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From: David Bever (JBever1837@aol.com)
Once again another great issue, my friends and I went into paroxysms of joy
when we herd about Bandai's direct releases to the U.S. While I'm waiting
for the next issue I have a few questions for your crack staff.
| 1. |
Will DRAGONBALL and
DRAGONBALL Z ever be subtitled? |
| 2. |
I've heard whispers of an ESCAFLOWNE
movie, any news? |
| 3. |
Do you know who (if anyone) might pick up the
END OF EVANGELION movie for
US release? |
| 4. |
Recently I have come across some reviews of
MAKAI TENSHO (animated by the
GIANT ROBO team). Will it be
translated? |
| 5. |
I haven't seen any mention of fan subtitlers in any of
your issues even they are an excellent way to see Japanese
only productions. I understand that legality of such operations
is questionable, but shouldn't there at least be an open forum
for debate on the issue? |
Let's go down this list of questions one at a time.
| 1. |
At this point, no. It's Funmation's call, and releasing
subbed episodes of DB and
DBZ would mean having to go with the
original episodes, not the altered ones that were shown on
US television. Pioneer is, however,
releasing the movies in their original subtitled format. |
| 2. |
As Murphy Brown once said, "Will they or won't they? It's
like a bad episode of MOONLIGHTING!"
Mr. Yuuki announced it at Anime Expo 97, but Sunrise has since
backed down. Rumor is that it may be starting up again, though.
Only time will tell. |
| 3. |
No one has announced the license to this bad boy yet. |
| 4. |
MAKAI TENSHO was picked up by A.D. Vision and announced at
A-kon and Anime Expo this year (along with about 10 other titles). |
| 5. |
The issue of fan subtitlers. Everyone has their opinion on
the fan subtitlers (me included!); they are entitled to have
them (opinions, not fan subtitlers). But as a publication that is
trying to promote legitimate anime and legitimate sources in North
America, EX has to be very careful about approaching this issue.
The fansubbers are out there; anyone with a browser can find them,
and there are other places more suited to a forum for open discussion
on this topic than EX. |
I hope this answers your questions. You really covered a wide variety of
topics there, David.
From: Ken Von Gertzen (kvg@telusplanet.net)
Love your magazine. It's very informative and concise. I heard a rumour and
wanted to know if you people heard the same. I heard that Capcom gave the
rights to studio in Japan to produce RESIDENT EVIL 1
or 2 anime TV shows.
Have you heard this too ? Looking foward to hearing from you and keep up the
great work!!!
I can't say that I've heard anything about this.
Capcom US doesn't seem to know anything about it
either. It's an interesting idea, though.
From: Keith Christy (kchristy@hawaii.edu)
I guess I'm like a lot of people, I just stumbled onto this site while
updating my bookmark file. I must say, I like what I see. I really enjoyed
the section on MACROSS, which ranks among one of my
all time favorite anime in all creation.
 The only thing that I continually wonder about is, with
all the fan-subbers and fans around, why hasn't MACROSS
(the TV series) ever been subtitled? I
only ask since I'm one of those ardent subtitle freaks who only wishes that
more subtitled stuff was available at cheaper prices. Thanks, and keep up
the great work.
I hope that most people don't just "stumble across"
us by now! We should fire our PR guy! (If we had one,
that is...)
As for MACROSS subtitled,
if you mean why hasn't it been done commerically, there are a number of
reasons. Most likely the first is the cost: TV
series are expensive to buy nowadays and companies have a hard time coping
with that reality. The second is quality. Many people love
MACROSS, but those are die-hard fans, and you
can't turn a profit just selling to them.
One of the limitations of MACROSS
was that it was animated for television, and as such parts of it now look
very dated and, well, cheap. But it is interesting that one of the most
gigantic series of all times hasn't been released in the
US in any format other than ROBOTECH.
