Giant Mecha News

da3dAlus writes "Starting next week, Monday Feb 24th, from 4-5pm est Cartoon Network's Toonami starts a Giant Robot Week. The lineup currently includes episodes of Nadesico, Dia-Guard, Robotech, and Evangelion (yes, NGE is slated for the block, but only on Mon/Tues). Also in Evangelion news, AnimeNewsNetwork reports Gainax is finalizing the re-release of the boxed set of NGE. This set includes re-worked (audio/video enhanced) versions of the original 26 episodes, the 4 'remake' eps from laser disc, and a bonus disc with creditless opening/closing video, trailers, and live-action edition of the film. The final cut of the Evangelion movie-- Death(True)2, Air, and Magokoro wo Kimi ni--will also be included. The discs will be in a limited edition art box, and will retail for ~$322 on or about June 25th, with a reservation deadline of April 14th. After that, the new set will be released separately without the box."

Comments

Robotech

[AyeFly]

I'm glad they include Robotech. That in my opinion is one of the best early mech shows. I actually never saw the cartoon when I was younger, but I read all the books based on them. or maybe the cartoons were based on the books.. anyway, they got me interested in Mechwarrior too :-)

Re:Robotech

[Flamerule]

I'm glad they include Robotech. That in my opinion is one of the best early mech shows.

I always see people say this, and my experience just doesn't jive, so here goes...

Are we talking about the same Robotech? The very first Macross series, that starts off with the short history of Macross island, and then we get the invading fleet, and that dude who is accidentally locked in a mecha?

My brother picked up a small box set of 3 DVDs, with ~6 episodes each, called "The Macross Legacy", or something to that effect. DVD quality is awful, there are no options, it's dub only. The dub is unbelievably awful. The animation quality is pretty poor, but I know it's old, and I could deal with it if the voices were passable, and they aren't. (Incidentally, I feel the exact same way about the Mobile Suit Gundam the Cartoon Network was playing in Adult Swim a while back - just can't deal with the dub.)

Is that the great, exalted Robotech? What's the deal?

Re:Robotech

[feepness]

Is that the great, exalted Robotech? What's the deal?

The deal is that it was the very first anime many of us ever saw. You're right, the "quality" is terrible...

...until you compare it to GI Joe, He-man, and the rest of the action figure shoveling commercials that posed as animation at that time.

Try not to feel too old when people are scoffing at the non-HDTV pictures you enjoy so! Sheesh! I'm only 32!

Re:Robotech

[Anonymous Coward]

Why's the parent flamebait? That's verifiable fact - Macek took three great anime series, removed all the good bits, mashed them together, and aired them as an "epic".

Re:Robotech

[Moloch666]

Don't feel old I remember watching Robotech as a kid and I'm 21. I thought it was the best cartoon I have ever seen.

Re:Robotech

[cap'n foolsy]

this would be the Harmony Gold Robotech, not the original japanese Macross? there's a huge quality difference between the two. later in the Robotech series you see people walking in place, or floating off the ground... really ugly. i remember in one episode lynn minmei was supposed to be singing as she walked up a runway, and it looked like she was doing the moonwalk for around 20 seconds. eugh.

Re:Robotech

[TomHandy]

Robotech is sort of a hacked up version of three Japanese series; Macross, Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada. The storylines were changed quite a bit, dubbed, etc. And yes, the video quality is awful.

AnimEigo released the entire original Japanese Macross series with English subtitles and the original Macross story at the end of 2001, and this year started releasing the discs individually. They spent $1 million to completely remaster and re-shoot the video, and it makes it look a lot better. And even if you're a Robotech fan, you should definitely think about checking this out so you can see the original story. ADV is planning on releasing the original Japanese versions of Mospeada and Southern Cross, but they won't be doing video remastering or anything.

-Tom

Re:Robotech

[TomHandy]

Yes, it shouldn't be flamebait (although I would probably say that Southern Cross wasn't specifically great, and Mospeada was only decent, compared to SDF Macross). Macek has gone on record numerous times saying that he thought the original Japanese creators couldn't tell a story as good as him, which is why he had no problem tearing out the original stories and putting his own story in, which he considered to be a lot better. This is of course also the same guy who thinks he can tell a better story than Miyazaki, when he hacked up Nausicaa into his "Warriors of the Wind" dubbed version of that movie.

-Tom

Re:Robotech

[magic_bicycle]

Not so... SDF:Macross pretty much has the same animation errors in it than the copied over Robotech. Although you get a few more clips in the origional Japanese series of SDF:Macross, the overwhelming dispute of "which is better" is highly overrated [but, who could forgot Miliya throwing her child across the room --certainly a classic].

What I don't get about this whole Cartoon Network running is their choice of selections from the Robotech Series. They plan to play the very first episode, Boobytrap, from the Macross Saga, then the very last 2 episodes from the New Generation.

First of all, there are three sagas to Robotech, and one would assume that playing one episode from each of the series would be the most logical. However, they skipped over the horrindously animated Robotech Masters saga [en Japanese: Southern Cross]

Next, if you're goign to show any of the New Generation, it certainly should not be the last two espisodes.. which we're horribly done. I understand the importance of the anime preview, focusing on "Giant Robots", and this decision detracts from that ideal.

Lastly, Why aren't they showing the best all-time episode of the whole Robotech series, Force of Arms. It details the human desparation to survive, even though they lost all hope with Earth being laid to watse. They could only succeed by using the power of Love and Music to lay waste to a considerable part of the fleet. The episode itself has swelled my heart every time I watch it. Even when I listen to the music number that caused the vitory in my car, I can't help but shed more than a few tears. ..In essence, Cartoon Network comes out to be yet another disappointment.

Re:Robotech

[amuro98]

"removed all the good bits"?

If you watch Macross and Robotech's Macross segment, you'll see that there was actually very little removed. Of the three series that make up Robotech, the Macross segment was the least editted.

Southern Cross *bombed* in Japan. It never even finished its first airing, but got cancelled - something that rarely happens. Due to the setting of Southern Cross, it was the most modified of the three series.

Mospeada was only a moderate success in Japan, no where near the mega-hit that Macross was though. From what I've read about Mospeada, it too wasn't modified too much from its original story, other than changes to the characters' names and the whole "Protoculture" thing.

If you think about it, Macek didn't do a half bad job combining the three shows together.

Re:Robotech

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, from Carl Macek's own mouth, the Mospeada segment was the least tampered segment of Robotech. The Macross segments have numerous cuts throughout the series (Ahem,"Pine Salad"), made even worse by the fact that local TV stations made further edits (I remember in the initial run of Robotech back on KCOP in 1985, there was a great scene where Lisa, sick to death of Rick's philandering, is plastered in a bar signing Minmay songs. On the second run, that scene got the ax.) for time and content. I'll be watching CN's release and see what footage they left out or in.
But also, you can't deny that Macross took a pounding by Harmony Gold in the plot department, far moreso than Mospeada. I mean, even in the first minute of Robotech, a plot point ("Global Civil War ravaged the Earth at that time..") was changed from the official Japanese canon, as we have witnessed in the newly released Macross Zero...
If the CN really wanted to do a homage to Mecha, why not show the three subtitled, uncut versions of the Robotech Shows (And perhaps Megazone 23 as well?)? And you can't have a mecha homage without VOTOMS...

Re:Robotech

[Peterus7]

Sadly, this will only last a week. Well, it will be a good week, but only a week.

Hopefully Eva will last longer.

Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

How exactly does CN plan to show EVA anyways? Wouldn't most episodes end up being about 5 min. long after being cut to what CN would consider appropriate?

Re:Eva?

[carpe_noctem]

Actually, there isn't -that- much in Eva that would really need to be cut. Most of the violence is nothing too special, and there's only one episode that has any nudity at all (nipple-less nudity, nonetheless). I heard (and this is just a rumor, mind you), that the only things that are actually getting cut from Eva are some religious references that might offend some people; though I can't think of what those might be offhand.

I think a far better thing to worry about is the fact that they are airing the dubbed version of NGE, which is enough to make one want to tear their eyes out. I realize that the subtitled version would probably not interest most American veiwers, but hiring a crew of voice actors from Texas certainly isn't going to do wonders for the series, either.

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

Word has it from ADV that they'll be uncut. So either CN's hoping it's so brief, soccer moms won't care, or ADV is (sadly) misinformed.

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

ADV supposedly stated at Katsucon last week that Evangelion will air uncut, which, of course, does not precisely mean unedited. This should be interesting.

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of the stuff in Eva isn't so much disturbing due to violence or sex as the imagery. While there isn't very much blood and gore in Eva, there is a lot of cross shaped explosions and talks about what makes a human that many parents in this country would find disturbing.

I mean how many people in America would think that showing kids explosions of crosses and talks of the attacking Angels and the final battle between them and humanity is appropriate?

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not many, but is it really wise for these well-meaning parents to deliberately shelter their kids from these sorts of issues? True, they probably conflict with their theology, but it's not like everyone in the world is going to share that same theology (thank god [of your choice]). I believe those kids would turn out more open-minded if their parents would stop forcing them into the same mold their parents forced them into.

Re:Eva?

[kfg]

How about voice actors from Hokkaido? We could have a little Engrish with our Japanese. Set us up the bomb? Closs shaped maybe?

I'm afraid *any* religious references will offend somebody. Today "tolerence" means "shut up."

Go figure.

KFG

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to see Cartoon Network get away with showing End of Eva uncut. Especially that first scene with Shinji visiting Asuka in the hospital.

Re:Eva?

[jgerman]

Hmmm cut out the religious references... we're back down to five minutes: Shinji whines about something, Asuka bitches about something, Misato drinks a beer, and then Penpen looks at everyone and wanders out of the room, end of episode ;)

Re:Eva?

[Kibo]

They'll probably just paint bikinis on them.

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

Today "tolerance" means "I don't care about you". It is no longer a positive statement (as in, "I am happy with you and the alternative outlook on life that you give me"), but a negative one ("I couldn't care less about your existence").

Tolerance, in this form, is not something to be proud of or happy about.

Re:Eva?

[bludstone]

Nothing is being cut from Eva. They are only airing the first to episode and, suprising to many fans, ADV does not allow its shows to be edited for tv broadcast.

Frankly, I think this is a foolish move. As long as the unedited versions are available on DVD, I dont care :)

Re:Eva?

[carpe_noctem]

Finally; someone with some information. Thanks. ;)

Re:Eva?

[Minna Kirai]

there isn't very much blood

The show features millions of litres of blood. Eva-01 is impaled in episode 2, and the city is bathed in a spraying red liquid. (Not LCL either)

It doesn't come out of recognizable humans, though, so I guess that makes it OK.

Re:Eva?

[Kirby-meister]

What about the episode where Shinji and Asuka have to beat an angel by staying 100% in sync with each other's movements? Asuka pretty much can't keep that towel on her while coming out of the shower...

Re:Eva?

[Jearil]

Actually, have you ever watched the Dubbed version of Eva?

I know most diehard fans of anime are always insistant upon subtitles, and there are quite a few pieces of good anime destroyed by bad dubbing, but Eva did an awesome job at it. I acutally preferred it from the subtitled version because the stressing of each word was easier to connect, unlike in subtitles. The only other dubbed anime that I found of the same quality was Trigun.

Hopefully CN won't cut too much, it truely shouldn't be deformed in such ways.

