, Voyager may be playing a last card in hopes of getting a few more sales out of it. I've also heard that the discs may have been manufactured in Taiwan, which may or may not be related to the actual ownership of the title. Again, this is all pure speculation on my part from a variety of sources. Could there be a chance for this title to be picked up by a more "modern" domestic anime company and be presented subtitled? Time will tell.

Site note (06:00 PM EST): I'd like to take a moment to welcome our first actual sponsor, CD Japan. These folks, based in Japan, are considered to be the absolute best place to get import DVD's and laserdiscs. Having bought a few from them myself, I can attest to the high level of satisfaction I had with my purchase and the delivery. 

Satirically speaking (06:00 PM EST): Steve Brandon has sent in a Letterman-esque top ten reasons why we should be grateful to Nelvana for bringing over Card Captor Sakura.... #1 is definitely the best reason!

Goodies (06:00 PM EST): Our two latest contests ended last night, so today we have the winners announced for our Sailor Moon contest and our Perfect Blue contest. One of the things I found really amusing with the Perfect Blue contest was the sheer number of entries that thought poor Meryl was a guy. One thing I need to do next time I do this kind of contest is to specify a PG or PG-13 level for content!

A note on Divi (06:00 PM EST): I've gotten a few questions in the past couple of days about the latest Divi-Chan picture in the upper corner and the text tag for it that you can read if you hover your mouse over it. A lot of people have thought that it was in response to the rampant criticisms of Cardcaptors and the overall treatment of Card Captor Sakura. While I do heartily agree with most peoples assessments of what Kids WB and/or Nelvana have done, the negativity doesn't stop there. Nor does it stop with ADV and the Evangelion overlays. Or Media Blasters and the MKR omake. Or the Pioneer episode per disc count. Or with about a half million other things that you'll find most online fans really crying foul over, demanding boycotts and generally being enraged over. Divi isn't smacking down anyone in particular. Consider her target the growing negativity of online fandom in general and how said fandom is perceived.  

Tuesday, June 20th, 2000

AnimEigo speaks (10:45 AM EST): Briefly at least. According to a post this morning by Robert Woodhead on the DVD mailing list, "...we got everything fixed (cross fingers...), and the set is now in replication.  There's a good chance we'll have it and be shipping in time for Anime Expo at the end of the month." Ahh, it'll be a UY July!

Press release (09:38 AM EST): The folks at Viz have sent out their latest weekly press release with all kinds of info on their general upcoming products.

Monday, June 19th, 2000

Con report (08:56 PM EST): Jay Locke has sent in a great report of what went on this past weekend at Anime North in Canada. While DVD news is pretty much nil, it sounds like the Anime on DVD crowd that was up there had a great time and saw a lot of really slick shows. Click here to check it out.

New title announcements (07:07 PM EST): Pioneer's distribution site updated today with a few new titles. On 9/19, Pioneer will be releasing Pokemon Vol. #21, Pokemon Vol. #22 and Tenchi Universe Vol. #4. You can read all the details here.

Digital omake (09:55 AM EST): Adding another piece to the puzzle, Bruce Moyle has sent in a piece of omake for the Macross Plus DVD's. I'm unable to verify this piece myself at the moment since I haven't gotten back my Macross Plus discs from Manga yet.

Sunday, June 18th, 2000

Anime on DVD @ Otakon (05:58 PM EST): Otakon's coming up fast (first weekend in August) and a couple of the faithful have started up a moderated mailing list to help get things in order for get together and general info. Click here to subscribe.

Digital omake (05:41 PM EST): Brandon Farkas has discovered a new piece of omake in Haunted Junction, one that will make fans of Miss Hanako happy...

Officially speaking (05:35 PM EST): Couple of bits here. First up, Viz has sent out over a half dozen press releases in the past few days, all manga related (though their donation of manga to schools and libraries is a must read). The second is that the Nelvana site has updated their Cardcaptors site. According to their FAQ, Pioneer will be releasing the subtitled version on DVD in September of this year (pardon me while I drool). Having seen the first episode (or the eighth, depending on your perspective), I am eagerly awaiting an unmolested copy and am extremely happy that Nelvana has indeed listened to the fans and will provide this through a high quality product provider. Now we just need to get the Sailor Moon property holders to play ball with us.

