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Sakura
Con - Sunday - More Industry Talk
 Finally, Keith
Burgess of Manga Entertainment was able to announce a late-October release
for the Neon Genesis Evangelion movies on DVD. That release will come more
than two years after Manga announced that they had the rights to the films.
"I know it's been a long time waiting for the DVD, and we're going to make
it worth the wait," Burgess told fans. Manga will make up the difference
by including interviews with the actors and Gainax creative staff. And
Burgess promosied that there will be no edits or censorship in the Manga
release of the Eva movies. Fans wanted to know if Manga would follow up
their Macross Plus video series with the Macross Seven film; Burgess said
not yet, because "It's expensive as hell." |
 Bungie Software
brought their huge Oni banner (20 feet by 16 feet) to help promote that
electronic game and others in their line, while hinting that they've finished
preliminary development work on more games. All electronic and video game
producers have to worry about the claims that their products are too violent.
Matt Soell of Bungie doesn't agree with that criticism. "Millions of people
play these games, but there are only a few loonies that buy them and cause
trouble. If you want to find a scapegoat, it's easy - people like to moralize." |
 Jon Lawrence
of Enix drew cheers when he mentioned company titles such as Bust A Move
2, Valkyrie Profile and Dragon Warrior. He had a preview of the Dragon
Warrior 7 game that Enix planned to display at the upcoming E3 trade show.
Hard-core gamers always like to learn about Japanese titles that are coming
to the U.S., and Lawrence had to tell fans at Sakura Con that some Japanese
games won't officially make the translated trip across the Pacific. He
then demonstrated some of those games, including the amazing Suzuki Bakahatsu,
where players take the role of a young woman who spends her days defusing
bombs (watch out for the orange). |
 Steve Bennett
of Studio Ironcat had a great story about non-anime fans in Iowa. After
appearing at AnimeIowa in 2000, he was invited to return to Des Moines
in 2001 to serve as a guest artist at a program on Japanese popular art.
Bennett was confronted by a large audience of teens and stern-faced adults
and parents. When he asked if there were any anime fans in the audience,
only a couple of teens raised their hands, while other teens looked
on anxiously and the adults looked on with sour faces. Then Bennett mentioned
that some Christian shows, such as the Superbook series that ran on what
was once called the Christian Broadcasting Network, also were anime - and
the adults broke into approving grins. |
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