~ Anime Video Review of the Month
~ Anime CD Review
~ Mononoke Hime US Release Date
~ Anime News
~ Game Review
~ What/Where/Who on Anime Online
~ FanFic Stories
E D I T O R I A L
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Gomenasai Minna. We are so sorry for the late April issue of our anime
newsletter. But due to unforseen complications in our mundane lives we
haven't had the chance to spend as much time this month on the
newsletter as we would like to have. But fear not fellow otakus, next
month should be on schedule. Oneigai.. please forgive the lateness of
the newsletter this month.
Sailor Moon has started its comeback here in the States by
showing on the Cartoon Network this past year. The debut of the episodes shown only
in Canada dubbed finally were seen in the States. But what of the rest
of the Sailor Moon series? Will we ever have the chance to see the rest
of the series dubbed? Currently, the only way to see any from the later
series is to hunt down and find fan subs. Animerica has given us the
fellow Sailor Moon Otakus a brief description of the later series.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get more information on the 3rd series
which is Sailor Moon S we can only start from:
Which focuses on Chibi-Usa or "Rini" in the dubbed versions. She
is back again and the "Pink Terror" has returned for a long stay. The
entire 39 episodes revolves on Rini and her dreams. In Rini's dreams,
she encounters a white winged unicorn called Pegasus. While the Sailor
Scouts in civilian identities (Serena, Raye, Amy, Lita & Mina with the
Luna & Artemis) gather at a park to watch a solar eclipse. During he
eclipse a circus tent appears over the city and lands. No one seems to
notice (except Serena who makes a casual comments and forgets about it).
Here enters the main evil characters Zirconia, the master of the circus.
She appears old but non human. Her main henchman to begin with is the
Amazon Trio (Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye, and Fish Eye, 2 are handsome and
one is pretty and all are male Zoicites) who are sent out to look for
Pegasus. We find out that Pegasus can not live in this world for long
and hides in someone's "beautiful dream". The trio must search
throughout the city for someone who may dream beautiful dreams.
Unfortunately they fail in their missions and the Amazoness Quartet (Ves
Ves, Palla Palla, Jun Jun, and Cere Cere) who are acrobats in the circus
take over in the search for Pegasus. There techniques to find Pegasus
are more drastic than their predecessors.
The first 6 episodes are the conclusion to the last series with
Sailor Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto reintroduced. Queen Nephrenia (we find
out is the master of Zirconia from the last series and was vanquished to
a mirror where her beauty is restored by Sailor Moon) listens to an
unnatural female voice who offers the fulfillment to all her dreams
(Nephrenia is vain and feeds on people's beautiful dreams to stay young
and beautiful). The mirror which seals her is broken and she is freed.
She finds out that Sailor Moon and Chibi (Rini) are still alive and is
furious. Following the bidding of the unnatural voice, Nephrenia smashes
the dream mirror in which the glass splinters and flies out throughout
the city like shooting stars. The Sailor Scouts and Darien watch the
shooting stars and Raye sense evil in the air again. At that point a
piece of the mirror flies into Darien's eye. Darien tells the others
that he feels okay but an eerie golden glow soon appears in his eyes. In
another part of the city Sailors Uranus and Neptune are attacked by a
horde of fallen glass shards that morphs into monsters. Sailor Pluto
arrives and assists with the destroying the monsters (Sailor Pluto is a
baby in the beginning of this series and grows up to catch up to the age
she was in from the Super S series. At this point in the series she is
already around the age of 4 or 5).
To make matters worse, the glass shard in Darien's eye has
caused him to be in complete control by Queen Nephrenia. Queen Nephrenia drags
Darien through the mirror in his apartment to her dimension and Eternal
Sailor Moon flies off to find him (she has wings now in her new Sailor
Moon boost up). The Sailor scouts teleport after her to find her and are
separated from each other on different worlds. They search for the rest,
pairing up as they go along and find themselves set up by traps that
Queen Neprhenia set up. Throughout this whole time Rini is fading fast
from reality.
In this series there is also added characters introduced. Such
as the Sailor Starlights who in disguise is a really popular singing group.
Three young guys named Yaren, Taiki and Seiya. We find out later in the
series that they are Sailors: Sailor Star Maker, Sailor Star Fighter and
Sailor Star Healer (they transform from guys to girls...this will be
interesting to see if they will keep to the original idea in the manga
inwhich they are girls to begin with when they dub for the West release).
They have a secret mission as to why they were sent to Earth. When
Sailor Moon finds out that the Starlights are familiar with Galaxia, she
asks if they would join them to fight against Galaxia but they don't.
The main evil character in this series is Sailor Galaxia a
renegade Sailor from somewhere in the galaxy (the way they explained it is that
Sailor Scouts are found outside Earth's solar system and in the galaxy)
and is the one who had released Queen Nephrenia from the mirror in the
beginning of this series. She was once the most powerful Sailor Scout in
the galaxy now she is corrupt and craves for interstellar conquest. We
find out that she had sealed Chaos, the source of evil, but it backfired
and she became corrupt. Galaxia sends out corrupted Sailor Scouts to
steal "star seeds" (extracted from a flower that forms from the forehead
of a Sailor Scout).
