Kare Kanno, which originally aired in 1998, directed by Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nadia) was his, and Studio Gainax's first television project since the hit Neon Genesis Evangelion television series in 1995. The anime is an adaptation of the popular shojo manga series of the same name by Masami Tsuda, serialized in Hakusensha's monthly magazine LaLa. The series tells the story of two Japanese high school students, a girl, Yukiko Miyazawa and a boy, Soichiro Arima. Both are in the honor-roll and high in the social elite at their school. Miyazawa, charming, generous, and loved by teachers, has a different image of herself than the world does, she finds her (iron) public mask chipping and she slowly begins to confess herself to Arima, the two slowly drift into love.
-This month has been an exciting one for anime. No less than three anime movies are in theaters right now: Pokemon, Princess Mononoke, and Perfect Blue (which isn't coming any closer to the South-East than Texas and Ohio, though). Numerous anime TV series, including Pocket Monster, Digimon Adventure, Monster Farmer, and Dragonball are airing on domestic television now. As you’ll see elsewhere, Anime Village has come to an agreement with the Cartoon Network to premier Gundam W on TV in the US. As I write this, Alexander, Peter Chung’s collaboration with Madhouse studios, is on its way to America, and Chaos Comics is in the midst of producing a Lady Death anime feature. (It remains to be seen if this will be “anime” or "Western" animation produced in Japan.) Hollywood is producing live action film adaptations of Domu and Speed Racer and Astro Boy. The fantasy that all of us have had for so many years is finally coming true. For better or worse remains to be seen. How, if at all, this will effect us also remains to be seen. I imagine that all of us have, if not become inured to the fanboys, at least come to put up with them as an inescapable nuisance.
Greater awareness of anime in the West should certainly see more anime coming to the US faster, but that’s never been very much of a boon to us, having always imported, directly or indirectly, our anime ourselves. What remains to be seen, and this is a fact that I think escapes much of the die-hard anime community, is how much this increased market will cause anime to sell-out. Already, most of the domestic translating firms, most notable AD Vision and Mixx, and to a slightly lesser degree Anime Village and Manga, have forsaken the fans that their success was founded upon. Already, inexplicably, Manga has released an edited R-rated version of Perfect Blue, to limited run and art-theaters, of all places, rather than an “uncorrupted” uncut version rated NC-17 or not rated at all. Although Warner Brothers has cobbled together two different Pocket Monster films to make a single entity for American theaters, we (meaning the American otaku clan) forgive them because we consider Pocket Monster a children’s’ show with no intrinsic artistic merit. The fundamental principle of Warner altering the original structure of two separate anime films seems to have gone virtually unnoticed. DIC edited Sailormoon and even skipped entire episodes, and we forgave them because Sailormoon was a pioneer in the field of anime on American television. Funimation edits Dragonball for TV broadcast, and we excuse them because we consider the limitations of television (yet Dragonball was shown successfully on TV in Japan for ten years with all of its violence and nudity intact). AD Vision digitally alters the computer display screens in Nadesico to eliminate all of the kanji because subtitling all of it would be too tedious and, in most cases, go by to quickly to be readable anyway. Is this an acceptable compromise? By eliminating the kanji, AD Vision is removing one of the overt symbols of the "Japanese-ness" of the show. Somewhere in all of this, either AD Vision or the fans that purchase AD Vision tapes, have forgotten that what they are watching is Japanese animation, not just animation. It is the distinctly Japanese character of anime that makes anime what it is. We, die-hard fans, may have forgotten than in our complacency. Even without overt references to Japanese culture like kanji, the entire style of anime is distinctly Japanese. That point may be cemented by the fact that there is no other animation produced anywhere else in the world that has the same energy and character as anime. There is no other animation, by that I mean in a collective, representative sense- not in terms of individual examples, produced anywhere else in the world that can be easily mistaken for anime. Therefore anime is an isolated, distinctly Japanese entity. But, allow me to