And here we are for another round of interesting questions. There are some epic questions with epic answers this time, so go grab a snack, ‘cause you’re in for the long haul this time!

I would also like to say one thing before we start in on this column: Please be patient with me. If I haven’t answered your question yet, I swear I’ll get to it. It just seems that I get an onslaught of questions all at once, and then it slows down for a while. So I’m still playing catch up from a while ago. I’m probably going to start posting the column more frequently, but make it shorter. Plus, now that the epic player mod column is finished (unless there’s an update for that), I’ll have more time to answer questions. Thanks for being so patient!

I guess this answer’s going to have two parts. First, the easy part. It is rather lucky that you haven’t bought a player yet. That way, you at least still can decide whether or not you want a region-free player right off the bat.

Here’s the basic info about how the regions are broken up:

Region 1— Canada, U.S., U.S. Territories

Region 2— Japan, Europe, South Africa, Middle East (including Egypt)

Region 3— Southeast Asia, East Asia (including Hong Kong)

Region 4— Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Central America, Mexico, South America, Caribbean

Region 5— Former Soviet Union, Indian Subcontinent, Africa (also North Korea, Mongolia)

Region 6— China

Region 0— Region free

There is also some more info on the FAQ page of this site.

Now, my first piece of advice would be to buy a region free player. That would probably be the easiest course of action. You could buy a region-encoded player and modify it yourself. But if you want to save yourself the hassle, just buy a region-free player. Check out the Player Mod Column for ways to modify a region-encoded player, and for a couple of websites that sell code-free players.

Next comes the advice about learning Japanese. I would suggest that you don’t use anime as your primary source for learning Japanese. I apologize in advance for this comparison as I know some people will be offended. But watching Anime to learn Japanese is a little like watching the Simpsons to learn English. It’s a highly stylized, and incredibly slang filled, mode of speaking. I think it would be good to use anime as a way to supplement some other form of learning. It’s always good to hear native speakers to fine tune your ear and your pronunciation. For me, the way that I learn best is in a classroom setting. But you may learn better another way. What you need to do is find the way that’s best for you and run with it, whether it’s a local college, books, or tapes. You can also follow this link to find out what other readers on the forum have to say about learning Japanese.

From Wuss912:

Well, you really asked for it this time. This is enough material for a thesis. (takes deep breath). Here goes. Wait, before I start, I must say that I have gotten over (mostly) my pickiness about bad spelling. The Wanderer cured me of that. ;-) OK. Now I can start.

My favorite anime is, without question, Fist of the North Star the Movie for the incredible plot and character development. ;-) Sorry. I’m just in a smart-alecky mood today.

There is no way that I could pick one anime that’s my favorite. I like several different anime for several different reasons. Just picking one wouldn’t be fair to the others. I like Gunsmith cats because Rally kicks ass and she and I have similar driving techniques (just ask The Wanderer. He gets that "Rally, don’t be crazy!!!", grabbing onto the seatbelt look far more often than he’d like), I like Ranma because it’s silly fun, I like Ninja Scroll because it’s a good story and it’s beautifully animated, and I like Oh! My Goddess because, as the Wanderer likes to remind me, it reminds both of us how we met (well, in his version of events, anyway). And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. Different anime are good for different reasons, so I don’t think that I could pick just one that’s "better" than all the others. I hope I kind of answered your question. J

Next question. Let’s see. Good anime to start with . . . . Well, first let me say that you should be picking something that’s a standalone. You don’t want to start with, say, Tenchi the Movie, or Big Trouble in Nekonron China (one of the Ranma movies). Not that they aren’t good movies, but because of the simple fact that there are so many characters to be familiarized with in the first few minutes of the movie. Something along the lines of Ninja Scroll (which is beautifully animated), or Ghost in the Shell (which is just unnerving at times) would probably be the best to start with. I can’t really give you any specifics as you didn’t give me any about what kind of anime you like, or what genres of live-action movies you like. Probably the best thing you can do is to comb this site, and other sites such as Anipike, for reviews, and just start watching things that sound interesting to you.

As for your last question, I have no idea. I don’t recall seeing any checkered flag things in Tenchi, so I’m totally clueless. Two of my main sources for answers (Chris and The Wanderer) also have no idea. Perhaps some of the faithful readers could clue me in. J

Unfortunately, it appears that it’s only available to order in the US and Canada. Actually, to be specific, they will only ship to the US and Canada (and that’s directly from the website). I have no idea why they do it this way, unless shipping overseas is cost-prohibitive to them, which is probably the case. The only suggestion that I could make would be to have someone in the States or Canada order it for and ship it to you. I don’t think there’d be another way around it. Unless there’s a sneakier way that I’m just not coming up with.

From Christiaan Iken:

Well, I would assume that DVD will be following the same method of releasing things that both VHS and Laser did. They’ll release the newer titles first, and worry about catalog titles later on. Eventually, I would also assume (unless something comes along really fast to replace DVD), that virtually all the older titles will be released. That also depends on the particular company and the resources that they have to allocate to DVD production, of course. And all the myriad other factors like licensing, time constraints, and the availability of the pressing plant to accommodate them. Like I said before, I am an optimist, and I’d like to think that all our old favorites will be coming out sooner or later. But there are just so many factors that go into making DVDs that it might not be such a sure thing.

Of course it is. Unless you’re skipping school to watch anime, which would annoy your parents, and get the school coming after you. Which would definitely be bad, ‘cause then you’d probably be banned from watching it. ;-) And that would not be a good thing.

But seriously, I think I speak for most of the readers who are at least my age (mid-twenties), when I say that we all got interested in anime at a fairly young age. Except, when we watched it, we didn’t know it was anime. Warning! Huge flashback ahead! They were just really cool cartoons that were the antithesis of the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake (thank God for that!). For my age group, it was Robotech, Belle and Sebastian, The Little Prince, Transformers, Seven Cities of Gold and I’m sure a few others that I’m forgetting. There’s also Starblazers for those of you who are a little older. And who could forget Speed Racer (no matter how hard you try)? ;-) Or Voltron? And all that bad dubbing! God, help me! I’m caught in a flashback to when I was 6!

OK, I think I’m better now. I would have to say that you are luckier than we were in the fact that you get to see more anime, in a much better format, and more complete than we did. In fact, I’m kind of jealous of you, getting to see a whole series, in order, all in one day if you want.

Forgoing any more ranting, I guess my point is, heck yeah it’s OK. J

Anyways my question is. Is there a reliable place to order HK DVD's? I am very interested in getting copies of movies like, City Hunter, and The Storm Riders. Please let me know if you could help, or The email address of some one that can help me.

Since I have not personally ordered any HK DVDs, I figured I’d go to the experts. So I posted on the forum, and here are the responses. There’s quite a few answers, so I hope you can find something in there that’s useful. J

Absolutely nothing would happen. Nothing. They would sit in the room and say and do nothing. It would be the creepiest thing ever. There would be lots of voiceovers, but no actual conversation. Actually, I think that lain would eventually need to get on The Wired, but whether or not she’d actually say anything to Rei is up for debate.

AND, finally, I have received many emails with more updated information about the Robotech and WMT questions from a couple of columns ago. Here are excerpts from those emails. And I do apologize for giving such outdated info about Robotech. I swear by my fuzzy little ears that it was about the only info that I could find. Gomen, again.

Also on that page is the petition for Macross. So everyone visit, and sign the petition! J

I’d like to thank everyone for being so vigilant and correcting me when I goof up. I swear that next time I’m looking for something and I’m having a hard time, I’ll post in the forum. Thanks to everyone. J And I’ll see ya next time!