The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

The Garden of Words is now available to pre-order on Amazon UK:
Blu-ray - £19.99
DVD - £17.99

Sentai Filmworks Licenses "Soni-Ani: SUPER SONICO THE ANIMATION"

HOUSTON, January 21, 2014 – Worlds collide as an iconic Nitroplus mascot gets her day in the sun in Sentai Filmworks' latest acquisition, Soni-Ani: SUPER SONICO THE ANIMATION. This 12 episode romp in girl band wonderland is directed by Kenichi Kawamura (Rozen Maiden, Ninja Scroll), with scripts by Yousuke Kuroda (S-CRY-ed, BTOOOM!), art direction by Yoshito Takamine (Gurren Lagann, Broken Blade) and animation production by WHITE FOX (Persona 4, The World God Only Knows).

When Sonico wakes up every morning she sees big things on the horizon, but when she gets up gravity takes hold and she can focus on what’s directly ahead of her for the day. And that’s a good thing, because Sonico is more than just an attractive girl with a really huge set of… er… headphones. She’s also an incredibly busy young woman who somehow juggles modeling and working at her grandmother’s bar while attending college AND performing lead vocals and playing the guitar in the all girl band Fastest Speed In Space. How she manages to squeeze it all in is as big a mystery as how she manages to squeeze into some of her outfits or paint her toenails without falling over, but somehow she always stays balanced and abreast of the situation. Well, most of the time, anyway, and when her workload does get a little top heavy, she can count on her fellow musicians Suzu and Furi for a little stabilizing influence. Get ready for the bounciest adventure ever as this three girl band shakes, rattles, rolls and takes Tokyo by storm in Soni-Ani:: SUPER SONICO THE ANIMATION!

Soni-Ani: SUPER SONICO THE ANIMATION will be available soon through select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.
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Sentai Filmworks does Q&A on tumblr said:
Question. What's the process that leads from licensing an anime, up to it's DVD/BluRay release in the US? I was just wondering because it seems like Sentai tends to sit on releases longer than other companies like Funi. (I really just want Chu2Koi)

Sentai Filmworks It’s a mixed bag really. Most of the time there are certain things that have to line up after a show has had it’s initial run. That’s what’s going on most of the time between getting the license and then actually getting to work on the materials.
In answer to your other question, we’ll have news on Chu2koi sooner than you think. :)

Two in one question: 1) Have you guys consider doing premium releases in some of your titles? 2) Have you ever considered hiring some voice actors outside of town (particularly Los Angeles) in some of your future dubs? I know that may be out of your budget, but you guys are awesome for getting Tia Ballard (who normally works with your rival, Funimation) in the Little Busters dub.

Sentai Filmworks We recently did a survey to gauge interest in premium releases, and are looking into the data as we speak. Sometimes it’s a little hard to get out of towners, what with scheduling, budgets, and the actor’s availability, but we do try when all those stars align just right. :)
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Crunchyroll have also added another manga title to the list; Is This Girl for Real?
Known in Japan as Kono Oneesan wa Fiction Desu?!, Is this Girl for Real?! will be joining the Crunchyroll Manga lineup today at 4pm Pacific Time, available for Crunchyroll members WORLDWIDE ex Japan!

Don't forget that the Crunchyroll Manga App is available FOR FREE on both Andoid and iOS devices!

Jun Yoshikawa is a boy with a manga artist for a mom. One night, he gets in a situation with a drunk stranger, Narumi Kawase, and decides to look after her. She becomes a live-in assistant at the Yoshikawa household as Jun takes care of her. This is an age-gap comedy about a pre-thirties, unfortunate beauty with no skills nor a job, and a perfect high schooler who helps out his mom and does the household chores as they live together.

Is this Girl for Real?! will be updated every month on the 22nd, in accordance with its Japanese publishing date. The latest chapter is available now, and the back catalog will be available on Crunchyroll at a later date.
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NormanicGrav said:
Mangaranga said:
Speaking of Aniplex, Nekomonogatari fricken when? I'd like to hope they are putting it off so that they can get the audio commentaries.
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They're probably saving it for the second quarter or early summer (June maybe?), in Japan there's no BD-Box but two volumes (last release April 2013). I wonder what the pricing will be once revealed, it would be reasonable to be £70 (like Madoka if they include tons of extras physically/on-disc).
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Sounds like we'd get an import set rather than a localised version if there's no JP BD box yet then. As long as it's loaded with extras I guess it'll be ok
 
I can appreciate the challenges in releasing short works like Garden of Words. Having said that, with those prices, this release is way out of my willing price range considering the content. I'll wait for the big Shinkai collection.
 