Re:Eva?

[carpe_noctem]

I *have* watched the dubbed version. Shinji's voice absolutely killed me.

However, I agree that Trigun was a good dub. Hellsing is also pretty well done.

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

They'd have to cut the last two episodes or they'll have riots. EVA sucks!

Re:Eva?

[amuro98]

Well, they're only showing a couple of episodes during their "Giant Robot Week". Why Eva was chosen at all is beyond my reasoning... The first two episodes make it *very* clear that this isn't going to be your average ordinary giant-robot-show...

That said, there are a few episodes I could see them using. The first two episodes would be one guess, though I'm not sure what they'll do about showing Shinji's "robot" bleeding...

Re:Eva?

[Anonymous Coward]

"While there isn't very much blood and gore in Eva.."

Until you get to the movie, that is... Made "Saving Private Ryan" look like "Pee Wee's playhouse", if ya ask me...

Sadness.

[Lendrick]

I was hoping from the headline that someone was actually building a giant bipedal robot. Ah well.

Re:Sadness.

[carpe_noctem]

No, sadly enough, this isn't the case. :(

But hey, I heard they built a motorized scooter that will revolutionize transportation in cities! And for the low low price of only 5,000$, it could be yours!

Re:Sadness.

[The_dev0]

Hopefully This might hold you over... Absolutely amazing.

Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Anonymous Coward]

...IT IS COMING OUT IN JAPAN (Region 2). I also don't believe there are English subtitles on the discs, although I could be misstaken. Then again, I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva... *dodges thrown debris*

Those looking for an updated region 1 release will probably have to wait until ADV decides to reissue them...again.

Word is that Manga is thinking of doing a box set of the two movies, but nothing has been officially announced.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[jcsehak]

I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva...

I've never seen Evangelion, but I actually prefer the english dub on Cowboy Bebop. The voice acting is perfect. Sometimes they just get it right. And besides, it's annoying to read when you're supposed to be looking at the pictures.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[argmanah]

Then again, I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva... *dodges thrown debris*

No dodging needed. There are some anime that has been dubbed over very well, and others which well, seem to be lacking.

For example, Ranma 1/2. Although I do prefer the Japanese voice acting, I have to admit the dub is done very well. As opposed to, let's say, Bubblegum Crisis, for example, where the dub was painful to watch.

YMMV, but not all dubs are created equal. I think as anime fans its more important to get the content in front of mainstream audiences so that it's more economically viable to bring more content over from Japan. Infighting over the details doesn't help.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[packeteer]

What the hell does this matter. You wont buy it and you know it. I dont want to troll here but i know not many people are going to want to pay out over $300 for a dvd box set. Are they asking for kids to download this over gnutella? I personally wont pirate these but i also know i wont pay for them and dont know many people who could/would.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Angron]

*throws debris*

I found Eva's dubs to be some of the worst I've heard (though I avoid dubs as much as I can); I tried them out on disc5, around where Shinji is talking about it being a man's responsibility to go first, and it sounded to me like they were recorded in a broom closet. *shudder*

To each their own I suppose...

-A

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Anonymous Coward]

Damnit, you had to post that while I was typing my reply below... ;)

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[BJH]

I will.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Flamerule]

I found Eva's dubs to be some of the worst I've heard (though I avoid dubs as much as I can)

Word. A couple of times, while I was getting screen captures off the DVDs in Xine, I would fast forward a track without setting the audio to Japanese first... and I found myself in for a nasty surprise when I stopped clicking for long enough. I specifically remember doing it during that virus episode, focused on Ritsuko, and hearing this unbelievably godawful snippet of whatever voice actress plays her.

Besides that... if you leave the End of Evangelion DVD sitting in the player long enough, the sound track on the opening menu progresses from Bach's Cantata 137 to this voiceover by Shinji's English voice actor (Spike Spencer, no?), which is a nasty surprise if you're not expecting it.

No English for me. Barring the superb Bebop dub.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[zaren]

And besides, it's annoying to read when you're supposed to be looking at the pictures.

My wife has a focus problem, so she can't track subtitles *and* pay attention to a movie at the same time, so there's not as much subbed anime viewing going on at the House of Zaren as I'd like. Of course, now that my 2 1/2 and 6 year olds are running around the house firing kame wave attacks at each other, there isn't much Toonami in the house, either... :p

I like the sound of the native language voice acting, but for a lot of stuff, I have to go with the dub version for the reason mentioned above. Besides, there's times when I've had the dub and sub running together, and there's a LOT that's missing in the sub, so I feel like I'd have been missing something by depending on just the sub... so I watch it once to get the gist of the dialogue in English, and then watch it again native :)

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Anonymous Coward]

Besides, there's times when I've had the dub and sub running together, and there's a LOT that's missing in the sub, so I feel like I'd have been missing something by depending on just the sub

Unless the sub job is absolutely horrid, it is not that there is info missing from the sub, but rather more info was added to the dub. This is usually either done to fill lip flaps, or because it is assumed the English audience isn't as good at inferring things, and needs everything spelled out for them. Personally, I tend to find the extra info annoying and somewhat patronizing. There is also the risk that the dub writer's interpretation of what is meant is not totatally accurate, and the ambiguity of the original text is better.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[nomadic]

I don't mind either subtitling or dubbing myself. The only time I've ever wished something was dubbed was Metropolis--either that or they should have stopped talking during the panoramic shots.

so I watch it once to get the gist of the dialogue in English, and then watch it again native

I can't do that; whatever I watch it in first, that's what I'll always look at/listen to.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Moloch666]

With anime over half of the movie is looking at the details in the video. Whether it be looking at the artwork or subtle things in the background. Add subtitles to this and barely get a chance to look up during constant conversation.

A friend of mine was flipping back and forth between dubbed English and Japanese, English subtitled. Well the quality much higher hearing the Japanese voices, so I the advantage to subtitled is obvious as well. BTW, this was a Cowboy Bebop DVD.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Purificator]

i'll agree there. while i, myself, hate watching dubs i know most people refuse to watch something with subtitles. when i show my parents things like princess mononoke and grave of the fireflies (you know, to explain why i "still" watch animated shows), they want to see the dub.

i think the only dubs i really object to are the butcher dubs, like that awful cardcaptors that came out of the beautiful and perfect cardcaptor sakura. while i should hate robotech for that reason, i just can't. too many fond memories.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[amuro98]

Yes, the EVA re-release is coming out in Japan, which means it's R2 and doesn't contain English subtitles.

As for getting ADV/Manga to pickup the re-release....I wouldn't count on it.

Heck, Manga didn't even do the movies right the first time. Why bother with a boxset of botched material?

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[amuro98]

Do note that this is the Japanese set - there is no English sub OR dub available.

DVDs in Japan tend to cost ~2x what they cost here, which is another reason the price seems so high.

Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set...

[Teknogeek]

There was no Cardcaptors.

It was just an urban legend, like the live-action Ninja Turtles Series and the other dimension in Dragonball Z.

Kids stuff?

[ibjhb]

How many people seriously watch this? Am I mistaken saying that just 'kids' do? I know my tweleve year old syster does, but I didn't think anybody past say, o, fourteen watched this kind of thing...

Also shows the next generation coming up. At tweleve I was learning to program and learning everything and anything I could about computers. I guess 'kids' of today see the computer as some of us see cars or lightbulbs and don't have the excitement or interest in computers anymore.

Re:Kids stuff?

[Zelet]

You are going to get Karma raped. I just happened to insult the viewers of this stuff and I was shot down to -1 in about 5 mins. I hope you don't like having an opinion or karma - cause both get shot to shit on slashdot.

Re:Kids stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a pretty sweeping statement.

You and I may look at cars today and think, "Ok, it's a machine that takes me from point A to point B. What's the big deal?", but our opinion obviously doesn't represent the opinion of everyone else. Walk into any bookstore or grocery store and check out the magazine section -- what do you see? Dozens of car magazines aimed at car enthusiasts, who are every bit as excited about cars as their counterparts decades ago.

Similarly, there are countless teenagers and pre-teens who are more obsessed with computers as much as we are/were (maybe even moreso). Just like the car enthusiasts of our day (many of whom have completely ripped apart their stock vehicles and 'modded' them out), these kids also have the desire to break through the nice, clean exterior their store-bought computers present them to find out what really makes them tick. This drive to explore and tweak has been around for centuries, and it's not going to stop here.

Re:Kids stuff?

[ibjhb]

I was seriously asking a question.

How many people watch this? It wasn't sarcastic at all.

Also, I wasn't blanketing the teenage population as a whole. OBVIOUSLY there are kids obsessed with computers. I knew that. I was more referring to kids that watched cartoons and even moreso indirectly asking a question as to if kids that watched these cartoons were interested in computers.

Re:Kids stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

a lot of people. once i heard more here in america then in japan. tho more to due to population and landsize.

enough people that in nine years our local suncoast store's selection of anime consisted of probably 80 tapes, shoved in the back corner ( by employees/stock room next to the westerns across from the playboy section.

now its the largest section in the store having half a wall to itself. with no hentai. a huge dragon ballz merchindize section with couple odd other anime stuff tossed in. hell its recently started selling manga.

Re:Kids stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can figure it out for yourself. A person can only pay attention to one thing at a time. The more television watched is less of everything else.

Re:Kids stuff?

[ibjhb]

Wow, I seriously had no idea it was that big. I mean I've heard of it, but that is about it. I could believe that more people in America would watch it because of the sheer size we are to Japan. I wonder if you could took out the population difference, where would it be more popular?

Re:Kids stuff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also shows the next generation coming up. At tweleve I was learning to program and learning everything and anything I could about computers. I guess 'kids' of today see the computer as some of us see cars or lightbulbs and don't have the excitement or interest in computers anymore.

You make a good point and it's a shame that this is an offtopic subject because it is one I happen to agree with.

Back in the day (around 1991) when I got into computers, it was something interesting because it was challenging. If you wanted to get on to a BBS, you had to install a modem, set dip switches or jumpers, install terminal emulation software and configure it. Sure, it sounds like having to walk 50 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways, but unlike today's plug-and-play point-and-click computing world, you almost always ended up learning something new while using the computer.

Let's face it, I didn't start using computers because I could download songs and movies, or play the latest hottest games (they were all on consoles. I started using computers because they were interesting and challenging. The more I figured out how to do, the more I wanted to learn...

It's amazing how accurate you are with the car analogy. With older cars, you could pop the hood and there'd be room to work and easy tweaks you could do. Possibly you'd get interested by the appeal of the vehicle's "hackability" and become motivated to learn more about mechanics. Of course, this is before my time - my father told me all about how "back in the day cars used to be easier to work on". Nowadays, you pop the hood and wonder how they ever manged to get that engine in there, and how the hell you'll even get at the spark plugs to change them. Most teenagers that are even still interested in modifying cars either buy older cars or do "rice boy"-type appearance modifications to modern ones.

Today's Windows PCs are much the same way... All the complexity is hidden from the user. Many of my younger brother's friends know how to do the basics - they can browse the web, send e-mail, download music and porn... But ask them what kind of processor they have and they'll reply "I don't know." It's great that PCs have become easy enough to use for the masses, but I wonder how many kids are just getting introduced to Windows XP and assume the PC is just another entertainment appliance.

Re:Kids stuff?

[ibjhb]

You are correct it's a shame it's off topic...

