Honey & Clover licensed and further news from London Expo

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
With the dust settling after this weekend's London Expo, news of the UK anime industry's exploits has gradually appeared online. In terms of new licenses, there was, unfortunately, slim pickings.
<ul>
<li><strong>ADV </strong>will be releasing the satirical dark comedy <em><strong>Welcome to the NHK </strong></em>in August. <em>Noir</em>, <em>Madlax</em>, <em>Guyver </em>box-sets are also in the works</li>
<li><strong>Beez </strong>have licensed .<em><strong>hack//G.U. Trilogy</strong></em> (an original animated movie based on the events of the <em>.hack//G.U.</em> games). They are also looking at setting up a "digital distribution channel". Plans are afoot for <em>Gundam Wing</em> and <em>Wolf's Rain</em> box-sets (which will include artbooks), while Blu Ray releases start in Autumn</li>
<li><strong>MVM </strong>have the picked up the <em><strong>Adolescence of Utena</strong></em> (a romantic movie with yuri (lesbian) subtext that retells the original <em>Revolutionary Girl Utena</em> TV series)</li>
<li><strong> Manga Ent.</strong>, via their partnership with <strong>Viz Media</strong>, intend to release both <em><strong>Honey & Clover</strong></em> (a highly-rated nostalgic drama about young adults finding purpose in their lives) and <em><strong>Ichigo 100%</strong></em> (fan service) at some point in 2009. They are also planning to release <em>Megaman Starforce</em> in November and looking to acquire up to episode 220 of <em>Naruto </em>(at the moment, their license only includes up to episode 104), while the second <em>Naruto </em>movie will be out by the end of 2008/beginning of 2009 and the first <em>Bleach </em>film will be released late Autumn</li>
<li>For those interested in the more fan-friendly side of the London Expo, as promised, our reporter Nargis Ahmad has <a href="http://nakama-britannica.animeuknews.net/2008/05/25/cosplay-complex-at-london-expo/">posted her thoughts on our blog along with images of some cosplayers</a>.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.animeondvd.com/aodvb/showpost.php?p=1325580&postcount=23"><em>Source: Forum post on AnimeOnDVD.</em></a>
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Honey & Clover is fantastic news, if just because it's a wonderful series that deserves to be seen by all. However, the rest is a bit 'meh'. Is less being licensed these days, or is it just a case of everything leaking online (like Hellsing, for example) before things like the Expo?
 
Yep so it seems the UK industry has finally caught up and is overtaking the US industry (for mainstream titles). The vast majority of more niche titles will never see the light of day though.

Meh. If I'm going to buy UK versions of things it's just for the packaging... And it seems we're getting some AWESOME packaging these days. Just where HAVE I been for the past few years, because this is NOT the same UK anime industry I knew a year ago.
 
AT LAST a little more news on Honey & Clover, even if it is a very loose UK release date. It's been, what, a year and a half since Viz Europe originally announced the licence and about a year since it's been licenced for the North American market (I don't think we have any clue as to a release date for the Region 1 version). I just pray we get an art box for it over here or I'll be tempted to import the R1 version as it almost definitely will have one.
 
Good news for Honey and Clover (I might actually finish watching it now!), although I'm surprised it's Manga Ent, who made a reputation on sci-fi action shows. Still, props to them for picking this one up.

To be honest the only other title on that list that I'm bothered about is Welcome to the NHK!.
 
Akaihane said:
AT LAST a little more news on Honey & Clover, even if it is a very loose UK release date. It's been, what, a year and a half since Viz Europe originally announced the licence and about a year since it's been licenced for the North American market (I don't think we have any clue as to a release date for the Region 1 version). I just pray we get an art box for it over here or I'll be tempted to import the R1 version as it almost definitely will have one.
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What makes you think the US will have an art box? Viz very rarely, if ever, do art boxes for their singles releases. The likelihood is that it will be released in singles without an artbox with a collection probably in a digipack at a later date. That seems to be the way Viz does things most of the time.
 
Why are people so hung up on boxes. I'll be picking up Honey and Clover if the quality of Manga's Death Note release sets the standards. ;)
 
Honey & Clover is good news. I'd get excited about the Gundam Wing and Wolf's Rain boxsets too, if Beez's recent Gundam Seed boxsets hadn't required you to mortgage your home for the pointless extras within. They may as well have imported and sold the Region Ones and bundled a Region Free player in there for the same price.
 
Yay for Honey and Clover. I have watched it, but I'd probably pick it up, as I watched it while I was watching Code Geass and found H&C more enjoyable (until the last few episodes of Geass kicked in)
 
I'm pretty happy with all that news, to be honest! I've heard good things about Utena, and I'm told the lesbian overtones are a genuinely relevant part of the story, instead of just being silly fanservice. So I'm happy to see the remake coming out!

