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ANIME

From Scott Green

More Excel Saga Spin-Off Information

According a post to the Excel Saga mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExcelSaga The DVD of the series has a promo trailer for the new spinoff series called "Puni Puni Poemi" is an Excel Saga spoof of magical girl shows. Poemi is described as a chibi-Excel, looking a bit like Sakura of Card Captor Sakura. Her best friend is Futaba-chan, who looks like a chib-Hyatt (the sullen looking girl with dark blue hair). Poemi's family are slaughters by an alien, and she ends up living with Futaba. According to the post "Futaba's family name is something I can't read made of the kanji "ware" and "mamoru". It means "protect our people", and it's a good name, because Futaba and her sisters are an "Earth Defense Family" (have you seen that anime? ^_^ ) Futaba and her six sisters are supposed to protect Earth against alien invaders" "(Poemi eventually turns into a magical girl... I think she found a magical fish, killed it with a kitchen knife and made herself a henshin wand! with the fishbone. ^_^ Guess she didn't want a stupid fish as a magical mascot... ^_^ "

Futaba's family includes Futaba and her six sisters: Nanase, age 28, office lady, the second sister, age 22 has a part-time job at a store, Itsue, age 19, in college. Runs the S&M club and dresses like a S&M Queen, the fourth sister, age 18 looks like grown-up Hyatt except for her bigger bust, Natsuki age 15 in junior high school, Futaba age 10 in elementary school and Hitomi age 3 in kindergarten.

The cast includes
- Kobayashi Yumiko is Poemi (Kobayashi Excel in Excel Saga, Sarah Macdogal in Love Hina).
- Imai Yuka (Wakaba of Utena, Otaru of Saber Marionette) is Futaba.
- Hisakawa Aya is Nanase (Skuld of Ah My Goddess, Kero-Chan of Card Captor Sakura, Yohko of Devil Hunter Yohko, Miki of Utena, Sailor Mercury of Sailor Moon)
- Kawakami Tomoko (Utena of Utena) is the second EDF sister.
- Mitsuishi Kotono is Itsue (Excel in Excel Saga, Mink of Dragon Half, Misato of Evangelion, Pixy of Monster Rancher/Farmer, Sailor Moon).

The post, which contains spoilers for Excel Saga, can be read at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExcelSaga/message/225 For more information (in Japanese) and images see http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/poemi/chara/

Akira Premier

According to the official Akira http://www.akira2001.com/ theDigital Projection World Premiere of the movie will be at the AMC Empire, Times Square, New York City on March 30th, 2001.

Utena Movie Release Information

A bit of information was sent in to Anime on DVD today from a reader who got a response from Central Park Media about their upcoming Utena releases. According to the information, the Utena movie will be out before the end of the year and if things go well, more TV episodes sometime after that.

Excel Saga Spinoff

A spinoff of the comedy series Excel Saga is in the works based on the brief appearance of Puni-Puni Poemy. The article seems to suggest that the series is an OAV. It will be released March 3rd. Excel Saga is a fan favorite parody of both eastern and western pop culture. The American rights to the series were acquired by ADV films, but the company has yet to announce a release date for the highly anticipated series. The excuse, often jokingly given, is difficulty is translating the dialogue, with in the instance of the series protagonist is often delivered in a rapid, and hyper manner (similar to the diagalogue in Elf Princess Rane, released in the US by Media Blasters.)

Animation Induced Epilepsy Debunked

According to a study published in the Southern Medical Journal the mass incidents of seizures that followed a December 16yh, 1997 airing of Pokemon in Japan the incident was for the most part public panic. The New York Post reports: "Doctors first said the seizures were due to photosensitive epilepsy - the result of a scene in the cartoon that included a series of strobe-like flashes. Within two days some 13,000 children needed medical help for seizures but experts now say only a small fraction of the kids were actually diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy. In the February issue of the Southern Medical Journal, researcher Benjamin Radford writes: "There's certainly no question that there were at least some epileptic children who were affected. Clearly, some children had photosensitive epilepsy. The answer is that it triggered a case of mass hysteria. What I found most interesting is the notion of how an idea can spread from person to person, and be transformed into physical symptoms."