Ath said:
I can appreciate the challenges in releasing short works like Garden of Words. Having said that, with those prices, this release is way out of my willing price range considering the content. I'll wait for the big Shinkai collection.
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I think I'll wait for the Shinkai Collection as well.
 
NormanicGrav said:
Viewster have added Girls Bravo to the existing Funi titles available to the UK since Deadman Wonderland and Is This A Zombie? Season 1 were added about earlier on.
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The thing is, I believe Manga licensed Deadman Wonderland from Kadokawa rather than FUNimation, and it was streamed on Anime on Demand via Kaze and is now on iTunes, presumably via Manga*. Unless FUNimation have somehow ended up also having UK streaming rights but not the home video rights, then it shouldn't be open to the UK on there. Likewise Korezom is an MVM title and I'm sure that, before FUNimation removed their Girls Bravo videos from YouTube they were blocked in the UK like most other Geneon rescues.

* It has different Adam IDs in the US and UK, and is clearly FUNimation branded in the US.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/tv-season/d ... d685465474
https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/d ... d574029142

NormanicGrav said:
The following titles will be going Out of Print/Sold Out forever:
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I assume you were talking about in the US for all those?
 
Lawrence said:
NormanicGrav said:
Apparently someone has the license to Hunter x Hunter 2011 in North America and Viz Media isn't one of them, I suspect it's Funimation since they have One Piece, Toriko & Yu Yu Hakusho.
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Could be wrong but from what I heard, Crunchyroll have the rights to the series?
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They have the streaming rights (which allows us to watch the on-going series) but Crunchyroll don't usually do home rights (though I remember 5cm/s was involved with that one).
 
Sentai Filmworks Licenses “Wizard Barristers”

HOUSTON, January 22, 2014 – Time to bring out the smoking gun and work some serious courtroom magic in Sentai Filmworks' latest acquisition, Wizard Barristers. This 12 episode supernatural action thriller is directed by Yasuomi Umetsu (Mezzo DSA, Galilei Donna), with scripts by Michiko Itou (HENNEKO, Day Break Illusion) and animation production by Studio ARMS (Elfen Lied, Queen’s Blade: Rebellion).

When the laws of magic are broken, someone’s got to enforce them, and that duty falls to the deadly men and women of the Police Department’s Section 1. However, even the most malevolent mage has a right to a fair trial, and defending those craven mavens and nefarious necromancers in court is the job of the Benmashi, the Wizard Barristers. It’s a tricky profession, requiring both arcane ability and a judicious sense of jurisprudence, and at just 17, Cecil Sudo is not only the youngest Benmashi at the Butterfly Law Offices, she’s the youngest one ever! That won’t stop her in her duty to defend the alleged adepts and prestidigitating perps, but it’s going to mean long hours burning the midnight brimstone, summoning up summaries, parsing phrases with paranormal paralegals and cutting deals with opposing counsels from hell. And when a young Benmashi starts to discover that her OWN potential to charm is more magical than she realized, there’ll be hex-tra incentive to start working wonders outside the courtroom as well as in it! Prepare to be beguiled as the most enchantingly Adept Attorney ever makes her case in WIZARD BARRISTERS!

Wizard Barristers will be available soon through select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.
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ANN
Studio Ghibli's official international Twitter account revealed on Tuesday that it is working its distributors to release Princess Mononoke and The Cat Returns on Blu-ray Disc overseas. Both films were released on Blu-ray with English subtitles and English dubs in Japan last month.

Studio Ghibli's international team added that these releases leave only one Studio Ghibli film (not playing in Japanese theaters) without a Blu-ray, and that it will be "worth the wait." Spirited Away has not been released on Blu-ray in Japan or North America.
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So far these haven't received Blu-ray releases here in the UK:
Ocean Waves ~ no English dub
Only Yesterday ~ no English dub
Pom Poko ~ Some countries are receiving Blu-ray releases including Australia, leaving UK and USA left.
Princess Mononoke ~ see above
Spirited Away ~ see above
The Cat Returns ~ see above
 
Despite numerous times saying no to having Clannad having Blu-ray, this interesting conversation came up on twitter.
Jerome:
Sorry! It aint gonna happen.

Guys! I am sorry, but it isn't worth it on a purely financial level. Consider this. Generally, Blu-ray sells 30% of the total DVD numbers we do on a title. So! We have sold 3,000 copies of the #Clannad DVDs in total over the past two years. 30% of that is 900 copies. R there 1,000 UK fans willing to shell out for a Clannad BD? That's if there is an HD master available for us. Has #Clannad received a HD download or stream in the US?