I totally agree with you. Without sounding like I walked 50 miles in snow to get to school, I remember when downloading 10K off a BBS was a big deal and you made sure you started it right before dinner (or going to bed). But I learned how to install my modem, build my own computers, configure IRQs and jumper settings. Back then you couldn't exactly call up Dell and order a $500 PC.

I also agree with you that most 'kids' get into computers because of music or games. Then the smart (or determined) ones would go further and learn something about their computer but it was usually to help their frame rate or burn their favorite artist to CD.

I learned computers because they interested me. Because I wanted to know not just what I could do with them but how they worked. And I learned...

It's really weird how you mentioned the old cars having tons of room to work and being 'hackable'. One of my cars is a 66 Mustang. It has plenty of room to work under the hood. And what is even more strange, and I didn't notice it till now, I do to that car what I do to computers. I dive right in and figure out how it works without worrying too much about breaking things. Strange similarity.

If I had to take a guess, I think most people of upcoming generations will view the computer as an entertainment device (or work device) and won't discover computers as you or I know them till they begin really working with them in high school or college instead of before that, as I did. I also wonder what kind of effect, if any, it will have on future computing and the computer workforce.

Re:Kids stuff?

[FungiSpunk]

Jeez, that is so true, thanks for making me feel old at 32! Windows doesn't like being played with, hence the take up of Linux et al, you have to play to get something done, just like them good ol' days of DOS and the BBS!

Now some words for the old timers out there, Xmodem, Procomm Plus, Kermit, edlin, CopyIIPC, EMS, DOS=HIGH, device=......

Kids today, don't know what we suffered through to get them their Windows XP desktops!!!!

Re:Kids stuff?

[amuro98]

How many people?

I can't give you any recent figures, though back when I was helping to run the anime club back in college circa '95 or so, we were regularly pulling in 400+ college-aged students to our monthly showings... After I graduated, the club got so prominient, it actually started receiving funding directly from the Japanese Studies department, since many of the students taking Japanese were members of the club as well.

When I started going to the club in '90, there were barely 50 members. We were amazed (and downright frightend!) by what a bit of advertising was able to do...

I've been into anime since I was a teenager, and I haven't been a teenager for long time now....

To say that anime is just for kids would be like saying movies are just for adults. There is a lot of variety within anime - some titles are for kids (Pokemon) while some titles are aimmed at adults (Cowboy Bebop) and some have universal appeal.

ehh

[Chef Ramen Noodle]

dammit, i wanted to see a really big fuckin robot! oh well no, that isn't vierd

erm

[lingqi]

Nadesico doesn't take itself seriously enough to be considered "giant robot series," methinks.

On the other hand, I am waiting for the day when US TV is open enough to air the entire series of NGE unedited - including the part right before a certain female pilot went into a multi-episode coma.

But I get a feeling that might not happen any times soon; Forces of darkness - erm, TV censoring - is still strong in the states.

Re:erm

[Alex Belits]

Nadesico doesn't take itself seriously enough to be considered "giant robot series," methinks.

It takes itself so non-serious that it has a GIANT ROBOT ANIME AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLOT!

Re:erm

[lingqi]

you don't need to tell *me* what's it about. I watched the whole thing.

The entire story was to me (heck they say it themselves) a non-serious parody inside a parody. I think they were trying to get a chuckle out of their decscription of anime fans who takes it way too seriously.

I mean, still good, but "giant robot anime" to me would be probably ones that actually focuse on the *robots*. Nadesico focuses on *ANIME about giant robots* and also on the fans of the said genre; which is one of the reason why it's good, considering that the drawing and the storyline isn't exactly on par with many of the other series.

small difference, you might say - but an important one nontheless.

Re:erm

[SecretAsianMan]

the part right before a certain female pilot went into a multi-episode coma.

Hallelujah! Errr, I mean I think that whole sequence is probably the best 5 minutes of animation ever animated. Quite possibly the best 5 minutes of anything you can play on a screen. People ask me "What is anime?", and I'll pop in DVD #7 and play the Hallelujah sequence. It's so good I'll burn all my karma with no regrets by posting this inane message.

If you've never seen anime or Neon Genesis Evangelion, then run, don't walk, to the nearest video rental and rent DVD #7. Watch the middle episode. Warning: may cause serious addiction.

Re:erm

[Anonymous Coward]

Just don't let them see DVD #8.

Re:erm

[truenoir]

Other than that: 1.) Nadesico is a parody of the genre, in the same way that Slayers parodies fantasy stuff. 2.) As mentioned already, a major plot point is a giant robot anime inside the anime. Technically Eva shouldn't be shown for this...seeing how Evas aren't robots ^_^ It's great to see Nadesico on TV though, since it's a thoroughly enjoyable series. Saying it doesn't take itself seriously is like saying that Trigun doesn't...they're similar in their blend/transition from humor to story. I don't think it's TV censoring that gets in the way of Eva getting shown. More the mentality of "cartoons" being for kids. Eva could easily show on cable, and considering some of the X-Files episodes and such, probably on network TV too.

Re:erm

[Anonymous Coward]

Just don't watch the last two episodes, or end of eva. They make the whole series suck

Re:erm

[SecretAsianMan]

Just don't watch the last two episodes, or end of eva. They make the whole series suck

Well, you need to watch something to tie everything together; all the loose ends left by just watching up to episode 24 would be unbearable. Any curious human would want more. And I don't think it is too farfetched to think that End of Evangelion provides the better ending of the two. So I'm must disagree and recommend that the reader at least watch EoE.

Better idea

[KiahZero]

I'll be happier when CN decides to run a "Hentai week" featuring the best of cartoon pr0n.

Re:Better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, showing episodes of tentacle-rape hentai in between Dexter and Scooby Doo.

Re:Better idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations, dipshit! You win the "obligatory hentai mention" award! Be sure to tell all your friends how funny you are.

~$322?!?

[jcsehak]

Over three-hundred dollars? Does it come with a geisha?

Thank God for Cartoon Network. Apparently everyone else only cares about the hardcore fans. God forbid you're a curious n00b.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep in mind that in Japan, a two-episode DVD often costs over 6000 yen, or around $60. When you think about it that way, $320 for the entire series is damned good for the Japanese fans.

Re:~$322?!?

[silne]

Can I have just the geisha?

Re:~$322?!?

[Enraged_jawa]

$322??? Is this that hentai porn I've heard about?

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

well lets see it usually costs 30$ a dvd with 8 of em (might be wrong here) that comes to 320$ oh the movies after the series also cost another 30$. the intro article didn't make it clear if they were including the movie or not.

but for another 2$ you get a collectors box to put the dvd's in.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a bit surprised at the cost myself. I think $150 is quite rich for complete box sets.

Given box sets of other popular anime, it'd be smart to order a few. When they are sold out or done with the run, the box set prices skyrocket. Look at the "Perfect Collection" region 1 of Cowboy Bebop. Or (I always get the spelling wrong) Esclaflowne (when they did the 10,000 run or whatever, then ran out or misinventoried or continued selling the box set minus the serializing, or whatever the hell happened before they released more).

I like anime, but, uhh, wow.

Re:~$322?!?

[critter_hunter]

Tip: you can download a bit of anime from Kazaa, and a fuckload of Anime on Hotline. Hotline is harder for beginners though, as it usually involves trading. Once you got some trading material though, it's Chrismas all year long. I got around a hundred gigs of Anime lying around, all of it gotten in less than a year... all was nice until my ISP started enforcing download limits :(

Re:~$322?!?

[blincoln]

God forbid you're a curious n00b.

If you are a n00b, be sure to watch a good chunk of the series before you drop a lot of money on it.

I really like the NGE mech designs, but most of the series bores me to death. The end was especially disappointing, IMO.

The plot about the angels was interesting, but there was just way too much of the circular-logic pseudo-philosophy that I've noticed in a lot of anime.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn! Is it really that expensive? I thought we had it bad back in the VHS days with $30 for 2 episodes. DVD has actually made anime cheaper (now its usually 4 episodes per disc). I'm amazed anime would be so cheap in it's country of origin. A whole season of the Simpsons, with bonus crap, is $40 in the US.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

One word: eBay.

I got 3 Ranma box sets, which retail for $120 for between $60 and $70 each. As long as it's not out of print, you can get this stuff cheap if you bid right (i.e. at the last second).

Re:~$322?!?

[BJH]

Geez, don't bitch - you lot in the USA get anime at one third to a half of the price of what it is here in Japan.

Take GitS, for example - in Japan, it's still sold at the RRP of 7,800 yen (about $US65), at best with 20% discount, but in the States, you can get it for around $US25.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they'll have some Giant Robo Hentai in this drop?

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

One reason:

Scale of economies.

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course there is always us poor people in Europe who do not get Anime at all... Our only chance to see some is through fan-channels.

The stupid thing is, we have cartoon network here as well. They just do not show any Anime, it is filled 100% with Powerpuff girls, Vulture Squadron, Tom & Jerry, etc...

Courtesy of Kazaa, I have been watching Witchhunter Robin recently, and I love it. I wish we could get some of this on TV. I don't care if it at a strange hour - I got a VCR.

Re:~$322?!?

[blanks]

That is a little over $10.00 per episode.

Re:~$322?!?

[StephenWertz]

I agree it got hard to follow exactly what was going on after a while. Plus I watched the last two eps first then EoE and that made it worse

Re:~$322?!?

[ebooher]

Well, actually .... the article *is* pretty clear about if they are including the movie or not. It says .... The final cut of the Evangelion movie--Death(True)2, Air, and Magokoro wo Kimi ni--will also be included. Gainax's newly announced "bonus disc" will contain creditless opening and closing video, the original teaser trailer, and a never-before released live-action edition of the film. All discs will fit in a limited edition art box.

Not only do they include the theatrical movie, that we had to wait so long to get in the states. But they are also be including a "live-action edition of the film." I'm sorry .... What?!

I'm seriously tempted to get this set even with out English subtitles .... just to see what that whole live-action thing is all about. I mean, is it just one episode, or like a test print, or is it a full on movie that they expected to show, finished it, and was like, "Nah that sucks, let's just animate the movie too"??

Re:~$322?!?

[jcsehak]

Yeah, but in Japan, you could have a $100 bill and still not have enough to both ride on the train and buy a cup of coffee. Of course, even the average data-entry clerk gets paid in their choice of precious gems or bags of money, so $60 is chump change to you Japanese. I mean, the only thing you guys have trouble affording is your own giant mecha, but with payment plans and interest rates the way they are, it's realistic to expect one in every garage by 2007.

Either that, or they figure you anime fans for a bunch of suckers.

Re:~$322?!?

[jnik]

Uh...if you're a curious n00b, why don't you drop about a hundred bucks on the R1, subbed and dubbed, box set from ADV?

Not many curious n00bs are going to be importing raw DVD's from Japan.

Re:~$322?!?

[evilWurst]

In the USA we mostly have to BUY our anime. In Japan, it's on TV! All the time! On multiple stations!

Re:~$322?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's economies of scale, isn't it?

Re:~$322?!?

[Chrontius]

Yup. In other words, it's cheaper (per item) to make a whole crapload of them than to make a few; the fixed costs (whether you make one DVD or a billion) are spread out over a larger number of DVDs.

Re:~$322?!?

