i meant the pic in my sig it was way too big

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...and starring insane_ben as himself.

Sorry! I couldn't resist joking about how Chi Master and Legato have changed names. Anyways, arods, much like the earlier posts about Trigun and Cowboy Bebop coming to CN, I'll believe it when I see it (in other words, that rumor about EVA coming to CN is BS [Sorry! Couldn't resist making another bad pun!]) And as for you, dbz_dude, stop using this board to post your sig picture. If you're going to continuously try to post it, please do it elsewhere.

By the way, Sanjuro, I couldn't help but notice that you've recently purchased Burn-Up W. What I'm wondering is, was that purchase influenced by my posts about guilty-pleasure anime, and, moreover, Burn-Up W?

Yeah, this is Chi Master. I just got tired of the name. I've used it since the very first message board.

Oh, and since you've already guessed it from the name, I am a huge fan of Kurosawa. Sanjuro is one of his best movies(next to Seven Samurai that is). Yojimbo was good, but Sanjuro developed the character a lot further. That comment about him being like a sword without a sheath was awesome. It was also a heck of a lot funnier. I also highly reccomend seeing Ran and Kagemusha the Shadow Warrior(Two of his more violent films). The Samurai Trilogy(not made by Kurosawa) Mifune was in, revolves around Japan's most famous(real life) swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi who was undefeated in over 60 battles. It's not a bad series of films, it's kind of a portrait of a warrior kind of deal.

Anyway, Insane Ben, you could say that it was partially due to your guilty pleasures topic that influenced me in buying Burn Up W, I have heard of the series before though. I guess you could say I kind of went beserk on a spending spree these past few weeks due to a 20% off coupon at my local mall and the fact that the music shop just happened to have a massive amount of anime in stock. I was kind of torn between buying Burn Up W and Gunsmith Cats, but since Burn Up W had 4 complete episodes instead of three, I went with that. I was somewhat shocked by the inconsistency of the series, with all the excessive fanservice shots and slapstick humour in the beginning, and then all of a sudden seeing a woman *SPOILER ALERT* get shot in the face, with blood splattering everywhere during the latter part of the series. Very crazy stuff. Yeah, I don't understand why AIC never finishes any of there series. It seems like they don't give a dam about what they put out. Pisses me off.

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o well i dont care, my dad just bought me the first 2 dvd's of EVA! ooo i cant wait till they get here! is kenshin any good? i wanna see that too!

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i made a cake with icing (mmmmm icing) and 16 candles on it! I think that kappa should make a whole anime discussion board as this topic has 500+ posts!

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that a good idea Arods !!!

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*hops on the bandwagon and changes his name as well*

And you are...? I haven't seen a SW refrence here till you. Nice character to pick.

Ah, Kurosawa films. While thus far I have only seen Seven Samurai and some of Sanjuro, I do very much plan to see more. Heh, I play Seven Samurai-esqe stuff with my Lego Ninjas. Without their masks, they just look like ronin.

One of my favorite Musashi stories goes like this: Musashi was one a ferry with an arogant swordsman who asked what his ryu (style) was. Musashi answered "the style that dosen't use a sword to defeat it's opponents". Musashi was obviously a swordsman and the brash guy got pissed. He ordered the ferry to pull to a nearby shore and he challenged Musashi to a sword duel. The guy got out first, and Musashi pushed the boat away from shore and out of range of the brash challenger. "See?" Musashi called "I have defeated you without a sword."

[ 06-30-2001: Message edited by: Ryoga Hibiki ]

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Ryoga Hibiki: Taking the roads less traveled. Weather he wants to or not.

Char?! Well, that's a surprize. Welcome back.

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Ryoga Hibiki: Taking the roads less traveled. Weather he wants to or not.

hey Char whats up

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Has anyone bought the New English Big O Dvd?
If so, how does it fare?

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This is my first post in this very intimidating thread, but I just wanted to post here and ask, has anyone ever seen the Chrono Trigger anime? I've seen screenshots of it all over the 'net, but never heard of the actual anime. I'd love to be able to buy a copy of this, or at the very least, confirm that it exists.

