Animenation Update
Boris Ivanov
> -== Cut of Windows Clipboard ==-
Wednesday October 6th
Matrix Directors Meet Metal Gear Solid Director
Hideo Kojima, director of the Konami PlayStation game Metal Gear Solid and the
Wachowski brothers, directors of the anime inspired sci-fi movie the Matrix,
revealed in a recent interview with Famitsu magazine that they were mutual fans
of each others works. The Wachowski brothers, big video game fans, and Kojima
exchanged letters for some time before meeting in person for the first time
during the interview. Kojima commented "I have seen the movie four times. I
like this type of work. What I was planning to do in my next project, they
[Wachowski brothers] pretty much made into a motion picture. We were planning
on certain things like characters running on walls and such, but they've beat
me to it." Kojima has not revealed the details of his next project yet.
Source: Gamespot
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Pioneer Partners With Viz
Beginning in October 1999,, Viz Video will be distributing its home videos
through Pioneer Entertainment. This deal covers the entire Viz library, which
includes the anime series Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Fatal Fury and Night
Warriors. Pioneer already distributes titles by Bandai as well as it own, and
the agreement is expected to bring larger distribution to Viz titles.
Source: DVD AniMania
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Anime / Manga Gaming News
Final Fantasy Anthology for PSX is expected out in the U.S. Oct. 14th, the disc
will include FFV (previously not released in the U.S.) and FFVI. Square has
added sketches, stills, full-motion animation, and other extras. The Anthology
includes a collector's CD, with soundtrack out takes from both games as well as
the the added art work. You can preorder now!
In the upcoming Pocket Monsters Gold & Silver the player starts the game with
the 3 new Pokemon. The first is an anteater fire type Pokemon; the second is a
water Pokemon which looks like an alligator, it uses its strong teeth and tail
to attack; and the third one is a grass Pokemon with a large piece of leaf over
its head. Both games will run in real time, there will be a built-in clock /
timer in the cartridge, certain Pokemons will only appear in a certain time
zone, and some special Pokemon League competition or events will only take
place in certain days. Pocket Monster Gold & Silver are out in Japan on Nov.
21, for 3800 yen.
Chrono Cross will feature a new battle command called Erumento (Elemental),
allowing you to use magic, items and techniques together during battles. A
fatigue factor is present, affecting the character's battle power, if you
continuously using element attacks in the battle, they may not be able to
attack due to fatigue and have to rest for a few rounds to regain strength.
There are over 40 characters that will be able join your team, they include:
Korcha, Jyakoto, Slash, Pierre, Miki, Tumalu. Villains include: Karsh,
Marcella, Tukuvomi, Lutramia and Gvaoarun.
According to sales figures, Final Fantasy VIII has been the #1 best selling
title for the past 3 weeks, first week sales accounted for 25% of total PS
titles sold.
In a recent interview with Capcom's Mr. Okamoto (creator of Biohazard),
Okamoto-sensei stated that in his experience, the PSX 2's 3D performance is
approximately 15 times the power of Dreamcast, currently they are only using 1
/ 15 of the power in the demos of Onimusha shown at the Tokyo Game Show. It
will require time to master the performance of PS2, as development progresses
we will eventually see the true power of the machine.
Bandai has announced that they are bringing the Japanese DC shooter Gundam Side
Story: 0079 to US by the end of the year.
Capcom has sold over 1 million copies of BioHazard 3 for the first week of
release in Japan.
ASCII's internet drama e-sekai has proven to be a great success in Japan, on
the first day of its launch on October 1, over 1.7 million visitors have
accessed the first scenario of the drama Bird Cage of Gurauen from their
website.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Vampire Hunter D Movie News
The new movie based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's third Vampire Hunter D novel
'Yousatsuko(Demon Deathchase)' will be released in the domestic theaters before
its Japanese release. The movie is currently complete in the pre-release stage.