Another character appears named "Chibi-Chibi" (imagine a
smaller, even cuter version of Rini who is just out of babyhood. The only word she is
able to say is Chibi but like Rini, has mind control and Serena's mother
accepts Chibi Chibi as her daughter and Serena's little sister. No one
knows who Chibi Chibi is and where she comes from. They speculated that
she may be from the future but Sailor Pluto who has been in the future
says she is not. At one point Chibi Chibi puts her hand on Sailor Moon's
wand during a battle and Sailor Moon becomes upgraded with a new attack.
Chibi Chibi also becomes a Sailor Scout (the youngest yet. Remember, by
this time Rini is also a Sailor Scout).
Will justice and love prevail at the end? Will Darien recover
and Rini return? Will there be a happy ending to the Sailor Moon series? What do
you think?
A N I M E * R E V I E W
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Based on manga by: Yu Watase
Video Distributed by: Pioneer
Available in: subbed or dubbed
Available: now
Rate: For mature audiences/ PG 13
As serious as the story line sounds, there are a lot of
silliness that goes on with Miaka and the other characters. For example, Miaka is
ALWAYS hungry. There is a scene where she accidentally loses Tamahome
because she can smell the royal kitchen cooking dinner. She tiptoes into
the kitchen grabs food and is later seen walking out into the court
forgetting she's being hunted down by the guards of the palace. This
anime has everything. Adventure, romance, magic, evil enemies, silly
main characters, true love, etc. I really enjoyed the series and would
recommend this series to anyone. Since this anime has just been released
it would be a great anime series to collect. But there is a PG 13 rating
due to the violence, sexual overtones, nudity and language to keep in
mind.
A N I M E * C D * R E V I E W
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Volume 1 of the Macross Plus soundtrack is surprisingly easy
to find. It was at two different stores, and Blockbuster Music can
order it, or at least the one in North Carolina can. Volume 1 is a
wonderful mix, containing classical instrumentals by the Israeli
Philharmonic Orchestra, rock-like music (track 3, After in the
Dark~Torch Song), a wonderful melody in track 8 (Voices, Japanese
version) as well as a spooky, computer generated song Santi-U, track
11. This one in general would give someone the creeps if they heard
it on a dark night. I love them all. The CD cover is double sided,
one side featuring the Macross Plus logo (a nifty triangle thing with
a ball of light inside, looks much better when CGI animated) against
clouds, while the other side features the same logo on a black
background, like the openings from the four OVA's. Inside, it has
several tiny pictures on a sheet that are screen captures from the
series. Unfortunately, they are so small it's nearly impossible to
get any detail unless you know what you are looking at. The credits
and track times are given in a spiral format, which gives me a
headache to read.
Volume 2 of the soundtrack is harder to find, once again I
ordered it from Blockbuster Music, but it's not nearly as good. The
cover is again double sided, this time featuring the Sharon Apple icon
against clouds or a black background. Again, the tiny pictures are way
too small, but at least they no longer list the songs and track
numbers in spiral format. There's lyrics for 'Pulse', but they're in
kanji which I can't read very well.
The music goes downhill fast on this one. Most of the
instrumental parts I find very lacking. It contains yet another
version of Voices, this one done in an Acoustic mode, something called
'Pulse' that I already mentioned which consists mostly of someone
wailing wordlessly most of the time while occasionally someone with a
horrid accent tries to speak English lyrics into it. I have nothing
against accents in general but you really do need to have the lyrics
available or you're never going to be able to decipher them.
The lowest point is the first track, 'Idol Talk'. It's a very
nice alternative style song, until you get to the one English line in
it. It's, to say the least, hen tai. It got me so annoyed I actually
blanked it out as soon as I could. It repeats at the end, which has
caused me to cut that out too. Ugh. I don't care if I'm the teenage
male of the house or not, I'm not going to allow smut into my music.
This song pretty much spoils the entire CD, which was on pretty shaky
ground to start with. The vast majority of the fifteen tracks are the
background music from various scenes. They are intended to be barley
heard when someone is speaking. When heard alone, they don't sound
very good at all. The one redeeming factor to the entire thing is 'A
Sai En', track 12. It's the song that Sharon Apple was singing when
the Macross was lifting off in the fourth OVA. I like to just set it
on repeat and listen to that for hours. It's quite similar to
Gregorian-era Hymns in Latin, my favorite music.
Overall, Volume One is definitely worth it. Unless you really
like A Sai En, Volume Two probably isn't worth bothering with. The
sad thing is, the two CD's still don't contain all the songs in the
anime. They're missing 'The Borderline', 'Information High', and a
few others. I highly recommend One, though. It's my favorite CD so
far.
M O N O N O K E * H I M E
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M O N O K E * H I M E * I N F O R M A T I O N
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I couldn't believe that this show as hard on movies as they are
were saying nothing but good things about the two animes. Not to mention
that it also means that My Neighbor Totoro will be re-released on video (due
to the change of rights to the video), a good thing for someone like me who
has yet to see it.