Welcome to the NHK! and the new Wolf's Rain and Gundam Wing sets are also really appealing! :]
 
Ryo Chan said:
tsk couldn't give 2 monkeys about .hack unless Bandai make some effort in actually releasing GU over here
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It isn't under Bandai Europe's remit to release games. The previous .hack games were released under licence from Atari and they are currently not in such great shape as to be releasing something that could easily fall flat on its face. At least the GU movie will provide some closure to the current .hack cycle, which we are not liable to get any other way at this moment.
 
I can't be too suprised that Anime Central has gone back on it's word in regards to clearing up the GITS/CB situation at LE.
As far as I'm concerned, it's only a matter of time untill CSC sells off the airspace to channel 4 to become Big Brother 24 stream 2.
 
i will say this for a company that only a few years ago was survivng on ghost in the shell they have quickly become one of my favorite uk distrubtiors since they have been with viz media!
 
I just read up on that H&C, I got to say it looks like a very interesting shojo anime. My kind of thing :D

though I got to say they got a H&C 2 (with 12 more ep), live action film AND a TV drama

could we see an equal take with fruba on this???
 
God it's a dream come true seeing Ichigo 100% licensed. From what I hear, Honey & Clover sounds good, so I'll be picking that up. Welcome to the NHK is awesome news, but I'm already collecting that (to see it in the UK so soon is impressive to say the least).
 
kupoartist said:
Honey & Clover is good news. I'd get excited about the Gundam Wing and Wolf's Rain boxsets too, if Beez's recent Gundam Seed boxsets hadn't required you to mortgage your home for the pointless extras within. They may as well have imported and sold the Region Ones and bundled a Region Free player in there for the same price.
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Are there any extras you would prefer for the price range then and I'll add them to the list for discussion on future box sets :)?
 
beez_andrew said:
Are there any extras you would prefer for the price range then and I'll add them to the list for discussion on future box sets :)?
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I think the problem is having pack-in extras at all. I appreciate you have your work cut out trying to compete with import prices, and throwing extras in sweeten the deal, but my problems are:

1) Whatever you can affordably put into an anime boxset is never going to be as impressive as the kind of merchandise a genuine fan is going to be able to track down for themselves. For instance, a UK fan could buy the R1 Gundam Seed Collection 1 and import a Master Grade Launcher/Sword Strike Gundam for about the same price as the R2 set with its artbook and the T-Shirt (which is either not going to be worn because it's a collectible, or because of the certainty of you becoming a social pariah for owning it).

2) As someone with a less than avid interest in the series, there is still no low price option for me for a series that when all is said and done, was being released when there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

When it comes down to it, I personally don't have £110-£140 to blow on any series (no, not even Zeta Gundam!), but especially not one that's been floating around for as long as this one. Ultimately, you're not targeting me as a consumer, but I do wonder who it's for. Anyone who loves a series like this enough to splurge that kind of money must already own it, and I don't see how anyone who stumbles across it is going to throw £50-£70 on finding out whether it's worth their interest. But then I'm not in the business, so it's not my place to know :p
 
or because of the certainty of you becoming a social pariah for owning it)
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The Eureka Seven T's that came with the R1 special editions are pretty good.
As if "Eureka Seven" written on the t-shirt is going to mean anything to a non anime goer (same applies to Gundam, but then the Eureka Seven shirts are slightly more subtle).
 
Martin said:
Good news for Honey and Clover (I might actually finish watching it now!)
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This.

CitizenGeek said:
I've heard good things about Utena, and I'm told the lesbian overtones are a genuinely relevant part of the story, instead of just being silly fanservice. So I'm happy to see the remake coming out!
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Hmm.
Word of warning here.
While I think the movie is very good, I don't know how well it'll stand up on it's own, as I saw it directly after the TV series. Certainly the plot and characters don't come off so well, making the movie feel somewhat rushed, but then again 39 episodes into 1 movie is always gonna be tricky. Stylistically it's impressive, giving a surreal, metaphorical version of the story - as aversed to the series' almost down-to-earth, subtler version. Alternatively, it could be argued that the movie is the story from Anthys point of view, the series the story from Utenas.

Still... it's almost like getting End of Evangelion released without the rest of the series.

Oh, and lesbian overtones relevant to the story... subtle in the series (to the extent you could argue they're not lesbians), not really tones so much as blatantly obvious in the movie, and... well, the relationship between Anthy and Utena is certainly key to the story...
 
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