The English-language dialogue has been recorded, but the sound effects and
music have not been added yet. The movie may see its theatrical release as soon
as Spring 2000. Dubbed and subtitled versions of the film will be released by
Urban Vision.
Source: Vampire Hunter D Archive
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
SPEED's Breakup Official
Pop idol group, SPEED, announced at a press conference on Tuesday that the
group will disband on March 31, 2000, confirming earlier reports. The 4 Okinawa
teens making up the group: Hitoe Arakaki, 18, Takako Uehara, 16, Eriko Imai,
16, and Hiroko Shimabukuro, 15 made their debut in 1996 with their single,
BODY&SOUL, which was followed by other hits, STEADY and Go! Go! Heaven.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Fox Family Channel Runs Anime Invasion
The Fox Family Channel will have a new bock on Sunday called "Anime Invasion".
Sunday, October 3rd it ran at 11:00 am, and included Digimon and Monster
Rancher. Sunday the 10th it will starting at 7:00 am and include Digiomon,
Monster Rancher and Mega Man.
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Ask Holly!
Question:
I was just wondering what an average trip to Japan would cost me if I went
around the summer of 2000.
Answer:
Not to step around your question, but it all depends on when you go and how
much digging around you do. I have heard of $500.00 round trip tickets from
Toronto, but with summer being a peak travel season, I doubt you could find
such a low fare. My advice is to shop around IN ADVANCE. The cheapest ticket
I've purchased is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1100 (U.S. dollars), the
most expensive (ie:on the spur of the moment), $2200. Don't forget to look into
getting a JR Rail Pass (Japan's equivalent to the Eurail in Europe) BEFORE you
arrive in Japan if you are at all interested in seeing the country. I wouldn't
bother if you are only planning on staying in the Tokyo area.
Holly "Harinezumi"
Monday October 4th
Funimation To Do DBZ DVDs With Subtitles
According to Toriyama.org, Funimation will be releasing DVD versions of the new
DBZ tapes (season 3 & UP) that will include the dubbed version and a subtitle
version. Word on the subtitled version is it will be a new translation and not
just the dialogue from the dub. No firm release date yet but should be several
months.
Also stated in the article is that Funimation will also try to bring over the
rest of the Dragon Ball Z movies.
Check out the article for full details.
Source: Toriyama.org
First Pokemon Series to End
The current Pokemon anime series will soon be airing its final episodes in
Japan, with a final episode where the relationship between the characters are
wrapped up. Because of the show's immense popularity there will be a sequel
series, called Pokemon Gold, like the new Gameboy game. Though the new show
will have some of the same characters as the original, it will take place in
"an alternate universe"(another 150 Pokemon?). Nintendo will be bringing to new
show to air starting in December.
Source: AnimeOnline.org
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Princess Mononoke Toys to Come to US
At Canadian National Comic book Expo McFarlane Toys, who have made action
figures of everything from the Beatles to Ozzy Osbourne to Austin Powers(and of
course Spawn), revealed that they will be releasing action figures based on
Princess Mononoke. The figures are already in production and may make it to
stores as early as November. Given the quality of past lines of McFarlane toys,
these will probably be some that no fans will want to be without.
Source: AnimeOnline.org
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Anime / Manga Gaming News
Capcom has pushed back the release date of Biohazard Code: Veronica from this
winter to sometime into the year 2000. To make up for the delay they will be
releasing Biohazard 2 for Dreamcast in Japan this Dec. for 4800 yen. The DC
version will feature high resolution and enhanced graphics, and a new Extreme
Battle mode is added to the game. The hidden play modes included in the PSX and
PC versions such as The 4th Survivor and The Tofu Survivor will be taken out. A
playable demo of Biohazard Code: Veronica will be included in the package.
Nintendo will be shipping 3 million copies of Pokemon Gold & Silver in Japan on
Nov. 21. they are aiming to sell a total of 8 million copies of the Gameboy
color title.
