Zenryaku,
Lots of people have extra time around the holidays (and some people have none), so I thought I'd post another one of these.
No one posted anything about Evangelion, so just in case the dub has scared you off, the Platinum Complete collection is available for quite cheap, and includes the remastered audio/video and the Director's Cut episodes. There's also been some translation rework on the subtitles, although so far I haven't noticed anything dramatic other than the opening theme (I'm watching in pace with the TV broadcast).
Further with Cartoon Network, Naruto seems to be burning up the charts. Not just the anime, the manga as well, it's steadily topping the sales charts, even the older issues. One Piece, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be doing at all well on TV, which is hardly a surprise given what was done to it. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that they will absolutely NOT be doing uncut DVDs for the series.
More disappointing US DVD news is that Hare+Guu has been delayed, this time to February. I don't remember the exact reason, but it was production issues with either the box or the chest-hair wig (don't ask). The release for later discs have, of course, also been pushed back slightly.
In brighter news, Hikaru no Go is about to start its DVD release in the US. It's not all good news, though, as Viz has a really odd release schedule for the series, and is only going to be releasing four discs a year... for a 75 episode series. Even if they are doing 5 episodes per disc, that's a four year span for the release.
ADV has finally continued their Princess Tutu release, putting disc 2 out. They've also moved ahead with Kaleido Star, starting the second season release next month.
Genshiken was recently fully released. It's a short series, though, so it hasn't exactly had a long run. The same goes for Jubei-chan 2. A longer series, Scrapped Princess, will be finishing up next month, and Stellvia finished out this month.
For mecha fans, the classis Armored Trooper Votoms is being rereleased by CPM. You can pre-order the entire set (four seasons) for $100, which is $50 below the SRP. This is still sub-only, but unlike the original US release these are soft subs, and the video has been remastered.
For Ghibli fans, the next phase of the US releases happen in May. These are currently scheduled to be My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and (finally) Whisper of the Heart.
On the manga side, things have fallen off a lot for some publishers. ADV isn't putting out too much, but is doing a very good job with Yotsuba&. Unfortunately, their reps are pretty much giving the "no comment" treatment when asked about other series at cons.
There's a lot more I could probably comment on in the manga market, but I really haven't been following it that closely. I would like to note that Tokyopop evidentily has the Read or Die manga licensed, but that the manga has been panned by pretty much everyone who's read it, and most people would have rather had the novels.
On the Japanese side, there's been confirmation of another season of Ah, My Goddess TV. This wasn't really expected, as it sounded like the ratings for the show weren't that high. They've been rearranging things from the manga appearances, but hopefully the second season will include the real reason for the franchise; namely, the fourth goddess, Peorth.
There's yet another Tenchi spinoff coming, this time another Pretty Sammy outing. The character designs are... very Not Tenchi. No real details that I've seen about the story yet, except that it looks like Pixy Misa will be in it, and Funky Connie probably will be. Which means I'll have to check it out, at the least.
Big news on the movie side is that Studio Ghibli's next movie has been announced. It's to be directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son. It's to be titled Gedo Senki (Gedo War History) and is based on Ursula K Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" (Gedo being about as close to Ged as you can get in Japanese). Which is somewhat surprising, given her reaction to the Sci-Fi Channel butchery. One has to wonder just how much creative control she's hanging onto for this one, although more is probably good.
More recently, Kamichu has finished up the telivised releases, but I think the DVD extra epsiodes still have some that haven't been released. One of a rather large list of "want it to be licensed but it probably won't ever be" titles of late.
Add to this list Glass Mask (the manga for this should be, at least; shoujo manga has been selling pretty good), as I've been watching the recent remake. It goes far beyond where the earlier one did.
One that probably will end up on this list is Mushishi, sort of a supernatural detective story that's very well done.
There was probably more I wanted to post about, but this is all I can remember right now. Ah well, I can always add more later.
Wraith
"Commanders sitting far from the front lose touch with the battle that's being fought. They become too optimistic, decisions are made that have no bearing on what the facts might be. This is even more true when the war is being lost."