[Chrontius]

Oh crap... I'm flashing back to G-Saviour.

Re:~$322?!?

[Chrontius]

Has anyone else noticed that whenever a biblical reference is used as a code-name, the producers start reading *WAY* too much into it halfway through? They did the same thing in Spriggan.

Cool Sci-fi week.

[$$$$$exyGal]

It sounds like next week is cool sci-fi week. First, on Sunday, X-Men is showing on Fox. Then for the rest of the week, it's Giant Robot Week on the Cartoon Channel. Cool!

You'd think it was sweeps month. Oh, it is.

--sex

Re:Cool Sci-fi week.

[ibjhb]

And none of it is on the Sci-Fi channel...

Re:Cool Sci-fi week.

[kfg]

No, they're too busy showing Komodo for the umptyninth time.

At least their showing Crossing Over is truth in advertising. Well, except for the "science" part.

KFG

I dunno...

[Peterus7]

But I want to see next the tech line up... With Serial Experiements Lain, Ghost in a shell, and Armitage 3.

*News report* "Children all over the US have started throwing themselves off buildings after seeing the first episode of serial experiement Lain on cartoon network. All these children were characterized by high internet addiction. Survivors said they hoped to come back as gods on the internet.

Or who knows, for Evangeleon, "Nerds have suddenly come into style, after the hero of Neon Genesis Evangeleon made his big Debut. All hail Shinji, the ultimate geek with power."

Well, maybe not... and plus, I think Tenchi is just as socially inept than Shinji anyways...

Nah...

Re:I dunno...

[Alex Belits]

Well, maybe not... and plus, I think Tenchi is just as socially inept than Shinji anyways...

Though it's a painful thing to realize, Tenchi is surrounded by people at least few orders of magnitude more rational and balanced than the cast of Evangelion. And no, I don't include Eva and Angels.

Re:I dunno...

[Peterus7]

I wonder if Eva will bomb, perhaps, because it's so deep, as far as character development. There's Shinji, who's got 'hedgehog's predicament' and an absent father complex, and is weak and lets himself get bullied around, the aloof and devoid Rei, the emotionally supressive bully Asuka... the slutty yet emotionally fux0red drunk, Misato, Risuko, the geeky supressed girl, Koji the manwhore, Gendo Ikari, the absent father figure who would ignore his own son, Kensuke the neurotic war technology nerd with no mom, Toji the gentle giant/avenging knight, the 5th pilot, what's his name... the angel.... Yeah.

Take that Mihoshi, Sailor Moon, and Goku! Toonami just got a lot more philisophical...

I'm still worried that the deep philisophical nature of EVA could hurt toonami and make them loose ratings... But on the other side, there is a lot of nice pleasant violence!

Re:I dunno...

[Anonymous Coward]

The phrase is "Hedgehogs Dilemma", and the angel you refer to is Kaora.

Re:I dunno...

[Anonymous Coward]

Kaoru, loser. Ah, the irony...

Re:I dunno...

[BJH]

Perhaps you missed it, but none of the major child characters have mothers.

Shinji: Died in Eva accident
Rei: Duh.
Asuka: Suicide.
Misato: Not mentioned, I think, but possibly Antarctica or in the aftermath of the Second Impact.
Ritsuko: Suicide.
Kensuke: Died in aftermath of Second Impact.
Toji: Died, probably in aftermath of Second Impact.
Kaoru: Again, duh.

Re:I dunno...

[Master_Ruthless]

I think you are right on re: the characters in NGE not exactly fitting in with the Cartoon Network's usual fare. Not to mention all the [creepy/gory/sexual/just downright nuts] stuff I'd imagine they would have to cut in order to get it on tv.
But hey, if 99% of the people end up sitting there going "what happened?" and 1% goes "Wow, I guess there might be something more to Anime than Gundam Wing!" It will be a Good Thing.
(Not knocking GW btw.)

Re:I dunno...

[zsazsa]

TechTV already has Serial Experiments: Lain. I was pretty shocked when I was flipping through the channels and I saw it.

It's amazing that totally obtuse anime like Lain and Evangelion are making it to 'mainstream' cable TV now.

Re:I dunno...

[Anonymous Coward]

its like goldsey and bronzey!

Giant Mecca?

[foo fighter]

Did anyone else think the article was about Islam's holy city suffering urban sprawl after first reading the title?

Maybe it's just me...

Re:Giant Mecca?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought it was about those wetbacks who want to make the southwest US an independent country. Of course if they got their wish it would be just as fucked up as Mexico and they'd all be sneaking across the border into Utah.

Giant Robots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, how practical are GIANT ROBOTS for waging actual combat? You'd think they'd be a bit impractical...

Wellington: Come, sir. Choose your robot.

Blackadder: What's this? I thought we were dueling with pistols?

Wellington: Pistols! What do you think this is, the 20th century? Only girls fight with guns these days. Stand by your robot, sir. Hup two three. Hup two three.

Blackadder: Wait a minute.

Wellington: Stand by cockpit for ingress procedure. Activate appendage control. Motive systems online. Stoke the fusion reactor. Patching in torsional control.

Blackadder (reading manual): Congratulations on choosing the Reaver Class Emperor Titan. Please read instructions carefully and it should give years of trouble-free mecha dueling.

Wellington: Check altitude, ambient temperature, local gravitational flux. Fuel plasma cannons. Aim...

Blackadder: Look, wait a minute.

Wellington: FIRE!

Re:Giant Robots?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blackadder Luckily, this cigarillo holder, I had in my pocket..seems to have deflected the shot! Ah ha!

Re:Giant Robots?

[Aexia]

Gasaraki had a decently realistic take on the giant robot genre that I liked.

The TAs & Fakes weren't particularly huge. I think they were only 10-12 feet tall. Not much taller than a tank. They were designed for urban warfare and could even enter builings. They could run faster than tanks and were more agile so they could take on a tank division in the field if they had the element of surprise.

Another break from giant robot conventions was that they didn't add any new mech designs throughout the series. There's a funny (text) interview on the DVD where the designer describes how the merchandising department got freaked out when they found out there were only a couple mechs. The designers reasoned that the TA and Fake designs would be in service for at least 10 years, though some variants might show up in a few years. But that would all be beyond the lifespan of the show.

Some important differences

[Gizzmonic]

A lot of times Adv will conform to certain America cultural stereotypes that the Japanese lack. For example, The strange wanderer caracter in the Japanese version of the Fall Guy was a morally ambigious character who was almost always shredded in self-doubt.

Yet the American version of the same character (Lee Majors, also the Six Million Dollar Man and the Incredible Hulk) always strayed on the right side of the law. I guess we Americans always have to root for the good guy. Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah. I gues they just have different types over there.

Re:Some important differences

[kfg]

On the other hand we have the classic Batman, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and the X-Men.

We're not as prone to the tortured hero, but they aren't exactly absent.

Even in classic American literature we've got Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, Melville's Ishmael (who slept with his cannibal buddy) and Hemmingway's Nick Adams (among others).

Oh, and The Incredible Hulk was Bill Bixby. Also a tortured hero who had trouble with the law.

KFG

Re:Some important differences

[mskfisher]

ah... that got an audible laugh out of me. excellent work, Gizzmonic-san.

Re:Some important differences

[jesse.k]

Slow down there, champ. actually the Hulk was played by body builder Lou Ferigno on the tv show while his alter ego, Bruce Banner (on the show changed to David Banner) was played by Bill Bixby.

Re:Some important differences

[Anonymous Coward]

"Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah."

Well, I guess that in Japan, I'm considered a well developed hero.

Re:Some important differences

[Gannoc]

Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah.

So in Japan, I would be a hero??? Cool.

Re:Some important differences

[batlock]

Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah.

Like Ichi the Killer?

Re:Some important differences

[kevinvh]

Let's also not forget that in the Japanese version of the A-Team, they had a big sumo wrestler replace B.A. Barrackas.. and they had to drug his miso soup in order to get him on an airplane..

But someone is!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mechanized Propulsion Systems

Re:But someone is!

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunatley, this effort, while well meaning, seems doomed to failure. Notice:

• No one in the group owns any welding equipment. This would seem a rather large ommision for something planning to use steel I beams as legs.
• They are using modified I-openers as control computers. Enough said.
• Engineering prototypes in legos. Never mind the radically different wieght and structural considerations. Legos.
• No intermediate mechs. Theyre planning on going right from legos to full building sized machines.

Not to say the project doesnt have merit from a gee thats cool standpoint, but I would hate for someone to get killed developing this thing and the whole idea be written off that much longer.

Re:But someone is!

[Chrontius]

Yes, that welding bit is a bit of a problem. Fortunately, welding gear is affordable, if not exactly cheap, and just because they don't own any it doesn't mean they've never used any.

By the way, this is by no means the first effort of it's type: take a look at this. Unfortunately, many of their links only exist in the web archive.

However, some work as stated: http://bitter.swee.to/gundam.html
This one seems to be one or both of the following: a hoax, and a BattleBot or equivalent. (It's the conspiracy bits in the engrish that make me wonder)
MekaToro

Of course, I had to save the best for last. Take a look at RoboSaurus.

The only changes I'd make are:
1. Rip out the flamethrower. It'll look like fire when you've got the muzzleflash from a 20mm Vulcan going full blast.
2. Add a pair of BOFORS 40mm cannon to each arm. From what I'm told, it would perform just fine against hard targets, and they're very well recoil-dampened.

By the way, I'm the former Anonymous Coward that posted the link to MechaPS.com; I just registered because I've been reading this site more and more lately.

You want big robot?

[Xandar01]

In case you didn't see the slashdot article last summer, here is a big robot for you that some guy built in his back yard.

Is this one "Perfect" too?

[Daetrin]

Do they mean to say the "Neon Genesis Evangelion - Perfect Collection" actually wasn't perfect? Oh yeah, must have been that glaring lack of the movies.

Of course when you compare the $170 price of that boxed set (or $145 at amazon, or $127.50 at barnes and noble) to this whopping $322 price tag, it seems a little more perfect after all. How many disks does the set have anyway? For that price it better have at least 16.

Then again i supose it beats the $12.63 they want you to pay for just the new and improved first episode.

Re:Is this one "Perfect" too?

[Sangui5]

8, and it doesn't have the movies.

Re:Is this one "Perfect" too?

[Crescens]

These discs are remastered as opposed to the existing ADV discs which are from the originals. Apparently these reduce the screen jitter if not eliminate it etc. I _think_ I've read something about 5.1 sound in this version also, not too sure. And again, it's an R2 release. Discs in Japan routinely cost of equivelant of anywhere from $30-50USD.

Re:Is this one "Perfect" too?

[Anonymous Coward]

Correct.

New remaster of all 26 episodes, including the "director's cut" versions (which add a few new details, most of which were seen in the first movie), 5.1 sound, both movies, trailers, commercials, scripts, etc.

Eva

[Grieveq]

I'm really surprised they are showing Evangelion on CN. Despite what was said above, it is very violent and very sexually suggestive for kids. I'm guessing it is only the first two episodes, which are very light compared to some of the later episodes. If you haven't seen the greatest anime series of all time, I hope you get to see the two episodes shown this week!

Re:Eva

[evilWurst]

The schedule is something like a 2 hour block of anime per day for four days...and they're showing 4 series. So yes, they'll just show a few "safe" episodes of Eva as a teaser. I get the feel that this is Cartoon Network feeling out the audience to see how it reacts to the genre...

