WEEKLY STUFF E-ZINE #27 (11-15-98) - Anime! Video Games! Manga! ^_^ Contents ^_^ 1.)A Few Crass Words From Kaneda 2.)The Beginnings of Mixx-Zine 3.)UCI Anime's Mike Kiley Calls It Quits 4.)Anime Conventions 1999 Schedule 5.)Anime Tidbits 6.)Video Game News 7.)The 50 best Game Boy Games 8.)Anime Relationship Cliches: Extra 9.)Omega's Word Search #1: Neon Genesis Evangelion 10.)Mailing List Technical Info ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.) A Few Crass Words From Kaneda Greetings, my loyal followers. I fear I have bad news to get off my chest this week. XOOM, the web page space provider that hosts my two pages, Kaneda's Home Page (members.xoom.com/Kanny) and The NERV GeoFront (http://members.xoom.com/nervgeofront), has, by curious quirk of fate, suffered an "outtage of some member sites". I have yet to find ANOTHER Xoom member site that has been affected except for MY 2 PAGES!!! What rotten luck. Well, being the type of person who won't take things sitting down, I immediately threw a temper tantrum of biblical proportions. The worst part is, XOOM is the best hoster I could find. Geocities has crappy URLs, too many rules, is slow, and let's not forget everyone's favorite, GEOPOPUPS!!! Those little ads that come up in their own little windows everytime you visit a GC page! I'm sure you just LOVE those. I don't understand why people still keep their pages there when they can easily move them to a DECENT hoster. When you think of it, all these free hosters are, are pains in the arse. There's always a catch. In my opinion, your best bet is to use the few megs of space your ISP gave you when you joined! So anyway, here I am, engraving little XOOM logos on bullet shells and plotting my revenge. Wish me luck, and don't rat on me. - Steve Diabo (Kaneda) kokomojoe@compuserve.com Update: http://members.xoom.com/nervgeofront/ is currently back on-line. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.) The Beginnings of Mixx-Zine The Beginnings of Mixx-Zine By Adam "OMEGA" Arnold Victor Chin, who is the circulation director at Mixx, and Ron Scovil had a company, Studio Phoenix, that did multimedia anime and manga projects. They met Stu Levy at a video game trade show. He wanted to do manga, as did Ron and Victor. So they decided to combine efforts. 'Just in is the announcement that a licensed, English-translated version of Naoko Takeuchi's original Sailor Moon manga will soon be available in the United Stated--one of four different manga titles (the other three to be announced shortly) which will be serialized in an upcoming American manga magazine, Mixx Zine. Published by Ronald Scovil Jr. (translator of Central Park Media's anime "The Tale of Genji") and Stuart Levy (of the multimedia firm Japan Online), Mixx Zine's mass-marker approach will give manga to Americans the exact same way the Japanese get it: "Thick and cheap," in the words of Levy, with glossy color covers and newsprint interiors, as well as graphic-novel collections of the serialized stories later down the road.' 'Following a broad reader-base strategy, Mixx will feature, in total, "Ice Blade" and "Parasyte," and two [manga series] directed towards female readers, the aforementioned "Sailor Moon" and the now-announced "Magical Knight Rayearth." Yet, if the history of "Sailor Moon" anime fans in the U.S. is any guide, it can be expected that "broad base" will also equal "crossover," as American readers discover the appeal of different manga styles in one comic series.' 'There's no doubt that Mixx Zine is an extremely ambitious--and risky, venture. […] But, there's no denying that the manga so much anime is based upon has lagged behind here thus far. Mixx Zine definitely means to change that.' --------------- "Mixx-Zine #1 Introducing the world's first motionless picture entertainment magazine, featuring "Sailor Moon," the female teenage super-hero who is also the star of Japanese movies, TV, and her own comic series! Also: the detective action thriller "Ice Blade"; the sci-fi suspense horror "PARASYTE"; and the RPG/fantasy tale "Magical Knight Rayearth." Bimonthly. b&w, 200pg $4.95" --------------- Mixx-Zine Vol. 1 #1 was scheduled to be released in May 1997 (with a special edition coming in March). But, these dates were delayed. The special edition was released, late and with a grey boarder instead of a Gold one. And the first domestic issue was released in July in comic book stores and video game stores. And in the words of Paul Harvey, "And now you know the rest of the story." ~ Sources (in order of usage): 1.) WIZARD #67, Carl Gustav Horn's 'Manga Scene: Picks of The Month - Manga.' 