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Dbz dude is right...sort of. The Crono Trigger anime exists as cutscenes on the soon-to-be-released-in-America PS version of Chrono Trigger. The cool thing about it is that the guy who did the character designs for the game, also did the character designs for the animated cutscenes. That guy? None other than the infamous Akira Toriyama.

By the way, Sanjuro, you probably would've been better off getting Gunsmith Cats instead of Burn-Up W (just a personal opinion). It has a more consistent storyline (despite having only three episodes), and contains all the action, comedy, and drama from the original manga version. Oddly enough, both series were released in America by the same distributor: ADV Films.

About Chrono trigger anime... yeah, there was a short OVA/special. You can find it on ebay somewhat cheap. Uhhh well thats all I have to say about that.

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Thanks everyone. Man I can't wait to get that PSX rerelease...Maybe I'll post here more often.
Sheesh, I feel like a newbie all over again...

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Geez!

I dissapear for a week or two and I miss more posts than the Customs Board gets in a- Oh, forget it. It's no fun picking on the Customs Board... The poor thing should be pitied, not ridiculed. (Though I admit, it is kind of asking for it after this topic proved hwo big something good can get...) And now names are being changed? Some new trend by the masters, or perhaps a plot by Doctor Evil himself!? I'm going to bite my tounge about any Prince Jokes that may come to mind, and hope everyone else follows my example.

Well, I do have something to say. It's not a reply, or a question, or anything of that nature- It's just time for me to throw my weight around like I own the place and share a little story about anime. An intervection, I suppose.

It all started last December... (No, really, it did.) It was at that time I took a trip to Boston to see 'Phantom of the Opera'. (A beautiful show, but it holds no relevance to anime, so I'll refrain.) While getting to the Wang Theatre, we passed through Chinatown. Well, we got there at nearly 5 o'clock, so I had little time to play around in the beautiful shops, but I did manage to find one electronics store that sold VCD in Chinese; Among them was a VCD with 2 episodes of Sailormoon in Cantonese. It was a turning point for me... It proved Chinatown was a place to find both Hong Kong AND Japanese Cinema at great prices! It also introduced me to VCD, a video format I think no one gives any credit too. Too bad it's 2 hours either way, so I only go every few months...

A few weeks ago, I came home with a fistfull of new VCD. (Oh, for those wondering what I'm babbling about, Video Compact Disc, VCD, is the Video Standard in Hong Kong, and has all but replaced VHS tapes, the standard in the US. In simple terms, it's a stereo MPEG-1 file on a CD that in the US is commonly played on a home computer with MPEG compatibility, and is usually played with a program like Windows Media Player. It can store up to 55 minutes per single sided disc, and most retail in the $10-15 dollar range for a single movie.) I bought, ironically enough, 3 Japanese films. One was a horror film called "The Ring" that I have yet to watch, based on my level of patience. The plot is quite involved, and there are no English subtitles. (This is the first time I've heared of a copy of the film that didn't have English subtitles... Oy...) Another was the controversial Japanese film, "Battle Royale", the movie released last december that's sort of a cross between 'Survivor' and 'Lord of the Flies' that had the Japanese education board's collective panties in a bunch. Battle royale was an excellent film, and I'm sure The Ring is as well... I just haven't had the time or patience to watch something that requires intelligence for the moment.

But on to the anime! I was a very lucky man indeed to find a VCD set in a book store, a red cover by Universal Laser with a child weilding a bow and a woman warrior that makes Xena look like a delicate blossom. (But Jun looks good with all those scars, to her credit...) Behind them is teh leader of a vicious biker gang and hsi master, a man wearing scarlet Samurai armor and wearing a full face mask. Behind them all is a broad, feral man with wild hair and eyes that seem to say "I'm going to rip you a new belly button". I didn't need any English or Japanese on the CD case to know I was looking at none other than Go Nagai's landmark series, Violence Jack. (The cover, I decided, was the Japanese box art for episode 2, "Hell's Wind.")

