Father Geek here to bring you another cool edition of our AICN Anime Report by Scott Green. Well, let's get to it...
Gundam Delays
According to Right Stuf the first two volumes of Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083 have been delayed until 1/22/02. Gundam 0080, also known as "War in a Pocket" was an OAV series released in 1989, 10 years after the original Gundam. Series covers the end of the One Year War, shown in the original Gundam, and 08th MS team, for the perspective of a child who lived on a colony previously unaffected by the war. Gundam 0083, known as "Stardust Memory", is an aftershock on the One Year War with factions of the Federation and Zeon renewing hostilities with very impressive mecha battle scenes
Dark Horse December Manga Release
Dark Horse has released their December solicitations that list their manga (comic) releases. Blade of the Immortal 63, "Husk" will take a break from the samurai series' multi-part story arc with a one shot story. The series' antagonist Anotsu has been destroying schools with his Itto-ryu school which places success above form and morality, but his focus has been shifted to bringing other school under his heal. Bringing the Shingyoto-ryu under control has proven difficult. In this issue Anatso is having trouble believing the Shingyoto-ryu's headm Ibane, and finding an attraction to his daughter.
On February 27th Dark Horse will be releasing 400 12" figures of Blade of the Immortal's protagonist, the immortal samurai Manji. Simular to the Lone Wolf and Cub figures, Manji will feature a cloth costume, removable sandals, eight different swords and other samurai weapons from the exotic arsenal he uses in the series.
Cannon God Exaxxion STAGE 1 part 2 (of 8) will continue the news series by Gun Smith Cat's Kenichi Sonoda, which combines the manga artists' two strengths/interests, guns and cute girls. Earth has been taken over by what seems to be a species of kindly, co-existing race of aliens. In this volume the series' protagonist gets to test out the battle armor given to her by her lecherous grandfather against a ball-shaped robot with razor blade arms.
Dark Horse will be collecting Adam Warren's Dirty Pair mini series "Run From the Future" in a 136 volume to be release January 2nd. The destructive trouble consultant known Lovley Angels nee Dirty, Pair, Kei and Yuri, are givin 100 minutes to remove 50 criminals from the crime plagued Nimkasi Habitat. The volume also includes the special bonus story, "Start the Violence," plus a pinup gallery featuring Adam Warren and guest artists Adam Hughes, Bruce Timm, Brian Stelfreeze, and Humberto Ramos.
Lone Wolf and Cub continues in Volume 17: The Will of the Fang, as Ogami Itto, the shogun's executioner turned assasin and Daigoro, his young son, face a female yazuka (gangster) leader, bounty hunters lured by an award promised by Itto's enimy, the Yagyu clan, and an illness that puts the young Daigoro on death's door.
In Oh My Goddess! Part XI #5MYSTERY CHILD part 3 (of 8) the college student Keiichi is starting to get jelous of the mysterious young boy spending so much time with his Goddess girlfriend Belldandy.
Usagi Yojimbo 53 will have the rabbit ronin leaping headfirst into another bad situation when he agrees to help the vengeful son of a murdered samurai. The situation becomes more grave when three of the renegades join a vicious gang.
What's Michael? Volume 5: Michael's Favorite Spot will collects more stories from the popular cat comic series, that points out the humor in the worlds of people and animals.
Vampire Princess Miyu TV Release Information
Anime on DVD has been told the DVD episodes per disc distribution of Vampire Princess Miyu will be 3/4/4/5/5/5. The openings and endings will be included for each episode, with the ending playing as the Japanese original ending did with the English credits to follow right after it on a black background, and the character who many know as Larva will have it named spelled that way rather than Lava. The Vampire Princess Miyu TV series has a horror anthology feel for most of the series, as the child vampire Miyu sends stray demons or Shinma back into "The Darkness".
Sorcerer on the Rocks Info
Anime on DVD has learned trailers for ADV's followup to the swords and sorcery comedy, Sorcerer Hunters, Sorcerer on the Rocks (originally Chivas 1-2-3 ) will soon be appearing on their released. Sorcerer Hunters featured characters named after deserts, but this series will feature alcohol named characters. The dub cast will be: Shivas Scotch - Jay Hickman; Gin Fizz - Monica Rial; Kiss - Hilary Haag; Genmi - Brett Weaver; Meru & Teru - Kira; Millon Dollar - Emily Carter.
Wizard To Publish Anime Invasion Quarterly
According to a press release, the publishers of the comics magazine Wizard will be putting out quarterly editions of their new Anime Invasion magazine.
