Ms. Answerman

Attack of the Same Old Questions

A lot of my free time recently has been filled with time spent on two games: Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Though these two games are part of the same universe, the similarities between them end there.

Playable only by those who own a computer (a decent one too), SWG is a MMORPG (Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game, for those who have been in a cave somewhere for the past five years) that takes place between the fourth and fifth Star Wars movies. The Galactic Civil War is raging between the Imperials and the Rebels, and every player has a wide variety of professions, races, and character customization features to choose from. This game was originally pushed back a year to work on the numerous problems they were having with developing it, and it's become very obvious that a year was not enough. Players suffer from numerous bugs, a broken economy that worked on paper but definitely not in practice, and constant changes to the professions to try and ‘balance them out’. Content wise, there is little to do outside of exploring the numerous planets, running destroy/delivery missions, or leveling up in whichever profession you chose (aka ‘grinding out xp’). The Galactic Civil War, which allows players to fight for one side or the other in a massive PvP (Player vs. Player) experience, is a nice feature to have but one I haven't tried yet since I'm not a big fan of PvP. This game might become good in a few months once they take care of most of the bugs and stop changing things around every few days, but for now you'd be better off waiting until the expansion pack.

SW:KOTOR, on the other hand, is an incredible game for the X-Box that takes place 1000 years before the movies. Your character becomes a part of the battle against the threat of the Sith and the Sith Lord Malak, and early on it's discovered that there is great potential in you to become a powerful Jedi. Of course, the question becomes which side of the force you'll choose. Many of the things you say or do affect your alignment, and once you become a Jedi you have a wide selection of light, neutral, and dark jedi powers to aid you in your battles. The actual combat system is fairly basic and allows you to pause at any time during battle to control your character and any other two from your party. There are plenty of side missions to complete that'll result in xp, money, or items as well as light/dark side points. The graphics for the ‘movie’ parts within the game aren't impressive, but the battle sequences (especially when you and your party members are jedi) are incredible and a lot of fun. I'll probably be playing this game for a while, since it'll be fun to go back and replay the game as a dark jedi instead of light.

Now that you've made it through my weekly rant, it's time to get on with the questions!

Hi.
I kinda remember Funimation saying that they'd release a Fruits Basket box set way back when they first announced the acquisition. Did I make that up? Are they still planning to release all the dvds in a box?
Thanks.

FUNimation confirmed the Fruits Basket box set in their panel at Anime Expo, but they haven't said when they're going to release it. You'll have your choice of a full box as well as an empty box, so fans of the show who've already bought their DVDs will finally have a home for their collection.

I was wondering if the anime Gravitation is dubbed in English dialogue? If it is,where can I find it? I am a big fan, and I would really like to see the anime in English.
Jean L
[email protected]

The Right Stuf International has the rights to the TV series. At AnimeExpo they announced that the dub was almost finished and they were planning a spring 2004 release date, so you'll have to wait about six months before you should get your hands on the finished product. If spring 2004 is too long of a wait to get your Gravitation fill, the first volume of the manga was recently released by Tokyopop. The anime follows the manga closely, so any fan of the series should pick the manga up.

Dear Ms. Answerman,
I recently picked up volume one of the manga called "Basara" by Yumi Tamura. I, of course, loved it and now desperately wait for volume two! Anyway, I was wondering if it was ever made into an anime. If so, is there a chance that Viz will also license the anime?
Thanx.
Kaleida

It was made into an anime, but unfortunately it ended long before it could get through even a small fraction of the material the Basara manga had to offer. You might want to look for the anime (also called Legend of Basara), but I'll warn you now that the ‘ending’ isn't really an ending since they cancelled the show after only 13 episodes due to low ratings. For anyone who hasn't picked this title up, I'd suggest you buy it now and see if you like it. The manga runs for 27 volumes, so you'll have to play a lot of catch-up if you wait a year or two before giving this series a shot.

Hi! I was wondering if there were somewhere I can get live action movies based on anime? I can generally find a title or 2 at any given website/store, but never more than a handful. Is there anywhere I can find a wide selection of live action based on anime?
mw

There really isn't a wide selection of live action shows based on anime because there isn't a huge market for it over here (and there really aren't that many titles to choose from in the first place). If you live in a larger city, I'd suggest you head to the yellow pages and try to find an international video store. These are normally smaller stores located within the asian-centered shopping areas, so if you can't find a specific video store I'd suggest you look for asian grocery stores. All of the grocery stores I've been to have a number of smaller businesses inside, so you'll have to go out and visit them to see what they have to offer (though I've never been to one of these without seeing a video store within). The same goes for looking on the web: look through sites that emphasize international (or specifically asian) videos or dvds.