2.) WIZARD #68, Carl Gustav Horn's 'Manga Scene: The Hot Manga Mixx.' 3.) PREVIEWS Vol. VII, No. 4 (April 1997) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.) UCI Anime's Mike Kiley Calls It Quits ~~~ Cut directly from the actual post "some BIG news from uci anime" made by Mike Kiley on November 11, 1998 ~~~ Konnichiwa, minna-san! Well, y'all, there's no other way to say this, so I'll just get right down to it: I have resigned my position here at UCI in order to pursue another opportunity in anime-related e-commerce. I will be on the job here at UCI through November 13th, fulfilling your orders from this last Anime Update. Anime at UCI will continue in my absence, but in a different form. UCI's focus will be more local than global, and they will concentrate on selling existing stock to the anime community here on campus. But, even for all you netizens, there is still a lot of cool gear in stock at alt.ant--the physical on-campus store--and UCI will continue to fulfill orders for that product. I would like to encourage you to regard UCI as a valuable anime resource and to visit both the alt.ant store and the UCI website often. UCI will also be sending out news about special sales and promotions to this e- mail list; again, I hope you take advantage of these offers. There are no more import anime shipments currently scheduled to arrive at UCI, nor are there any forthcoming releases on order. There will be no more Anime Updates as they have existed in the past, nor will additions be made to the Anime Calendar of forthcoming releases. And, as you will have probably noticed by now, this last Anime Update comes as a text-only email message; there is no corresponding web-based version of it, nor are the products here going to be added to the Anime Store database on the web. We will be processing all preorders as usual for the late October releases over the next few days. To order product from this Update, simply cut and paste your choices into an email message and direct it to anime@uci.edu. The online Anime Store will continue to function for the products that were in inventory as of mid- October--you will be able to order those things the same way you have in the past, and those orders will be attended to. Let me just say in conclusion that the past 5 years here have been a gas--what we have all created together is something I will continue to treasure always. Doomo arigatou gozaimashita, minna-san! --Mike Kiley ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4.) Anime Conventions 1999 Schedule + Animazement will see the return of Japanese guests of honor Rurika Fuyuki and Nov. Takahashi, along with the scheduled first appearance of Yukako Midori. American guests are scheduled to include voice actors Michael Brady, Juliet Cesario, Scott Simpson, Dave Underwood and Pamela Weidner, voice director Scott Houle and artist Fred Perry. + AnimeIowa has confirmed its dates for Sept. 3-5, 1999 and its location at the Collins Plaza Hotel at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. + Katsucon has announced that Haruhiko Mikimoto, character designer and artist, will be a guest of honor. + Nan Desu Con has announced that Ippongi Bang, Mio Odagi and Reijiro Kato of Studio Do-Do will be among their guests of honor. So, the 1999 anime con schedule looks like this so far: Feb. 12-14, 1999 - Katsucon, Arlington, Va. Feb. 19-21, 1999 - Anime '99, Rotterdam, Netherlands March 19-21, 1999 - Animazement, Raleigh, N.C. March 19-21, 1999 - Fanime Con, San Jose, Calif. April 23-25, 1999 - Anime Central, Rosemont, Ill. April 23-25, 1999 - Baka!-Con, Tukwila, Wash. June 4-6, 1999 - Project A-Kon, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas June 19-20, 1999 - JAFAX (Grand Rapids, Mich.?) Summer 1999 - Otakon, location pending July 16-18, 1999 - Anime Expo, Anaheim, Calif. Aug. 13-15, 1999 - San Diego Comic Con Int'l. Aug. 27-29, 1999 - Canadian National Anime Expo, Toronto, Ont. Aug. 28-30, 1999 - Shinnenkai, London, U.K. August/September 1999 - C-Kon, Indianapolis Sept. 3-5, 1999 - AnimeIowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sept. 24-26, 1999 - Nan Desu Kon, Lakewood, Colo. Oct. 8-10, 1999 - Anime Weekend Atlanta, Duluth., Ga. Oct. 15-17, 1999 - Robocon, Orange, Calif. Nov. 5-7, 1999 - Neko-Con, Virginia Beach, Va. http://www.fansview.com ~Source: Kevin Lillard, 76217,1160 member of Compuserve's Anime/Manga Forum. