By Clarissa Graffeo

With fansubbing long a part of anime fan culture and the internet enabling near instant sharing of information and files, anime and manga fans have been steadily pushing for faster and faster turn-around on domestic releases. Traditional DVD releases have gotten a lot faster than they used to be, but they can't possibly keep up with fans' desire to know what's going on with shows as they air on...

By Mike Toole

To today’s anime fan, the OVA, or Original Video Animation, a piece of work made for the home video market, is an essential and everyday staple of the medium.  You’ll see OVAs developed to hawk popular manga, utilized as sequels for existing works, and used as platforms for intriguing original stories.  25 years ago, however, OVAs as we know them really didn’t exist.  It took so...

By Daryl Surat

As I mentioned in Otaku USA Issue 13, which i’ll just assume you read first because it saves me from having to re-explain the premise of the show, the 1986 theatrical movie for Fist of the North Star aka Hokuto no Ken is the primary way most US anime fans were introduced to the series that laid the groundwork for shonen fighting. (Crazy awesome as it is, Ring ni Kakero still counts as a sports...

By Daryl Surat

Hey, remember pogs? How about Troll dolls? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries to bring them back. The same is true for our entertainment. Whether talking about America or Japan, the last several years have been rife with remakes, reboots, revivals, relaunches, or anything else prefixed with “re-” to let you know it’s happened ...

By Joseph Luster

Today's action-packed means of zombie disposal make their meandering beginnings seem like ancient history, but those slow, undead bastards remain a pivotal moment in the videogame horror archives. Take the dread of George Romero and Lucio Fulci films, mix in some special forces interference and an interwoven web of experiments gone awry and you have one of Capcom's (and gaming in general's) bi...