Advance review (10:50 AM EST): Due out on 02/19/2002 from Bandai Entertainment is the first of two installments of one of the classic Gundam releases, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 Vol. #1: War in the Pocket. Watching these One Year War stories just makes me want more of the UC timeline to start coming out.

First contest ends (09:27 AM EST): Or at least part of one, and the easiest one. The random drawing for a Boogiepop Phantom Box Set has come to a close with a winner being posted. This weeks new opening contest is the Love Hina Manga one!

Saturday, February 9th, 2002

New R2 reviews (08:13 AM EST): We're trying to keep on top of at least some of the new region 2 reviews we've been getting as we convert the region 1 reviews, so today check out these three new reviews:

Friday, February 8th, 2002

New title announcements (06:42 PM EST): The May solicitations for Media Blasters arrived today, which has some rather interesting titles such as Gundress, a live action Ogenki Clinic and more. I've parsed out the anime listings for DVD and added them to the upcoming release list, and you can check out what we know about each of them below. All are due on 05/28/2002.

Thursday, February 7th, 2002

On a lighter note (08:09 PM EST): We got a copy of this petition today and found it may warm the hearts of some that people are on the lookout for the general publics best interest.

Newly reviewed (08:05 PM EST): Though we've reviewed the individual disc, we took the opportunity today to review the Love Hina Vol. #1 W/Box option, for those considering spending the extra 5$.

More new title announcement (07:50 PM EST): We've updated several more new title announcements this afternoon with Now & Then, Here & There Vol. #3, Now and Then, Here and There Box Set, Lupin the 3rd: Secret of the Twilight Gemini, Dragonball Z TV Vol. #44 Dragonball Z TV Vol. #68 and Dragonball Z TV Vol. #69.

And for those box set junkies, Right Stuf is once again the place to be when it comes to the exclusives. For those who can't wait for the box set of Now & Then, Here & There, you do have the chance to acquire the box and the disc of extras, which is available exclusively at Right Stuf and limited to 1000 orders. Click here to be taken directly to it.

New title announcement (07:17 PM EST): David Williams of ADV Films added another notch to their upcoming list today by announcing a 05/07/2002 street date for Soul Hunter Vol. #4.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2002

New title announcement (08:58 PM EST): Also listed on the Right Stuf site tonight is the next box set/complete series release from NuTech Entertainment. Tentatively due on 03/01/2002, Immoral Sisters will arrive in 3 volumes for 24.95 each, with each volume containing one episode, or in a box set for 59.95. As noted before, due to the complete unreliability of their street dates, we won't be posting them in our upcoming section. They will be added after they've streeted.

Advance review (08:56 PM EST): Due out on 02/12/2002 from Pioneer is the final volume in the series that likely had too many high expectations riding on it due to the crew involved, Niea_7 Vol. #4 will street and bring the series to a close.

New site (08:53 PM EST): With their move to being more involved with US releases, it was only a matter of time before Production I.G. got their own English website up and running, which we learned today is now ready to start receiving visitors. With luck, we'll be seeing some interesting pieces show up there in the future.

Advance review (07:58 PM EST): Due out on 02/12/2002 from Urban Vision, it's the culmination of many years of work and effort on both side of the pacific, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust makes its region 1 debut, and with some surprises.

New CD announcements (07:34 PM EST): It looks like some of the AnimeTrax information is coming out a bit earlier than expected, courtesy of Right Stuf. On 04/30/2002, AnimeTrax will debut Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) OVA CD Soundtrack. The disc has a runtime of 55 minutes and retails for 14.98 and the artwork looks to have just the original series logo and not the Samurai X one.

Also due on 04/30/2002 is Boogiepop Phantom: Original Soundtrack 2-CD. This 24.98 double disc set runs for 85 minutes. Also due on that day is Boogiepop Phantom: Music Inspired by Boogiepop and Others which runs for 40 minutes and retails for 14.98.

Newly reviewed (07:12 PM EST): Probably one of the few titles that can really generate such varied opinions, tonight Roman Martel tackles the 01/08/2002 release of Knight Hunters Vol. #1 from Media Blasters. And to make sure we have some of those varied opinions, we also have two new alternate angles for it:

Up with Yu! (06:17 PM EST): Yu Yu Hakusho that is. According to the Funimation pre-order page, the initial information we've seen regarding the release of this series appears to have been in error. Early reports indicated that there would be three episodes on each disc, but according to their official site, it will be four episodes per disc while still retailing for $24.95. Thanks to Matt McClellan for finding this out.

Tuesday, February 5th, 2002

Alternate angles (03:19 PM EST): We've slacked off on these over the past couple of weeks but have added a few new ones in today as we've gotten the code for me to add them in. We'll be providing something for users to key them in later on, so until then continue to send them in normally.

Newly reviewed (03:08 PM EST): Getting close to the end of the series, Roman Martel has sent in primary reviews for Armored Trooper Votoms Vol. #11 and Armored Trooper Votoms Vol. #12 as released by NuTech Entertainment back on 07/17/2001.

New title announcements (02:19 PM EST): The next couple of months look good for AnimEigo releases. On 03/22/2002, Riding Bean will arrive on bilingual DVD for 24.95. On 03/15/2002, Urusei Yatsura TV Vol. #07 will arrive, Vol. #08 on 03/29/2002 and Vol. #09 on 04/15/2002. All three retail for 24.95 and have four episodes.

