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Some of you may remember that Shonen Sunday was running a contest where they were going to give away 500 copies of the "It's a Rumic World" sample DVD which contained clips of the new Takahashi anime for Urusei Yatsura, Ranma ½, and Inuyasha. Well, Dylan and I didn't win one, but Tachihaki did, and he was kind enough to share it with us!

The DVD starts with the ad that circulated on the net that had the characters from each of the series interacting with one another. After that it cuts to a drawing by Takahashi that introduces each of the clips...

Urusei Yatsura - "The Obstacle Course Swim Meet"
I'll start by saying the animation looks quite different from the old stuff obviously, but it's really very, very well done. Hearing Michihiro Ikemizu as Onsen-Mark after all these years put a big smile on my face! All the voices sounded great, and seeing the updated character designs wasn't nearly as jarring as I thought it would be. It does look like they've added quite a few things to the manga story in order to get more of the cast involved (I don't remember this big waterslide scene in the manga for instance). And in typical classic UY anime fashion, there looks like there will be a huge helicopter and tank battle. Characters that are definetely in it are: Ataru, Lum, Shinobu, Mendo, Ryunosuke, Oyuki, Benten, the Principal, Onsen-Mark, and a Dappya Man doll and Sugar, Ginger and Mint. No sign of the Megane and the others surprisingly... well, Perm/Kosuke is there.



Ranma ½ - "The Insense of Spring Sleep"
Personally this is the one that I'm most excited about. One thing that I wondered was if Kuno would appear (due to the passing of Hirotaka Suzuoki, Kuno's voice actor). It doesn't look like he's in it though at least based on these clips. The animation is quite nice, and there's new music for it, a nice quiet Chinese piece that's more down tempo than some of the stuff that was usually used on the show (it sounds good). The scenes with Akane's dreams looked really funny, especially the interesting outfits she imagines them in. Characters that are in it include: Ranma (male and female), Akane, Soun, Genma, Daisuke and Hiroshi (who have a speaking part), Yuka and Sayuri (also speaking), Kodachi, Shampoo, Cologne, Ukyo, Gosunkugi (in the background) and Ryoga. I'm wondering if they replaced Kuno, who was in the manga, with Ryoga perhaps. Also, Hinako is in the manga story, but I didn't see any indication of her appearing in this. Nabiki is in the manga, but isn't shown here, Kasumi wasn't in the manga or shown here, so she may not be in it. Needless to say this one looks great and I'm thrilled to see it. The character designs do look different, but the animation quality is top notch and very fluid.



Inuyasha - "Black Tetsusaiga"
This episode is the only one that seems to use music from the original series rather than new compositions. Also, since the show was most recently in production out of the others, the character designs and animation all look closests to the anime series. The battle looks quite intense, and we get to see not only the Black Tetsusaiga, but the Dragon-Scaled version as well. The scenes with Inuyasha inside the meido are quite cool, and watching Sesshomaru steal the Wind Scar was pretty smooth. Overall, this one looks to be a very close to the original manga story. Characters in this one are: Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Totosai, Momo (his bull), Sesshomaru, Rin and Jaken and Kohaku. I didn't see Myoga, but he may be in it.



So overall, a lot of really cool stuff. I want to thank Tachihaki again for kindly sending this to us! I really wish they'd do more of these, though I have no reason to think they will. It's tough to get a little taste of new anime and know that there won't be more coming, but getting these is awesome in itself. They're all top quality and I can't wait until the full versions are released.