Forum Buzz
By da Original S Man & asagiri2040

9/10/03 Edition

Important News

System Update: A Divi a day...
For those curious after last week, we have two Divi pictures sent in by forum users to celebrate.

A special reminder to all who wish to join the forums, be sure to check out:

And now, onto the forums...

Sakura Wars: The Movie
The Sakura Wars movie has hit the stores, and it’s very pretty. Check out the thread for Chris’ review, and get swept up in the tangents regarding Aoi Futaba from You’re Under Arrest and pricing at Best Buy. Then, hop on over to the thread started by user “asagiri2040” for info on the extras and more. Confused by all the Sakura Wars stuff out there? Don’t miss the thread in Recommendations where a couple of AoD’s more knowledgeable Sakura Wars fans help out with chronology and which studio has which anime.

Angelic Layer… what?
David Williams of ADV was kind enough to post some final specs on the impending release of Angelic Layer. We got a box, we got commentary, we got a coupon to send in for a shirt so you can pick your own size. The thread kind of wandered away into Nowheresville after that. There was also a thread specifically about the box, but that one saved itself a trip by simply starting out in Nowheresville. Still, they make for some interesting and/or silly reading.

Do you care about the box?
User “Kris Granholm” polls the forum about boxes. It seems that the majority of fans expect sturdy boxes, but we’ve only got the votes of about 200 out of the 3000 or so registered users so far. That seems about the average amount of participation in polls like this, but if you haven’t cast your vote yet, then go ahead and do so!

Legend of Galactic Heroes Boxset Extras
For those who are looking into the R2 Sets for LoGH, "Riese" has discovered 6 pics from Iserlohn.com which show off the stylish boxes and extras. LoGH playing cards? Box sets which form the ships? Its an LoGH fan's dream come true.

Go to Hell and sing it
Alucard, Seras, and the rest of the Hellsing crew are setting up shop in the virtual UK. ADV UK is releasing the popular series Hellsing with design touches by the dynamic HTML duo. Hidden within is information on the series & characters, lots of artwork, and an omake (or 3) kind of in plain view of the Summer of 2003 if you catch it at the right time.

Sailor Moon season two box info
Copies of the Sailor Moon season two / Sailor Moon R box set have found their way out of the warehouse and into some homes. The same issues are present. And they get rehashed all over again. Join the fun.

Pack-ins, pack-ins everywhere…
User “littlefuzzy” is nuts. Truly. How else can the creation of such a nice, organized, long list devoted to limited edition bonus items be explained? It’s a great resource, so be sure to speak up if something’s missing or if there’s a bit of incorrect info to keep things good and complete.

ADV's November Release List
TRSI has posted up all the upcoming ADV DVD/VHS/CD material for November. The clamour at the moment seems to be over the next Dirty Pair OVA (Flight 005), the Nadesico movie, and (of course) Slayers Return (movie 2). So whether you're pulling for Yuri, Ruri, or just a little Lina screentime, November is the month to get excited over.

Bandai Pops the Soundtrack Question
With the growing debate over soundtracks only being included in the DVD bundles, Bandai is wanting to know if fans really do want to see a soundtrack seperate, packaged, or available seperately. A fourth option has developed on the forums of fans wanting both packaged in bundles & seperate availability.

Princess Nine's 7th Inning Soundtrack stretch
Tiffani Nadeau's low scoring review over the first Princess Nine soundtrack has gotten a reaction out of the fans. A mainly instrumental cd with the world famous Warsaw Philharmonic has many P9 fans countering the reviewer's thoughts. To put it simply, if you have seen anything of the show then you will already know if the soundtrack is a must have or not for you.

Love Hina Movie Box (Again)
Jerry Chu is holding a chat/giveaway this coming Saturday (9/13) on IRC. Topics of intrest will include the possible seperate LH Movie Box availability. A list of "goodies" to be given away can be found following the link below.

The best English Actresses playing a Male role
In Japan, many roles for young male characters end up going to female seiyuu because they sound more convincing. So "piano_cello_conducting" has asked the question to who on the English side provide the same vocal talent of a woman playing that male voice so well.

DVD Covers for the week
GTO's first box has recieved a redesign, Angelic Layer has the final version up, and the Love Hina Movie box rehashes at least one of the DVD covers instead of going for new artwork for the displayed side.

Mangamatic
Welcome to the tidal wave. With the Manga forum awash, how will you decide what to read? Well, the obvious are to check out what ADV has done with manga (though we're not so sure how people will take the Americanizations to Azumanga Diaoh). TOKYOPOP certainly cleaned up for sheer volume. And all Sailor Moon fans will be happy to hear about the re-release coming in Japan at a much lower price.

ADV Manga

Comics One

Dark Horse

IC Entertainment

TOKYOPOP

Viz

Recommendations Rundown
Yep, it’s that time again. No, not that time. Recommendations time! Your fellow AoD’ers need your advice! Be helpful and friendly, because knowing is half the battle!

