Ask LadyCat

"Oooooh, red hair . . . . ."

One note this week, guys.  If you're going to send me a question about discs not working in your player, or a specific disc, please, please, please tell me what kind of player you have.  I'm am pretty good ;-)  but I'm not psychic.

 Now, onto the

 The Incredible Mini-Column! Part 3

Or, The Return of the Mini-Column!

From Kevin Desilet:

Ladycat,

I wanted to email you on advice on Eatman 98 on DVD.  While watching the 5th episode the subtitles get stuck.  For about 5 minutes the same subtitle stays on the screen until the mid episode break shows up.  My question to you "Is this a defect or a programing error?"  I wanted to know if I should return it for a new one or if it a programing error wait until a corrected version is released?  Thanks for all your time.

I hadn't heard anything, but Chris had this to say:

"I've heard that on some players, there's a blip in the subtitles where they freeze up then fly through quickly. It happened once on my Apex, but I wasn't able to recreate it. No troubles on the Pioneer, Panasonic or Sony models."

If anyone else has experienced problems on their player, let me know.  We'll see if we can come up with some sort of FAQ about it.

From Jonathan Abrams:

Hi, I pre-ordered Princess mononoke on DVD from amazon.com awhile ago and saw that it wasn't shipping until sometime in 2001.  Recently I visited Amazon.com again and saw that Princess Mononoke was being released June 13 and that I should receive it sometime between the 23 and 29.  Did Princess Mononoke get pushed forward or is this just a mistake?  Thank you.

Mononoke is NOT currently available.  There's a thread on the retail forum right now with a bunch of info on it.  Basically, it's been pushed back quite a few times, and won't be available for a while.  Look for news on the main News page for info as it's available.

From Matthew Cleveland:

Dear Ladycat (Nekko-sama?)

Recently I heard a rumor about a Third Tenchi OAV series (as in a sequel to the OAVs that are already available on DVD, which is an amazing investment, I might add).  I don't know if anyone has asked about this, but I was wondering if you could shed any light on this rumor? 

I for one would really like to see what happens with Dr. Clay and Lady Tokemi.  And what's with Washu and Tsunami being in the background when Dr. Clay was talking with Lady Tokemi?  Creepy. 

Oh, and one more thing...any idea if Kite is ever coming out UN-cut, or LESS cut?  Somehow, I think that those 15 minutes that are missing might lend a little more to the story.

Still a rumor at this point, I'm afraid.  Keep in mind that the Tenchi phenomenon is really over in Japan, the peak of it anyway.  The only thing that I can think to compare it to here in the States is Star Wars.  After Episode 3 finally comes out, people around the world may still be screaming for more.  But you know that Lucas won't do Eps. 7-9, mainly because he feels that he's told as much of the story as he needs to.

As far as I know, there is not currently a plan to release Kite uncut, or even less cut.  Jim Lazar does have a petition up to get it released uncut here: http://www.crosswinds.net/%7Ejimlazar/kite.html

Go there and sign it!

From Dylan Hall:

I try to keep as up to date as possible, but I haven't heard anything about a couple of series I really want to get on DVD:

1.  Irresponsible Captain Tylor TV - when is this show coming out? I know that RightStuf said they were gonna put it out once they finish the dub, but I have yet to read any rumors

2. Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (AKA KareKano, His & Her Circumstances) - Another RightStuf license, any idea when they will be getting this to DVD?

3. Turn A Gundam - I don't even know if Bandai has licenced this to the US yet, but I just finished watching my Gundam Wing fansubs (I will get the DVD's as they come out) and I need more, any whispers in your ghost?

Thanks for your time and efforts.

Well, let's start with KareKano.  This question popped up about 4 months ago, and as far as I've seen, there's not too much more info that what I originally found.  Head on over to my site to see the answer: http://members.xoom.com/redjaque/shows/shows1.htm 

Irresponsible Captain Tylor is held by Right Stuf, and I haven't found any news that's more current than announcing the series coming out on VHS.  If there is something out there on the site that I missed, lemme know.  I thought I scoured the whole site, but I may have missed something.

Gundam? ACK!  Ok, sorry.  I've just not had a lot of luck finding info about Gundam series.  But let's give it a try.

