Trigun: Vol. 2 Lost Past DVD: 05/23
Trigun: Vol. 3 Wolfwood DVD: 07/25
Trigun: Vol. 4 Gung-Ho Guns DVD: 09/26
Trigun: Vol. 5 Angel Arms DVD: 11/23
Trigun: Vol. 6 Project Seeds DVD: 01/23/01
Trigun: Vol. 7 Puppet Master DVD: 03/27/01
Trigun: Vol. 8 High Noon DVD: 05/29/01
FanimeCon, coming to the Westin Hotel in Santa Clara, CA this very next weekend, Feb. 24-27, 2000, is pleased to announce our convention will show a sneak preview of FURI-KURI, the new OAV series from Studio Gainax. In addition, our programming will feature a seminar on directing anime delivered by guest Hiroyuki Yamaga, and the first-ever appearance at an American convention by Gainax co-founder and creator of the PRINCESS MAKER game series, Takami Akai.
THE FURI-KURI PREMIERE AT FANIME CON
FURI-KURI is the directing debut of Kazuya Tsurumaki, who was one of Hideaki Anno's chief assistants on NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. Character designs are by EVANGELION's Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Returning to Gainax for the FURI-KURI project is Hiromasa Ogura, the brilliant art director of ROYAL SPACE FORCE: THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, as well as the PATLABOR films, GHOST IN THE SHELL, NINJA SCROLL, and JIN-ROH.
This sneak preview of FURI-KURI will be shown at FanimeCon courtesy of our returning guest of honor, HONNEAMISE director, OTAKU NO VIDEO writer, and EVANGELION co-producer Hiroyuki Yamaga, who will also be bringing a promotional video piece for the AOKI URU Combat Flight Simulator, a game associated with his new movie project and featuring ultra-tech jet designs by AKIRA's Katsuhiro Otomo and GHOST IN THE SHELL's Masamune Shirow!
YAMAGA SEMINAR ON DIRECTING ANIME AT FANIME CON
Do you dream of one day directing anime yourself? It's a very difficult ambition, especially for an American, but hardly an impossible one, as Scott Frazier has demonstrated. Or perhaps, rather than work in the Japanese industry as Mr. Frazier has done, you've got a vision of directing an anime film through Hollywood or an independent production.
Take the opportunity at FanimeCon to learn directing theory straight from the man who took his college amateur film group and made with them one of the greatest anime films of all time, THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE, which TIME magazine recently called the movie that made "anime officially an art form." Saturday, the 26th at FanimeCon, at 1 P.M., will be your chance to be not only a fan at a panel, but a student looking towards your own creative future. Mr. Yamaga will present a three-hour seminar on his approach to directing--a seminar he has only previously presented at universities in Japan. We believe this is the first time ever that an American anime convention has scheduled something of this kind, and we're again grateful to Mr. Yamaga for the opportunity. Be there!
PRINCESS MAKER CREATOR TAKAMI AKAI
Our second guest from Gainax this year, and making his first visit to an American convention, is Takami Akai. One of the very few at Gainax who goes back to their college days, Mr. Akai was the character designer for their famous Daicon opening anime (he created their sword-surfing bunny girl) and directed their amateur 8mm and 16mm live-action works (we will be showing in our live-action programming room Daicon Film's epic monster movie THE REVENGE OF YAMATA OROCHI--look for Anno as the roving reporter and Yamaga as the incredulous cop!).
Once the amateur Daicon Film became the professional Studio Gainax in late 1984, Takami Akai served as an assistant director and designer on THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE. But Akai has achieved the most fame for writing, directing, and designing the PRINCESS MAKER series of computer games for PC, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. Jonathan Clements, editor of MANGA MAX, called the PRINCESS MAKER series--where the player is given an adopted daughter by the gods and must make the decisions regarding her upbringing-- the ancestor of everything from the Tamagotchi virtual pet to popular simulation games such as TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL.
Since 1992, Takami Akai has continued his association with Gainax while founding his own software company, NineLives. Most recently Mr. Akai has returned to anime, creating visual concepts for the 1999 Sunrise series CREST OF THE HEAVENS and its forthcoming sequel BATTLE FLAG OF THE HEAVENS.
FanimeCon is a four-day convention this year, with programming kicking off Thursday the 24th--including our first of several panels with Yamaga and Akai at 8 P.M. that evening! We hope to see you all there.
For more information, please go to our site at www.fanime.com.
