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Braindead?
From: Zailo Leite (zleite@technologist.com)
Hi! I just want to offer some input and suggestions. I just saw
BRAINPOWERD 1&2, and I must say that the reviewer was waaay too nice. The
show is a total disaster! Even if we overlook the lousy animation (the
opening was embarrassingly bad, and I'm not talking about the nudity), the
direction was something straight out of Hell; it was clear that the plot was
going nowhere very fast. It disappointed me tremendously, and I didn't see
anything that could indicate that Tomino was actually involved in the
production.
OTOH, I also disagree with the soundtrack review.
The OP is good, and the ED
is truly excellent—actually, it was the only good thing there was!
Also, I would like to suggest more articles on production houses, and
particularly on Ghibli and Studio Pierrot. The importance of the former
needs not to be stated, and Pierrot was very important on the "magical girl"
theme. Pierrot is now producing a adaptation of the manga "YOIKO", with
beautiful, idyllic opening and music. Reminded me of Kimagure Orange Road. I
saw the manga and decided to check it out; to my shock, it's a sex comedy
packed-full of nudity... go figure?
Congrats for the great job, you guys are the best!
Well, actually, I got a couple of very strong messages
from people who really liked BRAINPOWERD and accused me
of not "paying attention" to the show. Still, I did notice some trademark Tomino
things: (1) Orphans. Is it me, or does Tomino always use orphans? And of course,
the biggest of them all: (2) someone who's never been inside the mecha
before crawls in and magically operates everything. (Think Amuro, or
Camille, or...)
Still, that wouldn't have bothered me so much as the fact that it just
didn't seem to be going anywhere. It could have been so much more (in my
opinion, anyway). Still, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
And as for the music, I didn't think it was as good as Kanno's other
compositions. (I did, however, like the character designs, since I'm a big
Inomata Mutsumi fan).
We're working on obtaining some more studio tours and interviews, but when
most studios are very busy, they're really not receptive to having people
walking around taking pictures and distracting the animators. We'll see what
we can arrange, though.
Better Living Through Katakana
From: Jeff Gaskell
(jgaskell@aloha.com)
So often in Japanese, a complicated word can be summed up in a single
character. How ironic it is to see EX expanded into
I-EKKUSU. Is this some sort of payback?
I'm not sure if this was meant as a serious question
or not, so I'll answer it as if it was.
Yes, quite often in Japanese a word can be summed up in a single character.
This character is called a "kanji," and is a character borrowed from
Chinese. The Japanese have three character sets that they used for writing:
hirgana, katakana, and kanji. Kanji are used to express concepts, katakana
is used for foreign words mostly, and hirgana is used for everything else
(including verb inflections, particles, and the like). This is something of
a simplification, but trust me, you don't want me to go on about this...
So, for many words and concepts, there are Japanese words made up of kanji
that express the same meaning. However, this is not true for all words. And
especially for many foreign words. So, while Japanese usually seems much
more "compact" when written, the English word "McDonald's" becomes
MAKUDONARUDO in Japanese. That's three syllables
turning into six!
Now, since the Japanese use a phonetic alphabet rather than a roman one,
they don't have characters that express concepts like letters. Thus, for
"EX" to be expressed, it has to be written out
phonetically in katakana. That's why "EX" becomes
"IIEKKUSU". This is not based on any form of
retribution or payback, but merely on the laws of Japanese phonology (which
can be just as bad).
From: Paul Edwards (edwards51@hotmail.com)
I love the magazine, most would usually not bother to go into so much depth
on a series, such as the RUROUNI KENSHIN article.
Firstly, I have just bought the final episode of GIANT ROBO and it never
ceased to amaze up to the end. Aside from the near movie quality animation
and twisting plot the orchestral soundtrack was excellent; from the rousing
brass reprisal of Alberto's theme to the sweeping epic tracks in the battle
sequences. The use of 'Una Furtiva Lagrima' (lit. A Secret Tear) as the
theme for Franken Von Folger was particularly poignant. Do you know who
composed the soundtrack and if he has written scores for any other series.
Also, I have been trying to find ROBOT CARNIVAL but nowhere seems to carry
it. Who released it originally and, if it has been deleted, are there any
plans for a re-release?
Masamichi Amano did the GIANT ROBO
soundtrack, and if you liked his work, you should probably also check out the
soundtrack for SHIN KAITEI GUNKAN (SUPER
ATRAGON in the USA). We actually reviewed the
soundtrack some time ago.
MGM has announced the rerelease of the old
Streamline anime library that was sold to Orion. So titles like
AKIRA and ROBOT CARNIVAL should
be back on store shelves now. If you're talking about the soundtrack, I believe
that Books Nippan and its JNA domestic soundtrack line
has it available for purchase in the USA.
Rurouni Rumors
From: Robert Wu (dad@mminternet.com)
Your review of RUROUNI KENSHIN was very well done.
Apparently Sony is ready to release the series here in the United States here
soon. I got a personal letter about it. If you wish to see it, I could send you
guys a copy if the EX staff already haven't seen it.
From: Hector Velez (hmv@prtc.net)
You said in your Rurouni Kenshin piece that the show was not going to be
brought to the USA. I hate to say this but you guys
didn't get it right. The fansub group Shinsen Gumi just pulled out all of
their Rurouni Kenshin fansubs out of distribution because Sony and
SCE are talking again of bringing it to the
USA! Could you guys keep us informed (by us I mean
RUROUNI KENSHIN fans and every body else) on this
situation? I and many other Kenshin fans would be very grateful. Thanks for
your time!