"Epilepsy Foundation spokesman Peter Van Haverbeke says TV screens can influence epileptic attacks - but that rarely happens. "It seems fairly unlikely that one cartoon would cause 13,000 children to have seizures," he said." The entire story can be read at http://www.nypostonline.com/entertainment/24867.htm

Third Part of Tenchi Muyo Interview Posted

The Third part of the Interview with Kajishima Masaki, orginally promised for February 16th, has been posted on AIC's Japanese website. An English translation should appear on the English site in a matter of days. http://www.anime-int.com/interview.html#part3

Ranma DVD News

Viz's latest information points to a 6/19 release for Ranma 1/2, Random Rhapsody: The Way We're Not. Running time is 78 minutes (3 episodes) for 29.95$. This is the first volume of the season six release that's planned for simultaneous release with the VHS. According to a recently clarification All Random Rhapsody DVD's will be bilingual (English/Japanese language with selectable English subtitles) and will contain three episodes coming to 78 minutes each. This also applies to upcoming Ceres: Celestial Legend (Ayashi no Ceres) DVD's as well.

Angelic Layer

http://east.sakura.ne.jp/aniba/aninews/japan/ Shonen Ace announced that the next anime adaptation of CLAMP manga, the women responsible to Card Captor Sakura, X, and Magic Knights Rayearth, of Angelic Layer will start at 17:20 April 1 on TV Tokyo. The official title will be "Kidou Tenshi (Mobile Angel) Angelic Layer. Anime Finge has a good article about the series at http://www.animefringe.com/archive/00.02/feature/al/index.php3

Studio Pierrot's Tenshi Ni Narumon U.S. Bound

More Studio Pierrot anime is heading to the US. "Tenshi ni Narumon" has been acquired for North American release. Original concept by HEAVEN PROJECT and produced by Bandai Visual, Studio Pierrot, and TV Tokyo. "Tenshi ni Narumon" ("I'll be an Angel") has been described as a super-cute, anime version of the Adams Family. It is a comedy about a boy who meets a girl with a halo whose mother is a witch, father is a Frankenstein's monster, brother is a vampire, younger sister is a mecha obsessed elf, older sister is invisible, and grandmother is a hag.

Anime On Billboard Charts

Top DVD Sales Billboard Magazine Chart Leaders Weekly charts for the nation's most popular videos as they appear in the March 3, 2001, issue of Billboard magazine:

4. ``Pokemon: The Movie 2001,'' Warner Home Video.
6. ``Sailor Moon: The Legend Begins,'' DIC Entertainment. Video Sales
7. ``Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie,'' Manga Entertainment.

Harlock Saga Website Open

Central Park Media has created a webpage for one of their latest acquisitions, Harlock Saga (part of Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 world). Harlock Saga is an updated retelling of the classic Richard Wagner opera, Der Ring Des Nibelungen, Harlock Saga unveils one of Captain Harlock's adventures regarding how he first meets the young Tadashi Daiba and revisits his relationships with some old friends.

The website contains character descriptions, a number of interviews, detailed glossary, story, image gallery, wallpapers, trailers, and sketches. Here's the url: www.harlocksaga.com

Niea_7 Anime Coming To America

Fanboy Inc. <http://www.fanboyinc.com> has learned today that Pioneer has licensed the English language rights to Yoshitoshi ABe's anime series, Niea_7. (Pronounced Knee-Ah Under Seven) No details yet as to when it will released or in what formats. According to C.B. Cebulski "The adaptation should be interesting though as the series is full of "in jokes" and lots of Japanese cultural references unfamiliar to many foreigners, even those somewhat familiar with Japan."

The series revolves around an average 18 year old woman Mayuko, whose roommate happens to be an alien named Niea. The series is mostly a comedy about the relationship between the two, but many have commented on its pacing which is deliberately slow at times. See the official web page at www.nieaunder7.net

Vandread Acquired by Media Blasters?

Studio Gonzo, of Blue Sub no. 6 fame informed the fansubbers (as the name implies its fans who translate and subtitle anime titles on their own, usually on works that have not been releases in the US that subbed it, that MediaBlasters had acquired the CGI series Vandread, and that they should stop distributing it. Media Blasters has yet to confirm the acquisition. See the the official page at www.vandread.com

Edited Escaflowne News

Escaflowne has recently completed it first run on Canadian YTV. In its second run it aired the first episode of the shown, which was not aired on its first run, or Fox's partial run on of the series, presumably due to the desire not to alienate the target young male audience with the high school romance in the series' first episode. Bandai has notified distributors that they will be discontinuing production on all Vision of Escaflowne Edited Versions after volume 4.

