This last weekend (March 31-April 2nd) was I-Con XIX, a SF/Fantasy
convention with a very large anime track held in the New York City area.
On Saturday, representatives from Viz, CPM, Right Stuf, Media Blasters and
others were at the annual State of the Industry panel.
It came as little surprise that all these companies had plans to continue
releasing their titles on DVD format. Viz, in particular, powered by their
strong Pokemon sales is releasing Please Save My Earth (finally subtitled) and
Ranma 1/2 (OVAs & TV). Toshifumi Yoshida of Viz showed off the packaging for
the Ranma 1/2 OVA box set which is very similar to the Tenchi Ultimate package
(fold-open package in a plastic slipcase). All titles are said to be coming
very soon (some already have street dates announced).
CPM is continuing to crank out DVDs. Expect their Anime 18 catalog to expand
with a few new releases. Lodoss TV will be coming to DVD as will Slayers,
Slayers Next and Slayers Try. Although it may have been previously announced,
CPM also has gotten the rights to Maze, a series which has a fan following in
the otaku community.
Right Stuf is pleased to see that sales of the Cool Devices DVD box set has
been doing very well (which may be an understatement, as copies of this series
could not be found in the dealers room on Sunday, despite the ample supply
brought to the con and the big $72 price tag). On the VHS side, Tylor OVAs and
more Kimba, both of which will eventually see a DVD release.
Media Blasters pleased with initial DVD sales, but citing that their DVD
production currently takes longer than VHS also made a few announcements.
Virtua Fighter has been pushed off until next year, because they are now
projecting Ruroni Kenshin for a November release date. Kenshin will be
released on both VHS and DVD, however when DVD vol. 1 ships, VHS vol. 1 & 2
will ship. So, VHS will apparently come out twice as fast in the initial
release period. Closer to now, Magic Knights Rayearth season 1 DVD box set
seems likely to be a big seller. If so, I expect DVD production to pick up for
Media Blasters.
The biggest surprise of the panel (and most of these panels have a surprise
announcement) was easy to miss for those not paying attention. After talking
about Ruroni Kenshin and some of the other releases, John Sirabella of Media
Blasters said in a matter-of-fact kind of way that they had acquired the
rights to Maho Tsukaitai! (Magic-Users Club or I Wanna Use Magic! depending on
who you ask). No info on release dates was mentioned, but like Rayearth and
Kenshin, Maho Tsukaitai! is another big fan favorite and is likely to see an
early DVD release date.
Other highlights of the con included the ever-popular dubbing workshop (which
I bailed on, I was tired), and a presentation by anime production company,
Production I.G. who brought in the president, Mr. Shirakawa (executive
producer of Ruroni Kenshin) from Japan and showed a few of their projects,
Digitals and Just Kidding Mr. Vampirian. Digital being a computer animated
show and Just Kidding being the story of a boy who stumbles upon a family of
vampires who are vegetarians (uh.. yeah!). It was extremely funny and
contained some beautiful CG backgrounds (ala Ghost in the Shell), but may have
contained too much nudity to make it stateside (the boy took a bath halfway
through the show and spent the rest of the show running around naked,
oops...). IG also offered free passes to see the world premiere of their new
all-digital movie, "Blood : The Last Vampire" which showed in New Rochelle
(about 90 miles away) the day after the con (and the subject for a possible
future report).
Overall, the con was fairly successful. The few letdowns of the con included
the Utena movie being tentatively scheduled, but then cancelled, and the
Cowboy Bebop marathon not being complete, but there was always something
happening, and I did go to the after-con Wrestlemania 2000 party held by the
anime track leader, so these setbacks seemed little in comparison.
Anyhow, until next time,
Dominick Santoriello
who ran the Season 5 Ranma 1/2 Marathon room on Sunday at I-Con (a man who
knows how to operate a VCR)
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