Old news
From October 2002. Standard things and Manga announces why End of Eva discs messed up and what to do about it.
10/31/02 I put up a review for the 2 episode show Sorcerer on the Rocks in Other Reviews. I also added a Pen Thought to the Pen Penny and moved an old one to Previous Pennys. Also, Manga explained more about the End of Evangelion messed up discs. Apparently out of the 70,000 made about 5,000 had part of it off-center leading from skipping to inability to view half of it. They recommend an in-store exchange if you got it at a store because it is unlikely the other copy you get will be defective. They also stated again, that if you return it to Manga (if your order was online or something) then you will receive Virus vol 1 DVD as compensation for shipping charges.
10/30/02 I put a review up for the first volume of Burn Up Excess in Other Reviews.
10/29/02 I added a Pen Thought to the Pen Penny section. As always, I moved one to Previous Pennys.
10/28/02 I changed the link to the Xenogears forum in Links so it takes you it's new home.
10/27/02 Well, the Xenogears forum is back up, all the topics (at least in anime and manga) have been reposted with the original post and it shows who originally posted it. Unfortunately, all corresponding posts on the topics are gone. I have once again registered as Pen Pen.
10/26/02 The Xenogears forum which has been down and still is has at least been updated. They are moving and everyone will have to reregister.
10/25/02 I added a review of the second volume of Hellsing to Other Reviews.
10/23/02 Well, Cartoon Network is extending it's Adult Swim to air programming from 11 pm to 1 am (ET, PT) Sunday through Thursday starting in January. It will have the premier of Futurama on the network and will air the anime series Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha as well.
10/20/02 First off, I added a review of the first volume of Blue Submarine No. 6, it is an older release, to Other Reviews. I also added a new Pen Thought to the Pen Penny section. It is sort of like an unfunny follow up. In conjunction, I moved an old one to Previous Pennys.
10/19/02 An announcement to make. Apparently, Darkscribes.org is going to bring back and host neongenesisevangelion.com, a good reference site that died. The old administrator will be back and you will be able to view it at evacom.darkscribes.org. It is currently just a shell but updates are sure to come. Also, because I feel like mentioning it, I recieved RightStuf's very large catalog. It's at least 200 pages and coverwise is the size of a magazine. The setup is a little strange with the printing not like a normal magazine and it has photos of different anime many pages away from where it is located. It says it cost $4, but I never paid for it, plus it has several coupons in it as well.
10/18/02 Today I added a review of the first volume of X. It's the series not the movie, it's supposed to follow the manga a lot closer and will include more of the sidestories. Check it out if you want in, Other Reviews.
10/17/02 Well, Manga has finally made an announcement about the defective End of Evangelion DVDs. It is as follows:
Dear Manga customers,
Over the past 2 weeks we have received some e-mails in regard to our latest DVD release, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION "The End of Evangelion." There have been isolated reports of the disc not performing well on certain DVD players. We have spent a great deal of time investigating these reported technical issues with some of the country's leading DVD authoring, replication and QC facilities.
As a standard procedure with all Manga DVDs, the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION "The End of Evangelion" DVD was tested on over 50 different brand DVD players at a leading professional DVD lab and passed all performance and functionality tests before it was released. Through our new research we have found that the product for sale in the marketplace meets all performance, quality and playback standards.
If you have experienced difficulties playing your disc, we recommend the following:
1.If you have purchased a possible problematic disc, please return it to your store for an exchange. It is highly likely that the replacement disc will perform correctly.
2.If this procedure does not work for you, please send us your disc including the packaging to:
Manga Entertainment
Evangelion DVD
P.O. Box 482
Lincolnshire, Il 60069-0482
After our manufacturer tests and confirms your returned disc to be problematic, we will send you a replacement disc (allow 2 weeks delivery.) If your returned disc tests not to be problematic, it will be returned to you as is.
In recognition of any confirmed problematic DVD and to cover the inconvenience of shipping costs and delay to you, we will also send you a courtesy advance DVD of our upcoming November release Virus, from acclaimed anime director Masami Obari (Fatal Fury-The Motion Picture). This offer is valid only through November 26, 2002.