return to my examples. Media Blasters released an edited version of Kite and was excused for doing so by citing that controversial child-pornography scenes had to be removed. But that does not explain why at least one other brief sex scene, which is obviously not child-porn, nor controversial, was also removed. Viz released an edited, albeit unintentionally, version of Video Girl Ai OAV 2, apologized, and considered all forgiven. Remastering and releasing an uncut version, though, has never even been considered a possibility. Some of Viz’s faux pa may have been overshadowed by their timely announcement of their release of the “lost” episodes of the Maison Ikkoku manga that they chose to edit out of their initial release of the manga comics and graphic novels. While the fan community praises Viz for having the courage to go back and revisit portions of a manga that they long ago excised for reasons of “cultural difference,” (Viz edited out all references to Godai’s status as a ronin- college entrance exam failure) no one criticizes Viz for its initial decision to edit the manga in the first place. Could Viz not have simply provided footnotes to explain the distinctly Japanese ronin phenomenon, thereby preserving the original flavor of the manga while introducing Western readers to a custom of a foreign country? Further examples of manga being Westernized include Viz (Eatman graphic novel 2) and CPM Comics (Nadesico and Dark Angel) slapping totally inappropriate Western covers, by Western artists totally unrelated to the anime field, onto Japanese comics in order to gain a larger market share. While it may be argued that such a tactic will promote anime by introducing manga to fans who would not normally be interested in anime, this writer disagrees with underhandedly exposing manga to Western comics fans by disguising it as something it's not.
The point of these examples is to show that America is not being introduced to anime, anime is being introduced to America. We‘ve all known, for years, that anime has consistently been compromised, watered down, edited and corrupted in order to gain wider acceptance and recognition in the West. Now, when that recognition is finally coming, what remains to be seen is whether the editing of anime continues unabated or, as it seems lately, even increases, with the tacit or occasionally even explicit approval of the fan community. The success, how great it becomes, that is, of Princess Mononoke, and Anime Village/Cartoon Network’s treatment of Gundam Wing may well be the rubicons for anime in the US. Now that anime has gained a foothold in the mainstream awareness of the United States, there is no better a time to make a good first impression by introducing anime as close to its original form as possible. Certainly, releasing subtitled anime to television and theaters would be impossible, but (while it pains me to say this) Disney’s treatment of Mononoke is to be commended and held up as an example, more than any current release by any of the translating firms that market to the anime community, as a presentation of anime as a cross-cultural medium. While the anime community seems to have little power over big business, we do have the same power that brought anime to America in the first place. We have the ability to share anime with the people we know, and change opinions one person at a time. If anime is dear to us, and if we care about the integrity of anime, it is up to us to take matters into our own hands and insure that anime gets treated the way we believe it should be. Support exacting, quality presentations of anime and tell others to do the same. Let translating companies know that you are unhappy with their presentation of anime if you find it unsatisfactory, either through letter writing, or by not purchasing their releases. And support fansubbers. They are the ones that are honestly striving to promote anime in America, the way anime should be.-
Source: J-Dream Direct Newsletter, J-Dream Web
Source: J-Dream Direct Newsletter, J-Dream Web
And of course there are 5 new Sakura Wars Gasmes planned:
Sakura Wars (ported from Sega Saturn) Dreamcast (Release: Spring)
Sakura Wars 2: Don't You Die (ported from Sega Saturn) Dreamcast (Release: Summer)
Sakura Wars 3: Is Tomoe Burning? Dreamcast
Ohgami Ichiro Funtoki (Record of Ohgami Ichiro's Struggles) Dreamcast (Release: January)
Sakura Wars GB Gameboy (Release: Spring)
The setting has been determined as Paris for Sakura Wars 3, a new character is expected to appear in this game.
Source: J-Dream Direct Newsletter, J-Dream Web
Sega / Sanrio will be releasing a Hello Kitty puzzle game for Dreamcast called Hello Kitty's Lovely Fruit Park. The game will sale for 2800 Yen.
