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Otakon Report: Part 2
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ADV reps Matt Greenfield and David Williams announced the following:
Several series will be completed before the end of the current year, which they called the company's "most successful yet." These include AD Police, Gasaraki, Nadia, Ark the Lad, and Shin Getter Robo. Several new series and OVA's are to be expected through the rest of '01 and all of 2002, including the OVA's Colorful, A.R. Kurumi, Zone of the Enders, the new Slayers movies and OVA's, the Nadesico movie, a re-release of the Dirty Pair OVA's, and others. New TV series include a CG Cutey Honey series, Eden's Bowy, Excel Saga, Rune Soldiers, Powerstone, the Sakura Wars TV series, the Zone of the Enders TV series, and Soul Hunters/Houshin Engi. The Spriggan movie will receive a sneak premiere at CN Anime, followed by a 'tiered' theatrical run later this year. In all, the company is currently engaged in six co-productions with various Japanese studios. Chance Triangle Session and the new Rurouni Kenshin OVAs are two of these titles.
The City Hunter TV series will be released as several DVD box sets, all put up for pre-order, with the one that receives the largest number of pre-order requests being produced first. The Robotech TV series is also being put out on DVD as several 12-episode (2 disc) box sets. Each set will include various extras, such as interviews, the Japanese openings and endings, the original English dub, the Robotech II: Sentinels series, as well as the Robotech Movie storyboards set to the vocal track. This movie will be in the 5th Boxed Set.
The first and second volumes of Neon Genesis Evangelion will also be re-released.
Other series announced include a two-DVD subtitled only release of Sakura Diaries collector's edition, the Princess 9 TV series, released on 6 DVD's which Matt announced will be the new standard for series of that length. Finally, all of the ADV back catalog is expected to be put out as DVD's by the fourth quarter of 2002; Softcell titles will be put out on DVD after the conclusion of the conversion of the ADV catalog. In the UK/European market, however, VHS will continue to be released, since the DVD market saturation there is significantly less.
Bandai representative Jerry Chu announced the following:
The Escaflowne movie is expected in theaters starting the second week of January, with the subtitled version going to art theaters and the dub into wider release. www.escamovie.com will launch around the middle of September. Bandai is considering showings in LA, New York, Boston, Chicago and Toronto. The DVD will be released between four and seven months after the conclusion of the theatrical run.
Jin-Roh will open in the Los Angeles area on 31 August and further release dates will be updated on www.jin-roh.net.
The release schedule for other Bandai titles has been announced as follows:
August:
MS Gundam (original series) v. 2
Crest of the Star v. 2
September:
Next volume of Gundam 08 MS Team
November 7th: Pilot Candidate/(Candidate for Goddess), to be released as 4/3/3/3 episodes
November:
Cowboy Bebop DVD Collection box set, a very limited release with an MSRP of $199.98, to include a collector's box, the first OST and possibly other
extras. The box alone will also be available for sale.
January:
Gundam 0083 DVD
Saber Marionette J Again DVD
February, approximately third week:
Love Hina (at the rate of four episodes per DVD) and the Love Hina collector's box set. There is no news on the Love Hina manga or the Christmas and Spring specials.
"Sometime 1st Quarter":
Jin-Roh, released in both a "Special Edition" and "Regular" edition. More info about the Special Edition is coming up in a few weeks.
Early spring:
Fancy Lala
Saber Marionette J to X
Sometime in '02: Char's Counterattack
In other news, both Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083 will be shown on the Cartoon Network before the end of the year. There has been no air date set for Pilot Candidate announced. Finally, there is currently no news regarding the Cowboy Bebop movie, but Bandai is engaged in a bidding war with several other companies over it.
Synch Point, America's newest anime company, was represented at the con by Ardith Santiago and Shizuki Yamashita. The highlight of their panel was the official premiere of the 30-second TV commercial for the first U.S. store of the Japanese anime/manga retailer Broccoli. The commercial, which features the characters from Digi Charat, including two new ones, as well as an English-language version of the song "Welcome" will play on cable and local TV channels in the greater Los Angeles area.
