Well, Anime/Manga Geeks its that time again. Time for ol' Father Geek to present another great installment of Scott's AICN Anime Report, our regular Wednesday column to keep you up-to-date on all the current releases and news from the world of Manga and Anime. As usual this edition covers everything from Comics to VHS to DVD to theater releases to related merchandise. Sooooo sit back and prepare to scroll thru this week's bountiful helping of coolness in...

The AICN Anime Report...

By Scott Green

Manga Spotlight: Astro Boy

By Osamu Tezuka Released by Dark Horse Comics

After the death of his only son, Tobio, Dr. Tenma created a robot to replace him. Though he was initially pleased with his creation's child like innocence, and joy, Dr. Tenma becomes disillusioned when he saw the boy could grow. He tried to sell Tobio, but because the robot's human appearance the only taker was a circus. Redubbed "Astro", he was rescued by renowned scientist Professor Ochanomizu, who took in Astro Boy as a son. Astro Boy learned to fly like a rocket, amplify his hearing a thousand times, use his eyes as search lights, speak sixty languages fluently, and sense whether people are good, or bad. His strength was equal to 100,000 horse power, and he had machine guns in his rear end.

Astro Boy has the making of a classic children's character, with the enduring traits of the fairy tale character, golden age super heroes, or classic Disney. Though he is lovable, there is something unusual about him. He is a character who can be related to, but not associated with. He is a child, he goes to school, but he is eternally young, and there is something not quite human about him. It is crushing to see to him after he is sold by creator, and told that as a robot he can no long wear clothes. Every time he is hit you want to flinch, but there seems to always be something to remind you he isn't human. He's more of Peter Pan, or Pippi Longstockings than a Cinderella, Superman, or even a Pinocchio.

Dark Horse Comics chose the perfect format to print the series. The small volumes (a little taller than Lone Wolf and Cub) feature slightly more than 200 pages of story for $9.95. The translation was done by manga scholar, author of "Manga! Manga!" and "Dreamland Japan", and Tezuka enthusiast Frederick L. Schodt. Schodt knew Tezuka, and server as his interpreter in the United States and Canada. He probably understands the man and his work as well as any American, and that understanding is evident in the translations.

The first of the first volume's three story is Astro Boy's origin. "The Birth of Astro Boy"is told in a terse fashion, with only single panels for the events after his sale. The final story is "Plant People", a short, tragic story that Astro Boy tells about a flower that his friends find while skiing which Tezuka professes to be one of his favorite short works.

The bulk of the volume is consumed by "The Hot Dog Corps" features the unique idea of an army of humanoid cyborgs constructed using the nervous systems of kidnapped dogs. There is an ancillary theme about the first human to reach the moon, a Russian woman, an ancient lunar society, and the reason for the moon's craters.

Astro Boy's teacher, Mr. Mustachio's companion, his dog Pero is kidnapped by a mysterious woman, and returns as #44, a blue robot in an army secretly trying to destroy Japan's space program.

Tezuka, and Shodt both state that some of the long series' stories are better than others. "The Hot Dog Corps" is probably one of the uneven one. The story goes on too long (170 pages), its weighed down by too much cyclical character torment, and muddled by the addition of the moon story. Tezuka's skill at holding together a long narrative is not evident in the story. It seems to circle too many times between #44's confused return to his former master, his loyalty to his new creator, and his tormented confusion before it escapes the cycle and falls into the lunar pit.

Despite the mistakes in plotting, Tezuka's visual story telling is exceptional. Tezuka works with a unique full palette of actions, from Warner Brother's cartoon style motions of rapid high kneed tip-toeing, to giant action schemes of robots crashing, or planes exploding, to more subtle, cinematic cuts, such as showing #44 walking while focusing on his back, his shadow, and his feet and the sounds of their motion, then the reaction of others witnessing his walk. Perhaps Tezuka's greatest accomplishment it that despite all of the complexity or the art, it appears simple.

