Father Geek here with our regular Wednesday AICN Anime Report by Scott Green, and as usual it is packed to the gills with uber cool, up to the minute news on all things Anime and Manga; books, tapes, games, toys, DVDs, even theatrical releases. See it all in one spot by just scrolling thru Scott's collected info below...

Anime Spotlight Gasaraki

Released by ADV Films

Gasaraki is seldom what you expect of it. The original buzz in the US describes it as a shinto version of Evangelion. The description is only accurate in a superficial sense. Instead, it's a giant robot show firmly embedded in the modern world. It mixed traditional art with highly advance machines, global politics with basic elements of the human condition, and the highly plausible with strange new ideas. Its throws in science-fiction, conspiracy, and political drama. Rather than flash, the series offers a densely constructed story.

Rather than the typical head strong or reluctant young boy to pilot the giant robot, Gasaraki has Yushiro Gowa, a young man who serves as test pilot with a Japanese Special Self Defense Force (JSSDF) company assigned to pilot new the Tactical Armor(TA). The TAs were developed by the Gowa Corporate Group, an outgrowth of the Gowa family, of which Yushiro is the youngest son. The families influence dates back to Japan's Heian era. His older brothers handle the financial, political, and technological aspects of the family's interests. In addition to his role as the family representative on the front line, Yushiro has studied the traditional Japanese art of Noh as a means to enter a trance-like state that is tied to the origin of the TAs. This keys into the elements of the TAs, and there series that are less scientifically explainable.

Yushiro is an atypical hero for a giant robot series. He's a young man who is both a team player, highly loyal to his squad, and highly individualistic, once he settles on a path, he doesn't let others alter his course. Initially, he is slow in finding his footing. Rightly so as it turns out. The pieces on the chess board, and the players are revealed slowly. The entire picture is not until the series conclusion, but it is not hidden under layers of false simplicity for the sake of later revelation. Another character describes him as starting off as sand, which flows through the path of least resistance, before forming a crystal, rigid, but brittle. Later he finds the missing strength.

The intricacy of the series' design is astounding. From the machines, to the people and organization have a fullly fleshed purpose, history, and mode of operation. The amount of material covered makes for a tight series with little filler taking up space.

When you add up the Gowa family, and their associates, the JSSDF company, and the others directly influencing the situation, Gasaraki has an unusually large number of major characters. It's a testimony to the script and direction that the unique traits of each character's personality and motivation are apparent.

The design of the series' giant robot steer clean of the genre's pit falls. It doesn't bow to the pressure to design for merchandising rather than story(to the dismay of the merchandising department, there are only two robots). They have a functional look to them, like an extrapolation of modern armored vehicle design, without extraneous flashy sci-fi elements. The greatest strength is the portrayal of the role of the machines. They augment existing weapons rather than replacing them. They found their niche in urban warfare. An early episode displays the capabilities of the TAs utilizing their high mobility in the three-dimension terrain of a city to neutralize a squad of tanks, or a terrorist cell. Later, they are armed with rubber bullets and employed in crowd control. Essential to the pilots is a secondary team who monitor the conditions of the pilots and machine, and provide tactical data.

The giant robots may the gateway to the series, but the political and personal conflicts ultimately carry its weight. The deployment of squads of robots is a fine chisel, but the powers of allocation of resources and market manipulation are the heavy hammer that shape events.

The series starts with the Japanese Noh theater. Mid way through the series it grounds the story in Japan's past. As the series progress it begins to appear that the series about the situation and future of the Japanese people, but ultimately Japan is a subset of the series' scope. Though the creators had the gulf war in mind when creating the series, its geopolitical message is highly relevant to the world's current situation. Beneath the political message is a more basic one about implication of decision making, and self determinism.

The series is not structured in a way to provide frequent action sequences. There are some adrenalin producing battles, but overall, the series has a deliberate pace that it doesn't sacrifice for visuals. There are long stretches without major action senses. Rather than the acrobatics seen in a series like Evangelion, or demonstration of a great deal of fire power, Gasaraki battle scene focus on the portrayal of tactics.

Gasaraki's production value is noticeably high for a TV series, especially given its length. It doesn't have the sizzle of OAVs, or movies, but it doesn't have any visibly cut corners. They are there, but they are used at times, and in ways that don't detract from the presentation. Animation is crisp, and fluid with some stunning landscapes. The music is an interesting mix of traditional Japanese elements (drums, flutes), and more western influences.

Gasaraki succeeds in difficult task of making giant robots believable, and intellectually interesting. It's a rare series that appeals to a mature audience as a forethought.

