Laziness Abounds?

It's odd that one can feel so much stress meeting one's obligations, get them all complete, and still feel behind. That's the convoluted way of saying "I've been busy not updating here." But there's good news coming from all over the place now.

The con season is a tricky thing for Classic Japanese animation - you can have two cons within two weeks of each other on opposite ends of the North American continent and get nothing newsworthy, yet, practically smack dab in the middle, we get a license announcement for 3 "new" titles! From a "new" company, too!

Sakura Con was held in Washington State early in April. Nothing for classics fans. Anime Boston, towards the end of the month, and also nothing. However, brightening my dreary Monday on the 16th, ImaginAsian announced they have reached a deal with TMS and would be broadcasting and releasing on DVD three classic anime titles:

Ie Naki Ko 『家無き子』 under the title Nobody's Boy Remi
Cat's Eye Season 1 『キャッツアイ』
Superdimension Century Orguss TV Series 『超時空世紀オーガス』

From ANN's press release, they will be broadcast in Japanese with subtitles and the DVD releases will also be with Japanese dialoge and English subtitles. Orguss is a little special, the first 17 episodes will be dubbed because there was already an existing dub available. According to Justin Sevakis (who writes ANN's excellent Buried Treasure column), who is also working on these releases from what I gather, the second season of Cat's Eye also has a good chance of being released if these are successful. Broadcasts will begin in early June and the DVD releases will begin in late June and early July. These DVDs have me excited not just because it's more classics coming out here, but the price point is extremely cheap.

The DVD releases will feature 4-7 episodes per disc from the Region 2 Japanese DVDs (so, our quality will be high, but not as high as in Japan) with the first disc plus box retailing at $12.99 USD. Subsequent discs will be priced at $9.99 retail. Or, wait for the boxes which will be around $80 USD. Coming from Bandai Viual USA's pricing scheme I spoke about last post, this is a big jump. Once more, on the production side of the business, the discs will be made to order. This is a cool thing because it eliminates production expenses for making units that are sold to retailers but never make it into the hands of buyers.

However, there are some drawbacks to mention. The discs will only be sold via ImaginAsian's online store, which means we might only see shipping to the US and Canada. Secondly, is packaging. For people who like decorated singles cases (strong opinion to follow), buying into these might be a bit of a sacrifice because it looks like only the box may have art on it. Disc 2 and up will come in Tyvex sleeves to fit into the box with the first disc. Third, and perhaps what the worst may be if this fails, is the mention of "limited time". Classics fans wanting good, cheap classics should probably jump onto this as soon as they're released.

Now, strong opinion time. I'm not big on packaging outside of "physically ruining DVDs". For the art work, I'd rather get desktop wallpapers or posters. Since the shrinking of media and its packaging, and this may be rose-tinted or what not, I think LaserDiscs had the best packaging in terms of art. Mostly because taking up the cover itself is practically a 144 sqaure-inch picture with plenty of room for a good manfacturing transfer. DVD and VHS cases just don't measure up. I understand that 99.99% of all packaging is for marketing purposes, but if I can save a few bucks by forgoing it on my DVDs to devote to other media (the aforementioned posters and such), then my DVDs can be bland.

I'm most excited about Orguss because I'm a fan of those 1980s, sci-fi, Real Robot type of series that were popular then. It's also easier to find more material for research about Orguss for a couple of reasons: it's been released in the US before and it was considered the sequel to Superdimension Fortress Macross ages ago. Even though Cat's Eye was wildly popular in the early and mid 1980s when it aired in Japan, it's not seen a whole lot of exposure elsewhere to my knowledge (I'm only vaguely familar with it myself). Cat's Eye is the story of three sisters who are cafe proprietors by day, art theives by night with a detective hot on their trails who is also the fiancee of one of the sisters. Sounds like some action, intrigue, and romance, which I think can be hard to go wrong. Ie Naki Ko is well-known in Latin America as Remi, based upon a French novel Sans Famille. It seems to be an emotional piece about love and family. Needless to say, I'll be trying to check out these series as much as possible, but I am immediately most excited about Orguss.

In other news, I'm working on getting the main domain up by the end of this month. I've requested some friends who are better at the whole image editing and web design thing to use their skills and most of that work is mostly done. I probably won't be updating much here in that case as I'll be busy with migration and adding more content. I hope that those of you reading Akihabara Renditions will follow when we make the big jump from little blog to little full-out website. Thanks for reading!

Diversification and Bandwagoning

It seems that after my last post, followed by a busy week, was met again with busy weeks following it. The news; however, has been fairly sparse but deep in detail regardless.

As I mentioned last, I ordered my copy of Top 'o nerae! GunBuster 『トップをねらえ！GunBuster』 produced by Bandai Visual USA from Right Stuff. I did that on either the 3rd-5th of March. Orders for GunBuster must have went well, it took nearly three weeks for my copy to ship, which is the slowest I've had from them. I'm not complaining, I got the box set and had to force myself not to watch it as I had other work that needed attention. I did end up watching it the next day and it was glorious.

The story actually splits in two parts from here. The first part is about Bandai Visual in the news recently concerning many of their releases, which from my last post garnered much praise. In fact, they're going out on a limb in the current North American market with classic, and even more niche, titles like GunBuster, Mobile Police Patlabor 『機動警察パトレバー』, and soon Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise 『王立宇宙軍オネアミセの翼』should be commended and supported. Thy're even releasing more modern titles to rope in contemporary fandom such as Top 'o nerae! 2 DieBuster 『トップをねらえ！2 DieBuster』, Wings of Rean 『リーンの翼』, and a simultaneous Japanese and American release for the OAV Freedom. So, a robust and diverse catalog - where can the problems be? Dubbing and Pricing.

I'm personally not much of a dub fan. If I've heard the dub, I think I can accurately evaluate them and usually comparing directly to the original is the last step I take. When it comes to the Dub-Sub Debate (which is much more a business decision now than a fandom issue), I look at it this way: I like cheeseburgers. When I go with friends, many times I end up getting and enjoying a nice cheeseburger. Sure, on occasion I feel like a pasta dish (and by no means is my pallette limited), but nine times out of ten, I'll prefer something like a cheeseburger. Subs are my cheeseburger. It's what I look for first, it's satisfying to me, and nine times out of ten, what I prefer. However, dubs are still viable for getting a large number of people to buy an anime DVD; Sub-Only just hasn't sold well and is usually reserved for titles which may not find much of an audience. Bandai Visual USA has decided that Sub-Only wasn't just the case for a couple of releases - it's now standard operating procedure [animeondvd.com].

What can they do after alienating a good portion of the market? Let's reach pricing similar to Japan! I was forgiving for GunBuster being two episodes a disc and retailing at $60.00 for the box. I wanted quality (and I got it, but more to come on that later) and it was about the top of my price ran about this level, given the extra booklet, which I'm still not through reading. I also felt that this was a very niche release that only a really small segment was going to jump on (I might have been wrong). However, looking at this release for Freedom and other news circling about, other titles like DieBuster and Rean will not be boxed and individual MSRP is near $40.00 per disc. Sure, we'll probably see about a third or fourth of it knocked off from e-tailers, but will American fans pay near $30.00 per disc not meeting our version of standards? I hear complaints all too often that "anime is expensive", which isn't entirely false; hobbies by definition are supposed to be money pits. But in return, we're used to dual audio tracks, special extras, and episode counts between two and four times (pending on the series) the size per disc than the Japanese counterparts for MSRP of $30. What's more outrageous is that on this podcast from Anime World Order, they discuss Royal Space Force hitting MSRP at $80.00 with no idea what will constitute extras.

