[Overseas] Anime News & Announcements

Nice to see there will be an uncensored UK version of Kandagawa Jet Girls, wonder if they will ever release the Senran Kagura anime here or will need to import those some day.
 
On-Gaku: Our Sound is scheduled for US Blu-ray & DVD release on 9th March 2021 in Japanese audio with English & Spanish subtitles.

On-disc extras include:
  • The Making Of On-Gaku: Our Sound
  • Our Movie: Behind The Scenes
  • Live Musical Performance
  • On-Gaku (Demo)
  • 4 Short Films By Kenji Iwaisawa
  • Trailers
  • And More!
 
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I'm watching the Discotek panel, I'll recap the announcements as it goes along in this post!
  1. Kodocha - SD Blu-ray
    Two parts, all 102 uncut episodes, first half includes Funimation English dub, second half in 2022. 1996 Studio Gallop series, Music rights issues resolved, something to do with Johnny Kitagawa passing away in 2019 helped clear the problems.
  2. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple - Blu-ray
    Two parts, all 50 uncut episodes with the Funimation English dub, 2006 TMS Entertainment series. Does not include the OVA series.
  3. Video Warrior Laserion - SD Blu-ray
    45 uncut episodes. 1984 Toei series, Japanese with English subtitles.
  4. Future Robo Daltanious - SD Blu-ray
    47 uncut episodes. 1979 Toei series, Japanese with English subtitles.
  5. City Hunter 2 - Blu-ray
    Two parts, all 63 episodes, 1988 Sunrise series, Region A & B, Japanese with English subtitles.
  6. Grimm's Fairy Tales - SD Blu-ray
    Two parts, 47 bilingual episodes, 1987 Nippon Animation series, English & Japanese with English subtitles.
  7. Project A-Ko - Blu-ray
    Special AstroRes restoration treatment being done by Discotek. All three sequel films (A-Ko 2-4) also getting the treatment. New Japanese commentary track and more extras.
  8. Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~ - Blu-ray
    26 uncut episodes, 2005 J.C. Staff series, Japanese with English subtitles.
  9. Medabots Season 3 - SD Blu-ray
    39 English dub version episodes.
  10. Fighting General Daimos - SD Blu-ray
    44 uncut episodes, 1978 Sunrise/Toei series, Japanese with English subtitles.
  11. Lupin the Third Part III - Blu-ray
    50 uncut episodes, 1984 TMS Entertainment series, new translation and HD transfer, Japanese with English subtitles.
  12. Lupin the Third: The Return of Pycal (Return of the Magician) - Blu-ray
    2002 OVA episode, new upscale, Japanese with English subtitles.
  13. Black Rock Shooter - Blu-ray
    8 uncut episodes, 2012 Ordet/Sanzigen series (and written by Mari Okada for those who are curious) and dubbed in English by Sound Cadence Studio. New translation (better than the previously released subtitled only Manga UK & Siren Visual releases). They don't have the OVA.
  14. Arion - Blu-ray
    1986 Sunrise film from director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and music composer Joe Hisaishi. Discotek wanted to dub the film but the Music & Effects are missing (isolated tracks).
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1338663190268235777
 
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I'll probably get Arion and Lupin Part 3, but like the last hyped up Discotek announcement I'm not sure which of those announcements were supposed to 'blow my mind'.
 
I think getting Lupin Part III on BD was the closest for me. I just hope Part 2 comes on SD BD one day but they did say that takes the same length per episode so I doubt it until they are less busy,
 
I'm looking forward to that full release of Kodocha, especially since they've sorted out the music licensing.

The Project A-ko restoration is looking promising. It's hard to believe their source is a laserdisc; the Domesday Duplicator is really something.

It's nice that all these 80s super robot series are getting licensed, but it really just highlights how cookie-cutter a lot of them looked (I'm seeing yet more lion robots in those trailers, for example). I'm a bit clueless on which ones have a good reputation, or offer anything for the older viewer. I know the big names like Ideon, God Mars, or Goshogun, but I've never heard of Laserion or Daltanious.
 
Kenichi on Blu-ray will be a definite buy for me, especially if it is an improvement over the Funimation DVD sets...

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I'll also get City Hunter 2 to continue that series in my collection. Unsure about Black Rock Shooter or Arion, will have to check those out. Nothing on SDBD is of any interest to me, especially all those old '80's mecha series Discotek likes to concentrate on - y'all can have them, lol.
 
Dai said:
I'm looking forward to that full release of Kodocha, especially since they've sorted out the music licensing.