Bandai plans to release Digimon World, a card battler/RPG for PSX in Japan this
Dec. The game will be in full 3D. During the quest you have to search for the
Digimon cards, and during the battles, you can summon the different digital
monsters to battle for you. They also plan to release DigiMon RPG for PSX in
US, due to the increasing popularity of the Anime. Since the game is still
under development in Japan, don't expect to see the US version of the game
until sometime in late 2000.
Sega Zone has reported a special trick has been discovered to allow Japanese
Dreamcasts to play US DC games, provided that you have a copy of the demo disc
from the Nov. 99 Issue of Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine. This swap trick has
been confirmed to work with NFL 2000, it should work with any single disc game.
Here is the procedure:
Load up the demo disc
Return to the Dreamcast main menu
Select Play, when the blue Sega screen pops up, as soon as it fades to white,
open the Dreamcast CD cover, the disc should stop spinning and the screen will
remain in white.
Replace the demo disc with any US game disc, and it will now load properly on a
Japanese Dreamcast system.
Sega of Japan has officially delayed the release of Shen Mue Chapter 1:
Yokosuka for DC from Oct. 28 to sometime in the spring of 2000. The reason for
delay are some complex programming adjustments and a debugging process. Sega
also mentioned that the next 4 chapters of Shen Mue (2-5) could be released in
a single package next year.
Namco has established a new game software development subsidiary called
Monolith Software, the vice president and president of the new firm are Tetsuya
Takahashi and Hiroshi Sugiura, former Final Fantasy director from Square.
Monolith Software will be developing a series of RPGs for PSX 2 in 2001.
Nintendo will be showing a prototype of the 128 bit Dolphin in Aug. 2000. Full
details of the system will be announced at the same time.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
More Domestic Video Game Figures
Palisades Marketing will soon be releasing a third series of Tekken 3 action
figures, and a second series of Final Fantasy VIII Guardian Forces. To follow
the second series of Tekken 3 figures which just made it to stores will be a
third series consisting of the Tae Kwon Do fighter Hwoarang, the ever-sexy
assassin Anna Williams, the jaguar faced wrestler King, and the Bruce Lee-esque
Forrest Law. The new Guardian Forces line, based on Final Fantasy VIII's
amazing summon spells, will consist of Bahamut, Gilgamesh, Shiva and, Diabolus.
Source: Toy Mania
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Slayers on Sci-Fi Channel
The well-known anime series Slayers has been picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel.
The series is planned to be marketed for older children. "Slayers is
kid-friendly, but the story is more complex than children's animation, so we
call it 10 and up" says C.B. Cebulski, the editor-in-chief of Central Park
Media, the domestic distributors of the Slayers series. The question that
arises i,s if the show is going to appear on TV, will it be redubbed or edited
to remove certain comments such as the ones about the protagonist sorceress
Lina Inverse's figure, and temporary loss of power in an early episode.
Source: Kids Screen
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Nadia To Air On U.S. TV?
There is a chance that a deal may be in the works to have studio Gainax's
Fushigi No Umi No Nadia (Secret Of Blue Water) (which has been licensed by ADV)
broadcast on U.S. television in some capacity. Recent fan inquiries have
revealed that the ADV has put the Nadia project on temporary hold. More
specifically, they've reportedly been presented with some offers, including
television broadcast and are currently pursuing these.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Gaga's A-LI-CE
Gaga Communications will present their second project, A-LI-CE as an entry in
the Tokyo International Fantastic Movie Festival this month. The story is about
a girl, Alice, who wanders through a nightmarish future, defeating monsters and
and solving mysteries in attempt to alter a bleak destiny. Seiyuu of Alice is
Kaori Shimizu (Lain), A-li-ce's character animation was aided using motion
capture data of Kaori-san's actual movements, posture and gestures. Gaga's
Official A-LI-CE page.
Source: J-Dream
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Ask John!
Got an Anime question? Ask John!
Question:
I just recently saw the 2 Galaxy Fraulin Yuna tapes and the Dark Sisters movie
and I was wondering if there was a TV series of it. The characters in it made
frequent references to past experiences, and it had a much larger cast of
characters than something short like that would regularly have. Are there any
other episodes of it?