Re: So rent first.

[Trunks]

You're not REQUIRED to get the whole boxset at once to check out the series. If you're curious, why not just rent the first DVD seperately? If it turns out you like it, then you can opt to either get the whole thing on seperate DVDs or get the boxset and all the things that come with it.

The Eva boxset release is in Japan only

[Trunks]

There's been no mention whether or not this boxset will be released here in the US. I'm not sure if it will ever be released here due to the current license agreements here: ADV has the rights to the TV series, but Manga Entertainment has the rights to the movies.

Re:The Eva boxset release is in Japan only

[ibjhb]

Yeah and it wouldn't do much good to import it because of the DVD Region difference...

Re:The Eva boxset release is in Japan only

[noc007]

That's why you get a regionless DVD player or get the firmware that makes it regionless.

Sci-Fi having hope!

[Anonymous Coward]

They were running several digital remasterer episodes of Battlestar Galactica each day this week. And getting to the season 6 finale of Stargate in the next week or two!

Real giant mecha

[Animats]

And I thought he meant the DARPA Grand Challenge Conference, the competitor's meeting for the Department of Defense race for robot offroad monster trucks. It's this Saturday, in LA. It's going to be wierd.

Cripsy Toasty Rhode Island Hippy Scum

[Anonymous Coward]

Burn 'em up Great White

Dead Hippy filth. Alcoholic drug frenzied corpses.

Burned Alive. Great White Rhode Island Scum.

Get right with Jesus. Godless hippy drunks die in fire.

burn, Burn, BURN !!!

steel battalion

[Anonymous Coward]

id rather play steel battalion

a more mature evangelion

[a8f11t18]

try rahxephon for size.. right from the beginning you will
get the EVA-feel, and even though it feels a little too
close to being a clone, you will realize after a short while
that it is more mature in every way compared to EVA.. both
in character, story, ending, and production. Oh yeah, especially the ending is completely brilliant.

Of course, some will never get over how much it resembles EVA in many ways, but.. look past that, and you have a brilliant series that is all what EVA only could have wished to be.(EVA was simply too childish in too many ways to appeal to me)

link at animefu
link at animenfo

It's just starting to come out on DVD. I expect it to become a hit.

Re:a more mature evangelion

[Hast]

I don't know if I'd call it "more mature" but it certainly is good.

The first few episodes I was a bit annoyed with how similar it was to Eva, but I got over it. You could say that if Eva has a religious background then RahXephon has musical influences. Ie music is used in RX in much the same way religion is in Eva. It's very good though. (And I recall watching a TV program and a choir sang one of the arias used in RX.)

RX is a bit easier to get into as well, the characters are more normal then in Eva. But before you call RX deeper you should check out some sites analyzing Eva, there's a lot of things in that show not immideately obvious. Calling it "childish" demonstrates that you haven't done this IMHO.

But I guess I'm influenced by the fact that Eva was one of the first anime series I ever watched. And it had a pretty big impact on me.

Price?

[BJH]

The article states that the price of the rerelease is 39,800 yen, but Gainax's site does not have that figure anywhere on the announcement, and their online sales area lists the price as TBA. What's the source for this?

Re:Price?

[amuro98]

Go to www.cdjapan.co.jp

They're one of the few online Japanese stores that uses reasonably good English, and ships internationally. Their prices tend to be about the best as well (even just considering the prices in yen)

Re:Price?

[BJH]

Er... I live in Japan, so that's not particularly helpful.

What I wanted to know is where they got that figure from, considering there's been no official announcement...

Too Much Input!

[know_op]

I just can't take it anymore!
After religiously following lame-o Americanized Dragonball Z. and Gundam Wing for months and months, there have recently been a ton of new anime series out on the networks for me to get hooked on.

Lain, Lupin, Yuyu -- I'm trying to watch them all, and my head is spinning.

Now more GIANT robots too? It's just too much!
(picture me with anime style sweatmark on my forehead)

Re:Too Much Input!

[doce]

check out this list of Japanese smilies.

you're probably looking for (^-^;)

Eva Live Action

[thryllkill]

I do not think that they are going to release a live version of Evangelion.

--Spoiler Alert--
--If you haven't seen the Eva movies don't read--

In the middle of The second Eva movie there is a trippy live film part that showed a few things from modern day Japan, trains, buildings, a cat i the rafters, and empty movie theater. But originally there was a whole scripted live action part with people portraying Asuka, Rei, Touji, and Misato in an alternate universe from the one we see in the animated parts. You actually see parts of the original live action part at the begining of the End Of Evangelion disc, but no the whole thing, and Manga did not translate it.

I hate to do this to his server, but there is a great write up of the live action part at EvaOtaku.Com

I am betting that this original live action sequence is what they are releasing and not a live action version of the movie.

Re:Eva Live Action

[lugonn]

Are those 3 japanese chicks at the beginning of "End" supposed to be Mistao, Rei, and Asuka? Cause they should've at least got actors who resembled the characters, that was the only part that had me confused me. I thought it was an extension of Shinji thinking why he should choose reality.

Re:Eva Live Action

[tenton]

IIRC, those three are played by Kotono Mitsuishi (Misato), Megumi Hayashibara (Rei) and Yuko Miyamura (Asuka). The actual voice actresses.

'enhanced' == 'fixed' ?

[Angron]

Does 'enhanced' mean that they fixed the jitter in the video sources of Eva? One of my biggest disappointments with the DVDs before was the incredible amount of jitter just before/after scene changes. I found it incredibly distracting, especially on the (large number of) slowly panning scenes.

I played for a long time with trying to make digital copies without the jitter by using various stabilizing plugins for VirtualDub or other software, but to little avail (most were targeted at shaky-handed video camera operators).

If they've fixed the jitter I would really consider picking up this set; I've found Eva to be one of my favorite media ever, and usually try getting anyone who hasn't seen it to watch with me whenever I go through it again.

-A

Re:'enhanced' == 'fixed' ?

[Crescens]

From what I'm hearing, they either reduced or eliminated the jitter. I think there's a preview disc out sometime next month of the first ep or two (at CDJapan) that I know people are going to decide whether they want the entire box or not with. Preview disc is under $13 before shipping.

Re:'enhanced' == 'fixed' ?

[Have Blue]

Maybe they'll include the missing four minutes where Shinji meets Jabba the Hutt.

Reply to the 3 replies above

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm the original AC above...which kinda makes me pissed when replying to other replys, as nobody can really tell one AC from another. Wish I could remember my password... :p

Regarding the English dubs, I'm personally someone who takes each series/movie on its own, but many people either don't accept that, or don't exactly understand that without further comment (such as this). Of course, this only applies to animation (partly due to the nature of it being inherently dubbed), as I have a problem with dubbed-live action films. It was only done to prevent fellow slashdotters from chewing out some poor guy who forgot his password. =P

Anyway, I added that little bit because of the nature of many anime fans, specifically the Eva-obsessed ones. Mentioning that you watched the series in English is enough for some fans to go into a rage that could easily match some of the battles in the series itsself.

The English dub on Eva isn't perfect, but its the one I happen to prefer. The actors take a while to get into their characters, but once they do, I enjoy the job that they have done. Unfortunately, not all of the original actors returned to do the movies, leaving some of the voices quite different from the series. It does boil down to personal preference, and I'm somewhat surprised that I do enjoy it more in Japanese, being as there is plenty of "Japan" in it (ie, takes place in Japan, numerous Japanese cultural references, etc). Those shows and films tend to be harder to swallow when dubbed into any other language, but there are exceptions (Mononoke being one of them). On the other hand, I can't even IMAGINE watching something like Grave Of The Fireflies in anything but Japanese.

Bebop is another series where I definately enjoy the English dub more than the original Japanese. I'm not putting down the Japanese actors in any way, in fact, they did a great job. But when it comes down to personal preference, I believe Bebop sounds a lot better in English. I'm glad you agree. ;)

argmanah, I realize all dubs aren't created equal, but not everyone feels that way (as I somewhat stated above), hence my disclaimer (or whatever you want to call it). For every dub like Princess Mononoke, there's one like Love Hina's that makes people's ears bleed. :p

People seem to be too quick to assume that if someone mentions a language in reference to anime, that they stick by it in every situation. Therefore, many would've interepreted my comment on the English track to be a sign that I watch ALL anime (and possibly other foreign films) dubbed into English.

And to packeteer, this set really isn't aimed at most of us, its aimed at the devoted Eva fans in Japan (and when I say devoted, I mean DIE HARD FANS). Prices for stuff like this is often higher in Japan than in the US (many DVDs are close to $40), although I do have to admit that this new set is certainly filled of extras making that price SOMEWHAT resonable.

ADV released a box set of the series (which doesn't include the 2 movies) recently, and while prices varied, it wasn't too hard to get the 8-disc set for under $100. $300 may be excessive for many, but $100 isn't too shabby for all 26 episodes.

Bleh...I'm rambling...and even worse...I'm rambling as an AC. I guess that's a sign that I need to get some rest. :p

Re:Reply to the 3 replies above

[BJH]

$40? More like $60-$70...

Re:Evangelion viewers

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you frequently speak Dannish in Japan? Strange...

Re:Evangelion viewers

[Anonymous Coward]

No we don't, but what has that got to do with it? I am afraid I don't understand, but then again, my English could be better.

hm....

[Anonymous Coward]

I smell a fellow Dane...

First hand experience of the Eva Remaster

[ErMaC]

Well, for those in the know, the March issue of Newtype Magazine is out in Japan, I managed to snag a copy of it. Why? Because the sampler DVD includes a special section devoted entirely to the Eva Renewal project.

Here's what it has:
1) Remastered Opening
2) First Half of Episode One with Left Half of the screen Remastered, right side from original telecine with a white line running down the center.
3) Second Half of Episode One Remasters (with a little watermark in the top corner).
4) Remastered Ending of Episode One

So I've seen first hand the Eva remaster... spent the last hour rewatching it. It is AWESOME.

First off - the box set being released by GAiNAX is RAW JAPANESE in REGION 2. There are NO English Subs! Second, the price is extremely good for a boxset of this size (11 discs) in Japanese prices (actual boxset price is 39,800yen). Considering the poor shmucks who bought the Second Impact Box sets a year ago paid more than 50% more than that to get everything that's in this box - and not remastered - I'd say this is a bloody good deal.

The remastering process was two fold - first off, the entire show was re-telecined from film source and then digitally cleaned up. This means no frame jitters, no bad telecining, no bad coloring. It looks gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and clean enough it looks like digital cel work at times. And if you've seen my homepage - you know I've worked a lot with Eva's video... and the difference is like night and day.

The second part of the remastering process is all the audio is being redone in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. I can't comment on this myself as I haven't watched it on a full 5.1 speaker setup, but it already sounds clearer, and my home theater nut friend who also got the disc tells me it sounds fantastic. I'll take his word on it as he's one of those anime fans where if there's ANYTHING wrong he makes a stink about it.