Anime Spotlight on Princess Nine: Triple Play

Released by ADV

Princess Nine presents two genres underrepresented in English translated anime, sports and shoujo (girl's). Both genres are deserving of more recognition, and at $19.98 for a four episode volume Princess Nine is one of the best deals in anime.

The title refers to a girls' baseball team created by Keiko Himuro, the chairwoman of a prestigious co-ed school to compete and again other school's boy's teams. The keystone of the team is Ryo Hayakawa, daughter of a championship pitcher who died at a young age. Izumi Himura, the chairwoman's daughter , and a driven tennis prodigy complete the team's roster in this volume when she burns her rackets, in favor of a uniform.

Though the team has natural ability, and strength in a number of places, personality problems, a minority of weak players, and underdeveloped abilities are creating exploitable holes. After beating a junior high school team, they agree to play against a highly competitive high school team in order to win the right to play in the male high school league.

After gathering the teams player's the series go it a bit of a rut, between, the incessant knee-jerk misogamy on the part of the team's tractor, an attempt to win using feminine wiles that was taken too far, and the constant use of the do or die test motif. The lack of wiggle room is making the series predictable. If the catcher needs to catch one of 100 fast pitches or she will be thrown off the team, you can put money on the fact she's probably going to catch one of the last ten. Hopefully, the next volumes conclusion of the their first high school game with allow for more variation.

Princess Nine does its best to make the action interesting, considering that baseball can be visually repetitive game, especially if the pitcher is striking out a great number of people.

Its at it's best when it is focusing on its characters. Princess Nine's cast feels slightly recycled, but their quirks and interactions are consistently entertaining, but the Ryo/Izumi dynamic is what has given the series its depth so far. The clash of Izumi's bluntness and sharp tongue, and Ryo's considerate earnestness has become interesting as the two forceful characters now work together.

This Week's Releases:

Anime:

• A.D. Police - To Protect and Serve (Compete Series)
• Adventures of Mini Goddess Vol. #2
• Battle Skipper: The Movie
• Mobile Suit Gundam Vol. #08
• Mobile Suit Gundam Vol. #09
• Neon Genesis Evangelion Perfect Collection Box Set
• Power Stone - The Search Continues (Vol. 4)
• Ranma 1/2 - Anything-Goes Martial Arts (Second Season Boxed Set)
• Roujin Z (Special Edition)
• Zoids - The Battle Begins (Vol. 1)

Manga

• Animerica Extra Vol 5 #5
• Bastard #5 Ninja (3 Of 3)
• Cowboy Bebop #4 (Of 4)
• Galaxy Express 999 Vol 5 Tp
• Gundam Wing Endless Waltz #2 (Of 5)
• Love Hina #3 (Of 4)
• Magical Pokemon Journey Vol 5 Going Coconuts Tp
• Pokemon Advs Vol 5 Making Waves Tp
• Pulp Vol 6 #5 (Mr)
• Ragnarok #3 (Of 4)
• Ranma 1/2 Part 11 #2 (Of 11)
• Record Of Lodoss War Lady Of Pharis #1
• Super Manga Blast #20

The Ranma ½ box set includes the 22 episode second TV series.

Adventures Of Mini-Goddess: The Belldandy Files includes 12 short episodes of the comedy series. "Whenever Keichi leaves the house, Belldany, Urd and Skuld shrink themselves to play with the other residents of the area, including their clueless rat sidekick, Gan. In their diminutive sizes, the goddesses go through outrageously funny experiences in every adventure."

Manga at the Eisner Awards

The nominees for the comic communinty's prestigous Eisner Awards have been announced. Manga related nominees include Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo (Dark Horse) for Best Archival Collection/Project, Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo (Dark Horse), Eagle, by Kaiji Kawaguchi (Viz), and Uzumaki, by Junji Ito (Viz) for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material, Makoto Kobayashi, "What's Michael?" in Super Manga Blast (Dark Horse) for Best Writer/Artist Humor, and Osamu Tezuka is a judge's choice for the Hall of Fame. The complete nominee list can be seen here;

Eagle is a political drama about the first Asian-American candidate the presidency of the United States.

