SYCONET.COM, INC., a leading U.S. distributor of anime videos and DVDs,

announced that ANNELIESE CHANG will become their new director of marketing.

Chang will be responsible for the development of sales and marketing for

the company. Before joining SyCoNet.com, Chang held a management position

at Disney Consumer Products-Licensing, where she managed the product

development for over 20 toy licensees on various Disney properties

including TOY STORY 2, DINOSAUR, MICKEY MOUSE and WINNIE THE POOH. Prior to

Three new Scandinavian markets surrendered their airwaves to Pokemania.

Worldwide sensation Pokemon was recently sold to TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in

Denmark and TV2 in Norway. The show will hit the new territories in January

and February 2000. The international distributor, Lacey Entertainment, also

announced the sale of the Pikachu-vehicle to ATV in Turkey and Noga

Communications' Children's Channel in Israel.





The Pokemon phenomenon began in America in 1998 with the release of the

yU + CO, in collaboration with Digital Domain, provided the motion graphics

design for seven new American Express "Blue" commercials. The titles appear

at the close of the spots as a grouping of light and dark squares, as in a

highly pixilated image, before coming into focus as letters. The titles

where designed to comment on the physical flexibility and the holographic

blue box center of the new card. Garson Yu was designer and director for yU

Viz Communications, a leading U.S. publisher of Japanese animation and

comics (anime and manga), including titles such as POKEMON, DRAGON BALL

Z, and Hayao Miyazaki's NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF WIND, announced new

Internet partnerships and the relaunch of their chief Web sites.

www.viz.com will provide the latest news and information on anime and

manga series. www.j-pop.com will feature reviews on the latest in

Japanese pop culture including anime, manga, games, music and film.

As we reported in the past [AF 7/1/97], the

world-renowned Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki had decided to

hang up his white film gloves and never make a feature film again. Well

cheer up anime fans! The master is back to work on a new feature film. This

announcement ends a 2 1/2 year hiatus after PRINCESS MONONOKE broke box

office records all over Japan. What's the follow-up to the US$150 million

hit at the Japanese B.O.? The project is titled SEN TO CHIHIRO NO

* Wednesday, January 26 - Sunday, February 6, 2000. Rotterdam, The

Netherlands.







The Rotterdam International Film Festival includes a short film section

with categories in animation that include Fiction, Documentary, and

Experimental. To highlight the fest's Japanese program, an exhibition

entitled "Manga Manga!" will showcase selections from manga productions

from 1945 to the present. The festival will again present its "Exploding

Urban Vision will soon re-release Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City. The

classic horror anime D will hit streets January 18, 2000 and Yoshiaki

Kawajiri's hit Wicked City debuted December 7, 1999. Both flicks will be

available in an English Dubbed version for US$19.95 and a Japanese with

English subtitles version for $29.95. Other anime titles coming soon to DVD

are Slayers: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000 for $29.98

and Legend Of Crystania: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000

A year ago, French and other European animation professionals gathered at
the third "Crossroads of the Image of the Indian Ocean" to discuss European
cartoons. At this event, financing is always a hot topic of discussion.
France is the third largest producer of animation worldwide, after the U.S.
and Japan. Production itself has greatly developed in recent years with the
proliferation of television channels. In 1988 there weren't any 26
half-hour episode series being done in Europe, now there are dozens every

TVFI, a trade association supporting the international sale of French TV
programs, presents a French Animation Evening in Los Angeles, with a
screening of "La France s'Anime" ("France Gets Animated"), followed by a
French party. "La France s'Anime: 19 Projects for the Year 2000 " is a
compilation of French TV series pilots including: "Les Aventures d'Ooki"
(Les Films de la Perrine), "Chris Colorado" (AB Productions), "Les Mysteres
de Babel" (Praxinos), "Mars Brothers" (France Animation), "Allo la Terre

In a far distant future, a
would-be master race seeks to dominate the galaxy. Against these merciless
Afressians, mankind has just one hope: the mysterious female warrior known
as Emeraldas. This is the story behind the Houston, Texas-based ADV Films
November 23, 1999 release of QUEEN EMERALDAS on DVD. The US$29.98 QUEEN
EMERALDAS DVD will be in English and Japanese with English subtitles. Also
from ADV the following VHS tapes will all be released on January 25, 2000:
The war against Genom escalates as the Knight Sabers find themselves forced