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Sakura-con
ADV Films

by Kyle Pope,
The ADV panel was hosted by David Williams and Matt Greenfield, founders of ADV Films. As you might imagine the room took on an atmosphere closer to a comedy club than an industry panel. For SakuraCon they had two new title announcements. The first was "Puchi Puri * Yūshi" which will be titled "Petite Princess Yuushi". The other title is "Parasite Dolls", a title set in the Bubblegum Crisis universe.

ADV also confirmed a few announcements that leaked out before they were ready. First was some additional information on the Evangelion Platinum Edition. The Eva Platinum Edition contains most of what is in the Evangelion Renewal Edition except for the two movies and the two episodes composed from the movies thus preventing ADV from calling their release "Renewal". The platinum set will have remastered video, 5.1 Japanese audio, 5.1 English audio, animatics (animated storyboards set to the dialogue track) of seven episodes. The platinum release will consist of seven DVDs in order to accommodate the extras ADV is including in the release. The first disc is scheduled for a July release.

Next is ADV's Ani-Minis. Ani-Minis are three inch DVDs containing a single episode of ADV's various titles. They are not really intended for the anime fan but for those casual viewers who might be interested in anime but don't want to commit to the investment in an entire DVD. They will be in compact packaging for wide distribution from various outlets and will play in high-end game systems. The price point for these discs will be around $8.00.

Big news for The Anime Network. Anime Network's Video on Demand channel is installed in over six million homes. It is the number one On Demand channel on the cable systems carrying it. The Anime Network is going linear. Several large cable companies have signed deals as well as some unspecified non-cable providers. The content on the linear channel will be subject to editing depending on the carrier while the On Demand channel will remain unedited. The On Demand channel will continue to exist and will not be replaced by the linear channel.

Newtype-USA is well above 100,000+ in circulation.

ADV made new announcements regarding the ADV Toys division. Their first toy will be the Jonathan the Seal plushie from Kaleido Star being released this summer. They announced toys from Excel Saga to include lapel pins, magnets, antenna toppers, chopsticks, lunch box, a Menchi plushie in large and small sizes, T-shirts and wall scrolls. Similar merchandise is being released for Noir as well. No plushies (sorry) but we will see window clingers, playing cards and lip gloss in addition to T-shirts, wall scrolls and lunch boxes. However, there will be no guns (sorry Monica). All of this merchandise is projected for release in the Fall. There are plans for Azumanga Daioh toys as well but they are not prepared to announce them as yet. It is ADV's stated intention to market any and all types of anime related merchandise they can get their hands on. ADV will also be releasing a box set of Excel Saga and will be making the empty art box available on-line for those who've already bought the series.

As yet ADV has no stated plans for going public.

ADV's non-anime projects of Mutineer's Moon and the live-action Evangelion movie are proceeding. Mutineer's Moon is about to enter the animation production phase. ADV cannot state as yet who will be involved with the actual production but did suggest that some big names were involved. Live-action Eva has a working script and ADV is currently in negotiation for a director. WETA is currently committed to its current projects including a remake of Narnia but they are still on board.

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