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Hey, Answerman!

by Zac Bertschy,

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Last week I didn't have any time for monkey business, and this week I have less than half the time I had last week for monkey business, so we better get to work.


Recently I have heard a lot of internet rumours claiming Jiraiya's voice would be done by Christopher Walken in the Naruto english dub. Can you confirm or deny these rumours?

As hilarious and awesome as that would be, keep in mind that the internet is full of lies and never tells you the truth about anything (except this column, which is never wrong. Okay, sometimes we're wrong, but we don't just make stuff up, like the rest of the internet). I highly doubt Christopher Walken would bother with union scale pay to do anime voice-over work. Heck, the only "celebrity" (and I use that term loosely here) attached to the project was Tony Danza as the voice of Orochimaru. A whole slew of bogus cast members (including Matt Damon) came out a few months ago, but the Tony Danza one somehow stayed on IMDB for a while, making some people believe it to be true. Finally even that questionable bit of information was recently removed from IMDB.
Unless it's a Disney dub, most anime companies won't - and in most cases can't - pay what even C-list celebrities command for voice work. Furthermore, anime isn't exactly high-profile work. Most celebrities wouldn't really want their names on it, unless it's a Miyazaki flick. That's not to say anime is low-class, but let's not kid ourselves; in American culture it doesn't really get a lot of respect.
I wouldn't expect any real celebrity talent to be doing voice work on Naruto.


I am writing to you from a bookstore in Montreal.One of my clients is looking to order the original Yu-Gi-Oh books.  On the Viz website, they seem to go up to number 7 in book format.  She insists that they are available up to number 32, because of this list on your website:
    #01. The Millennium Puzzle
    #02. The Cards with Teeth
    #03. Capsule Monster Chess
    #04. Kaiba's Revenge
    #05. The Heart of the Cards
    #06. Monster Fight!
    #07. Monster World
    #08. Duelist Kingdom
    #09. The Puppet Master
    #10. The Player Killer Of Darkness
    #11. Dungeon Of Doom
    #12. The Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon
    #13. The Man from Egypt (Part 1)
    #14. The Man from Egypt (Part 2)
    #15. The Soul Fight
    #16. D-D-D!
    #17. The Lost Cards
    #18. The Millennium Battle
    #19. Magic Battle
    #20. The pressuring God
    #21. True Unity
    #22. Another's Decision
    #23. Attacked fro friendship
    #24. One-Turn-Kill
    #25. The undefeatable Duelist
    #26. The One chosen by the Gods
    #27. The sun rises for the finals
    #28. Seeing the light of the future
    #31. The Sun Dragon Ra
    #32. The World Of Memory

Are these books that I can order?  I can't find any ISBN numbers or listings for them anywhere else.

Here's the thing: our amazing encyclopedia lists the titles of the Japanese release. Viz Media is currently publishing Yu-Gi-Oh in Shonen Jump, and it's come out under three different titles: Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist, and Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World. They're all the same manga, Viz is just releasing them with catchy subtitles. The original release, Yu-Gi-Oh, "ends" at volume seven, and then Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist picks up right afterward. Technically, Duelist vol. 1 is just Yu-Gi-Oh vol. 8. Get it? Search under those titles and you'll see what I mean.

It's kinda weird that they decided to arbitrarily add subtitles to the manga, but who knows what madness lurks in Viz's marketing department?


we all want to know when Howl's Moving Castle is coming out on DVD. We saw it in theaters this summer and fell in love with it!! Can you please help us out???

The Howl's Moving Castle DVD has yet to receive a release date, actually. Which is kinda strange given that the film bowed in theaters back in June, and the average DVD release window these days is about 3 or 4 months. I can't help but wonder if this will hurt the film's Oscar chances, given how short the memory of Academy voters is. Films with high Oscar hopes like Crash and Cinderella Man are both already on DVD for that exact purpose; I wonder what's holding Disney back. Especially since their own film, Chicken Little, has zero chance of winning the Best Animated Feature award.


