The Good

Editing News:

The Vision of Escaflowne dub was done by Bandai and not Saban. There will be an edited for TV dub available on VHS as well as unedited dub VHS and the unedited dub/sub DVD (the unedited VHS sub is already available, of course). Although Saban and Fox will be editing the show for TV broadcast, we can be thankful that we will get unedited versions on VHS and DVD.

When Nadia is eventually released on DVD, ADV currently plans for it to be unedited, with Japanese audio, English subs, and an accurate and unedited English dub. Any changes made for TV broadcast would not be made to the DVD release.

DVD News:

Lots of DVD announcements. It's been almost two years since I've switched to DVD and over a year since I stopped buying VHS altogether (I was week at AX99, please forgive me). It’s good to see that the companies have realized that they HAVE to do DVD releases to survive in the future marketplace, now some of them just have to get over the initial learning phase that companies like Pioneer and CPM have gotten over already since they saw the potential of DVD in the early days.

Some of the notable DVD announcements:
The Ranma OVA DVDs are being remastered to correct the left-right reversed audio problem. They are deciding how to do an exchange program.

UY TV Box sex 1 is due to ship within the next week. Work is proceeding on future sets.

UY TV volumes 26+ will be DVD only since the 'sub VHS market has gone to hell' according to Robert Woodhead of Animeigo.

Unedited Macross TV will likely appear on sub only DVD from Animeigo by the end of the year. They have completed some initial remastering work on the 39 episodes, but will be going back and repairing even more video problems. Macross has likely NEVER looked as good as it will on this boxset.

ADV has acquired the rights to the edited Robotech and will be releasing it on DVD. Carl Macek will be brought in to clean up the set and add extras. It will be the edited dub only Robotech version, not the uncut original versions of the three series. There was some talk of ADV possibly doing unedited sub versions of Southern Cross and Mospeada, but they do not currently have the rights to do so. Animeigo also expressed a interest in doing those tow series as well (personally, I would prefer Animeigo to do it).

ADV is reevaluating what to do with the sign translations and video quality issues for Neon Genesis Evangelion on DVD, so volumes 2 an up will be delayed to address these issues. They are also reevaluating the sign overlay issue on Nadeisco, so they may not be the same overlays used in the VHS version.

Outlaw Star will be released on three (3) two-disc sets at $44.95 apiece. I didn't catch if they'll be DVD5 or DVD9, but considering how they did Eatman 98 and Haunted Junction, I'd wager at least some of the discs would be DVD9s.

CPM's problems licensing certain titles (Birdy the Mighty, for instance) for DVD has been resolved, so we will likely see more older CPM titles making the transition to DVDs.

Movies:

I missed my first attempt to see the Escaflowne movie when the room filled up just in front of me (I must have been with 10-20 people from getting in). They added more showings and I was able to see it at 8pm Saturday (I decided to skip the masquerade, but ended up seeing a video of it on Sunday night). I saw Utena the next day after another long wait in line. Both are fantastic movies and I can't wait to get them on DVD. Escaflowne was fantastic and was well worth the time spent waiting to see it. Utena was... unusual, even more than the TV series. I preferred it to some of the repetitiveness of the duels in the TV series. Both movies suffered from white subtitles that had almost no border and were sometimes hard to read.

Misc:

CPM has licensed Utena TV episodes 14-26 and have the option for 27-39. They are negotiating for the movie as well.

I was a panelist on the Fanfiction panel and I believe it went very well. It was two hours compared to last year's one, but even then it seemed to go so fast. Do I hear three for next year Megazone? I'm glad to see that I have people who enjoy my fanfiction stories and look forward to seeing my readers at other cons next year (Fanimecon and possibly AX).

The Warner Brothers and Studio Gonzo panel:

Ken Duer of WB mentioned that the story pacing on Japanese stories was slower and wasn't as episodic as American TV shows. Unfortunately, he felt this was a problem, while I feel it one of the unique and best things about anime stories. He didn't see as much demand for more sophisticated anime on TV that was aimed at an older audience and called shows like the Simpsons a rarity.

When I asked Ken about how important it was to preserve the original stories, plot, and characterizations when something is brought to American, he indicated he would like to keep as much of original as possible and wanted to preserve the creative integrity of the original creators work. He also called anime a work of art (sorry Megazone).

When I asked Showji Murahama of Studio Gonzo the same question he replied (via a translator) that the creators are against having it altered, the producers occasionally have to make compromises, and that they might look at making titles that are more marketable in moth the Japanese and American Markets .

Mr. Murahama indicated that creators rarely have rights to their creations, multiple companies do. This usually makes business decisions more important than the original creators wishes. Also, he indicated that they were now half funded abroad and thus relied on foreign investments to continue producing anime titles.

Me? I was skeptical of WB's talk about keeping the original story as much as possible due to the changes to Card Captor Sakura and I was as little worried about the trend to change the Japanese version to better suit an American release/audience before it even was released in Japan. Time will tell if the increased interest in anime titles may destroy the uniqueness that many fans look for in Japanese animation that they don't find as often in American animation.

The Bad

Editing News:

John O'Donnell (President of CPM) confirmed that La Blue Girl was in fact edited after they initially released the first batch of VHS tapes. Several scenes involving the diminutive Ninja, Nin-nin, were removed to avoid legal entanglements. I have written up an editing report on this title. Some good news about this: Since the law that originally prompted the cuts has now been declared unconstitutional, Mr. O'Donnell indicated that he might be able to release the deleted scenes on a future La Blue Girl DVD (there is apparently an new La Blue Girl OVA series being made in Japan).

