| BEST OVERALL COMPANY: |
BANDAI |
| No real surprise here. Bandai
releases top notch anime titles, and handles them with care. |
| WORST OVERALL COMPANY: |
IMAGE |
| Any company that releases mediocre
titles with bland menus and no extras, and worst of all, no Japanese
language track, deserves to be in last place. |
| COMPANY |
TOTAL SCORE |
| BANDAI |
87 |
| MANGA ENT |
83 |
| VIZ/PIONEER |
83 |
| URBAN VISION |
82 |
| PIONEER |
82 |
| ANIMEIGO |
81 |
| AD VISION |
80 |
| CPM |
78 |
| MEDIA BLASTERS |
77 |
| US MANGA |
76 |
| IMAGE |
73 |
| |
| BEST TECHNICAL RATINGS: |
BANDAI |
| And Bandai wins again! Great
audio/video quality, good menus, a fair amount of extras and
some nice looking subtitles. |
| Pioneer should have scored
higher, as their releaseses generally have the best audio/video
quality around (particularly the audio, which is often THX certified
and includes a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack), but they lost a lot of
points due to the often simple menus, sparse extras, and the
thin, nearly illegible subtitles. Releasing dub only titles like
Armitage and Dragonball didn't help their score, either. |
| WORST TECHNICAL RATINGS: |
IMAGE |
| No Japanese language track
or English subtitles on many of their releases (huge deduction
right there), and many have simple menus with no extras of any
kind. |
| COMPANY |
TECH RATING |
| BANDAI |
89 |
| URBAN VISION |
83 |
| VIZ/PIONEER |
81 |
| PIONEER |
81 |
| MEDIA BLASTERS |
81 |
| MANGA ENT |
80 |
| ANIMEIGO |
80 |
| AD VISION |
79 |
| US MANGA |
79 |
| CPM |
77 |
| IMAGE |
64 |
| |
|
| BEST CONTENT: |
BANDAI |
| Bandai has released the highly
rated titles: Blue Submarine #6, Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, and
Gundam Wing. And even their worst titles (Haunted Junction and
Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy) are reasonably entertaining. |
| Manga Entertainment was a close
second, with such great titles as: Macross Plus, Wings of Honneamise,
Castle of Cagliostro, and Ghost in the Shell. But a few Medicore
titles kept them from beating Bandai. |
| WORST CONTENT: |
IMAGE |
| Image has released crap such
as Battle Arena Toshinden, Art of Fighting, and Fist of the North
Star. They have released a few great titles, including
Barefoot Gen and Lupin, Mystery of Mamo, but these releases have
so many issues they're not worth purchasing. A shame, really. |
| Note that CPM didn't score
much better. CPM releases a ton of anime, unfortunately, much
of it is crap. But they have released a few top notch titles,
such as Grave of the Fireflies, Urusei Yatsura Beautiful Dreamer,
and Record of the Lodoss War. |
| COMPANY |
CONTENT RATING |
| BANDAI |
90 |
| MANGA ENT |
88 |
| URBAN VISION |
88 |
| VIZ/PIONEER |
87 |
| ANIMEIGO |
87 |
| PIONEER |
86 |
| AD VISION |
84 |
| MEDIA BLASTERS |
82 |
| US MANGA |
80 |
| CPM |
79 |
| IMAGE |
77 |
| |
| BEST PRICES: |
MANGA ENT |
| Bandai... lost!? They lost
to Manga Entertainment, mostly due to the ridiculously over priced
Blue Submarine. |
| WORST PRICES: |
US MANGA |
| US Manga lost because of Legend
of Lemnear and Wild Cardz, both of which received failing grades. |
| Media Blasters also received
a failing grade. While most of their releases are reasonably
priced, Demon Fighter Kocho, Kite, and Legend of the Last Labyrinth
all received poor price ratings. |
| COMPANY |
PRICE RATING |
| MANGA ENT |
82 |
| BANDAI |
81 |
| VIZ/PIONEER |
81 |
| PIONEER |
80 |
| CPM |
79 |
| IMAGE |
77 |
| ANIMEIGO |
76 |
| AD VISION |
76 |
| URBAN VISION |
75 |
| MEDIA BLASTERS |
69 |
| US MANGA |
68 |
|