Anime Expo -

By Chris Beveridge     July 03, 2000

Another day, another trip to the dealers room.

While not DVD related, it may be of interest to some that Viz picked up the
Utena Manga, along with AnC.

The Wanted2000 Bandai/Pioneer promo disc has this written on the inside
"Pioneer will also be releasing the VHS and DVD versions of Sailor Moon S &
SuperS as well as CardCaptors (Cardcaptor Sakura) which will air on TV later
this year." Does this sound like SM TV to anyone else? Please, please note
that this is wild speculation on my part, so nobody start any icky Internet
rumors, okay?

And, of course, panels...

AnimEigo's panel was pretty fun. A few things they mentioned:

UY 25, which is available at-Con, and should be other places relatively
shortly, will be the final VHS from AnimEigo. The target market for AE is no
longer buying VHS, so it's poof, gone, DVD all the way!

This means UY 26+ will be released on DVD, starting (Possibly) this fall. AE
hopes to have the DVD Boxsets caught up by the time UY 30 streets, and is
thinking over different ways to get boxes for the later discs to people
purchasing the original boxsets.

BGC Stuff: First of all, M2K is hard at work on the repress, which will
contain ALL Hurricane Live stuff. AE and M2K are working together to come up
By IAmMeIAm

with some form of trade-in program for purchasers of the original boxset, so
that by sending in the original discs + some money, people should be able to
get the new 4 disc=set (Details are as yet unknown).

Also, BGC is going to air on the Encore channel (no date given). While it is
scheduled to be aired dubbed, the idea of using the SAP channel for the
original dialogue was tossed around.

Macross: Sales are going far better than expected. Apparently, the plan was to
sell 2,000 units, and be happy with that. With around 5,000 units on order, AE
is /very/ happy. The current plan is to look at how much extra cash AE will be
getting out of the sale, and to go back and fix minor errors in the actual
master.

The video for AE's release is looking very, very good already. They played a
splitscreen comparison of the Japanese LDs Vs. AE's stuff, and from even the
back of the room, the difference was noticable.

No definate info on the extras on the discs, as yet, but they seem to want
whatever they can get their hands on.

Right now, they're hoping to have Macross out and done by Christmas. They
think.

And, one last thing: AE's in the final contract negotiations for the rights to
another series, but cannot confirm or deny the identity of the title at the
time. No confirmation of genre, or whether or not it is on the current
petition. The only thing that they will confirm is that it is /not/ Fancy LaLa.

They should know relatively soon, but the announcement won't be made until
Otakon.

Mention was made of all the typical 'when will we get <insert title here> on
DVD'. No new announcements for anything, other than 'sometime next year'.

I think that's the major stuff, but I could be wrong. If I am, I'm sure there
will be lots of very informative reports to fill in the blanks.