Answer:
The two Galaxy Fraulein Yuna OAV series (2 volumes in the first series, 3
volumes in the second series) were made with fans of the series in mind. While
there is no Yuna TV series, the OAV series, although self-contained stories,
are, at the same time, continuations of the overall Galaxy Fraulein Yuna
continuity established in the many interactive movie video games that preceded
the OAV releases. If I'm not mistaken, there were 2 Yuna games produced for the
PC Engine, one made for the PC-FX system, and 4 games (plus several CD-ROM
discs) produced for the Sega Saturn system. The multitude of characters
appearing in the anime all had their first appearances and introductions in the
video games. Those events are what Yuna refers to in the animation. It's not
totally uncommon for OAVs to be produced that are aimed at an audience already
familiar with the back-story. The two Adventures of Kotetsu OAVs are part of a
longer manga story. That's why there are so many characters in the opening
animation that do not appear in the actual OAVs. The JoJo's Bizarre Adventures
OAV series makes numerous references to events that have happened before the
animation story begins because the OAVs are actually the third of four segments
to the manga story.
John
Friday October 1st
3 Volumes of DBZ Coming!
Whoops! Seems that three different uncut volumes of DBZ will be released Oct
27th, not two as we had stated before. All three are up for preorder now!.
Hayao Miyazaki Comments on American Release
In a recent interview with the New York Daily News Hayao Miyazaki commented
that he did know who Claire Danes, the voice for San, the protagonist in his
soon to be domestically released Princess Mononoke was. He stated I don't watch
movies, so I don't know about stars, my producer said he had seen her in Romeo
& Juliet, and I said, 'That's cool' - but it's not like I saw the movie." He
admitted that he lives a secluded life in his mountain cabin, without even
reading newspapers.
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Capcom Does Feudal Japan for PS2
Next summer Capcom plans to release Onimusha for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.
The game will take place during Japan's civil war under the rule of Nobunaga
Oda. The war will be reenacted through CG movie which motion captures of six
people simultaneously are used to create war sequences with over 2,000
soldiers.
Source: GameSpot
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Enix To Take Up Roots In North America
Enix Corporation, one of Japan's top five publishers of game software and
publisher of the awesome Dragon Quest RPG series, is establishing a subsidiary
company in Seattle between Nov. / Dec. 1999. The company is to be called: Enix
America Inc.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Pokemon Number 1 Again
Now that the Warner Brother network is running new episodes of Pokemon it is
once again the top rated show among kids 2-11 and boys 6-11. In the 10 a.m.
timeslot, it was number one with an average 7.6 rating, which was a 28 share of
all the 2-11 year-olds watching. It is once again the number top rated Saturday
morning show, getting twice the rating of Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants,
which overtook Pokemon in ratings over the summer.
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Betterman
With 2 volumes now out on VHS, LD, and DVD in Japan, the Betterman TV series,
produced by Sunrise, is enjoying enormous success as a popular import title.
Betaman, created by the same team behind King of Braves Gaogaiger, is an
original action/adventure/superhero drama set in Yokohama in the year 2006. The
story is centered around an optimistic, lonely student named Keta Aono, who
meets two girls, Saihinoki and Sakura. The chance encounter throws Keta into a
battle, with the human race's survival on the line. Betterman Ramia then
reveals himself as a true enigma, is he friend, foe, android, alien? Betterman
has pretty good chance of eventually being picked up in the U.S., but if you
can't wait get the import!
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
New Info on Final Fantasy Female Lead
The latest information about the up coming computer generated, Final Fantasy
Movie concerns the female lead characters, a scientist name Aki Ross. She will
be voiced by Ming-Na Wen, the voice of Mulan in the Disney movie, and the
movements for the motion capture to aid computer rendering of the character
will be done by Broadway Dancer/Martial Artist Toni Tori Eldridge. According to
Cinescape magazine, the story removes around Ross attempting to beak an alien
code, aided by the male protagonist Grey, and other heroes. Columbia Pictures
has scheduled the movie for a 2001 release, either during the summer or holiday
season. Rumors put the movie's cost at approximately $75 million.
