According to Anime on DVD, Right Stuf International CEO Shawne Kleckner has confirmed that Disney will release American DVD and VHS versions of Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky on April 17th.
AD Vision has supplemented its What is Noir? official site with a second, larger official American Noir homepage at Project Noir.com. The new site includes galleries of characters, weapons, promotional art, a news section, three trailers, at least a half dozen hidden “Easter egg” features, and much more.
After announcing some time ago that all of their forthcoming 25/26 episode series would be released on six DVD discs, AD Vision contradicted that policy with their recent confirmation that Noir would be released on 7 DVDs. Now, according to Anime on DVD, there’s unconfirmed word that RahXephon will also be released on 7 DVD discs instead of the AD Vision standard 6 discs.
Bay Area Anime has published a brief but thorough guide to viewing anime without breaking the bank.
Source: Anime News Network
According to JPOP USA the popular J-Pop duo Puffy AmiYumi will perform the theme song for the upcoming American Teen Titans cartoon, based on the DC Comics series. Teen Titans will debut next year on Cartoon Network, followed by broadcast on Kids’ WB!
Source: Anime News Service
Namco has announced that Soul Calibur 2 will hit the Japanese Playstation 2, GameCube and Xbox on march 27th. The home version of the game will include a new “RPG mode” in which players will complete various tasks to earn new weapons, and the new character Necrid, designed by American comic book artist Todd McFarlane. Furthermore, each version will include one exclusive bonus character. The Playstation 2 version will include Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima as a playable character. The Gamecube version will include Link from Legend of Zelda as a bonus character. And the Xbox version will include Todd McFarlane’s Spawn as a bonus playable character.
Source: The Magic Box
Tecmo’s Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball will go on sale in America on the 21st, at a retail price of $49.99, and debut in Japan two days later, on January 23rd.
Marvelous Entertainment will release the dating simulation game (based on the anime TV series) Sister Princess RePure for the Japanese GameBoy Advance on March 21st.
Source: The Magic Box
Question:
On the commentary track for Eva: Death & Rebirth, Taliesin Jaffe said that the slogan for NERV (God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world) came from a poem about spring time. He never mentions the title. Would you happen to know what the poem is called and who the author is?
Manga Entertainment spokesman Keith Burgess has officially refuted the rumor from last weekend’s Ohayocon convention that Manga Entertainment’s DVD release of Read or Die will be edited together into a single feature. According to Burgess’ statement, R.O.D. will be released in America unedited with a simple, DVD standard “Play All” function. According to Burgess:
Keith Burgess from Manga Entertainmnet, I wanted clear up the rumor that started on AoD about Read or Die. I did not say they were going to be edited into movie form, what I said was that instead of making it one episode plays and credits play and so on. That it may play and have the screen boards for the blank commercial spots. Which is what happens with Virus, the episodes are barely 30 minutes there is nothing to cut. So here is what I got directly from production all the epsisodes will run together but not edited they will simply play and end with all their credit stuff and then the next one will start. There may be an option to skip over the credits until the end but I don’t know about that just yet.
According to The Kingdom, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has revealed plans to release 3 Hayao Miyazaki directed films in America in April. According to the report, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky Laputa, and Kiki’s Delivery Service will be released as double disc special editions with a suggested retail price of $29.99 each.
Bandai has announced plans to release limited edition DVD versions of all 6 upcoming .hack//SIGN TV series DVDs. The previously announced limited edition volume 1 will include extras like a series box, CD soundtrack, T-shirt, stuffed toy, and more. DVD volumes 2-5 will be released in standard disc only editions, and in limited editions of 15,000 copies that include a slipcase and, respectively, CD soundtrack volumes 2-5. The limited edition DVD volume 6 will include a slipcase, CD soundtrack for the .hack//Liminality OAV series, and collector’s box to hold all 6 soundtrack CDs. The disc only volumes 2-6 will retail for $29.98 each. The limited edition volume 1 will retail for $59.98 and volumes 2-6 will retail for $39.98 each, bringing the total price of a limited edition set up to $259.88.
Source: Anime on DVD
Square has announced that Final Fantasy X-2 will go on sale in Japan on March 13th at a pricey retail cost of 7800 yen.
Rockman.EXE WS for the WonderSwan Color will go on sale in Japan on February 8th. Unlike the Gameboy Advance Rockman.EXE RPG games, the WonderSwan game will be a traditional Rockman platforming action game.
Bandai will release Mobile Suit Gundam Seed for the WonderSwan Color on March 15th, followed by Naruto, on March 27th.
Source: The Magic Box
Question:
Saw Char’s Counterattack on Cartoon Network the other night, and I was a little confused by the way it ended. Specifically, what happened? I gathered it had something to do with the little t-shaped thing but as for all the pretty lights and enemy forces changing sides suddenly, I was at a loss. Is it assumed that they managed to stop the asteroid? What supposedly happened to Char?
Veteran Japanese film maker Kinji Fukasaku passed away on Sunday, January 12th at 1am. He was 72 years old. Fukasaku’s directorial career spanned 50 years, although he may be best known to Western movie fans as the director of Japanese cult hit Battle Royale. After announcing that he was suffering from bone cancer, Fukasaku decided to ignore his health and begin production of Battle Royale 2. Fuksasku passed on production of Battle Royale 2 to his son two weeks ago.
Source: Ain’t It Cool News
Japanese manga publishing group Coamix has confirmed plans to release a 3 episode OAV series titled “Shin Hokuto no Ken” (New Fist of the North Star) this spring. Early images are available from the Coamix homepage, and a short clip of MPG footage is available for download from production company OB Planning.
