News Archive - Jan-Feb 1997

[This is old news from the 3x3 Eyes Info site. All links are broken, all speculation is wrong.]

February 14, 1997

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Um, I was planning to update the page with some things I forgot to add the last time, but now that I have time, I've forgotten what I was going to say again! Bah. (AnimeFest XVIII, the anime mini-con held by VTAS each semester is happening this weekend, so I probably won't get much web work done.)

The Great Calendario

The other reason I'm updating is to tell you about the stuff I just got in the mail: the 1997 3x3 Eyes calendar and a CD single. The calendar is very nice (see the descriptions somewhere down the page), and I like the fact that it is made up of separate posters. I may hang them all up at once. ^_^ One thing you can't see from the pictures is the case the calendar comes in. There is a cardboard holder for the pages of the calendar that is fastened with a string. It looks pretty cool. I do have one question, though. Why is the calendar in Italian? There's even a translation sheet that lists the months in Japanese, English, and Italian. I guess Italian is cool this year.

Fight?!?

The other part of my order was a Japanese CD single, Fight! -Saigo no Tenshi- (KIDA 113). I believe it is the song from the Playstation 3x3 Eyes game. It's, uh, not what I expected, but the second song Holy Eyes is nice. Here are scans of the front and back. (If you've never seen a Japanese CD single before, you'll notice that the case is fairly narrow. The CD is only about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Kawaii! ^_^) More info (in Japanese) can be found here. I would appreciate it if someone would tell me the singer's name.

King Records, the company that releases the 3x3 Eyes soundtracks, has a new homepage. I didn't see any 3x3 Eyes info there, but Star Child (their animation division) has info about some other anime series. There's also a nice Megumi Hayashibara page. (It's all in Japanese, BTW).

February 3, 1997

OK, sorry for not updating for a while, but I have been doing 3x3 Eyes related stuff. The next update (the Big One) involves adding several new pages, so I'm going to go ahead and redesign the site before I add the new material. Here's a quick rundown of what's going on, since the redesign will take a while (where "a while" can be anywhere from a week to several months). Bear with me here...

Yakumo about to kick butt

Multimedia Madness!

Marc Eubanks has provided some really nice (and large) AVI files from the Manga UK release of the new 3x3 Eyes anime. Right now they can be found on my FTP server (yes, on my own PC) if you want to check them out. (If someone has lots of web space available, I would appreciate it if they would take these files off my hands. My Ethernet access only lasts until May.) Marc has also sent along some still shots, and so has Hepoi Ko, so as part of the planned reorganization of these pages I will have an anime page with lots of pics and short reviews of each episode.

At long last, I recently, uh, "acquired" fansubtitled copies of all of the 3x3 Eyes anime. I will have sound samples here shortly, allowing for comparison of the English and Japanese voice actors. (Interestingly, and unfortunately, the fansub of the first OAV series is actually a subtitled version of Streamline's bilingual Perfect Collection laserdisc. This is the first time I had seen the Perfect Collection in any form, and I just have to say "Gag! Choke! Hack!" Why couldn't they have just stuck all four episodes on one LD instead of trying to edit them together? Well, the rumor on the newsgroups is that Streamline is definitely getting out of the anime business and is selling off the rights to all of their titles. I can only hope that some company picks up 3x3 Eyes, tosses the Streamline version in the garbage, and releases a subtitled version taken from the original Japanese masters. Did you know the Streamline releases are edited? Sure, just a few seconds here and there, but still, why? OK, enough ranting.)

I also finally picked up the final soundtrack missing from my collection. I'm redoing the soundtrack pages with track listings in English, Romaji, and Shift-JIS. I'm starting with the most recent and working backwords, so I should have the last two CD pages ready to go soon. (I'm still waiting for the rest of my order: the 1997 calendar and a 3x3 Eyes CD single.)

Top Ten 3x3 Eyes Products

Check out my list of ten products worth owning.

No TV Show News

OK, so maybe there will be some info in the February Manga Newswatch. ^_^;; As soon as I hear anything, I'll post it ASAP.

Trade Paperback Date Change

The release of the 3x3 Eyes: Curse of the Gesu TPB from Dark Horse Comics has been pushed back to Feb. 26. Ask for it at your local comic shop. ^_^

3x3 Eyes Saturn Game Finished

I finally finished the 3x3 Eyes game for the Sega Saturn. I had been stuck in Tibet for a while, but I made a few lucky guesses and was able to get to the end. I have a few things to add to the review:

The game really is very cool. I want to play it again when I know enough Japanese to understand the plot.
Yakumo's fight scenes do get a bit repetitive. They could have given him more than two main attacks.
There are ending credits that recap the entire game. That, and the fact that there is as much spoken dialogue as text in the game, really adds to the feel that you are taking part in a long anime video.
There is one main plot, but there seem to be several small variations along the way, depending on what choices you make. I'm not sure how significant the variations are, but they should add to the replay value.
I wish the Sanjiyan had a bigger part, but I think that may be due to the particular path I took to finish the game. She may show up more if I play again.