Newly reviewed (10:30 AM EST): Before I take my next mind-altering pain pill, I wanted to take a moment to introduce a new addition to our staff reviewers. Paul Grisham, a familiar name to many on the forum, has been brought on board for a few reasons. Roman Martel will be slowing in his primary reviews to focus on more literary things in the publishing world and Megan Morris has been missing in action (with my discs!) for about 2 months now. Hmph.

For his opening review, we sent him a copy of Soul Taker Vol. #1, which he's completed and sent into to us today. While it's not a primary review since I've done it already, the more reviews for this title the better, especially since it's early.

Monday, February 4th, 2002

New tomorrow (08:27 PM EST): One of the things I'm going to try and get into the swing of doing again is listing what's due out the day prior to street date, now that we're getting all database-like here. So tomorrow, 02/05/2002, you should expect to see this new titles street:

Site Misc. (08:16 PM EST): Just to bring folks up to date a bit, couple of things have gone on this past weekend. The first is that we've restarted two of the contests that kicked off this month. Due to people taking advantage of websites that create anagrams on the fly, negating the hard work people were putting into coming up with them on their own, we've restarted those two particular ones with new contests. You can re-enter those if you sent in an anagram entry already.

Also over the course of the weekend, or Saturday morning to be exact, I threw my back out fairly nicely which keeps me pretty stationary. Unfortunately the couch made me sleep which is why we didn't watch much this weekend. But I've taken advantage of this time by sitting in a comfortable firm chair in my office, and we've finished converting primary reviews from the letter A through G as of this evening, which you can peruse here. We've still got a ways to go as well as adding alternate angle reviews, but progress is being made.

 Sunday, February 3rd, 2002

Con news (08:11 PM EST): During Ushicon, it appears that at least one new series has been licensed, and an older one at that. ADV Films announced their acquisition of the series Bt'X, which from what little information there appears to be online, is from the same creator as Saint Seiya.

Con news (05:48 PM EST): Information out of Ushicon is pretty minimal so far, but we've gotten a bit of a hint from ADV's David Williams. According to him, AnimeTrax will begin releasing 3+ CD's per month starting in April of this year. They expect to start announcing titles at Katsucon in a couple of weeks.

New articles (03:52 PM EST): After last weeks article that introduced Allen Divers and our plans to give dubs some more coverage here, there was quite a bit of reaction to it. The majority of it is very positive while the negative mostly said I'm selling out. Which brought many chuckles to those who know me (psst, we sold out years ago!). Anyway, Allen is back again this week with a new column on dubs as well as another column talking about the Magic Users Club release. Be sure to check them out and then participate in our English Track forum.

Newly reviewed (03:44 PM EST): Another title that slipped through our preordering list we've gotten today. Originally released on 12/11/2001, we've taken a look at El-Hazard, The Wanderers Vol. #2 from Pioneer that brings us another six episodes deeper into this retelling of the classic OVA series.

Friday, February 1st, 2002

Contest update (11:43 PM EST): We've gone through all the entries and there was some tough choices to be made, but we finally picked a winner for the Divi comic strip contest. We're pondering how/if to present the other entries right now, and may do a one-a-week kind of thing.

Newly reviewed (11:28 PM EST): We've had a decent break in the hentai since we went all out at the end of December, but things are slowly starting to pick up again as NuTech begins to get their discs moving out again. Tonight, we've taken a look at their first new release, the EL Box Set.

Poster notice (08:03 PM EST): The folks at Planet Anime let us know this afternoon that Media Blasters is going to include a poster with the first pressing of Berserk, based on initial preorders that are being set by retailers now. This means that not every copy will likely have one, so it'll be another collectable like the Magic Users Club poster. Click here to see an image of it.

New Box Set Announcements (10:28 AM EST): There's some news that just came up courtesy of the folks over at Right Stuf. First is that on 04/09/2002, we'll see the second Ranma 1/2 TV Box Set get released. Titled Anything Goes Martial Arts, this set runs for 572 minutes and retails for $119.98.

On 04/23/2002, ADV Films will release the Neon Genesis Evangelion Perfect DVD Box ONLY, similar to how the Cowboy Bebop box was sold separately. This box runs for $14.99. This box by itself is a Right Stuf exclusive, also like the Bebop box was.

Also on 04/23/2002, ADV Films will release the Neon Genesis Evangelion Perfect DVD Box with the Remastered Vol. #1 included. This release will retail for $38.99. This is ALSO a Right Stuf exclusive.

FLCL Winners (09:34 AM EST): The results are in from our FLCL poster contest and we've chosen ten random winners from the large number of entries we got for each contest. Our comic contest is still being judged as there was naturally a huge rush of entries coming in at the deadline. So while waiting for that, take an opportunity to check out the new contests we've posted!

New contests (00:01 AM EST): We've got a slew of new contests for February, with two of them kicking off right now! The first is a month long contest sponsored by TRSI for the Boogiepop Phantom box set. The second is the first of a ton of TOKYOPOP sponsored contests to be coming here over the next couple of months. The first contest for them is a pile of Vampire Princess Miyu goods, and this contest is open for the entire month since they're more involved. The remaining three contests for them, which are linked above, have specific starting and ending dates for submitting entries, so please pay attention to the rules. Entries sent in early for contests not yet open will be deleted.