We got about a dozen messages informing us of the "error"
with regards to the release of KENSHIN in the
USA. However, just because Sony is protecting
its property doesn't meant that a release is imminent. After all, they've
been saying for nearly two years "it's gonna come out soon." It's a song
we've all heard before.
The simple fact is that Sony owns the copyright for this property, and it is
in their best interest to protect it (meaning, to stop fan subtitling).
Especially because if they are indeed in the middle of negotiations, the
availability of fan subtitled copies could lead the potential licensee to
believe that the show won't be profitable and thus have a detrimental effect
on the deal. And Sony certainly doesn't want that.
And, even if they do sell the rights to someone, that certainly doesn't
guarantee an immediate release. Many companies license titles and then wait
to release them. Manga Entertainment has been sitting on X
for over a year now, and that won't be released until the year 2000.
I'm not saying that it's not ever going to be released in the United States;
I am simply stating that just because Sony is "in negotiations" to release
it here doesn't mean that it will happen in the immediate future. Of
course, if and when it does, we'll be ready to happily announce its release
to the anime community.
From: Eric Naz (tenchi@netpci.com)
Hafa Adai (ha'fa a'day—a Guam greeting for "how are you?"),
You have a very interesting site here. Well, anyway... I've read the review
for the PSX SAMPAGUITA. I was surprised by the fact
that the main character was a Filipina; being a Filipino myself, why shouldn't
I be surprised? This is the first time I have seen a game with a Filipino/Filipina
as a main character. I know the game wouldn't make it stateside, so I won't even
bother with that question. I guess that's it. Oh, one more thing, the
Sampaguita is also the national flower of the Philippines.
The YARUDORA ("do-it-yourself-drama") series was something
of a big experiment, and it seems to have paid off, as the games have sold
well in Japan. Perhaps in the future we will see more of these games, but it
would take a lot of effort to bring something like this to the United States,
due to the extensive translating required.
From: Jacob Bond (dark.claw@playnet-kc.com)
I've been meaning to ask this question, but only now found the time. I've
been into anime/manga for about nine or ten months now, and I was thrilled
when I heard that Disney was going to distribute Hayao Miyazaki's anime
films. If anyone could help anime gain a wider attention and become more
accepted in the USA (and other countries), it would be
Disney. I was also
happy to hear that they planned on releasing some of his films in theatres
(which would help anime even more than releasing the movies only on video).
But what I was not happy about was the lack of publicity Disney dedicated to
KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. I saw two commercials on
TV and a promo piece on the video THE
BLACK CAULDRON (hey, I work in retail, I'm forced to play
movies like that for promotional use).
My question is, how well did KIKI do? The
only copy we sold that I'm aware of was the one I bought. I remember a few months
back I read somewhere (possibly in your letters column) that KIKI
was a success, but I'm not seeing it. Did it really do as well as I had hoped?
Well, it seems that KIKI was a
success because it got lots of press and a lot of attention. And it seemed
like everywhere I went when I was doing my holiday shopping, there it was.
Just about anything Disney distributes can make money, because their distribution
is so extensive. But exactly how much it made, no one has really said. However,
they are proceeding with LAPUTA, so that's probably a good
sign.
From: Juan Lee (pollockles@hotmail.com)
Hi EX staff! As most of you have read before this
letter I have to congratulate for such grand magazine and the magnanimous
effort you people
put into it! Thanks for such good mag, is one of the few resources on the
net for people like me in countries like mine (Panama) to have such an
opportunity as having a wide open window on anime and its fandom.
I am new to this hobby, so pardon my ignorance or outrageous tones at
times, oh and my english to....I'm not so good at it yet. I send this
letter as a response or by means of informing your staff about anime
situation here. I read in your feature about RUROUNI KENSHIN
that Sony had plans to release it there on the USA, but
here in my country (little Panama) they have actually been released by a
TV station down here, in Spanish!
I find the voices pretty well done and the actual acting of them of good
quality too. The translations so far as I know are also very good, and
astoundingly the image quality too! I mean, not that KENSHIN has bad
animation, on the contrary I love it, but most of the anime released here
that is translated has poor video quality. Maybe during the process of
translating the series, they somewhow deteriorate the actual image, turning
it from a crisp clear image into a blurry one. I will like to know if
there's an explanation to this, I'll be glad to hear it from you!.
The latest anime here is SLAYERS. Besides
some mistranslations (like instead of Lina Inverse, it is Rina Inverse here)
the voices are good for my likes, but the images are blurry just like most
anime released here. I have seen some VHS tapes of this
series, and the same chapters but with english subs; and all is crystal clear...
So I think there's something going on.
Also, I have to thank you, the EX staff in
general since your back issues are helping me so much entering this wonderful
world of anime!
Thanks for writing. Yes, it seems that
KENSHIN is airing in several countries, and all using
the SAMURAI X title. Maybe Sony is just testing
the waters in smaller markets before going after a USA
release. Many of our readers in countries other than the United States have
written to tell us that they have a good amount of anime on TV,
and Panama seems to be no exception. One of the big problems with the
USA market is that it's so used to making its own shows
that it's a hard market to break into. There are a lot of rules about what can
and can't be shown, and even how many episodes need to be avialable for a show
to be picked up for syndication. In fact, POKÉMON is the
first show to do what no anime show has done in a long time—be picked up
for airing by a network (WB) as part of its kids lineup.
As for the blurred video you mention, my only guess is that they didn't copy
those tapes from video masters, which results in a loss of image quality.
That's only a guess though. |