All in all, I still think it's a cool game. I'll update the review soon, adding my translations of some of the game menus.

Fred-bo Lives!

Heh heh. Fred Gallagher, maintainer of Pai's Page, has informed me that he will be moving his pages to a new location soon, and updating them in the process. Keep your eyes open.

Young Magazine reorganizes

The weekly magazine that features 3x3 Eyes in Japan has reorganized their web site, and the link to the 3x3 Eyes page has disappeared. Don't worry, though, because the page is still there. Rumors are still circulating about the approaching end of the manga series, but I have yet to see any facts to back these up.

January 9, 1997

3x3 Eyes TV Series Confirmed!

This has to be the most exciting news since I started this site. The TV series is currently in production in Japan, and Toren Smith (head of Studio Proteus, translator of the 3x3 Eyes manga published by Dark Horse, and all-around cool guy) has promised an update in the next Manga Newswatch once he returns from London. If anyone has any news about the series or spots a magazine article about it, please let me know by email (or post to the 3x3 Eyes Mailing List if you are a subscriber).

Even More Calendar News

Hepoi Ko (a.k.a. Chun-hung Ko) has sent another picture, this time of the entire 1997 calendar. Looks pretty cool, but I did notice that the jazzy backgrounds were a neat way for Kodansha to reuse some old 3x3 Eyes art. ^o^ If you had trouble spotting the calendar pictures from previous years on the site I mentioned below, I looked again and the pictures are on pages 13 to 16 with names like 92caljan.jpg, 94calcov.jpg, etc. There's a note on the Young Magazine web site about some sort of calendar giveaway, I think (as I've mentioned before, my Japanese knowledge sucks, but I hope to take some actual classes soon.)

More OAV Scripts

I now have all of the scripts for the new OAV series, kindly tracked down by David Blanck and Annapumas script-crypt. Once again, many thanks to the fans at Central Anime for translating 3x3 Eyes at their own expense so that the rest of us could enjoy fansubtitled copies until the series is released commercially in the US. The scripts can be found on the Download page. I changed the filename of the first script to match the new ones, but I'm still using the *.timed extension instead of *.js (JACOsub), because some browsers interpret that as JavaScript (and the results are not pretty). If I get bored I'll strip out the timing commands for the new scripts so they can be easily read. I'd be interested to know how these scripts compare with the dubbed dialogue in the Manga UK release. (I know the Streamline version of the first series wasn't all that close, but that's Carl Macek's "production" for you.)

Thanks Again

OK, OK, I said this in the last update, but I didn't mention that there are 3x3 Eyes fans all across the world. I've gotten mail from all across North America, Europe, Asia, and even Brazil ^_^ (not to mention a few places I've probably forgotten). I think it is so cool that something like 3x3 Eyes can bring people from different lands and cultures together. Thanks to everyone who has created or helped with a 3x3 Eyes web site, engaged in discussions online, or spread the word about anime and manga whereever you may be. Your efforts are definitely appreciated.

January 3, 1997

Happy new year, everyone! I've been relaxing and enjoying my vacation, so I don't even have my modem installed in my computer yet. I should have all of my grad school applications done this weekend (what a pain--wish me luck), so I'll start the heavy duty web stuff next week. I'm attempting a little on-the-fly editing to fill you in on some exciting news that just couldn't wait.

3x3 Eyes TV Series?!?

That's the rumour (er, rumor). Check out the latest Manga Newswatch by Toren Smith. "Genius-minded" 3x3 Eyes RPG guy Henrique Holschuh spotted the short note "TV series in production" in the entries for the 3x3 Eyes trade paperbacks in the Dark Horse Manga Listing. As soon as I get confirmation, I'll have it here.

NEWSFLASH!!!!! It was just confirmed by Toren Smith. The TV series is in production in Japan right now!

Calendar Update

Loyal reader Chun-hung Ko (hope that's right) sent me a note to let me know he picked up the 1997 3x3 Eyes Calendar in Hong Kong. It is seven separate pages, each about the size of two A4 pages (11x17?). He said the backgrounds are a bit unusual, and sent this picture of the second page. It definitely looks interesting. Hopefully my calendar will show up by the end of the month (with my CDs, as well). I found a cool image gallery that has pictures of the calendars from previous years, as well as lots of other 3x3 Eyes art, here. The calendars are on the last few pages.