Climbing on up (05:27 PM EST): Checking out the top fifteen at Express this week, Cowboy Bebop Session 2 has done a good job not only in holding onto a spot in the list for a second week, but actually climbing one spot to number seven. Smiling faces must be coming up in Bandai-land. They've definitely got the DVD bug.

Friday, June 16th, 2000

New title announcements (05:55 PM EST): According to the Right Stuf website, Manga has added two new titles to its slate for release. On 9/26, we'll see the Macross II movie and Angel Cop. Click on either title to see more information.

Manga bits (05:42 PM EST): The folks over at Manga have updated their site a bit. On their main page you'll see the box art for Patlabor 1 and Sword for Truth (as well as the VHS artwork for X/1999). Checking out the summer explosion page, you'll note a lengthy section at the bottom for Manga on DVD. Curiously, in the now available (presumably through the summer), Angel Cop is listed in addition to the two unreleased Patlabor movies. Some good titles are listed in the coming soon section (though we've heard 2001 for Giant Robo), I'll just be glad to get more Shirow on DVD.

New on site (05:39 PM EST): I'd like to take a moment to introduce our latest column. We're kicking it off tonight with a planned weekly piece by Justin "Crono" Strauss, who will be tackling some of the usual subjects and some of the unusual ones in his pieces. The first one deals with one of the hot topics that causes much concern among many fans, censorship. Click here to check it out.

New in Japan (05:36 PM EST): The folks at CD Japan have sent out their latest update, chock full of new DVD titles. Fans of Love Hina will be extremely pleased (when will this be licensed?) as well as some special Rurouni Kenshin discs. 

Region 2 reviews (05:33 PM EST): New in our region 2 section is Macross DVD Collection: Macross Plus Vols. 1 & 2 by Gabriel Ochoa and Tong Lin takes a look at the Rurouni Kenshin OAV Recollection release. Marie Kelley gives us a review of her first region 2 disc in the form of A Little Princess Sara Vol. #1.

Alternate angles abound (05:30 PM EST): We've got a few alternate angles in the queue today for everyone. Steve Brandon has gone into Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Rose Collection Vol. #2, Justin Emerson sets his sights on the Magic Knights Rayearth Memorial Collection, Ivan Oro provides a Spanish language review of Neon Genesis Evangelion 0:1 and Peter Schall takes a content look at Perfect Blue.

Thursday, June 15th, 2000

Ask Ladycat (06:10 PM EST): She returns again this week with another mini column similar to her previous one... though there seems to be some kind of weird Sanrio flavor, some bits about Pioneer service manuals and some dirt on Yamato. As always, check it out!

New next week (06:08 PM EST): This week had nothing, but next week starts to make up for it. Pioneer brings out the big guns again with Tenchi Universe Vol. #1 making its DVD bow, Media Blasters brings their next release into line with Legend of the Last Labyrinth (or Princess Rouge as it was known on VHS) and finally Central Park Media brings some lesser known Tomino work to the states in the form of Garzey's Wing. And for you out there who are in the same mindset as me, next week brings out the trippy flashback G.I.Joe movie. Ah, now those were the days. 

Press speak (06:04 PM EST): Urban Vision is adding a new contest to tie into their anime now showing on Cinemax. You can check out their press release here.

New artwork (06:00 PM EST): Central Park Media has added some new artwork to their site in the forms of Slayers box set and Maze OVA. Be warned, both are large. Thanks to Ender for the heads up on the forum.

Wednesday, June 14th, 2000

Advance review (08:53 PM EST): Due out next Tuesday is the latest from Pioneer in the ongoing Tenchi saga. We've got an early review of Tenchi Universe Vol. #1 up for your perusal.

She will be mine (06:39 PM EST): The folks over at Anime News Service came across some black and white pictures of the upcoming Vision of Escaflowne statues that are being produced for US release. Hitomi will be mine at last!

New alternate angles (06:21 PM EST): Today, Roberto Zegarra takes a quick look at the Ranma 1/2 OVA set while Joshua Carvahlo takes an in-depth look at the Magic Knights Rayearth Memorial Collection set.