The Project A-ko restoration is looking promising. It's hard to believe their source is a laserdisc; the Domesday Duplicator is really something.

It's nice that all these 80s super robot series are getting licensed, but it really just highlights how cookie-cutter a lot of them looked (I'm seeing yet more lion robots in those trailers, for example). I'm a bit clueless on which ones have a good reputation, or offer anything for the older viewer. I know the big names like Ideon, God Mars, or Goshogun, but I've never heard of Laserion or Daltanious.
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I'm not super familiar with most of the 80s mecha series either, and it's not one of my favorite genres either (although there are a couple, like Votoms, that are truly excellent). I've never seen Laserion or Daltanious either.

I can give you an interesting trivia fact about Daltanious, though; it's the show that was supposed to be the first part of Voltron, instead of GoLion. Daltanious was the show WEP wanted, but when they were trying to license it, they rather carelessly said that they wanted the "robot show with the lion", and the licensor misunderstood which show they were asking for. So WEP ended up with master tapes for GoLion. When they reviewed those tapes, they decided GoLion would work better, so they just stuck with it.
 
If you get the chance, have a look at Mahoraba heartfelt days, it's a fun show, it always surprised me it didn't get picked up before.
I'll probably grab most of the upgrades, City Hunter 2, Kenichi, Kodocha (yay 2nd half finally) Black rock shooter TV, Lupin III part 3 and of coarse Mahoraba.
I was hoping for more about Urusei Yatsura movies but that will come, also hoping for the TV but it will only be SD BD if it does (too long) would have been over the moon for something like Cheeky Angel or Angel Heart but too soon for AH as it is a spin off from City Hunter.
Not a bad bunch of pick ups though.
 
Glorian said:
I'm not super familiar with most of the 80s mecha series either, and it's not one of my favorite genres either (although there are a couple, like Votoms, that are truly excellent). I've never seen Laserion or Daltanious either.

I can give you an interesting trivia fact about Daltanious, though; it's the show that was supposed to be the first part of Voltron, instead of GoLion. Daltanious was the show WEP wanted, but when they were trying to license it, they rather carelessly said that they wanted the "robot show with the lion", and the licensor misunderstood which show they were asking for. So WEP ended up with master tapes for GoLion. When they reviewed those tapes, they decided GoLion would work better, so they just stuck with it.
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Among 80s robot shows, it's mostly been the ones aimed at older audiences that have gained traction in the western fan community; Votoms, Zeta Gundam, Patlabor, etc. They were really dwarfed by the number of super robot shows aimed at young kids though. If you look at one of my favourite videos on the internet, once you get above the 25m range there's just this deluge of 80s super robots that I don't recognise.

That's hilarious about them licensing the wrong show. That's the danger of not understanding the product they were trying to sell, I guess.

Darren Skippings said:
I was hoping for more about Urusei Yatsura movies but that will come, also hoping for the TV but it will only be SD BD if it does (too long)
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I'm pretty sure the JP blu-ray releases of the TV series were HD, so the masters exist. We've seen 80s shows with circa 50 episodes released in HD before (Orange Road, for example), so splitting UY across four sets like the JP release doesn't sound impossible, albeit unlikely. I'd be happy even if they just released the first 50, since I think the early episodes were better, before it switched from two stories per episode to one. I only have a random selection of volumes from later in the series though, so I might have missed a lot of good episodes.

I guess it will all hinge on the sales figures for the movies, which I'll be grabbing the moment they're available.
 
I’m surprised that they’re doing a physical set for Lupin Part 3, the absolute madlads. The impression I used to get was that no-one liked the pink jacket series, but maybe the fans have finally warmed to it at last.
 
Would also really like to have the Kenichi BD set to replace my DVD collection. Are Discotek releases typically region-free? I’ve never bought a release of theirs before.
 
Ash said:
Would also really like to have the Kenichi BD set to replace my DVD collection. Are Discotek releases typically region-free? I’ve never bought a release of theirs before.
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Discotek Media is always Region A with the exception of City Hunter (all of it), Night on the Galactic Railroad and Robot Carnival. The UHD releases are all region and majority of the DVDs are region free (except for Golden Boy sigh).
 
Ash said:
Would also really like to have the Kenichi BD set to replace my DVD collection. Are Discotek releases typically region-free? I’ve never bought a release of theirs before.
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They aren't, but it isn't difficult to get a region A player anymore. You can get an external BD drive for about £60 and use Leawo for playback.
 
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