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5.) Anime Tidbits +++ US DBZ episode renamed +++ OK, this is just bizarre. On Monday, the Cartoon Network aired the "DragonBall Z" episode titled "The Relentless Recoome", wherein Vegita, Kurillin and Gohan each get the stuffing knocked out of them by Ginyu Force member Recoome. The bizarre thing is that that _isn't_ the title they used. They called it "No Refuge From Recoome". I still have the syndicated episode on tape and checked it to be absolutely sure and it _was_ called "The Relentless Recoome". Both titles even had an image of Recoome fading in and out, with his eyes where the "o"s in "Recoome" are. Same episode. Different titles. What's the point of changing the title? I don't get it. --- James Jackson, 73537,3323 + ++ Totoro reference in the currently syndicated Pokemon. An in-joke, most likely. Snorlax is a sleeping pokemon in the game and anime. He sleeps all the time unless you use a special flute to wake him up. and he really does look like a Totoro! - Geoffrey Wertime +++ Kondo Katsuya, the character designer of Kiki's Delivery Service, is the main art staff of the PlayStation game Tamamayu Monogatari. Actually, Ghibli itself (or rather, other animators of Ghibli) are also involved in the animation of the game, although it is more like a "part-time job" and I'm not sure whether Ghibli's name is in the credit list or not. --- FUKUMOTO Atsushi (fukumoto@imasy.or.jp) +++ The Kimagure Orange Road TV Series Project Status +++ Current Status (11/12/98):The first half of the box set is in production. The tapes are being duplicated and packaged now, and we expect delivery Thanksgiving week. We will not eat turkey until they are all shipped out to you. The duplicator has been warned that if they do anything stupid like wind the tapes into the cassettes backwards, we will burn them to the ground (Us, paranoid? Naah!). We expect the LDs to arrive 2-3 weeks after that; when we know they are "on the boat" we will post an update. Because this project has taken longer than expected, it's clear that we won't be able to get the second half out before the end of the year. Gomen, neh. We are hard at work on the subtitling of the second half right now, of course. When we get a better idea of the time-frame, we'll post an update. Because of the delay, those of you who chose the 4-payment plan (known around the office as the "Make a lot of extra work for Becky" plan) will not be charged the third payment until we are ready to go to studio and master the second half of the set. The final payment for the 2- and 4-payment plan people will not be charged until the second half of the set is mastered, verified and in production. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6.) Video Game News +++ Capcom's Christmas Scare Tactics +++ Capcom is gearing up to scare television viewers with a new advertising campaign for its Resident Evil Director's Cut and Resident Evil 2 titles this Holiday Season. Commencing on November 16th, Capcom's Holiday advertising campaign for Resident Evil Director's Cut and Resident Evil 2 will run through to December 17th. The advertising campaign will include two 15 second adverts that will air back-to-back featuring a slightly twisted holiday theme in an attempt to grab viewers attention and create impact. The adverts are said to include live zombies from the game appearing in traditional holiday settings. The commercial will target an 18- to 34- year-old male audience. "Resident Evil has captured the imagination of millions of fans all around the world," explained Todd Thorson, senior product marketing manager at Capcom. "The commercial was created to grab the attention of new PlayStation owners that don't already own the game and highlight the new release at a lower price and the addition of dual shock support." Expect to be scared silly on national and cable television including MTV, Comedy Central, the Sci- Fi Channel, Turner Entertainment, and USA network. ~ Courtesy Next Generation Online --- SYSOP*Joe Talladira, 104074,3641 +++ Virtual Pet + RPG = Guardian Legends +++ Activision's Guardian Legends adds the concept of a virtual pet to the RPG genre. Players become a knight who must reunite a baby monster with its mother. The monster's abilities grow and change based on the knight's relationship with it. Guardian Legends features 3D polygon graphics and dozens of monsters, spells, and weapons. Cinematic cutscenes feature classic Japanese style anime. Players are also equipped with "living toys" that can be used to attack their enemies. For example, the Voodoo Doll slowly dismantles enemies one body part at a time. Even more intriguing is the Freud Toy. Does this toy cause your enemies to have the hots for their Mom and resent their Father? No-but it does cause them to go nighty-night under a hypnotic spell. Unique features like this make Guardian Legends a game to watch. ~ Courtesy Game Informer --- SYSOP*Ken Gagne, 75162,3001 +++ Famitsu Gives Zelda a Perfect Score +++ TOKYO - 10, 10, 10, 10. 