Anime News, News - by Ian - July 19, 2011 - 20:50 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
In May, Manga Entertainment announced that they will be releasing Freedom OVA, this title was previously only available as a limited release from Beez Entertainment, and thanks for the companies highly active Twitter feed, they have further confirmed that this series will most certainly be out in the UK on Blu-Ray.
Rather than just the norm, in the anime world, of a DVD release and a Blu-Ray release, Manga Entertainment are considering going down the option of a DoublePlay release, which means the OVA will contain both DVD and Blu-Ray. This is a method of selling that is used by most Hollywood movies these days and even the new Ghibili titles are on DoublePlay these days.
There’s still no confirmed release date, but with news like this, it’s likely to be the tail end of this year.
News - by Ian - February 27, 2011 - 13:05 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Copyright Beez Entertainment
Beez Entertainment have confirmed the release dates of the second volumes of Durarara!! and Gundam 00, Season 2. In only a few short weeks these volumes will be made available in DVD format only. There is currently no Blu-Ray DVD release penned for these releases.
Durarara!! Volume 2 – 28th March 2011
Gundam 00, Season 2: Part 2 – 28th March 2011
Both will be available in the usual retail outlets hmv, Amazon, Play.com.
Anime News, News - by Ian - February 22, 2011 - 17:44 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Copyright Beez Entertainment
Aside from Manga Entertainment, news on the anime front is a little scarce at the moment from the other big distributors. However, Beez Entertainment recently blogged about their plans for the future and what 2011 has in store for us, from them.
They want, more interaction with the average fan, release more shows but reduce and sometimes stop the delay between the US release and the UK one and to increase the volume of the Anime Legends franchise, which has been a huge success for Beez.
This is nothing new to Beez, for a long time they were one of the only companies who would openly frequent forums and Twitter and since the departure of their lead PR man they are trying harder than ever to get closer to the fan. This makes sense as customer loyalty is everything in a niche market, so let them hear your thoughts!
Beez Entertainment’s blog is located here, however, it’s full of spam as their filters aren’t great so you’re better of checking out their Facebook page, Twitter page or just talking about it below!
News - by Ian - July 10, 2010 - 16:12 Europe/London - 1 Comment
Copyright Beez Entertainment
Beez Entertainment, the European subsidiary company of Bandai Entertainment Group have recently announced that they are going to moving into the retail market.
Following on from Manga Entertainment, who opened up their online shop a while ago now, Beez Entertainment recently announced that they will start selling Beez Entertainment titles from their own online store. Currently the store only has one title available in the UK, which is: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – Blu-Ray.
Over the coming weeks there will be plenty of development on the store and with many new additions to their current catalogue of available titles.
News - by Ian - May 9, 2010 - 10:47 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Copyright Beez Entertainment
Code Geass is an eagerly anticipated anime which is going to be released by Beez Entertainment and has recently been delayed slightly due to the BBFC. What was not confirmed at the time was why this delay was occurring, it has now come to light thanks to the eagle eyed work of Sheentaku and UK Anime News Network that the BBFC have demanded a 1 second cut to Episode 10 of the UK edition of Code Geass.
The justification of this removal from the BBFC is as follows:
Company [Beez Entertainment] was required to remove a shot likely to encourage an interest in underage sexual activity (in this case a young girl in the background of a shot suggesting sexual activity). Cut made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and the Video Recordings Act 1984.
Beez Entertainment have made this cut and have agreed to the terms of what the BBFC have advised. However, it has since come to light that this cut is far less than one second and is likely only to be a single frame. The offending frame has been confirmed by Andrew Partridge, the UK representative of Beez Entertainment as:
…what was cut was one second and was a static image on Anya’s phone in a scene. It’s not integral to the plot and we’re as annoyed as you are as it delays the release a little!
On the Anime UK News forums.
Thanks to the joys of the internet, the offending image has now surfaced and can be found here. This cut is causing a bit of a stir on the many UK based anime forums in relation to censorship.
The BBFC’s website has full information regarding the cut here.
Source: UK Anime News Network and Anime UK News
News - by Ian - March 15, 2010 - 12:33 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Beez Entertainment limited today confirmed via their official Twitter page, that Code Geass R2 Set 1 will be released in the UK in May.
