Discotek has announced its acquisition of distribution rights for the 1989 anime feature The Venus Wars. Director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s adaptation of his own 1986-1990 sci-fi adventure manga was previously distributed on American VHS & DVD by Central Park Media. Discotek has confirmed plans to release the film domestically in a bilingual anamorphic remastered edition.
Nice to see this one back in circulation, but I never thought the American community cared very much about this film. Perhaps I was mistaken, or time has matured tastes.
The official website for creator/director Mamoru Hosoda’s forthcoming fantasy film Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki has released a nice teaser trailer. While the trailer linked through the official site is limited to viewers in Japan only, publisher Kadokawa has formally released the same trailer for international viewers. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on July 21.
The flick has a much more “Ghibli-esque” look to it than Hosoda’s previous works, which isn’t a complaint. With the fan community increasingly calling contemporary Ghibli movies stale, perhaps Hosoda can give us the sort of golden era Ghibli film that Ghibli itself seems to not make anymore.
The current Japanese TV commercial for the March issue of Monthly Sh?nen Ace magazine reports that the issue will include a major announcement regarding the Sora no Otoshimono anime franchise. Apparantly, a high-resolution zoom-in of the magazine’s cover reveals that the announcement will be a confirmation of a third season for the popular anime series that’s had two TV series and a feature film so far.
So here’s the first look at this April’s Nazo no Kanojo X anime television series, an adaptation of Riichi Ueshiba’s ongoing romantic comedy manga. Hoods Entertainment (Seikon no Qwaser) will animate with veteran Doraemon movie assistant director Ayumi Watanabe directing and Kaneko Sizue serving as animation director.
Question:
Does buying out of print anime from defunct or dormant companies (like CPM or Animego) benefit the anime industry? I’d like to know if buying old OOP helps the Western market for anime in any way even though it may be a company that’s not around anymore. Especially since now it’s easy to just download nearly anything, is only brand new releases from vital companies the way to help the market for anime stay alive?
Discotek has announced its acquisition of the 1984 Locke the Superman anime feature film. The adaptation of Yuki Hijiri’s still ongoing space opera manga starring a powerful psychic spun off three OVA sequels. Best Film & Video Co. released the movie on American VHS in 1995. The film has never had an American DVD release.
Sentai Filmworks has announced its acquisition of domestic distribution rights to the current Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! (Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!) anime television series. Crunchyroll is presently simulcasting the show. Sentai will stream the show and release it on subtitled DVD later this year.
FUNimation has acquired the domestic home video, broadcast, merchandising, mobile, and streaming rights to the current anime TV series High School DxD. FUNi will begin streaming the series domestically on January 23 with a home video release to follow. The risqué supernatural comedy series premiered in Japan on the 6th.
Can’t say that I’m either surprised or filled with respect for this acquisition.
The 13th volume of Ichiei Ishibumi’s High School DxD light novel series will be released on September 20 in a limited edition that includes a Blu-ray disc containing an unaired episode of the current anime TV series. The bonus episode will feature a screenplay from Ishibumi written just for the bonus episode.
Since the episode is coming on BD, would this now be an “OAB”?
Anime will return to the primary NHK network after six years with the April 7 premiere of Ginga e Kickoff!! (Kickoff to the Galaxy!!). The adaptation of Hiroto Kawabata’s 2006 soccer novel Ginga no World Cup (Galactic World Cup) details the efforts of a schoolboy inspired to revive his defunct soccer team. While the NHK Educational network continues to broadcast anime including the current Bakuman and Phi-Brain series, the core NHK network hasn’t aired any animation since broadcasting the Japanese dub of the Korean historical drama Jang Geum’s Dream in 2006.
Sunrise has announced that its current television series, Phi-Brain: Kami no Puzzle, will be extended with a second season beginning on April 8. After the originally scheduled 25 episodes conclude the initial storyline, the second season will introduce a new set of antagonists, the “Orpheus Order.” The Anime Network is presently simulcasting the show.
Crap. This show really isn’t great, so I was hoping that I could just finish its 25 episodes and be done with it. Now I guess there’ll be still more of it for me to keep up with.
Anime studio Satelight (Macross F, Aquarion) will produce the hand-drawn animation for Imageepoch & Bandai/Namco’s upcoming Playstation 3 RPG Toki to Towa (pronounced “Tokitowa”). Satelight will not only animate FMV sequences but also character movement and battle sequences in HD resolution.
Question:
The world’s most expensive comic book was Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman. It fetched a record 2.16 million. Several other top comics have fetched several hundred thousand dollars, and the first appearance of Spider-Man has netted over a million.
This price is because of the ongoing cultural popularity of many characters and the rarity of the comic books. (Most people didn’t keep their old comic collections, basic supply and demand.) I’m curious but does the world of Japanese manga have any similar rare collectibles which have collected extraordinary prices? And which one was the most expensive of them all that Japanese otaku dreaming of finding hidden away in their houses or at a garage sale?
S’more Entertainment, the home video distributor founded in 2005 by Rhino Home Video vice president and general manager Arny Schorr, has acquired the domestic home video rights to Toei’s Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and Galaxy Express 999 anime television series. S’more will release the bilingual Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Complete Series Part 1, a four-disc set containing 38 episodes, on March 27. The 113 episode Galaxy Express 999 television series will be released subtitled only at a date to be determined. Toei released the complete series with English subtitles to domestic streaming distributors Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu in 2009. Illumitoon Entertainment released the first 7 episodes of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo on 2 bilingual DVDs in 2007.
When asked if S’more Entertainment will acquire further anime titles, Schorr responded, “We’ll see how it goes.”
Sentai Filmworks has announced its acquisition of domestic distribution rights to the current horror anime TV series Another. Crunchyroll is presently simulcasting the series. Sentai will stream the series and release it on DVD and Blu-ray later this year.
