I know this dosen't pertain to anime, but this is the best place for it. None of you have talked about this yet so I take it you might not know, and I think it to be very big news. Squaresoft and Enix the two biggest RPG companies of all time have MERGED! To form a new company known as SquareEnix. What does this mean? More awesome games. We could be playing a final fantasy/dragon quest cross over in a few years. Also more on the gaming front Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for (of course) the gameboy advance is do out in quarter 2 of 2003! Now is a very good time for gamers (I know through other conversations most of us here are some-what). So what do you guys think of all this great news?

I know the manga is GREAT! But will they ever make an anime series? Wahhh!! I must know...

I converted my Apex 1500 player to region free and was wondering if it'll play PAL formatted dvds now. Has anyone tried yet?

anyone following NHL! is Ottawa gonna take the Stanley Cup this year or what? the team is one of the lowest paid teams in the NHL... pays more in taxes than ALL and i repeat ALL US NHL teams COMBINED, it has filed Chapter 11, but still going strong! #1 in the NHL! kick ass left and right, the last 3 home games were sold out

**puts his Setantors Jacket on**

Ranma 1/2 TV Complete Box 1 of 4

Season 1 (1-18 ) Excellent fansubs. Clear video and audio. ALL names are correct. Openings and Closings for every episode. ALL episode names are translated. There is a small problem at the end of episode 9. My disc freezes as it attempts to go back to the menu screen after the episode is over. Aside from that close to being perfect.

Season 2 (19-40) Excellent fansubs. It seems to drop in quality for ep. 37 but you can still definitely follow it. Clear video and audio. ALL names are correct. Openings for each episode EXCEPT 19-24 and 32-40. All episode names are translated EXCEPT for 19-21. These either have no or bad translations. Episodes are out of order compared to the domestic releases, BUT they ARE in order compared to the Japanese releases telling me these are either R2 or LD rips.

Season 3 (41-45) Excellent fansubs. Clear video and audio. ALL names are correct. Openings for each episode EXCEPT for ep.41. Closings for every episode. All episode names are translated EXCEPT for 42-45.

I play my DVDs on a Pioneer DV-343 player.
Box 2 coming soon...

Ok, so over at cookie jar anime they're selling 2 versions of the Ghibli set and i was wondering about these two things:

1) From the reviews on this site, it seems that the only difference between the two sets is that the one produced by MAC is 4 discs w/ 3 movies per disc whereas the Manga version is 6 discs w/ 2 movies per discs. Both sets have comparable viewer ratings for video, sound, and subtitles. So, is there anything that would make the Manga version better than the MAC? (something that would make it worth paying $14 for the set?)

2) In all the screen captures in the review for the MAC version there is a logo in the upper left. Does that thing stay there the whole time? All the captures seems to be from Laputa.

Anyway...if anyone has the discs or can offer info on them, it would be appreciated.

Hey Joe, did you sell out of Angel Cop or did you never have it in to begin with? Just curious thats all, because I saw some of it the other day and I was interested to see some more.

Oh....My.......I.....I..Can't believe they're doing that! I am not an exact Initial D fan but that is some serious CRAP! I can't believe they're going to change it so they can market it to the "young generation" or should we say POSERS. Man I can't believe a company would do all the crap that I just read and then go and post it for the world to see for themselves!!!

This angers me very much!!!!

Hey, I got the MAC version of Bebop Perfect Collections, and I absolutely love it.

Except for one problem - one episode (15 i think... It's My Funny Valentine) starts chugging on my DVD player near the middle of the episode. If I skip over that one part, it's ok for the rest of the episode. I thought that maybe my DVD player was the problem, but when I tried loading it up on my comp's DVD drive, ALL of that episode wouldn't run.

Is this a normal occurrence in either the MAC bebop set or HK dvd sets in general? It's not worth exchanging over, I don't think. Just wonderin'

Thanks for your time, guys.

Responding to the Anime community's uneasiness regarding "editorial changes" being made to Initial D, Tokyopop has sent out a very lengthy letter explaining their choices.

Quote:Originally posted by "Tokyopop"


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ANIME AND MANGA FAN COMMUNITY

TOKYOPOP & Initial D
During the past few days, there?s been a lot of discussion about TOKYOPOP?s plans for Initial D. We?ve taken notice, and thought we would chime in some insight from within the walls of TPOP headquarters?

First, we score Initial D, this kick-ass franchise property from Japan. We get the anime, the manga, the merchandising -- and we are thrilled! Then, we start making our plans. This is gonna be Speed Racer for the new millennium -- we?re thinking lunch pails, videogames, t-shirts? you name it!

