The official Anime News Thread

I agree, Wingnut, with your comment about Gundam Seed...its a shame they dont have the whole series, but at the same time you cant really fault them for seeing how well a showing it makes before getting the rights to all the episodes, y'know? Anyway, hopefully Gundam Seed will come back soon, and well, I am happy Kenshin is coming back...so, all in all, its a fair trade, for me at least....

but with a crappy timeslot. News courtesy of Gunota Headlines

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According to the folks on Toon Zone once again, Gundam SEED will return to Cartoon Network in a weekly 1:00 am timeslot on Saturday mornings, taking over from .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. It's not certain which date it'll begin in the new slot but it's said to be starting there either on October 23rd or the 30th.

Will the 1:00 a.m. timeslots be new episodes or reruns?

It seems to be new episodes. Although we really can't tell at this time weither they will start with rp. 27 or ep. 1. Given the history of great shows being given the shaft with a time slot like this (read: Zoids, Cyborg 009) I would think that they would continue with ep. 27.

A little info for GITS fans, on its theatrical release across the country, courtesy of www.animenewsnetwork.com:

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence Box Office Results (2004-09-21 02:19:12)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence premiered in North American theaters on Friday and earned $317,722 by the end of the weekend, placing it 28th at the box office. It was shown at 47 theaters around the United States and earned an average if $6,760 per theater, the highest per theater average in the top 40 box office movies.

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Also, courtesy of animationinsider.net, some info about Cartoon Network's growth, the thing that I noticed the most was about Adult Swim, and how they reached the 1 million viewer mark, according to Nielson's research...interesting stuff, in my opinion, looks like more and more people are tuning in to see AS:

Fresh from its double Prime Time Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Animated Program," Cartoon Network scored its best ever and ratings performance in network history, according to Nielsen Media Research. For the complete summary of the relevant results of these ratings, read on!

August stood out individually as the top-performing month in Cartoon Network history, earning new monthly kids' total day records among all target demographics. This was followed by a ‘best September’ performance as well. Overall Third Quarter 2004 performance highlights compared to Third Quarter 2003 include the following:

Kids' Total Day (Monday-Sunday, 6 a.m. - 6 a.m., Kids Programming)
* Kids 6-11 ratings increased by 22%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings improved by 11%.
* Tweens 9-14 ratings expanded by 23%.

Prime Time (Monday-Sunday, 8-11 p.m.)
* Kids 6-11 ratings rose by 7%.
* Tweens 9-14 ratings advanced by 10%.

August 2004 Kids' Total Day (8/02/04 - 8/29/04) was the best month ever in Cartoon Network History:
* Kids 6-11 ratings raced ahead by 26%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings grew by 10%.
* Tweens 9-14 ratings leaped by 31%.

September '04 Kids' Total Day (8/30/04 - 9/26/04) was the best September ever in Cartoon Network History:
* Kids 6-11 ratings surged by 13%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings jumped by 13%.
* Tweens 9-14 ratings grew by 18%.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends ranks #1 amongst Cartoon Network’s original series. It has continually beaten all television competitors for average delivery of kids 6-11, kids 2-11, boys 6-11 and boys 2-11 for the last six weeks. Highlights of its overall performance compared against. the same time periods last year include the following:

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Friday, 7 p.m.)
* Kids 6-11 ratings ballooned (4.4) by 110%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings expanded (3.7) by 76%

Worthy of note is the fact that 11,382,000 different persons ages 2 and up tuned into Foster's over the five weekend premiere telecasts. With Foster's, Cartoon Network's scored its best-ever original series premiere in network history.

The good news don’t end there. Still riding an astounding wave of ratings success, ADULT SWIM, now in its third year since launch, continued to earn double-digit ratings increases across target young adult audiences, and triple-digit increases among women 18-34. Quarterly performance highlights vs. the same time period last year follow:

ADULT SWIM (Monday-Thursday, Saturday-Sunday, 11 p.m.-2 a.m.)
* Adults 18-34 grew by 17%.
* Adults 18-24 improved by 25%.
* Women 18-34 ratings mushroomed by 100%.

The Tuesday, Sept. 14, 11:30 p.m. telecast of Futurama posted the highest delivery ever for a single telecast on Cartoon Network with adults 18-34 (1,131,000), adults 18-24 (755,000) and men 18-24 (544,000).

Additional programming standouts among Cartoon Network's original series and signature franchises include the following vs. respective time periods last year:

FRIDAYS (Friday, 7 p.m. - 12 a.m.)
* Kids 6-11 ratings increased by 38%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings expanded by 25%.