-- Captain Goto ("Patlabor The Movie 2")
Lots of people have extra time around the holidays (and some people have none), so I thought I'd post another one of these.
No one posted anything about Evangelion, so just in case the dub has scared you off, the Platinum Complete collection is available for quite cheap, and includes the remastered audio/video and the Director's Cut episodes. There's also been some translation rework on the subtitles, although so far I haven't noticed anything dramatic other than the opening theme (I'm watching in pace with the TV broadcast).
Further with Cartoon Network, Naruto seems to be burning up the charts. Not just the anime, the manga as well, it's steadily topping the sales charts, even the older issues. One Piece, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be doing at all well on TV, which is hardly a surprise given what was done to it. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that they will absolutely NOT be doing uncut DVDs for the series.
More disappointing US DVD news is that Hare+Guu has been delayed, this time to February. I don't remember the exact reason, but it was production issues with either the box or the chest-hair wig (don't ask). The release for later discs have, of course, also been pushed back slightly.
In brighter news, Hikaru no Go is about to start its DVD release in the US. It's not all good news, though, as Viz has a really odd release schedule for the series, and is only going to be releasing four discs a year... for a 75 episode series. Even if they are doing 5 episodes per disc, that's a four year span for the release.
ADV has finally continued their Princess Tutu release, putting disc 2 out. They've also moved ahead with Kaleido Star, starting the second season release next month.
Genshiken was recently fully released. It's a short series, though, so it hasn't exactly had a long run. The same goes for Jubei-chan 2. A longer series, Scrapped Princess, will be finishing up next month, and Stellvia finished out this month.
For mecha fans, the classis Armored Trooper Votoms is being rereleased by CPM. You can pre-order the entire set (four seasons) for $100, which is $50 below the SRP. This is still sub-only, but unlike the original US release these are soft subs, and the video has been remastered.
For Ghibli fans, the next phase of the US releases happen in May. These are currently scheduled to be My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and (finally) Whisper of the Heart.
On the manga side, things have fallen off a lot for some publishers. ADV isn't putting out too much, but is doing a very good job with Yotsuba&. Unfortunately, their reps are pretty much giving the "no comment" treatment when asked about other series at cons.
There's a lot more I could probably comment on in the manga market, but I really haven't been following it that closely. I would like to note that Tokyopop evidentily has the Read or Die manga licensed, but that the manga has been panned by pretty much everyone who's read it, and most people would have rather had the novels.
On the Japanese side, there's been confirmation of another season of Ah, My Goddess TV. This wasn't really expected, as it sounded like the ratings for the show weren't that high. They've been rearranging things from the manga appearances, but hopefully the second season will include the real reason for the franchise; namely, the fourth goddess, Peorth.
There's yet another Tenchi spinoff coming, this time another Pretty Sammy outing. The character designs are... very Not Tenchi. No real details that I've seen about the story yet, except that it looks like Pixy Misa will be in it, and Funky Connie probably will be. Which means I'll have to check it out, at the least.
Big news on the movie side is that Studio Ghibli's next movie has been announced. It's to be directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki's son. It's to be titled Gedo Senki (Gedo War History) and is based on Ursula K Le Guin's "A Wizard of Earthsea" (Gedo being about as close to Ged as you can get in Japanese). Which is somewhat surprising, given her reaction to the Sci-Fi Channel butchery. One has to wonder just how much creative control she's hanging onto for this one, although more is probably good.
More recently, Kamichu has finished up the telivised releases, but I think the DVD extra epsiodes still have some that haven't been released. One of a rather large list of "want it to be licensed but it probably won't ever be" titles of late.
Add to this list Glass Mask (the manga for this should be, at least; shoujo manga has been selling pretty good), as I've been watching the recent remake. It goes far beyond where the earlier one did.
One that probably will end up on this list is Mushishi, sort of a supernatural detective story that's very well done.
There was probably more I wanted to post about, but this is all I can remember right now. Ah well, I can always add more later.
Wraith
"Commanders sitting far from the front lose touch with the battle that's being fought. They become too optimistic, decisions are made that have no bearing on what the facts might be. This is even more true when the war is being lost."
-- Captain Goto ("Patlabor The Movie 2")
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