ADV's presentation of the series is outstanding. They put together a first rate English language track, a momentous accomplishment given the size of the cast. Inserts feature diagrams of the Gowa, family, the armors, and their support vehicles, and production drawings, glossaries, and text interviews on the DVDs to the understanding of the series. More episodes on a disc would have been nice (four on the first, three on the other seven).

This Week's Releases

Anime:

• Arc the Lad - Day Of Reckoning (Vol. 6)
• Ceres - Celestial Legend - Double (Vol. 6)
• Dragon Ball Z - Cooler's Revenge - Feature (Edited)
• Dragon Ball Z - Cooler's Revenge - Feature (Uncut)
• G-Saviour - The Movie
• Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team (Vol. 4)
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 - Stardust Memories
• Saint Tail - Spring Love
• Strange Dawn: Strange World
• Vampire Princess Miyu - Illusion (TV Vol. 3)
• Vandread - Enemy Engaged (Vol. 1)

Manga

• Ceres Celestial Legend Part 2 #2 (Of 6)
• Dragonball Vol 7 Tp
• Geobreeders #34
• Geobreeders #35 $2.95
• Inu Yasha Part 6 #9
• Lodoss War Chronicles Heroic Knight #17
• Lodoss War Deedlits Tale #6
• Maico 2010 Vol 1 Gn Set
• Smile Vol 4 #2
• Usagi Yojimbo #54

Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team concludes the 12 episode OAV series that takes a ground level view of Gundam's One Year War.

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 follows the conclusion of the One Year War as one of the remnants of the defeated colony of Zeon steams a prototype Gundam armed with nuclear weapons.

The Vampire Princess Miyu TV series is a mostly episodic series about Miyu a youthful looking vampire girl Miyu, who is assistant my tall, cloaked vampire adapted in physical conflict with scythe or claws, and small pink rabbit creature, with a hideously enlarged eyes. Miyu travels Japan sending stray vampires, Shinma, back to "The Dark".

There are some excellent horror episodes in the series that very disturbing and memorable, of the caliber of good Twilight Zone episodes. There are also a few that miss their mark and end up muddled or embarrassingly silly.

Saint Tail in a magic girl series (ie Sailor Moon), about a girl who robs criminals by nights.

Pioneer has posted a new Vandread trailer here.

Marvel MangaVerse Goes Monthly

Newsarama reports Marvel has announced that they will be releasing a monthly Marvel Mangaverse series, beginning in April to be written, and illustrated by Ben Dunn. The news comes on the heels of Dunn's Marvel Mangaverse: New Dawn #1 selling out at various major retailers across the country within twenty-four hours of its Wednesday release. A description of the first issue can be seen at here.

Bones On Rahxephon

Anime News Service reports Bones, best known for their work on Cowboy Bebop, and Escaflowne, has announced their next project Rahxephon, a Scifi TV anime series to begin airing on Fuji TV.

The show's staff will be headed by premium talents as well including Director / Rahxephon Designer Yutaka Izubuchi (Mechanical Designs: Patlabor OVA), Chara Designer Akihiro Yamada (Illustrator: Lodoss War), and Mecha Designer Michiaki Sato (Producer: Earth Girl Arjuna). The plot occurs on Earth in Japan where in the year 2012 an "intruder" appears in Tokyo's sky called the "MU". An autonomous region called " TOKYO JUPITER " is formed in response to the threat and the viewers are flashed forward to the present: 2027. Tokyo Jupiter consists of a dome type, self contained city 150km in diameter centered from Tokyo Haneda airport and extending out over open sea. A high school student must meet his challenge in this world threatened by unknowns. Broadcast is set for Mondays from January 21st at 4: 25 on Fuji TV. Seiyuu include Maaya Sakamoto (Escaflowne).

Blackjack Online Animation Updates

Anime News Service reports cinema.tezuka.jp has uploaded their 11th and 12th installments of the monthly Flash Blackjack stories. The final episode of the 6 month long run which began in August is slated to be uploaded in February.

