Kotetsu's Rant Number Two:

*2/22/00: A special follow-up to this article has been added!*

Thank you, thank you, thank you Software Sculptors for releasing part of the Utena anime in English. Thank you for putting the effort in releasing both dubbed and subtitled editions, nice cover art on the VHS sleeves, and even a kewl boxed set. Thank you for releasing it on DVD! Thank you for actually promoting this wonderful series and helping it become popular among the North American anime community.

And a curse upon you for not releasing the whole thing.

All right, folks, here's my beef - Utena has only 39 episodes. They could easily be fit on seven or eight VHS volumes. Why didn't Software Sculptors initially release the entire series? They probably wanted to make sure that it would become popular enough to justify more releases. I think that they time has come for them to realize that Utena is more than popular enough to justify more releases!

If one starts surfing the anime web community, it becomes obvious that Utena is pretty popular. For a while, earlier this year, it was among the top ten sought-after links on the Anime Turnpike. At an small anime convention that my friends and I attended, Utena merchandise was all the rage. And has anyone been to Anime Nation lately? Have you noticed the gorgeous Utena and Anthy gracing their logo on the main index? (Note - sorry, guys, I wrote this article on 2/15/00. Anime Nation's current logo is different. But Utena was there, just as popular as all the other series that Anime Nation puts on their logos!) And Ebay browsers will notice that the number of Utena-related auctions have been steadily increasing. Not to mention the fact that the number of Utena web-pages is also growing fast! A lot of people in the huge Sailor Moon web community have been raving about Utena for some time now. In fact, more than a few people have actually denounced Usagi and Co, touting anime like Utena and lain as being superior. Me, personally? Sailor Moon will always be my first anime love, and I'll never abandon her. But it's obvious that Utena is exerting a powerful pull on the anime community, and has even gotten a few well-known Sailor Moon webmasters to utterly ditch their Sailor Moon webpages.

The more I think about it, the more obvious the case for more episodes released in North America becomes. The profits for Software Sculptors are probably going to be huge. When you think about it, a LOT of anime is released that never becomes as popular as Utena, and a lot of anime is released that is just downright crappy and that nobody watches. These factors have never really deterred companies from releasing new anime in the past. So why should Software Sculptors hesitate to release more episodes of an already well-established, popular anime?

The caveat: Am I a major in economics or an insider in the Software Sculptors or Central Park Media conglomerate? No. I'm just a high school student blatantly asserting my opinions, based on what I have observed in the anime world around me. Are fansubs available online? Yes again. But compared to wallking down to the local video store and buying a video, or logging on to Amazon.com or Anime Nation to buy a video, finding fansubs on the net can be a difficult and tedious task. The more anime is released domestically, the more "mainstream" it is likely to become. Fansubs can sometimes frighten or alienate those who are not hard-core anime fanatics. I know that I hesitated to buy my first ever Sailor Moon fansub! I had no idea what I was getting into! Also, the more anime that is released in North America, and the more succesful it becomes, the more likely it is that those annoyingly high prices for dubbed and subtitled videos are going to fall to a more realistic rate! ^_^

To make a long story short, I hereby thank Software Sculptors profusely for the excellent work they've done bringing Utena to English-speaking audiences, and I plead with them to complete the work that they have started!