Uzumaki is a horror comic about a small, fog bound town haunted by the shape of the spiral.

What's Michael? is about a cat and his interactions with other animals and humans.

Berserk Volume 2 Delay

The second volume of Media Blaster's release of Berserk has been delayed from 07/18/2002 to 07/30/2002. Berserk is a dark, violent, and eventually supernatural medieval drama about mercenary who becomes entangled in a charismatic man's quest to become king.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Dub Suggestions

Super Techno Arts is looking for suggest English voice actors for there dub of Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure on Anime on DVD's forum.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a creatively violent feud between a vampire and a family, the latest generation of which has acquired power from a Stand (tarot card like entity)

AnimEigo Kimagure Nears Orange Road

AnimEigo's mailing list reports:

"We are pleased to announce that we expect to be shipping the KOR DVD box sets by the end of April. We had a few production delays that were beyond our control, but everything seems to be going well now.

Kim and Suzie have asked me to ask you to finalize your preorders by April 26th, so that we can guarantee you a set. So if the preorder status listed below shows any problems, we'd appreciate it if you can update your information. "

Kimagure Orange Road is a love triangle drama with some physic powers thrown in.

Spirited Away Region 2 DVD

Buena Vista will be releasing a Region 2 DVD of Hayao Miyazaki's Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) this summer. The DVD will feature Japanese, French, and Chinese audio tracks, Japanese, French, Chinese, and English subtitles, and anamorphic letterbox transfer.

The standard edition will feature story boards from the film.

The limited edition will feature 3 movie posters, oil store diorama, Berlin Film Festival press booklet and "Haku's rice ball" figure (seen here)

A wood motif Ghibli DVD player can be seen at here.

More Synch Point Delays on FLCL and I'm Gonna Be An Angel.

Synch Points release of I'm Gonna Be An Angelion on DVD has been pushed back to April 16th. Futurue volumes, and the release of FLCL has been shifted to "Spring, Summer and Fall".

Omocha Box Becomes Anime Gamers

Excerpted from a post to the OmochaBox Retail Store Mailing List by Ardith Santiago:

The OmochaBox newsletter for April will be availible in the store starting this week. Pick up the Rabi~en~Rose themed letter for the latest updates!

The big news is that OmochaBox is changing its name to Anime Gamers! But rest assured, Anime Gamers will only get better. Look out for new items and great sales.

Back in January it was reported that Digital Manga had been split and that Synch Point and Omocha Box would become a part of Broccoli. Originally some sort of official statement regarding the changes was expected in early February, but none was ever made.

Even the announcement that Omochabox will have its name changed to one that reflects it's Japanese owners (Gamers is one of the largest Anime Merchandise stores in Japan and the origin of Digi Charat, the popular anmated Mascot that has also been used for Omochabox), includes no direct mention of the restructuring or the company's new owners.

A new Domain name has been registered for the Anime Gamers website, AnimeGamers.com, which currently redirects to the Oochabox.com domain.

Pokemon Movies Change Distributor

According to this LA Times article, Miramax has acquired the distribution rights to Pokemon Movies #4 and 5 for $1 million upfront, and 75% of back-end profits. Miramax Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein said the company can reinvigorate the franchise with Miramax marketing savvy.

"We'll come up with a bolder, smarter marketing concept. For us, this is a big fish and a valuable brand," he said. Miramax plans to release "Pokemon 4" in October.

More on Live Action Dragonball Movie

The official DragonballZ.com reports, according to FUNimation Vice President and Producer Daniel Cocanougher the movie may be released "as early as Fall 2003 or Summer 2004," and "They [fox] feel that this project will not end with one movie, but will become a major, multi-picture franchise like Star Wars."