Source: Next-Generation
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Wicked City is Back
Urban Vision is set to re-release the Madhouse produced supernatural
action-adventure film, Wicked City, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Originally
released by Streamline Pictures, This 90 minute feature is back by fan demand
after two years of moratorium. Street Date for the sub ($23.95) and dub
($15.95) is 12/7/99 and is up for preorder now!
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
ADV Continues to Rake it In With Sonic
Sonic the Hedgehog, the Movie is still climbing the charts. The movie is now up
to #10 on the Billboard Charts. The movie was released to coincide with the
American release of the Sega Dreamcast.
Source: ADV Films
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Fushigi Yugi DVD Pushed Back
Information from Pioneer is that the new release date is Nov 30 1999. No word
on exactly why but should be safe to assume 'production problems'.
Correction
Correction or more of a clarifiction of 'Japanese TV News' from Monday
September 27th. In the "series ending this year" section was a series listed as
'Tenchi ni Narumon'. This is not a new Tenchi series but just a small spelling
mistake. Correct spelling should be 'Tenshi ni Narumon'.
Ask John!
Got an Anime question? Ask John!
Question:
I was wondering if there is a continuation to Saber Marionette J to X (recently
completed its run in Japan). Also who has the rights to Saber Marionette J to X
for American distribution? Is this company going to release them sometimes
soon?
Answer:
The current Animerica magazine states that Anime Village has secured the
domestic translation and distribution rights to the Saber Marionette J to X TV
series. (It is a 26 episode TV series, not an OAV series, as Animerica
reports.) To the best of my knowledge, there is no more Saber Marionette anime
in the works at the present time in Japan. The only "sequel" to Saber J to X,
then, that I'm aware of, would be the Saber Marionette Z Japanese manga series
that released well before Saber J to X existed, but is set at the end of the
Saber Marionette continuity.
John
Thursday September 30th
Anime / Manga Gaming News
Victor Soft is developing a new Dreamcast war sim called Doku Senki. The story
is set around a war between two planets and features over 90 stages. There are
2 play modes, Scenario (story) mode and 2 Player Mode (fighter). Each unit in
the field posesses attributes corresponding to 6 elements: wind, water, fire,
light, darkness, and earth.
Konami has released The Art of Metal Gear Solid, a new artbook in Japan, for
4800 yen, featuring character, mecha designs, illustrations, and artwork
collections from Shinkawa Hiroshi.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Legacy of the Future for DC will be identical to the
arcade version. The game will feature 5 new characters and a new Challenge
Mode. After defeating an opponent, Joseph will come out to evaluate your
fighting skills based on physical strength and super combo gauge, and send you
the next opponent based on the evaluation, you can choose to recover either
your strength or super combo gauge before entering next fight. The game is to
be released in Japan in November.
Chunsoft / Enix's newly released PSX RPG Dragon Quest Characters: Toruneko's
Big Adventure 2 has sold over 290,000 copies in its first week of release in
Japan.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Ah Ha, I Guess Anime Has Become Mainstream
Apparently Pokemon has made larger strides than many would have thought.
According to ign.scifi.com, a traditionally reputable source, on October 6th,
an episodes of the ABC The Norm Show will feature Pokemon. The Norm Show
features former Saturday Night Live Comedian as a hockey player turned social
worker. The episode will feature a boy claiming to be Ash, the gameboy
game/anime series' protagonist. Norm will become Ash's rival Pokemon trainer
with his co-stars as Butterfree, Squirtle, Charmander, and Pikachu. Given the
fact that TV Guide gives a different description of the episode it is likely
that if Pokemon do in fact make an appearance on the show it will be a brief
scene, and not the full episode. Who knows, if Drew Carey can dance with Daffy
duck, it may just work.