"The tremendous positive response to [the first] Anime Invasion made this an easy decision," said Gareb Shamus, Chairman of Wizard Entertainment. The first new issue, Wizard Anime Invasion #1, will ship in November and feature news on top anime properties, like Akira, Dragon Ball Z and an update on the eagerly anticipated Ghost In The Shell sequel.
Additionally, the magazine will have a Holiday Anime Buyer's Guide, a list of the Top 25 Manga comic books and an interview with artist Go Nagai (Devilman). As the anime category continues to explode with new DVD/video sales and rentals, future issues of Anime Invasion will be the definitive resource for both the new anime fan and the hard-core collector.
Anime Invasion will be shipped with two covers, the first featuring Dragon Ball Z and the second featuring Gundam robots drawn by artist J. Scott Campbell, best known for his comic book artwork with Danger Girl. This issue will be solicited in the September issue of Previews for November shipping."
Seiyuu Passes
August 25th saw the sad existus of Japanese voice actor Ginzou Matsuo at the age of 49. Matsuo-san, whose real forename was Koichi, fell victim to an acute interior hemorrhage at 21:54 JST of the day in question. His prolific credit as voice actor includes roles like Ruhm and Kio of "Vision of the Escaflowne", Arios Mosley of "Gundam 0083", Jin Jahanam of "V Gundam" and Oyajide of "Ojamajou Doremi".
http://www.animenewsservice.com/
Pioneer NieA_7 Page
Pioneer has put up a web site for NieA_7 with picture and information about the alien living with a human comedy.
Yu-Gi-Oh Website Opens
The website for Yu-Gi-Oh has opened in preparation of the September 15th start of what Kids' WB and retailers are hoping will replace Pokemon.
Di Gi Charat (commercial)
To be aired on TV (Los Angeles area only) around Sept 2001
Cartoon Network News
Those who missed last Sunday's showing of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim should make sure to catch its repeat Thursday from 10:00pm to 1:00am. In addition to two hour of comedy shows, the block featured the first two episodes of the popular Cowboy Bebop, featuring music by popular Yohko Yanno, and top notch animation. Minimal edits were made to show for television including removal of head bullet wound, one of the more bloody scenes, and some language was toned down, ie swears, and "God", but a good amount of course language, cleavage, and blood where left intact. The first two episodes of the series introduce a pair of bounty hunters, the slick and sure Spike Spiegel, and the gruff Jet Black as they travel to Earth in hopes bagging a violent drug runner, then back to space to catch an animal kidnapper. The two episodes demonstrates the series range from tragedy to light comedy. Spike and Jet are later joined by the thief and degenerate gambler Faye Valentine, and the you! ng hacker Ed.
The official Adult Swim web page has gone up at www.adultswim.com. With information about the block's shows. Toonami's Friday Inflight movies, which usually show the Dragon Ball Z movies, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, Blue Sub No. 6, and the animated Batman/Superman movies return on October 19th.
The new season of Dragon Ball Z starts on September 10th. The schedule on that day will be
Volume six of the Japanese language Card Captor Sakura will be released on 11/6 with four episodes for $29.99, while the English dubbed and ordered Card Captors will be released with 3 episodes for $24.95.
Manga will be releasing the DVD version of the fight anime Shadow Skill on 11/27.
EX has a review of the recently released Cowboy Bebop movies, Knockin' on Heaven's Door.
The new Anime Fringe includes a look at manga on the web, Keroro Gunso in which Earth is invaded by frog aliens,, and the dating sim game Sister Princess.
The latest Sequential Tart features manga and anime reviews, articles about anime fandom, and part two of a very interesting history o Japanese art, "Before They Were Manga".
ADV Films has recently acquired the rights to several anime series that are made up of 15 minute episodes, namely Steel Angel Kurumi and Neo Ranga. They recently spoke on Anime on DVD's forum about how they would be released. Steel Angel Kurumi is planned for four discs, each with six 15 minute episodes. The episodes will not be spliced together. No plans have been made for Neo Ranga.
Neo Ranga is about three girls who find that they have a connection to a strange culture on a remote island, and the giant rock creature that lives there.
The pacing of 15 minute anime series, especially one like Neo Ranga that has continuity between episodes rather than just vignettes can be odd, and does not work well for watching episodes in one sitting.
