Ms. Answerman and the Half-Blood Princess

Hi Answerman, I have been scoring the internet for news of the continuation of Juuni Kokki. I have watched all 10 DVDs and am anxious for more. I have read several rumors that the director is sick and that is why they had to end the series so quickly... is that true? Are there plans for continuing the story? They failed to explain the rest of the story about the black kekki, also, what will happened with the kingdom of Kei? It is all so sad and frustrating. If you have any information on this subject, I would really appreciate a reply back.
Thank you so much!
Tricia

Juuni Kokki was originally slated to run 68 episodes but was cut short for several possible reasons.
At Anime Boston 2004, John Sirabella of Media Blasters stated the series was cut short because the character designer was having health problems.
Another suspected reason was that the story was trailing away from Yoko. In the books that the anime is based on, Yoko is NOT a major character. The anime does a really good job of looking at things from her perspective, but there just wasn't enough original information from the books to keep a Yoko perspective. It's believed (but I'm not sure if this is verified or not) that NHK felt that 12K would lose its audience if Yoko wasn't the lead. Instead of dragging it out and having it die a slow and painful death, they decided to axe it early.
The other reason is that they had caught up with the story in the books! Just as Berserk and Hellsing had nowhere to go since there wasn't enough original material, so too did 12K fall short on original material. I'm guessing the author, Fuyumi Ono, didn't want them to make stuff up or use material that hadn't been explained in the book yet, so they couldn't finish the story lines.
As for the future of 12K, it seems as though the anime is just on hiatus until more information has been released through the books. The problem with this is that Ono has stopped writing the books (put them on hiatus as well) and is busy writing other stories. This information is a little bit older, but I haven't found or heard of her writing more 12K novels since then.

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I have noticed for sometime that in the ANN Encyclopedia, that ADV
Films has the rights to the second season of BGC 2040. According to the information listed the series has been in "active production" since
2002. It has been sometime since I saw the first season. I would appreciate any information you could shed on this series.

Bubblegum Crisis 2041 has been in the pre-pre-production stages since 2002 and no new information has been released outside of ADV's interest in the series. Generally a company won't announce the fact that they've lost interest in a series unless it's brought up during their panel at a convention. Even then, they still might genuinely be interested but have other things/titles to handle before it.

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Hi Answerman,
I'm interested to know how many sailor moon series are in English. I have just brought two box sets (sailor moon volume one and two, episodes 1 – 79) I wish to collect all the English versions out there!
Thanks heaps,
Cherie

You're lucky you got your hands on the original episodes since ADV did not renew the rights to the earlier episodes. There are four series available in the US: Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, and Sailor Moon SuperS. The manga has also been translated but the rights to it have expired so you might have trouble finding the series on the shelves.

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Hello, My name is Judson of Locust, North Carolina. I'm 25 and been an anime fan for a while. One of the oldest and dearest to me is Voltron. I've been attempting to collect the series but have stumbled across something that I don't recognize. It is an episode called "Fleet Of Doom". I found it on a file sharing network but it's episode number is 00. It starts with a synopsis stating that Zarkon had teemed up with a viceroy and that Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron had to team up to stop them but couldn't. Apparently Zarkon and his new ally are looking for some power station of the alliance. I've searched your web site but can't find anything on it or IMDB. Are you familiar with this episode? It's over 45 in length so I thought it might be a mini movie. Do let me know if this is familiar. Email me back if you need further details. Thank you for your time.

“Fleet of Doom” was a one-hour special meant to tie the first and second seasons together by putting both the Lion and Vehicle Voltrons together on the same screen. They reused most of the footage from previous episodes and threw in a bit of new stuff to make up for it, but from what I've read it wasn't a very good movie.
To read more on the Fleet of Doom, check out this website (there are lots of spoilers here!). (http://members.aol.com/shanemuir/liondoom.htm)

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G'Day,
I just rediscovered the old "Fantasy Anime" feature on ANN, written way back in Nov 2001. My question is,with three extra years now under our collective belts, are there any more recent titles you would add to that list for Sword & Sorcery nuts like myself. Similarly, are there are any titles that should be avoided like the Plague?
Thank You Muchly.

Four years have passed and there have been plenty of noteworthy and horrifying fantasy series since then. For some bigger titles, I'd put Inuyasha at the top of it even though you'd have to swim through 167 episodes and pray you never have to listen to the dub. Naruto has the same problems (a tad long and drags at some spots) but is great if you love a huge helping of ninja action in your fantasy. Juuni Kokki (Twelve Kingdoms) is also up there, though the ending is a bit of a disappointment (see question 1 above). Kyo kara Maoh! follows a similar formula, though it includes a lot more comedy and definitely caters to a female audience. Scrapped Princess is a more traditional Sword & Sorcery title with a bit of a Sci-Fi twist. I personally loved the series, but you'll find a number of people who didn't care for it so you might want to rent it first and see if it's your thing. Requiem from the Darkness is a really great fantasy/horror series if you avoid the last three episodes or so. .hack//SIGN would be another great one since most of this takes place in a fantasy-based MMORPG. Card Captor Sakura is an older one but it's terribly sweet and packed full of magic. It didn't make it onto the earlier list due to length/time constraints, but it's still worth watching.
I'd definitely avoid D.N.Angel. It does include some magic and fantastical things but for the most part you'll be banging your head on the desk when they shove a horribly written love triangle (square?) sub-plot into most of the episodes. I'm sure there are more but I rarely watch bad shows all the way through. If you're interested in more titles, follow the link at the bottom to the message boards. Generally people will make posts about their own best/worst picks.