TOKYOPOP Release Dates

• Saint Tail Vol. 5: Girl of Justice! (05/15/2002 - 175 minutes - 29.95$)
• Saint Tail Vol. 6: Integrity (07/16/2002 - 175 minutes - 29.95$)
• GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka Vol. 2 (05/21/2002 - 125 minutes - 29.95$)
• GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka Vol. 3 (07/23/2002 - 125 minutes - 29.95$)
• Vampire Princess Miyu TV Series Vol. 5: Dark Love (05/14/2002 - 125 minutes - 29.95$)
• Vampire Princess Miyu TV Series Vol. 6: The Last Shinma (07/16/2002 - 125 minutes - 29.95$)

TOKYOPOP Adjust Formats

TOKYOPOP has announced that their new anime releases will be DVD, starting with the upcoming March release of Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). Currently running series such as Vampire Princess Miyu will be released on VHS and DVD. The first volume of the GTO manga will be releases on April 23rd, in an unflipped, right to left page format, the GTO sound track will be released on July 23rd. .

Saint Tail will be dropping its English language track on volume 5, and increasing the number of episodes per disc from 4 to 7.

Devil Hunter Yohko on DVD

David Williams of ADV Films posted on Anime on DVD's forum that Devil Hunter Yohko will be released across two sets. The first set will have 1 disc with both versions of episode 1 and disc 2 having episodes 2 & 3. The second set will have all the music videos (aka Yohko 4-ever) and episodes 5 & 6. There are also trailers, music video, art retrospective and an ADV Historical Commentary with David Williams, Matt Greenfield and Janice Williams talking about ADV's early days and what it was like working on Yohko back then. The discs will be released in 2002 for their 10 year anniversary.

Lupin III: Legend of the Twilight Gemini

Last week's release of the second volume of FUNimation's Blue Gender included a flyer that states Lupin III: Legend of the Twilight Gemini will be released in Spring 2002.

The 1996 takes Lupin to Morocco where he joins forces with a group of desert guerilla. The animation has a modern look to it, and it shows a bit more skin than other Lupin features.

June Release dates

• Saber Marionette J-X DVD Vol. 2 - 125 minutes - 29.99$ - 06/18/2002
• Silent Mobius Vol. #1 - 225 minutes - 44.98$ - 06/18/2002
• Betterman 1: The Awakening - 125 minutes - 29.99$ - 06/04/2002
• Gundam: First Gundam Vol. 10 - 100 minutes - 24.95$ - 06/04/2002
• Love Hina Vol. #3 - 100 minutes - 29.99$ - 06/18/2002
• Ronin Warriors Vol. #3 - 200 minutes - 19.98$ - 06/04/2002
• Ronin Warriors Vol. #4 - 200 minutes - 19.98$ - 06/04/2002
• Adventures of the Mini Goddesses 3 - 100 minutes - 29.98$ - 06/11/2002
• Soul Taker Vol. #3 - 75 minutes - 29.98$ - 06/11/2002
• Sailor Moon Super S TV Series 5-6 - 140 minutes - 29.98$ - 06/11/2002
• Sherlock Hound Casefile 3 - 100 minutes - 29.98$ - 06/11/2002

Pioneer has a posted a Soul Taker preview trailer at www.soultakerdvd.com

Adventures of the Mini Goddesses is a comedic super-deformed (high head, small body) version of Ah! My Goddess, with short 15 minute episodes.

Information on Right Stuf Releases of Boogiepop Phantom and KareKano From Anime on DVD:

For Boogiepop Phantom, the bonus music CD will be available at retail. Should have a sticker on outside of packaging. Official release date is 2/12; likely it will be in stores by 1/29 or so anyway. The CD is the "Overture "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" Boogiepop Version".

The Boogiepop Phantom box set currently in a Nextpak-5. They're doing something different in that they will be adding foam inserts inside to make it so the discs can't come off, also makes the package much more solid. In talking with the folks at Nextpak, who supply cases for all of the Hollywood studios, the problems people have noted here with things like the Tylor OVA case was the only reported instance. No other studios have reported any problems with their packaging.

Since the box set is a 5 disc pack (that takes up the same amount of space as a three pack supposedly), they're gauging interest in doing an open artbox.

"If there is interest in doing an "artbox" I am open to that, but I'd need at least 1000 orders. I'd throw in the CD with it, also maybe empty Amarays with the 1-4 inserts. Thoughts?"

His & Her Circumstances will definitely have a hard-box, not multi-pak nextpak. Will it be available with disc 1? Not sure - may be only at Right Stuf directly for box +1 (waiting for retail response), but there will definitely be a box at the end, no matter what.