There was also an interesting conversation about the dub that New Generation Pictures produced to the odd, Powerpuff Girls-like comedy Super Milk Chan, prior to ADV's licensing of the series. There were no official announcements made in the conversion, but it has some interesting history about fan dubbing and the initial trial of the series.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team takes place near the conclusion of the One Year War that was portrayed the original Gundam series. Earth's Feberation is at war with one of its orbiting colonies that has called it self the principality of Zeon. In 08th MS team the war seems to have settled into a battle between mobile suits, the federation's white Gundams, looking like samurai, against Zeon's dark green Zakus, looking like fascist shock troupes. 08th follows a group of Gundam ground troupes fighting in the jungles of in Southeast Asia. It is often described as the soldiers' perspective on the war, as opposed to the original Gundam's fighter ace perspective. After loosing several commanding officers the 08th MS team is sent Shiro Amada, a young, but skilled colony born officer. On route to Earth Shiro's ship witnesses a Federation mobile suit being attacked by a souped-up Zeon Zaku. Shiro takes the initiative by taking on the Zaku with the only available mobile sui!
t, a "Ball", a round two armed machine used for labor rather than combat. During the fight both Shiro's Ball and the Zaku are destroyed leaving Shiro and a young Zeon woman floating in towards space wreckage. After disarming the woman, and bandaging her wound the two exchange a few words while waiting for their respective comrades to pick them up.
One Shiro reaches Earth his meets the rest of his team, Karen Joshua, a large assertive woman who is his second in command and fellow Gundam pilot, Terry "Reaper" Sanders Jr, a man who many think is jinx, the teams third Gundam pilot, and the two pilot of a support hover vehicle, the young point of view character Michel, and the joker Eledore Massis. One the team is assemble Shiro attempts to win the trust of his team by proving his skill in battle, but is hampered by his last of experience with ground based combat.
In the third episode of the disc the 08th MS Team try to rescue a village from the Zeon and meet the third party in the conflict, a group of gorillas hate the Zeon, but don't trust the federation.
The general hierarchy for anime production budget and value is, in ascending order: television, OAVs, movies. Time and budget make this series' production value as different as night and day from the first Gundam series. There are no short cuts in the animation here. There is re-used animation, or close-ups to limit the shots. Backgrounds are detailed and animated when for more atmosphere.
The other difference between OAV and TV is what is permissible to be shown. OAV can have more graphic violence (which has not appeared in this series), and they can have nudity with chests that's are more anatomically correct than television (which this does). Many OAVs seem to throw in a scene of gratuitous nudity, because they can. An example of this is the preview for the second episode which seems to indulge in a prolonged glimpse at the volume's nudity sense. It does fit into the story and play a role in it, but it still seems like fan service.
Neither the Japanese or the English voice cast seemed to fit right in this series. The Japanese voices did not feel right for several of the principle characters, especially Shiro Amada, and Karen Joshua. Comparing there appearance and personalities with there voices did not quite match. It was like really an novel, then seeing a adaptation that didn't mesh with your perception. Shiro looks and acts like a someone young, but skilled and experienced. His voice seems a slightly too old for the character, but the bigger problems it that it seems to have a world weary edge that the eager young character's actions and statements don't back up. Karen is large, muscular woman who seems to have seem a good deal of combat, but tone doesn't reveal the command her size, status, and experience seems to have earned her. Even when she is in control of a situation, she is missing a needed edge. Her eyes portray a grim determination, but her voice sounds to small and sweet.
The English voices were more of a problem. They seemed bellow Bandai's par. Shiro especially was distracting. Whenever his voice required some emotion, an inspiration speech to the troupes, a battle yell, it sounded like an actor trying to portray emotion rather than a character feeling it. There was not too much emotion, it just wasn't right. Shiro seems whiney and childish rather than having youthful charisma. He doesn't sound like he has the confidence. The show can be watched in enjoyed with English dub, but its slightly harder to get engrossed in it.
Three episodes into the series it seems like a big budget, action series, and it does action very well. The first volume of the original Gundam seemed to be small teams to Zakus against Amaru with one side or the other unprepared. In 08th MS team there are teams of people who know mobile suit combat, and know how to work in a fighting teams against other teams or set installations. Its doesn't have the original Gundam uncertainty in the capabilities in machines.
The protagonists of this series are older, with more complete personalities that the early episodes of the original Gundam, but it is unclear if there will be any growth in the characters, other than the inevitable trust between them. So far focus of the battle seems excitable, without any consequences. There have been deaths alluded to before the action that has been shown, but no one on either side seems to be wounded or killed in the battles being shown. It's fine. The action is fun and exciting. There scenery and scenarios and interesting, but the reputation of Gundam series are that they have an emotion pull, so it might be fair to assume that the consequenceless nature of the series so far may not last.
Release Dates
Online Periodical Updates
How to Release 15 Minute Episodes
Spotlight: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team volume 1
3 episode DVD