Kite:
There was no announcement of a less cut version of Kite being released by Media Blasters, but I did have a chance to talk to John Sirabella (President of Media Blasters). He repeated his statement of A-kon that they are considering releasing a less cut version, but have not made a decision yet. Early 2001 was the timeframe he mentioned for a decision and possible release.

Although he said sub VHS, I expressed my (and the market's) preference for DVDs. Although a VHS version it would be better than the cut version and I would appreciate it, not releasing it on DVD in as uncut form as possible would do this great title an injustice.

We discussed the need to cut or mask the young Sawa scenes, but with the laws concerning this issue changing that might not even be necessary. Unfortunately, the stores and distributors might still be unwilling to carry a totally uncut version of Kite and insist on some censoring. As long as they only cut or mask the young Sawa scenes, I'd support a less cut version as described in the Uncut Kite petition..

He encouraged the petition to continue and I will be continuing my efforts to make this title a reality in a less cut form. As long as animeprime.com is here, the editing reports and the petition will continue. I will not let Kite or other edited titles be forgotten in the mists of time.

In regards to the region 2 'International Version' of Kite that is due to be released in Japan soon: Mr. Sirabella indicated he was not aware of its contents, but that the English dub master was sent to Japan. That will likely be the version on the DVD. He was unaware of exactly what might be cut or added to that version, but did say that originally they had talked with Green Rabbit about doing new animation to fill the gaps where the removed scenes were. It is possible those scenes have been made and will be part of the new region 2 DVD, but he had no direct information. Time will tell.

DVD News:

There will be no remaster to fix the problems on Project A-ko (and other titles that CPM has sublicensed) until those licenses expire and CPM can do the DVDs themselves. It seems to have been the case of CPM giving up too much control over the final product in order to get them made when DVDs were still new and evolving.

The Ranma TV season one DVDs are delayed, but not cancelled. No word on when they might get new release dates.

No plans for Maison Ikkuku on DVD and they will only be continuing the sub VHS version for volumes 19+. Still only two episodes for $24.95. This is probably the last nail in Maison Ikkuku's coffin unless VIZ sees the necessity of releasing it on DVD. Sub VHS sales at this price per episode for a 96 episode series is just not going to generate enough sales (Animeigo sees that the sub VHS market can't carry a title, why can't VIZ?).

Manga repeated previous information that they decide to do anamorphic titles based on the materials available and the perceived market for a anamorphic version of a particular title. I'd prefer a more committed stance to anamorphic (as ADV appears to have), since I do not plan on replacing DVD titles in the future, so I want the best possible DVD now.

New Generation Pictures indicated that the video quality problems with Nazca were due to the masters they had to work with, since this late night TV series was apparently very low budget.

Misc:

No news on You're Under Arrest TV being picked up, although ADV has licensed the YUA movie. Animeigo is reportedly in negotiations for YUA TV, but ADV may be as well since they licensed the movie.

The Yu Watase panel was good, but I would have preferred to see more of her and less of the two episodes of the new anime based on her manga, Ayashi no Ceres. One was nice, but two took too much time from the reason I was there: To see and hear Yu Watase.

Overall, the con was too spread out. It was split between the Disneyland Pacific Hotel, two towers of the Disneyland Hotel and the Disneyland Convention center. Although bigger than last year, it was hard to find the locations initially and some of the rooms were moved around. The lack of signage directing people to the various locations also made it troublesome. The presence of only one message board initially seemed that it would not be big enough, but since there didn't seem to be as many messages as last year, it didn't end up being a problem.

Although I saw various videos and fansubs during the con, the very disorganized video schedule, cancellations, and changes made it hard to really spend a lot of time watching any anime at this con. Video rooms at cons are always somewhat prone to changes and problems, but it seemed much worse this year than previous Anime Expos and compared to other cons. The cancellation of late night showings was also annoying (se more info on this below).

The Ugly

Well, I'm not going to go into details here, but there was an altercation with one of the dealers at Anime Expo 2000 that ended up with most, if not all, adult titles being removed from the dealer's room after Friday and the cancellation of late night showings of more mature titles in video rooms four and five.

Although it appears that Disney and the Anime Expo staff took these steps to prevent legal problems, it did distract from the overall con going experience when added to other problems during the con. And to me it seems to have been an overreaction to the situation, but it's hard to be sure from an outsider's perspective.

When attending anime conventions you expect some problems, but since some anime fans have a dislike for Disney, one has to wonder if it was a good idea to put the two together. It was likely and did lead to clashes and problems over the four-day con (which seemed a little too long to me, so I skipped Monday since there wasn't much of interest (to me) going on).

Personally, I like some of the things Disney make (Tarzan, Toy Story, Mulan, Pocahontas) and even had season passes to Disneyland for a couple years, but don't like many of their business practices and knew there would be problems when the Disneyland Hotel location was announced.

I very much hope they find someplace else for next year, because I really don't think I want to return to AX2001 if it's at the Disneyland Hotel, but that is a decision I'll have to make after details of next year's con are made known.

[This column first prublished on animeprime.com on July 4, 2000 and is copyright 2000 by Jim Lazar and animeprime.com]