AnimeNation Anime News Blog

At last weekend’s Anime Weekend Atlanta convention:

AD Vision announced that the Bubblegum Crisis 2041 anime series has not entered the pre-production stage in Japan yet.

AN Entertainment displayed the prototype of the Risky Safety Series Collector’s Box, announced that Miami Guns will be a 4 disc release beginning in the first half of 2004, and announced that the English dubbing for Miami Guns will be produced by Scott Houle and Phoenix Post Sound.

AnimEigo stated that a DVD version of the Macross movie will likely never be released in America because of disputes over ownership of the title in Japan. Likewise the Macross 7 TV series will probably never have an official English language release in part due to copyright ownership disputes over its music.

Bandai announced its acquisition of the 25 episode 2001 anime TV series Kaze no Yojimbo, an anime updating of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1961 film Yojimbo.

Viz announced its acquisition of translation rights to the Angel Sanctuary and Hana Zakari no Kimitachi E manga series. Both are scheduled for bi-monthly release beginning next year.

Source: Anime on DVD and AnimeNation

Square Enix has announced development of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a full CG rendered movie sequel to the popular Final Fantasy 7 RPG picking up two years after the events in the game. According to RPGFan, much of the staff of the original 1997 game will be returning to work on the new movie. The film will be released directly to DVD next year. Game Watch Impress has published a photo of the movie’s promotional poster. Additional photos are available from Quiter and RPGFan.

At the recent Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix also announced Kingdom Hearts 2 for the PS2 and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Gameboy Advance. Dengeki Online has published screenshots of both titles. Quiter has published still more photos. And Game Watch Impress has published photos of the promotional posters for the games, and Sora’s new outfit.

To promote the release of the Blue Gender DVD boxed set, FUNimation has opened a free trivia contest to award one-of-a-kind Blue Gender original production cels to five winners.

Source: Anime News Network

Beginning tomorrow, October 1st, Pioneer will officially become a subsidiary of Japanese corporation Detsu, Inc. and change its name to Geneon Entertainment. The new name is a combination of “GENerate” and “EON” signifying Pioneer’s creativity and longevity.

Source: Pioneer Animation

Game Watch Impress has published images of Sakura Taisen 5 Episode 0: Samurai Girl of Wild and Sakura Taisen Monogatari Mysterious Paris. Sakura Wars 5 will be released for the Japanese PS2 next year. The Sakura Taisen 3 side story game will be released to the Japanese PS2 this winter.

The successful Japanese live action horror movie series Tomie, based on manga by Junji Ito, will be coming to American DVD from Adness Entertainment. The first film will street on January 27th followed by all four sequels, one a month through May: Tomie: Replay, Tomie: Rebirth, Tomie: Another Face and Tomie: Forbidden Fruit. The films will be anamorphic widescreen and will feature bonus material. No retail price has been set yet.

Source: DVD Maniacs.net

Question:
In response to an ongoing personal gripe, and my experience at the recent Anime Weekend Atlanta convention, I’m answering my own question today. What is the proper pronunciation of “Di-Gi-Charat?”

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Question:
I’ve just finished watching Wolf’s Rain. That was and is still called one of the hits of the season, and, honesty, it totally sucked. I wonder what do you think about it? Why is it that bad when it’s produced by Bones? And what’s the deal with episodes 27-30?

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Bandai Entertainment has officially inaugurated its “So You Want to be a Witch Hunter” online promotion at the Witch Hunter Robin official American homepage. At the site, fans can enter a sweepstakes to win a Witch Hunter Robin Prize pack including the first DVD, t-shirts, theatrical poster! The promotion will last until October 31st. Visit the official site for details and rules.

Source: Anime on DVD

According to Yahoo Movies, Miramax Pictures has decided not to give Mamoru Oshii’s critically acclaimed science fiction film Avalon an American theatrical release. Instead, the film will be released directly to home video by Buena Vista Home Entertainment sometime next year.

Source: Anime News Service

This weekend AnimeNation and AN Entertainment will be attending the ninth annual Anime Weekend Atlanta convention. If you’re in the Southeast United States, stop by the convention on Friday at 4 PM for a sneak preview of Miami Guns at the AN Entertainment panel, and pick up some anime goods from AnimeNation in the dealers room all weekend.

The AnimeNation offices and retail store in Tampa, Florida will remain open for regular business hours throughout the weekend.

AD Vision has officially stated that the 26 episode Azumanga Daioh TV series will be released in America on 6 DVDs.

The 13 episode City Hunter 3 TV series from 1989 will be released as a $44.95 DVD boxed set on December 2nd.

The 1985 Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia OAV will be released to domestic DVD on December 2nd at a retail price of $19.98.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Revenge (Orphen II) will debut in America on December 9th at $29.98 for episodes 1-4.

The 13 episode City Hunter ‘91 TV series from 1991 (naturally) will be released as a $44.95 DVD boxed set on December 16th.

Gainax’s Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi DVD volume 1 will also be released on December 16th in $29.98 DVD only & 39.98 DVD with box versions.

The 1993 Robot Hunter Casshan OAV series will also be re-released in America, on DVD for the first time, on December 23rd at $29.98.

Ganbare Goemon: Legend of the Mystical Ninja DVD volume 1 will debut in America at $19.98 for TV episodes 1-5 on December 30th.

Source: Anime on DVD

A pair of official websites for the upcoming second Popolocrois anime TV series have opened. Apparently the new sequel to the 1998 Popolocrois Monogatari TV series will be titled, simply, “Popolocrois.”

TV-Tokyo Official Site

TMS Official Site

Bandai Entertainment Marketing Manager Jerry Chu has explained to Anime on DVD that as of January 1, 2004, Bandai will manage distribution of its anime DVD product itself. For the past five years, Bandai’s fulfillment has been handled by Pioneer. Apparently Bandai will continue to use outside distributors for its anime soundtrack distribution, though. These changes are not likely to have any significant impact on consumer level anime fans.

Question:
Why is it that most longer anime seem to have more simpistic plots than shorter ones? For example, shorter series like Evangelion, Escaflowne, and Berserk have very deep plots, but longer series like Dragonball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Card Captors have far more simple and straight forward storylines. Is there any reason you can think of for this?

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