So now it seems like I'm going to jump on the bandwagon of bashing Bandai Visual (and BVUSA). Bandwagoning this isn't. I support the Industry, especially when they do a good job. But when they do dumb shit like this, then it's time to chastise them. Bandai Visual may get away with highway robbery prices in Japan, thanks to the Keiretsu System [wikipedia.org], but this won't fly with American consumers at all. If BVUSA wants to stay in business, then either bring your product within what we consider standards and at market price or retain your release structure and drop your prices accordingly. If you're going to offer us what we percieve as half a product, drop your prices to what half of our standards are. As I see it, BVUSA's charging prices to help the protectionism of the Japanese DVD industry. We've heard this argument in the past with Bandai Entertainment and its English-Only Mobile Suit Gundam 『機動戦士ガンダム』 TV DVDs. Producers in Japan want to be guarded from having to compete with American products that have a better price-point. Welcome to the global economy, Bandai Visual and I guess Japan as a whole.

And, speaking of odd ways of doing business, confirmation of a legal dispute between Libre Publishing in Japan and Central Park Media's Be Beautiful line has been confirmed by ANN via MangaNews. As much as we know from the story is that CPM bought a bunch of licenses from a company named Biblos, which publishes yaoi manga in Japan. Biblos went out of business and was selling its properties as a part of bankruptcy, which Libre bought and re-negotiated author-publisher contracts to many titles, a lot of which CPM licensed in the US. Libre posted this warning on the Internet, pleading with fans in Japanese and English to boycott CPM for distributing "illegal" and "unauthorized" translations. CPM is keeping quiet about this, which may be the best thing. However, without seeing the documentation and contracts that CPM had signed with Biblos and what the terms of sale were when Biblos sold titles to Libre, anything from here is speculation and the truth can lie in several directions. Hopefully, they, or even an arbirator can, be brought in and between the two parties sort it all out themselves, rather than have to crawl through American or Japanese court systems with legal counsel.

As I said above, I what started out as news about GunBuster and it's DVD release. I plan on putting out a reveiw of it, but I want it to be more comprehensive than just a review of the DVD. I also mentioned in the previous post that there was some fanboy whining about some music being changed in GunBuster and that I was planning on getting an unaltered copy somehow. I actually found original prints of the OAV on LaserDisc on eBay fairly cheap. I bought them and they were shipped yesterday, so I should have them soon.

Back a couple of years ago, I was struggling with my fandom. I've probably mentioned this before and that's when I became an advocate of classic Japanese animation. One of the articles that helped me along was this editorial: Buying Anime on Laserdisc [j-fan.com]. When finding far too much crap coming out on R1 DVD and in fansub circles, finding a much more affordible outlet to get unaltered copies cheaply from Japan or just get old anime that will never see the light of day here in North America, sparked a new surge in fandom. Thankfully, the used-LD market in Japan was much, much larger, especially in anime circuits than it was in the US, probably all of North America. For the past couple of years, I'd browsed online auctions looking for LD players and discs, just to see what kind of trouble I would be getting myself into. I finally through Craig's List someone wanting to sell a player and a bunch of discs. A couple e-mails, and hour drive, and thirty minutes of breakdown and selecting LDs, I was driving home with a nice, used LD player.

Here's the machine set up for testing:




From the top, with the Ranma 1/2 SUPER OAV I was testing with. It's an LD I bought nearly immediately after reading the J-Fan editorial.



And the title screen, thankfully proving my LD works!

And for you kids who've never seen an LD -



So, I expect over the next few years and hopefully as long as I can remain an anime fan, my collection will be growing in a diversified fashion now including vintage, classic LaserDiscs as well.

But there is one more way I wanted to diversify myself. I've been going to Anime Weekend Atlanta for quite some time, but outside of comic book conventions when I was younger and an odd convention I do contract work for, I've not been to another, strictly anime, convention. Since I was out adventuring for my LD player on 17 March and I would be driving past the Georgia Institute of Technology anyway, I decided to stop by Momo Con. Being run at a Univeristy, I expected a much smaller, fan run feel to the convention. Smaller it was, and there were fans, I'm sure, but "run" is a very subjective term in this case. It seems like a con that was decentralized and just happened. Upon entry, which was free, everyone received a goody bag, which didn't contain a program (though I see now there are maps on the website). Nor were there maps posted indicating where events were. In fact, I found gaming rooms (to my chagrin), a dealer's room (which wasn't great in either selection or pricing), and lunch (because I was starving). Oh, and I was constantly surrounded by cosplayers. To me, not being able to find, well, anime related events at an anime con and constantly surrounded by cosplayers, I felt like this was more a cosplayer's convention in the vein of Akibiyori. I planned on staying for a couple of hours but I could barely manage an hour and a half.

The one good thing about Momo Con was running into an old college friend there and I spoke with him and his girlfriend about hitting up MTAC this (well, April) month. I'll need to call him again soon and see if they're still up for it and I need plan vacation.

On a final note, I hope to be able to do my encompassing GunBuster review next weekend some time. In the meantime, I'm still working on getting the full Akihabara Renditions website up and running, but it looks like it may not be until May. It kind of sucks because I need to get AWA press information submitted. Well, that's it for this edition of AkibaRen. I'll be back as soon as there is more news to report and comment on!

Running Behind, As Always, It Seems...

Just as I was behind getting the First State of Classic Anime in North America uploaded (well, composed, then uploaded), I've since fallen behind on updating this regularly with the news of the day. Licenses for more contemporary Japanese animation series have been announced and while the news for classics has been respectfully light, there have been some big developments none the less.

Just two days after I predicted a release for Ouritsu Uchuugun Oneamise no Tsubasa『王立宇宙軍オネアミセの翼』 (Wings of Honneamise), on 30 January, at Anime LA, Bandai Visual USA announced they do have plans to release the 1987 film that put GAINAX on the map in Japan and helped bring about modern anime fandom in North America. The Anime LA report at Anime News Network also confirms "compilation films" for both 1988's Top 'o nerae! Gunbuster 『トップをねらえ！ガンブスター』 and it's 2004 sequel Top 'o nerae! 2 DIEBUSTER 『トップをねらえ！ダイブスター』. When describing the release, it seems to describe Diebuster as a similar release to Gunbuster of three DVD at two episodes each. Nothing more has been said of the release, so perhaps as the convention season picks up later in the year we will have mroe details. Weeks before the Gunbuster release here in North America, the report also brought what some fans may see as ill news as well. During one of the training sequences, music had to be altered for undisclosed circumstances (to be exact, best speculation has to do with copyrights). The music was replaced with another track from the soundtrack but immediately fanboy legions were cancelling their orders. All I really have to say about it is that my copy of Gunbuster is in the mail (birthday present) and I'll review it as soon as I can; however, I will be keeping an eye out for an old LD set, the R2 JP DVD, or the R2 UK DVD for a comparison. The report also re-affirms the BVUSA's license of the 2006 ONA Rean no Tsubasa 『リーンの翼』 based upon the manga of the same name by Tomino Yoshiyuki and a part of the Byston Well stories from Sei Senshi Dunbine 『望戦士ダンバイン』 (Aura Battler Dunbine).

