The folks at Central Park Media have received my disc and my notes on the best places to listen for the audio problem I mentioned before regarding Cyber City Oedo. For those who might have missed it, during the majority of the Japanese language track, you can hear the English audio dub on it coming mainly from the right speaker. Depending on your hardware, this may not be noticeable at all, or may sound like a slight reverberation or echo for most of the first episode, but there are a few sequences where it's very distinct. Apparently after they went through those sections with my disc, they went back to theirs and two new copies sent from DVD Ltd, and they found the problem exists on all discs. They will be working with DVD Ltd. to find a resolution for this, and you can be sure to hear the news here when that comes about. My thanks to everyone who wrote in and confirmed that I wasn't alone in hearing it.

NEWS: 04/29/99

Looks like it's true. Jason Lowe confirmed that he got his copy of Dominion in today. A quick scan of it reveals all 4 episodes are on it, and that yellow borderless subtitles were used. Do you think they're hearing us on the subtitle issue?

While not directly DVD related, it's always good to know who has acquired what. With the chaos of conventions, things sometimes get miscommunicated or lost. Here's the rundown on the new ADV titles, as supplied to me this morning by them: Spriggan, Gasaraki TV series, AD Police TV series, Princess Nine TV series (the first full sports anime to be brought over?), Generator Gawl TV series, Sakura Mail (also known as Diaries), Slayers movies 2 & 3 and OVA series 2, The Samurai and the live action Tokyo Blue.

Couple in there have me drooling, especially Gasaraki and Sakura Mail. Hopefully by the time the preproduction work is completed and everything is finalized, ADV will be more entrenched in the DVD market and we can see these relatively close to a VHS release.

For more information about the whole picture about ADV and their title acquisitions, be sure to read the thread in the forum about the Anime Central convention. Lots of good information in there, though I'll guess ADV will continue to be either the Evil Empire or the Borg in many fans minds for some time to come.

Also of interesting note, I received some feedback from CPM regarding some of their title announcements made this past weekend. Apparently some of the Japanese licensors are putting in clauses that licensed shows cannot be put on DVD unless/until a region 2 release has happened. This, as some have pointed out, is not terribly surprising after comments made in the past couple of months by Anime Village. What one can hope for is that the Japanese DVD industry will continue to grow and have more day/date with LD and VHS (which does seem to be happening a bit more often). What does this mean? No Lodoss TV until the Japanese release it there. I've been told though that we should expect it/hope for it in early 2000 and most likely on separate discs and not a box set though that's not been firmly decided yet. On the plus side, Virgin Fleet's already been released there, so we may see that one this year.

NEWS: 04/28/99

All right, where to begin today... First up, let's mention some new announcements, shall we? Last night we had the news of Lain directly from Pioneer. Today, via the sometimes questionable Diamond Comics Previews (I've ordered through them for many years, I reserve the right to call them questionable) we have word that Nazca will be coming from Pioneer, day and date with the VHS versions, as well as the second El-Hazard TV series, The Alternative World, again day and date with VHS.

Not enough? How about Battle Athletes Victory #4? Pokemon vol's 6 & 7? Still not enough? how about FOUR more volumes of Dragonball Z? Big Pioneer month again folks!

And here's something to watch. Taken in connection with statements from Anime Central regarding Anime Village and DVD, July will see the release of two new dubs from them: Outlaw Star and Cowboy Bebop. With those two, and the Gundam OVA series that's already been dubbed, they may be the most likely candidates if they achieve their purported goal of DVD by year end. Talk about a happy holiday season!

Also worth noting is that the dub for Battle Skipper is coming out on VHS for July. Those who purchased Judge and used the weblink will remember that it was on their "Coming in 1999" list.

Is Dominion out early? According to DVD Empire, they have it (and the image!) in stock. I placed my order, as well as Jason Lowe who alerted me to this. If you need your Shirow fix NOW, you might want to try it out.

And for those keeping track of my region 2 saga, I got in my copy of the Memories DVD today. I think I should get around to ordering that player sometime soon... Let me say, this is a gorgeous looking box set. Yeah, it's in a laserdisc sized box, but it's gorgeous. You want to know what really tickled my fancy about this disc? It's 16:9 enhanced too.

