One Week Ramblings: 7/8/14 Anime Expo Edition

It's that time of the year again: time for Anime Expo and all the announcements that came with it. Here are all the announcements, by company.

Sentai Filmworks

Sentai Filmworks was full of announcements this time around. First of all, they have one additional Spring 2014 anime title that they have licensed: Chaika -The Coffin Princess-. The show is currently available on Crunchyroll, and Sentai will provide a home video version later down the road.

They have also licensed the following shows from the newly-starting Summer 2014 season:

• Akame ga Kill
• Argevollen
• Blue Spring Ride (Ao Haru Ride)
• Glasslip
• Invaders of the Rokujoma
• Rail Wars
• Sabagebu! -Survival Game Club-

They talked about some of their upcoming limited edition boxsets, starting with High School of the Dead (including the OVA) coming in November, followed by Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions!; later on, Beyond the Boundary will get the same treatment. Finally, there's the rest of Sentai's planned November 2014 releases (at the moment): Tari Tari, Natsuyuki Rendevous, and Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 will all get Blu-ray releases to go with their previous DVD releases, and Log Horizon collection 1 will be available with a dub... plus, they will release two new licenses from the Fall 2013 season: I couldn't become a hero, so I reluctantly decided to get a job (a.k.a. Yuushibu) and My mental choices are completely interfering with my school romantic comedy (a.k.a. Noucome).

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Aniplex of America

The only new news here is that on September 23rd, Aniplex of America will release the first season of Valvrave the Liberator on Blu-ray. The show will be available in Japanese with English subtitles (so no dub) with various extras for a store price of $120.

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NIS America

Upcoming releases from this company include the Hanasaku Iroha ~Home Sweet Home~ movie, coming October 14th, and Nyaruko: Crawling With Love! Season 2, coming November 4th. Both are available in their usual Premium Edition subtitled-only Blu-ray release standard.

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Funimation Entertainment

Funimation has three new licenses from the Summer 2014 season to go with their current slate: Barakamon, Sengoku Basara: Judge End, and Black Butler: Book of Circus.

They also announced several acquisitions related to their incredibly popular Psycho-Pass franchise: the Psycho-Pass Extended Edition, which, despite its name, is actually a season-long digest version that is airing this current Summer 2014 season, Psycho-Pass Season 2, which airs this fall, and Psycho-Pass: The Movie.

Finally, some good news for those who are a fan of A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun but were disappointed that the current home video releases are DVD-only: Funimation plans to release Blu-ray/DVD combos of these shows soon. The first season of Index is coming late fall, and the first season of Railgun will appear in the winter. Moreover, in October, they will be releasing the first part of the second season of A Certain Magical Index on Blu-ray and DVD right from the get-go, with the second part and the movie to follow in later months.

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RightStuf (Nozomi Entertainment/Lucky Penny)

Four new licenses have appeared courtesy of this company. First, there's Space Pirate Mito Seasons 1 and 2, which is actually a license rescue for a title previously owned by Media Blasters, and will be released on their Lucky Penny label with remastered video and updated translations. Only the first season will have a dub; the second season (also known as Aoi & Mutsuki: A Pair of Queens) will be sub-only.

There's also Fantastic Detective Labyrinth (a.k.a. Suteki Tantei Labyrinth), an unlicensed show from 2007, which will be available this fall as a sub-only DVD from the Lucky Penny label. For a very recent show, they have also licensed Yondemasu-yo, Azazel-san, a black comedy with two seasons airing as recently as 2011 and Spring 2013, despite which has not even been streamed legally in the US. The series will be released under the Lucky Penny label sub-only sometime in 2015.

And then, there's one show that's gone unlicensed for a while which I've definitely wanted to be licensed: Yakitate!! Japan! This show is all about baking bread, which the magic of shonen makes it far crazier and epic than it has any right to be. The show really is a joy to watch and I am very much looking forward to this release. The 69-episode series will be released starting in 2015 under the Nozomi Entertainment label sub-only.

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So that's some of the big news from Anime Expo. What announcements are you looking forward to?

Anime Expo 2013 Coverage, Part 2

Time for Part 2 of my Anime Expo coverage, in which I look at the more interesting things mentioned in different panels.

JAST USA Licenses Steins;Gate Visual Novel For U.S. Release

For those of you who are fans of Steins;Gate (and considering it’s currently the #1 anime on Anime News Network, that’s probably a lot of you), JAST USA has announced that they are planning to release the visual novel on which the anime is based on in the U.S. for the PC. The release is confirmed to have the original Japanese voices. (And do not worry; it is not an ero-game, so no sex scenes.)

Crunchyroll to Be Available on PS Vita, Announces Avalanche of New Simulcast Titles

For those of you with a PS Vita, Crunchyroll will soon be available on that handheld console. They also took the time to announce a bunch of other titles they will be simulcasting this season: Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist, The Eccentric Family (Uchouten Kazoku, written by the same author behind The Tatami Galaxy), The World God Only Knows: Goddesses, Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories, Sunday Without God (Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi), WataMote – No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys Fault I’m Not Popular!, andSilver Spoon. Most of these titles already have their first episode available on Crunchyroll, so check them out if you’re interested.

On a non-AX note, they have recently announced a simulcast for Gatchaman Crowds as well.

Kodansha USA’s Attack on Titan Manga Releases to Speed Up To One Every Month

To explain the title more, previously the manga was being released at a rate of one every three months. This new release plan means fans of the manga will get their Titan fix three times as fast.

In addition, they will start offering titles on Kindle and other eBooks starting July 16^th.

Funimation Details Ghost In The Shell: ARISE Import Edition Details

Aniplex of America is not the only company doing import releases now, as Funimation has joined in with the very recent Ghost In The Shell: ARISE OVA series. The release will be a subtitled-only Blu-ray including a Japanese O-card, film strip, and an English-translated art book. The release will go for a retail price of $70, and only a limited print run of 2500 copies will be offered. If none of this interests you, don’t worry; Funimation also plans to release a standard version with a dub (and likely a much cheaper price).

Other News: Funimation’s other titles announced are Hal and 009 Re:Cyborg, both films. They also will be streaming the anime adaptation of Hyperdimension Neptunia, which when added to their earlier announcement of the streaming of Danganronpa, makes two games for which NISA holds the US game license and Funimation holds the US anime streaming license.

Oh wait, did I forget to mention that…

NIS America Licenses Danganronpa Murder Mystery Visual Novel For PS Vita

There, now I mentioned it.

They also have Demon Gaze. Both games will be available early 2014.

Extra: Sentai Filmworks Announces Home Video License For Various Summer 2013 Titles

As has been the trend lately, Sentai Filmworks has taken an early stake in a number of titles that are currently airing this season (the reason for this is primarily having good working relationships with the Japanese publishers of these anime). Of the various anime airing this season, the ones Sentai Filmworks has announced licenses for are: Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3, Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East Season 2, Dog & Scissors, Rozen Maiden ~ Zurückspulen, Fantasista Doll, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Kinmoza! (Kiniro Mosaic), Sunday Without God, and WataMote. There will likely be more where those came from (I’d be very surprised if they don’t pick up the new season of The World God Only Knows).

Extra: Little Witch Academia Episode 2 Kickstarter Meets Goal In Less Than Five Hours

Never underestimate the passion of anime fans when it comes to throwing money at the shows they like. Time of Eve is a recent example of a very successful anime Kickstarter devoted to bringing the movie to the US, and now we have Little Witch Academia, the 30-minute OVA that has reached the US$150,000 goal of completing episode 2 in less than five hours after the campaign started early Tuesday. Studio Trigger already had the funds for creating a 20-minute episode and the Kickstarter funds will add 15 minutes to the final run time.

The campaign is still going on, so anyone who wants to donate can still do so here. It remains to be seen what kind of “stretch goals” the studio has for additional funds.

(On a personal note, I have seen the first episode. It is very well-produced overall and has a fun story with some potential to go deeper should more be made.)

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So that is all for Anime Expo. What were your favorite announcements from the convention?

Anime Expo 2013 Coverage, Part 1

July 4 - July 7. This post covers panels from the first two days.

Anime Expo is currently going on in Los Angeles, and with it, several North American anime localization companies have held panels to make new announcements and also talk about various things going on in the industry. While information on the announcements themselves are easy enough to find, there’s also various other things each company discusses in the panel that tends to slip through the cracks. In this first installment of Anime Expo panel coverage, I will talk about some of these more interesting tidbits brought up in the panels.

Note: Some info below may come from information provided immediately after the panels, through press releases or website updates.