Answerman

III

Hello,

You guys mention LOVE HINA as a preview?
Is there any chance of an R1 release of this series in the near future?

Thanks.......
Peter Chodacki
Cape Town, RSA.

Well, a few of the usual American anime companies have mentioned Love Hina, and apparently, they're waffling on it because of the heavy digital fansub distribution. It's true; the show is all over the internet and very easy to get a hold of. It'd be rather hard to find an otaku with a high speed internet connection who doesn't already have this entire series and the Winter special. ADV in particular has mentioned this as one of the reasons why they haven't licensed the show yet, and I assume license cost is also an issue. The show is extremely popular among those who have seen it and regardless of fansub distribution level, I'd still expect an acquisition announcement by the end of the year, if not sooner.

Ok why are the ratings for shows so messed up?  I got Midnight Panther for Christmas from my aunt (it said 16+ on the back so she thought it was ok) but when I watched I saw more sex then I have seen in a Soft Cel title.  Then I saw that Golden Boy only got a 15+!  That is a pretty weak rating for Golden Boy.  Why do the anime companies want to decieve us so?  They are putting the wrong ratings on tapes (and how did Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy get a 16+?)

Wow, your Aunt bought you a hentai tape. That's almost creepier than a backrub from Grandma. Anyway, I'm surprised Midnight Panther had a 16+ rating on it - every time I've seen the video anywhere it was plastered with "adults only" warning labels, clearly marked on the front and on the back of the box. The video store she purchased it from must be fairly irresponsible about such things - heck, the Suncoast I visit occasionally doesn't even stock most hentai titles anymore. GoldenBoy I'd say is about a 15+ - there's no sex in the series whatsoever, just a lot of cheesecake and slow pans over half-nude women. Nothing worse than your average Swimsuit calendar. Don't Leave Me Alone, Daisy has a lot of really brutal "humor" in it, and since it's about a stalker, it's not really suitable for younger audiences (Why Bandai decided to release it with pictures of cute characters riding around on shooting stars on the cover is beyond me - the artwork doesn't fit the show at all. ) So, essentially, ratings are subjective and you may not always agree with them, but that's how they are. The only explanation I can give you for Midnight Panther is that the tape was mislabeled - it's a hentai title, it should have had an "adults only" label on it.

As far as I know, Disney will be doing a subtitled version of Laputa, just as they've done with Kiki's Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke - there's no reason to believe that a subtitled version won't eventually be available on video or DVD. The dubbed version you saw on UK TV was done by Carl Macek, and was shown around the art circuit in the US and on British TV a few times. The only way to get this version of Laputa is to buy the Laserdisc from the Ghibli Ga Ippai! LD box set, which includes the dub track.

You're thinking of G-Savior, a live action and CG Gundam film that was recently released in Japan on DVD. The film was produced in English with Japanese subtitles, so I'd expect to see an American release sometime soon.

Do you think that classic(as in old) anime like Blade of Kamui, Towards the Terra,Golgo 13 and the Galaxy Express movies will be coming to region 1 DVD?And are they worth watching? I know that they are out on VHS but I don´tbuy those anymore(since my VCR broke down lately). Also do you know what Mamoru Oshii is going to do after Avalon? Maybe he is working on the new Patlabor movie (I heard that they were making one). Also what about Satoshi Kon(you know, the director of Perfect Blue)?

Well, all of the classic titles you mentioned are catalog titles for one company or another, so I'd expect to see them on DVD eventually, whenever the company that owns them gets around to releasing them. Mamoru Oshii's next project was recently announced on Ain't It Cool News, and there should be a big report about it in the coming weeks on all the major Anime News sites. It's an animated project, but no more details have been given at this time. The last I'd heard of Satoshi Kon was that he was working on the second part of the trilogy he'd planned, the first part being Perfect Blue.

Nobody has licensed Slam Dunk in the US, although it has shown in Mexico and the Phillipines. The show ran a full gamut of episodes, the fansubs are just sporadic as far as how many and which episodes are available, much like Yuu Yuu Hakusho. I wouldn't be surprised if the show was licensed soon - the series is very long and would probably be popular among the Dragonball audience.

Hi! I had seen a number of Excel Saga episodes at a con last spring - and heard at the time that ADV had picked up the rights. I've been really, really looking forward to the release of this series. Now its early 2001, and its *still* nowhere on ADV's schedule. ADV does really have it, yes? And if so, why is it taking sooooooo long? I thought it was the most insanely hilarious series I've ever seen - it had me literally gasping for breath between laughter. Please tell me it really is on its way...

Mark

ADV recently announced this series and at AnimeExpo 2000, Greenfield said that they had it on their "accelerated release" schedule so it'd be out sometime sooner than the other titles they'd licensed (Much like Orphen was until they found that the PS2 game they were trying to tie it in with was a big pile of monkey leavings). It'll probably be out before the end of the year, and if ADV is smart, it'll be sooner than that - the show is amazingly popular and if they released it now they'd sell a million copies. And yes, the show has me holding my sides at times - although I've found that when the show hits, it hits big, and when the show misses, it's 20 minutes of unfunny torture.

1. CPM (Software Sculptors' parent company) has licensed Utnea up through episode 26, and they'll be releasing it sometime this Spring. Depending on how that does, they'll license up through episode 39 and hopefully the movie. For now, all we can count on is seeing up through 26 released here in the states.

2. Yes, there is more Armitage III being made. There was a rumor flying around a few months ago that a new Lain series was being made, and it turns out the images that the person who started it saw were from a new Armitage series. No word on when it'll be out.

3. Subtitled tapes cost more because they sell fewer of them and thus have to make up for the drop in quantity sold by raising the price.

Canada doesn't quite have the entertainment industry or the economy that the US does and thus, there are very few Canadian Anime companies. Most American anime distributors release titles in Canada anyway, so I'm not sure the market there needs it's own supplier.

Of course they'll edit it. Funimation has no qualms about changing something as much as they need to to please the soccer moms of the world. Last I heard,they don't even have the rights to release Yuu Yuu Hakusho in a subtitled or DVD format - so expect edited, dubbed videos until they can secure the rights otherwise.

Manga has announced that they expect the EVA movies to be in American theaters sometime this coming summer. Of course, they've been changing the dates around for about a year now, so when it'll come out is anyone's guess. I'm looking forward to owning these films on DVD as well, but at this point, it looks like Manga's top priority is getting a theater release (Which has to be the worst idea in the history of anime theater releases - the Eva movies don't make much sense even if you've seen the whole series several times over, and they'll make even less sense to the general American public).

The final two episodes of Love Hina, episodes 25 and 26 respectively, will be out in OAV format this coming April. It's assumed that they will wrap up the series.

There's no solid facts on this film yet but word is that AnimEigo has the rights to the Ah! Megami-sama movie. Hard to believe, I know, but that's the rumor. There's no Japanese release date yet, either… keep an eye out, these things should be announced within the next few months.