And like Laws of Physics, what goes up must come down. We gain Honneamise and we lose a very classic, Matsumoto Leiji work: Waga Seishun no Arcadia 『わが青春のアルカディア』 (My Youth in Arcadia/Arcadia of My Youth). As reported from Anime News Network again, AnimEigo has said that Arcadia is going out of print and will be as such when they run out of current stock. Like with Kimagure Orange Road, if you shop around, you'll still be able to pick up a copy and for dirt cheap. But, I advise you move quickly; I can't imagine the print run being incredibly large even for this awesome a film. I spoke a little about Arcadia back in August of 2005.

On a final note for the news for now, just as in February of 2006 I stated that Japan seems to be returning to older franchises in a production lull that I think has plagued the Japanese industry in the past few years. 2007 seems to be no different and these reproductions seem to be out in full force. Starting within the first quarter or so of this year, the following classic franchises will have new animations released for them (all research courtesey of Anime News Network):
Testujin 28go 『鉄人28号』
Koutetsu Jeeg 『鋼鉄ジーグ』
Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro 『ゲゲゲの鬼太郎』
Giant Robo 『ジャイアントロボ』
Juusou Kikou Dancougar Nova 『獣装機攻 ダンクーガ ノヴァ』
And coming later we can expect the following:
Soukou Kihei Votoms 『装甲騎兵ボトムズ』
Unspecified Macross 『マクロス』
Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman 『科学忍者隊ガッチャマン』

It looks like there is a lot to look forward to already. Some series I am already hesitant about how good they might be, especially this Macross in the works and I think that only comes from a history of mixed-review additions to the franchise. Votoms is a little harder for me to comment on because I am not really familiar in deep detail with it (yet). A CGI Gatchaman will be hard to predict because it seems to be a joint venture and I wonder with Japanese gaining more control in contemporary international versions if Tatsunoko will allow one of their flagship franchises to be treated in the same manner as it was with Battle of the Planets or G-Force. With series as old and beloved as Kitaro, Tetsujin, GR, and Jeeg, they are fairly simplistic series with fanbases already devoted to the originals, so they will mostly be icing on the cake and not draw a lot of backlash from many hardcore fans in North America.

No matter though as Akihabara Renditions will continue to monitor the North American and Japanese Industries and bring all of the reports of classic Japanese animation!

The First State of Classic Anime in North America Report

State of Classical Anime in North America (SCANA), 2006
~A Record of Events in the Region One Market for 2006~
by Drew Sutton, published in Akihabara Renditions on 28 January 2007

Japanese Animation fandom has existed in North America going back to the very late 1970s and has continued to grow, first in waves, but now due to proliferation of the Internet, nearly exponentially. Likewise, Japan is now producing more animation than ever before. However, many fans looking at the newest and hottest titles coming out of Japan and across the wire this very second are finding many of these series not in line with why they fell in love with Japanese animation in the first place. Akihabara Renditions, like they, still remember and support classics. This report exists as the first in an annual report that will look in the year past in terms of the health of the industry, the exposure of classic anime, other notable news events, and what classic anime may hope for in the future.

In 2006, the Anime Licensing Industry in North America, henceforth known as the Industry, appeared to still experiencing growing pains resulting from the bottoming out of 2005. These contractions are normal for an economy and in an industry where profit margins are slim by definition, they are expected to have major impacts. However, while in years past the normal licensing season has ended around the beginning of the fourth annual quarter, many licenses were announced up until the end of the year. Combined with the entrance of a new business entity, Bandai Visual USA (a US branch of the Japanese firm), it appears that the Industry may be headed for a rebound sooner than expected. Likewise, with this new player in the market and a rebound of capital, the licensing trends in North America will be favorable to both fans of modern and classic Japanese animation properties.

Even though the Industry has not met the real number total of the licensing booms between 2002 and 2004, I am sure that time will come. What classic anime fans have to look back on in 2006 and look forward to in 2007 is a large percentage of classic Japanese animation titles expected to be brought here. The first classic license came early in the year, though it felt like an eternity compared to what seemed like the lack of market representation in years past. February brought Media Blasters/Anime Works into the eyes of classic fans by licensing the early nineties sequel Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman Blade 『宇宙の騎士テッカマンブレード』, coupled with a separate English version, cut and edited as Teknoman. Many fans in North America may remember Teknoman from its Saturday morning syndication but MB/AW has recognized to maximize sales, it should cater to both audiences, thus separate printings, as opposed to putting both versions on the same printing. Modern classic Crayon Shin-chan 『クレヨンしんちゃん』 was announced out of the blue by FUNimation. Initially met with criticism, both of the series itself and its licensor, much of that criticism has fallen by the wayside with a successful special two-week promo airing on Adult Swim. Also in February, CPM released the Soukou Kihei Votoms 『装甲騎兵ボトムズ』 (Amored Trooper Votoms) television series across four box sets. These releases have been widely acclaimed.

Later in April Media Blasters/Anime Works came back with another stunning announcement. Like it did with Tekkaman Blade and Teknoman, MB/AW was releasing the 1980s classic Voltron: Defender of the Universe in its entirety and releasing its Japanese component series Hyaku Juuou Golion 『百獣王ゴライオン』 and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV 『機甲艦隊ダイラガーXV』 all separately. With releases for Teknoman and Voltron, MB/AW is capitalizing on the fad of re-packaging nostalgia that has brought us DVD sets for shows like The Transformers and Thundercats but also recognizing that a number of fans are also anime fans and are banking on them wanting to see the original Japanese versions of their childhood favorites. Together with this announcement, MB/AW also announced licensing and releasing Yuushaou Gaogaigar 『勇者王ガオガイガー』, which while not a classic in the technical sense, it has gained a large fanbase amongst fans of classic Super Robot Mecha, so I feel that it is warranted a mention.

As the summer convention season picked up and multiple licenses were being announced on a weekly basis, we hoped not to be over looked. And we were right. Summer at Anime Expo in Long Beach, California we saw Bandai Visual USA (not related to Bandai Entertainment) emerge to compete in the North American market and they opened their catalog with four licenses, three of which are classics! The two Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor 『機動警察パトレーバー』 films in addition to GAINAX's 1988 classic OAV, Top 'o nerae Gunbuster 『トップをねらえ！ガンバスター』 were announced, only months after Manga Video announcing that they could not renew the licenses. While many fans were simply glad to have the titles available on DVD, Gunbuster has for ages been the red-headed step-child of their catalog. Manga acquired the title from US Renditions when they went under, produced their own VHS set of it and then shelved it when they moved their library to DVD. Bandai Visual, responding to fan demand for a DVD set is not only printing them but are celebrating the long wait with an extra deluxe box set packed with extras.