We also know that we have a responsibility to be true to the spirit of the original Japanese version of Initial D. So, we start having lots of late night sessions about how to present Initial D to the widest possible audience and yet still retain its core essence. Some of us insist on calling the car the ?Hachi-Roku,? others call that insane and say that the only way to present the car to an American audience is as the ?Eight-Six.? We talk to bigwig network execs who want all the kanji removed from the logo and the car, who want to change tofu delivery to pizza delivery, who are utterly mystified at our insistence on retaining the original Japanese sound effects and printing the manga right-to-left, and who want us to refer to Takumi as Jeffrey ?because it would be easier to pronounce?!

Most of the time, amidst this onslaught, we stick to our guns. Tofu stays tofu - place names like Mount Akina, Myogi, Akagi, the names of the racing teams, the name of the very prefecture wherein the story unfolds, the Fujiwara Tofu Shop kanji on the side of the Eight-Six -- we keep them all. But, bless our pointy little heads, we decide to create nicknames for some of the character names in the books because we know that they will have to be changed when the show gets on television, anyway ? and at least we can keep the nicknames close.

So, Takumi becomes Tak, and Itsuki becomes Iggy, and Bunta & Kenji become Bunta & Kenji (wait, those aren?t good examples - gomen!), and Wataru Akiyama becomes Aki, and Keisuke Takahashi becomes K.T. It could?ve been worse ? we could?ve been forced to go with Dirk, Patsy, Buffy, Andrea, Chelsea, Geoffrey, and Chandler ? and, just FYI, the hot Sega Initial D arcade game due in a neighborhood near you soon will also feature the same names currently running in our manga.

So, why did we release the first volume of the manga with the original names? We simply screwed up ? d?oh! ? and went to press before our strategy was finalized. Those of you who bought the original print run of Volume 1 now find yourselves with a true collectible. Just so you know, our next printing of Volume 1 will have the altered names. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure: there are a few sex scenes in the manga that we?ll be altering -- one in the 1st volume, another later on in Vol. 8 or 9. These edits are necessary because we are positioning Initial D in the U.S. for a younger audience than it serves in Japan.

And thus, the saga has unfolded. We?re still wildly excited and overwhelmed by the initial fan and industry response to Initial D -- future plans for the property include all the things fans have asked for over the years -- and only occasionally received for such a mainstream property: premium, uncut, subtitled DVD releases, limited collector?s sets of the uncut manga themselves, exclusive ?bundles? comprising rare merchandise and obscure treasures? Rest assured, we are committed to making Initial D available in as many fan-friendly formats as possible.

So, if the broadcast TV version of Initial D is not to your liking, we completely understand. There?ll be an unedited, subtitled, Japanese language DVD release coming that we think you?ll enjoy. If the manga with the altered names isn?t your thing, that?s cool, and we certainly respect your right to disagree with us. (We?re thinking of shrink-wrapping the ?nicknames? version of the manga with a bottle of White-Out and a felt-tip pen so that fans can make their own name-changes as they see fit - whaddya think?)

We are passionate about anime and manga, and we believe in helping spread the word to as many people as we can. Many of us remember the joy of discovering Gigantor, or Robotech, or Yamato, or Dragonball, or Pokemon for the first time, and then rushing home from school every day so we would not miss a single episode. And we recall the further element of mystery when we learned that these shows came from Japan! At first, they were just great shows with weird, fascinating, complex story lines and an incredible approach to graphic design and camera work. Only later did we begin to obsess about where they came from, and then take the further step of comparing our initial innocent appreciations with the original Japanese source material ? the birth of the otaku, ne?

This will all happen again with Initial D -- an entire generation of kids is gonna get hooked on anime and manga? without ever really thinking of it in those terms -- they?ll just really like the show, and will want to see more things like it. And some of those kids WILL go on to become true fans and go through all the evolutions of appreciation that we all know and love so well? eventually seeking out subtitled DVDs, collector?s editions of the manga, cosplaying Tak at AX, and learning to speak and read Japanese themselves so that they don?t even have to deal with our choices.

At TOKYOPOP we will always remain committed to both audiences: we will be there to ?break? new shows and to expose anime and manga to the widest possible audience, and we will also never renege on our commitment to serve the fan market, as well -- because that?s where we came from, and that?s where all the real fun lies, anyway, ne?

TOKYOPOP STAFF

And leave me sticky weatdrop: