06.11.04
Club Newsletter #1
Howdy everyone! This is the first installment of what should become a weekly newsletter to discuss club business, first and foremost, and secondly, what’s happening in the world of anime and manga; what’s out there, what’s coming to the US, what’s available in fansubs and scans, neat cultural stuff, and more!
First, I have an important issue to discuss with all of you, and your input is very important since it may well affect the way this club functions in the future. It concerns the newest addition to our lineup, Fullmetal Alchemist. We’re currently on episode #3, I believe, and I think there are 52 episodes total, so, like with Naruto and Hikaru no Go, we’ll be watching this one for a while.
What sets it apart from the other two shows mentioned, however, is the fact that it’s just been licensed. The version we’re watching right now, as with all of our shows, is a fansub, meaning that it’s being subtitled by fans for other fans for free distribution. The grounds for fansubbing get a little fuzzy when a show is actually licensed by a company for release domestically. Some fansub groups stop distribution immediately when the license is announced; others wait until the show is actually available on DVD or is being shown on TV, while still others continue to release fansubs even AFTER the show is on DVD or TV (something of a no-no)
In the case of Fullmetal Alchemist, it’s been licensed by Funimation, and supposedly it’s coming to Cartoon Network starting October 23. In terms of fansubbed episodes, we have everything that’s been subbed so far that’s out there. For future episodes, one of the groups we got the subs from has decided to stop distribution and move on to other projects; another group, however, has decided to continue with future episodes as they are released, which means that we can continue watching the show at least until October. Hopefully all episodes will be out in fansub by then and we can have the full run of the series. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; sometimes if a licensed show doesn’t do that well, the later episodes are never released domestically, (as in the case of the series Twelve Kingdoms), which means hard-to-get fansubs or bootleg copies are the only way to complete it. I doubt this’ll happen with Fullmetal Alchemist, but I want you all to know what’s going on just for the record.
The club has watched fansubs of shows that were licensed and released domestically during the time we had them scheduled as part of the lineup in the past (Berserk, Hellsing, Rahxephon, and Galaxy Angel, among others), but this is the first time we’ve had a show get licensed this early in terms of our showing it. What I need to know is this: is this a problem for you all or not? Please post your opinions, comments, concerns, etc. to the mailing list, the forum, or as comments here on the club website!!! It’s very important that I know what your stance on this is!!!
In other news,
Recent Anime releases:
Several of the titles acquired by Cartoon Network and that are currently airing there will recieve an uncut DVD release in the next couple months, including Wolf’s Rain and the newest addition to Adult Swim, Case Closed(a.k.a. Detective Conan), so if you want to catch them in their entirety as they were meant to be seen , you’ll have your opportunity…
Also, the Read or Die tv series is finally coming out, Vol. 1 will be available June 29. We got to see the Read or Die OAV a while back and it rocked, hopefully the series will be just as enjoyable…
Manga: Lots of new titles in the past couple of months, including several that have been a very long time in coming to American shores. The manga versions of several series we’ve watched are now available, including Hellsing and Galaxy Angel. Dark Horse has apparently had some success with their release of the Berserk manga and has decided to continue: Vol. 1-3 are currently out, and Vol. 4 will be out July 15 (mature readers on this one, please; as I’ve said before, the Club won’t be paying for anyone’s therapy ;) Chrono Crusade is now available and highly recomended, as is the manga version of Saiyuki, which I actually prefer to the anime…
For shoujo manga fans, Vol. 1 of the long-awaited manga version of Tokyo Babylon is finally out in a very nice edition from TokyoPop. We have several fans of X the Movie and the X TV series out there, not to mention the X manga; this is essentially the prequel and a must-read for any fan of Clamp’s work.
Fansubs and scanlations: Lots of good stuff here, direct from Japan: check out www.Animesuki.com for a good list of available fansubs of all kinds of shows.
For manga scanlations: The US version of Shonen Jump has a “Manga Explorer” section in each issue, discussing popular manga titles not yet available in the US. Many of these titles can be found at www.toriyamaworld.com, where you can read the manga for Fullmetal Alchemist (that’s how I found the series to begin with), download Naruto fansubs if you like, see lots of Akira Toriyama’s early work before Dragonball and Dragonball Z, and check out one of my newest favorites, Bremen, a weird, wild title about a rock band.
Peacemaker Kurogane was one of the runners-up when we decided on our latest series to watch; if you want the manga version, it’s called Peace Maker Shinsengumi Imon and it’s available for download at www.mangacity.net. Awesome for any fan of samurai-type anime or manga like Rurouni Kenshin or Samurai Deeper Kyo.
Finally, for a bit of local cultural flavor, the 32nd Annual Cherry Blossom Festival is taking place in Denver on June 26th and 27th. Always a wonderful experience…for more info, check out the Japan America Society of Colorado’s website at http://www.jascolorado.org/events_cbf.htm
To see any of the aforementioned websites, just paste the URLs into your browser window and GO!
Hope all this keeps you busy and throughly entertained. Now go out and get anime-ted!!! See you next week!
Kris
L.A.C.