NEWS: 04/27/99

Now this is the way to cap off a day. The official announcement was made on the Pioneer Entertainment site today, that Serial Experiments Lain: Navi (Vol. 1) will be out on 7/6/99 and will contain the first four episodes.

My review for Tenchi in Tokyo: A New Legend is now up for your dissection.

A case of mixed signals? I've gotten a few conflicting reports regarding ADV over the weekend (see the lengthy thread in the forum for lots more), but one piece I got that is worth mentioning here is that ADV is apparently using the Slayers and Crystania movies as a "see how catalog titles sell" as an indication of where they can go with their catalog. Also mentioned was that ADV is non-committal about anything else.

Anyone else hoping that they could get their story straight?

Nobu Yamamoto, Director of Sales and Marketing for Anime Village, was feeling positive that "Anime Village would release DVDs by the end of the year". From what I've read, they still seem very concerned (i.e. Bandai) about lower priced DVD's being imported to Japan.

From the Media Blasters panel, it was mentioned that "they hoped to have DVDs out early in 2000". One interesting statement given was that "he criticized some of the other companies for releasing titles on DVD that didn't deserve it". Frankly, I don't think it's position to criticize what's being released. For every show, there is a fan. Saying a show doesn't deserve DVD treatment is insulting to said fans. And if you want to take me to task for things about Fist of the Northstar and MD Geist, I've said that there are lots of fans of those shows, I'm just not one of them. I don't believe I ever said they shouldn't be ported over, and if I did, I'll take a deserved beating for it.

NEWS: 04/26/99

Here's a quote that was sent in from Ryan Mathews, from the Anime Central convention I believe, where Anime Village reps on a panel claimed that they are "80% complete" in their negotiations to do DVD's. Will we see any by years end? Quite possibly...

Here's something interesting. Currently in production in Japan (I don't believe it's started to air yet, but I may be wrong) is a TV series based on the very graphic AD Police. The TV series itself isn't as graphic, naturally, but should generate a lot of appeal especially with the BGC Tokyo 2040 running out there now. The connection, beyond the "shared universe" of the originals? ADV Films is co-producing the series. And as we learned with BGC 2040, that means that unless something goes horribly wrong, we should be just about guaranteed a DVD release when it hits our shores.

Good word seems to be the dominant message I've gotten from the few emails of people who attended Anime Central this past weekend. Check yesterdays news for the details.

I'm still looking for more questions from readers for the 20 Questions Session with Manga Entertainment. Be sure to send your messages to me here.

And while we're doing that, we're also going to start taking questions for a 20 Questions Session with ADV Films. You can send those messages to me at this address here. And for references sake, I recommend checking out the previous session we did with CPM to see what kinds of questions we're generally looking for.

T-shirt orders are going well as well, so if you've not checked it out, do so now and get your order in for the shirt. We've gotten 28 orders in just the first day and more to come (I hope!). I'm hoping to see a few when I attend Otakon this coming July too!

NEWS: 04/25/99

The new & final t-shirt design is now up, along with complete pricing information. Be sure to check it out!

Check out this slickly designed page sent in to me today by Kazuhide Ohtsuka, Anime DVD Information.

In continuation of the ties between myself and the Anime Emporium, graphic links have been added to the majority of titles. Sometime in the future Gary will be adding in pics for the Memories DVD, but in the meantime, why not check out the extra pics of the region 2 release Go-Senzo-san-e Vol. 1?

NEWS: 04/24/99

Bits of news are starting to trickle in from Anime Central, which occurred this past weekend. The majority of the information so far has come from Carl Malmstrom. From his chat with the ADV Film representatives there, he learned that their intent is to release their entire catalog on DVD. I wonder a bit about this, since it's based off of one title being out there. Apparently Tekken is going to be their benchmark title in terms of content, menu and usability. Thankfully they've mentioned previously that they won't be dubtitling anything else. I hope they stick with it.

Also mentioned was that their next wave of titles will include the previously known Queen Emeraldas and Sakura Wars. No date on when that wave will hit, but hopefully close to day and date with the VHS release of QE. On the VHS front, they intend to start releasing BGC Tokyo 2040 in August, with Martian Successor Nadesico following approximately 45 days later, and then Nadia 45 days after that. DVD releases are planned for all three titles, but most likely not day and date.

