02/26/2002 Edition

Hah! To all the naysayers who said I couldn't write a forum buzz 2 weeks in a row, I say "HAH!". I'm getting a second column out already, and it's been less than 2 weeks (sorta...)! There's been a lot of forum activity lately. A lot of this is due to Katsucon being 2 weekends ago, when we see a lot of the convention season's first announcements and rumors. This year was no exception, as we've seen the forums explode in discussions and rampant speculation. Luckily, I'm here to try to make sense of it all. So let's get with the summarizing!

Media Blasters off-the-record
 

Forum regular iserlohn was kind enough to share a few details from an informal chat he had with Meredith of Media Blasters. It appears to me that they are really pushing to make some noise in the anime market this year. They are hoping that they could make enough money on Berserk to be able to make the rest of it. Some other comments included information on the rest of their properties - "Knight Hunters is selling VERY well, though NOTHING is selling as well as Kenshin". Trying to get remastered R2 video for Berserk, but volume 1 will be out on April 30.

This is some of the better information to come out of the convention this weekend, I'd encourage you to check out the Original Post of course.

Fans read this thread... and died.
 

Ahhh, there's nothing funnier to read than a thread about Manga's latest DVD release or acquisition. Simply because there's SO MUCH BITCHING. The title in this question this time is 3 OAV episode hype machine Read or Die. While a lot of the usual discussion about Manga mistreating everything was present, but probably a more important issue was raised by this thread. The real issue is how newer releases with only 3 episodes will be handled. Is it best to have 3 discs with only 1 episode? Or a single disc with all 3 episodes? Or split some other way? [ Original Thread ]

Love that Hina!
 

The hot title on the forum this week is of course Love Hina DVD 1. Having watched my own copy of the disc this past week, I will say that the video quality of the disc is quite good. The primary complaints about the disc really involved the ending credit roll on the video end and the especially low volume of the English dub. There is a reason behind this, and it's not defective authoring. Read this response from Charles McCarter to get the whole story. Don't hate Bandai for it.

Evangelion Stuff
 

I'm not sure if Chris mentioned this on the news page or not, but dlw has done some post-katsucon Eva premium box clarification. It is NOT a limited-edition box. It's being done as 2000 boxes are being initially made, and when they sell out, another 2000 will be made. They will be made as long as they continue to sell, then no more will be made. I would imagine a couple runs of this box will be made, so don't panic if you have cold feet about the box right now.

Also, the remastered Evangelion DVD 1 has a creditless opening and ending on it, forum user Fireye has instructions on how to access it: Evangelion DVD 1 clean op/ed instructions

Quote of the week:
 

Ok, this is rare. I have two quotes of the week this time, since I didn't have time to figure out any fun forum facts. Both of these quotes are from TuxedoFred, who in a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence has managed to make me laugh twice!

Okay, so I'm a lazy bum. I want to be free to not watch the trailers with one hand on a beer and the other one scratching my lazy ass. -TuxedoFred [ Original Post ]

Why buy Neon Genesis Evangelion 2-8 at all, when you can get just as much entertainment and even more religious/philosophical depth by hitting yourself in the head with a brick? -TuxedoFred

Sean Broestl
broestl@animeondvd.com