The 2 disc set is certainly unique, a sort of a Chinese 'Perfect Collection' of the first 2 OVA's. Let me explain- When the first Violence Jack OVA 'Slumking' was released in 1986, it actually covered the third story arc in the Violence Jack manga. When Go Nagai and Dynamic Pro once again proved that they can create popular and offensive series, despite protest from everyone BUT the Mothers of Prevention, a second OVA entitled 'Evil Town' was released in 1988. It covers the first story arc of the manga, and remainsone of the most controversial and explicit works Go Nagai has ever done. Finally, 'Hell's Wind' was released in 1990, to bridge the gap between the two previous episodes.

Now that we know how the numbering works (1 Evil Town, 2 Hell's Wind, 3 Slumking), let's look at what the Chinese version did. They play Episode 2 without any cuts or changes up until the last scene, with Jack heading twoards Slumking's city. The final scene of episode 2 is cut, and as I understand it, it involves Slumking being carried to the center of town while his soldiers ride in on horseback to face Violence Jack. This then leads right in to the final episode. Well, the Chinese release goes from Violence jack walking to the city to jumping right to the opening of Evil Town, with Japan beign torn apart by earthquakes and our introduction to the underground colonies of Evil Town, and our introduction to our anti-hero, Violence Jack. (The music skip, and quick jump is a pretty good give away to teh fact that somethign is missing.) My guess is that they were trying to make a single coherant story by doing this, but all they've done is made a total trainwreck out of watching the series for the first time. Maybe they didn't own the rights to Slumking, or maybe they released it seperately and wanted these 2 OVA's to stand on their own. (The Cchinese title does have 'II' at the end of it.) Or maybe they just wanted to release one feature length film, who knows.

Either way, the copy I bought was incredible. Sure, it's a muted color VCD and it's dubbed in Chinese (Cantonese more specifically, Meaning I can't understand a word in edge wise), and one scene is missing. But despite these problems, that in the long run are minor, I'm still very pleased that I bought this set.

Violence Jack is one of those moments where you can sit back and say 'They just don't make 'em like they used to'. The backdrop is a post apocalypse no-man's-land, where turning your back for a moment could get you molested in one way or another, even from your own group. Post Apocalypse really started with Violence Jack, all the way back in 1973, but the Mad Max trilogy (Mad Max was released in 1980) that made savage worlds not all that much unlike our own profitable. The series were generally loaded with gratuitous violence and often rape, with heroes who could easily be described as Heavy Metal (or sometimes Punk) Anti-heroes, unshaven and rough men who would stand up for what ever reason for the good guys, despite the fact that he knows they're basically all screwed, and wouldn't mind leaving a trail of bodies behind them if they had to. Like Clint Eastwood, but generally wearing black leather and shouldepands and splitting skulls left and right. The most well known post apocalypse anime is probably Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), but these OVA's had the distinct Go Nagai flavor that, though often immitated, simply cannot be equaled, despite the basic world having a few basic simmilarities. (But all subgenre's have SOME basic similarities.)

The series is certainly an aquired taste; If Misfits meets Hell's Angels punk bikers all but owning an underground city, a group of 'Nice' survivors who are nothing more than organized sheisters and rapists to the grouping composed of young women who are basically treated like objects by all sides, gratuitous violence twoards men and molestation twoards women of all degrees shown in a gleefully exploitave style the likes of which makes even Ninja Scroll look pretty tame in it's overall feeling, and a hero who doesn't bother having Violence as his middle name- It's his first name, let me tell you... Well, if this is your cup of tea, pick it up as soon as you see it. On the other hand, if you'd rather just watch Son Gohan transform into the Super Saiya 2 stage and dab away a tear, that's fine... I'll just state flat out that this is a lost genre, and post apocalypse was generally placed in the R to X/NC-17 cattegory almost by default, simply because post apocalypse worlds were generally not very friendly places in the eyes of film makers during the Cold War.