MIGUZI (Monday-Friday, 5-7 p.m.)
* Girls 6-11 ratings ballooned by 67%.
* Kids 6-11 ratings surged by 13%.
* Kids 2-11 ratings jumped by 25%.

TOONAMI (Saturday, 7-11 p.m.)
* Tweens 9-14 ratings advanced by 29%.

Teen Titans (Saturday, 8 p.m.)-third season to date
* Kids 6-11 ratings improved by 57%.
* Tweens 9-14 ratings mushroomed by 100%.

NOTES: All ratings based on Total U.S. Television Universe of 108,400,000 homes

Cartoon Network, currently seen in 87.1 million U.S. homes and 160 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s 24-hour, ad-supported cable service offering animated entertainment.

For more information, please visit CartoonNetwork.com. For more information on the hit animated television series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends read the Q&A with Craig McCracken, the program creator.

- by J. J. (Zorty) Ortiz-Carlo

In case anyone was curious, a quick survey of the CartoonNetwork.com schedule shows Gundam SEED begins airing new episodes @ 1am EST this Friday night/Saturday morning ( 10-22/23, depending on how you look at it) starting at episode 27.

I love how they announced the move well before it happened...

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Originally posted by COHugh In case anyone was curious, a quick survey of the CartoonNetwork.com schedule shows Gundam SEED begins airing new episodes @ 1am EST this Friday night/Saturday morning ( 10-22/23, depending on how you look at it) starting at episode 27. I love how they announced the move well before it happened...

Better that leaveing us in the dark and to fend for ourselves to find it. I look at it as haveing more free time on Saturday night to debate the newest episode of Teen Titans, as well as something besides Cyborg 009 to watch late Friday night. It's not so bad if you think about it and can stay up late on a nightly basis as I have trained myself to do. (Training involves a Pepsi or two. )

Yeah, but it does cause problems when you get up for work Saturday mornings at 8am EST and have trouble going to sleep.

Tape it, you say? BAH! I must watch it while it airs!!!

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Internet Watch reports that a 24 year old Canadian college student living in Japan was arrested by the Gunma Prefecture Police for selling Gundam SEED DVD bootlegs on Bidders.com. Apparently the student made close to 2,000,000 yen in profits between Jan 1, 2003 and now by selling Chinese bootlegs through Yahoo! Auction and his site. Gunma Police was tipped by Computer Software Copyright Association (known as ACCS in Japan) after the student ignored repeated pleas by ACCS to stop selling bootlegs.

Article courtesy of Gunota Headlines.

It's too bad Ebay doesn't clean house of it's Bootleg Seller's. However listening to recent news stories on the subject about Ebay and Bootleg goods, Ebay never does anything until US Customs or Copyright Owners go to court to get Ebay to stop selling the Bootleg product.

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Various box office sites in Japan (Eiga.com, Kogyo Tsushinsha, Goo Movies) are stating that Heirs To The Stars ranked #3 this weekend. This kind of ranking is respectable enough for an anime theatrical release in Japan but what makes the case of Zeta truly exceptional is that it managed to do it showing on only 83 screens nationwide. Typically, Japanese films will screen in anywhere from 150-300 theaters. In the case of big Hollywood films, 500+ theaters. Zeta raked in just under 161 million yen, nearly as much money as the #2 film, Million Dollar Baby, which had the benefits of publicity from its success at this year's Oscars, local visits from its stars promoting the movie, and being shown in 264 theaters. Eiga.com estimates that it has the momentum to exceed 1 billion yen by the end of its run, a figure approaching the box office gross of Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters In Space (a hit anime film in its day). Apparently, the unexpected turnout for the Zeta movie is breaking records in theaters nationwide. Goo Movies reports that audiences were made up of the "core Gundam fan", males in the 20-34 demographic, as well as ages 35-49. Females in their teens and in the 20-34 demographic also turned up though the gender ratio is being given as 70% male, 30% female. While no Miyazaki-sized hit, this can certainly be seen as some kind of vindication for director Yoshiyuki Tomino, whose last few works haven't been known for their commercial success. Heirs To The Stars made more money in its first weekend than some other high-profile anime films from the past year did in theirs, including Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence (141 million yen, 278 theaters, #5 for the weekend), Appleseed (65 million yen, 112 theaters, #6), and Steamboy (158 million yen, 261 theaters, #4). And, indeed, the official Zeta movies site now carries a thank-you message from Tomino. In retrospect, the smartest move may have been associating the film with J-rock star Gackt as his tireless publicity efforts over the last few weeks seem to have garnered the most attention from the mainstream press there. The Top 10 in Japan for the weekend of May 28-29: 1) Negotiator Masayoshi Mashita 2) Million Dollar Baby 3) Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam -Heirs To The Stars- 4) Kingdom Of Heaven 5) Memorial Of Flame (aka Ladder 49) 6) The Interpreter 7) Shall We Dance? 8) Closer 9) Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events 10) The Mask 2 (aka Son Of The Mask)

Impressive, no?