With titles like Votoms and Gunbuster considered the long-shots of finally receiving DVD releases and Golion and Dairugger being considered a long-shot for licensing period, what more could fans of classics ask for? What else was in store for the next five months for the end of the fiscal year? Only a month went by and we got our answer. Amidst announcements of other companies losing publishing rights to their titles, AnimEigo had their own share of difficulties, even switching to primarily to publishing Japanese samurai jidaigeki, war, and art-house films because of the increased cost of doing business with animation met with lower returns. However, AnimEigo completely out of left field announced their first licensing acquisition in five years: Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl. AnimEigo immediately pledged a “fashionable box set release” packed with stuff, the series given AnimEigo's otaku-driven translation treatment, releasing boxes first, and reverse pricing on the boxes. Reverse pricing is where the price for the box will drop until ship-date for a number of pre-orders that the company receives. Other series such as Kimagure Orange Road 『きまぐれオレンジロード』 and Choujikuu Yousai Macross 『超時空要塞マクロス』 (Superdimension Fortress Macross) received similar treatments upon their initial releases.

2006 has truly been a great year for the fans of classic Japanese animation.

However, despite a great licensing and release season for classics fans, an unprecedented number of relinquished licenses have been announced this year as well. Immediately to start the year off, which did not bode well for the rest of the year, Manga Video announced a number of titles from their library as relinquished. It was a big hit to their library as well, too with many series being regarded highly and popular, such as Hokuto no Ken 『北斗の拳』, GAINAX's Ouritsu Uchuugun Oneamise no Tsubasa 『王立宇宙軍オネアミセの翼』 (The Wings of Honeamise), and Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor films but it included even more niche titles that hadn't seen much of a DVD release: Top 'o nerae Gunbuster and the Kyoushoku Soukou Guyver 『強殖装甲ガイバー 』 (Bio-booster Armor Guyver) OAV. With the Gunbuster and Patlabor licenses picked up by another company, perhaps notable classics such as Hokuto no Ken and Oneamise will be picked up in the near future for release by other companies as well. Manga Video also later announced more relinquished licenses at Anime Expo. Unlike the announcements earlier in the year, these were smaller OAVs which have historically not been block-buster hits. Angel Cop 『エンジェルコップ』, Devilman 『デビルマン』 OAV, and Choujikuu Seiki Orguss 02 『超時空要塞世紀オーガス02』 OAV (sequel to the 1983 TV series) fell victim this time around. Manga was not the only company to experience catalog cut-backs. AnimEigo announced in June that it could not meet the renewal fees for Kimagure Orange Road TV and that by August the TV series would no longer be printed. By the time this came around, AnimEigo announced three more relinquishments: Kimagure Orange Road OAVs and the first film (the second being a property of ADV and still in print), and the hard Sci-Fi classic Crusher Joe 『クラシャージョー』 film and OAVs.

2006 was also regrettably marked by the passing of two contributors who helped make and shape classic Japanese animation what it is with the projects they worked on. The first is Japanese voice actor Suzuoki Hirotaka who voiced many notable greats in classic anime. His voice is what personified the determined but inexperienced captain of the White Base during the One Year War in Mobile Suit Gundam 『機動戦士ガンダム』 and went on to reprise the role of Bright Noah in every Gundam sequel and remake that was required of him up until the Mobile Suit Z Gundam – A New Translation 『機動戦士Zガンダム - A New Translation』 movie trilogy completed in March of 2006. He was more than just our captain, he was the batty, rich upperclass man Kuno Tatewaki in Takahashi Rumiko's 1989 classic Ranma ½ 『らんま1/2』. These are merely a couple of roles of which he graced, but perhaps the most notable he will be remembered for amongst classic fans. Later in the year we were informed that in November a true pioneer had left us behind. Ishikawa Ken, whom worked with Nagai Go to make Mecha a genre that would endure through the development of Japanese animation. While Nagai is credited with being the father of mecha as its own genre by putting the robot controllers inside the actual robots and making use of them as tools and vehicles, as opposed to Tezuka Osamu's androids and Yokoyama Mitsuteru's remote controlled machines, Ishikawa's work with Nagai on Getter Robo 『ゲッターロボ』 continued the piloting aspect but also introduced the team element, the transformation element, and led to many other robot shows to become a merchandising blitz in the 1970s. Without that blitz of fantastic super robots, we wouldn't have the Gundams, Macrosses, and Evangelions that we have today. Both Suzuoki and Ishikawa will be missed by their respective fandoms and we should acknowledge their contributions to Japanese animation.

Finally, we've seeing where we've been, said our good-byes for 2006 and seen a glimpse of the future for 2007. What more can we expect? We've seen that the Industry is still contracting but it remains strong. Relinquished licenses means new doors have opened that were previously closed and not to mention other titles held in licensing purgatory – licensed by a distributor yet unreleased for one reason or another – should be focuses of the classic fandom when interacting with the Industry. While there are plenty of series that remain unlicensed in North America, perhaps negotiating a 2007 release for something already licensed may be a shorter road that fans should pursue. Amongst inter-fan conversation and advertising, AkibaRen will continue to promote and make aware classic anime. If you would have asked me the status of classic Japanese animation in 2005, one word come to mind would have been 'neglected'. Now, after the close of 2006, 'neglected' is not featured but instead 'strong' has replaced it. Responding to market constrictions and a fickle sales demographic, many in the Industry are looking towards the fans of classics. In 2007, I hope to see a stronger push towards the classics as well as a healthy sales representation amongst classic titles compared to their modern counterparts as the 2006 licenses are released and in turn we'll see more licenses that classic fans can look forward to in the coming years.

A Perfect Example of "Media"* Bias...

No, I'm not exposing some other news outlet; I'm blowing the whistle on myself. It's not for anything I've written before, but what I am going to write in this article. I have two hopes with this article: the first is that the readers will become as excited about the subject matter as I am and the second is that perhaps some journalistic source may run across this and use as an example.

I <3 AnimEigo. That's right, I *heart* them. This hasn't been a recent development. In my ten years of fandom, this is a company that has put out quality title after quality title. What's better, is that AnimEigo is much like the best friend of Akihabara Renditions: They revolve around the same licenses and titles that AkibaRen likes to look at. And their lament and business seems to be about the same as mine: most fans now-a-days are looking for the next Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) 『鋼の錬金術師』 or Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Meloncholoy of Suzumiya Haruhi) 『涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱』, a lot are ignoring other classics like Waga Seishun no Arcadia (My Youth in Arcadia) 『わが青春のアルカディア』 or Choujikuu Yousai Macross (Superdimension Fortress Macross) 『超時空要塞マクロス』.

As such, AnimEigo's catalog has always remained small, more niche titles. However, that does give them the time to take quality control seriously, which unfortunately in the past year or so has fallen through the cracks on some titles from companies like Bandai Entertainment Inc. Their method of putting short translator's notes on actual discs and in-depth "Otaku Notes", as I call them, both inside the DVD cases and on their public website has yet to be mimicked, let alone surpassed. In fact, learning the nerdy information about some of my favorite series from them is probably the root of losing several perfectly good afternoons when I probably should have been doing something else. The recent boom and bust between 2002 and 2005 also has had a negative effect on them. With more and more recent titles coming out faster and faster from their competitors, not to mention in larger quantities, the fanbase who normally purchase their anime have a lot of choices with relatively minimal incomes (or minimal excess income). Age might be another factor; anime from the seventies, eighties and early nineties have their own distinct look, especially when compared to anime from the late nineties to the present. As companies and license holders in Japan up their prices of the IP (intellectual property) they are selling and are more reluctant to sell old properties, AnimEigo has been focusing on getting their old libraries updated to DVD releases, releasing the last of their "new" licenses, as well as moving onto Japanese live action films to help pay the bills. As of the middle of this year, with their last acquired title Taihoshichauzo! (You're Under Arrest!) 『逮捕しちゃうぞ！』 , finished the last of their DVD conversions on Urusei Yatsura (Urusei Yatsura: Those Obnoxious Aliens) 『うる星やつら』, as well as unfortunately had some licenses expire on them and several titles go Out Of Print, AnimEigo seemed to be on its last lifeline as a North American anime distributor. Which I felt was a horrible shame...

Until the 17th of August [Anime News Network] of this year when AnimEigo announced their first license in five years: Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!


**Image Courtesy of AnimEigo's Website**

Yawara's popularity in Japan has been one of massive popularity when it was aired from 1989 to 1992 to a forgotten, yet nostalgic anime in years since. In July of 2002 on TV Asahi's This is Japan's Best 100: Anime, Yawara ranked a low 70 on the list, yet still, the list is missing numerous anime most non-Japanese fans would expect to appear on the list; the main character, Inokuma Yawara faired much better reaching 38 on the list of 2003's Best 100: Anime Characters and on 2004's Top 20 Anime Songs of the 1980s, the first opening "Miracle Girl" ranked 15.

Yawara is, however, one of the many classics that maintains a sort of nostalgia in Japan that didn't find an audience outside of Japan until digital fansubs were able to be produced. Since the release of them began in 2002 or 2003, a very much grassroots campaign began to have the this series licensed.

However, what separates Yawara! from most other anime is really superficial. If I were to say there is anything really unique about it is that it is a Romance-Sports anime that approaches each side of the genre from different gender stereotypes. To me, the Romantic side seems to be told from a very female perspective, with Inokuma wanting the ideal romance most teenage girls long for and a seeming parody off of the "Shounen romance" found in other series like Maison Ikkoku 『めいぞん一刻』 as boys and men develop crushes on Inokuma herself. However, while Inokuma is wishing for schoolgirl romance, she is also wishing that she could be a more normal schoolgirl. Unlike her classmates, Inokuma Yawara is under constant pressure from her grandfather Inokuma Jigoro to enter the sport of Judo professionally when she enters college. Jigoro has been training his grand-daughter since she was in the first years of elementary school and with Jigoro ranking as high as he did when retired, many have high hopes for Yawara when she decides to enter the pro-arena (all with Jigoro's consent and knowledge, of course). The sport scenes where Yawara competes are, from as I can see, from a Shounen perspective, like many sports anime. They are the type of scenes full of internal monologues, edge-of-your-seat action, and huge sighs of relief at the very end of them. They are sure not to disappoint.

While trying not to give away too many spoilers about the series, there's a bit more to this series than Yawara wishing for romantic love and sports action of women and girls throwing each other around; there is a bit of underlying family drama throughout the series it appears as well as numerous contenders for Yawara's affections who often find themselves not having those feeling reciprocated at one point or another.

While I am anxiously awaiting the first Yawara box set to be released, I have been kicking back with some of AnimEigo's other releases that have recently or are soon to be Out Of Print and I am quite pleased with them, I honestly cannot say why I waited so long to get a hold of these.

The big news earlier was that Kimagure Orange Road 『きまぐれオレンジロード』's TV series was going out of print on 1 August; however, shortly after that date came (and I missed it), the OAVs and first film, also licensed by AnimEigo, were going Out Of Print as well (along with another series to be mentioned later). I happened to grab them on the last day and found excess stock of the TV series at a great deal, so I bought them all up; consequences be damned.



Due to financial and shipping logistics, I ended up receiving the OAVs and Film first, but a few days later, my TV series box set arrived. I started watching through it and I really enjoy the series. My first experience was from a friend of mine ranting and raving about how good it was; when it crunch time came to his hobbies from lack of funds, he went back to video games (well, some other anime fans helped with that choice, too) but he still maintains how much he loves KOR. I watched probably a couple episodes with him, but once I heard it was going out of print, I was rushed into getting a set for myself.

KOR is a lot like any typical romance series where you have a young, male protagonist that cannot decide between which girl he has affections for. What is different for Kasuga Kyousuke is that he has one girl who openly likes him, yet he feels more of an attraction to another, Ayukawa Madoka, who has an on-again-off-again attraction for him. Though, what initially sets this series apart is the addition of a magical curse in the form of telekinesis shared between Kyosuke and his sisters, which makes for a convenient reason for easy comic relief, especially when concerning the Kasuga's cat, Jingoro.

However, the real shock I've had with my most recent AnimEigo purchases and continuing love for the company comes in the form of an early 1980s Sunrise animation - Crusher Joe 『クラッシャジョー』.



AnimEigo has loaded up the original Crusher Joe film and the two OAVs into one excellent collection. The setting is a very generic galactic adventure type setting that most sci-fi fans will be comfortable with. In fact, the strength of Crusher Joe comes from that despite being written by a Japanese author (he same author of The Dirty pair) and being animated by one of the most notable animation companies of the 1980s, it has more of the feel of a Western sci-fi story adapted to animation that was outsourced to Japan at that time (as was a relatively common practice). I enjoyed the movie so much, I cannot wait until I have time to squeeze it into my schedule again. I am kinda kicking myself for waiting so long to check this out; I had seen clips from the movie, apparently edited and dubbed poorly, which could have ruined the perception I had of it. I'm glad that, again, unfortunately these are going out of print and I took the chance on them. Crusher Joe has become one of my recent favorites.

In closing, AnimEigo has experienced a desert of news concerning their anime licensures but as business was wrapped up in the past five years since their last new license, AnimEigo has opened up with what I think will be a block-buster, classic title once some more press is put out about it. I cannot stress enough about how excited I am about the licensure of Yawara. I think it would be really nice if AnimEigo were able to host a panel at AWA coming up here in around three weeks that they might have a sneak preview for us of their progress so far or some more information concerning the release. Unfortunately, the news of this excellent license is also accompanied by more licenses unable to be renewed and relinquished. For these series, while one is unable to purchase them from AnimEigo directly, I highly suggest hunting down the Kimagure Orange Road TV series, OAV series, and first film and the Crusher Joe film and OAVs. I personally believe the search will be worth it, especially since I believe the chances of these titles being re-licensed in our current market are very slim, even given how surprising the market has been concerning classics from 2005 up through this year.

