Ms. Answerman

and the Prisoner of Anime Questions

No rant to scroll past this week. Enjoy!

Dear AnswerMan,
First of all, I have to say I am truly sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm not willing to look at the dozens of columns already written (Sorry, not that dedicated ^_^;;). Anyway, my question:
What determines whether a manga is flipped or not? Is it a decision with the publisher (such as TokyoPop, Viz, etc.) or the author?
Thank you,
Tai

Back in the day, manga was flipped so that you could read it from left to right. There were exceptions to the rule (Blade of the Immortal's pages were cut to read from left to right per the mangaka's wishes), but even then it was thought that people preferred this format to the original.
Nowadays, however, almost all manga and manwa are kept in their original format. This might be the source of your confusion, since manwa's original format is from left to right while manga is right to left. If you see a series that reads like a book in America, check out the author's name and it'll most likely be a Korean name.

Dear Ms. Answerman,
I have been curious for a while now if Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu, Deluxe, and Final are going to ever be released in the US. I know that the series is not exactly brand new (except for Final), but with Kodomo no Omocha being recently licensed I had hoped there might be some chance. I would settle for the manga if nothing else, so can you fish me up any information?
Thanks,
Brandon

A while ago it was rumored that AN Entertainment had the rights to Guu, due to the fact that they owned jungleguu.com, but the rumors were officially denied last year. It's unlikely that Deluxe or Final will be licensed without the original already over here, so you're out of luck as far as the anime goes. With the boom in manga licensing, it might have a chance in paperback, but otherwise I wouldn't hold your breath.

Hello
I have followed Sakura Tange's work for a while, but i have never been able to email her. Can you tell me if she has an address via which I can contact her?
Thank you for your attention.
Luke Cripps

This is just one of the many “can I have X's email address” questions that fill up my mail box on a daily basis. Most mangaka, studios, directors, etc have email addresses for work related reasons. Sometimes they'll put these addresses on their personal or professional web pages for anyone to find and use. Mangaka will oftentimes include their addresses in certain volumes of their series, which are oftentimes translated and printed in the volumes released over here. These addresses might be old or no longer used, but you can always try emailing them with them.
When it comes to finding the email addresses, however, you need to do this yourself. While there isn't much of a difference between “find this address for me” and “find this release date for me”, you still have to compose a letter to said person in Japanese. Unless you're fluent, it's going to take you some time to compose a somewhat coherent letter. If you cannot take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to look for an address yourself, you probably won't take the time necessary for coherency and instead send them something in English or, heaven forbid, use an online translator.

Hey answerman,
Do you know when "Beyond the Clouds, The Promised Place", is to be released?
-JB

It's a little early to be asking about release dates considering the fact that it hasn't even been licensed yet. ADV might pick this title up, considering that they released Makoto Shinkai's Voices of a Distant Star two years ago, but your guess is as good as mine as to when, if ever, it'll make it over here.

1. Will ADV Films ever release the Di Gi Charat anime (Not panyo panyo)?
2.Who composed the music for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters?
3.Which are cuter dogs,cats, or hamsters?

1. Synch-Point announced at Anime Boston that they had the rights to the original Di Gi Charat series, while Bandai announced at the same convention that they would be releasing Di Gi Charat Nyo.
2. There's a huge list of people for this: Brian Banks, Gil Talmi, Joel Douek, John Angler, John Peterson, Louis Cortelezzi, Mark Breeding, Ralph Schuckett, Steve Shapiro, and Wayne Sharpe. Quite a group of people!
3. This one I'm leaving to our special guest, Answercat Jr.!