Bandai News from Otakon

The forthcoming Cowboy Bebop DVD boxed set will include the 6 DVDs and the first soundtrack CD. The slipcase will be sold separately for fans that have already purchased the individual DVDs. No prices or released dates have been determined yet.

The American theatrical premier of the Escaflowne movie has been delayed until January 2002 so as not to compete with other titles being released later this year.

Apparently the midnight run of Gundam MS 08th Team is doing better in ratings than the afternoon original MS Gundam on Toonami, but ratings for the original series do seem to be steadily increasing. Bandai once again confirmed at Otakon that virtually all of the Gundam animation will eventually be released in America, but apparently story continuity is not quite as much a concern in release order as it once was.

The Saber Marionette J OAV series and Saber J to X TV series were confirmed to utilize the same dubbing cast as the Saber J TV series and are on track to be released in double DVD packages similar to the Saber J series.

Production is almost complete on a new dub of the entire Silent Mobius TV series for the eventual 3 double disc DVD set release. The original dub of the TV series was left unfinished partially through the series as a response to poor sales. Brain Powerd [sic] is likely to begin a new dub soon to follow the same release pattern.

Production on Magical Stage Fancy La La may begin soon. Bandai has not yet decided on whether or not to dub the songs into English for the dubbed dialogue version.

Love Hina will debut on DVD in February as either a stand-alone DVD disc or as a first DVD in a slip-case designed to hold all 6 four episode long DVD volumes. There’s still no confirmation of an American license for “extra” episode 25 or either of the TV specials.

Cowboy Bebop character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto confirmed at Otakon that a new Cowboy Bebop series is in early pre-production in Japan but won’t be ready for release for quite some time. Kawamoto also confirmed that Sunrise will consider more Cowboy Bebop movies if the first film does well at the Japanese box office.

Source: Anime on DVD