40 out of 40. That's the score Famitsu's reviewers gave Nintendo's latest, Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. This is the highest score the magazine has ever given to a game and the very first time this has happened since Famitsu started its current review system. Famitsu - the weekly bible among video game fans in Japan - was first established back in June 1986. After several months, Famitsu started its now-famous review system - four reviewers, zero-to- ten ranking system - in the magazine's tenth issue. The very first game reviewed was Akumajou Dracula/Castlevania for the Famicom Disk System. They gave it 8, 8, 9, 9. Since then, literally thousands of games have been reviewed - some of them were good while others were not (just like any review system). But up until today, no game had ever earned a perfect 40 points. Seven years ago, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Super Famicom (called the Super Nintendo in the US) earned a 9, 10, 10, 10. And that was the record. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the game Famitsu judged the best video game of all time, will be released on November 21 in Japan. That's just eight days from now, and it's just seven years from when the Super Famicom version of Zelda was first released. ~ By Yutaka Ohbuchi, videogames.com --- SYSOP*Ken Gagne, 75162,3001 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 7.) The 50 best Game Boy Games Videogames.com Presents: The 50 best Game Boy Games by Cameron Davis Some people say that the Game Boy is just like your old Aunt Ethel - it just refuses to go away and die (but these people should be pitied because the Game Boy is the coolest thing ever made!). Now that the Game Boy Color is in town, it's a good chance to go digging through the thousands of old games in your local software store, and we've given you a shopping list of the best ones you can still get (as well as some to put on your shopping list). So what does a Game Boy game have to have to make the grade here? For one thing, being able to block out the world and play a tiny version of your favorite game anytime, anywhere is a definite plus. That's what makes portable gaming so cool, after all. The tiny low-res screen and tiny speaker don't exactly make for kick-ass results in the audiovisual department, but it is able to impress. However, at the end of the day it's great gameplay that matters the most, and every one of these games is worth playing. This isn't meant to be a completely comprehensive list of the best games you can get your hands on for the machine. A lot of high-quality titles were left on the cutting-room floor - most typically sequels to games already listed here or related titles. There's a lot of gold out there - this is just a good starting point. Enjoy! (Note: We've structured this feature by the best per genre instead of a straight top fifty countdown, but you can find the top ten best games marked as such hidden inside.) I'd like to thank Peter Bartholow, Kent Keltner, Jeremy Conrad, and Ravi Hiranand for their invaluable assistance. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Racing Games 1.) F1 Race 2.) V-Rally Championship Edition (Import) 3.) Super RC Pro Am 4.) Micro Machines 5.) World Circuit Series The Best Platform Games 6.) Super Mario Land (series) 7.) Donkey Kong 8.) Kirby's Dreamland 2 9.) Donkey Kong Land (series) 10.) Mega Man (series) The Best Role-Playing Games 11.) Final Fantasy (series) 12.) Alien 3 13.) James Bond 007 14.) Wizardry 15.) Ultima: Runes Of Virtue (series) The Best Fighting Games 16.) Double Dragon 17.) King Of Fighters '96 18.) Samurai Shodown 19.) Killer Instinct 20.) Street Fighter II The Best Sports Games 21.) Golf 22.) Baseball 23.) Tennis 24.) Track And Field 25.) Sensible Soccer The Best Puzzle Games 26.) Mario's Picross 27.) Puyo Puyo 28.) Wild Snake 29.) Tetris Attack 30.) Shanghai The Best Shoot-Em-Ups 31.) Nemesis 32.) Contra (series) 33.) R-Type 34.) Bomberman GB 35.) Defender The Best... Other 36.) Tamagotchi 37.) French Translator 38.) Game And Watch Gallery 39.) Kirby's Pinball Land 40.) Worms Classic