Dual Shock 2 controller DVD Functions:
Start: Play / Stop, Triangle: DVD Playback Menu, Circle: Confirm, X: Cancel, Square: Main Menu, R1: Skip to next chapter, R2: Fast Forward, R3 (analog stick): Change Sound, L1: Skip to previous chapter, L2: rewind, L3 (analog stick): change subtitle.
Sony has confirmed rumors that PSX 2 contains a Texture Interpolation function, that enhances the 3D graphics quality in existing PSX games, however, not all games wil be compatible with this function.
As part of Western Illinois University's foreign film series, Princess Mononoke will be shown at Cinema 1 & 2, 306 University Dr., Macomb IL, on February 23 and 24 at 3:30 and 7:00. Admission is $4.00. Cinema 1& 2's phone number is (309) 833-2122
The issue should be on sale at most major newsstands throughout America on February 29th.
My company is just an outside vendor. We translate anime scripts and subtitle anime for companies like Pioneer, Central Park Media, Right Stuf and Urban Vision. When a company asks us to translate and subtitle a script we do our best to keep it true to the original Japanese dialogue, story and content. Sometimes we come to a point in the translation of the dialogue where there is a very obscure Japanese reference, whether it's a cultural reference, historical reference or emotional expression. If we can translate it in a way that keeps the same intent and meaning in English we will. If it's too obscure or difficult to translate, we try to give something that's a close English equivalent and then put liner notes in the script with a complete explanation for the anime company so that they have the option of using it and putting it into a web-site or DVD. I have not seen the specific examples of bad translation that Mr. Oppliger sites, but it doesn't sound good. It could be that the South Park or Jerry Springer references were used as a substitute for some Japanese TV program or it could be that somebody changed the script in a bad way to fit the lip sync. I don't know why, since our company didn't work on it. When New Generation Pictures started working on anime, we set a goal to work hard and create product that fans will be happy to buy and watch. Now this leads to the issue of fansubs. While there's are a lot of anime we've worked on for commercial companies, I can go online and still see a wide number of titles that our company subtitled, still available as fansub versions on web sites. I can go to my monthly local comic book convention and easily find 1 or 2 tables selling fansubs of products that have already been released commercially. So my question is why do fansubbers need to spend up to $300 on a dealers table to sell their videos if they claim to be "not for profit"? Why do these fansub tables and web sites sell the "not for profit" tapes for $15-$25 per tape, when the commercial tapes sell for anywhere between $20-$30. Some of these fansubbers defend themselves by saying that the price that includes cost of shipping and tape stock. Well here's a reality check, the average cost for a 2-hour VHS tape is about $1.50.. And as for the price of shipping, I recently shipped screeners of our first dub we produced for Pioneer, Nazca, to online reviewers and the cost of 1st class postage is $1.80. and if you wanted to go priority mail, then the cost is $3.20. If fansubbers claim that the extra cost is for time spent buying the original laser disc, copying tapes,translating or subtitling then they are not doing this as a "not for profit" venture, because somebody is obviously making money off of the work. Now do I think fansubbers are bad or evil, hell no. I really like and support fansubs. I've enjoyed watching fansubs. But my request to fansubbers would be only to make titles available when it's a product that's not available in a commercial format from a U.S. distributor. When a U.S. company announces they've purchased the rights to a new anime series, the fansubbers should pull that title from its availability list. Do I think fansubs hurt companies like mine? The answer is yes. U.S. Anime companies that used to ask us to both translate and subtitle anime are now just asking us to translate the scripts. When I ask these companies why are we just translating only, they say it's because there has been too much saturation done by fansubbers on their product to justify a subtitled release.
I'd like to address one other specific point in Mr. Oppliger's editorial. As it happens, my company happened to do both the translation and subtitling for Pet Shop of Horrors. The quote "2 minutes of it's opening animation edited out" is an exaggeration. First, the opening is about 1 minute long. Second, this is not really an animated opening. Unlike anime TV shows and OVA's that have some unique original opening animated sequence footage, Pet Shop of Horrors does not. Instead, it's more of a music video with live footage of this singer who I do not know, (and this is the just the opinion of my Japanese staff- but he sucks, and they really like anime theme songs) This live footage of the singer is intercut with the animated footage of that upcoming episode of Pet Shop. That animated footage is not really easy to see because they use special video effects on the footage, reducing the images down to tiny sizes in multiple windows. The only piece of original animation in the opening, which is the main title, was kept in the released video. So everything, except the singing, that was cut out of the opening is seen in the episode. Still, why was this cut out anyway? The truth is I don't know, but my best guess is that it was a music copyright clearance issue. When a company like Urban Vision buys the rights to a piece of Anime, sometimes the music rights are not included and have to be purchased separately. And with the ever increasing cost of buying anime from Japan, buying the rights to some songs may can make or break the decision to bring the anime over. And if the music rights weren't bought, then having the opening sequence with the live footage of the singer would be impossible.
