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Answerman
Kamikaze

Let's get busy, shall we?




Dear Zac,

How are you? I am trying to obtain the TV episodes of ZZ Gundam on
DVDs but I am not sure which version to get. It seems there are
different "sets" when I look for ZZ Gundam DVD on ebay. Can you tell
me the differences and which version you would recommend? Thanks!

Ricky
Hercules, CA.

I wouldn't recommend any of them because any DVD box set of ZZ Gundam you'd find on Ebay would be a bootleg. Usually the picture quality is pretty awful and the subtitles make very little sense because people for whom neither English nor Japanese is a first language translate them. Sometimes they're selling fansubs, which is really reprehensible because they're effectively making a lot of money off of someone else's hard work. So, if I were you, I'd wait until Bandai releases ZZ Gundam here in the states. Shouldn't take too long.




Hey Oh wise Answerman Glad to see you answering questions again we missed
your vital knowledge on anime anyway with the question

I have recently gotten into the Saber Marionette's series and own the first
dvd of the J to X season I am wondering I have heard from a friend I have in
Japan that over there when it ran it had a 26th bonus episode will the
American licensing company include this episode in the American release or
will it be something only those who live in Japan will be privilege to see
and us left out please tell me what you know

Thanks

Again Glad to see you back

You know, I've been asked this question a thousand times, so I may as well answer it. As far as I know, Bandai has every intention of releasing that final episode. I remember hearing exactly what the content of that 26th episode was a while back by someone I knew who was fansubbing it at the time, but I've forgotten. It's taken Bandai a long while to release J to X, and I know a lot of fans have been waiting a long time for it; I don't think they'd stiff their paying customers by turning out an incomplete release.




Dear answerman,

Searching on the web, I found advertisement for Akira OVA special (2 DVD
set) movie (in japanese) that is about 420 minutes long. The only Akira
that I am aware is the 124 minutes version that was release in theaters and
on DVDs and VHS.

Was there ever an ova series of Akira? Is this an error or is it the
special edition in japanese which as disc one (movie itself) and disc two
(Director's interview, production notes, trailers, etc...)

I am at a lost and the company that is advertising it, can't seem to be able
to give me an answer.

That would be for the Japanese special edition DVD. Akira was only animated once. I'm not sure where you found the advertisement but it was probably some kind of scam designed to rip off fanboys who don't know any better (And there are a lot of them out there).




hey answerman,

I'm a big tenchi fan, and have all episodes in the series,and movies, even the Pretty Sammy spin-off. My question is this, while I wait for the new tenchi series to come to the u.s. (whenever that may be) could you recommend a few series that had the same concept and feel of the tenchi muyo series and rate them. thank you very much.

There are so many series out there that copy the Tenchi formula, I could never list them all. I'll give you a few, though, and you can go from there. Firstly, start with El Hazard. Same character designer, same basic concept, turned backwards. In Tenchi, you had an inept boy surrounded by mysterious women from strange worlds who all want to sleep with him at one point or another. Hilarity ensued. In El Hazard, an inept boy finds himself in a strange world with many mysterious beautiful women around him who all want to sleep with him at one point or another. Hilarity ensues. Mammotte Shugogetten is another Tenchi-like series, with an inept boy surrounded by mysterious beautiful women who all want to sleep with him at one point or another. Hilarity ensues. You can also try Love Hina, which features an inept boy surrounded by not-so-mysterious but certainly beautiful women who all want to sleep with him at one point or another. This is a pretty popular formula in Japan (So much so that many of us are sick to death of it and will personally burn every copy of the Tenchi Muyo DVD set if another damn series with an inept boy surrounded by beautiful women who all want to sleep with him is released..) so you can basically walk in to a Suncoast, pick something at random, and you'll have a 50 percent chance of it being a Tenchi Muyo ripoff.




Hi, I wanted to pre-order a Kare Kano DVD, and I was looking at the Right Stuf website where it said it also comes with an art box. On Amazon I also saw the same DVD but it comes with a series box. Is there a difference between these, and what are they? Are they something like a box to hold all the DVDs of the series, or is it just a box with pictures on it? Thanks for the help Answerman.

They're the same thing, just with different names. The box is designed to hold the DVDs for the entire series. Basically it's like saying "Yeah, I'll be buying the entire series on DVD, so I'll invest in this box ahead of time." A few other series have been released like that; Love Hina, Hellsing, and some others. It's a pretty good move, marketing wise, since you have a substantial portion of the anime-buying populace that's essentially guaranteed to buy the entire series on DVD.

That's it for now.



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