Essentials 41.) Wario Land 2/Wario Land 2 DX 42.) Pokemon 43.) Tetris/Tetris DX 44.) Legend Of Zelda/Legend Of Zelda DX 45.) Metroid II Future Game Boy Color Games 46.) San Francisco Rush 47.) The Smurfs Nightmare 48.) Rampage 49.) NFL Blitz 50.) Mortal Kombat 4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So there you have it - the Game Boy's past, present, and future, all wrapped up in a neat and tidy package. Now you're ready to explore the world of Game Boy! ~ Courtesy Videogames.com --- SYSOP*Joe Talladira, 104074,3641 +++ If you would like the un-cut document, please e-mail me at ablarnold@csi.com, please include in the subject line "WSE: 50 GB Games". ------------------------------------------------------------------ 8.) Anime Relationship Cliches: Extra Excerpt from the monthly magazine column 'ASK TAKASHI' By Takashi Harada, as it appears in CHIBI POP MANGA Vol.1 #2. "What is dating like in Japan? In Japan, karaoke is really popular and we always use the karaoke box (karaoke bar) in the first course of a date. We can do anything in this room! All of the karaoke rooms are really dark and you don't have to worry about other people! And as for the soundproofing, your voice in the room can not be heard! Most couples use the room for singing, eating and drinking but most couples use the room for sex! It's really cheap compared to a motel (we call it a "Love hotel"). And I have heard of so many young people using karaoke boxes just for enjoying sex. A normal couple only sing and drink, then it's up to the couple what to do next. Some go to game centers (arcades) and play games. For couples, "UFO Catcher" is popular. Also we like to go to movies. We don't watch Japanese movies for dating but see Hollywood movies instead. Just driving or going to clubs is also popular. In general, dating life in Japan is the same as in America. But we use the "karaoke box" on a date which is different from the American dating custom." If you haven't' ever picked up a copy of this great new Manga Anthology, you are really missing out. CHIBI POP MANGA features both serialized manga stories and complete manga stories in each issue. What sets CPM apart from Animerica: Extra and Mixx-Zine is that CPM showcases manga you definitely haven't' ever heard of. These unknown manga titles represent just how artist have to break into the industry in hopes they become popular. CHIBI POP MANGA is published monthly for $3.95, be sure to check ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9.) Omega's Word Search #1 *+*+*+* DIRECTIONS: For proper viewing of Word Search on all computers. Please COPY & PASTE this section to 'Windows Notepad' for proper proportions. Or select this "Omega's Word Search" area and change the font to 'Courier New'. The puzzle should now be a square. *+*+*+* Neon Genesis Evangelion Word Search E K U S N E K A K O U Z O U L L V M P A N O N I J A K M A I E C A E D V B E R S E R K N L E D Z N P E P S I D M I B M I S E F P G Z P I T I A T I P T B A V E R E I O S E D S C A H E T D N N O L N U T A N G E L E H A T O U J I K T O L E A N R E B I R T H P O K A N E D A R B C H R O S H I N E R V P G Z L A S O N H M A C R O S S A N O A K A T I U Y H I K A R I U O D N E G N G U N D A M W N Q D V V B O J K U N A S U K A H I D E A K I A N N O A I R X ~~~ WORDS TO FIND ~~~ Evangelion ………….. Shinji Rei ………………….. Asuka Misato ……………... Ritsuko Gendou ………...… Kensuke Touji ……………………. Kaji Hikari ………………. Kouzou Yui ………………… Pen Pen NERV ………………. SEELE Angel …………………… Eva Adam ………………...... Lilith Air …………………... Berserk Death ………………... Rebirth Beer …………………… Blood ADV ………………… GAINAX Hideaki Anno Created by Adam "OMEGA" Arnold Next Week: Sailor Moon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10.) Mailing List Technical Info ~ Back Issues can now be found at Omega's Vanishing Point, the original home of this E-Zine: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ablarnold/wsemain.html ~ You can set which Version(s) of WSE you wish to receive. A.) Anime/Video Games (weekly), B.) Sci-Fi/Comic Books (monthly), C.) BOTH Versions of WSE, or D.) Unsubscribe completely. ~ To subscribe a friend send e-mail to ablarnold@csi.com, with the subject of _Subscribe WSE_ . ~ To unsubscribe send an unsub e-mail to ablarnold@csi.com, with the subject of _Unsubscribe WSE_ . Current plans are for Digested Digest II #1 (Sci-Fi/Comic Books) to be released next week. Adam “OMEGA” Arnold ablarnold@csi.com ; ICQ #7737442 http://welcome.to/vanishing.point/ Omega's Vanishing Point - One Year Anniversary: December 6, 1998.