Finally I would like to say that I most certainly agree with several of Mr. Oppliger's points. I think the fans should write and/or call the U.S. Anime distributors and tell them what they want. If there is enough reaction for VHS subtitled versions, then perhaps companies will continue to release VHS subs. Also I agree that there are a lot of commercial dubs out there that are atrocious and it seemed like very little effort was put into them. After watching them, I can see why a lot of anime fans have been jaded by the anime dubs. But rather than having all anime fans scream "dubs are evil and subtitling is the only way to go" I feel there is a lot of room for improvement on dubbing. When our company made the Nazca dub for Pioneer, we spent a lot of time studying what was wrong with dubbing and tried to avoid those pitfalls. I really feel that the Nazca dub was pretty good. It may not be the best dub ever done, but I think it shows that a good dub can be made with a little extra effort on the dubbing companies' part. If the fans say they want better translations and dubbing, perhaps other companies will listen. I hope Mr. Oppliger may be a little more open minded to the idea that there may be the potential for good dubbing here in America and not be completely closed to watching a dub. But none the less I do appreciate his support of the subtitled VHS format and promise that New Generation Pictures will do everything it can to make sure that the medium doesn't die out.
Rainbow Cinemas features basic 2.0 stereo audio, admission is $2.50 (CDN) on evenings.
Location:
Golden Mile Centre
3806 Albert Street
Regina, Saskatchewan
Rainbow Cinemas automated Movie Infoline:
(306) 359-5250
Yup, we're going to be publishing DigiMon comics pretty soon! They'll be in regular comic book format and we'll be distributing issues to comic specialty shops, as well as special four-packs to stores such as KayBee Toys, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. The four packs will be the same comics as the individual issues we ship to comic specialty shops. I believe that they should be out sometime in June!
The first four episodes will show on Sunday, March 5th starting at 9PM.
In Digital Arts (Interactive), Sony Corporation's Robot, AIBO (ERS-110) was awarded Grand Prix. From the anime-related creations, Poket Monster the Movie Revelation - Rugia and Tekkon Kinkurito directed by Koji Morimoto were chosen for Excellence in Digital Arts (Non-interactive). From Animation, Ho-hokekyo Tonari no Yamada-Kun and Ojaru Maru 2 were chosen for Excellence. The awards will be presented on February 25th and the exhibition of the awarded titles and special lectures will be held February 26th - March 2nd at Sogetsu Kaikan in Akasaka, Tokyo.
Source: J-Dream Direct Newsletter -J-Dream Web
Editorial Written By: John Oppliger
Media Blaster’s announcement of their intention to possibly release only a dubbed VHS version of the Ruroni Kenshin television series, with a subtitled version available only on the DVD release, has caused a greater stir in the anime community than nearly anything has in years. I’d like to take a moment to present my own, personal thoughts on this matter, speaking as a long-time, die-hard anime fan. I believe that I’m justified in referring to myself as a die-hard seeing as I watch more current, untranslated, import anime than domestically releases, and I absolutely abhor dubs.
There are rumblings of the approaching demise of subtitled VHS releases spreading through the American fan community. This may be seen as irresolute, but I’m unwilling to commit to a prediction right now. At the same time that Disney has ceased production of its sub VHS version of Kiki’s Delivery Service, and titles like Ruroni Kenshin and Sakura Tsushin (Sakura Dairies) will have no subbed VHS releases, Anime Village has canceled many of its scheduled dubs in favor of subtitled only releases, Viz has ceased dubbing Maison Ikkoku while the subs will continue, and Nelvana announced an unedited subtitled version of Card Captor Sakura in response to overwhelming fan demand. All of these corporate decisions are motivated by a single factor: money. Dubs simply sell better than subs. If the argument ended here, there wouldn’t be much for me to talk about, but the facts aren’t quite as simple as this.
