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And now, onto the forums...

San Diego Comic-Con News & Views
San Diego's famous convention has come and gone (still no one has shown us Halle Berry pictures *sniff*) but even during a comic book convention will you meet some of the world of anime. So what do we have licensed this round inbetween Anime Expo & Otakon? The highlights would be Bandai confirming ownership of the "Birth" OVA for Seikai no Senki, Pioneer has popped up with the new Harlock series, and ADV snagged Wandaba Style. ADV Manga is kicking off the fall with a bang: Full Metal Panic (late August), Azumanga Diaoh (Mid September) and RahXephon Bible (Mid October). But will the new company be ready to take on TOKYOPOP's 2004 battleplan with Sgt. Frog (January), Ai Yori Aoshi (March), and Macross 7 Trash (1st Quarter)?

Pioneer's Haibane-Renmei.com Opens
Pioneer has opened up their website for Haibane-Renmei which starts releasing on August 26th (DVD & DVD w/Box available). The website is flash-based and more than a tad behind the curve of previous "Official sites" they have had created. But you can still check up on this series if you have not done so before and a clip from episode 1 (in dub) is available to be watched. Be careful, the website is very slow. Even on Broadband the site runs very slow.

*sigh* Someone go and try again. Heat Guy J was much better.

From Jerry with love (Witch Hunter Robin info)
A box, a soundtrack, a T-shirt, a cel, a shotglass. Bandai’s Jerry Chu was kind enough (or mean enough, depending on how you look at it) to post a list of extras to be included with the first volume of Witch Hunter Robin, as well as a list of technical specs. Here’s the place to post your general “yea” or “nay”, register a complaint about the T-shirt, wonder about the animation cel, and ask for some WHR liquor to go with the shotglass.

Ninja Scroll 10th Anniversary DVD specs
Manga's 10th Anniversary DVD specs for Ninja Scroll has come with some cheers & jeers. The title is a dual-layered, dual-sided DVD 18 with remastered fullscreen & widescreen options in: 6.1 DTS & Dolby Stereo (English & Japanese) and 2.0 Stereo French & Spanish. Are their extras? Interviews with the director and lead English VAs, History of Jubei, and character synopsis.

Manga Entertainment Sold(?)
We would say take this with a grain of salt for the moment but it seems that Palm Pictures has sold off their Manga Entertainment division. Reactions, jokes, and bets of the new owners can be found within:

Mokkori, baby!!
Under the radar, lack of interest, or just the fact that not many people have the set yet? Whatever the case, at least at this point user “ObiKenobi” is really excited about ADV’s release of City Hunter. If you’ve got a question about the set before purchasing, then check this thread for an answer, or be the first to ask.

Sakura Wars: The Movie - Limited Theatrical Release
Pioneer has made a print available to show on the real big screen if you happen to live in the right place. Or you could just hold out for that DVD coming September 9th.

"The Imperial Fighting Troupe is called again to defend Tokyo against the demons. However, this time, the Douglas-Stewart Company is selling a superior fighting machine that will revolutionize Japan's defense and make the Flower Division obsolete. However, the girls suspect something may be wrong when members of their team begin to vanish! But what can they do when their division has been placed on indefinite stand-by status?"

FUNi gain a new Director of Sales
Tony Vandeveerdonk (ex-Sr. National Sales Manager for Pioneer & responsible for the sales of Pokemon merchandise) has signed on with Ft. Worth based FUNimation as their new sales director. With FUNi expanding beyond the realm of "Dragon Ball", the newest player will help bring his knowledge to help keep FUNi on their boom in the industry.

YUA movie review thread
Speaking of the You’re Under Arrest movie, another (less inflammatory) discussion is taking place in the thread for the AoD review. Content is debated about, comparisons with the R2 are made, people declare their intent to either buy or not buy the disc, and user “Kight” makes a really interesting post.

Everyone Loves Synch-Point's FLCL
Broccoli is a famous company in Japan known for quality anime merchandise and their chain of "Gamers" stores. So it's no surprise that their US anime division, Synch-Point, would be much loved because of their attention to detail. And this week celebrates the company's first series to be completely released in the US. The title? Well you better have been living under a rock to not know what FLCL (Fooly Cooly) is by now. With DVD quality matching the R2 release, half the disc count, a dub even sub fans praise, and extras not even available to the Japanese... how can you not love this company?

U.S. companies: good, bad, or somewhere in-between?
User “Njr Scrawl” asks a simple, somewhat multi-part question: “So are the US companies pleasing us more, are we more tolerant, or has AoD just become “lite”?” For the most part, it seems like the U.S. companies are sitting pretty good in the eyes of the fans. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but things are better now than they’ve ever been. Oh, there’s a funny sub-thread argument about the You’re Under Arrest movie going on in the thread as well.

