Answerman
Long Play Version!
"Watashi no kioku ga tashika naraba....", that is, if memory serves me right, "Yū Yū Hakusho" was released two other times: once by Central Park Media, and the other time it was by Media Blasters. Media Blasters has released a YYH "movie, and if Funimation has aquired the TV show, then what did CPM give us, an OVA perhaps? I'm sorry to bother you again, but I was hoping you could clear this up. David
Newington, CT
P.S., I'm not so sure if this show (YYH) will do well on American TV; it sounds kinda....dark. (It could be Vampire Hunter D variety, but I don't really know.)
There are 3 incarnations of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. One half hour movie, released by Media Blasters as “Yuu Yuu Hakusho: The Movie”. Another 90-minute movie, released by Central Park Media as “Yuu Yuu Hakusho: The Poltergeist Report”. The television series had not been licensed by anyone until now. In my opinion, YYH will do just fine on US TV, and the fan community has postulated for a very long time that it'll do very well on TV here, seeing as how the show is essentially a series of fight scenes. Don't get me wrong - the show has a decent plot, and is fairly well written, but it's an action show for little boys and thus, it should rival Dragon Ball in it's popularity. I expect big things out of it - especially with the huge marketing force Funimation has become.
Is there any hope that we can one day soon buy the entire Dragon Ball Z saga totally uncut on DVD, or am I just hoping against hope?
Chris
To be honest, I don't think we'll ever see completely uncut episodes of Dragon Ball Z in the United States beyond fansubs. The show had a bit too much ribald humor in it and the target audience for the show is little kids. Little Japanese kids think penis and fart jokes are hilarious, and so do American kids, but American parents don't think their children should be exposed to something like that at such an early age (Which, in my opinion, is a load of bull - there's nothing in any Dragon Ball episode they won't hear on the playground.) Even the “uncut” episodes of Dragon Ball are edited at least a little bit. So while we'll probably see the entire Dragon Ball series on DVD eventually, I doubt they'll be completely ‘uncut’.
I was thinking about Mononoke Hime's trek into US theatres, and recall hearing of several companies pushing to get various movies into the theatres also... Any solid plans? Spriggan, Vampire Hunter D (the new version) are already being planned for a theatre-release, but I don't have any source to confirm that from... Are there others? Will they make it? And will any of the older Miyazaki films make it onto the big screen in the US (Laputa and Nausicaä ESPECIALLY)?? .....EVER?
Thanks.
earl j gertwagen
Unfortunately, a lot of the rumors about theatrical releases are just that, rumors, and they vaporize as soon as they surface. At last year's AnimeExpo I heard straight from Matt Greenfield's mouth hat Spriggan will be in theaters sometime this year. I have no idea when - they haven't announced any dates yet. They also mentioned that they'd be pushing for a theatrical release of the You're Under Arrest movie, and of course, we haven't heard anything about that yet, either. Manga is trying to get Blood into theaters here, and nothing's been said about that. They're also trying to get End of Evangelion into theaters (A horrible, horrible idea that I pray will fall through in the end) and they've said something about a summertime release, but nothing solid has been nailed down. Urban Vision has been showing the new Vampire Hunter D at film festivals across the country but they haven't announced any wide release plans as of yet. Disney has pushed Laputa back to an unspecified date and the theatrical release, at least at present, is in danger of being canceled. And, of course, nothing has been said about Nausicaä at all.
So, I hate to disappoint you, but no, there's nothing solid right now. Keep your eye on that front page, though- this stuff could materialize in theaters faster than you may think.
Hello,
Will the Kite Director's Cut DVD come to the US?
The Kite Director's Cut, with nearly everything from the original intact save a few sex scenes that they just can't leave in, will be available from Central Park Media in both dubbed and subtitled forms on January 30th, 2001. There is no DVD release date as of yet. Oh, and I recently discovered that the title of this anime IS pronounced like the english word “Kite”, and not “Kiite” or “Key-Tay” as pronounced by so many Otaku the world over.
I've been purchasing anime for about ten years and invested around three thousand dollars and I've just recently gotten interested with the fansub industry. I think it's a great way to experience anime in it's original format before it gets contorted by the American censors. Anyway, anime is not very popular were I live and can't find anyone in my area who has used a fansub service. I was wondering if perhaps you could recommend a few or provide some links as to where I could find out which services are respectable and which ones are suspect. Thankyou for your time.
-Kevin Duncan- Richmond, Va.
