| Here's the result of something mentioned at AnimeIowa in August: an
alliance between Studio Ironcat (represented by Hiroshi Aro on the left
and Steve Bennett at left center) and ADV Films (with David Williams at
right center and Matt Greenfield on the right). At first, the common link
will be Spectral Force, where ADV Films will release the film version and
the game, and Ironcat will release the manga. More joint projects could
follow, reviving ADV's earlier attempt to release manga. |
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| Williams and Greenfield had one major new title to announce: the first
two seasons of the Sailor Moon TV series, a property they will take over
from DIC. ADV promised to release those episodes in their original order,
but as DIC produced them for U.S. television. The Sailor Moon announcement
got a big cheer from people at the ADV panel, as did talk about ADV's release
of Farscape, Robotech on video and Parasite Eve in theaters. |
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| The ADV panel got some questions about the status of the North American
release of the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies, and ADV referred those questions
to Manga Entertainment, which has the rights. Keith Burgess of Manga said
that they're hoping to release those movies in 2001, but it's still slow
going. While an English-language script has been prepared for the Eva films,
decisions still remain to be made such as how to handle the transition
between the first and second films. (By the way, Greenfield said that ADV
was able to buy the rights to eleven TV series for what it would have cost
the Texas company to get the rights to the Eva movies.) With the Evangelion
films still pending, the big titles for Manga will be Blood the Last Vampire
(which could get a theatrical release) and Street Fighter Alpha. |
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| No word yet from Richard Noboru Kekahuna of Bandai on the status of
the Vision of Escaflowne series on Fox in the U.S., although he did say
that Escaflowne will be shown on the ZTV network in Canada. November will
see cablecasts of Blue Submarine No. 6 and Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz on
the Cartoon Network, he noted. Kekahuna also noted that Bandai likely will
release most of their videos only on DVD in 2001. |
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| The hot manga title for Viz Communications has been Pokemon. With a
kids title so hot, does that affect the attempts of editors such as Carl
Horn to boost the output of manga for adults? No, Horn said, noting that
Pokemon's success will generate new fans in the long run for Viz titles
such as Pulp and Eagle. "We're trying to do the Japanese ideal of comics
for everybody," said Horn. |
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