New titles announcements (05:50 PM EST): ADV Films has set the release date for a couple of new titles today. On September 12th, we'll see Bubblegum Crisis 2040 Volume 1 and Lost Universe Volume 1 with an MSRP of 29.99$. Lost Universe contains 4 episodes with English and Japanese audio and English subtitles. Bubblegum Crisis 2040 contains 4 episodes with English, Japanese and Spanish audio and English subtitles. Thanks to David Williams for posting this cool info for us.

Tuesday, June 13th, 2000

Talkin' Tenchi (03:20 PM EST): The kind  folks over at Pioneer have sent us an early copy of Tenchi Universe Vol. #1 today. We'll be taking an indepth look at it later this evening, but a cursory look at it reveals it to be the usual high Pioneer standard release. The limited extra this time around is... finger puppets! These are already a hit here at our house with our 2 month old, Amethyst.

MKR review updates (01:50 PM EST): We made a couple of tweaks to the Rayearth reviews this afternoon. The first is that we've been told where to find the voice actor credits (disc 1 only, character information page) and we've changed the region coding from region 1 to region 1,2,3,4,5,6.

Studio scorecard (09:38 AM EST): I haven't done one of these in quite awhile, but since we're at the halfway mark of the year, let's take a look at the number of releases of anime DVD's since the formats start. Titles are placed with their owners, such as Pokemon with Viz and Dragonball Z with Funimation as opposed to Pioneer. Titles are only ones that have had a wide release (so no Ruin Explorers or early Burn Up W discs included or any advance copies I have). Box sets are counted as one release. Adult titles not included.
 

Press stuff (08:54 AM EST): In addition to a new Viz This Week press release that came out this morning, we've updated our top ten listing for June to date, and as expected,  Bandai is on top again with Cowboy Bebop 2 and Haunted Junction.

Panel and early pic (08:01 AM EST): We got in a spot of information and an exclusive early preview of some artwork today that I want to share with everyone  from Jonathan Klein of New Generation Pictures this morning:

The New Generation Pictures Panel has been put on the Anime Expo Schedule, for Saturday, July 1st at 1:00 PM.  We hope you and our supporters will be there in attendance.  Please feel free to make mention of this on your website (I'd hate to have an empty panel room).

Our panelists will be

Taliesin Jaffe: Director of Nazca & Amazing Nurse Nanako

Greg Weisman: Director of the new 3x3 Eyes dub (and creator/producer/writer on numerous U.S. Animated TV shows including Gargoyles, Starship Trooper, MIB and Max Steel)

Brett Jacobsen: Supervisor of Subtitle Production for New Generation Pictures

Glen Matisoff: President of "The Post Office" our audio production partner on all of our Pioneer projects, he's responsible for the awesome audio on Nazca, Nanako and 3x3 Eyes.

And yours truly, Jonathan Klein: Vice President and supervisor of all productions for New Generation Pictures.

I'm hoping that New Generation Pictures' President, Reiko Matsuo will also be joining us, but she may have a previous engagement that might keep her away.

It will be an open forum to discuss any topics, such as our dubbing and subtitling projects for companies such as Pioneer, CPM, Right Stuf and Urban Vision. I'm sure there are people curious to know how lunatics like us started an anime translation, dubbing & subtitling production company. But of course we'd like to talk about such things as improving the quality of dubs and subs here in America.  Talking about what we think should be done and at the same time, we want to hear what the fans think should be done.  I think it will be a unique opportunity, since many times fans may talk with the importers and distributors about what titles they want to see, but when it comes to production quality of the DVD and videos, it's in the hands of companies such as ours.

As I said when we first started doing Anime, it is our company's goal to raise the bar on the quality of U.S. versions of anime in both sub and dub. Hearing from the fans will help us to do that much more.

So I hope that people will join us on Saturday, July 1st at 1:00 PM at Anime Expo.

As for the preview, I am attaching the front cover to the Nanako DVD to volume #1,  I am really happy with the end result. As for the extras, I can't tell you about them all, but Vol#1 will have something very special. If you know about Pioneer's Animetronic videos, then you will be please to see the Nanakotronic video included in the DVD, among other things in volume#1.

