News for the week of 23 May 1999

Sailor Moon Returns To America
Pioneer has announced the home video release of the three SAILOR MOON theatrical movies, SAILOR MOON R, SAILOR MOON S, and SAILOR MOON SUPERS. The films will be released unedited, with both an English dub and a subtitled version available, as well as a DVD release. Current plans are to use the previously cast voices for the Sailors in the English dub version. The first release is due out in late August.

Sadamoto To Release Artbook, Restart EVANGELION Manga
Character designer Sadamoto Yoshiyuki (NADIA: THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION) and Kadokawa Shoten will release a ¥13,000 limited edition artbook at the end of August. A regular edition will be released in October.
The SADAMOTO YOSHIYUKI ART COLLECTION: DER MOND will contain about 70 images, including previously unreleased illustrations from NADIA and EVANGELION, promotional pieces for the live-action film LOVE & POP and the fighting game GAROU DENSETSU 2 (FATAL FURY 2), and the album cover art comissioned by rock artist Eric Clapton. The deluxe edition will also include reproductions of his original sketches, a special poster, and a silver slipcase. The deluxe edition will be limited only to pre-orders submitted before 31 May.
Sadamoto will also restart his EVANGELION manga serialization in the MONTHLY SHONEN ACE magazine after a year-long hiatus. The July issue will go on sale on 26 May.

1998 Animage Grand Prix Results
Every year, ANIMAGE polls its readers to determine the most popular characters and shows. The June issue of ANIMAGE is out now, and here are highlights of this year's rankings. This year was a very good year for NADESICO, which took the top honors in three of the four categories listed below.

Favorite Shows:

1. NADESICO: THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS (Movie)
2. COWBOY BEBOP (TV)
3. LOST UNIVERSE (TV)
4. KARESHI KANOJO NO JIJOU (TV)
5. CARD CAPTOR SAKURA (TV)
6. CYBER TEAM IN AKIHABARA (TV)
7. TRIGUN (TV)
8. SORCEROUS STABBER ORPHEN (TV)
9. SABER MARIONETTE J TO X (TV)
10. MAMOTTE SHUGOGETTEN (TV)

1. Hoshino Ruri (NADESICO)
2. Sakura (CARD CAPTOR SAKURA)
3. Kyanaru (LOST UNIVERSE)
4. Shaorin (MAMOTTE SHUGOGETTEN)
5. Faye Valentine (COWBOY BEBOP)
6. Miyazawa Yukino (KARESHI KANOJO NO JIJOU)
7. Lina Inverse (SLAYERS GORGEOUS)
8. Lime (SABER MARIONETTE J TO X)
9. Ed (COWBOY BEBOP)
10. Utena (SHOJO KAKUMEI UTENA)

1. Spike Spiegel (COWBOY BEBOP)
2. Orphen (SORCEROUS STABBER ORPHEN)
3. Tenkawa Akito (NADESICO: THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS)
4. Cain (LOST UNIVERSE)
5. Vash the Stampede (TRIGUN)
6. Arima Souichirou (KARESHI KANOJO NO JIJOU)
7. Edogawa Conan (MEITANTEI CONAN)
8. Himura Kenshin (RURONI KENSHIN)
9. Nicholas D. Wolford (TRIGUN)
10. Heero (GUNDAM WING ~ ENDLESS WALTZ)

1. MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO (TV)
2. NEON GENESIS EVANGELION (TV)
3. SLAYERS TRY (TV)
4. SLAYERS NEXT (TV)
5. THE END OF EVANGELION (Movie)
6. NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF WIND (Movie)
7. GUNDAM W (TV)
8. NADIA OF THE MYSTERIOUS SEAS (TV)
9. YUU YUU HAKUSHO (TV)
10. KIDOU SENSHI GUNDAM (TV)

G-SAVIOUR To Premiere In Okinawa, Los Angeles
Sunrise announced the June completion and premiere of G-SAVIOUR in both the United States and Japan. The dual premieres of the GUNDAM-inspired television special will be the first simultaneous charity screenings in the two countries. The Japanese premiere will open the Okinawa American Short Shorts Festival on June 18, while the details of the Los Angeles premiere have yet to be announced. All proceeds will benefit the Okinawa Amerasian School, the Japan Committee for UNICEF and Steven Spielberg's Starbright Foundation.
Sunrise's D.I.D. division produced this live-action special with the computer graphics studio Digital Muse and the North American production company Polestar Group. The creators initially produced a promotional video three years ago and a theatrical trailer that debuted with last year's GUNDAM THE MOVIE double feature. Although the preliminary plot takes place "several decades after V GUNDAM" in the year 0223 of the Universal Century, producer Inoue Kouichi has since promoted the special's revised plot as a adult-oriented "new Gundam world" story.

Five Star Stories Manga In English
Toyspress, publisher of Nagano Mamoru's FIVE STAR STORIES manga, is releasing a special English version of the manga. Slated for release on 18 May, this is the first in a series of five volumes to come out this year. To order, you need to visit or call your local Kinokuniya bookstore. If you don't have one nearby, they handle mail order as well, and are expecting special orders for this book. More information is available at the Toyspress web site.

The Pokeball Keeps Rolling
With the success of the POKÉMON television show, Nintendo has announced some additional POKÉMON games for release this year in the United States. The first N64 release will be POKÉMON SNAP, a picture-taking game that came out in April in Japan. It should be available in July. Following on the heels of that is POKÉMON STADIUM, scheduled for a September release. This appears to be not the first POKÉMON STADIUM released in Japan, but the sequel that is currently in the works.
And Gameboy fans will not be left out, either. Look for POKÉMON PINBALL for Gameboy Color will be released in late June. And, for all those Pikachu Fans, September will see the release of POKÉMON YELLOW. Based on the television show, POKÉMON YELLOW features Pikachu as your first Pokémon, and he follows you around on the screen.