Hello Ms. Answerman, my question is in regards to the new re-
release of the Berserk anime. When I was looking around for
the preorder I noticed that the official title is Berserk Box
Set Seasons One. What does this mean? Does it mean what all
of us fans hope it means; that there are plans for a
contiuation of the anime? I know that the anime series has
been out of production for almost five years and that rumors
have been ever present that more would be on the way and the
fact that the box set is named "Seasons One" only helps
support this theory. But is there any concrete evidence
anywhere indicating that Berserk will be continued i.e. voice
actors signing contracts, contracts out on the adaptation of
the manga, or news from Animeworks... Any news would be good
news. Thanks!

The fact that the box set is named “Season One” only helps support the theory that you really need to get a life if you're going to over-analyze the use of “Season One”. This does not imply that there are more seasons past one season, only that this is the first season (which it is). They are not going to title it as “Berserk Box Set Season One of One” or “Berserk Box Set Season One but there Might be a Season Two on the Way in the Coming Years”. Once more I will tell the many fans of Berserk that if they want more Berserk, they need to go and buy the manga. There are 25 volumes out and the artwork for 24 and 25 is so incredible that it took my breath away. You do not need to understand Japanese to enjoy this series. So instead of wasting your time on assumptions (“Oh my god! This says season one, it must run for 10 seasons!”), try using that time to obtain and then read/look through the manga. Or watch grass grow. But seriously, STOP ASKING ABOUT BERSERK, people! Read the news page. If it says “Berserk season 2 announced!” then you'll know that there's going to be a season 2. Of course, then I'll immediately get questions about when it's coming out here and who has the rights to it...

Ms. Answerwoman,
When Kingdom Hearts for the PS2 was released stateside I heard rumblings of
a CD release of Hikari Utada's music in English, but since then have failed
to hear anything else about it. I have a friend who works in music
distributing and he said that his company had a meeting about the initial
release, but that was spring of last year. (I think, I've kinda lost track
of how long it's actually been.) Do you know whether this project has been
scrapped, overly delayed, or anything about it at all? Thanks a bunch.

As far as I know there isn't going to be an official release of that CD over here. There is a good chance that it will be released sometime in the future, since there's a Kingdom Hearts anime in the making, but even then it might not if Disney decides to use new music. If someone in the music business is planning on releasing something, they've doing a good job of keeping it quiet.

My first question is why did the scifi channel get rid of there saturaday anime program block (i think it was around from 93-96) called the rising sun. second is the japanese version of the db, dbz, and gt different from the american versions. and finally i know it take a while for anime to be put on tv because of alot of a factors , but wouldn't it be quicker if they just sent over a show that in subtitle form instead of have to dubed.

1) Jeez, I sure do love the questions that ask 'why was this show canceled 10 years ago?'. It's possible that the SciFi channel got tired of showing the same dozen movies/OVAs over and over again, and they didn't have the money (or didn't want to) buy the rights to new anime shows to give their audience a larger variety. It's also possible that people got tired (literally) of waking up at 6am every Saturday morning to watch the program. I'm sure the SciFi channel had its reasons.
2) Yes, the original DB/Z/GT series are different from the American releases. You can, however, buy the unedited versions of these (save for the first 53 episodes of the DBZ series, those are being worked on as we speak).
3) It might be quicker to subtitle a show, but there isn't a huge market for subtitled-only anime in the US. Before DVDs, companies released the subtitled versions on one VHS and the dubbed on another. The subtitled didn't sell and many companies stopped subtitling shows because they weren't making a profit off of them. Major TV companies will run across this same problem, unless they're specifically Japanese/International channels or anime channels (like the Anime Network).
4) Please please please use spell-check before sending any emails. I'm glad to know that you liked the dubed shows that the scifi channel showed every saturaday mornings, but I'd appreciate it if you took a few seconds to check over your own work before I post it. If you still insist on sending in questions with spelling errors, please include your name next time so that I can make sure all of the readers know who you are.

Hi Mr./Ms. Answerman. I was wondering if the re-released Evangelion would be
coming to the US since I (not quite sure...) read somewhere that it was
Japanese exclusive. Is this true? If it is indeed coming to the US, do you
know when it will? Thanks for your time.
Eva Fan

For now the re-release of Evangelion has not been licensed, but it's possible that it'll be re-released in the US as well. If the movie ever gets off the ground, there will be renewed interest in Evangelion (especially for those who've never seen the series before). It's also possible that the rights are in the negotiation process and won't be announced until all of the licensing details are taken care of.

I just read in the reviews section about a VCD containing "The Item" and "The Apprentence", two amatuer OVAs made by anime fans. Do you know where I could obtain this VCD, or others? Thanks
-Rex the 3rc

Try http://whiteradish.com/ since this is the company that originally produced these two titles. Their website says that the VCD can only be obtained upon request, but they do have both on DVD. They also sell other VCDs here in case you're still interested in seeing stuff aside from the Item and Apprentice.

That's it for this week. Keep the questions coming and remember: Spell-check is your friend.