Bandai Visual has contracted Elastic Media to exclusively produce dubs for their releases. They also have plans to rerelease the first patlabor movies in "regular" and "Special" editions. Well I doubt the dubs can be any worse than the manga UK ones, but only time will tell.

From Anime News Service -

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9-6-06 (6:46PM EDT)---- Confirmed: "Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban" Details Apparent scans from the October, 2006 issue of the Japanese edition of Newtype Magazine (not officially due out on shelves until this wekeend) have appeared online, backing up almost word for word the information reported below. Images Copyright (c) Kadokawashoten 2006 / (c) GAINAX - Khara / Project Eva The title for the new film series is "Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban", it will consist of 4 parts (First volume, Second part, Latter part and Final story) with the first part arriving in Japanese theaters in early summer, 2007. Staff include General Supervisor: Hideaki Anno, Director: Tsurumaki Kazuya , Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mecha Design: Ikuto Yamashita, Animation Production: Khara (Color) Studio. The scenario of the 1st part will be written by Hideaki Anno with storyboard by Shinji Higuchi. Key points of an interview in the magazine with Toshimichi Ohtsuki of King Records have also been circulating. According to that information: - The content is quite different though the time base of the story is the same as the original TV series. - It will be a remake, however, it is not a re-creation but a "new work". - The approach will be different than what Tomino-san did with the Gundam Z New Translation films, there will apparantly be a large amount of new material. - Even if the TV series has not be seen, the viewer will be able to enjoy it. Though the content becomes easy, it is not redundant to those already familiar with the series. - The technique that purposely scatters difficult words and phrases will not be used any longer. - As an antithesis to current animation industry segments, it is an attitude on the production side to pull the act in the age that started from Eva.

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9-6-06 (3:34AM EDT)---- Update: Newtype Scoop: REBUILD OF EVANGELION Due on Japanese newstands in less than 1 week, some advertisements for the October, 2006 edition of Newtype Magazine have been circulating around hyping their big Evangelion scoop. The cover will supposedly read 'REBUILD OF EVANGELION'. Thanks to Pete for sending in a screen grab from Japanese TV.

Scans From Newtype [Provided by ANS] -



Can't get enough Evangelion, huh?

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Haven't bought FLCL yet? Then you may be interested in this:

From Anime News Network -

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Synch-Point will release FLCL: The Ultimate Edition on November 21. The $69.95 set will include the full series, director's commentary, a sticker sheet, postcards, a book, and a coupon for a free t-shirt. Source: Anime on DVD

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Originally posted by Asirt Haven't bought FLCL yet? Then you may be interested in this: From Anime News Network - quote: Synch-Point will release FLCL: The Ultimate Edition on November 21. The $69.95 set will include the full series, director's commentary, a sticker sheet, postcards, a book, and a coupon for a free t-shirt. Source: Anime on DVD

Yeah, as soon as I heard about that, I ordered 3 of them. I sh** you not.

Now if only they made a plotline for NGE that made sense and didn't go all bat-country gonzo on us. Then I might sign on for this ride.

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Originally posted by Ensign Minneapolis Now if only they made a plotline that made sense and didn't go all bat-country gonzo on us. Then I might sign on for this ride.

The plot is pretty coherent, but it's more of a work of art than your typical anime.

I'm going to be blunt, Travis. In my personal opinion, Evangelion is nothing more than a disjointed scattering of jigsaw puzzle parts. Yes, it has a path. Although when that path goes through the briar patch, then through a funhouse maze, then it loses it's effect.

In fact, the original Evangelion I wouldn't even call art. Half way through the qualty went south, and the direction it took was simply illogical.

I like Anime that takes an unusual turn or path, but the path EVA took... It's just not a ride I'd like to take. If Eva is art, then a Picasso is a scrawling you put on the fridge door.

I was talking about FLCL, which I thought you were talking about. Next time, be more specific, k?

And, for the record (again), I hate NGE.

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Originally posted by Travis Bickle I was talking about FLCL, which I thought you were talking about. Next time, be more specific, k? And, for the record (again), I hate NGE.

Ah. I read the NGE article, but I didn't read the entire post that had the FLCL news tacked on.

For the record; FLCL is good. Like Puppies and Kittens.

Yeah. The story line makes sense by the last episode. And if it doesn't, people online summed it up pretty good. Though it really is is anime made to be enjoyed visually. While laughing. And staring at the screen 'cause you never know if you'll miss something if you blink.

I'm getting it when my birthday rolls around and I have that kind of money on hand.