Thanks for all of your support,

Jonathan Klein

Monday, June 12th, 2000

Ask Ladycat (03:11 PM EST): Ladycat is back this week with another column, this time a new way for her, the mini column!

Alternate angles (03:11 PM EST): Only one new alternate angle today, this time coming from regular review contributor Roman Martel. Today he's going into detail on the latest Cowboy Bebop release.

Yer outta here (11:15 AM EST): The official word has come down today in a press release from Reel.com's parent company, Hollywood Entertainment. Apparently Buy.com will be handling existing preorders. To everyone who emailed me calling me an outright liar among other unprintable things and to those who copied me emails with Reel.com CSR's calling me an unreliable source, I simply must say: told ya so.

Newly reviewed (10:59 AM EST): I would have had these reviews up last night, but Fight Club took over my evening and caused quite a number of discussions among the viewers. So today, we've got our new reviews up for Magic Knights Rayearth TV Vol. #5 and also our overall view of the set in the Magic Knights Rayearth Memorial Collection 1.

Top 15 (10:54 AM EST): Only one anime title made it into the top 15 at Express, but Bandai must be pleased that Cowboy Bebop Session 2 made it to slot #8!

Sunday, June 11th, 2000

Alternate angles (05:42 PM EST): A couple of new ones today, check out Blue Submarine No. 6 Vol. 1: Blues from Mike McEwing and Perfect Blue from Matt Schley.

New contests (03:42 PM EST): Okay, we're catching up from our lull a little bit and settling into doing updates on the laptop, so that means its time for contests! This month we've got two running at the same time for completely different kinds of prizes. Be sure to check them both out!

Saturday, June 10th, 2000

Digest reviews (06:11 PM EST): Taking a little bit of time to clean out our backlog of TV cut dub versions of some shows, we now have digest reviews of Dragonball Z Vol. #15: Trouble!, Dragonball Z Vol. #16: The Ginyu Force and Dragonball Z Vol. #17: Super Saiyan?! added to our list of reviews.

Another one bites the dust (06:09 PM EST): According to a report in Friday's Hollywood Reporter, the parent company of Reel.com (Hollywood Video, a national rental chain) has decided to close the online store aspect of Reel.com. The entertainment and informational side, considered among the top ten most visited sites apparently, will stay open. I'm surprised that Reel is the first to go as I thought a few others would get the axe first. I very much doubt that we'll see many if any staggering close out sales since unlike some other retailers, Reel uses an outsourced distribution center (the same as CD Now and Vstores I believe). Who will be next?

Voltron! (06:01 PM EST): Reader Mike Duncan sent in an email today with a copy of a reply from the folks at Trimark. They indicate that Voltron will not only be seeing a VHS release but a DVD release as well. Trimark was announced this week to be bought out (I honestly don't remember who by) primarily for their home video market share, so I doubt that they're plans will change all that drastically and I recall hearing that they probably will retain the name as well. Good news for Voltron fans!

Friday, June 9th, 2000

Newly reviewed (05:31 PM EST): Today we've got our review for Magic Knights Rayearth TV Vol. #4 up and available. We should be watching some of volume 5 tonight, but time will be short. I must be honest, something much more important demands my attention (would someone hold the baby please?): Virtual On 2 and Gauntlet Legends arrived for my Dreamcast today! I gotta get in some play before Space Channel 5 arrives, even if that does have the voice of Apollo Smile in it. Saturday or Sunday will see the completion of the MKR TV series reviews as well as our final roundup review on the box set as a total package.

New in Japan (05:29 PM EST): CD Japan sent out another minor update today with a few items sure to get some of you psyched. The Escaflowne movie CD soundtrack and Geobreeders 2 on DVD, including a limited edition first pressing, are just some of the items listed.

Tweakin' (05:21 PM EST): Couple of minor changes today. We've made a fix to the Digital Omake for Sailor Moon S. We inadvertently left in the "computer only" part of it when it works from standalone players as well. We've also added a link to a new petition for an actual fun fighting show, Flame of Recca. I'd love to see a real translation of that myself, considering just how much swearing went into that fansub version. We've also updated our Anime 2K Checklist. This weekend we'll be updating the You Rate It! section as well with a few recently released titles.

Thursday, June 8th, 2000

O2K (06:01 PM EST): I'm rather pleased to say that I've been asked back as an American guest for this years Otakon convention in Baltimore, Maryland. My wife and I went last year and had a really good time, even with the strangeness of the panels we ended up on (and the lack of other panelists!). I've been told that there will be an anime on  DVD  panel this time around again, but no time/date yet. I'm hoping to get it before the con itself so people can make it that want to get to this particular panel. Last years went extremely well (with many thanks to Matt Greenfield of ADV taking a seat on the panel with me). To make this a bit more of a fun event, we'll be raffling off a few DVD's at the end of this panel for those who come and listen to us prattle on for however long it goes. If any studio folk out there want to contribute, let me know. Otakon looks to be the big get together of chat and forum regulars of this site, so I hope to see a lot of you that I met last year, meet a whole lot more of you, and pray that the panel is on Friday night so we can all go get blitzed afterwards!

New next week (05:56 PM EST): Zip! Nothing! Ya lazy studios! :) There's no anime DVD releases next week and frankly it's a dry week overall with only a few pickings here and there, even for someone like me who orders a ton of stuff. My only real pick next week is Chasing Amy. But if it streets, there's one title that may get the attention of a certain segment of fans here; Teenage Catgirls In Heat: Special Edition. Heh heh heh. Of course, many of us are still making our way through the MKR box set, so a little bit of a breather is good.

Darling no  DVD (05:54 PM EST): We've gotten several emails from people over the course of the week reporting that AnimEigo has sent a tentative week for the release of Urusei Yatsura TV 1. With luck, the set should ship during the last week of June. How's that for precise? 

ADV footnote (05:53 PM EST): Something we meant to do awhile back, but both slipped our mind and got lost in the shuffle was to update all the ADV DVD reviews to reflect that they cover regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 as opposed to being region 1 only as we listed.

Wednesday, June 7th, 2000

Newly reviewed (05:56 PM EST): We had a bit of rain out here in the northeast yesterday (enough that if it was snow, it would have been quite the blizzard!) so we did what we do best on our weekends; we watched anime! We've got reviews up for Magic Knights Rayearth TV Vol. #2 and Magic Knights Rayearth TV Vol. #3.

Digital omake (05:54 PM EST): A new tidbit has been sent in by a couple of readers for the Sailor Moon S: Hearts in Ice DVD!

New reviews (05:53 PM EST): We've got a decent number of new reviews today, so let's just get right to it. Troy Williams looks at the overall package of Magic Knights Rayearth Memorial Collection 1, Marc Yu gets into Trigun Vol. #2 and Roman Martel does the same. In our region 2 section, Jeffrey Stenzel takes a look at the Tenshi Ni Narumon series and Sean Kemp gets into the New Jojo's Bizarre Adventure DVD. Finally, in our hardware section Jamie Patchin takes a look at the latest entry in the low-end region free DVD players, the SMC DVD 330S.

Magic notes (05:51 PM EST): We're still going through our Rayearth collection, but I've noticed a lot of people saying something in particular about the set and want to clarify it for those who haven't seen my postings on it (and I forgot to put it in my disc 1 review). There are a lot of complaints that regardless of your players settings, the series will play the English opening no matter what. I've seen it called a mastering error as well. Let's back up the boat a bit and take a look at it here.

The openings and endings for each episode are actually the same throughout the series. Rather than encode these two portions four times each per disc, they encoded them once and each episode will go and pull these segments when reached. This alone will cause a pause or a few seconds of black screen on your player depending on how fast your player can do an access. The advantage of all this is less space used. This was something that people on the AnimEigo DVD mailing list and people on our forum wanted to know why it wasn't used much/at all over the past couple of years. AnimEigo opted not to use it since the credits are different for every Urusei Yatsura episode. Why Media Blasters chose it? I don't know. I don't think it works too terribly well, but it doesn't bother me.

