OhayoCon 2003: Part II
by Nova Politte,The Guyver DVDs vol. 1 and 2 will be released simultanelously next month, with English and Japanese subtitles, and complete Zoanoid files. The these songs will be subtitled, and there's more than one theme song. These will be one-sided DVDs.
Dangaioh on DVD -- it's not complete and uncut. All they have to work with is a heavily edited master from the UK office -- in English only. Mr. Burgess expressed regret for this.
Read or Die: Will be released on April 15, plus or minus a few days. Manga brought a rough cut of episode one to the convention to show for fan reaction. The DVD will be all three epsiodes run together into a single feature, with fade out/in transitions between episodes, then all the individual episode credits at the end. Manga will also include outtakes from Amanda Winn Lee's dub sessions. (She's good for amusing outtakes.)
Street Fighter Alpha 2: To be released later this year, probably September or October. SFA2 will explore the origins of "Akuma," and how he got to be this way. The video will feature "a lot of old characters and a lot of new characters," as well as Aukma's Master, and Ken & Ryu's master.
Within the next three months the Manga Fan Club will move online. The 5-digit membership number will be used to get the member a discount with physical vendors (such as in a convention's dealer's room) and online vendors to get a discount on Manga products. Also each member will receive $5 off of one's initial purchase from Manga directly.
Manga plans to move more into merchandising, also, with T-shirt designs, bags, and other "things like that." They'll be limited runs, produced for one convention season, then replaced with new products. Manga plans to constantly keep making new merchandise lines, based on fan input.
Mr. Burgess is setting up instant messaging (MSN, maybe Yahoo!) in his office so that fans can ask him questions directly, Monday through Friday, for four or five hours a day. He's getting 400 emails a day, so this should be quicker. If you do have a question or suggestion, he advised, don't send it to the general question address, send it directly to [email protected]. Mr. Burgess stressed the importance of listening to fan input in how their products are made. "Fan input is important to us. I know a lot of fans think we don't listen-- we have no other choice but to listen. It'd be stupid of a company not to listen to your fans. As soon as you stop listening, you don't have any."
Scott Carlson, Production Manager for AnimEigo announced the following:
Urusei Yatsuia: Box set #4 is due in late February.
You're Under Arrest: Box set #2 is due at the end of February.
Kimagure Orange Road: DVD singles will be in stores this Summer
Beginning in February, AnimEigo will update their website more often:
weekly, probably every Friday.
Toshifumi Yoshida, Producer for Viz Communications, Inc., seemed to
have sufficiently recovered from his roast on Friday night to
announce the following:
Viz Communications, Inc. is changing ownership and names. Viz used
to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese publishing giant
Shogakukan. As of January 1, 2003, they are now named "Viz L.L.C.",
and owned 50% by Shogakukan, and 50% by Shueisha, publishers of
Weekly Jump.
This change in ownership has put all projects at Viz into a temporary
hold, while the new management sorts out the company's priorities.
Mr. Yoshida explained that this transition period would pass quickly.
In response to a question from a fan, Mr. Yoshida explained that the
Maison Ikoku DVDs were still expected sometime this year. On Monday
following the con, he said, he'd be checking the new masters which
had just arrived at Viz, in fact.
In addition, Mr. Yoshida hinted at two new DVD titles to be developed
this year by Viz, but he could not reveal any more, save that there
would be four episodes on each disc.
ADV Film's Matt Greenfield had a bevy of announcements and updates
for the fans at Ohayocon. He also discussed the status of their
Anime Channel project, answered some questions, and graciously shared
his birthday cake with those present. (Your reporter was too slow to
react, and had to settle for licking the chocolate icing off of a
fork.)
According to Mr. Greenfield, all of the following are coming out in
the next 6-8 months:
Live action series:
-Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda
-Farscape
-Mutant X
-The Gamera II & III movies (Gamera I on DVD will be released in
March with all the extras that were on the deluxe super edition DVD
set in Japan.)
-Princess Blade
OVAs and feature films:
-All-Purpose Multi-Cultural Catgirl Nuku Nuku
-Nuku Nuku Dash
-Cosplay Complex
-Blue Seed II
-Crying Freeman
-the new Rurouni Kenshin OVAs (due out in March)
-Sakura Wars TV (due this Spring)
-Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia (in production)
-the rest of Queen Emeraldas
-the rest of Slayers: the movies and the second set of OVAs (in the
production queue, "hopefully" before the end of this year)
-Sorcerer Hunter OVAs (in production)
-the Nadesico movie (in the production queue)
-You're Under Arrest special OVAs (in production)
TV Series:
-Bandit King Jing
-Angelic Layer
-Southern Cross
-Genesis Climber Mospeada
-Full Metal Panic!
-Let's Dance With Papa ("The strangest show we've ever seen, and
that's saying a lot," commented Mr. Greenfield.)
-Neo Ranga (in production)
-Prétear (due this Summer/Fall)
-RahXephon (in production)
-Sailor Moon (subtitled, due this Summer)
-Saint Seiya (in production)
-Orphen II (in production)
-Steam Detectives
-Super GALS!
-Wild Arms
The Farscape anime is in pre-production.
ADV Film's "The Anime Network" is currently online in Philadelphia,
on Comcast's video-on-demand system. Time-Warner is interested in
picking up the channel. Dish Network is interested, too, but they
want to see the numbers first. ADV hopes that the response is strong
enough to warrant taking the channel nationwide, and urges all anime
fans to call their local cable operators to ask for "The Anime
Network."
In response to a question about whether or not the programming on The
Anime Channel would have commercial breaks, Mr. Greenfield explained
that if The Anime Network is a free channel, then there has to be
advertising. If it's a premium channel,then the premiums would pay
for it, and there would be no advertising.
Another fan asked if [Genesis Climber] Mospeada and [Super Dimension
Cavalry] Southern Cross would be subtitled-only. Yes, they will be.
Mr. Greenfield, when asked why ADV Films did not pick up the rights
to The End of Evangelion movie, responded "They wanted a stupid
amount of money." Tiffany Grant chimed in from the front row,
adding "Way too many zeroes."
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