Anime News Service - February 1998 Anime News

2-26-98---- KSS Takes Up Roots In North America

In a move similar to Bandai Visual's, KSS Productions of Japan has established a branch to release Home Videos in North America. KSS has produced several Anime OAV's which already have a following in N.A. such as Video Girl Ai, DNA ^2 and Variable Geo. No release dates have been set yet for possible video releases.

2-25-98---- Sunrise News

Besides working on many great looking tv series and recently wrapping up King Of Braves Gaogaiger, Sunrise is also making plans to expand on some of they're most popular tv series of recent years. A Gundam Wing Movie is in the works for this summer, and Sunrise seems to not be ruling out upcomming Escaflowne OAV's or maybe even a movie.

2-24-98---- Tenchi Movie 2 U.S. Release Info

Pioneer LDC plans on releasing The 2nd Tenchi theatrical feature stateside (and under a different subtitle) next month, on March 31st. It wil be titled Tenchi Muyo Movie 2: Daughter of Darkness (Manantsu No Eve, was the Japanese sub) English Dub VHS will sell for $20, Sub for $25, Bilingual LD for $30.

2-9-98---- Campaign To Have Many Japanese Networks Broadcast On DSS, Direct TV

"Campaign to have Direct TV's future Foriegn televison network package to include the Japanese TV Stations, This means all the new Japanese Animation could be broadcasted to your home televison at up to S-Video resolution!
Fansubs-NET has been in contact with people at Direct TV in regards to a new service currently refered to as "Galaxy3/R" by the Direct TV reps. This service is to be introduced early in 1998 and will handle foriegn television networks, currently they have said they will add "WMNB Russia" and "Network Asia". This campaign is to show the support for the Japanese Networks and the interest in being able to get these networks broadcasted to our homes.

Not only will you be able to watch Anime when the Japanese are watching it, you will have DSS's impressive S-Video signal. While the signal can range depending on your location, most people get an unbelieve picture quality that is easily better then almost any broadcasted or cable sent signal you've seen. This is *GOOD* news for fansubbers as you can easily see.

In a few months Direct TV (the DSS mini-satilite dish company) will be offering a new service currently called "Galaxy3/R" (this name may be changed), this service will be for broadcasting foreign television stations such as those in Asia and Japan.
I spoke with the the Direct TV people and informed them I wished to have them receive input from people that would want the Japanese networks to be broadcasted into their home. At the bottom of this email is the information needed to submit to them, if they receieve enough feedback, they will add the Japanese networks.

(ie: all the anime you can stand will be sent to your home at up to S-Video quality!)

For those of you that don't know much about DSS and Direct-TV, I'll explain, the dish does not move, it links to a geo-stationary satilite that moves in synch with the earth's rotation, the video signal for me and most people seems to be outstanding, the Direct TV box has a S-Video out, the picture quality is amazing and definitly uses the s-video's higher lines of resolution.

Considering the quality of the single, a SVHS VCR and this unit would be a god-send for recording anime, as your anime would be higher quality then any TV source you've ever seen. and for us fansubbers, we know what that means, heh.

so.. if you want this service to be a reality, Direct TV has asked me to tell of the 2 methods to get this setup.

send a normal mail to
P.O. Box 92600
Los Anegelos, CA
90009

or go to
http://www.directv.com/misc/feedback.html

(if possible, email and write a letter, as the letter will be more effective. For letter writing have your local anime clubs and fans sign them, and then send them off.)

in both cases, send this text as part of the letter.
-------------------------
I am aware of Direct TV's future 'Galaxy3/R' service in which you will be broadcasting foreign television stations into the USA. I would be interested in this service if you included these Japanese Television stations as part of your service; "TV-Tokyo", "Fuji TV", "Nagoya TV", "Asahi TV", and "NHK".
-------------------------

Rodney L. Caston"
Text in quotations excerpted from Fansubs-Net

2-7-98---- Sunrise's New Spring Line Up

Sunrise is currently preparing a host of new television series to debut in the spring. Among them is a promising new giant mecha series titled Brainpowerd. Story is by Toshiyuki Tomino, character designs by Inomata Matsumi, and mecha designs are by Mamoru Nogano. Some other noteworthy programs to look for, this spring, from Sunrise are: Gasaraki and Cowboy Bebop.

2-4-98----Slayers American Release Dates

Upcoming Slayers Releases are expected to go as follows: Vol. 5 April 8,Vol. 6 June 2,Vol. 7 Aug. 4, vol. 8 Oct. 6 . Looks like like Slayers fans won't be to bored in the upcoming months!

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