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Giant Mecha News 259

Posted by CowboyNeal from the not-just-gundam-anymore dept.
da3dAlus writes "Starting next week, Monday Feb 24th, from 4-5pm est Cartoon Network's Toonami starts a Giant Robot Week. The lineup currently includes episodes of Nadesico, Dia-Guard, Robotech, and Evangelion (yes, NGE is slated for the block, but only on Mon/Tues). Also in Evangelion news, AnimeNewsNetwork reports Gainax is finalizing the re-release of the boxed set of NGE. This set includes re-worked (audio/video enhanced) versions of the original 26 episodes, the 4 'remake' eps from laser disc, and a bonus disc with creditless opening/closing video, trailers, and live-action edition of the film. The final cut of the Evangelion movie-- Death(True)2, Air, and Magokoro wo Kimi ni--will also be included. The discs will be in a limited edition art box, and will retail for ~$322 on or about June 25th, with a reservation deadline of April 14th. After that, the new set will be released separately without the box."
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  • Robotech (Score:5, Informative)

    by AyeFly ( 242460 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @12:44AM (#5350282)
    I'm glad they include Robotech. That in my opinion is one of the best early mech shows. I actually never saw the cartoon when I was younger, but I read all the books based on them. or maybe the cartoons were based on the books.. anyway, they got me interested in Mechwarrior too :-)

    • I dunno... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Peterus7 ( 607982 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:05AM (#5350383) Homepage Journal
      But I want to see next the tech line up... With Serial Experiements Lain, Ghost in a shell, and Armitage 3.

      *News report* "Children all over the US have started throwing themselves off buildings after seeing the first episode of serial experiement Lain on cartoon network. All these children were characterized by high internet addiction. Survivors said they hoped to come back as gods on the internet.

      Or who knows, for Evangeleon, "Nerds have suddenly come into style, after the hero of Neon Genesis Evangeleon made his big Debut. All hail Shinji, the ultimate geek with power."

      Well, maybe not... and plus, I think Tenchi is just as socially inept than Shinji anyways...

      Nah...

      • Re:I dunno... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Alex Belits ( 437 )

        Well, maybe not... and plus, I think Tenchi is just as socially inept than Shinji anyways...

        Though it's a painful thing to realize, Tenchi is surrounded by people at least few orders of magnitude more rational and balanced than the cast of Evangelion. And no, I don't include Eva and Angels.

        • I wonder if Eva will bomb, perhaps, because it's so deep, as far as character development. There's Shinji, who's got 'hedgehog's predicament' and an absent father complex, and is weak and lets himself get bullied around, the aloof and devoid Rei, the emotionally supressive bully Asuka... the slutty yet emotionally fux0red drunk, Misato, Risuko, the geeky supressed girl, Koji the manwhore, Gendo Ikari, the absent father figure who would ignore his own son, Kensuke the neurotic war technology nerd with no mom, Toji the gentle giant/avenging knight, the 5th pilot, what's his name... the angel.... Yeah.

          Take that Mihoshi, Sailor Moon, and Goku! Toonami just got a lot more philisophical...

          I'm still worried that the deep philisophical nature of EVA could hurt toonami and make them loose ratings... But on the other side, there is a lot of nice pleasant violence!

          • I think you are right on re: the characters in NGE not exactly fitting in with the Cartoon Network's usual fare. Not to mention all the [creepy/gory/sexual/just downright nuts] stuff I'd imagine they would have to cut in order to get it on tv.
            But hey, if 99% of the people end up sitting there going "what happened?" and 1% goes "Wow, I guess there might be something more to Anime than Gundam Wing!" It will be a Good Thing.
            (Not knocking GW btw.)
      • TechTV already has Serial Experiments: Lain [techtv.com]. I was pretty shocked when I was flipping through the channels and I saw it.

        It's amazing that totally obtuse anime like Lain and Evangelion are making it to 'mainstream' cable TV now.
        • TechTV actually did right by Lain. I didn't like that they cut the end credits music and recut the opening, but that seems to be pretty much all they did. They even left in the masturbatory reference...something I was sure they'd get rid of.

          It would have been so much better had TechTV instead of Cartoon Network gotten Neon Genesis Evangelion. Cartoon Network showing it during the Toonami bloc rather than Adult Swim where it belongs ensures that it will be cut to ribbons.

          Basically all you will have left will be Eva vs. Angel fights and the cute antics of Pen-Pen. I suspect that all the dramatic content, and definitely the occult/Gnostic Christian content will be excised. They might even go so far as to rename the Angels "Monsters" or something.

          I mean, they don't allow people to say "Sweet Zombie Jesus" on freakin' Futurama! And that's being aired during the Adult Swim bloc!
          • I sure hope to god they don't take out the philisophical stuff. Or if they do, they'd better put it back on during adult swim.

            I mean, Eva's just the same as any other dumb giant robo violence show if you cut out the deep stuff... But if you keep it all in...