Source: IGN
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
New Gigantor Comic
Antarctic Press, in association with Entercolor Technologies Corp., has
announced that an all-new Gigantor color comic series will be released released
monthly starting in Jan. 2000, priced at $2.50 an issue.
Created as Tetsujin 28-go by Mitsuteru Yokoyama in 1956 and first appearing on
American television in the mid-1960's, the story details the adventures of a
boy crime-fighter named Shotaro Kaneda as he controls the giant robot known as
Gigantor. Writing will and illustrating the new series will be Ben Dunn (Ninja
High School, Warrior Nun Areala) and Ted Nomura (World War II: 1946).
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Ask Holly!
Question:
As I was watching Kimagure Orange Road... I noticed that a few of the
characters, who are still in middle school have already started drinking. So,
what I was wondering is if this kind of behavior is normal or acceptable in
Japanese society... Or a better question, yet, would probably be: At what age
is a person considered legal drinking age in Japan?
Answer:
NO, drinking in middle school or even high school is NEITHER normal nor
acceptable. Not that high school students don't try to sneak a drink...what,
with all those beer, whisky and sake filled vending machines on virtually every
corner. Seriously though, the legal drinking age is 20 in Japan. You are
considered an adult when you hit 20, and there is even a national Coming-of-Age
Ceremony (called Seijin no Hi in Japanese)on January 15th. As part of my job I
took a group of Japanese high school students to Canada, and were they ever
surprised, not to mention thrilled, to learn that the legal drinking age there
is 18!
Holly "Harinezumi"
Ask John!
Got an Anime question? Ask John!
Question:
Hi there. I was wondering what this Spriggan thing is? Is it an anime? Where
can I get it? Do you have it? Thanks for the help.
Answer(s):
Spriggan is the Japanese name for a mercenary action/adventure manga series
created by Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa. Some of the manga was
translated and published by Viz under the title Striker. Last summer, a
feature-length movie, based on the second story-arc included in the Viz graphic
novel Striker: The Armored Warrior, was released to Japanese theaters. The
movie was well received, partially because Katshiro Otomo, the creator of
Akira, worked on the production as a technical advisor. AD Vision currently
owns the US distribution rights to the movie and intends to release the film
theatrically in the US before issuing it on home video. If you can't wait that
long to see the film, AnimeNation does carry the film on import, untranslated
laser disc.
John
Wednesday September 29th
Giving Away Too Much Info?
We have received a couple of emails from people upset about us posting info on
the rest of the Utena series and about posting how the Rurouni Kenshin manga
ended. We are sorry if we ruined or lessened the joy of either of those series
for anyone. It of course was not our intention.
In the future, any info that might fall into the spoiler catagory will be
posted but with black text on a black background. Readers will then have to
highlight the text to read it. We have seen this done on several other sites
and it appears to have worked well for them.
Pokemon Lawsuit Attorneys Almost Sue Themselves
The San Diego law firm won't be suing Wizards of the Coast and 4Kids
Entertainment over Pokemon cards after all. Milberg Weiss, one of the firms
involved in the suit, discovered it was suing one of its own clients, according
to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The firm realized it must withdraw as lead
plaintiff in the case and it cannot defend its client. Three others firms in
New Jersey, Los Angeles and San Diego are taking over the case.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Power Rangers Top Action Figures of Decade
NPD Group Inc., a market research organization for TRSTS (Toy Retail Sales
Tracking System) determined that the Power Ranger was the best selling action
figure of the decade. The line of action figures generated over $1 billion in
sales domestically. Originating in Japan in 1975 as "Xyu Rangers" the series
has generated over $5 billion world wide. The top product lines of the decade
were 1) Power Rangers 2) Batman 3) Star Wars 4) Ninja Turtles 5) GI Joe 6)
Transformers 7) WWF.