But why doesn't it select the right language if you have your player (which is an option on a limited number of them) set for Japanese language? Or what's up with the numerous complaint emails I've gotten about there being no Japanese language opening? This is where I get confused as to how they did it as well, but I'm going to assume there is a problem in mastering it this way:

There are two video openings. There is the English language version and there is the Japanese language version with hard matted subtitles. The default video track is the English language version. Since it's a completely different video block, "audio on the fly" is non existent, it doesn't exist on this particular video block. What you need to do is to go to the menu and select Japanese with English Subtitles (or just Japanese) and it will play the Japanese language opening. As I said, I don't know why it was done this way as opposed to soft subs and on the fly audio streams on the opening video block. It may have necessitated more work than was available in the time allowed. Regardless, there are indeed two openings and one of them is the Japanese language version. 

Run for your lives (05:50 PM EST): It's the Attack of the Killer Subtitles, as presented by first time columnist Adam Schenker. Be sure to check out this very detailed column.

Monday, June 5th, 2000

New title announcements (05:56 PM EST): Most of them were already known, but Pioneer has their new release announcements now up and you can read them here.

Bandai details (05:28 PM EST): Jerry Chu of Bandai sent in an email following up some of the details from this past weekends convention.

Spot of help... (03:17 PM EST): Just to stray from the usual topic briefly, I need a spot of help in acquiring a Rurouni Kenshin plush, as seen here. If anyone knows where this is actually in stock, please let me know!

Con follow-ups (01:31 PM EST): Now that most people have read the current con reports and there's plenty of discussion on the forum, I wanted to follow-up on a few bits from it. Probably the most surprising came from Pioneer in terms of Card Captor/Sakura. The news that it's being released as two separate discs seems to be more of a VHS point of view as opposed to a DVD view. Even if the dub is cut up and changed more than it should be, releasing them both on the same disc as a single layer double sided disc seems to be ideal. The only reasons I can see for not doing it that way is either marketing reasons or that the dub discs will come much later than the sub ones, since the subs are aimed at anime fans and the dubs for the mainstream kid market. 

ADV Films pausing of Eva releases after receiving a wide range of feedback is interesting. I had figured disc 2 and 3, which are already in production, to be pretty much locked down. Of course, the contingent of ADV haters on the net will never be pleased. It should be interesting to see what ADV intends to do regardless. It does need to be noted though that contrary to a lot of fans beliefs that the studios do listen to what the fans want; the problem tends to be that the fans complain almost anonymously in forums and newsgroups instead of the traditional email, postal mail letters and phone calls. Of course, even hearing the folks at the studio say that they do read all email and mail won't convince some of them.

There wasn't a heck of a lot more real news besides a few title announcements (such as the million times better than Devilman show, Devilman Lady) and more affirmation of titles being worked on. There are still more conventions this summer and two very big ones, so there's bound to be a lot more news coming out about title acquisitions, DVD releases and more. 

Ain't anime fun?

Even more con news (08:41 AM EST): Following up with more convention news, Tena Mastrangelo (webmaster over at Eternal Senshi) sent in this report on the Manga panel and Charles Lacz sent this bit in on ADV and Bandai.

Sunday, June 4th, 2000

More con news (09:04 AM EST): Quentin Bracken writes in this morning with bits from ADV Films and Manga. There's some interesting bits about Wings of Honneamise in there, but all I have to say is that it better be anamorphic. We've waited almost two years for it, what's another few months to actually get it right?

Saturday, June 3rd, 2000

Newly reviewed (11:01 PM EST): We've got the first in our series of reviews for the Rayearth box tonight, starting with the obvious one, Magic Knights Rayearth TV Vol. #1!

Con news 2 (08:34 PM EST): MegaZone made it to the Bandai  and Pioneer panels as well, and there's some excellent news in there, especially for Card Captor Sakura fans! Check it and the full ADV report here.

Con news (05:58 PM EST): MegaZone posted a lengthy piece on the forum about the ADV panel today and it covers a lot of things. For brevity, we will cover the DVD aspect of it here:

ADV is holding Eva DVD 2 to give them more time to compile and evaluate the feedback they've received from disc one.  They may go back to using subtitles, or perhaps a compromise with fewer overlays.  They reiterated that they did receive many complaints about too many sub titles on Eva, especially on later episodes, and that if they do go back to all subs - you've been warned and they'd rather not hear the complaints again when you have the screen covered again.