Code Geass R2 Set 1
Release Date: 24th May 2010
Discs: 3 disc boxset
Price: £39.99 RRP
It’s also been confirmed that unlike in the USA, the series will be released in two boxsets, currently slated to contain three DVDs a piece. Currently Code Geass R2 is only available to preorder with hmv, which you can do by clicking here for £28.99.
News - by Ian - March 2, 2010 - 11:23 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Beez Entertainment in conjunction with the Bandai Channel Co. Ltd has announced that their newest work Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn) based on the incredibly successful Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is now available for online streaming previews.
Currently penned to be released worldwide on the 12th March 2010 on Blu-Ray you are now able to watch a 7 minute preview of this prestigious show. You can see this preview on Beez’s blog available here.
News - by Ian - November 15, 2009 - 16:18 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Beez Entertainment, the subsidiary of Namco Bandai, today announced via their Twitter feed that Beez Anime Legends lineup for 2010:
- Wolf’s Rain Complete Collection
- Gundam Seed Part One
These two shows will be available from the 25th January, 2010. What makes their Anime Legends lineup different from the norm, is twofold. One, the anime series are classics, most of them are older and wouldn’t always be picked up by companies due to the need for newer anime every minute of the day and the second is the price. Currently both DVDs are going being promotionally priced at £16.99 with a RRP of £24.99.
For a boxset of a complete collection, or even a partial boxset of a half series these prices are amazingly good value. Considering that a standard 3-6 episode volume is often priced between £12.99-15.99.
You can get Wolf’s Rain Complete Collection via Play.com here, and Gundam Seed Part One via Play.com here.
Source: Twitter
News - by Ian - October 20, 2009 - 19:13 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Further to the recent announcement from Beez Entertainment, they have decided to open up their poll to everyone, regardless of whether you are attending the London Expo or not. If you live in the UK, France or Germany, you can enter and potentially win some great prizes.
You can vote here.
You’ve got a month from today to vote.
News - by Ian - October 19, 2009 - 16:18 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
The lovely Andrew over at Beez Entertainment today updated their official blog with some new screenshots of one of their latest titles – Sword of the Stranger. They start off by showing the digitally 3D boxart, which looks like:
Unfortunately there are no photos of the packaging as it’s all be saved for the Expo at the weekend. But the inside will look something like:
Andrew goes on to explain that for the First Edition DVDs that there’s a ton of bonuses, such as the Making Of, an Original Short Film, a few trailers and a few other things to boot.
If you’re at the Expo this week, make sure you pick a copy up.
Source: Beez Blog
News - by Ian - October 17, 2009 - 12:11 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Beez Enterainment have announced that there’s a number of changes happening at the London Expo for them this year. The first is actually where they are going to be, rather than theri usual block they’ve joined forces with their parent company Bandai, so they will be at the Namco Bandai Partner’s area right next to the gaming area.
The biggest points for Beez this year are summarised below:
In conjunction with London MCM Expo we are proud to bring you two of the best creative minds from Japan – the President of Studio BONES and Producer of Sword of the Stranger – Masahiko Minami and the Director of Sword of the Stranger – Masahiro Ando.
Signings from both guests will occur on the Beez stand once on the Saturday (11:00-12:00) doing a second signing each day too while Mr Minami signs on the Manga stand (Saturday: 16:00-16:30 approximately for Ando-san on Beez stand and 16:30-17:30 for Minami-san on the Manga stand Sunday: Ando-san on Beez stand at 13:00-13:45 and Minami-san on Manga stand at 14:00-14:45__)!
There will be both a Studio BONES panel held by Minami-san and a Sword of the Stranger panel looking at how feature length animes are made.
We’ll be holding some giveaways in conjunction with the Namco Bandai Partners as part of their Iron Fist Tournament over at the Tekken stand across from Beez/NBP’s block.
In another amazing giveaway we will be including one full-priced Beez DVD from our back catalog (sorry no Gurren Lagann’s!) in just over 3000 of the goodie bags going out to early arrivers at London Expo in October. So best get there early to get in on it – which one will you end up getting?
Plus – looking to do your Christmas shopping early? Well we’ll be selling most of our remaining titles for 2009 at Expo including:
- Sword of the Stranger (2-DVD edition)
- Cowboy Bebop Remix set (6 DVDs)
- Code Geass Part 1 (3 DVDs)
- Code Geass Part 2 (3 DVDs)
All will be going for discounted prices (you guys know the rough pricings already, think half-way between the Gurren LE and RE prices at Expo in May for Bebop + Geass sets and far less for SotS, in limited quantity though so best come get them while you can!