Metropolis And Escaflowne Current Status

Anime News Service From Columbia Tristar final preperations for the release of Metroplis is running smoothly. The film is set to open this Friday in NY and LA and so far the critics' reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

Also working on the coming Ronin Warriors release, Bandai Entertainment is also looking toward this weekend's release of their film Escaflowne. Due to unforeseen circumstances however, the San Francisco opening of Escaflowne has been delayed. Updated information for SF will be released by the studio in a few weeks. Bandai has just announced one more screening in Los Angeles: on Jan. 25th:

Pasadena AMC Old Town Pasadena 8 Union at Fair Oaks Pasadena, CA 91103 (626)585-8900

Los Angeles GCC Galleria Cinema 3rd Level of the Mall, 1815 Hawthorne Blvd. Redondo Beach,CA 90278 (310)777-FILM

New York AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street 234 West 42nd Street New York, NY 10036 (212)398-3939

Chicago GCC City North Cinema 2600 N Western Ave Chicago, IL 60647 (773)394-1601

Nelvana to Distribute Kodansha Outside Asia

Reuters reports Nelvana has entered into a three year first look agreement for the rights to Kodansha properties outside Asia. Past collaborations include CardCaptors and the upcoming Beyblade.

Production I.G. English Website Revamp

According to Anime News Network Production I.G.'s English version of their website has undergone some changes and is undergoing a complete overhaul. You can take a look at the site here. You can also gander at the Japanese version if you like.

The biggest noticeable change is that many of the series pages are now in English. The site includes pages with information on Vampirians, Sakura Wars: The movie, Kaidomaru, Pa Rappa the Rapper, Mini Pato, and most other titles they have been involved with.

They also have translations of some of the news that regularly appears on their Japanese site. A new page about Production I.G's ventures into the world of gaming is also now available for perusing. They have have an English events list which is basically an "upcoming" section right now. The rest is the standard corporate information as well as an employment opportunities page(which is in Japanese). A link to the Japanese BBS has also been posted on the English site.

ADV Acquires Southern Cross

ADV has announced by press release that they had acquired the home video rights to Southern Cross, one of the series edited into Robotech, from Harmony Gold.

ADV will release the 23 episode TV series in it's original Japanese format, with English subtitles, on DVD only.

Excerpts from press release:

ADV's release of Southern Cross marks the first time all 23-episodes of this seminal anime series have ever been made available to North America in their original, uncut form. Southern Cross was originally released in Japan as a Japanese-language series, and was first seen in North America in an English-dubbed format as Robotech: Robotech Masters, the second act in the 85-episode Robotech series. The series was modified to fit into Robotech continuity, with several script and scene changes made to the original Japanese episodes, including changes to various characters' names and relationships. Building on the success of Robotech on DVD, ADV FILMS is currently planning a DVD only release of this title.

``Tatsunoko is one of Japan's leading animation studios,'' Robotech producer Carl Macek said. ``Their ambitious production of Southern Cross in 1984 shows just how much their writers and producers were influenced by Western pop culture. It is a mature storyline that pulls away from typical anime conventions to tell a story acceptable for a global market.''

``Southern Cross is a major part of anime history,'' ADV President John Ledford said. ``Bringing it to the States in its Japanese-language version is a major coup for ADV.''

When the Zor attacks the human colony world of Grolier, the task of saving humanity from extinction falls on the shoulders of hot-headed Jeanne Francaix and the 15th Squadron of the Southern Cross army. But to save their world from extinction, they will have to rely on members of the Zor themselves.

4Kids Gets Fox Kids

Toonzone reports 4Kids Entertainment won the bidding for control of Fox Kids Saturday morning programming. Starting with the fall 2002 season, 4Kids will pay Fox $25.3 million per season for the programming block which airs from 8am to 12pm ET/PT on Saturday.

Fox first announced in November the possibility that they were looking to lease their Fox Kids Saturday morning programming block to a content packager like 4Kids.

4Kids Entertainment own Anime title Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Kinnikuman and Tama and Friends in addition to several other non-Anime titles. It is very likely that many, if not all, of these titles will end up airing on the Fox Kids block.

NY Times Anime Articles

The New York Times has recently printed two articles about the state of anime. Anime, Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age discusses how anime has picked up the banner of Japanese cinema since the deaths of its greats, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. Making Anime a Little Safer for Americans discusses the translation of youth oriented animation, such as the released Pokemon, Digimon, and CardCaptors, and the those that have not been released such as the classics "Doraemon," "Chibi Maruko-chan" and "Ge-ge-ge no Kitaro". It touches on how the titles are adapted to American sensibilites such as name changes, gender marketing, and character relationships.

TOKYOPOP Shopping Series for US TV?

TOKYOPOP will be bringing their recent licenses to this week's National Association of Television Program Executives (NAPTE) 2002 include the street racing series Initial D, Real Bout High School, and Peter Chung's (Aeon Flux) Alexander the Great inspired Reign.