*From the Article Title: I put "Media" into quotes because the vast majority of blogs aren't of the same sort of media that folks like Fox, CNN, AFP, Reuters and other more legitimate news services but many in the blogosphere have taken a stance of acting as the watchdogs of the legitimate services. Most anime news outlets are good about what they report, so AkibaRen has not taken the same stance of watchdog against them. I also do not intend on keeping AkibaRen here forever; I plan on moving to its own domain and hope to continue explanding its scope from what little I can do here. What's most important is that AkibaRen isn't just a n opinion blog about what I think about a multitude of series; I'm hoping to make a little more sense of the business practices and models and to spread my love for classic Japanese animation.

Breaking out the Mecha

With AnimeExpo occurring at this very moment, I expected the weekend panels to yield some classic licenses and was a little worried about more classic licenses being lost or not renewed.

The first initial reports that came out of ANN all concerned newer series. This was naturally expected. The largest con in North America (and I actually think AX is still the largest outside of Japan) and to see it fly by with no Industry news would be unheard of. While checking forums, though, Anime on DVD has announced one certifiable classic, in addition to two other licesences, as well as a continuation in a classic franchise. Bandai Visual (different from Bandai Entertainment, who do the Gundam franchise in the US) had been planning on releasing the two Mobile Police Patlabor films previously held by Manga Entertainment, which is pretty good news that within a quick amount of time two relinquished licenses were immediately picked up. Now Bandai Visual, across their IRC channel, according to Anime On DVD, has announced the license of another relinquished classic from Manga's library: Aim for the Top Gunbuster. This is GAINAX's classic 1988 mecha OAV,in case there is confusion with its sequel, Aim for the Top Gunbuster 2, which, because of the rarity of the first OAV, gets shortened just to Gunbuster among fansub circles.



Gunbuster has had a tumultuous release pattern in the US. Bandai Visual is the third license holder of the series since initially being released by US Renditions from 1990-91. In 1995, US Renditions declared bankruptcy and sold off its assets, including its IP assets/licenses. The Gunbuster license, as well as a few other titles previously released by US Renditions, were bought up by a newcomer to the marketplace - Manga Entertainment. Manga re-released the OAV on VHS under their name in 1996. When the next generation format of DVD was decided, Manga announced plans to move its library to the format and when mecha fans asked about it being transferred over, it was always described as "being on the list", but no definite plans could be elaborated upon. With Manga's loss of the license in March of this year, the only outstanding copies that could be found in the US market - after much serious scouring and digging - were their VHS copies from 1996, which was certainly easier to find than someone disbanding a collection with an old US Renditions copy in it. All seemed lost for GAINAX and mecha fans who wanted a Region 1 copy. Region 2 copies in Japan were made for sale in 2004 and there is also a Region 2 PAL version called Gunbuster Renewal (which has been circulating on the net as a "fansub" as well) that people were trying to get a hold of. Bandai Visual's announcement is a welcomed one and I cannot wait to see this released on DVD.

Bandai Visual's other announcement, again reported by Anime on DVD as being indicated over an IRC channel was Sunrise's foray into the ONA format has licensed Rean no Tsubasa (Wings of Rean). I've already discussed my desire to see Rean and I think that this title, if marketed right, can do well in the US. It is based in a franchise of classic mecha anime but still retains much of the flashy animation that will hopefully attract new viewers.

So far, Bandai Visual's four licenses are all a part of the "mecha" genre, which I think is a good base to go after. Not only am I personally a fan of mecha, Mecha is one of the two unique genres founded in the Japanese animation medium (the other being Mahou Shoujo/ Magical Girl). What started out as a sci-fi sub-catagory has gone on to be its own genre with defining characteristics and whose defining characteristics are recognizable for most non-anime fans. With good releases of strong titles within this fanbase (which I am fairly sure is pretty sizable), Bandai Visual can spin some nice profits early on and hopefully not pigeonhole themselves as being referenced as "the mecha licensor"; while it may limit market potential, it's not as bad as having the reputation for being a bad licensor.

Kudos again to Bandai Visual for scooping up some old licenses and showing that faith in classic anime still remains in parts of the Industry.

ADV Seeks Out More Capital

Well, the title itself is a little misleading. All anime licensors and their Japanese producers are always looking for more capital. After all, capital funding is what gets new projects made in Japan and here in the US, capital gets us new licenses.

However, the "traditional" model of a independent US-based companies seeking out local distribution and translation licensing is seemingly on the downturn.

An announcement reported on ANN on Tuesday (2006.6.27) that ADV has formed a partnership with a Japanese company, Sojitz, with Sojitz and other members of the Japan Content Investments, an investor group, buying equity in ADV for capital funding. In return, ADV will assist Sojitz and other JCI companies in aquiring North American and European properties for export to Japan. Even though there is a buy-in from a Japanese company, ADV's CEO and Founder still remains majority shareholder and the company remains in US/North American hands.

ADV's partnership is only the latest in a growing number of deals between US licensors and Japanese production companies outside of the normal licensing procedure. Earlier this month we saw Dentsu, with an anime investment fund purchasing equity in Generon Entertainment USA. Last year, Bandai Visual of Japan opened the doors to Bandai Visual USA, BVUSA being completely independent of Bandai Entertainment Inc, who most fans are referring to when talking about "Bandai Licesnes", especially those of the Mobile Suit Gundam 『機動戦士ガンダム』 franchise. VIZ Media's book line has had a long standing partnership with Japanese publisher Shogakukan when it comes to publishing their manga in the US. One even begins to think about Toei Douga in Japan; how it has made licenses expiring in the US hard to re-new so that it can hope to release them in North America themselves. While many fans may welcome the idea of a Japanese company directly releasing their own anime in the US, Toei's dismal performance with their SLAM DUNK DVDs (which, ironically, no one remembers) is creating a deadlock with many Toei properties.

And to think, it wasn't until a few years ago that fans were amazed company like ADV, Urban Vision, and Geneon were financing productions in Japan and getting distribution rights before shows even aired.

This latest evolution in the North American industry, making stronger ties with Japan, isn't something that I don't think many of us thought we would see happen. While I don't think partnerships that Viz, Geneon, and ADV are adverse partnerships, but there is, like in all business actions, a fine line to walk here. What do I mean by this? Let's look at the example of Toei Douga I mentioned earlier.



They were looking at breaking into the Region 1 market and did so with their basketball title SLAM DUNK, which garnered a great deal of popularity in Japan. Toei, seeming to sense speed was the key to a successful release, quickly released the TV series on DVD. The DVDs released had low quality translations and were widely criticized by fans. The release flopped. What Toei hadn't noticed were trends in the Region 1 Market. Sports anime, which are few and far between here, typically do not test well. In fact, a small handful of them are fansubbed and even fewer gain praise and wide viewership. Most often, the sports anime that do well in fansubs are those that have an added appeal rather than just the sports action. Series like Touch 『タッチ』 and YAWARA!, both nostalgic classics in Japan as well, much like SLAM DUNK, have received some fansub praise and I personally think are fantastic series, but very much the draw for many people are the romantic/slice of life elements and not always the sports action of the two. Touch as a baseball anime has gained support in the fansub community but I've not seen people as anxious about H2 (by the same author, Adachi Mitsuru, focuses more on baseball earlier in the story, too), nor do I see groups coming out of the woodwork to subtitle Kyojin no Hoshi 『巨人の星』, another classic baseball series that was very popular in Japan.

