Ceres, Celestial Legend DVD Vol. 1

Viz Video and Pioneer have announced a few more details about the Ceres, Celestial Legend DVD they are releasing on July 31st.  This will be the first in a series of eight volumes, each of which will contain three episodes of the series.  The DVD will provide both a dubbed English version as well as the original Japanese language version with optional English subtitles.  Extras include artwork from the manga series, character sketches and backgrounds, and exclusive interview footage with series creator and manga artist extraordinaire Yu Watase.  Volume 1 in this series, which is entitled 'Destiny' will also be released on VHS in a dubbed English version.

Dungeons and Dragons DVD 

The Dungeons & Dragons movie, which just debuted on DVD includes a coupon worth $3 off on any of the three core D&D rulebooks.  The disk also includes a new fast play adventure, 'The Sewers of Sumdall' by Rich Redman and Jeff Grubb.  Too bad the movie is such a bomb.  Shot on location in Romania, the D&D movie is so dingy that it makes Battlefield Earth look like a Target commercial.

Love Hina

Bandai has announced that it will be bringing this popular anime series to the U.S., but it won't debut until next year, and then only on DVD.  Since the move to DVD means that anime companies can avoid having to create separate dubbed and subbed versions of all their titles, they are ahead of the curve in moving toward only releasing DVDs (see 'DVD Sales Continue to Climb').  Bandai has already decided to eliminate VHS versions of most of its U.S. releases for 2001.  The general rule of thumb they appear to be using is, if it's on the Cartoon Network, then it's eligible for a VHS edition (like Gundam, for example), but some of the newer Toonami titles such as The Big O and Pilot Candidate are only going to be available in the DVD format.  While the number of DVD players in the U.S. is increasing rapidly (see 'DVD Players Doubling in 2001') and anime fans are undoubtedly in the vanguard of the switch to DVD, the aggressive move to a 'DVD only' policy is bound to cost manufacturers some sales.  Evidently the producers feel that simplifying their lines by switching to DVD whenever possible more than compensates for the lost sales on VHS, except in the case of titles with major mass market potential.