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"And I'm soup!"

And now for part 2 of

The Incredible Mini-Column!

From Karkadinn:

A long, long time ago I watched (on, I think, the Disney Channel) a really interesting piece of anime called 'Unico Something Something Something.' Sorry, my memory isn't very good. :) Anyway, it featured a little SD red-haired unicorn, a cat, and an evil guy with long blue hair.  I've never seen it since then, but I remember it was rather cute and entertaining.  I'm wondering as to which company has the rights to this movie, and if it has any chance whatsoever of coming to dvd within the next decade or so....

Unico!  That brings on the hugest flashback.  There used to be Unico stuff all over the place.  Mostly at the Sanrio Store . . . .with all the Hello Kitty stuff . . . .

OK.  I'm fine.  No, really. J

The titles are the Fantastic Adventures of Unico, and Unico in (or and, depending on who's page you visit) the Island of Magic.  I found these sites, which have some good basic info on them: http://hometown.aol.com/mlcavazos/faq.html , http://dreamwater.com/unico/ 

The tapes, at this point, are out of print.  So probably your best bet in actually finding copies would be to head over to ebay, or another auction site.  I think, although I can't seem to find it anywhere, that the show was originally put out by F.H.E. (Family Home Entertainment), which is now defunct. 

If there is a company that currently holds the rights to this title, let me know.  I'm also curious to find out who the parent company is, since I couldn't find that info anywhere wither.

From Eugene Cruz:

I do have a service manual for Pioneer DV-525 dvd player.

I understand that there's a existing modification for Pioneer DV-525 dvd player to codefree that would defeat macrovision and CSS, by programming the board without having to replace the firmware or flash memory chip. 

According to the DV-525 service manual, it shows general information TEST MODE SCREEN DISPLAY (page 54, 7.1.1) and it said to use a remote unit.  (the remote unit is CU-DV049 ) This mode should allows to program or re-program 10 lines with 32 charactors per line is by type the chips' flash numbers on the DVDM ASSY. board and regions settings with a remote unit.

However it doesn't tell how to get to the test mode, is there a switch on the DVDM ASSY. board that would allow to displays the test mode on screen?  Would the master clock adjustment, VC1 ( page 53, 6.4 ) is a possibility to get the test mode screen display?

Do you know any referrals that would know about the modification for Pioneer DV-525.

I didn't find anything about a switch on the DVDM ASSY. board.  I did find a mod for the DV525 at this page: http://uni-electronics.newmail.ru/p525user.htm 

It's basically a mod via the remote control.  It seems like a really easy way to mod the player, and the instructions are written out step by step.  The one thing that I'm not really clear on is whether or not you have to go through all the steps every time you want to watch a disc with a different region code on it, or if you can only change the code once, and that's it.

If anyone has tried this mod and it worked for them, or has a better one that they know of for this player, let me know and I'll pass the info on.

From Jakup:

I just wanted to know if you knew anything about Crayon Shin-Chan ever coming out on DVD or even VHS here in the USA.  I really like the show and I know it used to be on Hawaiian TV for a while.  Unfortunately this is the only source, even for fansubs and the quality is horrible.  It's a hilarious show and I was just wondering if you, in your vast knowledge would know anything at all.  Thanks a lot!

My vast knowledge.  I like that. ;-)

Well, unfortunately, this title does not, at this time, have a US distributor.  It is being shown on cable in Hawaii on KIKU. (Check out this update from DVDAnimania: http://www.wildcoast.org/dvd/#Crayon Shinchan Update).  So if you know someone in Hawaii, get them to tape it for you. Other than that, there's not all that much out there about this series.  I couldn't even find out who the parent company is in Japan.

If anyone has any info at all about this series, please drop me a line. 

Addendums:  Questions so good, they came back!

Yamato 2520:  Here's an update that was sent in a while ago, but sort of got lost in the shuffle.

From Susumu Kodai:

Voyager has or had the rights to this. When I contacted them about it, they  informed me that they were only available as "bootlegs" and they would not  be releasing it at all. There are 3 parts(out of the planned 6) that were  released, only 1 and 2 have been fansubbed to my knowlege(if anyone has a  place to get 3 I'll be extraordinarily greatful). Nishizaki  Yoshinobu(creator of Yamato) went bankrupt, and was also arrested on drug  and gun charges(VERY serious crimes in Japan, in fact the papers there  frontpaged "YAMATO ARRESTED")

   The series was over budget and not selling well. To release a 6 part OVA with each part costing $100+ was not a wise move in recessed Japan. He also pulled his production people off the project to work on "Yamato Rebirth", a  movie that featured the remnents of the Yamato crew captaining a team of new  recruits(Kodai/Wildstar had a beard, I'm guessing he was going to buy it).  This project is maybe 40% complete, and will probably never be completed.