So in a way this yet another one of the many things that is
validating anime, and changing what people think of it from smut to something of
good quality.
So it will be interesting to see if the most sought after
boot-leg anime of all times will also be a number one movie in the US. Since it is one
of Miyazaki's darkest movies he has ever done and it is not being released
by Disney it's self it'll be interesting to see how will it will do with
those not into anime.
It was Animerica Extra as the magazine puts it "the anime fan's
comic magazine". Here they have several famous Mangas broken down into
segments in every issue. So for the price of $4.95 you get five different
Mangas. Currently this past month's issue included X/1999, Fushigi Yugi, Short
Program, Steam Detectives & Video Girl Ai. Each month you get the pleasure of a little bit of each manga.
Granted I wasn't familiar with Steam Detectives or Short Program but
spending $4.95 to get X/1999, Video Girl Ai, and Fushigi Yugi is a deal.
The only problem is when I found out about this magazine it's
already into issue three. So the stories have already started, but it's still
worth checking it out.
monthly comic, b&w, 32 pages, $2.95 USA
Searching for a cute girl as the first part of their training, Kuririn
and Goku find Lunch, a dark-haired girl who seems to be made of sugar
and spice and everything nice, but who’s really a disaster waiting to
happen. Seems there’s a blond, trigger-happy female criminal nearby…who
just happens to never be seen with Lunch at the same time!
b&w, 40 pages, $3.25 USA
Years ago, the priestess Kikyo died to protect her village from a
rampaging Inu-Yasha…or so it seems. Now while Kagome and Inu-Yasha are
away, a scythe-wielding witch robs Kikyo’s grave with a sinister plan:
to bring Kikyo’s ashes back to life!
As the refugees from Side Seven try to get aboard White Base, the
commander of the Zeon forces, Char Aznable, personally leads a force
into Side Seven to investigate the mysterious new mecha. What
connection does Char have to Sayla?
manga anthology, b&w, 128 pages, $5.95 USA
Gripping, graphic manga, crime, suspense, sex comedy and more from
Japan’s best mainstream publications for a general adult audience!
b&w, 176 pages, $15.95 USA
two complete episodes each volume in English, color, stereo, 52 mins.,
$24.95 USA
G A M E * R E V I E W
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Square Soft
One Player
Other aspects as well make it confusing at first. Such as
character class and the jobs each can have. But then that gives the
game more options as well. Tired of having a Knight in your party? If
you have the points you can change him into a Priest. a monk, a wizard,
a archer or any other.
The story line itself has many twists and turns like any good FF
game such as your one time best friend turns against you. An evil empire is
trying to rise that you must stop. Your basic FF story line but seems very
fresh and new. This plot is full of betrayal and back stabbing and that is in
the first part of the game that you play that gives you the history of
where the main character is at now.
The graphics of the game are very good, bright and clear. The
spells look very good when cast especially the lightning. The characters in the
game also vary but not by much each knight other than any computer controlled
members of your party or the main character all look the same. As well
as the wizards or the priest or the archer. But even that little factor
really don't distract from the way the graphics look. The music yet
again is just as good as any the FF game. Which goes to show that Square Soft
does put a lot into this series of game. So the tradition carries on in
this new version. The opening movie was quite cool, showing a group of
Knights riding Chocobas all decked out in armor, something that I
thought looked very awesome.
A nice part of the game was that it has a tutorial mode that
will walk you through the different aspects of the game that might be a
little confusing to you. An aspect of the game that I liked since when I
rented the game it didn't have a rule book.
So I do look forward to more FF games that are like this and
hope that Square Soft will make more like it. Since I rented the game to review
it, it's also a game that I plan to buy. I look forward to seeing how the
story will further unfold and how the game will end...ahhh, the pleasure
of replaying it.
W H A T / W H E R E / W H O on A N I M E * O N L I N E
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website maintained by: Thea
When you download the page the first thing you see is:
"This is the story of a girl who gathered the Seven Seishi of
Suzaku, and acquired the power to make every wish come true. The story itself is
an incantation. Whoever finishes the book shall receive this power. As
soon as the page is turned, the story will become the truth and
begin..."
The website has been maintained and updated since 7/27/97 and
has received a lot of clicks (the last I checked it was at 37887). This site
has won two awards for it's looks. I do like the kanji script written as
wallpaper. It's just looks...kakui!! (cool). The person who owns the
website also did not include java and suggests to use Netscape 4.0 or
higher and the page is laid out at 600 pixels wide (table background).
This website has evertything you can think of that you may have
questions or curious about when it comes to Fushigi Yugi. It includes an
introduction to the series, info on the State release, the manga, the TV
and 1st and 2nd OVA series, the Art books, soundtracks, the
characters....are you catching my drift when I say that it has
everything? There's even a special section for Satou Akemi (she has her
own shrine) who sings the opening theme for Fushigi Yugi Itooshii Hito
No Tameni (For My Loved One).
Very colorful, jammed pack with information on the series, I
recommend anyone who is interested in Fushgi Yugi to visit this site.
A N I M E * F A N F I C
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