The release schedule for Synch Point's two current titles was announced as follows:
Tenshi ni Narumon/I Wanna be an Angel VHS:
September: volume 2
November: volume 3
December: DVD volume 1
FLCL (official English title: FLCL - Furi Kuri):
Starting January '02, 3 DVD's using the original Japanese box art.
In addition, Synch Point will be bringing out a limited edition autographed artbook for the Blood: the Last Vampire movie, as well as various unspecified Digi Charat character merchandize (however, the company does not have the distribution rights for the Digi Charat anime series or merchandize directly related to it.)
Toshi Yoshida and Carl G. Horn, respectively of Viz's anime and manga arms, made the following announcements:
In the second week of December, the first 72-page montly issue of the Bastard! Manga will be released. Subsequent issues will be at least 64 pages. Chiho Saito, the artist on Revolutionary Girl Utena, now carried in Viz's Animerica Extra magazine, will be producing original covers for it, starting October. In addition, the anime director (and con personality) Scott Frazier will be writing monthly columns for Animerica Extra. Before the end of the year, two new manga, one of them an as-yet-unannounced Gundam title, will start appearing as monthly issues of between 64-80 pages. A third title, also unannounced, will start appearing in Animerica Extra. The next Galaxy Express 999 graphic novel will appear sometime in September. Pulp Magazine will start carrying the horror manga Uzumiki, and a graphic novel release is expected as well.
Anime news include the theatrical release of the film version of Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis. Jin-Roh: the Wolf Brigade will continue its theatrical run through the fall, opening in Atlanta; Brookline, MA; Hartford, CT; Tampa, Gainesville, Orlando and Miami, FL; Nashville and Knoxville, TN. To commemorate the release of Metropolis, the two Osamu Tezuka manga Viz carries, Adolf and Black Jack, will be rereleased. The first Ranma 1/2 TV series DVD box set will be released in November, with subsequent box sets coming out every two to four months. The first Ayashi no Ceres/Celestial Legend Ceres DVD is also forthcoming; extras include an exclusive interview with series creator Watase Yuu.
Ironcat art director Steven Bennett IV made the following announcements:
Within the next several months, the company will undergo a "total reogranization", including a possible name change. However, rights to all current titles will be retained, and it is likely to remain in Northern Virginia.
New titles include Cool Devices (on the adult Sexy Fruit line), in collaboration with Right Stuf International, starting September and coming out as single montly issues. The Spectral Force manga will be released as part of a joint project with ADV and possibly sold in a combined package with the Spectral Force anime and videogame. The Moldiver manga has also been licensed, but no further information was available at this time.
A major announcement was the acquisition of the original Vampire Princess Miyu manga beyond the six issues originally published by Antarctic Press. There is a possibility of an unflipped release. In addition, Ironcat has licensed the three Groundwork of Evangelion art books and is currently working on translating all three. Graphic novels of Dahlia the Vampire, Vampire Yui, and Futaba-kun Change are also coming out; Futaba-kun will be concluded with this upcoming volume, the eighth so far. There is still no news regarding Hana Yori Dango, but Ironcat editor Kevin Bennett is still involved in negotiations with the publisher.
Central Park Media was represented at the con by Justin Sevakis, and there were significant announcements regarding two of their early-awaited releases.
The Utena movie will in fact be released on 23 October in two versions, a standard release and a limited-edition collector's series with a see-through pink case.
Now and Then, Here and There (Japanese title: Ima, soko ni iru boku) has previously been confirmed for the first quarter of 2002. However, recently, there have been rumors of a possible name change for the American release. According to Justin, those rumors did have a grain of truth, as the English title provided with the original Japanese version is not an exact translation of the Japanese title. However, CPM has decided to go ahead and release the series as "Now and Then, Here and There," starting in February, 2002. The thirteen-episode series will be released on 3 DVD's in a 5/4/4 format.
Much of this information was submitted to us by Koulikom. Thank you very much!
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