            But then again, what's the chances that a 12 year old will get it?

          • The sad thing is some of the greatest moments in EVA, both funny and deep, involve a bit of nudity and adult topics... For example, the time Shinji walks in on Rei, or on the ep where he's dreaming and you get to see the chicks topless, talking to him... It's sad... But we should at least wait and see before sending in hate mail.
    • Sadly, this will only last a week. Well, it will be a good week, but only a week.

      Hopefully Eva will last longer.

  • Eva? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How exactly does CN plan to show EVA anyways? Wouldn't most episodes end up being about 5 min. long after being cut to what CN would consider appropriate?

    • Re:Eva? (Score:3, Informative)

      by carpe_noctem ( 457178 )
      Actually, there isn't -that- much in Eva that would really need to be cut. Most of the violence is nothing too special, and there's only one episode that has any nudity at all (nipple-less nudity, nonetheless). I heard (and this is just a rumor, mind you), that the only things that are actually getting cut from Eva are some religious references that might offend some people; though I can't think of what those might be offhand.

      I think a far better thing to worry about is the fact that they are airing the dubbed version of NGE, which is enough to make one want to tear their eyes out. I realize that the subtitled version would probably not interest most American veiwers, but hiring a crew of voice actors from Texas certainly isn't going to do wonders for the series, either.

      • Re:Eva? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        A lot of the stuff in Eva isn't so much disturbing due to violence or sex as the imagery. While there isn't very much blood and gore in Eva, there is a lot of cross shaped explosions and talks about what makes a human that many parents in this country would find disturbing.

        I mean how many people in America would think that showing kids explosions of crosses and talks of the attacking Angels and the final battle between them and humanity is appropriate?

        • Re:Eva? (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Not many, but is it really wise for these well-meaning parents to deliberately shelter their kids from these sorts of issues? True, they probably conflict with their theology, but it's not like everyone in the world is going to share that same theology (thank god [of your choice]). I believe those kids would turn out more open-minded if their parents would stop forcing them into the same mold their parents forced them into.

      • Re:Eva? (Score:1)

        by kfg ( 145172 )
        How about voice actors from Hokkaido? We could have a little Engrish with our Japanese. Set us up the bomb? Closs shaped maybe?

        I'm afraid *any* religious references will offend somebody. Today "tolerence" means "shut up."

        Go figure.

        KFG
      • Hmmm cut out the religious references... we're back down to five minutes: Shinji whines about something, Asuka bitches about something, Misato drinks a beer, and then Penpen looks at everyone and wanders out of the room, end of episode ;)
    • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Alpha? Eva is clearly not Toonami material. Between all the underaged fan service, constant bounce, sex, occasionally savage if not graphic violence, and religious controversy, what exactly is it that's meant for tweenagers? I have no idea what they're thinking, except perhaps that they're not.

      Interestingly, when Evangelion was originally aired in Japan - also at 5pm - many parents did vocally object for the exact reasons I mentioned above. Apparently, the broadcasters took one look at it, said, "Ah, giant robots" and slapped it on TV without realizing what they were doing. Just goes to show, history is bound to repeat itself.

  • Sadness. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lendrick ( 314723 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @12:46AM (#5350291) Homepage Journal
    I was hoping from the headline that someone was actually building a giant bipedal robot. Ah well.
    • No, sadly enough, this isn't the case. :(

      But hey, I heard they built a motorized scooter that will revolutionize transportation in cities! And for the low low price of only 5,000$, it could be yours!

    • But someone is! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Mechanized Propulsion Systems [mechaps.com]

      • Re:But someone is! (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Unfortunatley, this effort, while well meaning, seems doomed to failure. Notice:
        • No one in the group owns any welding equipment. This would seem a rather large ommision for something planning to use steel I beams as legs.
        • They are using modified I-openers as control computers. Enough said.
        • Engineering prototypes in legos. Never mind the radically different wieght and structural considerations. Legos.
        • No intermediate mechs. Theyre planning on going right from legos to full building sized machines.
        Not to say the project doesnt have merit from a gee thats cool standpoint, but I would hate for someone to get killed developing this thing and the whole idea be written off that much longer.

    • Re:Sadness. (Score:4, Informative)

      by The_dev0 ( 520916 ) <hookerbot5000 AT gmail DOT com> on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:23AM (#5350465) Homepage Journal
      Hopefully This [wizkidsgames.com] might hold you over... Absolutely amazing.

  • Important note about the Japanese DVD set... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...IT IS COMING OUT IN JAPAN (Region 2). I also don't believe there are English subtitles on the discs, although I could be misstaken. Then again, I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva... *dodges thrown debris*

    Those looking for an updated region 1 release will probably have to wait until ADV decides to reissue them...again.

    Word is that Manga is thinking of doing a box set of the two movies, but nothing has been officially announced.
    • I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva...

