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Blasts from the Past
From: David Tarog (dtarog@hotmail.com)
Hello people! I just wanted to thank you for the info on ROMEO NO AOI
SORA. I'm a big fan of the series, in spite of the fact that I viewed the series
over a year ago (a local station here in the Philippines bought the rights to the series
and adapted it for local viewers). Anyway, thanks again! I really appreciate it. Oh yeah,
and thanks for the list of products that you mentioned above. I think I'll go order a ROMEO CD for myself. God bless!
ROMEO remains one of the best series I've seen in a long
time, and I wrote the article so that more people would be aware of this great
show (and others like it that are part of the WORLD MASTERPIECE THEATER series).
It just goes to show that you can make television for children that is entertaining,
educational, and even emotionally mature. Shows like this tend to get buried
in the waves of hype surrounding other shows with bigger budgets and a more
"otaku" appeal. But we just have to keep looking for the good stuff. Thanks for writing.
Truly Outrageous!?
From: Lester E. Welsh
(evangelion9@earthlink.net)
You must get these kinds of e-mails a million times a day, but I just wanted to say that
I love EX—it's
an excellent online magazine. It's one of the main reasons I'm glad I'm online! Thanks for creating and
maintaining such a cool (and organized) site. It's a gem.
All I can say is, "thank you." Well, and "Gem is truly outrageous..."
(Uh, just forget I said that.)
PERFECT VHS?
From: Daniel Douglas (BarnumFarm@aol.com)
I love your magizine and read it cover to cover each month. I was just wondering if you know of a web site or
mail order catologe were I could purchase the anime MEMORIES? I was also wondering if you knew when X
and PERFECT BLUE are being realeased on videotape?
MEMORIES hasn't been released in the USA, so if you want it,
you'll have to purchase it from someplace that imports Japanese videos. And according to Manga Entertainment,
PERFECT BLUE will be out in theaters in summer of 1999, but X won't be
out until 2000. And of course, video tape releases will be after the theatrical ones.
DVD(ub)?
From: Raymond Chuang (ray_chuang@hotmail.com)
Chad Kime's column on the demise of the Laserdisc also missed two points about why DVDs are taking over:
1. The ability to do multiple languages (audio and subtitling) on the same disk. In one
fell swoop, the entire dub versus sub argument has been made moot, since we can have the best of both
worlds on the same disc. That way, purists who want to hear the original Japanese seiyuu voices have
their way (with translation subtitles), and people who want to hear the voices in English can also
have their way.
2. The costs of DVD players have dropped dramatically. You can get decent players for under
$300 now, and many new computers sport DVD-ROM drives that can play DVD video titles with no problems.
True, the format can easily support both sub and dub, but that doesn't mean
that the companies will want to do both. It takes extra time, costs extra money, etc. etc. Just because
the format could do both doesn't mean that it will happen. (Remember, LDs could handle multiple audio
channels and not everyone took advantage of that. As long as the companies think it will be profitable to
produce two versions, they will, but they won't do it any longer than they have to.
He's back, and he's still bad...
From: James Kehr ( jammrock@ignmail.com)
I hope this doesn't sound like a "where is" e-mail, but it is a question I have regarding
AKIRA. You guys write some of the best anime articles I have seen.
I bought THE VISION OF ESCAFLOWNE mainly from the article on your web site,
and was not disappointed. In fact, ESCAFLOWNE is on my top 3 series of all time list.
I saw on Anime Nation's web site that they were accepting pre-orders for the 're-release' of
AKIRA. Then,
while at my local Borders bookshop, I saw the AKIRA soundtrack under 2 different labels.
One was the Deamon
records (the one that I have traditionally associated with the Akira soundtrack) and the other under
the JVC/Victor
label. Is JVC, or some other company, re-releasing it? I know that
Orion originally released it in the USA.
If this is true, is there a DVD version coming out, too? If you have any info, or know of anyone who does,
please write me.
Oddly enough, I just received e-mail from someone at MGM/Orion, and they're going to be re-releasing all of the old
Orion (formerly Streamline) anime library starting this month. The first title up for rerelease is AKIRA. So, to answer your question,
yep, it's being rereleased. Now a whole new group of fans can finally see this classic anime film and experience the weirdness for themselves.
More Reviews
From: John Lee
( lee1@unbc.ca)
Just a minor question. Why don't you review the later episodes or volumes of a series? I've noticed that
in your anime reviews, you usually review the first tape, but not usually the later ones (EVANGELION
being the exception). Sure enough, giving an impression of the first tape of the series is great, but I would
love to hear your opinions rather on the entire series. Series such as TEKKAMAN BLADE II, BASTARD!!
and EL HAZARD 2. I understand the need to get the reviews out as soon as possible, but I would love to have a
follow up to those reviews on the entire series. But of course, thats only my hopeful wishing. Keep up the good work!
You raise an interesting point. The reason we review the beginning of the series is, of course, that we
want to get the word out, whether it be good or bad. And, with many companies releasing longer series now, waiting until the release
of the entire series just isn't practical. So we start with the first volume. Usually, if someone is interested enough to get the
show from the review we do, we don't really need to do successive volumes. Plus, a lot of things (such as animation quality and music)
don't change from volume to volume, so we'd just be giving glorified plot summaries. And the biggest reason that we usually only review
the first volume in a series is that there is just so much material being released nowadays that to review everything would take
more time and energy than we all have. Still, we'll take your suggestion under advisement and try to do some follow-up reviews
of some of the longer titles.
Change the Batteries in the Remote!
From: Richard Llewellyn
(rllew@arches.uga.edu)
I've been waiting for some time for the return of your "Remote Access" feature. I found the information that used to appear in it when it
was a news feature of EX very useful (I am involved in the creation of a database of anime tv programs). Do you have any idea when it will
finally reappear? Otherwise, let me thank you for the fine quality of the articles that appear in EX. My only complaint is that they
are not even longer. ^_-
It's going to return next issue with the spring schedule for what's airing in Japan. We would have brought it back
sooner, but we've had our hands full working on everything else that we're doing. Look for the return of Remote Access in issue 4.2. |