Now if you want to see this for yourself, buy the March issue of Newtype Magazine (NOT the US version!! It's not in that POS) or wait for the Evangelion Test Type 01 disc to come out. It's a sampler disc of the whole remastered first episode with a couple extras for less than $20. If it's not good enough to spend your money on, you don't have to get it.
I own all the Region 1 Eva TV DVDs from ADV, I own the Region 2 imports of the Movies and Vol 6 (the re-edited episodes 21-24). I'm still buying this thing - it's that good.
I've taken the time to capture some samples off the disc (digitally of course).
You can check them out here, but PLEASE go easy on my server. If someone could mirror the pics please do so.
http://www.ermacstudios.org/EvaRenewal/

Re:First hand experience of the Eva Remaster

[ErMaC]

Oh and I forgot to mention -

ADV is not going to be releasing these. I will bet money on this.
First off, GAiNAX's relationship with ADV turned pretty sour after Eva. ADV never got a hold of the licenses for the Eva Director's Cut episodes 21-24, they only had the license for the original TV versions. Second, they didn't get the movie rights because of money. The amount of money GAiNAX wanted for the films was REDICULOUS, and the only reason Manga got them was because they're stupid and they have too much money (the did not recoup the licensing fees off their disc sales yet).

ADV is not going to spend money again to relicense the new remastered prints. They're already making money off their "perfect" box set. The demand for these remastered prints wouldn't be high enough to sustain the cost because in general American anime fans aren't the kind who will rebuy everything when a new version comes out. There are people I know who've bought something on VHS, then Laserdisc, then on DVD. Japanese hard core fans will do this all the time - and there's a much larger hardcore anime fanbase in Japan than here.

So don't hold your breath for these to ever be released Stateside. You want subs - go get some scripts or rip the sub streams from the ADV discs and retime them to these new imports and use DVDSubber. Me, I'm happy with em raw since I know all the dialog already. :)

Re:First hand experience of the Eva Remaster

[Ded Bob]

The demand for these remastered prints wouldn't be high enough to sustain the cost because in general American anime fans aren't the kind who will rebuy everything when a new version comes out.

I could, but I think my wife will kill me. :) We both really enjoyed the episodes (1-26), but I have not bought the rest of the "series". You would not happen to have a link to what I should wait for and what I should buy? I became confused with the additional movies after the original episodes ended. For example, episodes 25 and 26 are additional, yes?

I definitely do not want to buy the rest if they will only be released new-and-improved within a year.

Re:First hand experience of the Eva Remaster

[Zarxrax]

Wow Ermac, that new video looks absolutely GORGEOUS. I want this sooooo bad. But I've already bought the whole series two damn times (on vhs, later on dvd, plus the directors cut disc) I don't know If I can really justify putting this much money into it yet again...

Please explain!?!

[FungiSpunk]

Can someone please explain the Anime facsination? I'm not having a go or mocking it, I am really curious to understand what people see in it?

Re:Please explain!?!

[ledestin]

Honesty and ideas (YMMV). Anime depicts social interaction and discusses questions that you encounter in life, and shows a solution sometimes(?). Note, I consider Pokemon anime only by form, but not by content (it's an US-adapted form of anime, IMO)

You absolutely must watch anime with original Japanese sound, people do speak different in different countries, not only language is different but voice intonations as well. Most important, adaptation is by definition a process of tailoring a thing to some other culture, so that target auditory could understand what is happening without much effort on their part. And so, they lose the chance to understand the culture that created the thing...

To have a possibility to understand anime fascination you should watch it, uncut and subtitled.

Re:Please explain!?!

[Minna Kirai]

No one can claim that Pokemon isn't anime.

Your definition of anime must be filtered through some kind of goggles. Prehaps you've focused on what you've seen as most significant or interesting, and ignored the majority of japanese animation. (Or maybe you rely on importing companies to do the filtering for you)

The content of Pokemon is exactly in line with the majority of anime. 80% of anime series (and a higher proportion of total episodes) are basically childish trifles and/or longrunning toy commercials. The only major distinction between those anime and American cartoon shows is the language, the attitude towards musical lyrics, and the much higher degree of continuity (something Pokemon shares).

Look at the current Anime broadcast schedule to see what I mean. Only 2 or 3 titles approach your lofty definition.

Miyazaki is an unrepresentative abberation.

Re:Please explain!?!

[eclipsemgp]

I don't get it either, brother. Anime looks all the same, with the same tired character and the same awful, half assed animation. Show a still character jump throught the air with a lot of different colors in the background to appear moving. Show the look of shock on the other character face as the moving character comes at him. Same almost mature theme. Whether its a robot, generic male/female, animal, they're all the same. Where the hell are looney tunes when you need them.

Re:Please explain!?!

[Moloch666]

I suggest watch some. I'm pretty much a n00b and don't know where to start. I've seems some pretty jaw dropping stuff, to pure crap, so you need I good resource to tell you what's crap and what isn't. A friend into Anime would help.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the crap movies out there, Anime is a great way to watch some new refreshing ideas.

If any one wants to help either of us out. Point out a site where I can print out a list of "must see" Anime.

Re:Please explain!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.animeondvd.com/discdata/essential/index .htm

Re:Please explain!?!

[PhoenixFlare]

Riiiight....And how many different series have you watched, besides Pokemon, or maybe DBZ?

Not many, i'm guessing.

Just like with every other genre, there's some crap mixed in with the pure gold. I'd suggest watching stuff like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, or some of the later Gundam stuff like Gundam Wing or Gundam Seed.

Good examples of great animation and/or storylines, and I think you'd find your mind changing pretty fast.

Re:Please explain!?!

[amuro98]

Well, first off, anime is not a genre, just a medium (animation.)

For me, I've always liked animation but quickly got disappointed in that I only saw it being used as childrens' entertainment. Why couldn't you use animation to do more mature stories in genres I liked - like science fiction?

My big introduction to anime was Robotech. Here was an animated story that dealt with topics and ideas that were geared to someone older than 6!

Again, anime is not a genre. If you list out some movies and genres you enjoy, I'm sure you could find something in anime that would entertain you.

Re:Please explain!?!

[ledestin]

No one can claim that Pokemon isn't anime.

Your definition of anime must be filtered through some kind of goggles. Prehaps you've focused on what you've seen as most significant or interesting, and ignored the majority of japanese animation. (Or maybe you rely on importing companies to do the filtering for you)

Majority of what I've seen is very different from Pokemon, in fact, Pokemon is the only anime that I digust. Since I don't speak Japanese I depend on Englihs subtitles, so, my input is filtered by people who do them.

The content of Pokemon is exactly in line with the majority of anime. 80% of anime series (and a higher proportion of total episodes) are basically childish trifles and/or longrunning toy commercials. The only major distinction between those anime and American cartoon shows is the language, the attitude towards musical lyrics, and the much higher degree of continuity (something Pokemon shares).

Don't you find that Pokemon caters to US (as *not* in Simpsons) cultural stereotypes, as opposed to, say, Sailor Moon?

Look at the current Anime broadcast schedule [sakura.ne.jp] to see what I mean. Only 2 or 3 titles approach your lofty definition.

Miyazaki is an unrepresentative abberation.

I only recognize one title, "Wolf's Rain", which I haven't seen, but heard it was good. So, it will be safe to say then "Pokemon is the worst anime I've ever seen". Among the good titles I've recently seen (FMP, Ayashi no Ceres, Witch Hunter Robin, Sen to Chihiro) only one is by Miyazaki. Though Robin is somewhat americanized IMO.

Re:Please explain!?!

[Minna Kirai]

The fact that you don't recognize most all of them indicates that your understand of anime is indeed restricted to the very best series. ("Best", as according to Slashdot-people: English speaking technology-nerds).

Starting in around 1981, US adults with disposable income and technology savy started importing anime, often by making fansubs (which weren't illegal at first, since Japanese copyrights only applied within their nation). They naturally focused on the "best" titles- ones that were mature and thought-provoking, or had whizzy science-fiction, or at least were dramatically different from US produced animation. (Which were Disney features and GI Joe cartoons).

The "cream-of-the-crop". Non-representative. Just like you might be able to pick 3-4 excellent shows from US television, doesn't mean that Sturgeon's Law has been repealed.

But then around 1997, globalization was far enough advanced that US companies wishing to import Japanese toys no longer had the leeway to alter the brand and make new cartoons. (Also the Japanese recession made their labor easier to buy). So, led by Pokemon, the drek that makes up the majority of Japanese animation began making inroads into wide US availability.

As long as anime translators were targeting only the college-educated, nerd-tendencies crowd, you were insulated from anime that had no chance of appealing to you. Now that there is a whole different demographic being marketed to, you'll face increased risk of encountering more things like Pokemon.

If Pokemon is the worst you've seen, just wait a bit. You could dig through the bottom of the barrel and discover whole new depths with just a little effort (But, why go searching for pain? Unless you enjoy bad viewing?

Don't you find that Pokemon caters to US (as *not* in Simpsons) cultural stereotypes, as opposed to, say, Sailor Moon?

Hmm, cultural sterotypes in Sailor Moon? I don't have time for a full list, but let's see...

• Blondes are dumb and over-emotional.
  
• Wearing glasses means you're a dorky nerd. But at least you're smart. (SuperNerds get spiral glasses and a whiny voice)
  
• One member of every homosexual couple is a cross-dressing transexual.
  
• Men are most attracted to young girls in school uniforms.
  
• Girls are most attracted to wealthy men (who can afford tuxedos... can you say "enjo kosai"?).
  

Like Pokemon, Sailor Moon was largely a toy-commerical show. Just instead of video games and rubber animals, it sold pink, plastic jewlery. (Ok, and videogames too). Both had more than 200 episodes that are difficult to distinguish from each other. Maybe overall a little better than Pokemon, maybe not. I'd say it has 12 or so above-average episodes. (But I'm not inclined to become an expert in either show)

I'll agree that WHR appears to be cloning the style of La Femme Nikita, from US cable.

only one is by Miyazaki

In the English speaking world, the two most recognized anime (the ones able to get a front-page of Time magazine, or something) are Pokemon and Miyazaki's series. The highs, and the middles. But most anime produced (by volume, and by total viewage, despite Miyazaki's mega-blockbusters) is more like Pokemon than unlike.

I only recognize one title, "Wolf's Rain", which I haven't seen, but heard it was good.

Yes, Wolf's Rain is surely the current anime broadcast that American adults will most enjoy. Of the others, I don't know, prehaps L-R, MahouTsukai, and Big-O are decent. The rest are far, far lower on the scale. A few of them, YuGiOh and OnePiece, will soon be familiar to you as they come to US broadcast positions following Pokemon/Digimon.

Re:anime is ghey

[Anonymous Coward]

Ghey? Learn to spell, fhagghot.

Re:i'm confused

[BJH]

And what exactly does a Japanese company have to do with the MPAA/DMCA?

Too bad...

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people in the US have never watched Mazinger Z (yes, it was shown once I believed, but not in entirely)..

Evangelion == WTF?

[magarity]

A friend and I tried to watch Evangelion but just couldn't get interested. It's a well established narrative style to drop the audience into the middle of the world and explain gradually as you go. But Evangelion took this beyond the extreme limit, IMO. After four episodes we still had NO IDEA what was going on and it lost our sympathy for the situation and characters. Just how long does the thing take to make sense, or is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?

Re:Evangelion == WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

The entirety of Eva is an in-joke. All of it. There's no insight, there's no meaning. Its just another of the bad '70s giant robot shows that throw out philosophical-sounding garbage now and then. Its a throwback to the days before Gundam, when the hero was always a young boy piloting the war machine his cruel father built and fighting un-understandable alien monsters. The ending's Gainax running out of money, and the movies are the director flipping off the fans.