      I've never seen Evangelion, but I actually prefer the english dub on Cowboy Bebop. The voice acting is perfect. Sometimes they just get it right. And besides, it's annoying to read when you're supposed to be looking at the pictures.
      • And besides, it's annoying to read when you're supposed to be looking at the pictures.

        My wife has a focus problem, so she can't track subtitles *and* pay attention to a movie at the same time, so there's not as much subbed anime viewing going on at the House of Zaren as I'd like. Of course, now that my 2 1/2 and 6 year olds are running around the house firing kame wave attacks at each other, there isn't much Toonami in the house, either... :p

        I like the sound of the native language voice acting, but for a lot of stuff, I have to go with the dub version for the reason mentioned above. Besides, there's times when I've had the dub and sub running together, and there's a LOT that's missing in the sub, so I feel like I'd have been missing something by depending on just the sub... so I watch it once to get the gist of the dialogue in English, and then watch it again native :)
        • I don't mind either subtitling or dubbing myself. The only time I've ever wished something was dubbed was Metropolis--either that or they should have stopped talking during the panoramic shots.

          so I watch it once to get the gist of the dialogue in English, and then watch it again native

          I can't do that; whatever I watch it in first, that's what I'll always look at/listen to.
        • With anime over half of the movie is looking at the details in the video. Whether it be looking at the artwork or subtle things in the background. Add subtitles to this and barely get a chance to look up during constant conversation.

          A friend of mine was flipping back and forth between dubbed English and Japanese, English subtitled. Well the quality much higher hearing the Japanese voices, so I the advantage to subtitled is obvious as well. BTW, this was a Cowboy Bebop DVD.
    • Then again, I actually happen to prefer the English dub on Eva... *dodges thrown debris*
      No dodging needed. There are some anime that has been dubbed over very well, and others which well, seem to be lacking.

      For example, Ranma 1/2. Although I do prefer the Japanese voice acting, I have to admit the dub is done very well. As opposed to, let's say, Bubblegum Crisis, for example, where the dub was painful to watch.

      YMMV, but not all dubs are created equal. I think as anime fans its more important to get the content in front of mainstream audiences so that it's more economically viable to bring more content over from Japan. Infighting over the details doesn't help.
      • Lain was dubbed well, and many people actually prefer the dubbed Cowboy Bebop to the subbed one. Pioneer has a decent stable of dubbers and their dubscripts are fairly faithful to the original Japanese.

        ADV tends to take liberties, usually to disastrous results, but sometimes those liberties are taken the right way. I am awaiting my copy of All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku OAV DVD with crossed fingers...they actually paid the money to do a dub when originally Banneko was put out as a sub-only VHS 3 tape set.

        I have reason for hope, because Excel Saga is being done right...there is a "pop up video" version for the Otaku-challenged and basically the dub is very close to the subtitles. They did suffer casualties...the woman doing English seiyuu duty apparently got nodules on her vocal cords from doing the high-pitched, frenetic voice of Excel.
    • What the hell does this matter. You wont buy it and you know it. I dont want to troll here but i know not many people are going to want to pay out over $300 for a dvd box set. Are they asking for kids to download this over gnutella? I personally wont pirate these but i also know i wont pay for them and dont know many people who could/would.
    • *throws debris*

      I found Eva's dubs to be some of the worst I've heard (though I avoid dubs as much as I can); I tried them out on disc5, around where Shinji is talking about it being a man's responsibility to go first, and it sounded to me like they were recorded in a broom closet. *shudder*

      To each their own I suppose...

      -A
      • I found Eva's dubs to be some of the worst I've heard (though I avoid dubs as much as I can)
        Word. A couple of times, while I was getting screen captures off the DVDs in Xine, I would fast forward a track without setting the audio to Japanese first... and I found myself in for a nasty surprise when I stopped clicking for long enough. I specifically remember doing it during that virus episode, focused on Ritsuko, and hearing this unbelievably godawful snippet of whatever voice actress plays her.

        Besides that... if you leave the End of Evangelion DVD sitting in the player long enough, the sound track on the opening menu progresses from Bach's Cantata 137 to this voiceover by Shinji's English voice actor (Spike Spencer, no?), which is a nasty surprise if you're not expecting it.

        No English for me. Barring the superb Bebop dub.

  • Kids stuff? (Score:1, Troll)

    by ibjhb ( 173533 )
    How many people seriously watch this? Am I mistaken saying that just 'kids' do? I know my tweleve year old syster does, but I didn't think anybody past say, o, fourteen watched this kind of thing...

    Also shows the next generation coming up. At tweleve I was learning to program and learning everything and anything I could about computers. I guess 'kids' of today see the computer as some of us see cars or lightbulbs and don't have the excitement or interest in computers anymore.

    • Re:Kids stuff? (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Zelet ( 515452 )
      You are going to get Karma raped. I just happened to insult the viewers of this stuff and I was shot down to -1 in about 5 mins. I hope you don't like having an opinion or karma - cause both get shot to shit on slashdot.