    From the ashes of the bankruptcy and all the other hullaballo, the real creative force behind the final concept of Yamato, Matsumoto Leiji bought the rights to Yamato. I'm sure that he's dumped 2520 and Rebirth, and started in on his own projects. First up (supposedly) is Shin Uchuu Senkan Yamato(New Space Battleship Yamato) based off of his Manga which I haven't read, then a movie of some sort, supposedly taking place in the 29th century.

Flint the Time Detective:  If I had a language kit for my computer, I probably would have been able to find some of this info.  Ah, something else to spend my money on . . .Thanks, guys.

From David Tallent:

It took a little dectective work, but I found the site... http://www.pldc.co.jp/plag/anime/a-genshi/release.htm First I went to http://www.foxkids.com and worked my way to the Flint page, at the bottom was a copyright notice with the name Sanrio Nijihan.  Taking that name to http://www.yahoo.co.jp (if you going to search for Japanese pages use a Japanese search engine) got me a link to http://www.pldc.co.jp/plag/catalog/anime/sheet/pivs9007.htm, opening that in IE with the Japanese text plugin I copied the video title searched again and got the addy to the main page. Simple?  Well hope that this will be helpful to Dr. Thinker and any other fan.

From the Cheshire Cat:

Check out Animerica Magazine, Volume 8 number 5, page 25 (w/ X the Movie feature on the cover)

The entry is:

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If you thought you were seeing a new anime show recently on Fox Kids, you were right.  _Flint_the_Time_Detective_ originally aired in Japan under the title _Jiku_Tantei_Genshi-kun_ ("Genshi, Detective of Time and Space") [note: there is a ^ over the u in Jiku] in 1998-1999.  The animation got its start as a short movie shown at Sanrio Puro Land (yep, a Sanrio amusement park!), [note: there is a ^ over the u in Puro] and spun off into a TV series.  In an age of travel through time and space, the biggest problem is crimes against the space-time continuum. Flint (Genshi) is a stone-age boy who had been turned into stone by a time-travelling thief, and who is revived in the 25th century. Because of his superhuman strength, Flint becomes a time detective, traveling across time to combat time criminals.  (Or at least that's how the story went in Japan.)  The Sanrio movie was produced by Sunrise, but the TV series animation production is by Group Tac.

_Flint_the_Time_Detective_: on-air in North America on the Fox Kids' Saturday-morning animation block; check your local listings for channels and times.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

_Stuff_like_this_ was in bold, otherwise the entry is correct, plus my [bracketed] comments about accent marks.

From Sany:

Hello Ladycat,

in your last column I read that you are looking for the original title of the series "Flint: The Time Detective". So I did some research at Richard Llewellyn´s Animated Divots* and now can present you the Japanese title: "Jikuu Tantei Genshi-kun". In fact Jikuu is an anime running originally on TV Tokyo from October 1998 to June 1999. Concerning its young age it´s a bit strange that you was not able to find the title at Anipike, but anyway, I hope this mail may help you further. ^___^

Marmalade Boy:  Here's a bit of an update on Marmalade Boy.  Stay tuned for more in the Addendum Masters section.

From Fletcher:

I am not sure if that one question in your column was asking for more information on Marmalade boy or if he/she wanted more anime like marmalade boy because he/she saw it and liked it.  Anyways, fansubs of the whole Marmalade Boy series (76 episodes!) can be found at

http://www.animemetropolis.com/kodocha/main.html

I believe the masters that Kodocha have came from Tomodachi, who did a great job on their fansubs when they were still around.  Kodocha does a great job in duplicating and distributing fansubs as well.

As far as other series, I have heard Hana Yori Dango compared to Marmalade Boy alot.  I can't think of any other series that are very similar to Marmalade Boy.  Hopefully this helps.  Keep up the good work.

Addendum Master!  Mmm Mmm good!  Here are some updates about Mahou Tsakai Tai and Marmalade Boy.

From Mariela:

About Mahou Tsukai Tai, I too was at I-con and when Media Blasters failed to mention TV or OVA, went to their booth and asked John "I forgot his last name", the president of the company, who answered "Both".

So MB has MTT TV and OVA.  ^_^;

The Right Stuf thing was an Internet rumor that just would not die!!!!

About Marmalade Boy, I am a big fan of shoujo and that series in specific, so here are my recommendations -

Fushigi Yuugi - If you want the romance/angst/triangles with an action setting, commercially available too.

Kodomo no Omacha - Similar feel and character designs, but on crack.  Oddly get pretty serious at times.  No US licensor, though and really long.

Hana Yori Dango - Angst and romance, darker than MB, but not morose.  Aimed at a slightly older age group.  Slowly being fansubbed, shorter than MB.

Kareshi Kanojou no Jijou - Shoujo by Gainax, AKA shoujo non-shoujo fans like.  Soon to be availible from Right Stuf.

If someone wants manga in the same vein, there are actually a few commerically availible titles like MB, Call Me Princess (published by CPM Manga) and Peach Girl, which has just started running in the revamped Smile magazine from Mixx Publication/Tokyopop.com

That's it for this time.  Catch ya in another few days with the next mini-column!

LadyCat  =^-^=