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Welcome to our News archive for March 2005 - to see this month's news
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Steaming On It seems that the previous 'tentative' release date for Steamboy is a bit more solid now, as it has appeared for pre-order on DVD sites such as Play.Com and Amazon. There will be two versions released, a standard edition and a limited edition Directors Cut which comes with a book, a comic and artwork cards. Both are set for release on 6th June 2005, but worryingly neither are listed as having a Japanese language track, something we hope will not be the case when the DVDs are released. Source: Play.Com |
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Updated MVM Release Schedule MVM have released their updated release schedule for the next four months, and the release dates are now provided for the likes of Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent! Here's the schedule from April onwards, it's also worth noting that the number of monthly releases goes up to six in May. 4th April 2005 Adventures of Mini-Goddess vol 2 9th May 2005 Adventures of Mini-Goddess vol 3 6th June 2005 Blue Gender The Movie 4th July 2005 Chobits vol 3 8th August 2005 Gungrave vol 3 Source: MVM |
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Full Steam Ahead! Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment have announced a tentative UK release date for the highly anticipated Steamboy. Their schedule (reported here) gives a 6th June DVD release for the film, which could mean that a cinema run, even a very limited one, is unlikely considering the short time period until the DVD release. So mixed blessings, but at least we'll get to see it in the same year as its US release... Source: AnimeOnDVD.com |
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Right Here, Right Neo Issue 4 of the UK's only anime, manga & Asian entertainment mag Neo hit the shelves today, and it shows yet more improvement in quality. Features this issue cover the likes of Ranma 1/2, Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop and Shaolin Soccer, and we are also treated to a head to head of the Sony PSP vs the Nintendo DS and a guide to making sushi. Best of all though is the expansion of the manga preview into a 16 page pullout mini-comic! The comic is printed right to left and this time round gives us a preview of Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star, which is already available from TokyoPop. Great stuff, and well worth picking up. Source: WH Smith |
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Paranoid Samurai MVM are proving to be UK anime fans best friends at the moment, with their already unbelievably amazing lineup being bolstered by two of the biggest anime titles released in the US last year - Paranoia Agent and Samurai Champloo. Paranoia Agent is an acclaimed mind-bending TV series from Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers director Satoshi Kon, whereas Samurai Champloo is the insanely cool brainchild of Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe which marries samurai action with hip-hop (no, really) and has proven very popular with US fans. A news item on EyeOnAnime also suggests that there are a lot more titles in the pipeline - so many that MVM may be increasing the number of titles they release each month! Things are definitely looking up for MVM - not a bad way to spend their 15th Anniversary Year... Source: AnimeOnDVD |
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Urotsukidoji Better Than Peter Pan - Official After the annoyance of the huge amount of omissions from the shortlist for Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons it was at least heartening to see the six anime titles listed all making the top 75. Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar winning Spirited Away placed highest in the chart (which was predictably topped by The Simpsons), coming in 8th place, whilst Akira also made the top 20 at 16 and Princess Mononoke just missed out in 21st place. The others were Pokémon (45th) and Battle of the Planets (aka Gatchaman - 62nd) but the funniest entry was Urotsukidoji: The Legend of the Overfiend - the notorious anime nasty which brought forth the wrath of the Daily Mail - popping up just after the watershed in 72nd place! This means that it topped the likes of Watership Down, Animal Farm, Dumbo, Peter Pan and the critically acclaimed Belleville Rendezvous - not bad for a film which, despite its notoriety, is pretty rubbish. Check out the full list here. Source: Channel 4 |
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Beware the Eyes of March Sadly it seems that one of our favourite manga series - Yuzo Takeda's fantasy epic 3x3 Eyes - has been cancelled by Dark Horse Comics with only eight of its forty volumes released in English. No official confirmation has been given of the cancellation but all the signs point to it, with the ninth volume removed from pre-order and the proposed 3rd edition in the smaller size of most modern manga also appearing to have been binned. A Dark Horse employee cited poor preorder sales as a reason for the cancellation, but fans have argued that the expensive 'flipped' books and sluggish release schedule (eight volumes since 1995) are a major factor which would have been negated by the cheaper, smaller bi-monthly reissue. Sadly it seems that unless Dark Horse have a change of heart (unlikely since they have already given the series a second chance) we may never see if they were right. Source: AnimeOnDVD |
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Out in March!! 7th March 2005 Love Hina vol 6 - ...And the Winner is (MVM)
Cert: 12 14th March 2005 Yu Yu Hakusho vol 1 - Yusuke Lost, Yusuke Found
Limited Edition (MVM) Cert: PG 21st March 2005 Chobits vol 1 - Persocom (MVM) Cert: tbc 28th March 2005 .hack://SIGN vol 7 (Beez) Cert: PG Another bumper month, with all of the major anime distributors active. MVM start the month off with two titles - the conclusion to Love Hina and the penultimate volume of Kiddy Grade - before the dual language re-release of Yu Yu Hakusho (including a special edition which comes with an artbox and t-shirt). They round off their releases with vol 1 of the popular romantic comedy Chobits and the continuation of the excellent Trigun. ADV Films release no less than seven titles, continuing new titles Gad Guard and Get Backers alongside more established series like Rune Soldier and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and the finale of Final Fantasy: Unlimited. They also bring us their self-financed animated adaptation of the comic book Lady Death (not actually anime, but interesting nonetheless) but the jewel in the crown is vol 1 of the highly anticipated nuns n guns actioner Chrono Crusade. Beez and Manga Entertainment aren't going to be left out either - Beez release Cowboy Bebop vol 3 and the delayed .hack://SIGN vol 7, whereas Manga bring us the next volume of the excellent Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and a cut price 'boxset' of the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies - and the month is rounded off in style with Animazing's release of the classic Dominion Tank Police. Source: ADV Films, Anime-On-Line, Play.Com |
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New Anime Games Out in March!! 11th March 2005 Duel Masters 2 - Kaijudo Showdown Limted Edition
(Atari) - Nintendo Gameboy Advance 18th March 2005 Dragonball Z Budokai 2 (Atari) - Nintendo
Gamecube A quartet of anime games this month, with Nintendo fans being best served for once! First up is the next card battling game based on the card battling anime Duel Masters on the Gameboy Advance, which features all 300 cards and linkup capability, but its release will be overshadowed by that of the new Nintendo console, the Nintendo DS. A new Pokémon game is amongst the launch titles - Pokémon Dash - which makes use of the ingenious touch-screen control method and wireless technology of the console to allow multiplayer racing using popular Pokémon characters. The 18th sees a double whammy of fighting action, with Gamecube owners finally getting Dragonball Z Budokai 2 well over a year after it came out on the Playstation 2, whereas PS2 owners get the the Budokai-style beat-em-up Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament shortly after the anime release. Hopefully anyway, as some sites are listing it as being delayed until April... Source: Play.Com; Amazon UK |
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