I can't say I'm too surprised about the lack of day and date, but I want to stress that I think it's important that, when a new title is announced, if a DVD is planned, that it's added in as a "coming sometime later" or some such. Nothing irks a fan more in regards to a company is buying something twice. And if you announce it as "Quarter X", we'll be less demanding too! :) Thanks Carl, for the boatload of information. If you had any chats with other company reps during the Anime Central or any other convention regarding DVD, you know I'll bring it up here, so send it on in!

For those wondering if Yawara! is worth having on DVD (courtesy of Animeigo and their projects), check out this site by Michael Motoda and Kenneth Lee. Excellent work guys!

Carlos Salgado has sent in a review of the region 2 release of Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories. Not only does it have a DD 5.1 soundtrack, it's got English subtitles. I'm definitely off to find a region 2 player now!

NEWS: 04/23/99

According to Reel.com, my copy of Barefoot Gen shipped today. I'll take that to mean it will make street date next week!

Be sure to check yesterdays news regarding Manga. I've gotten a few questions in during the day its been up, but we need a lot more!

I've finally been able to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine. I'm can be found on the SDF-1 now! The folks over at Animenation have let me know that they're offering more rounded services to anime fans now by offering web-based email. With the number of people here that use 3rd and 4th email addresses for web forums, I can't recommend it enough at times. You can check it out here.

NEWS: 04/22/99

In the "please bear with us" department, we've found a home for the forum. As you may recall, when I put the DC Forum back up late last week, it was mentioned that it was temporary. I will do my best on Friday to bring over the top topics from the old forum, as we had to start from scratch on the new one (different O/S). You'll also need to re-register, which some of you may find advantageous in regards to user names being done incorrectly the first time.

A bit more news regarding Serial Experiments Lain today. Looks like the "volume" format will be to the consumers advantage. Being a 13 episode series, Pioneer is able to put this out a bit quicker than most other longer series like Tenchi. We should be seeing a 4/3/3/3 release. Four gorgeous DVD's. I hope they have a good spine scene! Details are apparently still being worked out in regards to the DVD version, but hopefully we'll hear good stuff soon.

Speaking of good stuff! I've managed to secure another Twenty Questions session. This time it will be with Mike Egan, the GM and Marketing Director in charge of DVD production for Manga Entertainment. For those who weren't around the last time we did this with Central Park Media, what we do is take questions from you, the regular visitors and consumers, and compile them into the top twenty questions and submit it to Manga. They'll respond, and we'll post it. This is a great opportunity to get to know more of Manga's plans and feelings towards the market and their products place in it. Send your questions to me at manga@animeondvd.com. We'll be taking questions through the 30th, and they'll be submitted over the weekend to Manga. Thanks to the folks there for being involved with this!

And finally, after weeks of waiting through the backlog at InterNIC, the domain for Anime Showcase has gone through. There's admittedly practically nothing there right now, but for those who were interested in building small shrines to shows that deserve to be brought over, put your voice into the forum there and we'll get started next week (which is my weekend!).

NEWS: 04/21/99

Serial Experiments Lain. July 06, 1999. DVD. 'nuff said.

Okay, a little more said. Major kudos to Randy and those involved over at the Pioneer Anime site with their Shockwave "version" updates for Lain. It's definitely a series that works well with web promotion.

I do my best to keep the truly personal stuff out of the page, but I wanted to say "excuse the briefness" of the updates this past week. I'm in the midst of doing coverage at my real paying job, and have been maxed out. I'll be returning to normality (as much as can be said for an anime fan) this coming Sunday, and will try to have several pieces updated, including lots of links to the Anime Emporium site and various other things. Thanks for sticking it out with me!

NEWS: 04/19/99

First up, a day late and a few dollars short, we've picked a name out of the hundred or so submissions we received for the Anime Showcase digital icon contest. The name was submitted by site regular "Derelict" (who should now send me an email with his choice of title as well as the usual mailing requirements). Please welcome the Divi-chan sister icon, Shiori!

Nicholas J. Higley has sent in a region 2 review of Tenchi Universe Vol. #4 today.

Some of you may be happy to know that Bethany is currently working up a new version of the T-shirt design, since there were a few very vocal dissenters. I hope that any following discourse on the design, once it is up, is not as invective as some posts were.

