AnimEigo, one of the leading suppliers for Japanese animation, just issued a
statement on their website regarding the company’s postion towards DVD.

“Bubblegum Crisis” had been a test-balloon for the company to evaluate the
DVD market and see how attractive the format truly is for their customers, and as the sell-through
of the three disc “Bubblegum Crisis” suite proved, there is a huge demand for
Anime on DVD.

Now, AnimEigo have adjusted themselves to the new situation,
indicating that more than 90% of their customers now prefer DVD over Laserdisc
releases. As a result the company will put more focus on DVD in the future and
plans to re-release most of their catalog on DVD in 1999 and 2000. In the same
statement, the company confirms that Urusei Yatsura, one of their most demanded
properties will make it to DVD completely and not only in selected episodes
and much to our pleasure, we also have information that AnimEigo is having
definite plans to release the “Vampire Princess Miyu” series on DVD later this
year.

Please take a look at AnimEigo’s website, if you want to
read the full statement the company issued.