Congratulations on discovering the underground. Fansubs are indeed an excellent way to see shows before they hit US Shores, or see them unedited, or see certain shows, like Marmalade Boy or Hana Yori Dango, that may never see the light of day in America. There are a few very reputable fansub distributors on the web, most of which are honest, thorough, fast and up-to-date. I can't really straight out tell you who they are, since this is a public forum and I question the appropriateness of advertising for fansub sites in this column (I'll save that for my other column, subCulture.) My suggestion to you is to start at http://www.fansubs.net , try their “Fansub Distro List” and check their nominations for best and worst fansub distributors. That should set you on the right path. Best of luck to you!
I've been a real big fan of like Saint Seiya and Yū Yū Hakusho and that kind of thing for a long time now. I heard a while back that Saint Seiya was up for grabs for the American market but that was like 5 years ago. I just want to know what the deal is, if it's gonna come out here any time soon or are they just never going to bring it out? The same with Yū Yū Hakusho, they have the two movies out why not bring the TV series out? AnimEigo seemed interested in releasing either Yū Yū Hakusho or any the other series that they mentioned on their website, according to the fan response. But the fan response seemed more toward like You're Under Arrest. Both Saint Seiya and Yū Yū Hakusho are long tv series yeah, but if they brought DBZ out they can sure as heck bring these two much smaller (and better) shows out. Any info at all would be helpful. Thanks for your time.
-Alex Keefe
Yuu Yuu Hakusho was recently acquired by Funimation and will be shown on US TV shortly. I assume a subtitled DVD release isn't completely out of the question (But this IS Funimation we're talking about here…). As for Saint Seiya, I haven't heard anything on that show in a long time. I suspect it's too old at this point to be considered for US release, but stranger things have happened.
Hi, in the Cowboy Bebop series, episode 5, "Ballad of Fallen Angels", spike is walking into a church the song that is on is called RAIN, and sung by a girl (not sure who), the only version of that song on the OSTs is sung by a man. Is there a way to get this song anywhere that is sung by the girl.?
Thanks a lot,
Shawn McGrath
Unfortunately, no. The version of this song that appears in the show was sung by Mai Yamane, who also sings the closing theme and a few other vocal songs for the show. This version doesn't appear on any of the Cowboy Bebop CDs that are currently available.
Thanks to Tad Morgan and Matt Martin on rec.arts.anime.misc for the answer to this question.
Thank you for this information.
Unfortunately I may have been unclear in the type of information I am looking for, specifically Anime Video, DVD and box-office grosses in terms of sales and/or rentals. Billboard dose not seem to have any information like this. Is there any other site you can recommend.
Thank you very much for your time
Well, had those jokers at USA Interactive not pulled the plug on the SciFi Channel's Anime Colony website, I'd be able to tell you to go there, since for about a month they had the weekly Billboard listings of where EVERY anime video had placed on the complete Billboard charts that week. It was a really cool service and unfortunately, it's gone now. As of this writing, I'm not aware of any other place that posts the full list of 200, as most sites will only post the top 40 videos. As for box-office grosses, when an anime title does hit the theaters, several anime news sites around the web post weekly updates. I know that Anime News Service posted a weekly update on Mononoke Hime's box office grosses during it's entire theater run.
And now, for my favorite question of the week:
I'm a professional translator (J>E, video games chiefly, haven't done any anime yet, I'm young, I'll get an opportunity sometime) and was wondering, having seen only one ep of the Card Captor Sakura dub and none of the original, how it is a hack job. I found it significantly less annoying than Sailor Moon was in its heyday. (I became a fan of the sub and the original until I graduated to other anime interests, like mecha.) I'm curious as a linguist and as an anime fan.
Well, Jeremiah, I hate to disappoint you, but Cardcaptors is only a hollow shell of Card Captor Sakura. Nelvana took the most boy-friendly portions of the show, hacked them together in a mishmash of lost subplots, bad dubbing, and changed character names, and called it “Cardcaptors”. It loosely resembles the original Card Captor Sakura TV series, in that it IS taking pieces of the original series, but that's where I'd say the similarities end. Card Captor Sakura is a show for little Japanese girls, and Cardcaptors is a show for little American boys - certainly, audiences that are nearly at a polar opposite to eachother. Why Nelvana decided to license the show when they wanted something for little boys when they could have licensed something like Yū Yū Hakusho or Flame of Recca is beyond me, completely. Do yourself a favor; rent the first DVD of Card Captor Sakura and the first DVD of Cardcaptors and watch them, one right after the other, and then tell me Cardcaptors isn't a hack job. Just because something is less annoying than another hack job doesn't make it acceptable.
See you next week, folks. Keep those questions coming.
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