    • Re:Kids stuff? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That's a pretty sweeping statement.

      You and I may look at cars today and think, "Ok, it's a machine that takes me from point A to point B. What's the big deal?", but our opinion obviously doesn't represent the opinion of everyone else. Walk into any bookstore or grocery store and check out the magazine section -- what do you see? Dozens of car magazines aimed at car enthusiasts, who are every bit as excited about cars as their counterparts decades ago.

      Similarly, there are countless teenagers and pre-teens who are more obsessed with computers as much as we are/were (maybe even moreso). Just like the car enthusiasts of our day (many of whom have completely ripped apart their stock vehicles and 'modded' them out), these kids also have the desire to break through the nice, clean exterior their store-bought computers present them to find out what really makes them tick. This drive to explore and tweak has been around for centuries, and it's not going to stop here.

      • Re:Kids stuff? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ibjhb ( 173533 )
        I was seriously asking a question.

        How many people watch this? It wasn't sarcastic at all.

        Also, I wasn't blanketing the teenage population as a whole. OBVIOUSLY there are kids obsessed with computers. I knew that. I was more referring to kids that watched cartoons and even moreso indirectly asking a question as to if kids that watched these cartoons were interested in computers.

  • erm (Score:4, Funny)

    by lingqi ( 577227 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @12:54AM (#5350325) Journal
    Nadesico doesn't take itself seriously enough to be considered "giant robot series," methinks.

    On the other hand, I am waiting for the day when US TV is open enough to air the entire series of NGE unedited - including the part right before a certain female pilot went into a multi-episode coma.

    But I get a feeling that might not happen any times soon; Forces of darkness - erm, TV censoring - is still strong in the states.

    • Nadesico doesn't take itself seriously enough to be considered "giant robot series," methinks.

      It takes itself so non-serious that it has a GIANT ROBOT ANIME AS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLOT!

      • you don't need to tell *me* what's it about. I watched the whole thing.

        The entire story was to me (heck they say it themselves) a non-serious parody inside a parody. I think they were trying to get a chuckle out of their decscription of anime fans who takes it way too seriously.

        I mean, still good, but "giant robot anime" to me would be probably ones that actually focuse on the *robots*. Nadesico focuses on *ANIME about giant robots* and also on the fans of the said genre; which is one of the reason why it's good, considering that the drawing and the storyline isn't exactly on par with many of the other series.

        small difference, you might say - but an important one nontheless.

    • Re:erm (Score:4, Informative)

      by SecretAsianMan ( 45389 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @02:18AM (#5350661) Homepage
      the part right before a certain female pilot went into a multi-episode coma.

      Hallelujah! Errr, I mean I think that whole sequence is probably the best 5 minutes of animation ever animated. Quite possibly the best 5 minutes of anything you can play on a screen. People ask me "What is anime?", and I'll pop in DVD #7 and play the Hallelujah sequence. It's so good I'll burn all my karma with no regrets by posting this inane message.

      If you've never seen anime or Neon Genesis Evangelion, then run, don't walk, to the nearest video rental and rent DVD #7. Watch the middle episode. Warning: may cause serious addiction.

    • ...already aired Eva uncut. That's how I got my copy of the series...a netfriend dubbed me a copy of the show as it aired. Don't know the callsign off-hand...I live in SoCal. They air Anime on Saturday nights. My Public TV station, KCET, shows old movies on Saturday nights. Usually sucky ones. Bleah!
    • Does that scene have some "Fan Service"? I've only made it through disk #7. I've seen the both movies, but they only mention how Asuka ended up in a coma, not show how she got there. "Fan Service" is the best term I've ever heard for, "pay attention fanboy pervs". At least the Japanese are honest about it.

      Joking aside, the alternate ending on "End of Evangelion" is the whole reason to watch the series. Anybody into catharsis?

  • Better idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by KiahZero ( 610862 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @12:55AM (#5350337)
    I'll be happier when CN decides to run a "Hentai week" featuring the best of cartoon pr0n.

  • ~$322?!? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jcsehak ( 559709 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @12:56AM (#5350340) Homepage
    Over three-hundred dollars? Does it come with a geisha?

    Thank God for Cartoon Network. Apparently everyone else only cares about the hardcore fans. God forbid you're a curious n00b.
    • Can I have just the geisha?
    • $322??? Is this that hentai porn I've heard about?
    • You're not REQUIRED to get the whole boxset at once to check out the series. If you're curious, why not just rent the first DVD seperately? If it turns out you like it, then you can opt to either get the whole thing on seperate DVDs or get the boxset and all the things that come with it.
      • Anime isn't very high on the procurement list of most video stores. Hell, it's hard enough to find DVDs of movies I want to rent. The only option for a lot of people is Netflix. I tried that, but found that, because of mailing lag, I had to watch movies as soon as I got them to make it worth my while. I don't have time for that. I'm busy wasting my time on /.

