Slashdot Mirror


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."

21 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Robotech by AyeFly · · Score: 5, Informative

    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 :-)

    --
    Sig- http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?ayefly
  2. Sadness. by Lendrick · · Score: 4, Funny

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

    1. Re:Sadness. by The_dev0 · · Score: 3, Informative

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

      --
      Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
  3. erm by lingqi · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:erm by SecretAsianMan · · Score: 4, Informative
      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.

      --

      Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.

  4. Better idea by KiahZero · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
  5. ~$322?!? by jcsehak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --

    c-hack.com |
  6. I dunno... by Peterus7 · · Score: 3, Funny
    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...

  7. Giant Mecca? by foo+fighter · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...

    --
    obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
  8. Giant Robots? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    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!

  9. Some important differences by Gizzmonic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
    1. Re:Some important differences by kfg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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

    2. Re:Some important differences by Gannoc · · Score: 3, Funny
      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.

  10. Re:Important note about the Japanese DVD set... by argmanah · · Score: 3, Insightful
    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.
    --
    Overrated Moderation: This posts sucks... because.
  11. Is this one "Perfect" too? by Daetrin · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  12. a more mature evangelion by a8f11t18 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  13. Eva Live Action by thryllkill · · Score: 3, Informative
    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.

    --

    Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.

  14. 'enhanced' == 'fixed' ? by Angron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:'enhanced' == 'fixed' ? by Have+Blue · · Score: 3, Funny

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

  15. First hand experience of the Eva Remaster by ErMaC · · Score: 5, Informative

    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/

    --
    "I want to get more into theory, because everything works in theory." -John Cash
    1. Re:First hand experience of the Eva Remaster by ErMaC · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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. :)

      --
      "I want to get more into theory, because everything works in theory." -John Cash