Forum Buzz
By da Original S Man & asagiri2040

05/7/03 Edition

 

Important News

War Report: The Battle for the AoD Forums

For those who don't follow the forums, you probably don't know the full history of the swap from DCForum software to the new UBB. Well, here's the Cliffnotes version of why we swapped.

Many months ago the DCForum was invaded by the eVil Forum Administrator. He was mean, cruel, and I hear he killed a man in Reno just for fun. The mods and forum members met a new hell under his rule. After constant messages sent back and forth to Darth Sodapop's imperial forces through Manga DVDs, the mods were able to open the flood gates for an all out invasion to take back the forums. Hundreds of fake users died that day.

With the coup d'état complete, Darth Sodapop forced his sidekick Sean & occasional wookie Kris to help establish a new forum system for the people to enjoy and prevent the return of the dreaded Forum Administrator. To help with the conversion of the masses, two threads should be viewed by all who wish to join the new forums:

Hyping the hype: FUNimation’s New Licenses

Forum user “Fatal” was kind enough to bring our attention to a blurb over in the Animation Insider forums about three forthcoming licensing announcements from FUNimation.  Ah, the wonders of the pre-announcement announcements.  What’ll they think of next?  Of course, the discussion to follow was largely based around various possibilities, of which Naruto seemed to be a favorite, with Hunter x Hunter and Full Moon o Sagashite also getting several mentions.  Thrown in for good measure were some posts about the goodness of Fruits Basket, shows being included on Cartoon Network, companies bidding on shows produced by their parent companies, and the wild possibility of FUNimation having acquired the new Tenchi Muyo OAV 3.  But hey, FUNi’s licensed GXP and the new Sakura Wars OAVs, so anything’s possible, right?
 

Unofficially speaking…

Anime Boston came and went.  Many fans were ecstatic about the new licensing announcements, but some felt that things were still a little sparse.  So, to liven things up, a couple of unofficial announcement-like items made their way out into the open last week.  Bandai, in their most recent press release regarding the upcoming Blue Sub No.6 Special Edition, noted that one of the included extras is a music video for the OAV series Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, thusly confirming that the show was indeed licensed.  And, not to be outdone, Viz cleverly placed a line within an ad for their impending release of the Hana Yori Dango manga that revealed an acquisition of the anime as well, to be named Boys Over Flowers for the R1 release.  Sneaky companies!  How dare they keep us on our toes like that!  Maybe they should follow FUNimation’s lead and warn us ahead of time.  Y’think?
 

Keepcase Wars news bulletin: slim Nexpak, new and improved

Since not many people seem to actually own one, much less have even encountered one yet, there haven’t been many of the usual hub design complaints with this new keepcase.  With that out of the way, the general consensus seems to be that these slim cases are good, and should be considered for boxsets, although people seemed quite a bit more iffy as to whether or not the slim cases should be used for regular single-disc releases, due to durability issues and problems with the inclusion of things such as booklets or other extras.  Either way, the slim Nexpaks are certainly a boon for those with larger collections, as they effectively cut in half the amount of space a collection occupies.  But then, what to do about cover inserts?  Trim the ones you’ve got?  Make your own?  Hope that the rest of the companies start making cover inserts the same size that Bandai does?  The easiest thing to do would be to make your own cover inserts, using a Sharpie and some Post-its.  But if that’s still too much to ask, then you can pay us to do them for you.
 

Trailers are important, too!

Fans have unleashed the weirdest demand yet from anime companies: Make better trailers. Who would have thought that fans would want to see a trailer for a show that actually tells them about the show.

Bandai's Platinum Series revealed (again)

Jerry Chu has revealed just what exactly the new Platinum series is to Bandai. Titles in the series so far are .hack//SIGN, s-CRY-ed, Infinite Ryvius, and Witch Hunter Robin. People have been taking advantage by commenting on what they would like to see included in the various series as "bonus" items. Strange, I don't see Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on the list yet despite Bandai announcing the license last year.
 

Sports, Sports, Sports!!

For something non-anime related, it's playoff time for both the NBA and NHL. Everyone is taking a shot at whose going to win and why their pick of a team got robbed in the playoffs. Join the fun:

Quote of the Week

"Now that Divi-chan seems to be on permanent holiday, I have started watching wolve's Chiyo-chan avatars as some sort of slow-moving (but animated!) comic strip." - mrgazpacho