Near the Start of Con Season

The 2006 Con season is beginning soon and we've got a couple of cool developments to report.



On 7 April, Bandai of Japan reported (broadcast in English through Gunota) that the first TV series of Mobile Suit Gundam will be finally coming to DVD. What was once previously thought impossible is now becoming possible. Now there is much speculation (and hope) in the American fan community that Bandai Entertainment Incorporated, the North American division of Bandai Japan, will be able to release a long-awaited subtitle version Stateside. Only time will tell and hopefully Bandai will have a release confirmation during the con season this year. Little Akihabara hopes to be able to break the news.

Defying hopes, and very much pleasing to the fans here in the US, Media Blasters has announced three stellar titles this month alone - Hyaku Juou GoLion, Dairugger XV, and Yuushaou GaoGaiGar.





Media Blasters back at the end of March announced it would be releasing the original American version of Voltron (and the lesser seen Vehicle portion in addition to the classical Lions); there were some vocal fan wishes for the original versions and MB announced those in a "Oh, by the way..." fashion. While GoLion and Dairugger are in the classic genre that Little Akihabara hopes for, GaoGaiGar's homage to the classic mecha genre holds hopes for many other classic mecha titles to follow suit. Either way, MB has proven with these three and its previous announcement of Tekkaman Blade that it is truly a company that sees value and profitability in more classic Japanese animation, as well as answering calls of an older fanbase.



Although with the blitz of classic licenses over the first quarter or so of this year, it leaves one extatic and looking to the future for what's next, but there is a cynical part of me that is worried that this is it for the year. I sincerely hope that I am proven wrong about this and that we will see many more licenses announced and hopefully some more that will actually be released towards the end of this year (as GaoGaiGar is planned).

That's all for now; I am hoping to revamp the site some more, do some more exclusive imagery and get a couple of editorials written up.