Mangaverse to Conduct talent search at Acen

Anime News Network Marvel Mangaverse editors Brian Smith and C.B. Cebulski will be conducting portfolio reviews in the Artist Alley at ACen 2002 in Illinois later this month. See acen.org

Anime in Japan

From Anime NEws Service: A new film based on Igarashi Mikio's BonoBono will be released in Japan this summer. Taking on CGI format anime, the movie's subtitle is confirmed as "The Tree of Kumomo". In the movie, Bono Bono, the story's title beaver sits beneath the Tree of Kumomo on the highest hill of the forest where he goes to forget his sadness, one day he meets a young ferret named Popo, a branch of the tree is broken and the forest animals suspect that Popo is the culprit. A new power of the Tree of Kumomo is then revealed. The official siteopens in late April 2002

Yamato Creator Leiji Matsumoto Calms Specualtion On New Yamato Hitches

According to a new Infoseek news article which can be read here in Japanese, Yamato creator Leiji Matsumoto has added his input against recent speculation that a Tokyo District Court judgment would possibly affect the continued production and planning of the New Space Battleship Yamato series, mentioning producer Nishizaki Hirofumi had previously already sold certain copyrights and that Matsumoto had now been able to secure those rights.

Maou Dante (Dante the Devil) (presumably based on the manga of the same name by Nagai Go) is to start it's broadcast run from July on AT-X. Princess Tutu starts air in August on Kids Station.

Utena To Screen At Gay And Lesbian Film Festival

Anime News Service reports Yuricon has announced that in conjunction with the 26th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, they be presenting a screening of "Adolescence of Utena" withb the exact date to be announced. Yuricon celebrates shoujoai in anime and manga with events around the North American continent. For more information about Yuricon events, and their 2003 convention, visit http://www.yuricon.org . The 26th San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is held June 13-30, 2002. For more information, visit the website at www.frameline.org. The titular Utena is a girl who was orphaned at a young age. A prince inspires her to go on, and one day become a prince herself. She arrives at the surreal Otori Academy where a group of elite students duel for the Rose Bride. The series features a variety of non-traditional relationships, and romances.

Next Movie From Director Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon, director of the psychological thriller Perfect Blue, and the recent Millenium Actress announced on his message board that his next film will be "Tokyo Godfather", the story of three homeless people: two middle-aged men (one homosexual) and a 16 year old girl. Storyboards are 90% finished and the movie is expected to be completed within one year's time.

The film will be produced by Madhouse (Ninja Scroll, the X TV series).

Ninja Scroll Press Conference Postponed To June

According to Anime News Service, initially scheduled for April, a Japanese press event surrounding the recent licensing deal between Threshold Entertainment and Madhouse has been moved back to June due to the ovewhellming response by the world press. Masao Maruyama of Studio Madhouse and co-producer Hikaru Sasahara of Digital Manga are scheduled to be on hand along with Larry Kasanoff of Threshold Entertainment.

Plex Enter US Manga Market

Plex International Design, one of Japan's leading toy design and TV planning companies, announced they would soon begin publishing a line of original manga. However, in an interesting move, Plex explained they would first tryand penetrate the American comic market with their original Japanese manga titles.

"When Plex made the decision to start publishing their own line of manga, they also decided they wanted their manga to be done in full color.", explained Mutsumi Masuda, Plex's U.S. representative. "However, while there have been some color manga popping up over the years in Japan, black and white manga is still the norm in the Japanese market. Thus, Plex felt it would be better to test the waters here in America first."

While usually a behind-the-scenes player, Plex has decided that based on past successes it is time for them to step out more into the spotlight. Most Americans are quite familiar with Plex's work already, even if they don't know it. The design firm was responsible for the creation of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the world's best-selling toy line for the last decade. They have also done design for popular properties such as Gundam, Digimon, Masked Rider and Ultraman. Chances are that if you've ever purchased a toy based on a Japanese property, there's a good chance Plex was involved on some level. Plex's most recent original creation is RoboWheels, miniature cars that transform into robots. RoboWheels are now available in stores across America from Mattel as part of their Hot Wheels line.