So if you’re going, make sure you swing by and say Hi to Andrew and the team!
News - by Ian - October 17, 2009 - 12:03 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Beez Entertainment will be working alongside the Bandai Channel during the London Expo and a little afterwards online to ask some basic questions around a secret and upcoming project from the company. As a way of saying thank you, Beez will enter all people who answer their survey in a question where you may win:
1 x Signed Gurren Lagann artbook and pencilboard by the Japanese voice actress of Yoko from Gurren Lagann
2 x Sword of the Stranger movie
Prize winners will be selected at random and will be emailed after the survey’s processing is complete (we’ll also post when we’ve drawn the winners too)!
To take part all you have to do is come to the Beez stand, we’ll have it set up there, ask one of the staff otherwise for details about it and they’ll direct you to where it is!
News - by Ian - October 28, 2008 - 18:50 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
The London Barbican will be screening the Sword of the Stranger on the 25th November, 2008. So for anyone who wants to see this film, it’s worth pre-booking to avoid any possible disappointment with a lack of ticket availability.
Sword of the Stranger has been presented at various Festivals, such as Leeds International Film Festival, Sci-Fi London’s Oktoberfest, FANTASPOA and various others. Each time it has been received very well, with an in-depth and interesting storyline that’s based around a young boy named Kotaro and his dog, who meet nameless samurai and have to fight for survival against the living and the dead.
Recently released by Beez Entertainment, this film is available for purchase at all good anime retailers.
Source: London Barbican
News - by Ian - October 27, 2008 - 16:19 Europe/London - 1 Comment
The MCM London Expo is one of the biggest industry events in the world of anime and manga, and it concluded this weekend. There’s been a plethora of news that’s come from most of the major anime distributors this year as always, and the information is as follows:
Manga Entertainment
- All remaining Naruto episodes have now been licensed.
- Naruto – 15/12 for series 5
- Naruto Shippuden next Summer
- Blue Dragon – 2009
- Honey & Clover – 2009
- Ichigo 100% – 2009
- Ghost in the Shell: Innocence Blu Ray (Q1)
- Ghost in the Shell 2.0 with Blu Ray and theatricle release
- xxxHolic
- Claymore (in single discs)
- Darker than Black
- Afro Samurai
- Girl who leapt through time (8/12)
- Astro Boy
- Manga Store on iTunes
- Afro Samurai Resurection
MVM
- All 4 Slayers series will be released, starting in 2009. First three series’ will be across 4 discs
- The Cutey Honey live action film
- Blade of the Immortal
- Romeo X Juliet
- Desert Punk
- Solty Rei
- 1 box set every month
- Samurai Deeper Kyo
Beez
- Gurren Lagann EU exclusive, in smaller parts and EU extras
- Gundam 00
- Sword of the Stranger
- Progressive worldwide Blu-Ray releases
ADV
- Repacking prior series into box sets
- Getbackers Box sets on the way (two sets)
- Area 88 box in Jan
- Angelic Layer and DNAngel boxes in February
Along with this wave of releases, we’ve received confirmation that an “up-market” boxset of Gundam Wing is being planned from Beez, wit a new HD mastery straight from Japan along with a double volume release of Gurren Lagann.
Various anime will be appearing of XBL and iTunes shortly from Manga Entertainment. Whilst Claymore will begin to sell as single volumes, rather than a box set from January 09, and that currently Blood+ is too expensive for a UK release. Finally from Manga Entertainment, they’ve stated that the recent Funimation titles they’ve acquired are not part of an on-going agreement.
Revelation Films have also noted that they are going to finish all of their releases that they placed on hiatus with no warning earlier this year.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend this year, so if any of you have news that I’ve missed, please e-mail into webmaster(at)news-anime(dot)NOSPAMcom and I’ll add the news up as soon as possible.
Source: UKA, Eye on Anime
In May, Manga Entertainment announced that they will be releasing Freedom OVA, this title was previously only available as a limited release from Beez Entertainment, and thanks for the companies highly active Twitter feed, they have further confirmed that this series will most certainly be out in the UK on Blu-Ray.
