ChrisG

By any chance, do you have a link to any of this custom cover art?

The second season of GitS TV is airing now and won't be done for quite awhile. The first season is coming out on DVD soon in America and will be on Cartoon Network. As for Slayers, it's all around good stuff if you like fantasy comedy shows.

Or maybe because it's part of the neverending SEED-MSV line that Bandai wants to cash in on? :-P

Actually V's casualty rate is higher than Zeta's. While a lot of people die at the end of Zeta, they're consistently dying through Victory (plus a lot die at the end anyway). Dunbine outdoes both, but even it gets outdone by Tomino's own Ideon, which involves the entire universe exploding. There's not much more that can top that.

Old question, but I figured I'd answer it anyway... Battlefield communication in Universal Century Gundam is dependant on two factors: the density of Minovsky particles and the proximity of mobile suits. If the Minovsky particles are too dense, communication can be impossible. However, if two mobile suits come into physical contact with each other, radio waves can vibrate between the suits' armor and allow clear communication regardless of Minovsky particle density (also it can't be intercepted by enemies).

The part about Bandai is incorrect. SEED's dub was handled by Ocean, which is a union studio. Ocean has done a crapload of anime dubbing, including Wing, MSG and the first two seasons of DBZ. Zeta Gundam was dubbed by the non-union Blue Water studios, which previously dubbed one of the Zoids series and G Gundam.

Naruto is a great show, and it certainly far and above DBZ. Naruto has an actual STORY and features INTERESTING CHARACTERS and CHARACTER GROWTH. I would imagine that someone will jump on the series, now that it's been running in Shonen Jump here for a year. I think the only thing holding it back is the number of episodes. As of now there's 77 episodes, but on American TV airing 5 days a week, that would run out very quickly. Then there'd be too long a wait for more episodes to get here. Same kinda goes for One Piece...even though it's got around 100 more episodes than Naruto, it could also be run through very quickly on TV. I don't think it's a question of if these two shows will be picked up, but merely when.

I had particular fun with the topic on our IRC channel: It's been a long-running gag in there that sometimes everyone changes their nicknames to that of doctors and begin discussing medical issues to confuse newbies. That and the many typos involving our URL were the inspiration for this gag.

Right now he's doing the Gundam manga series Ecole du Ciel, which has been running for awhile in Gundam Ace.

Actually, everything involving MSG's DVD release had nothing to do with Bandai Entertainment. That was all Tomino and Sunrise. Everything from the cut episode to the dub only to even the sound effects. For all the Tomino Gundam shows, Sunrise has personally produced the English version themselves. Bandai Entertainment only distributed the DVDs. As for the missing episode, yes, it has been available up to now. The last time MSG was released in Japan was an LD collection in 1999. MSG TV still hasn't been released on DVD in Japan, and I'm curious to see if episode 15 will be included or not. For those who are curious about the episode: http://www.mahq.net/animation/gundam/series/msgep15.htm

The only way to have seen it is to have been in Japan when it was in theaters two years ago. It hasn't been released on DVD, and I doubt it will. I think it will just end up going down in Gundam history as an obscure one-off project.

Actually, G-Saviour isn't part of the main UC continuity. It's listed as 'alternate UC' by Sunrise. Also, SEED takes place in CE 71, and it's 50 episodes, not 52. Just a friendly nitpick for the day.

Yup. The FX DVD has removable subtitles. One minor nitpick....the English subtitles are removable. Unfortunately, Japanese subtitles for Zentran speak are hard subbed, but those have been there since the original release, so there's nothing you can do about that.

You say this as if it's something surprising. Bandai tried the big marketing push a few years ago with MSG, and it didn't do too well. Honestly, who would expect them to put such a marketing blitz behind Zeta, which is not only almost 20 years old, but the sequel to a series that never even finished airing here. Of course Bandai is going to promote the hell out of SEED because it's brand new and kid-friendly. I personally don't care if Zeta is on TV or not...I just want DVDs.

You have no idea how much that annoys me. I've seen PLENTY of idiots making stupid statements about something based on having only read my reviews. I recall some kid saying once that Zeta was his favorite series of all because of my reviews, even though he'd never seen it. I still don't get it. As for Gundam Project, Mark Simmons is the main man behind Gundam Official. If you look at the new content, it's basically Gundam Project Mk III. The UC timeline, the profiles, the glossary of terms...all of that is straight out of the old files of GP. I don't think Mark actually does the updating on Gundam Official, otherwise it'd probably be worked on at a more regular pace.