Plex's first manga offering will be Angel's Wing, the story of an apprentice angel who makes her first trip to Earth. It will be written and illustrated by manga newcomer Tetsuya Aoki. While new to manga, Mr. Aoki is a veteran of the design and illustration industry. He has been working at Plex for over 12 years and has been an integral part of the success of their properties. Before joining Plex, Mr. Aoki was employed at Takara where he worked on the designs of The Transformers.

"Yes, I am a toy designer by trade, not really a manga artist, but drawing ,anga is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I poured my heart and soul into Angel's Wing and I hope it shows.", Tetsuya Aoki comments. "I am ecstatic that I have been given the chance to finally publish Angel' s Wing... and in America no less!"

Here is how Aoki-san summed up Angel's Wing: There is a legend that every Christmas Eve, an angel descends from Heaven to grant wishes to the lucky humans who it encounters. As children lie tucked in their beds dreaming of meeting this angel, little do they know that this legend is about to undergo an unexpected twist. Mashiro, the angel who has been granting these wishes for centuries, has decided to retire. But before she goes, she must train the fiery little upstart angel Mary to carry on her earthly duties. Mary has wish-fulfilling ideas of her own though! All Mary's plans are thrown for a loop though when she discovers the forces of evil are trying to prevent her from carrying out the responsibilities Mashiro has passed down. Assisted by a lone human boy, Mary has to fight the shadow forces and preserve her angelic legacy.

Angel's Wing will go on sale this July. The 80 page full color one-shot is colored by SotoColor Graphics' J. Brown and will cost $7.95. However, a special preview edition of Angel's Wing will be available at Anime Central, the Midwest's largest anime and manga convention, held from April 19-21 in Chicago. Artist Tetsuya Aoki is a guest of the convention and will be promoting Angel's Wing and his work there. Plex Design will also have a booth at the con to exhibit and display their design work and properties.

For more information on Anime Central visit www.acen.org.

For more information on Angel's Wing and Plex International Design, visit www.plex-web.com.

Upcoming TOKYOPOP Manga Releases

There are unconfirmed indicated that TOKYOPOP will soon be releasing Rave by Hiro Mashima, Rebound by Yuriko Nishiyama (the continuation of Harlem Beat), and CLAMP's Wish.

Upcoming Guardians of Order Releases

Guardians of Order will be releasing their Ultimate Fan Guide books on Hellsing, Niea_7, and Soultaker.

Niea_7 is a comedy from the creators of Serial Experiments Lain about a poor young woman, and her alien room mate.

Soultaker and Hellsing are recent horror series.

Upcoming Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Screenings

The Urban Institution of Contemporary Art - 4/11-4/13/02 Grand Rapids, MI

Incredible Film Fest - 4/11 and 5/2 New Zealand

Sub Films Iowa State - 4/20/02 Ames, IA

Halfway to Hollywood - 5/7-5/8/02 Mission, KS

Cinemuerte International Horror Film Festival - 7/6-7/7/02 Vancouver, Canada

The Oak Cinema - 8/9-8/10/02 Baton Rouge, LA

Diamond Cancels White Rain

Diamond has canceled pre-orders of Fanboy Inc's release of Serial Expirements Lain character designer Yoshitoshu ABe's manga White Rain. There are currently no indications when or if it will be resolicited.

San Fransico Sen to Chihiro Showings

According to Anime News Network, following the April 20th American premier of Sen To Chihiro, Sen will show three more times at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Details can be found on their website, http://sffs.org/fest02/titleDetail.asp?title_id=101. Sen is the only Anime showing at the festival, but several other Japanese films will be presented.

Kodansha Discontinues English Site

Manga publishing company Kodansah will be closing their English www.kodanclub.com on April 15th.

From the web site:

We are very sorry to inform you that, as of April 15, kodanclub.com, which was launched on December 12, 2000 for the purpose of making available information on Kodansha's manga publications, will no longer be accessible.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited our site and to apologize for this inconvenience and for not being able to develop an online shop.