Also of note today is the completion of the journey of Anime Journey. You can now find all the excellent DVD scans and much much more at the new Anime Emporium site run by Gary Neuwirth.

With the recent article on Anime News Network that MGM is pulling it's VHS library so quickly, many are just wondering what's going on. From my discussions last year with MGM/Orion, most of the titles had only a limited time left on their licensing rights. Akira was the only one I was told was due to expire this coming spring/summer, and would revert back to Japan. I had also learned from a DVD webmaster that has better contacts than I that Akira is a title that is actively being sought by another company. One possibility mentioned on ANN was that Voyager, better known as Criterion, may still retain some rights. During my talks with the folks over there, they do not have the rights to this movie any longer, nor have they for a few years. It seems their laserdisc license was rather short, and unless something truly bizarre happens, most likely will not be able to produce it again on any media.

NEWS: 04/18/99

As quoted from the rec.arts.anime.misc newsgroup, "Two steps forward, one step back" in regards to the release of Pioneer's Battle Athletes Victory: Training DVD.

Regular visitor Ken Chen provides a review of his first region 2 DVD, Sakura Taisen!

NEWS: 04/16/99

Please welcome aboard our newest sponsor, Anime Castle! You'll find a steady link above here next to the Reel.com link on a regular basis until I get this banner rotator thing sorted out.

I've put up the old forum again, and it should be good to go for awhile. I'm still looking for a home for it though. The general anime forum is still inactive, but the DVD forum and feedback are up. You can find the Delphi forum here if you want to port over any conversations.

We've also got another sponsor coming on this weekend. Bigstar.com contacted me this week and wants to get things going with us here. Once we're going and things are progressing, they'll be offering a coupon direct to Anime on DVD consumers as well as give aways/contest and such. I'm looking forward to it, as well as the ventures with our other three sponsors (we need a rotator for sure now!). What these sponsorships should tell you, especially in that we were sought out in regards to the last two, is that anime DVD is being more recognized and a part of the market. Kudos to the growing fandom base!

I had forgotten that Kevin at DVD Animania was having trouble with his ISP loading old pages instead of current ones, which is why some of you may not have been able to find the information I had mentioned yesterday. Here's the skinny:

Castle Of Cagliostro DVD - 07/27/1999 New Dub & New Translation!
Wings Of Honneamise DVD - 07/27/1999
Macross Plus: Part 1 & 2 DVD - 08/31/1999
Macross Plus: Part 3 & 4 DVD - 09/28/1999
Devilman Part 1 & 2 DVD - 10/26/1999

This is one of those "There's good news and there's bad news". Kevin's also reporting that the Cagliostro will be day and date. Cagliostro will make the wait for these other titles much much easier. And with word that Manga may look into doing a preorder similar to Animeigo, things might pick up for some obscure titles out there. Gunbuster fans? You know where to go and email!

Animenation has apparently gotten in their Tenchi in Tokyo #3 early, and from some reports of people who have bought it already, it features the yellow subtitles found on the first volume of Battle Athletes Victory (I'm still waiting on my order) and real scene access menus. A step forward for the Tenchi disc indeed!

NEWS: 04/15/99

HOT - Pushing forward with our t-shirt idea, check out this page!

Has anyone else had the problem with Cyber City Oedo that I mentioned on Monday? If so, let me know as well as CPM. They haven't been able to recreate it yet, so I'm sending them my disc so they can look into it.

Kevin from DVD Animania sent me an update on a conversation he had with the folks over at Manga. Check out his site for full details regarding street date movement (more than certain to annoy a lot of people), but the news of a new subtitle track for a Castle of Cagliostro DVD is just too good of a piece of news to be upset about anything else. Sadly though, I think we'll end up placing Manga in a category of someone who will produce a few titles a year with no strong commitment. You can get all the details at DVD Animania.

In one of the Animeigo emails, Robert Woodhead indicates that any decision regarding Kimagure Orange Road will be made after both the laserdiscs are finally done and gone and they're comfortable with the DVD's their producing for Urusei Yatsura. Looks like they'll do the same kind of survey signup, though hopefully things will go differently than the UY one did. And was I the only one who laughed out loud at his closing tag about the Otaku Tax? I'll gladly pay it...

Pioneer also made their official announcement for Tenchi in Tokyo Vol. 4, due to street on 6/15.

