because they are they are trying to escape death.
+Bandai Temporarily Suspends Shipping Operations Due to Flooding
Jessica from Bandai has informed us today that the heavy rains on the west coast
have caused some
flooding in their warehouse, and that they are temporarily suspending shipping
operations until
they can get the mess cleaned up. They have not shipped three late October
releases, the .Hack//Sign,
Escaflowne, and Witch Hunter Robin limited boxed sets, and now these titles may
not ship in time
to meet the 10/26 street dates. Please let us know if you want to change an
order that might be
currently holding for one of these releases.
+ADV Acquires 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' By the Creator of 'Voices
of a Distant Star'
The Anime News Network is reporting that ADV Films has acquired the rights to a
feature-length anime
film from Makoto Shinkai, the creator of Voices of a Distant Star, a short,
poetic science fiction
OAV that he made almost entirely by himself on his Apple G4 computer. The Place
Promised in Our
Early Days is a 91-minute anime feature that will open in Japanese theaters next
month. In his new
film Shinkai explores another form of science fiction, alternate history, with a
story set in
different post World War II timeline in which Japan's most northern island,
Hokkaido is controlled
by the Soviet Union, while the rest of Japan is occupied by the U.S. Three
teenager living on the
northern most shore of the U.S. zone spot an enormous tower being constructed on
the southern
shore of Hokkaido, and the story unfolds as the kids attempt to discover the
secrets of the tower.
ADV has not set a firm price or release date for The Place Promised in Our Early
Days, but a spokesman
told the Anime News Network that the film would be released in 2005.
+Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence DVD Release Set for December 28
Dreamworks has announced that it will release Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell
2: Innocence on DVD
on December 28. The film will be presented in 1.85:1 widescreen with a Japanese
Dolby Digital 5.1
soundtrack with English subtitles. As has been the case with other Dreamworks
anime releases there
is no English dub version. Extras will include an audio commentary from Oshii, a
Making of Ghost
in the Shell 2 featurette and trailers. The SRP for Ghost in the Shell 2:
Innocence will be $29.99.
+NewType USA Brings Back the DVD Insert, and Raises It's Cover Price
Starting with its second anniversary issue in November, Newtype USA is bringing
back the DVD insert
and raising the cover price of the magazine from $9.98 to $12.98. Starting with
the August 2004 issue,
the DVD insert was excised from newsstand copies, though it was still included
in the issues that
publisher ADV mailed to subscribers. The DVD inserts, which typically include
first episodes of one
or two new series plus plenty of previews, have proven to be popular with fans.
The November Newtype
USA DVD insert will include full episodes of the D.N. Angel (the D.N. Angel
manga is a strong Top
Ten title in the American market) and Petite Princess Yucie anime series.
+Three Miyazaki Movies Out in February
Three classic anime features directed by Oscar-winner Hayao Miyazaki will be
released on DVD in the
U.S. on February 22, 2005. Originally scheduled for last August, My Neighbor
Totoro, Porco Rosso
and Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind, will all be released as deluxe 2-disk
DVDs with an SRP of
$29.95 each. Given the success of other Miyazaki features such as Spirited Away
and Princess Mononoke,
which are still making the VideoScan Top 10 charts long, long after their
initial release on DVD,
the addition of three more classic Miyazaki features is good news for retailers
who deal in anime.
Viz is releasing a full color anime comic version of My Neighbor Totoro,
starting with Volume #1
in November, which will provide retailers with another great way to merchandise
these remarkable films.
My Neighbor Totoro was previously released in a dub-only version DVD in 2002,
but Porco Rosso has
never been released for the American market and Nausicca was previously only
available here in a
mangled VHS version entitled Warriors of the Wind. Nausicca, which was released
in Japan in 1984,
has a prescient ecologically-aware theme that pre-figures many of the concerns
evident in Princess
Mononoke, while Porco Rosso is one of the most adult-oriented films Miyazaki has
ever produced with
stunning flying scenes featuring designs from actual 1920's seaplane fighters.
+Funimation Scheduling Adjustments
Funimation has announced 2 small changed to their November Schedule. Both Spiral
DVD Vol #1 and
the Fruits Baskets DVD Boxed Set, originally scheduled for release on Nov 9th,
have been pushed
back a week to Nov 16th.
+Howl's Moving Castle Wows Venice Anime - Continues to Garner Critical Acclaim
Reports from the Venice Film Festival indicate that one of the most popular
films so far is Hayao
Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, the first animated film ever entered in the
Festival's main competition.
Miyazaki, who won an Oscar in 2003 for Spirited Away, sees the film as an
expression of hope in a
world wracked by war and economic dislocation. Based on a novel by Diana Wynne
Jones, Howl's Moving
Castle is the story of teenage girl who is turned into a 90-year-old woman by a
witch. She seeks
refuge in the bizarre, walking, snorting castle of a wizard named Howl. Toshio
Suzuki, who produced
the film for Studio Ghibli, told Reuters: "It relates to the world we are living
in today, it has a
universal message. When we were making it there was the Iraq war and economic
recession in Japan."
A packed house of more than 1000 applauded for over five minutes at the end of
the Venice screening,
indicating that Miyazaki's film struck a chord with the predominantly European
audience. The current
issue of Wired Magazine includes Howl's Moving Castle in a major article about
three anime features
that are bound to make a major impact in the U.S. this winter (the other two are
Oshii's Ghost in the
Shell: Innocence and Otomo's Steamboy). Howl's Moving Castle will have its
Japanese premier on
November 20.
+Gonzo (Japan) to Produce G.I. Joe OVA
The Anime News Network is reporting that anime powerhouse Gonzo Digimation has
signed a contract with
Hasbro to create a G.I. Joe OVA (original video animation). At this point no
details concerning the
nature of the project have been released, though given Gonzo's facility with
computer animation, it is
likely that the G.I. Joe OVA will be a 3-D digital animated work.
+Two Percent of Japanese Are 'Otaku' - Manga Is the Most Popular Obsession
The Asahi Shimbun (the Wall St. Journal of Japan) has reported on a recent study
by a private think
tank about the nature and buying habits of Japan's obsessive pop culture fans
(otaku). The study defined
"otaku" as "people who spend much of their time and money on a focused area of
interest," and singled
out four key areas of interest: manga, anime, video games and idol singers.
According to the study
some 2.8 million Japanese (about 2.2% of the population) can be classified as
"otaku" and that they
spend 260 billion yen per year on their obsessions, averaging $912 per fan per
year. Manga, anime
and video game enthusiasts spend about the same amount per year, while idol
singer otaku spend 25% less.
The manga otaku are by far the largest group. They spent an estimated 100
billion yen on manga in
2003, accounting for 16% of the total industry's 625 billion yen ($5.7 billion)
in sales. Though it
has been hurt to a degree in recent years by the proliferation of "manga
exchange" second-hand
stores, Japan's comics industry remains the envy of the world in sales, scope
and cultural influence.