This one just finished airing on TV in Japan at the end of March.  As far as I can tell, it has not yet been licensed in the US.  Although, since Gundam has been doing so well, I'd say that it's a possibility that it would be eventually licensed.  They might want to release some of the "older" shows first, though, so it might be a while.

Addendums:  Questions so good, they cam back!

Pioneer DV525:  Here's more info on modding this player.  Apparently, the mod that I found was too good to be true.  If anyone has a mod that works for this player, send it to me and I'll share the wealth.

From Nugneant:

I happen to have bought this model solely because at the time it was the only player in Best Buy to support the VCD format, and since I had ordered the Eva VCDs from Ebay, this was a must have. (yes, I'm another sod who bought a DVD player just to watch Eva, thank God I'm not dependant on the miserable ADV release)

I tried following the instructions, and was unsuccessful - I made it to the 'hidden' region code display, but was completely unsuccessful in getting the region code to change to anything besides 1.

On the BRIGHT side - it does seem that Macrovision IS disabled on this player, I've tried it with two post-1994 VCRs and they both worked a-ok - another good thing, since my TV has no A/V input.

From Tony Fang:

Hi LadyCat,

I just tried the 'set it to whatever region' upgrade thing you posted for the Pioneer 525. It didn't work for me. I get the the display that tells me what region my player is (and some other stuff -- probably version info). But I am unable to change the region. Of course, I don't actually have any non-region 1 exclusive DVDs to test with so maybe it did work, and the display is not updated... but I doubt it.

Return of Unico:  Here's some more info on that pesky unicorn.

From Sean Kemp:

I thought I'd let you and your readers know a little more about the Unico films that were mentioned by Karkadinn.

Total, there were two of the three Unico features released over here, "The fantastic Adventures of Unico" and "Unico in the Isle of Magic." The title of the second movie does say "in", not "and". They were released in the 80s by RCA/Magic Window, not F.H.E. as you mentioned in your article. [Ed note I actually said "I think, although I can't seem to find it anywhere, that the show was originally put out by F.H.E.", but that's OK. J] Also, both of these films are VERY popular in classic anime (some original tapes have reached over $70 on EBay... but usually average right now around $50 a tape...) The third Unico Feature, "Unico: Cloud and White Feather" was never released here in the U.S. These films are based on the manga by Osamu "God of Manga" Tezuka, and the films were some of his last works.

From Tom Smith:

>From The Anime! Movie Guide by Helen McCarthy (good book!)

UNICO Eng title for Unico: Haho no Shinai E. lit. Unico: To the isle of Magic, aka FANTASTIC ADVENTURES OF UNICO 2: UNICO IN THE LAND OF MAGIC.

Japanese Credits: Dir & writer: Osamu Tezuka. Prod: Madhouse for Sanrio (c) Tezuka, Sanrio. 90 minutes.

US video release on RCA/Columbia Magic Window children's label.

> I'm also curious to find out who the parent company is, since I couldn't find that info anywhere wither.

Bonus info...

[note: there is a ^ over the u in Jiku]  The ^ over a vowel is a long vowel. It can be written "uu" as in Jikuu. For a long o you will see "ou" most often. a,i,e are aa, ii, ee most often.

From David Wise:

I was surprised you failed to mention that Unico was the work of none other that "Kamisama no Manga" Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astroboy, Black Jack, Kimba, and the manga/anime industry as we know it today!

Also, tapes of the two Unico movies released here by FHE are _constantly_ available on Ebay.  Just do a search on "Unico."

Addendum Master:  Although we already knew it, Justin Sevakis is the Addendum Master for this week, with more info on a few series.

Hiya! A few things to add from today's column...

Family Home Entertainment (best known for their ear-grating logo sound) was one of the better known kids video lines in the 80's, and was owned by LIVE Entertainment, which has since been bought up by a few companies and the rights scattered.

...But they DIDN'T release Unico! This Tezuka anime classic was put out by Columbia Home Video around 1986. I haven't watched them since forever, but I remember "Island of Magic" being really freaky...

As for Crayon Shin-Chan, there is a company in Japan trying to dub an episode and marketing it to American companies, but no one in their right mind will ever touch that license. It's too Japanese, it's too raunchy for it's demographic by American standards, and its art isn't good enough.

Well, that's it for this time.  I should be getting a couple more columns out at least within the next week or so.

Catch ya later!

LadyCat   =^-^=