Diamond Comics hype
Well, it’s that time of the month (no, not that time), and fans are getting excited about upcoming releases thanks to Diamond Comics’ Previews catalogue update. More volumes of all your favorites ranging from Noir to Mirage of Blaze and everything in-between, as well as some new first volumes of some long-awaited series such as Angelic Layer, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Mao-chan, and Saint Seiya. Predictably, people are complaining about ADV for all sorts of reasons, but a small handful of fans are simply happy that some nice DVDs are going to be showing up soon. Of course, all information is tentative until the official word from the studios.

MVM Finds Love, ADV UK gains more ADV US titles, Manga UK wakes up
UK anime company MVM has picked up the Love Hina series & specials and the two Ranma 1/2 movies for R2 release. ADV UK has recently announced the UK release of many ADV US series: Kino's Journey, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Pretear, Abenobashi, Zaion, Najica, and King of Bandit Jing. And Manga UK has woken up from a long slumber and updated their website.

The eternal battle: Boxes vs. Bricks
Okay, not really “eternal”; maybe “epic”? Or simply “ever-present”? Not so much a request thread as a poll-like feedback thread (which is probably more constructive, in a way). The majority of fans seem to prefer boxes to bricks, although a rather large number of fans really don’t seem to mind bricks that much, since the price is right. The digipak also gets a tiny share of the love and hate in this thread, as well as a brief mention of ADV’s Sailor Moon release: bricks in a box. Best of both worlds? Maybe not…

Central Park Media's "Test Drive" DVDs
CPM is trying out something that most would fear doing: DVD samplers. October 28th will see the creation of 6 different series (2 episodes) in THINpak cases for only $7.99 each. You have the options of Legend of Himiko, Now and Then Here and There, Record of Lodoss War, Patlabor TV, Maze TV, and The Ping Pong Club or a full set of all 6. Do you think it will work?

More DVD Covers then you can shake a wand at!
More covers to show off this week but I'm still trying to figure out why the "Utena: Temptation" press photo has the Demon City Shinjuku dvd in it. Does no one pay attention on the little details? ;-)

Why translate with curse words??
Do the Japanese curse? Of course. But is it right when a studio goes and adds it into their English script? Everyone has an opinion on whether it is right or wrong for swearing to be present in dubbing.

Grand Theft Reading: Manga City
It seems just about everyone, industry or not, knows about the AoD Manga Forum. Doesn't that just give you a warm fuzzy feeling?

Dark Horse

Del Rey

Raijin Comics

TOKYOPOP

Viz

Notable African-American VAs
An intresting question from "piano_cello_conducting". With anime dubbing being more popular, how many would be of African-American descent? Sure we can name off the great Beau Billingslea who voices Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, but who else is there which deserves some notoriety as well?

El-Hazard: The Wanderers box set glitch & recall
Earlier this month, Pioneer re-released a slew of series at bargain prices packaged in a new sort of box/slipcase termed a “Bailey Box”, among which was the El-Hazard TV series, entitled “The Wanderers”. The handful of fans who purchased that particular re-release quickly noticed a problem: episodes 18-20 would not play. A week goes by, and a notice shows up on The Right Stuf’s main page informing fans that Pioneer was looking into the problem. Several days later, it became known that Pioneer was recalling all the El-Hazard: The Wanderers sets and would be offering replacements to those who had already purchased it. Call 1-800-538-3601 for a replacement if you have already purchased the set. Replacement sets appearing at retail locations will have a Pioneer 10th Anniversary sticker on the shrinkwrap.

Sailor Moon episode 24 glitch
Fans who have purchased their set and already made it to episode 24 have noticed a video glitch problem throughout that episode. It seems the severity of the glitch, as well as its frequency, vary with different setups, but the glitch does seem to be present on all sets.

Urusei Yatsura box set 4 video problem
About three months ago, the fourth Urusei Yatsura box set began shipping from AnimEigo to fans who had preordered it. As fans began watching the set, a problem was quickly noted: the picture was dark, resulting in a loss of detail in dark/black areas as well as all the colors being quite a bit “off”. Rainbowing was also present in several places, but the darkness of the picture was the major issue. This problem was not present on the first three sets. Fans e-mailed AnimEigo and received a response from their production manager, which reported that the masters for that batch of episodes had been in bad condition, that completely correcting the video would have been too costly, that trying to augment the video would have created more problems, and that the end product was the best compromise. The response was not well-received because it seemed too much like a dodge, although good news was present in the form of a confirmation that the masters for the fifth set did not have the same problems present. A follow-up response from Robert Woodhead, AnimEigo CEO, indicated that the problem was being looked into further. Another e-mail revealed that a new authoring house had been used for the set, although this fact was not indicative of fault.

