How far is Toykopop going to go?

[Chiquae07]

i know that Toykopop has been remastering initial d into english and all. but the last one they are going to do is the extra stage according to their website. is that where they are going to stop or what? thnx

[Layla's Keeper]

As far as their PR department has stated, they do have active rights to Fourth Stage and are currently at work on preparing it for release.

I'm sure that Tokyopop will have an announcement regarding Fourth Stage at Anime Expo next year, if not sooner.

[Chiquae07]

where did you find the info on that? a link would be appreciated.

[SiGNAL748]

Tokyopop is balls anyway.

[Layla's Keeper]

The news I received was from a conversation with Stuart Levy at Anime North, 2004. Tokyopop has been very tight-lipped regarding Fourth Stage, especially due to the limited sales success of the first 3 stages.

Levy readily admits that their getting corralled into the edited dub (a network idea when networks were actively courting Initial D for television) was a BIG mistake. However, too much of the anime was dubbed at the time when fan backlash was at its worst.

That meant it was too late to go back. There's been talk (off the record speculation, mostly) that Tokyopop is considering a fresh dub script true to the original Japanese for Fourth Stage, but it'll be entirely dependent on capital available.

They lost a lot of money licensing Initial D (pricey license thanks to the merchandise, legal rights to the music and cars, and the high ratings in Japan) and lost more when they didn't get it on television and were saddled with an edited dub with fan backlash.

Hindsight is 20/20, but Stuart Levy still wants to move forward on Fourth Stage, banking on the success of the manga.

[Chiquae07]

so it sounds like i should get the dubbed ones from ebay that are bootleegged, but are the real scripts to project d. o and btw, do you know if they are going to do the anime movie as well?

[Layla's Keeper]

No, you shouldn't as bootlegs are FUCKING ILLEGAL and no bootleg will ever get a penny of cash back to Shuichi Shigeno, the creator of Initial D.

The live action movie is being distributed subtitled by another company, while Third Stage and Extra Stage make up the tail end of Tokyopop's DVD range (formally announced) for Initial D.

Besides, all Tokyopop Initial D DVD's contain the original, unedited, Japanese version.

[Chiquae07]

I know for a fact that extra stage is the #14 of tokyopop's initial d release series, but i dont think that they are going to do third stage(i formerly D/L'ed to see it), but if they did i'd buy it. The live action movie isn't the same. its different watching people in it and some of the story is changed as well.

if there was only a way that tokyopop was going to do the third stage, then i wouldn't have to bootleg from bittorrents to own it, unless you know of a source of course.

EDIT : i see that you stated they are going to include the third stage, that answers my question, but when?

[wogBoy]

They Fucked up the live action movie

The didn't do that much as i would of expected them 2 do on it compared 2 the Anime 1's the only did the complete story of Volume 1 and some of Volume 2

They should of went a lil further along the story line

[AMC_DRIFTER]

I'm in Canada. I have all 14 dvd's from 1st stage, how do i get the rest of stages? where? plz tell!

[Aerowitz]

First Stage is compiled in DVDs 1-9.
Second Stage is compiled in DVDs 10-13.
Extra Stage is DVD14.

Since the Tokyopop DVDs only contained 3 episodes each, Second Stage actually starts in the third episode on DVD9.

I know that TP has the rights to Third Stage already, but so far as I've seen (I have TP DVDs 1-13), the only reason to get the TP set is for the brilliant 5.1 Japanese dub.

[AMC_DRIFTER]

oh...

I alwase wondered why the opening and closing scenes changed.

[Chiquae07]

when i buy the tp dvds, i always watch it in the jap 5.1 with subtitles, they change them with the english language, like in extra stage, they said she might give her heart to him and sayuti got crazy, but in the jap version, mako siad she would give her virginity to cole

[AMC_DRIFTER]

Originally Posted by Aerowitz

First Stage is compiled in DVDs 1-9.
Second Stage is compiled in DVDs 10-13.
Extra Stage is DVD14.

Since the Tokyopop DVDs only contained 3 episodes each, Second Stage actually starts in the third episode on DVD9.

I know that TP has the rights to Third Stage already, but so far as I've seen (I have TP DVDs 1-13), the only reason to get the TP set is for the brilliant 5.1 Japanese dub.

Is there another company doing Initial-D? I want to get all of the episodes from 3rd stage. Any links or store info would be nice.

[VTECseoul]

the only 1s i know of are TokyoPop for the N. American market, & the original DVDs from Japan, which are region coded

i noticed the poor sales just by going thru wal-mart, they had upto DVD#6 but never saw them again; but i always bought mine thru Bombay or SunCoast