What do you think the chances of the Nana movie being released in the US are?  I don't really look at sales and popularity figures for manga (or anime) series so I'm not sure how popular the manga is in Shojo Beat.

Well, Viz has been known to release the occasional live-action Japanese flick from time to time, and the film was huge in Japan, so I wouldn't doubt that it'll eventually see release on DVD here before too long. Nana is Shojo Beat's top property; it's the one they're expecting to break out, so I'm sure Viz Media will do whatever they can to promote it, including releasing that movie.


I can't explain why, but I love artboxes. A lot.  With the current wave of anime, practically everything series-wise gets one.  So I have a few basic artbox questions you may have already answered or get all to often. If this is the case, sorry.

1) Did X have an artbox? I've seen it in online auctions, one that houses all eight original releases (the ones with their own respective slipcases)
but can't find evidence of one domestically available for purchase.  Even at animenewsnetwork.com I don't find proof of one's existence.

2) Is there news of a Cowboy Bebop remix or Planetes artbox yet? I know it seems lame, but I'd prefer to have one.  It would be quite a drag if they pulled an ADV (Excel Saga) and put out an artbox for the complete series after many fans had already collected it.

3) What caused the trend artboxes?

I'll answer these in order:

1. Yes, there was an X artbox. It came with volume one and as far as I know was never reissued. I had one myself, before I sold the sucker off. It isn't widely available anymore, but if you scour Ebay long enough I'm sure one will turn up (just be careful not to buy any bootlegs, which Ebay is awash in). You might even still find it in some stores; check out mall media outlets like FYE, Media Play or Suncoast, places where anime boxes don't move as fast as they do at, say, Best Buy, and you may even find a dust-covered one hiding out in the rear shelves somewhere. I know I've seen a few of 'em around lately.

2. Generally Bandai releases boxsets at the end of the series rather than the beginning. If there's a box coming for either of those, it'll be issued at the end, a'la Ghost in the Shell. I'd bet on a Bebop box, that's a no-brainer.

3. It's a marketing tool designed to get people to buy the first volume since it comes with a cool tchotchke that has the bonus feature of encouraging them to buy the remaining volumes and fill the box up.


No flake this week, just a kitten.

He's like, "sup".



Kaliedo Star had you people writing in droves. For serious. Although after a while I just stopped reading the Star Wars jokes, but we did get two funny ones.
That said, today's winning caption is courtesy of Dexter Shumaker :

 

And the runners-up:

Pink: "This is the last time we play Truth or Dare while we're drunk."
Blond: "The 'running through the street naked' option is looking pretty good right about now."
- "chrnogirl"

"George Lucas's recent mucking about with the lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in "Episode IV: A New Hope" left people muttering."- Michael Russell

- Traypaniel Teagle II

Funny stuff, folks. Keep it up! Here's this week's screenshot:

Didn't win this time? Need the sweet nectar of victory to wash the bitter taste of defeat from your mouth? Then it's your job to come up with the funniest caption possible. It could be dialogue, or a line or two explaining what's happening, or anything you like; it just has to make me laugh! A few words of warning:

1. Keep it clean. I won't tolerate any profanity beyond "damn" or "hell". Unless it's ridiculously funny and kinda subtle, refrain from potty humor or overt sexual references.
2. Humor that's only funny if you've seen the show the screencap is from is inherently not funny. The joke should be something anyone looking at the picture can understand.
3. The deadline for that week's contest is always Wednesday at midnight. Winners will be announced in this space every week, and they'll also be notified by email.
4. Winners will recieve their prizes anywhere from 4-6 weeks after they're announced.

5. Entrants outside the US and Canada are inelligible, unless you have a US or Canadian address I can mail the prize to.

This week's prize? Thar she blows:

That's right ! It's Viz Media's Saikano box set! 13 episodes of hyper-depressing, wrist-slittin' emo fun! It's on shelves now, but it can be yours for FREE if you're funny enough. Email your captions to [email protected].

See you next week!