No one criticizes the dubbing and editing of shows like Mach Go Go Go as Speed Racer, Tetsuwan Atom as Astro Boy or Gatchaman as Battle of the Planets because thirty years ago there wasn’t a conscious anime fandom community in the US, and the limitations of domestic broadcast television demanded the editing of these shows. In the 1980s, Carl Macek was routinely vilified by knowledgeable fans for his severe Americanization of certain anime series, including combining Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada, three totally separate and unrelated shows, into the entity known as Robotech, doing the same to Captain Harlock and Queen Millennium, and writing a near blasphemous dub script for Wings of Honneamise. Yet, for everything Carl Macek did wrong, he must still be given credit for introducing contemporary anime to mainstream America as a Japanese art-form. While the drubbing Macek took at the hands of fans has now reached virtual legendary status, that sort of grass-roots singular voice has virtually disappeared in the 1990s. Many current anime dubs certainly achieve a lack of respect for artistic integrity comparable to anything from the Streamline generation. Not only are many of the vocal portrayals in contemporary dubbed releases appalling, it’s common practice for current dubbed releases to not actually translate the original dialogue, but simply maintain the “spirit” of the original. To name merely two examples, I find it difficult to believe that the original Japanese version of burn-Up W contained references to the Jerry Springer show, and Shinesman, in its original Japanese version, contained South Park references. Alterations of this sort seemingly don’t even raise eyebrows anymore, as the sales of dubbed tapes validates.
But it doesn’t stop there. Domestic anime releases even alter the very animation itself, to seeming public approval. All of the Japanese writing in Nadesico has been digitally covered with English. It’s a rare release nowadays that doesn’t have its title screen removed entirely and replaced with an American one- including title screens like V.G. (Variable Geo) that are already totally in English in the Japanese version. Numerous shows commonly have their next episode previews and even ending credits sequences removed. Tekken and the Street Fighter movie have their original music replaced. The “unrated” version of the Street Fighter movie is still an edited version. Petshop of Horrors has nearly two minutes of its opening animation edited out in its US version. (Allow me to state that such was the case in the screener tape I watched. This footage may, in fact, be restored in the normal release.) Footage was inadvertently edited out of Video Girl Ai, but Viz has announced no plans to correct this admitted mistake. The cute “Who is it today?” omake sequences were removed from the US version of Rayearth. In some cases, edits are justified, or even necessary. Media Blasters simply would not have been able to release the two Kite OAVs to the US market with all of its sexual content included, so Media Blasters was forced to edit the two episodes together into a single feature in order to bring this wonderful animation to a broader audience. The Dragonball Z TV episodes have been drastically edited and altered, but such was necessary to get them onto US television. Who can explain other alterations, though? Are these decisions based solely upon the whims of domestic licensing companies? If such is the case, than these companies should be just as easily able to release anime in the US unedited and unaltered, the way its Japanese creators intended it to be watched.
In response, the domestic translating companies have crusaded against fansubbers and people that support fansubs. There can be no doubt that fansubs (anime subtitled by fans for fans as a non-profit endeavor intended to broaden the audience for particular shows and anime in general, as a genre) do have an impact on licensed domestically released anime. There are many fans that view fansubs as a cheap alternative to purchasing legitimate, licensed releases. This is the argument that professional companies use to explain slumping sales of subtitled VHS releases. Yet, this also isn’t the entire picture. Fansubbers aren’t evil, greedy people that fansub anime as a way to undermine mainstream, legal licenses. Just the opposite, fansubbers are routinely the most adamant supporters of the professional companies. While there are many fans that choose not to buy licensed releases because cheaper fansubbed versions will suffice, there are also fans that choose not to replace fansub copies with licensed versions because it makes no sense to “upgrade” to an inferior product. Common sense should reveal that anyone purchasing a subtitled version of a particular anime title chooses to do so because he or she wants to obtain an anime release that’s as faithful to its creator’s original vision of the show as possible. Fansubs provide that faithful Japanese experience while edited, altered, loosely or even erroneously-translated, “corrupted” licensed subs simply do not maintain anime’s artistic integrity. I honestly believe that licensed subtitled anime VHS releases would sell better if they actually exhibited respect for the animation they present. To the translating companies, I say, stop looking for the enemy outside the walls, look first within. To fans, I present this thesis as a call to arms. If we, as fans, are distraught over the state of subtitled anime in the American market, it is largely up to us to do something about it. The most direct and most effective means to a remedy is the actually the simplest. Talk to the translating companies. These companies will have no reason to alter their methods of translating, subtitling or releasing anime if we do not make our voices heard. These companies began as enterprising groups of anime fans, themselves. Anime would not be as big and as successful in America as it is were it not for the efforts and support of fans like you that are reading this. While it may not seem like it, if you think about it, you’ll realize truth in the fact that the future dissemination of anime in America is totally in our hands.
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