Alternate angles were brought up and they said they moved away from using them after experimenting with them because of the problems.  Sakura Wars was mentioned directly, saying that they'd had many complaints about players not handling alternate angles and that causing problems playing the disc.  They didn't want to use them on Eva because of the fear of selling thousands of discs and having half of them returned because they wouldn't play correctly.

When asked what brand DVD player to buy DLW and Matt said, repeatedly, "BUY A SONY!"  They play anything.  DLW said you can't use Sony's to proof discs because nothing bothers them - discs that hand trouble in Toshiba, Pioneer, etc, will play fine in the Sony.  And no, they don't get any kickbacks from Sony.

The numbers game (04:51 PM EST): Anime DVD had another good week this week, at least with Express.com. The new discs that came in yesterday had some solid numbers, with Cowboy Bebop 2 at 2500 (which is good, since second volumes typically  have a drop-off) and Haunted Junction at 700 copies. On their top 15, Castle of Cagliostro is still holding in and is at number 7 while new entry Magic Knights Rayearth Memorial Collection I makes a great entry onto the list at number 10. When it arrived last weekend, they got in 1200 copies of this box set and shipped almost 1000 of them in the first 2 days. Impressive!

New reviews (04:51 PM EST): A couple of  new ones up today; check out Sailor Moon S Movie: Hearts in Ice by Felix Kuo and Pokemon Vol. #18  by Thomas Kinnen, which kicks off the second season of Pokemon on DVD. We've also got our very own review of Pokemon Vol. 17! Over this weekend we'll also be digging into our Rayearth box set and providing individualized reviews for each disc and then at the end an overall review of the box set itself. 

Friday, June 2nd, 2000

New title announcements (04:51 PM EST): Express.com has a few new listings on their site today, both from Media Blasters. Increasing their output to two discs on 9/26, we'll see the third volume of Rurouni Kenshin as well as the Shinesman disc which contains both episodes. They also list another live action adult subtitled show, which brings their combined monthly DVD releases up to three a month.

In the news (04:49 PM EST): The latest list from CD Japan arrived today, and while it's pretty small compared to previous lists, the Ranma 1/2 box  clocking in at just under 1900$ US certainly makes up for it. Also check the press section for other new press releases from the anime studios.

Region 2 goodness (04:47 PM EST): Richard Lee has sent in three new region 2 reviews for general consumption today. Check out Bannou Bunka Nekomusume, Card Captor Sakura series and Mahou Tsukai-tai!

Thursday, June 1st, 2000

Deep in the heart of Texas (05:33 PM EST): Starting tomorrow is the next big summer con, Project A-Kon. Special guest this time around is Akemi Takada, most well known in the US for her work as the character designer on Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura and Patlabor. Consider me envious of those who are getting things signed! Going through the A-Kon site, I didn't see any specific panels that looked like they were for the various studios, but there may be some info trickling in over the weekend.

As a side convention note, when we attend Otakon this year, we'll be able to provide some good regular updates throughout the weekend since we just got in our new laptop (complete with DVD player... that makes my sixth!). Combined with our digital camera, we should have some good fun and reports for folks coming this August!

New next week (0532 PM EST): Though a bit smaller than originally thought to be, there's still some good new discs next week. Bandai will have Cowboy Bebop Session 2 containing episodes 6 - 10 and Haunted Junction  containing all 12 episodes of this amusing little TV series.

The Right DVD (05:31 PM EST): A little information has slipped out the Right Stuf's next DVD release. While it's not Tylor or something on His & Her Circumstances, they're intending to release some of the Imma Youjo: Erotic Temptress anime to disc sometime this summer. There are four VHS volumes currently being released, each subtitled only and with a running time of 45 minutes. My guess would  be that the DVD will contain two episodes each and hopefully unlike Cool Devices, the subtitles will be DVD subs and not hard subs. Our unofficial/rumored page has been updated accordingly.

Both guns blazing (05:30 PM EST): We got in word today from the folks over at Nightjar, LLC that they're hard at work on the Sol Bianca 2 menu and have just completed the menus for Trigun Vol. 3. From what I'm gathering, we should be able to look forward to the original openings/endings arriving on later volumes in the form of an extra.