JELEINEN

The first two Patlabor movies are watchable without having seen the series (I've met a lot of people who like them that weren't aware there was a series or manga). Crusher Joe would probably be a surefire bet. Steamboy is supposed to be out this month in theaters, and it's excellent. Macross Plus (duh). They Were 11. Leda. Weathering Continent

Have any figures for what it made in foreign release? I imagine that it could make up that 20 mil. in world-wide distribution.

If the toy does suck once it's released, then please, bitch all you want. For now it's just speculation. And the AS and Yamato prototypes are indeed identical as Exo's post above proves.

From what I've heard, it bombed in the US, but did well overseas and in DVD sales.

IIRC, for Japan it's 16, but it's a moot point because for Americans travelling/living abroad, it's 18 anywhere. I have no clue how heavily, if at all, that's enforced though. Either way, I'm just happy to get a soap-on-a-rope comment in.

So was I, actually. I just have an aversion to emoticons, and was relying on context.

dude, that guy is really funny! now I really want to go to Japan and teach english while I still have the chance! 15 year old japanese chix grabbing my dick and asking "biggu dikku??"!! hell yeah!!! Let us know where to send the soap-on-a-rope to after you try that.

Sorry, but the original had me with the opening monologue. It had a lot of depth from the get go. If the first episode sucks, why should I give it any more of a chance? The first episode is supposed to be the one that grabs my attention and make me want to watch more. As for the parody/homage/deconstruction aspects, what worked so well in the first one is that A. it didn't limit itself to its own genre or medium (girls manga/anime, sports stories and old war movies ranked highly among sources), and B. that it wasn't just a parody/homage anime, but used elements from its sources to be something more. Itis a synthesis of those elements, such that a lot of people watch it without realizing that the parody/homage elements are present and enjoy it just as much as those of us who are very aware do.

I tried watching it from that perspective, I still thought it was garbage. It really just felt like a by the numbers story with unintersting designs and flat characters.

Fortunately, not all 'fans' are anally retentive and will be happy to just have a toy at all. Megazone 23 came out 20 years ago. The fact that someone is actually doing something with the license is amazing in itself.

As I said, I have the DVDs and I didn't notice the problem you mention. They should use the letter boxed version as that was how it was intended to be from the beginning.

What's the MSRP on this?

That sounds like a result of the encoding by the fansub group. My discs don't have those problems.

This will be mine.

Apparently the Sci-Fi channel had the opportunity to get the new Dr. Who, but turned it down.

Funny, but not surprising in the least.

What's the ending supposed to mean? Or did I get that right? Sounds about right. Really? I thought it was deeper than that. What's does the "world's dreams" (the other towers) disappearing mean? That the current world is the "real world" ? And what's that swirly thing in the tower. The other towers were the other realities. They disapeared with the connection got severed. What was inside was probably the inner workings of the tower itself. If you recall, the mini-tower the south was using was a twisted shape. Really, the show is about love and friendship at its heart.

Huh? How the heck do you tell that from those pictures?

Artelier Sai. Read up.

What's the ending supposed to mean? Or did I get that right? Sounds about right.

They're going with the version 2 hardsuits. That blows.

Wolfx, what's your question?

Just finished watching this and it's absolutely freaking amazing. It's by the guy who did Hoshi no Koe (AKA Voices of a Distant Star). The story is well plotted and has a lot of depth. The characters are very realistic and people you can actually care about. The music is excellent. The designs are good, especially the backgrounds, which are just breath taking. And also one of the most unique airplane designs I've ever seen. I highly recommend watching this film, if you get a chance.

The second doesn't reinterpret the TV series, but is technically part of it. In Japan the LDs were released with four TV episodes plus a bonus episode. These bonus episodes were bundled together and released in the US as the second OVA series. It's unfortunate because the Griffin story arc works much better broken up through the TV series than all back to back.

Is that the original French design at the bottom?