Another thing about the horribly dubbed version....if I remember correctly (and I haven't seen it in awhile), the picture is cropped to full screen and is not widescreen like the bootleg DVD's.

I don't see this as very surprising, nor is it necessarily a bad move. Sega's president has said before that in their reorganization their plan to return to profit is to release fewer games, but games that are of higher quality. Sega has lots of console franchises that I doubt will be affected by this. There will always be Sonic or ESPN, etc. I'm sure the quality of their games will be just as good as before. The only thing I ask of Sega is that they finally get off their asses and let Yu Suzuki make Shenmue III.

No, there's no Ez8, and there can't be. The game takes place entirely in space, and since the Ez8 is a Gundam Ground Type, it would obviously be useless.

I'll give my two cents here since my review was part of the inspiration for this topic. As we all now, it's not explicitly shown that Guld raped Myung. However, given the context of the situation and the way they all act about it, what else could it be? Understandably, it'd be a problem if Guld ran in, knocked Isamu aside, and tore Myung's shirt off. But would that alone cause the rift between them and have them lead such screwed up lives? Would they talk about the event in such serious terms if it were ONLY that? Let's look at how they are in the present: -Guld is devoted only to his work and has to take drugs to suppress his Zentradi fighting instinct. -Isamu is a reckless fool always pushing himself to the limit as if he has a death wish. -Mying is an emotional cripple, and in becoming Sharon's emotional core, she in essence wants to commit emotional suicide because she can't stand her life. Now, would all of this result from a knocked aside Isamu and a torn shirt? There's also some other evidence that points to rape. During Part 4 when Guld has the realization that he was responsible and not Isamu, he has a quick flashback and sees himself in the mirror hunched over Myung after he ripped her shirt off. Would he just do that and leave? In the same flashback we see him punch Isamu in the face and knock him against a couch. It's very likely that Isamu was unconscious, giving Guld the opportunity to rape Myung. If, however, he didn't, then these three people are way too melodramatic about what happened. Just my thoughts.

Whether or not it contributes anything to the story is irrelevant. There's no need to be cutting episodes just because Tomino suddenly decides 20 odd years later he doesn't like it. It's the same thing as George Lucas refusing to put the original version of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD because he doesn't like the originals anymore.

Episode 15 of MSG: http://www.mahq.net/animation/gundam/serie...ies/msgep15.htm Tomino felt that the story didn't contribute anything to the series, so he personally requested it not be part of the American release. It definitely has the worst animation in the entire series, but if you ask me, the episode that comes before it is the worst in the series and woulda been the one to cut. The episode is only available on HK sets.

It may not be right, but it's business. The entertainment industry will always do something if they think it will earn them some money, if it means they will knowingly piss off fans. I'm glad to just have the series on DVD, and at least there's the movies. The lack of the Japanese audio doesn't even bother me as much as Tomino cutting episode 15 does. That just isn't right.

Kawamori said that for Zero he decided not to be concerned about continuity. That's why we haven't seen planes like the Dragon II or Karyovin. But really, what's the big deal and what difference would it make? Would it make the story any better in any way if it said PROMETHEUS instead of Asuka? These minor details are really rather inconsequential.

It came out only about a month or two here before it did in Japan. Besides, by the time that happened in 2000, Wing's popularity had already faded in Japan. MSG has always been the most popular series at any given time. Fans would certainly buy an R1 release and use a region free player, or a mod-chipped PS2. And if i were a Japanese fan, I'd rather have the cleaned up and restored Bandai version than some cheap HK bootleg.

The real reason for MSG being dub only is because it's not available on DVD yet in Japan. MSG is still the most popular Gundam series of all, and Bandai knows that many fans would import the far cheaper R1 DVDs if they had a Japanese audio track. Therefore, to screw over the Japanese fans, they also screwed over the American ones. Only time will tell if they ever re-release it with a Japanese audio track or the missing episode. As to some other items: -SEED will be released in individual volumes, according to Bandai's Jerry Chu. As is the trend, there will probably be a volume 1 + box. -As to the original SD Gundam from the 80's, it will never be released here.