JELEINEN

It got posted on the old boards, by, I believe, Graham.

CD Japan lists it as having been 39,800 yen (sold out now, of course), so $425.00 isn't too bad, really. If I were any sort of big fan of the series, I wouldn've considered getting it if I'd been in your position. Okay, some people need to get a clue. Anime in Japan isn't cheap. People get spoiled by the prices in the US and seem to assume that's what everyone gets to pay. Do a little checking up on how things work before you comense to bitching. Oh, and scripts for all 26 eps (TV and home video release) of Eva are not too difficult to find.

If you like generic fantasy like Dragon Lance, then you'll like Lodoss. Personally, I never cared for it. The animation isn't bad, at least in the OVAs. The OVAs do suffer from the fact that they had to cut a lot of the story out to fit it into 13 episodes.

The one in the auction is an illegal bootleg copy produced in probably Hong Kong or Taiwan. They're generally noted for their lack of quality due to cramming so many episodes on so few discs and really, really bad subtitles.

Nope. Only a handful of Japanese releases have had English subs. Off the top of my head Memories, FLCL (except ep. 1), Animation Runner Kurumi, and most of the Ghibli titles have them (there are a few more, but nothing I can recall). You can always invest in a genlock and make your own subtitles.

I got one of the original region free Apexes when they first came out It wore out last year, and has been replaced by a newer Apex (actually, region control is easy to find, it's finding one without Macrovision that's a pain). Besides my Di Gi Charat discs, most of my import anime DVDs are titles that I don't feel like waiting to come out in the US or I don't like the US release company enough to support their release.

At a guess, I imagine they need it to breath if the cockpit ever got depressurized (I'm assuming they're pressurized to begin with).

Gaiman is supposed to be working on the English language script, so he won't be in the original credits.

The fact that the f*cktards at ADV are putting it out killed my interest from the get go... I disagree that Osaka should've been made Southern. The regional stereotypes and accent don't really map to any US equivelent. Not to mention, part of the point of the character is that she doesn't talk like she's from Osaka.

It's interesting that the competition between the YF-19 and YF-21 in M+ was scrapped in favor of something that is not only unmanned but non-variable. There must've been some among the upper echelons who were thinking along similar lines that the need for variable-ness had passed.

Will it come with the trailer?

EDF is hilarious stuff. Basically this average Japanese family is selected to be the members of a sentai team in the near future. Of course they have no training, or even a real desire to fight the bad guys, so comedy insues.

Of for those who don't want to support organized crime in Asia, you can buy the Japanese release which also has English subtitles. The Korean release (which is legit) has them as well.

Most Oshii films have the same pacing (a bit of action at the beginning, a long drawn out middle, and action at the end), and Avalon is no exception. The problem with Avalon is that the middle part is a bit too long. It's a movie that definitely needs an intermission.

Definitely focused on the plot side of things, even more so than character development. I highly recommend it.

Shakespeare lifted R&J from someone else (name escapes me at the moment). Nothing new under the sun.

The points of similarity again come down to pre-exisiting ideas in folklore and pop culture. White Wolf is trying to claim that their particular combination of ideas is unique and that anyone else using them must be infringing. The problem for WW, is they have to prove that filmmakers were aware of WW's games and the Collins story and that all the elements of commonality couldn't have occured independently. In other words, they haven't a prayer of winning. The best they can hope for is for Sony to not want to bother with the legal procedings and try to settle. I, myself, don't see any copyright infringement. Reading synopses by people who've read the story and seen the film (it premeired in Toronto last night) show that they have very, very little in common. Plus, people coming up with a modern vampire/werewolf mythos that are similar is not that far fetched, especially when they're drawing from the exact same sources. Oh, and in addition to the Real Ghostbusters episode, there was apparently a comic in 2001 AD that also did a vampire vs. werewolf Romeo & Juliet back in the early eighties. Just further proof that Sony's lawyers are going to have a field day with WW's stupidity (well, to be fair, I'm sure it's more WW's lawyers' stupidity). Pat, you can read the legal filing here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/dl/whitewolfcomplaint.pdf

I've heard it speculated that the reason WW waited until now to bring up this suit so that an injunction to stop the release of the film will get shot down right away. They have to file for the injunction as a matter of form (not doing so would weaken their case). The problem is that if they got an injunction to go through, then Sony loses money from the delayed release. If Sony loses money, Sony counter sues WW. If Sony counter sues WW, WW is SOL. Personally, I hope WW gets their asses handed to them. I've read the file and most of it is grasping at straws. It won't take Sony's lawyers more than a few weeks to hunt down the pop. lit. and film sources WW cribbed their setting from. Plus, Sony produces far more entertainment that I enjoy than WW's craptastic games.

I seriously doubt the suit has anything to do with any resemblance between Underworld and White Wolf's World of Darkness, which WW has acknowledged to be a big amalgamation of folklore, popular literature, and films. If that's the basis of the suit, WW doesn't have a leg to stand on. I think the key here is how closely the film resembles the Collins story mentioned in the press release. For Vampires vs. Werewolves, just go back sixty or seventy years for the Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney movie on the same subject.

Go Sony!

I absolutely love Escaflowne, but I hope the new series isn't a sequal. Esca did everything right. It had a great story without any filler. It had interesting characters who were developed along the way. It had good animation, good designs, and a killer soundtrack. It was also very complete and had a good ending. Tacking something onto it would just be wrong.

How about a story set in the era when the Protoculture was still around? During the war vs. the Supervision forces or when the Zentradi are first being created. Lots of story potential and fairly wide open in terms of continuity in that time period.

You and me both. It's amazing how one of my absolute favorite TV shows (Escaflowne) and my all time least favorite (Arjuna) can come from the same mind.

CPM has some great licenses. Unfortunately it treats them like doggie-poo.

Oops. Yeah, forgot that he did give a brief explanation there. I was thinking of the detailed one later. Sad because I helped fansub the first volume of the series and have seen that episode probably more times than what's healthy.