It’s time for one of the bigger, if not the biggest early review I’ve done, Akira.  Akira is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest anime as far as us over here in the USA are often concerned with.  Over the years with more and more big name releases it may get a bit more bogged down when it comes to discussions of the biggest things ever, but for anyone who got into anime years ago, Akira is the big shadow in the room.

Getting to do the first review I know of of this disk nearly a month before it comes out anywhere in the world is just….awesome.  Being probably one of the closest things anime fans will get to the must have Blu-ray, let’s take a look at how they did, including some new ground broken. Continue reading →

Got a bit of info on the 5cm per Second dub.

Not sure if Bang Zoom is doing it themselves, or if one of Bang Zoom’s recording studios was rented out by somebody else (it appears it ISN’T Bang Zoom, might even be the same studio that did Nanoha and Familiar of Zero).

It looks like it’s a rather low budget dub, mostly actors who normally play side characters, or relatively new people (Nanoha/Zero people).

As for if the  ADV dub will end up on whatever the final release ends up being, no idea.

(edit- Bandai has denied they have it. And since gia and a few others have made the comment, I’m not saying up there that Bang Zoom is dubbing it ‘themselves’, what I was saying was it might not be dubbed ‘by’ Bang Zoom, but AT Bang Zoom by someone else. Nor am I just putting together the Greenfield con report and the credit that showed up online last week, I simply mention them in the original report because it is further confirmation. I’ve talked to multiple people involved.)

Got a stack of early news that may interest people.  Let’s start with the least interesting stuff first.

Dragonball Z TV Blu-rays are being worked on (or at least in the higher side of planning stages, I’m not 100% sure on that).  Beyond that, I know nothing (minus a hint of maybe a pack in exclusive at Best Buy, but not sure about that).

Last year Matt Greenfield said at a con that Bandai had 5cm per Second, and earlier this week someone put up an acting credit via Bang Zoom.

After talking to a few people, Bang Zoom definately has redubbed it for Bandai, likely for a Blu-ray.  Not 100% sure on the Blu-ray front, but from what I’ve been told, that seems to be the plan.  Can’t say if the old dub will be on it or not.

Evangelion 1.0.  I mentioned this on Aod, but people didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t theorizing, so I’ll mention it here with a few more details.  It’s being recorded at Funimation (and was recording before New Years).  I don’t know cast details for sure, but I can say the following.  The director is one of Funimation’s directors (can’t say who, although Funimation isn’t beyond using multiple directors for a project, don’t know if this one does, but if it isn’t, then it isn’t Greenfield).

and now for the one that most people will probably care about.

Funimation has the FMA Premium Collection OVAs and was dubbing THOSE before 2009 started also.  As far as I’m aware and have been told, castwise, everyone should be back. Don’t know about release details for these yet, but I’ll update when/if I get further info.

(All of these are sourced from multiple people whom are trustworthy and asked to remain anonymous)