The Passion of the Answerman

I read in Vogue that pre-column banter is officially out of style, so let's eschew the formalities and get to work, shall we?

I've noticed in some series (Inuyasha most recently) that the look and appearance of the characters can change slightly from episode to episode, like position of cheek bones or bigger eyes, and shading etc. I was wondering why that was, do they re-shuffle all the artists or directors or something?

-chottozelu

Well, here's the thing. It depends on how much money you've spent on something and what studio is handling it. Some studios, like Madhouse or Gonzo, are known for high quality production values and tend to churn things out that are consistently ‘on model’ (although Gonzo's track record for keeping characters on model has dropped through the floor lately). When something gets farmed out to either the low-end Japanese studios or some of the cheaper Korean places, you wind up with sub-par talent handling the inbetween animation. Basically, you get characters that don't look the same from frame to frame. It's happened in countless shows and it's the result of poor quality control and sloppy animation. It has very little to do with the director and a whole lot to do with the amount of money involved in the production.

Hello,

I saw the first episode of Kino's Journey and was wondering is Kino a boy or a girl?
Plus I heard that Right Stuf International was releasing the anime version Gravitation and was wondering if you know when it will available?

Thank You Jessica

Kino is a girl. As for Gravitation, there's no release date yet, but it should be coming soon enough.

Dear Answerman,

I've been getting into Hellsing lately and I have a question. Does Alucard's glove have a pentagram or the Star of David on them?

Fireball

Alucard's gloves have an amalgam of symbols on them. Basically, it's a pentagram with some text and symbols surrounding it. The sigil on his gloves is considered to be part of the control system used to keep Alucard on a leash, so to speak. Some have suggested that the five symbols inside the pentagram represent the five men responsible for capturing Alucard's former self, Vlad Tepes, also known as Dracula. Another theory states that the symbol is, instead, some sort of power source for Alucard. It tends to glow when he's using how powers, and near the end of the series, it really lights up just as the Thames is turning to blood. The symbol itself doesn't have any specific religious meaning, but it is coddled together from a few different places.

oh please is there gonna be a Big O season 3?i love the show still.i bought the dvd of episode one season 2. so many question still unsolved.let me know ok

Well, they haven't announced it yet, but never say never. The second season of Big O did reasonably well for Cartoon Network, so it's safe to assume that they're considering another series. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

I was just wondering if you knew when the rest of the Inuyasha Series was
going to be on dvd[English dubbed] and not the ones that are 20$ for 3
episodes, I'm talking about the one's that come in packs of three and are
usually called "Perfect Collections". I've looked on tons of different
websites,forums, etc and found nothing :(. I have only found up to about episode 36 in the perfect collections. If you could find out when the rest are coming or if they are out, then you're god.

Well, with any luck, Viz found out who was producing these ‘perfect collections’ you've been buying and shut them down. What you're buying are the absolute worst of the bootlegs; DVD-rips of American DVDs repackaged in Hong Kong bootleg packaging and resold for a cheaper price. You SHOULD be paying $20 for three episodes; that's how much Inuyasha costs to buy. You are not entitled to this show for a cheaper price and what you were buying is, on many levels, stealing. You're taking money straight out of the pockets of the people who make the show. Go buy Viz's legitimate versions.

That's all for this week.