In fact, the copy I found is truly a beautiful and rare edition; You see, Evil Town was considered so graphic in the molestation sequences that Japanese Law required the scenes to be censored with a mosaic cencorship that basically masks the more taboo areas of anatomy. The US release for the OVA series had 2 versions; A cut by Manga Video, and an uncut by Media Blasters. Though Media Blasters version WAS infact uncut, the mosaic censorship was left intact, mostly on the grounds that only 1 of 3 episodes could never really be deemed pornographic, and so they merely kept it as-is and released it as a "Mature Audience" series. Well, the copy I found was rated 'III' (The Hong Kong equivalent of NC-17), and to say it simply, it's uncensored in every way, in a way I doubt any other county has had a chance to see. God Bless America for impornting Hong Kong VCD...

If you're going to ask for a plot on the OVA, I ask you look for summaries from someone else on 2 accounts. For one, this was Go Nagai adapting about a books worth of comic to a 45 minute video- The plot is fairly straight forward, and while most of his stories have their twists and turns, the basic plot itself is simple (As is the basic plot of any movie). In this case, a giant is set loose in Evil Town, and must decide who he's going to help escape to the surface, before the 3 gangs kill each other. But I can't say a whole lot about it, on account 2, because the copy I have is in Chinese. I don't speak a word of Chinese, Cantonese or otherwise. Period. It would be unfair of me to try to put together a story when I can't understand a word of it. But if you're watching Violence Jack, chances are it's the gore hound in you that's being entertained by the constant blood lettings anyway, so understanding dialogue in that case would almost get in the way.

I've always been a big fan of Go Nagai anyway, and his Violence Jack OVA's have thus far been no exception. Certainly, it's a series appealing to me on the basifc and common denominator (Violence and gore and nudity on a monumental scale), but sometimes that's all we need. Toriyama Akira was never above a cheap joke involving Buruma's (Bulma) or Son Gokuu's naked form just to get a laugh, was he? Well, then I don't think Go Nagai should be thought of any worse for using a gore moment just because he thought it was a good idea at the time. When you're trying to give the impression of a lawless world, the only way to show that is with as much violence and decadance as you can possibly get away with. In that respect, Go Nagai did quite well.

Heck, I've never had a problem with exploitation, as long as it was exploitation that was accomplishing it's goal.

Well, I do hope everyone forgives me for my little interjection, but I felt I needed to praise the newest series I'd finally gotten around to buying. (Without Cartoon Network, otaku friends, or a local rental place, if I want to see an anime, I HAVE to buy it.) I do regret that this is not the most constructive thing I've ever had to say, but I've been exausted the past week or two, and in the mood to watch something with lots of explosions, lots of dismemberment, and lots of nudity for nudity's sake. (Even if sometimes the gore and nudity work hand in hand... Some of the stuff would probably make the average Dragonball based anime fan turn the tape off in disgust.) So far, Go Nagai hasn't let me down yet.

Now if I could just figure out where Violence Jack gets a new coat and... Ummm... Neck-wrap thingie... in the beginning of the Slumking OVA, I'll be all set. It's funny though... I never questioned that Kenshirou had a new jacket every single episode in the first season Hokuto no Ken. My guess is that he keeps his shoulderpad in his pants and hsi jacket folds up in to the size of a dime, or maybe he just sews it back together at super human speed after it's destroyed every episode.

Or maybe I'm just being too critical again.

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yep alot can happen in a couple of days thats why i check back 12 times a day

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does anyone know were to get the simpsons nuqular playset.

[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: dbz dude ]

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I was watching MPLEX a few months ago on action Thursday and they were showing an anime called Shadow Skill. I only got to watch about 15 minutes of it because I had to go to work but I would like to know if anyone had any thoughts on it. Is there more than one part to it and is it worth buying to view?

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i think its pretty cool

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I think Shadow Skill... er.. sucked.
I own it... I watched it once and stuck it on my shelf vowing to never watch it again.

Maybe it's just not my thing Anime-wise. I'm just not a big fan of this anime genre... I'd have to watch it again to remember exactly WHY I hated it so much... but I REALLY don't want to do that.

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Hey, has anyone heard what the new Bebop flick, Knocking On Heaven's Door, is about? I knwo it takes place before the end of the series, but that's about it.