Hmmm! I dunno. #Kickstarter could possibly be the way to do this. But it leaves logistical questions. E.g. If each backer commits to the price of a Blu-ray box set. let's say £25. We then have to figure out how to ship the finished box set to you. We have to figure out VAT and royalties etc. Interesting. I would prefer to list it on Amazon, see how many pre-orders we get and then decide whether or not to go into production. However, Amazon isn't built for this and they don't want us listing a release and then de-listing it if we don't get enough pre-orders. But! I'll speak to our sales team.
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Sentai Filmworks Licenses “Sakura Trick”

HOUSTON, January 23, 2014 – An unforgettable, life changing moment is sealed with a simple kiss in Sentai Filmworks’ latest acquisition, Sakura Trick. This romantic slice-of-life comedy from original creator Tachi is directed by Kenichi Ishikura (ef: tale of melodies, Hidamari Sketch) with music by Ryosuke Nakanishi (Majikoi – Oh! Samurai Girls, Kuroko’s Basketball), character designs by Kyuta Sakai (Humanity has Declined, Strawberry Marshmallow) and animation production by Studio DEEN (Fate/stay night, Rozen Maiden – Zurückspulen).

Haruka and Yu have always sat next to each other and they’ve been best friends forever… well, since they were just girls in junior high anyway. But on their first day of Senior high, they’re stunned to learn that the new seating plan has them on opposite sides of the classroom! And since everyone knows that long distance relationships don’t work unless the parties involved put extra effort into it, they decide they need to do something extra special to make their friendship “different.” However, deciding to kiss each other awakens a whole new level of feelings, and it doesn’t help that some of their classmates seem to be ‘involved” in similar circumstances. So what’s a girl to do when her best girl friend is suddenly seeming more like a girlfriend? It’s a life lesson that the school curriculum isn’t normally prepared to teach, except maybe in French class, but our two young heroines are about to get a private education you’ll never forget! Come learn about the bird and the… er… birds, as two young girls learn to deal with the pros and cons of intramural osculation in SAKURA TRICK!

Sakura Trick will be available soon through select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.
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It's a nice announcement but some of us were already aware of this a month prior (blame Toei). Since I already knew about it, it wasn't much of a special announcement for me.
 
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NormanicGrav said:
Despite numerous times saying no to having Clannad having Blu-ray, this interesting conversation came up on twitter.
Jerome:
Sorry! It aint gonna happen.

Guys! I am sorry, but it isn't worth it on a purely financial level. Consider this. Generally, Blu-ray sells 30% of the total DVD numbers we do on a title. So! We have sold 3,000 copies of the #Clannad DVDs in total over the past two years. 30% of that is 900 copies. R there 1,000 UK fans willing to shell out for a Clannad BD? That's if there is an HD master available for us. Has #Clannad received a HD download or stream in the US?

Hmmm! I dunno. #Kickstarter could possibly be the way to do this. But it leaves logistical questions. E.g. If each backer commits to the price of a Blu-ray box set. let's say £25. We then have to figure out how to ship the finished box set to you. We have to figure out VAT and royalties etc. Interesting. I would prefer to list it on Amazon, see how many pre-orders we get and then decide whether or not to go into production. However, Amazon isn't built for this and they don't want us listing a release and then de-listing it if we don't get enough pre-orders. But! I'll speak to our sales team.
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I'd much rather that they did this for Stand Alone Complex than Clannad. I agree with JM that the market for a Clannad BD probably isn't there. Most of the people who want it on BD would already have imported the JP/US BD.
 
Sentai Filmworks Licenses “Nobunaga the Fool”

HOUSTON, January 24, 2014 – History’s greatest figures take up arms in a war for the ages in Sentai Filmworks’ latest acquisition, Nobunaga the Fool. This 24 episode sci-fi fantasy epic is directed by Eiichi Sato (Slayers Next, AD Police) with series composition by Shoji Kawamori (Macross Zero, Aquarion), original character designs by Yone Kazuki (Hakuoki, Hiiro no Kakera) and animation production by Satelight (AKB0048, Bodacious Space Pirates).

It was once said that time and tide will wait for no man, but that was before the legendary heroine Jeanne d’Arc had a vision of a Deliverer – a champion who could save the future of the planets connected by the Dragon Stream. Now the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance as, at the order of King Arthur and in the company of Leonardo da Vinci, Jeanne travels from the West to the East in search of their long awaited savior. But will Nobunaga Oda be the kind of man they are expecting? Or will history’s greatest heroes find themselves choosing not a liberator, but a destroyer? Or is Nobunaga’s role that of the Fool from a deck of Tarot, the wild card whose purpose is to invoke change, at whatever cost? Expect the unexpected as super-technology and giant robots collide with samurai warriors and a pantheon of characters drawn from across history wage the ultimate battle against the forces of Chaos inNOBUNAGA THE FOOL!

Nobunaga the Fool will be available soon through select digital outlets with a home video release to follow.
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