Forum user “Raistlin” went above and beyond the usual complaints, and created a small clip from the OP sequence (using free, downloadable software) that had been corrected to eliminate the darkness issue in order to demonstrate that it could, in fact, be done. Another e-mail from Robert earlier this month revealed that discussions with the authoring house had resulted in the conclusion that the problems with the original masters could not be fixed without a completely new transfer (contradicting what “Raistlin” was trying to demonstrate), and that the sales figures for Urusei Yatsura could not justify the cost. More e-mailing occurred, and another response from Robert was received, presenting a bit of a challenge to “Raistlin” to prove the authoring house wrong in regard to its claims that only a new transfer and not some small tweaks could fix the video issue, as well as describing the financial infeasibility of a replacement set (due to low sales of Urusei Yatsura) even if “Raistlin’s" low-cost fixes could be implemented. However, Robert also mentioned a new distribution deal with Koch Entertainment that would hopefully boost distribution of AnimEigo titles in larger retail chains, and that if the wider distribution had a great enough effect on sales of Urusei Yatsura, then the issue would be revisited, especially if further replication were necessary in order to meet increased demand for the sets.

“Raistlin” went to work correcting and encoding while the fans debated over possible solutions, ranging from VHS replacements to a staggered replacement program. Yesterday, “Raistlin” posted some comparison pictures from the completed fixed copy for people to nitpick, with the caveat that his source material, hardware, and software were of lower quality than what AnimEigo and the authoring house would have to work with. Early yesterday evening, he began making the sample disc to be sent to AnimEigo.

And the saga continues…

What is the significance of "Zero" for Japanese?
With 'Zero' being used often in anime, have you ever wondered if there is a specific reason for it? There are some intresting thoughts being thrown around as if there truely is a source to all of this.

No BONES about it..
"duckroll" has dedicated a thread to all things BONES this week. RahXephon Episode 13.5 (plus PS2 game), Wolf's Rain on FujiTV, and the two new anime series coming are all up for discussion.

We've got Questions, You've got Answers!
Whether you're dancing in your chair, huddled on a bus with your manga, trying to beat some humour into your employees or just trying to figure out what the best job to go for is... we will find it, exploit it, and make fun of it until the cows come home. Yes folks, it's time once again for a crash course in forum questioning which would even stump Jebus. Beware the "SkinnyCat" for she leads the pack this week. ;-)

Doc Oct for Spider-Man 2
AICN has posted up a photo for Doc Oct in Spider-Man 2. The SDCC was home of showing off an exclusive clip from the movie where Dr. Otto Octavius is laid out on a table with his new friends and the ensuing mayhem which followed when they try to remove them. It's classic Sam Raimi for all to enjoy July 2004.

The Transformers join the Rally race
Takara (Japan's Transformer distributor) is bringing back the classic "Smokescreen" in a brand new body. More specifically, the body of Tommi Makinen's rally car. Lots of articulation, unbelievable paint job, and way too far way from buying. *cries* And if that isn't enough, Optimus Prime (the original Semi truck design) is getting a 20th Anniversary edition which is of the OH MY GOD! variety. New highly detailed body mold, lots of accessories and articulation, and is very Prime.

New from Bandai Japan, Will the US get Gunslinger Girl?
Bandai has produced a new series in Japan which is getting the red carpet treatment of a PS2 game and an anime series this fall. Gunslinger Girl features five girls, some weapons, and a plot of assassination & intrigue in a European setting. It's got our attention so far.

Xenosaga 2 News
With many anime fans being gamers, you will be happy to know that Yuki Kajiura (who recently performed at AX and released her new album "Fiction" in the States through Pioneer) is working on the soundtrack for Xenosaga 2. The game itself is moving along quite quickly having been shown off at a conference in Japan.

Quote of the Week

"Hmm, the laws of physics where a Vespa can fly though the air and then land upright with its kickstand popping out at just the right moment or was it the laws of physics where it can drive straight up a vertical wall. I'll admit the FLCL guys did a nice job drawing their Vespa, but it doesn't really obey the laws of physics." - nekobus

When not stopping trouble (or starting it) on the AoD Forums, S-Man can be found working on the database project at Crystal Acids and asagiri2040 can be found not updating his Rising Sun Alternative website. Things to fear may happen this coming week: Chris reviewing hentai, Flood being Flood, and S-Man finding more pics to delay Sean's upgrading fixes.