User “usui” is looking for some upper-tier discs, something that “just oozes quality in all areas.” There’s a wide variety of suggestions already, many of which happen to be movies rather than TV series or OAVs, so go pitch your favorite!

User “Samduhman” is looking for some family-friendly anime, having already watched the four Ghibli films released by Disney. Movies are preferable, dubs are a must, and nothing much more extreme than Princess Mononoke. Let’s help convert the little ones, too!

User “Njr Scrawl” poses a simple question: Love Hina or Chobits next? Somewhat surprisingly, it’s split just about evenly so far, so it may be your well-thought-out comment or off-the-wall list of personal preferences that tips the scale one way or the other!

User “Kenneth Lee” is wavering on Argentosoma at the halfway point, and wonders if it’s worth it to keep going. The general consensus is “yes,” due to a nice run towards the end and a clear conclusion that explains things nicely and wraps it up well. Agree? Disagree? Let your voice be heard!

And finally, some quick show recommendation requests. There’s Berserk, there’s Marmalade Boy, there’s Zone of the Enders, there’s Rune Soldier, there’s Betterman and Vandread. A little bit of everything, just about!

Tales from Glitch Disc
User “Sango” has pointed out a glitch on Full Metal Panic! volume 3. Specifically, the menu audio seems distorted. While others have noticed the same problem, it seems as if only some of the discs are affected. User “sephiroth135” has reminded us of the layer change glitches present on Bandai’s Saber Marionette J discs, which are included in the Saber Marionette J Ultimate Collection, so don’t be too worried if the glitches affect your player. And, as a follow-up to the valiant attempt made by user “Raistlin” to convince AnimEigo that the video issues present in their release of the fourth Urusei Yatsura box set were fixable, he reports that AnimEigo had received the checkdisc he sent them, but unfortunately viewed it on a DVD player rather than on a computer (since the disc was only a DVD-ROM containing simply the video elementary stream). Still, Raistlin fired off an e-mail with this info, so hopefully AnimEigo received it in time before mailing the disc back to him.

.hack//SIGN Episode 28 Preview
.hack is about to meet .hack as episode 28 draws to a release in Japan. With the //Intergration box coming up, Bandai Japan has posted a 1+ minute trailer online for fans to get a peak & drool. US fans will have to hold out until .hack//SIGN volume 6 releases to be able to see it without importing. ;-)

Millennium Actress Limited Theatrical Release
Dreamworks' new division Go Fish Pictures will be seeing a limited release starting Friday in theatres. The movie is in Japanese and IGN.com has even posted a few clips to get you into those silverscreen seats. Inital cities seeing this film are New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Toronto.

Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE to be animated?
GamePro.com is mentioning that there is a big announcement coming soon from the official CLAMP website. Everyone is speculating (and for good reason) that it will be the animation of the current manga series. One can never have too much CLAMP to enjoy.

The Big O keeps on truckin'
Time for the weekly Big O plug. With six new episodes under the belts of many US fans, how does the second season stack up to the first go around? Pretty good, eh? The continued expanision of Paradigm City has given us many answers (and a ton of questions) but just what was the meaning of those final moments of 19?

Anime On Location
Japan is filled to the brim with anime fans but it's the truely dedicated who will search out the real areas some shows are based on to see how close the creators were. Please! looks to have gone above & beyond the call of duty in capturing the small town for Onegai Teacher/Twins, Gunsmith Cats is well known from a special detailing the animators going to Chicago, and more than a few other shows have recieved this sort of "care". Inside you will find many series and the dedicated fans who decided to document the real world, slightly famous from being animated.

And the survey says...
The weekly QnA is here. All the Qs fit to print, prod, admonish, and even tickle. Ain't forums silly?

Return of the Penguin
Berkeley Breathed's famous penguin Opus is making a return to the funny pages. Long ago we met Opus in the daily strip "Bloom County" and the twisted later Sunday strips of "Outland" in the 90s (who can forget Bill the Cat, Opus, and the rest of the gang being arrested for various acts of stupidity on the information superhighway?). Now a new generation can enjoy the satire of Opus on Sundays very soon.

Red VS Blue: Who will win the war?
For those who enjoy the funnier side of the web (remember "Crash Differently" a few weeks ago?), we think it's about time we gave a mention to the long running Halo-based series "Red VS Blue". With a witty cast, bizarre take on Halo reality, and already 17 episodes available... it's about time you signed up for bootcamp in Blood Gulch.

Quote of the Week

"Sadly, I think the pics from our last plushie orgy ended up under someone's bed..." - Konoha

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. Look ma, no Initial D this week! It's like a vacation from the chaos for one week around here (or we're just tired of it for the moment since absolutely nada has changed other than the threads continuing to grow & TP can't come up with a way to justify it to many fans.)