It is our sincere hope that you will continue to visit our site until April 15.

Thanks again, Webmaster

New Bits In Current Wizard

From Anime News Service Aome interesting news bits running in the current May 2002 issue of the American Comics Magazine, Wizard: Wilson Tortosa has been chosen as the artist for the Topcow comic adaptation of Battle of the Planets.

Osamu Tezuka was given the honor of being on Wizard's list of the ten "Most Influential Comic Book Artists". (He was number 3.)

In an interview with C.B. Cebulski of Marvel's Mangaverse, Cebulski mentioned that Kia Asamiya has two more projects lined up with Marvel.

According to the Spring 2002 issue of the American Anime Invasion magazine, rumor has it that the release of the Trigun manga may be coming this summer. There are reportedly several interested companies pursuing the rights, and an announcement should be forthcoming citing the company who wins the bidding war.

Graphic Novel Distributor LPC Files Chapter 11

LPC Group, the biggest distributor of Independent comics publishers into mainstream bookstores(including manga translators Dark Horse, and TOKYOPOP), filed for Chapter 11 today.

David Wilk, the company's president, announced the bankruptcy in a letter to publishers late Tuesday night.

In the letter, Wilk blamed the collapse on a 'wrongful' seizure of funds in the LPC account. Wilk said: "On Thursday, CDS wired to our account its payment for December sales, less returns and fees, and we in turn prepared wiring instructions and checks to send out our current payments to you and other publishers. That money is in great part, the payment for receivables that belong to the publishers. The bank, however, in spite of their explicit promises, seized that payment and all other funds in our account. As a result, LPC had no recourse but to file for Chapter 11Bankruptcy protection, which we have done today, April 2, 2002."

According to the Publishers Weekly Company president David Wilk says he's confident that the firm will reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy. "As much as is possible under the circumstances we're going to go forward, business as usual." Wilk says that LPC has been profitable. "Our business model is working." Over the last year LPC has been aggressively pursuing graphic novel publishers eager to sell their books in general bookstores. The three largest unsecured creditors are all graphic novel publishers: Mixx Entertainment ($767,000), Dark Horse Comics ($661,000) and Marvel Entertainment ($618,000).

The primary issue, as it with so many independent operations, is cash-flow. According to Wilk, LPC was forced to file bankruptcy after the Chicago-based American National Bank demanded payment on a longtime revolving line of credit and took possession of over $1 million in LPC cash receipts. (Wilk says the debt precedes his joining the company.) The cash, Wilk says, would have otherwise been used to pay publishers and CDS. Wilk says he is "very confident" that LPC will regain the money. "Every legal opinion we've received is that that money belongs to the publishers." We were unable to contact the bank by press time.

It is unclear how the filing will affect the more than 170 publishers distributed by LPC. One who declined to be named says "I can't imagine this is going to be good for publishers." Chris Staros, publisher of Top Shelf, a small graphic novel press in Atlanta, says that LPC owes his firm $80,000 (minus returns) and that he discovered the bankruptcy when a $20,000 check from LPC bounced. Staros is supportive but he also says, "to put it bluntly, if we don't raise $20,000 this month, it could realistically force us to suspend publishing operations for the foreseeable future.

ICV2 has posted reactions from the effected companies here

Although many in the industry may not realize it, Tokyopop is undoubtedly one of LPC's most important publishers thanks to Sailor Moon (and the other manga titles in the publisher's burgeoning line. In the current situation of course, big sales could mean big problems if LPC can't right the ship. A spokesperson for Tokyopop told ICv2 that Tokyopop had no comment regarding LPC at this time.

Comics One Sales Manager Nicole Curry told ICv2: "during the last four months, LPC has had very good sales with our books, especially through some of the bigger chains like Borders and Walden Books. If LPC does go down, this is going to hurt us quite a bit."