NEWS: 04/13/99

Quality warning: I just got through watching the first episode on Cyber City Oedo. While listening to the Japanese language track, throughout the majority of it you'll hear a bit of a reverberation. I wrote it off initially as part of the show, where it deals with a lot of cavernous metal corridors and the like. However, upon very close listening to the speakers, you can actually faintly here the English dub behind it. This was not evident on episodes 2 & 3 though during the spot checking I did.

I posted this in the forum, but I wanted to see if I could get more response from here. I'm looking for someone who has any idea where to find a banner rotator that will work on an NT system. I've had no lucking finding one that doesn't cost 250$ or more. Blah!

All right, let's see what we have today.

According to the Pioneer Anime website, the Pokemon volumes 4 & 5 have been moved up from the 18th to the 14th. A Friday? That's a bit... odd.

My review for Tokyo Babylon is now up and ready to be dissected by CLAMP fans.

My review for Dragonball Z TV Volume 1 is now up and ready for your perusal.

I've gotten word from CPM that the Utena Part 1 set is definitely in the 3rd quarter now, but that's no big deal since the 3rd quarter starts with July, so a summer release seems likely. Also expected, but tentative due to their nature, are the two Overfiend movies. 4th quarter is still a bit too far off to give any definites on yet. Odin is still being worked on by the DVD Ltd. company that just put out Tokyo Babylon and Cyber City Oedeo.

Psychommu Gaijin has a review up of the Harlock Saga: Das Rhiengold region 2 DVD. I particularly like this comment from the opening of the review: "I really didn't know "that much" about them [DVD], but now that I have one, I recommend that everyone own one.". Let the conversion continue...

In an effort to clean and streamline a bit in the past couple of days, you may notice some images loading a bit faster. I'm trying to optimize images as best as possible. Still looking for a good GIF program though to do it.

Also, after talking with CPM recently regarding the subtitled only DVD possibility, it's basically come down to the fact that they're going to concentrate on their dual releases for quite some time, though they will eventually put out sub only releases for titles that they've not dubbed. The leading titles in the petitions, VOTOMS, Patlabor and one or two others, were duly noted. So as to not place too much more of a load on the server (and I'm trying to keep things copasetic with my hosting service at the moment), I've pulled those sub-only petitions sans Pretty Sammy down.

NEWS: 04/12/99

I'll have at least one of these discs fully reviewed tomorrow, but I got in copies of Cyber City, Dragonball Z and Tokyo Babylon today. First impressions: DBZ is basically what you see with Pokemon. Cyber City & Tokyo Babylon's quality looked excellent, and they don't appear to be dubtitled from the sections I checked. Having subbed VHS versions may have helped.

NEWS: 04/11/99

For those enjoying the images for the upcoming Anime Showcase site, you can check out 2-3 new submissions on the contest page.

NEWS: 04/10/99

Jerry Hsu sent me a list from CD Japan that indicates a bunch of Slayers discs are on their way in Japan, as well as a box set (268 bucks U.S.) as well as a Saber Marionette J Memorial box set. I'd be tempted to say this may indicate a possible release stateside, but with Cowboy Bebop and a few other titles having been on DVD in Japan for awhile now, I'm not counting on it.

A temporary (?) discussion area has been setup up over on Delphi. You can access it here.

I'm currently looking into getting some kind of hosting service for just the forum to handle the bandwidth. We may set up some kind of donation for it though. :) Nothing's decided yet, so the Delphi forum, which also has a chat, will be there for a few more days at least. Please bear with me, I'm doing my best!

NEWS: 04/09/99

For those wondering why the forum has disappeared.... well, looks like there's been some stuff with my hosting service. Right now, I'm on "Plan 1", which allots 2.5 gig of transfers a month and costs 19.95$ a month. According to an email I received from them, we're set to transfer upwards of 9 gig this month. That's "Plan 4". "Plan 4" will cost me 150$ a month. Since the forum (and this is under the Ceilidh forum, don't go saying it's the new one) is the biggest drain of transfer, it's out of here. There may be an option in the future for something, I don't know. Right now, this is all I can do.

Derek Hoffman has let me know that he's got an Anime DVD Quick List set up. You can check it out here, as well as the permanent link that will be found in the reviews section of this site.