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Anime / Manga Gaming News
The PSX scheduled Samurai Spirits sequel: The New Chapter of Blade, has been
confirmed as a 3D adventure / Fighter (SNK classified the game as a sword
battle drama entertainment title), other features are of course a large cast of
new characters, and dozens of animation FMV's througout. The game is out in
Japan on Dec. 2, for 6800 yen.
SNK has announced that they are working on a new sequel to the Metal Slug
series, tentatively titled as Metal Slug 3. The game will remain 2D, and run on
the 16-bit Neo Geo cartridge system. Game speed will be improved, there will be
more weapon selections and many more branching routes will be present in each
level.
Japanese game retailers are spreading word that Enix will be pushing back the
release date of their PSX RPG Dragon Quest VII: Warriors from Eden, from Dec.
to sometime in January 2000.
Namco's Tales of Eternia, this game will feature 4 main characters, the 4 will
be able to participate in battles and connect together to initiate combos. Due
to a large amount of voice data, the game will be distributed in double CD set
in March 2000.
Media Works will release their war sim / RPG Eternal Fantasia 3: Perpetual Blue
for Dreamcast and PSX on Dec. 22, for 5800 yen.
Capcom will release two of their Dreamcast fighting games: Street Fighter III W
Impact and Kikaioh in Japan sometimes in January.
Nomura Securities announced that they will be expanding their internet stock
exchanging services, Nomura Home Trading, to Dreamcast. Users will be able to
use the DC to perform online transactions and home trading starting on Oct. 18
in Japan.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Good News For Slayers Fans
According to Anime on DVD, Central Park Media has pulled off what many have
been waiting for. A contract was signed with the Japanese rights holders for
Central Park Media to release Slayers on DVD. The details of pricing, and
number of episodes per disc have not been worked out, and the earliest possible
for the disc to appear is Summer 2000, but there was a time that the DVD rights
to Slayers was looking very doubtful, so this is certainly good news. The
rights to the remaining episodes, the third television series, Slayers Try were
also acquired. Slayers Try features the return of Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis, and
Amelia from the first Slayers season, as well as Xelloss from Slayers Next, and
the new addition, the Dragon/maiden priestess Philia.
Source: Anime on DVD
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
Encore News
DVD Animania, in an interview with Encore media, learned of the network's plans
to begin running it's first Anime series, Blue Seed. It will be run 2 episodes
a week starting Saturday Nov. 6 on the Encore Network.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
Traveling Pokemon Tournament and Mew Giveaway
Nintendo will be traveling around this fall for their "Training Tour", visit
malls and giving away Pokemon related promotional material. The stops will
demonstrate new Pokemon games, including Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Yellow:
Special Pikachu Edition and Pokemon Snap. The must-be-seen-to-be-believed
Pikachu VW Beetle will also be making appearances. The tournament will consist
of two matches, with various tournament rules, Pokemon level and game play
restrictions. All contestants will receive the a "Competition Badge", those who
win one match will receive a "Boulder Badge", featuring Brock of the anime
series, and those winning both matches will win a "Cascade Badge", featuring
Misty of the anime series and may be selected to go to a "GYM" to battle a "Gym
Leader" for a Pokemon hat. Those who attend the events and bring a gameboy can
receive a "Mew", the 151st Pokemon, who is unobtainable in the Gameboy game,
the cute version of the Mewtwo, the antagonist of the upcoming Pokemon movie.
Schedules can be found at Pokemon.com.
Article courtesy of Scott Green of UMJAMS
ASCII To Broadcast Drama Over Internet To Japanese Dreamcast Users
ASCII will be broadcasting a new internet drama series in Japan called e-sekai
on Oct. 1. Dreamcast users will be able to watch the drama over at ASCII's
website. The first episode, called Bird Cage of Gurauen, will be produced by
Yasushi Akimoto. ASCII also plans to implement interactive shopping and
chatting services related to the drama. You will need to purchase special
software for 2800 yen to watch the drama with Dreamcast.
Article courtesy of Jonah Morgan of Anime News Service
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