News - by Ian - January 6, 2010 - 17:59 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Manga Entertainment today announced that they will be releasing of the most anticipated films of the year to the UK in September 2010. One of the most highly rated anime films of 2009, Summer Wars is the latest film from Mamoru Hosoda, the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.
Summer Wars
Kenji Koiso is a child prodigy and this mathematically minded genius spends a large portion of his time immersed in a massive computer simulated viral world, OZ. At the beginning of his summer vacation, our socially inept genius is asked to help in celebrating his crush, Natsuki Shinohara’s great grandmother’s 90th birthday.
Before he knows it, he’s the lead of a news story about the destruction of his favourite computer game OZ and has to learn how to deal with this as well as enlist the help of Natsuki’s family to clear his name.
Release: September 2010
Format: Theatrical Release
Release: October/November 2010
Format: Standard Definition DVD and Blu-Ray DVD
Yes, Manga Entertainment also confirmed today that Summer Wars will be released in both standard definition DVD and Blu-Ray DVD in September.
Update:
Manga Entertainment today confirmed that they are planning for a theatrical release of Summer Wars in September and then a DVD release in both Blu-Ray and Standard Definition in October or November time.
Source: Twitter
News - by Ian - November 25, 2009 - 17:11 Europe/London - 1 Comment
Manga Entertainment are becoming known for securing the rights to some older anime and selling it in the UK, this has been especially noted with the old Miyazaki classic: Panda Go Panda!. Today it has been announced that they have secured the rights to another pre-Ghibli Miyazaki work – Sherlock Hound.
Sherlock Hound
“Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) during his time at Japan’s largest animation studio, TMS. Before he went on to create Totoro and Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki captured a whole generation of childrens’ imaginations with his retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries using a loveable cast of canines. For the first time ever in the UK, all 26 episodes of the cult toon classic are collected into one deluxe box set.
“Sherlock Hound”, released as either Famous Detective Holmes or Detective Holmes in Japan, is an anime based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series where all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic animals, the majority dogs, though Holmes is a fox and his enemy Professor Moriarty is a wolf. The show featured regular appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology, adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series. It consists of 26 episodes aired between 1984 and 1985.” – hmv
Available:
1st February 2010 – 5 Disc Complete Set
This classic Miyazaki series retells the famous Sherlock Holmes story as friendly dogs and is an easily accessable and adorable series. You can pre-order this now from hmv here.
Source: Manga Entertainment’s Twitter Feed
News - by Ian - November 8, 2009 - 14:53 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
In an interview with UKA, Manga Entertainment have confirmed that their up and coming release of Evangelion 1.11 – You Are (Not) Alone, will be available in both Blu-Ray and DVD upon release. In the same interview Manga have also confirmed that they the rights to the theatrical release of the film, Evangelion 1.01, although there is currently no confirmation as to whether this will reach a DVD release.
Evangellon 1.11 is the first in a planned quartet of films retelling the original Neon Geneis Evangelion series. Currently there are three versions of this film, 1.0, 1.01 and 1.11, all of which are exactly the same but with each version fix errors or enhance the visual quality of the film. The exception to this rule is 1.11, which contains a further three minutes of footage.
Source: UKA
News - by Ian - September 22, 2009 - 20:13 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
To celebrate the official release of the incredibly popular manga series by Shigeru Mizuki from the 1950s, we’ve been granted access to four trailers of the live action Japanese DVD version of Kitaro.
Based around Japanese folklore, this fantasy adventure’s lead character is a yokai, or a spirit monster and their interaction with the human world.
Kitaro is due on sale on Monday by Manga Entertainment.
News - by Ian - November 13, 2008 - 21:07 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
At the London MCM Expo this year, there were various announcements made from all of the main players in the anime industry in the UK, from ADV Films to Manga Entertainment. Manga this year announced that they will be releasing many different series in the first quarter of next year; however, one anime that they had not previously announced has shown up on Amazon.co.uk.
Manga announced that they will be releasing the second series of Negima, although the series that’s popped up on Amazon is the fanservice heavy Negima Spring & Summer Special will be released on the 2nd February, 2009.
No official word just yet from Manga, but hopefully we’ll see something soon.
Source: UK Anime
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
News - by Ian - October 27, 2008 - 16:09 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Variety have reported that Warner Brothers and the production company of the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Appian Way, have gained the rights to create a live-action adaptation of the much loved Ninja Scroll.
There are various people rumoured to be writing the script, and it’s been said that DiCaprio will not be playing a starring role in the film. Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Mike Ireland will be working with Madhouse to create the film.
The Ninja Scroll anime boxsets have both been released by MVM Entertainment in the past three years, although in the USA this was captured by Manga Entertainment.
Source: Variety
Reviews - by Ian - October 24, 2008 - 13:02 Europe/London - 2 Comments
MÄR is somewhat of an oddity in the anime world, continuing to produce new episodes even after the highly successfully manga series has now ended. With a good production value, and an interesting plotline, the series is approaching a point where there’s no longer any manga to source its plotline from. Therefore it’s time to start spotting continuity errors, however, this doesn’t appear to be the case.