Watch Rah Xephon instead. It does everything that Eva did, only better. For starters, the writers actually thought about symbology, consistancy, and meaning.

Re:Evangelion == WTF?

[Minna Kirai]

That's not true at all. The 1st/2nd episodes reveal the big secrets to the audience, and then the characters spend 8-10 episodes trying to learn what the viewer already knows.

OTOH, Evangelion expected viewers to be familiar with the "standard Mecha world" of something like Gorion (Voltron), Mazinger Z, or Macross. If you haven't seen those things, or at least recognize their names, then you're not the NGE target audience.

The point of the show is that they took the conventions of an exhausted pop-culture genre (kids piloting giant war machines to defend the world from a series of alien monsters) and took it seriously. Given that absurd situation, how would real characters react to it? What possible explanation could there be for fighting monsters in such a style?

It's the same approach Alan Moore took in Watchmen, except that his ludicrous cliche was "costumed crimefighters of disparate origins team up to save the world from the forces of evil". It's a great series, but understanding it correctly depends upon a familiarity with the genre of American comic books. If a person hadn't read Superman and Batman, and been familiar with Spiderman, The Punisher, and The Shadow, then he's not prepared with the language of the story.

is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?

Not an "in-joke", as it's not supposed to be funny, but yes, an "inside-reference" is a correct description. It only becomes truely self-indulgent in the last few episodes (and the following movie).

nope

[Anonymous Coward]

the real reason is the A-Bomb. Give us anime or we vaporise you.

It is part of the fun

[ledestin]

1. I consider such approach a part of fun
2. Even if you watched the whole series, there's no guarantee you understand it (that's part of the fun too).
3. There is a book called "Red Cross Book" AFAIR, that contains information that may help you to grok EVA.

Robotec!

[Thaidog]

I was in the mall the other day looking for Akira with a friend who's about 4 years younger... I stopped to comment on the Robect DVD's and they were like: "What the hell's Robotec?" Needless to say he almost got bitch slapped... good thing he's a 1" shorter or I would have cause a scene...

Re:Robotec!

[boy_afraid]

OMFG! That dweeb didn't really say that, right? You would have had to stand back while I opened up a can of WHOOP-@SS on his white cracker @ss.

Re:i'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh ok, so DVDs made by European and Japanese companies, that still dont play in linux normally due to CSS issues, are ok then?

Giant Robot? Can't be said without mentioning...

[abmurray]

IMHO the best Giant robot anime of all time:

Giant Robo.

dig it.

Re:Giant Robots? Here we go into offtopic land

[ebooher]

Well, ok. I just can't bite my tongue on this one. Because even though the AC is poking fun, with Blackadder even which is pretty interesting spin, the original question is valid.

Honestly, how practical are GIANT ROBOTS for waging actual combat?

Those of us who grew up playing BattleTech, and some of us who now play the HeroClix Dark Age game know that giant robots would never be used in actual combat. In combat you want to be as small as you possibly can. The bigger the target, the easier it is to hit.

But the child in all of us still loves the concept of giant robots duking it out in the quiet streets of our home town of Tokyo .... err Indy .... wherever. This is why all of these Japanese Mecha Anime do so well, not just in the U.S., but in Japan, or Korea, or England, or etc ad naseum.

It's also the same reason you can log on to eBay, do a search on "Dark Age" and get back 20+ pages worth of hits. We just love giant robots, man!

Re:Giant Robot? Can't be said without mentioning..

[Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS-]

I beg to differ. I actually think the outlaw star was the best giant robot. Sure it didnt have legs, but all the other elements were there.

Evangelion Boxed Set - We'll never see it :(

[cyranoVR]

First of all, check out the awesome poster.

Too bad we'll never see an American release of the Evangelion boxed set. ADV will probably not want to do the work of mixing their dub in with the new sound tracks...or redubbing the whole series? Forget it.

Even if someone does decide to buy the rights and re-dub the series, imagine how long it would take. Based on the track-record for the Eva movies (2 years late from their original american release date) we'll see the boxed set here sometime in 2008.

Looks like I'll have to invest in a region 2 DVD player and start learning some japanese (not otaku enough to have learned it yet)

So if one of the mechs was powered by Microsoft...

[TWoodham]

would that give new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death?

Re: So rent first.

[jcsehak]

Anime isn't very high on the procurement list of most video stores. Hell, it's hard enough to find DVDs of movies I want to rent. The only option for a lot of people is Netflix. I tried that, but found that, because of mailing lag, I had to watch movies as soon as I got them to make it worth my while. I don't have time for that. I'm busy wasting my time on /.

Intolerance

[hackwrench]

Which is why I'm intolerant to a degree. I'm concerned about others welfare and don't like how their "religion" is messing them up. Whether there is a God or not, the prominent religions don't reflect the reality of the true state of God. By treating God as something they have figured out, they fail to actually address God. At the same time, they are in denial of the fact that they are treating God as something they have figured out. The combination of both of these features keeps religions from making spiritual progress.

CN is going to massacre Eva.

[MamasGun]

TechTV actually did right by Lain. I didn't like that they cut the end credits music and recut the opening, but that seems to be pretty much all they did. They even left in the masturbatory reference...something I was sure they'd get rid of.

It would have been so much better had TechTV instead of Cartoon Network gotten Neon Genesis Evangelion. Cartoon Network showing it during the Toonami bloc rather than Adult Swim where it belongs ensures that it will be cut to ribbons.

Basically all you will have left will be Eva vs. Angel fights and the cute antics of Pen-Pen. I suspect that all the dramatic content, and definitely the occult/Gnostic Christian content will be excised. They might even go so far as to rename the Angels "Monsters" or something.

I mean, they don't allow people to say "Sweet Zombie Jesus" on freakin' Futurama! And that's being aired during the Adult Swim bloc!

Re:CN is going to massacre Eva.

[$nyper]

HEHE... Okay honestly, who else other than me named one of their new Linux Servers PEN-PEN after watching this EVA. I know you are out there so stop denying your inner love for PEN-PEN. Creating Pen-pen was like creating an anime character with a linux objective. :)

Re:CN is going to massacre Eva.

[Peterus7]

I sure hope to god they don't take out the philisophical stuff. Or if they do, they'd better put it back on during adult swim.

I mean, Eva's just the same as any other dumb giant robo violence show if you cut out the deep stuff... But if you keep it all in...

But then again, what's the chances that a 12 year old will get it?

Re:CN is going to massacre Eva.

[Peterus7]

The sad thing is some of the greatest moments in EVA, both funny and deep, involve a bit of nudity and adult topics... For example, the time Shinji walks in on Rei, or on the ep where he's dreaming and you get to see the chicks topless, talking to him... It's sad... But we should at least wait and see before sending in hate mail.

Re:CN is going to massacre Eva.

[ethereal]

So that's what he said! I was trying to figure out what anyone could possibly have said during Futurama that was bleepable.

What's wrong with that

[hackwrench]

What's wrong with firing Kamehameha's at each other?

Re:What's wrong with that

[Anonymous Coward]

Because the Kamehameha is an Aircraft carrier, thats why!

Re:What's wrong with that

[zaren]

Well, they're usually followed up by series of punches and kicks, which is a Bad Thing since a) Mom doesn't like them beating each other up, b) the boy is much bigger, and c) the girl is a much better puncher :)

one link to rule them all...

[Anonymous Coward]

you probly all have seen this at one point in time or another but, here goes anyways... http://mechaps.com

now all that slashdot needs is...

[Anonymous Coward]

giant robot fan fic porn, and a 'mecha sexual' rights movement.

Re:i'm confused

[Minna Kirai]

The products from these companies go through subsidiaries or partners in the US.

Of course, only some of their products are released internationally. The rest, you're not allowed to view them at all. Region encoding on the DVD will make sure of that.

Dub vs. Sub

[MamasGun]

Lain was dubbed well, and many people actually prefer the dubbed Cowboy Bebop to the subbed one. Pioneer has a decent stable of dubbers and their dubscripts are fairly faithful to the original Japanese.

ADV tends to take liberties, usually to disastrous results, but sometimes those liberties are taken the right way. I am awaiting my copy of All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku OAV DVD with crossed fingers...they actually paid the money to do a dub when originally Banneko was put out as a sub-only VHS 3 tape set.

I have reason for hope, because Excel Saga is being done right...there is a "pop up video" version for the Otaku-challenged and basically the dub is very close to the subtitles. They did suffer casualties...the woman doing English seiyuu duty apparently got nodules on her vocal cords from doing the high-pitched, frenetic voice of Excel.

Re:Dub vs. Sub

[amuro98]

Excel Saga dub is an example of the stupidity of ADV's dubbing director...

Excel's Japanese voice is frentic, but for some reason, the director thought that this meant the English VA had to SCREAM ALL HER LINES IN A REEEEALY SQUEEEKY VOICE!!

In Japanese, meantime, at no time does Excel SHOUT her lines, nor is her voice squeaky.

Gah. I'm surprised she survived 4 discs before having to quit lest she permanentaly damage her throat (and career.)

Re:Dub vs. Sub

[Anonymous Coward]

I forgot her name, but she was replaced due to the fact that she couldn't keep up with the schedule. Doing Excel's voice was harsh on her vocal cords, and ADV had promised to take it slowly to accomodate her. When the decided to scratch that and try and get them done as soon as possible, she couldn't keep up and had to leave the project.

While I didn't have a MAJOR problem with the English Excel dub (not exactly a fan of Ilpallazo) and would rather watch it in Japanese, I can say that I prefered the "old" English Excel over the newer one.

Heh, the "AD-Vid" notes with Menchi are definately cool though, and I wish more companies would give us that option for titles such as this.

The PBS affiliate in San Jose, CA, US...

[MamasGun]

...already aired Eva uncut. That's how I got my copy of the series...a netfriend dubbed me a copy of the show as it aired. Don't know the callsign off-hand...I live in SoCal. They air Anime on Saturday nights. My Public TV station, KCET, shows old movies on Saturday nights. Usually sucky ones. Bleah!

Anyone ever see Neon Genesis Recross?

[MajikGuru]

Oh baby, it's Gendo! :-P

Robotech is GOD

[boy_afraid]

I'm just as much a fan of mecha as all of ya'll, but you have to admit that Robotech is just f*ckin' great! It has a deep story with many characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I have the whole book series and read each and every one of them, some a few times over. The books were GREAT! I say they should have a Robotech marathon with all three generations, including what they have of The Sentinals.

It's spelled ROBOTECH

[boy_afraid]

Oh, I also forgot to mention that you mispelled Robotec. Its should be Robotech as in Robotechnology. Don't tell me you don't know how to spell Protoculture.

Guess we're looking at the ADV Dub on CN Monday

[masterhackman]

Here's all that's on the Toonami site on EVA:

http://schedule.cartoonnetwork.com/servlet/Sched ul eServlet?action=viewAll&showID=325641&show=Evangel ion

Showings:

Feb. 24 4:30 p.m. Episode #1
Feb. 25 4:30 p.m. Episode #2

Re:Evangelion Boxed Set - We'll never see it :(

[TomHandy]

In terms of why we won't see it, it will most likely have a lot more to do with the amount of money Gainax would want for this......ADV never bought the Director's Cut footage or movies because Gainax wanted an astronomical amount of money just for those.....so the amount Gainax would probably want for this newly remastered footage is probably mind-boggling. And even though Eva is a popular show, ADV also surely realizes that the number of people willing to buy Eva on DVD again just for the remastered footage is probably limited enough that there's no way they could justify the cost of bringing it out in the first place.