With a growth of equity stakes being taken on by Japanese production companies in North American licensors, will the quality of the Region 1 market look like Toei's SLAM DUNK release? I'll go on record to say that I don't believe so. To say that more Japanese partnership will lead to poor and uneducated releases is liken to comparing all anime licensors in North America to 4Kids Productions. ADV, Geneon, and Viz have all been successful companies in their own right; the fans know them and they know the fans - knowing your customers is part of knowing the market. In each of their respective partnerships they hold majority share of equity.

The news of these partnerships has also lately been coupled with license losses and predictions of bankruptcy from Manga Entertainment and Central Park Media/US Manga Corps, respectively, and the general absence of AnimEigo from the licensing race, one must wonder if these companies are looking at what their competition is doing and not contemplating what similar agreements might hold for them? AnimEigo has said that anime licenses since the 2003 Licensing Boom have went from expensive to astronomical and that it is barely pulling in enough from their anime line to break even. After all, Akihabara Renditions is all about the classic anime and we support the licensing of all classic anime for release in the US. While to expect every classic to be licensed and released is unrealistic, we do stand behind the companies that do make classic licenses. While many companies have classics in their library, I cannot think of a single company that has made classics their mainstay and market recognition the same way AnimEigo has. If AnimEigo has not looked into pairing with Japanese companies for more initial capital, I think perhaps they should.

The Biggest Non-Event of the Year ... so far

History is full of events that are supposed to be, or cited as, being completely earth shattering - Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's Vault, or the US Stock Market Crash of 1987 - this week, the North American anime community saw its biggest non-event of the year, possibly.

Here's a piece of news that I missed immediately from the English Language anime news wires, but thankfully, the website that originally broke the news, Toon Zone, has a forum moderator/reviewer that is a friend of mine. He told me about the story at a party and I went to researching it the following day. Since the only report put out by this article at Anime News Network was the sum of all other information available, I decided to wait before I posted the official report of the year. However, that didn't stop folks on anime forums from doing some serious speculation, yours truly included. I tried to keep everything positive, but there were many differing viewpoints from the level-headed folks who were patient, to those over-reacting and wanting to get a hold of certain titles and horde them like mattress money.

So, the big hubbub? Central Park Media, the owner of CPM Manga and its video line, US Manga Corps, had some layoffs/internal restructuring and issues with creditors. Since the Musicland Bankruptcy very late last year and the massive store closings early this year (Suncoast, Media Play, Sam Goody, et al were all Musicland stores) isn't a story too new to many in the US Anime Community. ADV and FUNimation, as well as others, have had to shift sales schedules around the bankruptcies, which have hurt a market nearing over-saturation. With the loss of major nationwide retails chain as well as a flooding market becoming almost as diverse as it is in Japan, none of this bodes well for anyone involved in the US industry. CPM; however, not being a licensing giant like ADV, FUNimation, and Bandai, looked to be harder hit by the Musicland Bankruptcy and signs on the Internet were beginning to point to them declaring Bankruptcy of their own.

Because of market conditions as they are in the US, we've seen pretty much all companies have been scaling back licenses, and we've seen companies like AnimEigo and Tokyo Pop shifting their focus, but the Industry has been fortunate enough not to have a company completely leave since the liquidation of US Renditions in the mid-1990s. It looked like the US Anime Industry would have it's first casualty in roughly a decade.

But all was for naught; the worrying - all over nothing. According to ANN and ICv2, the language is vague but none of it points towards filing for any chapter of bankruptcy. In fact, most of any thoughts of bankruptcy [Anime News Network] were cleared up the following day when CPM announced that their releases will be continuing with schedule.

So, with fans of classic wrentching their hands, worrying about a complete Votoms release or trying to complete something else from CPM (I know I have a couple of series from them that are unfinished, Votoms included), has thus far gone unfounded. While I'll keep an eye out on the issue, I think there is little to worry about at the moment.

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.

Holy Crap!

Wow, this came out of left field. I was surprised when they released the manga a couple of years ago, but today Anime News Network [animenewsnetwork.com] reported this:

"Funimation Licenses Crayon Shin-Chan (2006-02-14 01:56:47)
According to parent company Navarre, Funimation has licensed Crayon Shin-chan and is expecting to release the series in late 2007. Thanks to Steve Finkle for this info."

It's an awful long time away before we'll see anything actually hit the market place. Hopefully though, this will get a better release than Meitantei Conan did. Hopefully the seemingly minor, yet crucial mistakes that really hurt Conan's marketability have been learned and Crayon Shin-chan will get a great release.

Reading through some of the forum posts attached to the ANN article, it looks like the show is already getting mixed reviews; some of it I find objectionable because it is based solely on the appearence of the artwork and not on an actual viewing of the show. I don't want to put too much speculation or insinuation into this as I've not recevied comment proving just that.

Either way, surprise surprise.

First Quarter Excitement

Hot on the heels of ADV's new re-release of Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the upcoming DVD debut of Central Park Media's Armored Trooper Votoms OAVs, Media Blasters announced the licensing and an ETA release of Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman Blade and its dub counterpart Teknoman. These, coupled with new releases like the Hokuto no Ken movies and the Wings of Rean ONA as a return to 1980s and 1990s franchises in the anime industry. The release of Votoms (which was previously released on VHS by CPM in the late 1990s under Bandai's Anime Village label) is a welcome breath of fresh air to Japanese mecha subculture - mecha series that are popular in mecha groups but outside of the Gundam and Macross storylines, it seems. Most people who have watched Votoms end up liking it, but I found a lot of the problem is that getting the word out. I for one will be replacing my old VHS set with the DVDs and hopefully an attractive DVD set will bring in more viewers. Since these are only the Votoms OAVs being released, high sales and fan support of the seris could lead to the Votoms TV series also being released in North America.

The news that's had me really stoked since last week (partly because my last week was personally horible) was Media Blaster's announcement on 2006. Feb. 08 of the release of Tekkaman Blade and Teknoman. The initial reports have been murky, so wading through information has been rough (hence partly why it has taken me so long to get something together); however, this is what best I can confirm:

Teknoman and Tekkaman Blade will be released in two different units. Teknoman will have a similar dub to what ran syndicated in the US. The US version ran for 26 episodes, Teknoman DVDs will run 43 episodes over three box sets.

Tekkaman Blade will be a sub-only, uncut translation of the entire 49 episode TV series. The number of boxsets has not been determined. Tekkaman Blade will be released later in 2006; Teknoman is expected to hit street around 2006. May 30.

I really expect some good stuff out of Media Blasters. I absolutely love their release of Giant Robo: The Animation and the moment it becomes financially viable for me I plan on pikcing up their releases of Master of Mosquitionand Izcer-1.

It's really looking up for the Bubble Economy titles and we're barely through the first quarter. With con season coming up here in a few months, I hopefully will have more releases to talk about, review, and perhaps even grab an interview or two. Please look forward to it!