    • Tip: you can download a bit of anime from Kazaa, and a fuckload of Anime on Hotline. Hotline is harder for beginners though, as it usually involves trading. Once you got some trading material though, it's Chrismas all year long. I got around a hundred gigs of Anime lying around, all of it gotten in less than a year... all was nice until my ISP started enforcing download limits :(

    • God forbid you're a curious n00b.

      If you are a n00b, be sure to watch a good chunk of the series before you drop a lot of money on it.

      I really like the NGE mech designs, but most of the series bores me to death. The end was especially disappointing, IMO.

      The plot about the angels was interesting, but there was just way too much of the circular-logic pseudo-philosophy that I've noticed in a lot of anime.

    • Re:~$322?!? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by BJH ( 11355 )
      Geez, don't bitch - you lot in the USA get anime at one third to a half of the price of what it is here in Japan.

      Take GitS, for example - in Japan, it's still sold at the RRP of 7,800 yen (about $US65), at best with 20% discount, but in the States, you can get it for around $US25.
      • Yeah, but in Japan, you could have a $100 bill and still not have enough to both ride on the train and buy a cup of coffee. Of course, even the average data-entry clerk gets paid in their choice of precious gems or bags of money, so $60 is chump change to you Japanese. I mean, the only thing you guys have trouble affording is your own giant mecha, but with payment plans and interest rates the way they are, it's realistic to expect one in every garage by 2007.

        Either that, or they figure you anime fans for a bunch of suckers.
    • Uh...if you're a curious n00b, why don't you drop about a hundred bucks on the R1, subbed and dubbed, box set from ADV?

      Not many curious n00bs are going to be importing raw DVD's from Japan.

  • Cool Sci-fi week. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by $$$$$exyGal ( 638164 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:01AM (#5350365) Homepage Journal
    It sounds like next week is cool sci-fi week. First, on Sunday, X-Men is showing on Fox. Then for the rest of the week, it's Giant Robot Week on the Cartoon Channel. Cool!

    You'd think it was sweeps month. Oh, it is.

    --sex [slashdot.org]

  • Giant Mecca? (Score:5, Funny)

    by foo fighter ( 151863 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:07AM (#5350394) Homepage
    Did anyone else think the article was about Islam's holy city suffering urban sprawl after first reading the title?

    Maybe it's just me...

  • Giant Robots? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:10AM (#5350407)
    Honestly, how practical are GIANT ROBOTS for waging actual combat? You'd think they'd be a bit impractical...

    Wellington: Come, sir. Choose your robot.

    Blackadder: What's this? I thought we were dueling with pistols?

    Wellington: Pistols! What do you think this is, the 20th century? Only girls fight with guns these days. Stand by your robot, sir. Hup two three. Hup two three.

    Blackadder: Wait a minute.

    Wellington: Stand by cockpit for ingress procedure. Activate appendage control. Motive systems online. Stoke the fusion reactor. Patching in torsional control.

    Blackadder (reading manual): Congratulations on choosing the Reaver Class Emperor Titan. Please read instructions carefully and it should give years of trouble-free mecha dueling.

    Wellington: Check altitude, ambient temperature, local gravitational flux. Fuel plasma cannons. Aim...

    Blackadder: Look, wait a minute.

    Wellington: FIRE!

    • Re:Giant Robots? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Aexia ( 517457 )
      Gasaraki had a decently realistic take on the giant robot genre that I liked.

      The TAs & Fakes weren't particularly huge. I think they were only 10-12 feet tall. Not much taller than a tank. They were designed for urban warfare and could even enter builings. They could run faster than tanks and were more agile so they could take on a tank division in the field if they had the element of surprise.

      Another break from giant robot conventions was that they didn't add any new mech designs throughout the series. There's a funny (text) interview on the DVD where the designer describes how the merchandising department got freaked out when they found out there were only a couple mechs. The designers reasoned that the TA and Fake designs would be in service for at least 10 years, though some variants might show up in a few years. But that would all be beyond the lifespan of the show.

  • Some important differences (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gizzmonic ( 412910 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:13AM (#5350422) Homepage Journal
    A lot of times Adv will conform to certain America cultural stereotypes that the Japanese lack. For example, The strange wanderer caracter in the Japanese version of the Fall Guy was a morally ambigious character who was almost always shredded in self-doubt.

    Yet the American version of the same character (Lee Majors, also the Six Million Dollar Man and the Incredible Hulk) always strayed on the right side of the law. I guess we Americans always have to root for the good guy. Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah. I gues they just have different types over there.
    • On the other hand we have the classic Batman, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and the X-Men.

      We're not as prone to the tortured hero, but they aren't exactly absent.

      Even in classic American literature we've got Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, Melville's Ishmael (who slept with his cannibal buddy) and Hemmingway's Nick Adams (among others).