-Tom

No Jonny Sokko & Giant Robot? WTF?

[Argyle]

How can you have Giant Robot Week without Johnny Sokko and His Giant Robot?

Bring on Sonic X

[Anonymous Coward]

New anime series based on sonic the hedgehog that wont suck... there he'll fuck up the giant mechas..
about time we had something over than over muscular men groping and hitting each other and throwing lame threats or battling mosnters to resolve fights or oversized mech battles.
finally.. a superhero that beats the shit out of his enemies with his own speed and skill.
but yeah.
they need to make an anime where some random person just kills all the little pokemon followings, yugi-oh shit and DBZ shit... and not to mention the fans of these shows. that'l traumatize the fuck outta people.

EVA: most overrated anime ever.

[Thag]

I'm with you. I've seen the whole show, and all the movies, and it was just pretentious and tedious.

It never really makes sense, though some of the background of what is going on is explained. Your sympathy for the characters will probably only decrease as the show drags on. Particularly for Shinji. You suck, Shinji.

I had thought it would get good later on like other Gainax series have (Gunbuster, Nadia). But it never did, and the ending turned into a bad incoherent art movie with no resolution or character growth.

But don't take my word for it:

The second [Evangelion Movie] is one of the most pathetic acts of masturbation disguised as animation (and I'm not talking about just the opening scene) ever made. It made me physically ill to watch. If I woke up one morning and discovered that I had made something like that I would kill myself immediately!
- Scott Frazier in EX issue 4.8

Also, the animation quality is not uniformly good. Particularly towards the end of the series, when they have scenes that run for minutes that are just voices talking over a still frame. That's just pathetic.

For a good giant robot show with an actual ending, and likeable characters that grow, watch the Escaflowne tv series.

Jon Acheson

Re:EVA: most overrated anime ever.

[magarity]

For a good giant robot show ... watch the Escaflowne tv series

Maybe that's the problem; I had already watched Escaflowne before trying to sit through NGE.

"Behold! The secret technique of my ancestors!"

[EXTomar]

Actually "The Blue Screen of Death" is a great name for an ultimate deathblow attack. You just need to yell it at your opponent before you attack while bantering with them on the philosophical implications of using Windows in deadly combat.

Yes, Pen-Pen is kawaii. Resistance is futile.

[MamasGun]

One of my best friends has Pen-Pen 2, an Athlon based Linux box. Pen-Pen (1) was a Pentium II that died a sad death.

My machines are also all named after cartoon characters/comic characters/manga characters but out of courtesy to friends I don't use machine names that others have used...makes it easier to refer to machines by their names. "Oh, Buttercup is having NIS problems again." "Yeah, I know what you mean, Spud has been having the same problem."

I do want a Warm Water Penguin for a pet. I'd settle for a Little Blue Penguin, but a Pen-Pen running around the house would rock.

-1, Offtopic

[mateub]

Okay, absolutely nothing in this post has anything to do with the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan. Where do you people get these digressions? Sheesh. If you want to know about MEChA, try here:

http://www.panam.edu/orgs/mecha/MECHAlnk.HTM

tee hee... Okay, seriously, this is the only MEChA I knew about before now...

adeu
Mateu

Big big thing missing

[Anonymous Coward]

What? No Gigantor!!!!!?????????????

Woah...

[Peterus7]

I thought anime was nothing like Disney.... But I guess it is: They both love to kill off parents.

It's interesting that none of the characters have mothers. I had never really thought of it that way. Maybe that explains why they're so messed up.

But then again, Toji and Kensuke are somewhat normal.... Aside from Toji being a bit bullyish, and Kensuke being a total war nerd... One of the most interesting characters, though, imoho, is Ritsuko. You just gotta wonder about her, and her geeky nature...

Re:Woah...

[k4w0ru]

Minor spoiler warning











Shinji's mother (her soul/spirit) was actually lost/absorbed into eva unit 1, and I think that Asuka's mother may also be in her eva. This would explain why they can "sync" well with their evas,...well most of the time.

Re:Woah...

[Peterus7]

Was that in the movie? I don't really remember that in the series, but then again I watched the series a few years ago...

Re:Woah...

[k4w0ru]

There are a few scenes where shinji kinda notices or feels his mother's presence while in the eva; I think during the couple of times where his eva runs out of battery power, etc.
Asuka too but only once, in the movies, at the begining of her last and awesome battle scene.

What about real giant robots?

[Anonymous Coward]

So which channel is going to carry all my "Johnny Socko and his Giant Robot" reruns?

Adult Swim sure, Toonami no way!

[cryptochrome]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Alpha? Eva is clearly not Toonami material. Between all the underaged fan service, constant bounce, sex, occasionally savage if not graphic violence, and religious controversy, what exactly is it that's meant for tweenagers? I have no idea what they're thinking, except perhaps that they're not.

Interestingly, when Evangelion was originally aired in Japan - also at 5pm - many parents did vocally object for the exact reasons I mentioned above. Apparently, the broadcasters took one look at it, said, "Ah, giant robots" and slapped it on TV without realizing what they were doing. Just goes to show, history is bound to repeat itself.

i am an anime fan; please rape me

[Purificator]

it's bad enough that anime dvds, themselves, tend to be more expensive than their live-action counterparts, but when publishers pull this kind of george lucas crap i just want to kick them in the head.

i understand why anime is more expensive: niche market, licensing and republishing (dubbing and subbing) costs, blah blah blah. i'm not really complaining about that so much as the ways publishers try to yank money directly from my rectum. evangelion is a very good example of that:

1. release individual dvds at $25-$30 apiece
   
2. release boxed set
   
3. release super-tiger-dragon edition of the boxed set
   
4. profit
   

not every publisher does this, but it's really irritating when it happens with one of your favorite series. the worst part is that we put up with it because we really do want that show. how many people bought blue submarine 6 on four discs (each disc containing one thirty-minute episode)? no thanks, i'll put up with the bad translations on the all-in-one-disc import version.

i know this problem isn't exclusive to anime, but it seems a lot more common. the sad thing is that fan loyalty is to shows rather than publishing houses, so a "good" publisher won't necessarily make more money from fan loyalty. since voting with dollars doesn't work well, is there a better way for fans to reward and punish?

Re:"Behold! The secret technique of my ancestors!"

[PhoenixFlare]

"You just need to yell it at your opponent before you attack while bantering with them on the philosophical implications of using Windows in deadly combat."

Gotta love it.....Gundam Wing will always have a special spot in my heart for that sort of thing.

Long live Treiz Khushrenada! And ph33r the eyebrow!

LOW BROW is coming!!!!!!

[CoffeeJedi]

part of Giant Robot week will be cartoon network's own short "Low Brow" which will be a series this fall!!!! w00t!!1
check it out here

Region 2....

[Cryptnotic]

Interested persons should note that this release is going to be a Japanese domestic release and will be Region 2 only. No mention is made of English subtitles, so it is safe to assume that they will not be included. ADV is the licensee of the Evangelion TV series in the United States and currently publishes the only Region 1 set of the series. Manga Entertainment publishes the series of two movies that complete the series.

Anyway, this ultra-complete box set will not be published in the U.S., will not be Region 1, and will not have English dialogue or English subtitles. Hard core fans only need apply. Hard core fans will order from Animaxis, CDJapan, or Amazon.co.jp.

BIGGER than BIG is Gigantor

[Anonymous Coward]

If they want big robots, they should include gigantor (http://www.gigantor.org/) in the special. Gigantor who has a really cool theme song:

http://www.gigantor.org/sounds/gigantor.wav

and the lyrics to back it up:

Gigantor, Gigantor
Gigaaaaaaaaaaaaaantoooooorrrr
Gigantor the space-age robot
he's at your command
Gigantor the space-age robot
his power is in your hand!
Bigger than big!
Taller than tall!
Quicker than quick!
Stronger than strong!
Ready to fight for RIGHT!
Against wrooooooooongggg
Gigaaaaantor, Gigaaaaantor...

Re:Fan Service!

[lugonn]

Does that scene have some "Fan Service"? I've only made it through disk #7. I've seen the both movies, but they only mention how Asuka ended up in a coma, not show how she got there. "Fan Service" is the best term I've ever heard for, "pay attention fanboy pervs". At least the Japanese are honest about it.

Joking aside, the alternate ending on "End of Evangelion" is the whole reason to watch the series. Anybody into catharsis?

Mecha? Isn't it in Arabia?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, I thought US television is anti-Islamic by nature, so why honouring the Muslim holy site all of a sudden? Sounds like they are getting really hard pressure from certain terrorist groups...

I HATE Giant Robot Movies.

[A55M0NKEY]

They are SOOOOOOO gay. Urotsukidoji: The Legend of the Overfiend was better. At least it had a 1000 foot tall purple penis monster destroy Tokyo. Bar-boo-ra, Bar-boo-ra...

How can they show NGE on American television?

[Iainuki]

The first 20 or so episodes won't be too much of problem, but won'y the amount of cutting in the last 6 or so reduce them to nothing? At least if I'm remembering correctly, it has been awhile since I've seen it.

Re:Giant Robots? Here we go into offtopic land

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. The concept of the Giant Robot Sentai shows is basically an extension of Japanese Samurai mythology. In virtually every mecha show ever made, from Gundam to Macross to Votoms to whatever, you have hordes of lesser "Soldier" type mecha being extirpated by the "Samurai" champions, and the drama comes when the "Samurai" types finally duke it out. It's amazing how anime shows like Gundam virtually mirror classic Samurai movies, like the ol' Zatoichi series. This has a lot of universal appeal, as Mecha shows also mirror the western knights of old, and the ideas of chivalrous battles and duels. In fact, many mecha use swords and shields as weapons.
Of course, as we know from battles all over the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, that modern war bears very little resemblance to the fuedal battles of old. Giant Robots are fanciful but completely impractical in a modern battlefield (Exoskeletal armor, that's another story altogether..). Like you said, with so many design firms stressing low-profiled vehicles capable of "Shoot and scoot" tactics, the idea of a lumbering Mecha casting a shadow over a modern battlefield is laughable. What's funny is, sometimes the animators give away the Mecha's inherent design flaws within Anime itself. I mean, who else has seen Gundam F-91? There is a great scene where our heros take out some enemy mobile suits using gripstock bazookas...So instead of building a single mobile suit of your own you can get maybe 5000 men with Bazookas, and really let those Crossbones Vanguard fools have it!
I mean, a great idea would be if someone were to make a short film featuring a giant Gundam with a beam-sabre and a shield, walking around a plain with rolling hills, much akin to a modern battlefield, only to get torn apart by a platoon of M1 Tanks in camoflauged hull-down positions firing sabot rounds. It's hard to be sneaky when you are 40 foot tall and can be seen easily from space via satellite...

This is so cool!

[Hydraulinen_Androidi]

I really love giant mecha anime!

Last Post!

[alpg]

On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!], "Pray, Mr.
Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers
come out?" I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of
ideas that could provoke such a question.
-- Charles Babbage

- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...