We have also been receiving many e-mails in appreciation of the excellent quality and production of the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION DVDs and we thank you for your feedback and support.
Isolated DVD performance and functionality issues are industry wide due to the nature of DVD technology, players and replication. Manga Entertainment takes pride and has given every effort to bring you the highest quality DVD productions on both of our NEON GENESIS EVANGELION DVD releases.
10/16/02 Animenation is having an overstock sale in their "Red-hot deals" section. There are many items at lower prices including the Groundwork of Evangelion Movie volume 1 and volume 2. Snatch them up, they are normally about $50 but are on sale for $35. Oh, also, I'm not affiliated with them, I just posted it because I figured it would interest some of you. I'm not getting paid for this :(
10/14/02 Not a real update just posting that the live-action Akira is now in the early process of scripting by Warner Bros. Also, fanfiction.net is back up and the Xenogears forum appears to be down at the moment.
10/13/02 First off, I added a review of Bio Hunter: Special Edition, even though I don't know of a regular edition to Other Reviews. I also added a Pen Thought to the Pen Penny section. It is the first one of the month, sorry about that. In conjunction, I moved a Pen Thought to Previous Pennys. That's all for today, later.
10/12/02 I added a review of Ruin Explorers to Other Reviews. Fanfiction.net went down yesterday for a scheduled six hour rennovation but is still down at this time. Also something upset me, flipping through a free movie channel I'm getting this weekend I saw Metropolis. I figured it'd be the dub with the screwed up voices that I hated but... the voices didn't sound like I remembered. I don't know if they changed it to air, or if the DVD I rented was screwed up. I was rather surprised, before I changed the channel, because I don't really like that movie. However it still upset me.
10/11/02 I moved the rest of September updates to Old News and after forgetting for some time put up a small comment about August.
10/8/02 After the recent release of End of Eva, many Evangelion sites are going to "auto-pilot" mode and will therefore stop significant updates. They say, as is likely, that popularity will drift away with time. I am here to say that this site has no intentions whatsoever to change into an "auto-pilot" mode. After all, that would make all the time I've spent pretty much a waste. After the summary for End of Eva is complete I will finally turn attention to analysis, and will accept some from outside people if they send them to me and I like them (looks at Kenji). It would not require that I agree with the opinion, because I would like to offer a variety of thoughts... whenever I get to the section. I will also say I am working on a fan fic, and although it will probably suck I can finally have another author other than Kenji in the fan fic section (no offense to Kenji, I enjoy his works, it just seems sad to have one author in a whole section). As time passes and these are completed the focus will gradually include other anime and expand, but that is a ways off. Plus, Eva will remain the focus over other anime. Also, I will continue to update the Other Reviews and Pen Penny sections. This is a rather long update and I laugh at all who thought that at the end there would be worthwhile content along with it. Later on I might add a condensed version of this update just above ‘Recent.’
10/5/02 Truly a rarity, two updates on the same day. This is the first time I've done it in quite awhile. Anyway I was sent more fan art by j so I put it up. Check them out in the (big surprise) Fan Art section.
10/5/02 Today I put up the review for Dragon Half, added volume 3 to the review of Real Bout High School, and added some additional info about Sakura Diaries provided by Kenji in the Other Reviews section. I also added the e-mail address to the creator of the newest fan art.
10/4/02 Someone sent me a piece of fan art so I put it up. Check it out in Fan Art.
10/3/02 Today I put up a review of the first volume of Sakura Diaries in Other Reviews. I wouldn't have rented it but there wasn't any anime in that I hadn't seen.
10/1/02 Manga has apparently listened to the problems with the End of Eva DVD and is altering it for the Austrailian release. There is no indication of what will happen with the Region 1 discs. My DVD player that I generally use would not play the last ten or so minutes, but I have a second one that did making me somewhat lucky. Also, I put up the End of Evangelion DVD review. I also edited the Death and Rebirth DVD review a little bit, and linked the two. They can also be accessed through the Movies section. The End of Eva summary isn't up yet. I also moved some of the September updates to Old News.