      Oh, and The Incredible Hulk was Bill Bixby. Also a tortured hero who had trouble with the law.

      KFG
    • ah... that got an audible laugh out of me. excellent work, Gizzmonic-san.

    • Re:Some important differences (Score:4, Funny)

      by Gannoc ( 210256 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @08:17AM (#5351625)
      Whereas in Japan, a well developed hero will often masturbate, cry, and proclaim him/herself the Messiah.

      So in Japan, I would be a hero??? Cool.

  • Is this one "Perfect" too? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @01:26AM (#5350476)
    Do they mean to say the "Neon Genesis Evangelion - Perfect Collection" actually wasn't perfect? Oh yeah, must have been that glaring lack of the movies.

    Of course when you compare the $170 price of that boxed set (or $145 at amazon, or $127.50 at barnes and noble) to this whopping $322 price tag, it seems a little more perfect after all. How many disks does the set have anyway? For that price it better have at least 16.

    Then again i supose it beats the $12.63 they want you to pay for just the new and improved first episode.

  • Eva (Score:2, Informative)

    by Grieveq ( 589084 )
    I'm really surprised they are showing Evangelion on CN. Despite what was said above, it is very violent and very sexually suggestive for kids. I'm guessing it is only the first two episodes, which are very light compared to some of the later episodes. If you haven't seen the greatest anime series of all time, I hope you get to see the two episodes shown this week!

  • There's been no mention whether or not this boxset will be released here in the US. I'm not sure if it will ever be released here due to the current license agreements here: ADV has the rights to the TV series, but Manga Entertainment has the rights to the movies.
  • And I thought he meant the DARPA Grand Challenge Conference, [darpa.mil] the competitor's meeting for the Department of Defense race for robot offroad monster trucks. It's this Saturday, in LA. It's going to be wierd.

  • a more mature evangelion (Score:3, Informative)

    by a8f11t18 ( 614700 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @02:16AM (#5350655)
    try rahxephon for size.. right from the beginning you will
    get the EVA-feel, and even though it feels a little too
    close to being a clone, you will realize after a short while
    that it is more mature in every way compared to EVA.. both
    in character, story, ending, and production. Oh yeah, especially the ending is completely brilliant.

    Of course, some will never get over how much it resembles EVA in many ways, but.. look past that, and you have a brilliant series that is all what EVA only could have wished to be.(EVA was simply too childish in too many ways to appeal to me)

    link at animefu [animefu.com]
    link at animenfo [animenfo.com]

    It's just starting to come out on DVD. I expect it to become a hit.
    • I just can't take it anymore!
      After religiously following lame-o Americanized Dragonball Z. and Gundam Wing for months and months, there have recently been a ton of new anime series out on the networks for me to get hooked on.

      Lain, Lupin, Yuyu -- I'm trying to watch them all, and my head is spinning.

      Now more GIANT robots too? It's just too much!
      (picture me with anime style sweatmark on my forehead)

    • I don't know if I'd call it "more mature" but it certainly is good.

      The first few episodes I was a bit annoyed with how similar it was to Eva, but I got over it. You could say that if Eva has a religious background then RahXephon has musical influences. Ie music is used in RX in much the same way religion is in Eva. It's very good though. (And I recall watching a TV program and a choir sang one of the arias used in RX.)

      RX is a bit easier to get into as well, the characters are more normal then in Eva. But before you call RX deeper you should check out some sites analyzing Eva, there's a lot of things in that show not immideately obvious. Calling it "childish" demonstrates that you haven't done this IMHO.

      But I guess I'm influenced by the fact that Eva was one of the first anime series I ever watched. And it had a pretty big impact on me.

  • SLOW! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Microlith ( 54737 )
    You guys are slow.

    That's been known for some time, and now CN is going to be showing SD Gundam, Kikaider, Rurouni Kenshin, and most suprising of all, Blue Gender.

    Blue Gender will have to be put in Adult Swim due to the content of the show (no way in hell it could be edited to Toonami standards), but Kenshin will be in Toonami.

    Whether they edit or not I don't care, as I own all the dvds for both series (legit R1 releases).

  • What, no Transformers??? (Score:4, Funny)

    by rjung2k ( 576317 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @02:24AM (#5350681) Homepage

    Hey, where I come from, you can't yell "giant robot" and not bring up Autobots and Decepticons. And we've got several boxed DVD sets, too. This oversight is especially glaring given that Toonami is currently running that Transformers: Armada series.

    (Then again, given how much Armada sucks, maybe this omission isn't such a bad thing...)

  • Price? (Score:2)

    by BJH ( 11355 )
    The article states that the price of the rerelease is 39,800 yen, but Gainax's site does not have that figure anywhere on the announcement, and their online sales area lists the price as TBA. What's the source for this?