Which of course brings me to probably the most
compelling reason why MACROSS isn't available in
the US. Harmony Gold (or whoever) probably still
controls the rights to the original series in this country, which means that
any other versions of it won't be authorized as long as they can get
ROBOTECH on the air (such as on the Cartoon Network,
where it is now.)
From: Kathy Isham (sailor_titan2@yahoo.com)
Hi! I was checking out your site, and I gotta say, I was very impressed!
I have to say, though, that I was kind of
dissapointed—after searching for countless Magical Girl titles, only
about two or three came up with reviews.
Hey, it didn't take me long to figure out that you here
at EX aren't big Magical Girl fans... especially
after I read one of your editorials and a few reviews. And there's nothing
wrong with that. It's fine with me if you do or do not like Magical Girls.
Maybe you should consider getting someone on your
magazine to do reviews of Magical Girl shows—someone who knows them well
and has seen a lot of them. Maybe you should think about getting someone into
that kinda stuff. Just a suggestion!
Well, it's not that we're not fans of the Magical Girls
genre. (Ask some of the other staffers about how I can go on about
AKAZUKIN CHACHA...) I suppose it just seems that of
all the genres, that one is one of the most overused. That's why I personally
like the shows that put a funny spin on them, like
TONDE BUURIN, where Karin has a magical transformation
which turns her into Buurin, the pig super hero!
And you're right, we should do more with this genre. I
have a couple of people in mind that I can ask to contribute stuff about
magical girls shows, so keep reading, ok?
From: Thomas Heaton (ishtar@mindless.com)
This is just a simple message to ask if a second volume of your
EX CDROM will be made. I thoroughly enjoyd the
first disc and look forward to a second.
I'm glad you enjoyed EX: YEAR ONE.
At this time, we do not plan to press YEAR TWO right away.
We may, however, combine the next two years onto a CDROM.
The facts are that we just really don't have the time to put another
CD together and keep cranking out issues
and do all the other things that we have to do.
When we decide to go ahead with this, we'll put the info
up on the site. Thanks for your interest.
From: Mystic 24 (mystic24@hotmail.com)
I was wondering if you had any infomation on ADV
purchasing the rights for NADIA OF THE MYSTERIOUS SEAS.
I was wondering when it was coming out, are the voices going to be the same
as the earlier release of NADIA in the
US under Orion and whether they are going to leave
the series in its entirety.
PS: If this gets published please display my e-mail address so any
NADIA fans can write, or any other Anime fans too.
If you're the mystic, why are you asking me. What am I, the Oracle at
Delphi? =)
Given ADV's track record,
they will most likely leave the series intact (which means they won't be
editing it into "movies" like Streamline did).
They have offered no information about the voices
for the dub; their plan is to start with the subtitles first. No release
date has been set yet, so we probably won't see it hit store shelves until
1999 sometime.
From: Armand (agiron@csulb.edu)
There's something that has been bothering me for a very long time. Now we
all know that the production and directing of the anime in Japan is by
Japanese people in the industry. So why is it that after watching a show, I
see an American name getting credit as the so called "Director" for
something he or she had nothing to do with?
I can understand them getting
credit as a producer, or ADR dialogue director,
but how can a person here in America claim credit for directing a film when
they had no creative control or input into the project.
Could you help clear this up and tell me why
these people get credit for adapting and directing the anime? What exactly
is their role—if any—as a director. I'm just about out of my wits.
It's pretty much driving me crazy. Thanks for listening.
In the past, some people have fancied themselves as "directors" when they
cut scenes from a film, change the order of things, or make other changes,
such as in the soundtrack. For example, Carl Macek is listed as one of the
"directors" of ROBOTECH because he did the rewriting and oversaw the editing
of Japanese materials into the Amercian version, which was a very different
end product.
Nowadays, in most cases the role of "Director" in the English language
version of an anime release usually refers to the person who is directing
the voice actors. After all, it's pretty obvious that they can't really
take credit for directing the animation, right? |