While LPC's filing for Chapter 11 has hit many publishers hard, for Dark Horse, the announcement came as they were gearing up for a big push in bookstores connected with major manga and Episode II releases. With large bookstore sales on the horizon, Dark Horse's Vice President of Marketing Michael Martens explained to Newsarama that things aren't as dire for the publisher as some many think, and certainly not as bad as the Publisher's Weekly report suggested.

"It's really been a business as usual situation here," Martens said. "I know that's a cliché, but as of this week, we are shipping Lone Wolf and Cub, Akira 6, Astro Boy #1, and the book trade is being shipped Star Wars Episode II. None of those books were affected. None of our stock was affected. So right now, we're feeling pretty good, because it's one of the biggest shipments of our year, actually, one of the biggest in the last couple of years is going out this week."

ADV Release Dates

Announced on Anime on DVD's message board:

Sailor Moon: Introducing Sailor Venus! and Sailor Moon: Adventure Girls! will be released on 7/23/2002. The six episode discs will retail for $14.98.

Medabots Vol. #2:Medabots, Robattle will be released on 6/25. The English only disc will include four episodes, character bios and Medabots A to Z

Nadia volume 9 will be released on 6/4.

ADV Films has announced a 06/18/2002 street date for the Blue Seed Perfect Collection. This is like the Getter Robo Armageddon Pack in that the four discs that make up this 26 episode series are in one larger than normal keepcase. The discs are identical to what was already released, so you get 650 minutes of anime for the low price of $59.98.

New Anime Magazine

A new, slightly echi (risque) anime and gaming magazine Service Service is starting up. For more information, and a sample, see their web site at www.ServiceServiceMagazine.com

Upcoming Pioneer Releases

Soultaker Volume 2 - Flickering Faith will be released on April 23rd "When Kyosuke pursues his mysterious sister Runa by following a psychic resonance, he discovers his journey will accompany much danger. Death stalks the same path as the truth leading Kyosuke into Kirihara traps and conflicts with the Hospital Mutants! The secret to Kyosuke's powers and the truth about his past may lie with Runa. But who is the real Runa? Fleeing from her pursuers, she hides by splitting herself into other Flickers, fragments of her soul that have manifested corporeal bodies. And with each Flicker, Kyosuke uncovers a sliver of the truth more unbelievable and suspicious than the last!"

Armitage Dual Matrix will be released on June 25th "Armitage Dual-Matrix - Synopsis Naomi Armitage is an illegal "Third Type" android, more human than anything ever made. In its prequel, Armitage Poly-Matrix, Naomi meets Ross Sylibus while working at the Martian Police Department (MPD). Attracted by their mutual desire to fight against the Martian Government, Naomi and Ross become partners.

Armitage Dual-Matrix takes place six years after the first film. Since then, Naomi and Ross have changed their names and happily live together with their daughter Yoko on Mars -- until a robot riot breaks out at an anti-matter plant on Earth. Armitage learns that the riot is a plot to suppress evidence of illegal research and development of more "Third Robots." Armitage decides to go to Earth alone to find out who is behind this plot, but what she discovers is the most powerful enemy she has yet encountered - replicas of herself.

Armitage Dual-Matrix - The DVD

The special edition DVD boasts 35 minutes of bonus features including a "Making of Armitage Dual-Matrix" featurette with interviews with director Katsuhito Akiyama and Juliette Lewis, an extensive photo gallery and trailer. Priced at $29.98, the DVD also includes 5.1 music player featuring three tracks from the soundtrack, plus a supplemental 16-page Armitage Collector's Character Guide. In addition, the special edition DVD features an exclusive Dimensional F/X packaging.

The Armitage Dual-Matrix collectible limited edition lunch box set features the special edition DVD and an exclusive variant Armitage action figurine from McFarlane Toys, priced at $69.98. Pioneer Entertainment is also releasing a two-disc set, featuring both Armitage titles, Poly-Matrix and Dual-Matrix, priced at $39.98. In addition, Armitage Dual-Matrix will be available on standard DVD for $19.98"