  • Eva Live Action (Score:4, Informative)

    by thryllkill ( 52874 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @02:39AM (#5350724) Homepage Journal
    I do not think that they are going to release a live version of Evangelion.

    --Spoiler Alert--
    --If you haven't seen the Eva movies don't read--

    In the middle of The second Eva movie there is a trippy live film part that showed a few things from modern day Japan, trains, buildings, a cat i the rafters, and empty movie theater. But originally there was a whole scripted live action part with people portraying Asuka, Rei, Touji, and Misato in an alternate universe from the one we see in the animated parts. You actually see parts of the original live action part at the begining of the End Of Evangelion disc, but no the whole thing, and Manga did not translate it.


    I hate to do this to his server, but there is a great write up of the live action part at EvaOtaku.Com [evaotaku.com]

    I am betting that this original live action sequence is what they are releasing and not a live action version of the movie.

    • Are those 3 japanese chicks at the beginning of "End" supposed to be Mistao, Rei, and Asuka? Cause they should've at least got actors who resembled the characters, that was the only part that had me confused me. I thought it was an extension of Shinji thinking why he should choose reality.

  • 'enhanced' == 'fixed' ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Angron ( 127881 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @02:40AM (#5350729) Journal
    Does 'enhanced' mean that they fixed the jitter in the video sources of Eva? One of my biggest disappointments with the DVDs before was the incredible amount of jitter just before/after scene changes. I found it incredibly distracting, especially on the (large number of) slowly panning scenes.

    I played for a long time with trying to make digital copies without the jitter by using various stabilizing plugins for VirtualDub or other software, but to little avail (most were targeted at shaky-handed video camera operators).

    If they've fixed the jitter I would really consider picking up this set; I've found Eva to be one of my favorite media ever, and usually try getting anyone who hasn't seen it to watch with me whenever I go through it again.

    -A

  • First hand experience of the Eva Remaster (Score:5, Informative)

    by ErMaC ( 131019 ) <<ermac> <at> <ermacstudios.org>> on Friday February 21, 2003 @03:17AM (#5350821) Homepage
    Well, for those in the know, the March issue of Newtype Magazine is out in Japan, I managed to snag a copy of it. Why? Because the sampler DVD includes a special section devoted entirely to the Eva Renewal project.

    Here's what it has:
    1) Remastered Opening
    2) First Half of Episode One with Left Half of the screen Remastered, right side from original telecine with a white line running down the center.
    3) Second Half of Episode One Remasters (with a little watermark in the top corner).
    4) Remastered Ending of Episode One

    So I've seen first hand the Eva remaster... spent the last hour rewatching it. It is AWESOME.

    First off - the box set being released by GAiNAX is RAW JAPANESE in REGION 2. There are NO English Subs! Second, the price is extremely good for a boxset of this size (11 discs) in Japanese prices (actual boxset price is 39,800yen). Considering the poor shmucks who bought the Second Impact Box sets a year ago paid more than 50% more than that to get everything that's in this box - and not remastered - I'd say this is a bloody good deal.

    The remastering process was two fold - first off, the entire show was re-telecined from film source and then digitally cleaned up. This means no frame jitters, no bad telecining, no bad coloring. It looks gorgeous. The colors are vibrant and clean enough it looks like digital cel work at times. And if you've seen my homepage - you know I've worked a lot with Eva's video... and the difference is like night and day.

    The second part of the remastering process is all the audio is being redone in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. I can't comment on this myself as I haven't watched it on a full 5.1 speaker setup, but it already sounds clearer, and my home theater nut friend who also got the disc tells me it sounds fantastic. I'll take his word on it as he's one of those anime fans where if there's ANYTHING wrong he makes a stink about it.

    Now if you want to see this for yourself, buy the March issue of Newtype Magazine (NOT the US version!! It's not in that POS) or wait for the Evangelion Test Type 01 disc to come out. It's a sampler disc of the whole remastered first episode with a couple extras for less than $20. If it's not good enough to spend your money on, you don't have to get it.
    I own all the Region 1 Eva TV DVDs from ADV, I own the Region 2 imports of the Movies and Vol 6 (the re-edited episodes 21-24). I'm still buying this thing - it's that good.
    I've taken the time to capture some samples off the disc (digitally of course).
    You can check them out here, but PLEASE go easy on my server. If someone could mirror the pics please do so.
    http://www.ermacstudios.org/EvaRenewal/
    • Oh and I forgot to mention -

      ADV is not going to be releasing these. I will bet money on this.
      First off, GAiNAX's relationship with ADV turned pretty sour after Eva. ADV never got a hold of the licenses for the Eva Director's Cut episodes 21-24, they only had the license for the original TV versions. Second, they didn't get the movie rights because of money. The amount of money GAiNAX wanted for the films was REDICULOUS, and the only reason Manga got them was because they're stupid and they have too much money (the did not recoup the licensing fees off their disc sales yet).