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Ryoga Hibiki: Taking the roads less traveled. Weather he wants to or not.

Yeah, the Bebop movie takes place before the end of the series, id say a bit more but I dont want to spoil anything for ya P-chan (heh I just had to do it once). It comes out this summer in Japan, it could be out now for all I know.

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Knockin' on heaven's door isn't out yet in Japan. The movie takes place between episode 22 and 23. If you want more info go to http://www.cowboybebop.com/ it's in Japanese though.

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hi, i have a question: did they cut the neon genesis evangelion dvd's at all? i bout collection 0:1 and 0:2 (read my post above) and i got them today. i watched 6/8 episodes (dubbed ones) and i liked it! it was cool! and the best part is they only cost me $18.99 each. also what does everyone else think about neon genesis evangelion? i think it's cool!

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Oh, is it time for some Cowboy Bebop discussion?

Information on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is kind of scarce. We know the timeframe, as Cland97 and Sanjuro said. The story is set in a place similar to Morocco in look and feel. As for the plot, all I know is that the Bebop crew is apparently after a terrorist with a really high price on his head. There's some other mysterious woman pursuing the guy as well. Other than that, not much is known at this point. A trailer was released online, but it was mostly just clips from the show along with a few seconds of new footage from the movie. Advance tickets have already been sold in Japan, and the release date is coming up pretty soon. I guess it's pretty unlikely that it will ever show up in US theatres, but can you imagine how utterly cool it would be to see Cowboy Bebop on the big screen?

I do have some other news for Cowboy Bebop fans. In fact, I haven't seen this reported anywhere yet. The new Spike Spiegel action figure from Kaiyodo is out in Japan! I was browsing Yahoo Japan the other day, and I found a few of them there. I had no idea it was coming out so soon, but apparently July was the date given to coincide with the upcoming movie. Hopefully some company will release it here in the US, like Kaiyodo's Vash and Wolfwood figures before.

This figure looks extremely nice. It really does the character justice. In fact, I think I've found my new favorite toy. Here's a pic: Spike

It appears to be articulated only at the neck, shoulders, and elbows. I was hoping for something as articulated as Kaiyodo's Wolfwood figure, but that's not a big deal when the figure looks this good. I sure hope they make the rest of the cast though. That Spike figure would look so nice alongside Faye, Jet, Ed, Ein, Julia and especially Vicious.

In other Cowboy Bebop merchandise news, a set of snap together figures is on the way, in Japan at least. They're packaged in capsules apparently, so I'm guessing they're pretty small. The set includes the whole cast except for Vicious (not the first time Vicious has been left out of a line of figures).

The Medicom 12-inch Spike Spiegel figure will be imported to the US soon. The average price will be $34, which is about half what it cost in Japan, and much less than what it would cost to import yourself. Furthermore, Bandai will release its own set of Cowboy Bebop figures in the US soon.

I can't wait for that Kaiyodo Spike, as well as the Bandai figs comming out later, hope it comes with an interchangeable head with a cigarette in his mouth. I'm still trying to find those Banpresto figures, but it seems like they are sold out everywhere I go.

Anyway, my thoughts on Evangelion? It's a masterpiece, truly a piece of art. It's not fair to merely say that it is a "cool" series. There are so many levels to it that I will not even bother getting into any of them. Evangelion is a very deep series, so it's not for everybody(especially the last few episodes which were pure genius).

Anyway, the DVDs are not cut. Why would they be? They're DVDs. There is a little problem with freakin ADV placing overlays in certain scenes though, specifically where there are japanese writings which totally screws up the original artwork. ADV also fails to provide subtitleless openings as well, which would have been nice.

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if u mean the theme song subtitles on both DVD's every other opening has subtitles in english for the theme song and every other one has japanese (i.e. episode 1 theme:english subs, episode 2 theme: japanese subs in english script). the show is pretty awesome but does anyone know what episode asuka comes in?