Media Factory's Gameboy version of Columns GB was released in Japan on Nov. 5th. This version features a number of characters from Tezuka Productions, including Kimba The White Lion, Astro Boy and Black Jack. There are 12 characters total and a new Puzzle Mode in this version, where the player can engage in puzzle games.
In Tecmo's Monster Farm Battle Cards GB for Gameboy players search for monster cards in dungeons, while fighting enemies, there will be chances to win rare monster cards by defeating bosses. You can exchange cards via the link cable. During battles players pick 3 cards to use.
11/19-25 Royal Toronto Toronto, ON
11/26-28 Paradise Toronto Toronto, ON
11/29-30 Kingsway Toronto, ON
12/1-2 Fox Toronto, ON
12/4-5 Music Hall Toronto, ON
12/10-15 Princess Waterloo, ON
12/17-23 Cinema Du Parc Montreal, QC
12/25-30 Cinema Du Parc Montreal, QC
Nippon Ichi's Opera RPG Little Princess Marl 2 for PSX is out on Nov. 25th in Japan. This sequel takes place 14 years after the original, the heroine of Marl 2 is the daughter of the princess from the 1st. In this game the characters are to be designsted more detailed animation during the operas.
Source: Anime Scene
Vampire Hunter D / Final Fantasy IX character designer, Yoshitaka Amano, has said that FFIX will occur in a more middle aged fantasy world, similar to Final Fantasy I-V. This game will be in full 3D, using little or no pre-rendered CG backdrops.
NOV 5 Cedar Lee Theatre Cleveland, OH
NOV 5 Regal Koin Center Cinema Portland, OR
NOV 12 Roxy Theater Philadelphia, PA
NOV 12 Regal Arbor Theatre Austin, TX
NOV 19 Crest Theatre Sacramento, CA
NOV 26-27 Mayan Theatre Denver, CO
DEC 3 Regal University 6 Anchorage, AK
DEC 17&19 Rafael Film Center San Rafael, CA
JAN 12-13 Red Vic Theater San Francisco, CA
MAR 10-16 Cinefest Atlanta, GA
"This is absolutely without precedent,'' said Brad A. Ball, Warner Bros. Pictures' president of domestic marketing. "That one announcement on the local morning news could provoke such an enormous response is an incredibly exciting indicator of Pokemon's appeal.''
Square is offering a special Chrono Cross Clock to those who reserve the PSX RPG in advance of it's Nov. 18 release in Japan.
Square's upcoming Playstation RPG Vagrant Story will feature character designs by Yoshida Akihiko. The game occurs in a middle aged European Kingdom, Reamonde. The main hero, Ashley Riot is a special agent graduated from the VKP academy, accused of murder, he becomes a Risk Breaker (criminal). Other characters include Sydney Losstarot: the suspect murderer who accused Ashley, Romeo Guildenstern: lord of the knights of Valendia, Duke Bardoroa: a retired war hero, Callo Merlose: a female VKP information analysis. Vagrant Story uses a new battle system, Target Dom. During battles, when the enemies fall inside your range of attack, you can select to attack different parts of their bodies.
Sony Computer Entertainment of America announced over 1 million Playstation consoles sold over the last two months (since the PSX was dropped to $99). Sony expects to make over one billion dollars on sales of Playstation related items for this year. Total North America sales of the PSX exceeded 21 million units by October 1999.
A year long promotion for Sakura Taisen begins in Japan on January 6th. The Dreamcast title Flower Class Battle Columns 2 is out on that date listing for 5800 Yen. The game will have a communication battle mode, where users can battle others over the internet.
Tommo will release the U.S. version of NEC HE's DC RPG Seventh Cross with the new name: Seventh Cross: Evolution, the game is out Nov. 27th.
Nintendo's Gameboy RPG Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition has sold over 1 million copies in North America, after its second week of release, making it the fastest selling Nintendo title of all time.
The PC port of Final Fantasy VIII will feature a special Chocobo raising mini game which you can play as a stand alone. The game is a port of the PocketStation mini game from the PSX version of FFVIII.
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