      ADV is not going to spend money again to relicense the new remastered prints. They're already making money off their "perfect" box set. The demand for these remastered prints wouldn't be high enough to sustain the cost because in general American anime fans aren't the kind who will rebuy everything when a new version comes out. There are people I know who've bought something on VHS, then Laserdisc, then on DVD. Japanese hard core fans will do this all the time - and there's a much larger hardcore anime fanbase in Japan than here.

      So don't hold your breath for these to ever be released Stateside. You want subs - go get some scripts or rip the sub streams from the ADV discs and retime them to these new imports and use DVDSubber. Me, I'm happy with em raw since I know all the dialog already. :)
  • A friend and I tried to watch Evangelion but just couldn't get interested. It's a well established narrative style to drop the audience into the middle of the world and explain gradually as you go. But Evangelion took this beyond the extreme limit, IMO. After four episodes we still had NO IDEA what was going on and it lost our sympathy for the situation and characters. Just how long does the thing take to make sense, or is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?
    • That's not true at all. The 1st/2nd episodes reveal the big secrets to the audience, and then the characters spend 8-10 episodes trying to learn what the viewer already knows.

      OTOH, Evangelion expected viewers to be familiar with the "standard Mecha world" of something like Gorion (Voltron), Mazinger Z, or Macross. If you haven't seen those things, or at least recognize their names, then you're not the NGE target audience.

      The point of the show is that they took the conventions of an exhausted pop-culture genre (kids piloting giant war machines to defend the world from a series of alien monsters) and took it seriously. Given that absurd situation, how would real characters react to it? What possible explanation could there be for fighting monsters in such a style?

      It's the same approach Alan Moore took in Watchmen [amazon.com], except that his ludicrous cliche was "costumed crimefighters of disparate origins team up to save the world from the forces of evil". It's a great series, but understanding it correctly depends upon a familiarity with the genre of American comic books. If a person hadn't read Superman and Batman, and been familiar with Spiderman, The Punisher, and The Shadow, then he's not prepared with the language of the story.

      is the entire series an exercise of self indulgence in an in-joke by the authors?

      Not an "in-joke", as it's not supposed to be funny, but yes, an "inside-reference" is a correct description. It only becomes truely self-indulgent in the last few episodes (and the following movie).
    • I'm with you. I've seen the whole show, and all the movies, and it was just pretentious and tedious.

      It never really makes sense, though some of the background of what is going on is explained. Your sympathy for the characters will probably only decrease as the show drags on. Particularly for Shinji. You suck, Shinji.

      I had thought it would get good later on like other Gainax series have (Gunbuster, Nadia). But it never did, and the ending turned into a bad incoherent art movie with no resolution or character growth.

      But don't take my word for it:

      The second [Evangelion Movie] is one of the most pathetic acts of masturbation disguised as animation (and I'm not talking about just the opening scene) ever made. It made me physically ill to watch. If I woke up one morning and discovered that I had made something like that I would kill myself immediately!
      - Scott Frazier in EX issue 4.8


      Also, the animation quality is not uniformly good. Particularly towards the end of the series, when they have scenes that run for minutes that are just voices talking over a still frame. That's just pathetic.

      For a good giant robot show with an actual ending, and likeable characters that grow, watch the Escaflowne tv series.

      Jon Acheson


  • IMHO the best Giant robot anime of all time:

    Giant Robo.

    dig it.
  • First of all, check out the awesome poster [evangelion.co.jp].

    Too bad we'll never see an American release of the Evangelion boxed set. ADV will probably not want to do the work of mixing their dub in with the new sound tracks...or redubbing the whole series? Forget it.

    Even if someone does decide to buy the rights and re-dub the series, imagine how long it would take. Based on the track-record for the Eva movies (2 years late from their original american release date) we'll see the boxed set here sometime in 2008.

    Looks like I'll have to invest in a region 2 DVD player and start learning some japanese (not otaku enough to have learned it yet)

  • No Jonny Sokko & Giant Robot? WTF? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Argyle ( 25623 ) on Friday February 21, 2003 @11:25AM (#5352885) Homepage Journal
    How can you have Giant Robot Week without Johnny Sokko and His Giant Robot [yesterdayland.com]?
  • part of Giant Robot week will be cartoon network's own short "Low Brow" which will be a series this fall!!!! w00t!!1
    check it out here [animationinsider.net]
  • Interested persons should note that this release is going to be a Japanese domestic release and will be Region 2 only. No mention is made of English subtitles, so it is safe to assume that they will not be included. ADV is the licensee of the Evangelion TV series in the United States and currently publishes the only Region 1 set of the series. Manga Entertainment publishes the series of two movies that complete the series.

    Anyway, this ultra-complete box set will not be published in the U.S., will not be Region 1, and will not have English dialogue or English subtitles. Hard core fans only need apply. Hard core fans will order from Animaxis, CDJapan, or Amazon.co.jp.

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