In case you haven't already heard...



About Miyazaki stuff:
----------------------------
For interested parties, you can go to http://www.nausicaa.net to listen to
the dubbed voices for "Kiki's Delivery Service" (download the clips).  Make
your own decisions, I won't influence you. "Kiki's Delivey Service" will be
out on September 1st, officially, and released both on VHS and LD.

Princess Mononoke" is scheduled for release next year. Leonard DiCaprio
won't be playing Ashitaka, but Matt Damon is slotted to possibly do this
instead. Claire Danes will be San.

"Laputa, Castle in the Sky" is scheduled for release in the year 2000.



About BANDAI:
---------------------
Bandai has announced 4 new titles that they plan to release:

"CLAMP Campus Detectives"
"Mobile Suit Gundam" series (starting at the beginning)
"Saber Marionettes J"
"The Vision of Escaflowne"


The only real issue is that you won't find these on the shelves of Suncoast
Motion Pictures, or any other retail store. They are selling them ONLY over
the internet from their site, so it'll be by mail order.



About PIONEER:
-----------------------
It's official.  Pioneer announced owning "Fushigi Yuugi" television series,
and will be releasing it both dubbed and subbed in approx. 4 months time. I
spoke with their production coordinator at Anime Expo about the dubbing
studio, and as yet, they have not chosen a group to go with. They are very
aware of the fans loyalty to this series, and will try their best to
match/come close to an approximate English sounding equivalent to the
voices. With the talent that's out there, however (and I personally like
dubs), they may have trouble doing so, so I caution all fans to give them a
break. They can only try, but undoubtably they won't please everyone.
What's really important is that they're bringing it here - a risky venture,
since t.v. series are a big investment with little guarantee of making the
money back. Go easy on them.

They've also purchased the rights to "Bastard! Destructive God of Darkness"
(insert much cheering here), and are looking into "Combustible Campus
Guardress" as well.

In addition, the "El Hazard OAV series 2" is coming, and it's CUTE! I got a
chance to watch some of it, and can't wait to see more!  What's this with
two Ifuritas?!?



About VIZ:
--------------
No new anime titles announced, but they did announce the beginning of a new
off-shoot manga compilation magazine, called Animerica Extra, which (as
most of you know) will contain "Fushigi Yuugi", "Video Girl Ai," "X/1999,"
and "Steam Detectives", and a fifth surprise title. They handed out promos
in the registraion packets at Anime Expo.


About Mixxine:
-------------------
In September, "Sailor Moon" moves to its own magazine, called "Smile".


About ADVision:
-----------------------
Oh, boy...this company is getting a lot of titles this year.  In addition
to the ones you may have already heard ("City Hunter", etc.), they're
rumored to own "Magic Knight Rayearth" now too. Looks like ADV is
definately out of the red now, and stronger than ever.


About CPM/USMC/SS:
-------------------------------
They plan to continue releasing "The Slayers" t.v. series. In addition,
they've gotten a hold of a few other OAV/t.v. series titles ("Tekkaman
Blade II"...yea!).


About Urban Vision:
---------------------------
They've bought "Space Adventurer Cobra", and a few smaller titles. However,
they've done remarkably well for a start-up, and I think they'll be a
strong contender in this market over the next two years.



Hm...let me think...is that it?  Well, for right now, anyway, it appears to
be. It's Tuesday morning, and I'm still functioning on zero caffeine.
Pardon me for "the dust" during construction.  ; )

Let me know if you hear anything new!!!

- Rena/Maigrey