FLCL Movie

According to thishttp://www.gainax.co.jp/flcl/movie/index-e.html Gainax (makers of Evangelion, Nadia, and Wings of Honneamise) page, trailers for an FLCL MOVIE "will start appearing in early February."

Miyazaki on/Ghibli

According to a post on the Nausicaa.net mailing list the Japanese version of "Premiere," a movie magazine, published a "The Most Powerful 100 of Japanese Film Industry" list. Hayao Miyazaki was ranked 4th, highest among movie directors. Late Mr. Tokuma, the president of Tokuma Publishing, was ranked 3rd.

1. Shigeru Okada, the chairman of Toei (movie company) and Japan Film Industry Association.
2. Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, the president of Kadokawa Publishing. Kadokawa also produces films.
3. Yasuyoshi Tokuma
4. Hayao Miyazaki
5. Takeshi Kitano
6. Nobuyuki Idei, the CEO of Sony
7. Kinji Fukasaku, a film director
8. Koji Yakusyo, an actor (Shall We Dance?)
9. Yoji Yamada, a film director (Tora-San series)
10. Isao Matsuoka, the chairman of Toho (movie company)

Ghibli opened its own book page at here http://www.ntv.co.jp/ghibli/shuppan/index.html . It lists the books that Ghbli has published. According to the page, Ghibli is going to publish a book about Masahiro Ioka, the art director of "Heidi" and "Anne of Green Gables," in April. An Article by Takahata-San and staff interviews, including Miyiazaki, will be in the book as well.

Cartoon Network Anime News

Cartoon Network has made a number of announcements about their future anime lineup but explicitly in a press conference, and less outright through the schedules on their web site at http://www.cartoonnetwork.com The most significant announcements are that they have acquire the rights to the original Dragon Ball, telling the story ok the hero of Dragon Ball Z, Goku as a children, as well as 96 episodes of Dragon Ball Z for the 2001-2002 season. Big O is currently schedule to starting airing at 5:30 on April 2nd. Big O is commonly described as a combination of Batman: The Animate Series, James Bond, and Giant Robo.

Cartoon Network executives held a press conference this morning in New York City to unveil new original programming and online activities that will be launched this summer and throughout the 2001-2002 television season. Toonami additions for 2001-2002 include 96 new episodes of Dragonball Z, and , debuting in summer 2001-six new anime series to premiere in 2001--Mobile Suit Gundam,Pilot Candidate, Gundam 8s, Outlaw Star, Big O and the original Dragonball. Cartoon Network will becomes the television home to DC Comic characters Batman and Superman, showcasing such popular Warne rBros.'s action series as Batman: The Animated Series, TheAdventures of Batman & Robin, The New Batman/SupermanAdventures and Superman. Other new shows include Time Squad, a new, original half-hour comedy series to launching June 2001, Samurai Jack, a new, original half-hour action-adventure series to launch in August 2001, Justice League, a new one-hour action-adventure series based on the popular DC Comics series to launch in November 2001 and Grim & Evil, a new, original half-hour comedy series to launch in October 2001.

The press release can be read at http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010221/2380.html

According to online schedules, for the week beginning Monday, March 26th, Dragon Ball Z will be shown twice every night at midnight. After that week, the Midnight Run consists of Dragon Ball Z at 12:00AM and Tenchi Universe at 12:30AM. On the day the Midnight Run changes to DBZ and Tenchi (Monday, April 2nd), "Big O" premieres. Like its Midnight Run predecessor on Saturday, The Rising Sun will be cancelled. Saturday, March 3rd, will be the last day (at least for a month). The weekday schedule will be as follows:

4:00PM - Sailor Moon
4:30PM - Gundam Wing (Edited)
5:00PM - Dragon Ball Z
5:30PM - Big O
6:00PM - Tenchi in Tokyo
6:30PM - Superman: The Animated Series

Ah My Goddess Movie Home Video Release Details

Ah! Megami-sama The Movie is out in Japanese video rental stores on 3/21. The DVD's of the film are out 3 months later on 6/20 in 2 versions: Normal (AC3) (6800 Yen) and DTS/AC3 Special Edition (12800 Yen). There will be a second disk with each including staff and seiyuu (voice actor) interviews


[This message has been edited by Cloud (edited March 13, 2001).]