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2001:
The Year in Anime
One of
the things that we really began to cover in force in the last
year or so is anime. It's a growing market in the U.S., coupled
with the fact that more anime films will get theatrical release
in 2002. It's an exceedingly relevant topic, and, coupled
with CG cartoons, is indicative of the expanding craft put
into animation. With that in mind, here are some important
U.S. releases from the last year.
Top
Anime Releases
(not just the Movies, but anything Anime related)
By
Brian Albertsen
10. Arc
the Lad Collection for Playstation
9. Star Blazers DVD; The Iscendar Collection
8. Zone of the Enders for PS2
7. Final Fantasy IX for Playstation
6. McFarlanes Anime Figures
5. The Robotech DVD Collection
4. Akira Manga Trade Paperbacks
3. Akira DVD
2. Video Girl Ai DVD
1. Video Girl Ai Trade Paperbacks.
Anime
Awards for 2001
By Troy Brownfield
Best
Ongoing Promotion of Anime in America: Cartoon Network's Toonami
Blocks:
Let's face it, nothing is getting more kids into anime that
the collusion of Toonami and Toonami's Midnight Run. At any
given time, you can find Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, a pantload
of Gundam, Outlaw Star, The Big O, and more. Cartoon Network
also gets high marks for including Cowboy BeBop in their adult
swim line-up. Extra special props go to Bandai, who provides
the lion's share of programming, and Funimation, for bringing
the Dragonball franchise to it's continuing audience.
Best
DVDs: Bandai's Gundam Series: Bandai has aggressively
pushed Gundam on both VHS and DVD, but it's the DVDs where
they really shine. With eye-popping color, solid extras like
MS encyclopedias and historical shorts, and an overall excellent
presentation, the Gundam DVDs are great blocks in building
an anime collection. During 2001, Bandai managed to release
the first five volumes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam,
three volumes of the MS 08th Team, and the G-Saviour movie.
With the rest of both MSG and 08th Team series, War in the
Pocket, Stardust Memory and G-Gundam due in 2002, Bandai is
sure to keep pushing the format and the genre to even larger
audiences.
The
Having It Both Ways Award: Funimation's Uncut Editions of
Dragonball Z: It's true: kids love Dragonball Z. But so
do adults, and Funimation deserves a tip of the hat for keeping
the spirit of the original alive by releasing uncut versions.
We like the swearing and extra violence. The multi-language
Uncut DVDs are the best though, and they have miles of trailers.
Righteous stuff.
A Recommended
List:
Here's my assessment of ten great anime-related items from
2001 that you should own or track down.
-Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (the new feature film)
-Akira Special Edition DVD
-Mobile
Suit Gundam Vol. 1-5 (original series) on DVD
-The 08th MS Team Vol. 1-4 on DVD
-The Big O Vol. 1-3 on DVD
-Dragonball Z: Lord Slug movie on DVD
-Uzumaki Vol. 1 (Manga from Viz; also available as a film)
-Spring and Chaos DVD
-Gundam GM Sniper, Kampfer and GP-02 action figures
-Dragonball Z's Androids Saga and Cell Saga action figure
assortments
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