For those of you wondering what's going on with the Showcase site... ugh. Apparently InterNIC is about a week behind in their processing, so hopefully this coming week will have me up to date. Once that's ready, I'll begin working with the Page masters again in getting things set up.

NEWS: 04/08/99

I received some box art scans of titles that Animania Entertainment has received today. Battle Athletes Victory #1, Dragonball Z TV #1, Cyber City Oedo and Tokyo Babylon were in it. Are you as surprised as I am?

ADV announced on their news page yesterday their release of the City Hunter movie. Though only VHS was mentioned, could a DVD be far behind? Movies seem to be what they're concentrating on for the moment... I'd love to see some City Hunter!

NEWS: 04/07/99

Please don't kill the messenger. It appears that the Tenchi box set will not make the 4/13 date. The date I'm hearing now is 5/18.

Since the Animeigo survey for TV series looks like You're Under Arrest is going to be a given, Marc Yu has sent in a bit of a primer on the series. Check it out here!

Bethany has sent in a new pic for you to check out on the contest page. I'm pleased to say we're getting a lot of excellent suggestions!

NEWS: 04/05/99

Hopefully, there will be more news throughout the day and into the night. Be sure to check the "last updated" time at the top of this page to see when it was last, well, updated. :)

Since we're safely past April 1st, I can safely present our April contest. Click here to check it out!

I've updated the information on the upcoming 3rd volume of Tenchi in Tokyo. A reader alerted me to the fact that it was still listed under the old format! Yikes! We've also got the cover art on it, supplied by the Pioneer Anime website.

I've been submitted a review for the first Dragonball Z movie, The Dead Zone. After over a year of operation, I found out I never reviewed this early disc!

NEWS: 04/04/99

Welcome back to Mike Toole and his wonderfully fun site, Anime Jump. If you haven't checked it out before it went offline earlier this year, take this chance to get acquainted with a very personable and well laid out site. It's one of the very few anime sites I actually take the time to check out.

I've also updated the colander to include recent changes. April pretty much looks like it's owned by Pioneer. May should shape up as a much bigger month if things go right. May should include several titles such as Wrath of the Ninja, Dominion Tank Police, Macross Plus 1&2, two Pokémon s, two Dragonball Z's, another Battle Athletes TV, Slayers movie and the Crystania movie. No Tenchi in Tokyo unfortunately, though understandable with the number of titles on Pioneer's plate for that month.

And showing that anime is continuing to make inroads, DVD Express has a contest with the Tenchi box set, in association with Pioneer and EX. Hop on over and check it out.

NEWS: 04/02/99

Talk about moving street dates. It appears that Battle Athletes: Victory TV Vol. 1 has been pushed back a week to the 13th. And as previously reported, Dominion got pushed to 5/18, and I'm not quite sure where the Wrath of the Ninja movie has landed just yet. Once I do, I'll update the calendar....

As promised yesterday, here's Jeromy Lian's review of the first Gasaraki DVD from Bandai/Emotion in Japan. If, as is becoming apparent, that ADV has indeed picked up this title, I hope that they take serious note of how this is released over there in regards to the packaging.

We've also updated our Bandai petition with some new phrasing. Some considered the original version somewhat harsh (though just as many agreed that it should be harsh), we've adjusted the tone to be more civil. Be sure to check it out.

NEWS: 04/01/99

April Fools? Not on this site. Hmph. On to business, albeit brief. Animenation informs me that they too now have the Twin Angels DVD's in stock. If you haven't picked these up yet, I'd recommend them easily enough. For the material, it's a good show. Read my review if you don't believe me!

While this shouldn't be treated as a wholly official confirmation, you can look at it as how we presented the El-Hazard info a bit ago. From what I understand, and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, ADV had some financial input into the new Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 TV series that I believe is still airing in Japan. From what's been mentioned in the forum, this one is a definitely for our shiny little disc when it comes stateside. While I've been hearing that purists and die-hard fans dislike it... well, I'm one of those that loves Tenchi in Tokyo AND all the other series too. I'm looking forward to it!

What can you look forward to tomorrow? I've been given a region 2 review of Gasaraki. And some of the buzz indicates (or has it become official? Maybe at an upcoming convention) that ADV has picked up this show. If they have, I wonder if it'll look as spiffy as the box scans I've been sent.