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No, I was saying that ADV should have put subtitLESS/creditLESS openings in the DVDs. That way, you could see the original openings as was aired in Japan, without english words getting in the way of the artwork. Anyway, Asuka appears in episode 8: Asuka strikes! I don't know why you asked that, since it's on the second DVD in which you have.

[ 07-03-2001: Message edited by: Sanjuro ]

[ 07-03-2001: Message edited by: Sanjuro ]

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Useless knowledge: My cousin has the hots for Asuka. Then again, he falls for any redhead in a jumpsuit (Elly from Xenogears, for example...). He also has the hots for:
Ryoko from Tenchi (but who dosen't )
Rei from Evangelion
Mihoshi from Tenchi (Wha??)
Miang from Xenogears (She is quite the hotty.)

Well, I had a DBZ rant ready, but the board was down, and I Ctrl-C'ed over it by accident. Shigata ga nai, neh? So, enjoy reading about my cousin, and...my God...I've become a newbie *runs off weeping*.

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Ryoga Hibiki: Taking the roads less traveled. Weather he wants to or not.

hehe, i think Asuka is pretty hot but she is too mean. god! i also like lucia from lunar 2 eternal blue complete, i like ryoko too but mihoshi?!?!?! how can he actually like mihoshi!?!?! god save us all(not in evangelion, he tries to kill us all!)! i havent played xenogears... and i didnt really look at the dvd stuff inside, i wentt straight to the episodes and i finally watched 7 and 8. i cant wait to get the rest but if someone out there can help me out, i wanna find them for real cheap. now i will have to watch them subbed. i guess the sub in the theme is kind of annoying.

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I find the fact that the 08th is the longest running Gundam series (3 yrs. or so) and it's only, what, 6 or so eps? Hilarity.

I have a question: what can anyone tell me about Lupin III. I loved Caglistro, felt neutral on the Lost Gold of Babylon (hated the animation, plot didn't do it for me either). And recently, thanks to my student in Trigun and master in Kenshin, Cland97, I found a place with a crapload of Lupin figs. Joy! Anywho, any information would be much appriciated.

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Ryoga Hibiki: Taking the roads less traveled. Weather he wants to or not.

can someone tell me about kenshin and whether the DVD's are worht buying or not?

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Ive got comments for a few things so ill just go ahead and comment....

Cowboy Bebop: The Kaiyodo Spike is out, Imageanime.com has it for $35, I plan on getting mine sometime soon, cause I doubt Previews will be distributing it,they might, but I dont want to wait that long... Does anyone know the exact date when the movie is out? I know its due out soon this summer from what ive been told.

I wish I lived in Japan, I need to see the Saiyki movie!

Gundam 08th MS team: If I remember correctly the series was around 12 or 13 OVA's. I just finished watching the series, I really liked it, it was some good UC Gundam! But after watching it all I now declare Hiro Yuuki (Mikial)as the MOST annoying voice actor there is, god I hate that guy.

Evangelion: Perosnally I loved the series, I dont think it was amazing, but I really do think its a great show, I think once you see the movies you will enjoy the series just a bit more. Speaking of the movies... anyone know when these are due out? I would love to own these on DVD cause my fansubs are 3 years old and crappy now

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The Kaiyodo Spike is very likely to be distrubuted by Previews. If they distrubuted Trigun figures, Fist of the Northstar Figures, Virtual On figures, Evangelion Figures, and so on, they will distrubute the Cowboy Bebop figure. I'll wait and keep my 35 dollars thank you.

And like, Atticus said, no one knows when Bebop the movie will be out. It will be out during the later part of this year though.

Personally, I thought the Eva movies were good, but weren't as incredible as the series. I liked the last two episodes as they were. It really gave it an abstract, artsy feel to it, and really captures visually how Shinji's mind works. They are somewhat inconclusive I have to admit, ***SPOILER ALERT*** especially the part where they flash images of Misato and Ritsuko's dead bodies, but don't really explain how they are killed.

Anyway, the movies are due out on DVD sometime in october, and are being released by manga video. So, they will be fairly accessible, since manga titles are usually widely distrubuted.
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[ 07-03-2001: Message edited by: Sanjuro ]

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