The Times, They Are A Changin'?

This will probably be a short entry.

Over the past couple of years, one of the major trends in anime has been the 'Harem' genre, but I think starting in 2006 we're going to be seeing a return some of the more classic titles. Being a fan of classical anime, this is exciting to me. However, I really cannot predict where this sort of trend will go, or even if it will become a trend throughout the industry.

Two of the titles I am looking forward to right now are Wings of Rean 『リーンの翼』 and Hokuto no Ken - Raoh-den Jun'ai no Shou 『北斗の拳 ラオウ伝 - 殉愛の章』.

Wings of Rean is a continuation of the Legend of Byston Well. Byston Well is the fictional setting created by Tomino Yoshiyuki for his cult-classic Aura Battler Dunbine. Dunbine, while only recently become known to American fandom (thanks to ADV's well done releases), has become a cult classic amongst Japanese fandom. The original TV series ran from 1982~83; the series featured a couple of OAV sequels in the late 1980s and a movie in the Nineties, Garzey's Wing 『ガージーの翼』.

What's more interesting, while Dunbine carried many of Tomino's mature 'Real Robot' (Though, there is a unique twist that Dunbine is a mecha series in a fantasy setting; you know, unicorns and knights) that were cliche throughout the 1980s, Sunrise is pursuing a new streaming format for the release of Wings of Rean. While many people think of the OAV as a mainstaple of the Otaku diet, it is a very recent invention. Afterall, modern anime have been appearing in movie theaters and on telvision since the 1960s, the OAV did not arise until the middle 1980s. Sunrise is releasing the new Wings of Rean as an ONA - Original Net Animation. Hopefully this will branch out into more releases in this format.

The next big news, reported last week, was the new Hokuto no Ken movies. The movies are based off of the new OAV series (featuring much of the same artwork) Raoh-den Jun'ai no Shou. The website's trailers look great and I am looking forward to this trilogy starting this Spring.

Though, speaking of Hokuto No Ken, there was some recent news from Manga Video here in the United States. Manga has had some licenses discontinued recently, most notable are the Hokuto no Ken TV series and Mobile Police Patlabor. More to come on this as time develops. However, with companies now losing licenses, I think this goes to show how saturated the North American anime market has become over the past couple of years.

ZOMG! Forgotten

I also forgot that Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY was licensed yesterday, or at least, an announcement by Jerry Chu of Bandai of America was announced in an interview with MAHQ.net.

I'm not surprised, but I am a little disappointed that they are not going to try and license and release another Universal Century Gundam series simultaneously (or at least, they have not announced such yet). In a way, I guess it's kinda good; I've not got the funds to go searching for another UC boxset (especially with the size and cost similar to Zeta Gundam). I've also not got the time to hurry and finish Zeta right away so I can start another UC series as the boxes for UC seem to be in limited supply. Not to mention I also need to find a way to replace my 0080 and 0083 VHS cassettes with DVDs.

I'm also in no hurry to get back into Gundam SEED DESTINY; I gave up on the series after three weeks for a reason. I felt the characters were being poorly portrayed (even though Ikeda Shuuichi plays in it, I feel even he is sub-par) and the character designer is a complete hack. Some friends of mine have kept kinda up to date with the series, and I pop a question or two off to to them on occasion, but on the whole, it seems that the series is moving for a more tramatic direction, a la Zeta or Victory, but the fact that there still isn't too much of a developing body count for the main characters (and I liked only a small handful of characters from the original SEED series), I've got little reason to watch it. More than likely, when the DVDs come out, I'll get ahold of them to watch through them and watch the series, but I'm not in any rush.

I know since I heard about the SEED sequel, I would be hoping that Bandai of Japan would give it the Zeta Treatment - by killing of 95-99% of the cast. Now that Bandai of America has seemingly gotten distrobution rights to the series, I hope they give it thier own version of the Zeta Treatment - by sitting and doing nothing with the project for years.

Viewing Update with new Licenses

This week or so has been big in the way of new North American licences. While most of these shows are series in which I normally wouldn't watch, I'm obviously not real familiar with many of the titles in any real depth. Check out Anime News Network for some of the newest news for all of the recent licenses.

The biggest news is Viz's license of the Naruto anime. It's a shonen action, which Viz is familiar with, and Viz has been publishing the manga already. However, because of its massive size and target fanbase, I have a feeling that this series will become like its predacessor Dragonball Z before it. Dragonball Z was extremely popular in Japan and was well recieved in fansub circles, even though it wasn't enjoyed by everyone. As Dragonball Z came to the US market and was marketed to the same target audience and went through editing, it soon became the bane of existance for many fans. Nothing more than an 'entry level' show for newbies. I fear the same for Naruto if the series is handled in similar fashion. I have hopes, but since I'm not really in charge of anything, I can't make promises.

I do fear for many individual disc sales of the series. Viz is not known for its excellent per disc packaging. High MSRP compared to other DVDs of similar content with low episode counts and very little interesting in the line of extras. However, I have been pleased with Viz's boxset deals in the past, especially with Ranma 1/2, so I look forward to Naruto boxes if I decide to pick the series up, since I'm not really that big of a fan.

Another big series being licensed that really caught me off guard was Media Blasters' license of the new Aa! Megami-sama TV series. I had been watching the new series through fansubs and had been getting into it. I know that when DVDs hit the shelves, I'll definately be there to pick them up. What's more though, is that Media Blasters are wanting to either cast Geneon's movie cast or AnimEigo's OAV cast for the English dubs instead of rounding up a third cast. I like this idea, and I really hope they can get the OAV cast as I think they are the superior of the two. In fact, I've always been very fond of AnimEigo's dub and have supported it. Thought, that' simply a personal preference. I'm supporting this series regardless.

Finally, needing some new happiness in my life in the form of anime, I stopped by the mall after work one day and noticed that they had two things I had been waiting a while for - the remastered Bubblegum Crisis OAVs and the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam TV boxests. Not caring about the $300 bucks it nearly cost for the two of them (at the time), I picked them up immediately.

I'm waiting to do the Bubblegum Crisis OAV over Spring Break when I am simply just working and catching back up with school; but since I am going out of town next week, and I'm swamped with schoolwork beforehand, I'm taking Zeta breaks to regain my sanity. There are unfortunately new opening and closing themes because Bandai America couldn't get the original themes, but the replacement music isn't bad. In fact, I really like the opening but the closing I suppose I could live without. That aside, the TV series is fully remastered and looks just as beautiful as it did during the first airings twenty years ago. A vast improvement over some grainy VHS fansubs I've had on my shelves for years. The boxset came also with some other goodies; I've not opened the minatures yet, but I plan to by the end of the week and there is a poster that I don't think is all that good. I think the MSRP of $199.99 that I paid was a little on the hefty side, but definately what I like about the set is worth close to $150.00.

In fact, I planned on watching episodes six and seven before bed tonight, but as I'm typing this, I'm also going to watch episode eight tonight. This series is absolutely awesome.

There's a few more things I want to update, but since I have another long day ahead of me, I'd better save it for later - finish this Zeta episode, and call it a night.