For those who are just picking up the series, it’s important to understand the back-story otherwise it’s very easy to get lost in this anime. As with all Shonen Jump animes, there’s a long storyline with multiple characters who’s main aim is to fight evil. Fortunately, there’s much more to MÄR than the typical format of battle, train, battle stronger enemy, gain new skill and train some more. Although throughout the first few episodes of previous volumes this is prevalent, Volume 3 starts to pick up more of a complicated storyline. The basic premise to the show is that our hero Ginta Toramizu is an under performing high schooler who dreams of a fantasy world when he’s sleeping. This world turns out to exist and he is summoned to MÄR Heaven to help defend the world from the evil Chess Piece Army; who want to start the War Games again. Along with his comrades, Jack, Princess Snow, Alan, Alviss, Dorothy, Babbo and various others Ginta has to fight these enemies and defend the new world he’s fallen into, whilst avenging his father’s death.
Picking up where Volume 2 ended, the first episode has a brief synopsis of what’s happened in the past 26 episodes. Koyuki delivers this monologue to Ginta’s mother in the human world. It details how many previous battles our heroes have faced and how everyone is completely behind Ginta and the team in the MÄR Heaven. Jack has just defeated a member of the Chess Piece Army and it’s now Princess Snow’s turn to battle on the Volcano Stage.
Naturally, Princess Snow battles her very hardest on the Volcano Stage; however, she become very weary as it’s not her natural stage to battle in. She unfortunately looses the battle and this means that the rest of the team have to pick up the slack, with battles against various enemies it falls to Alviss to battle the strongest enemy on the field, the Knight Class Rolan. Of course they win, but much more is learnt along the way.
More importantly though, Alviss discovers that there’s another person with the Zombie Tattoo, and other people are willing to accept it. Phantom also plays a lot more importance in this volume, along with a lot more from Dorothy. The team go back into the Training Door, although fortunately very little is seen of their training and more information to push the storyline along is divulged to the audience.
The team also travel to Caldia, the homeland of Dorothy. This land has a strict anti-forigner policy; however, this is wavered for Dorothy and it soon becomes apparent that Dorothy is actually a princess in this land and that her sister is Diana, which is actually Princess Snow’s stepmother. This woman is also the Queen of the Chess Piece Army, and more and more information is given to the viewer about Princess Snow and Dorothy’s back-story. When visiting this land Ginta soon realises that the War Games are actually war, and not a fun game and all of the rest of the cast are given new ÄRMs.
As with the previous two volumes, the animation is clear and is well drawn. Some of the characters do appear a little generic, with Ginta being one of the more generic looking characters; however, their personalities are all fairly distinct and although there is some clear fanservice in the show on the whole everything is very well done. As is expected with the certificate, there’s no blood or gore, just a lot of fighting and movement.
The Guardian ÄRMs as before are all done in CGI, and more of them are seen in this volume, with the introduction of one of Ginta’s new Guardian ÄRMs which is one of the main contributing factors to the fanservice, but also the butt of many jokes later that brings the mood of the show up.
The Japanese voice actors are brilliant and portray the emotions of the characters very well; the English team also have done a great job. With some very generic lines, the cast are all comfortable with their characters and although they do stray a bit from the subtitles, at no time is the meaning changed. Although there is a few swear words in the subtitles, none of these translate to the dub.
The DVD menu system is well designed and works well, and it doesn’t show half of the show before allowing one to select the options of what language and episode to select. The extras are lacking, with there only being trailers on one disc for a few other shows, there are no other extras at all.
» Final Score
7
MÄR Volume 3 suffers with the same lack of extras as previous volumes, but this show is quickly become more character based than fight based which is great. With more of the storyline becoming apparent the show becomes more interesting with each episode. Fortunately the strong casting of the characters continues to push interest for this title. However, this show is for the Shonen Jump fan, although there’s a great storyline, most people won’t enjoy the copious amounts of battles.
News - by Ian - October 22, 2008 - 11:56 Europe/London - 1 Comment
Thanks to the kind people over at Manga Entertainment, we at News-Anime are offering three people the chance to win a copy of Straight Jacket on DVD. All you need to do is answer the very easy question over on the Competitions page and we’ll select a winner at random very shortly.
Straight Jacket is a three part, steampunk action-horror OVA which has been based around the already hugely popular light novel series written by Ichiro Sakaki and illustrated by You Fujishiro, and it’s due out on the 27th October, or next week.
This screenplay has been directed by Shinji Ushiro and is an action-packed, bloody saga that will appeal to fans of Full Metal Alchemist, Hellboy Aniamted, Buso Renkin and various other action/horror animes. For the old-school among us, it will remind them of Legend of the Overfiend.
So just get yourself over to the competition page and answer the incredibly easy question!
News - by Ian - October 15, 2008 - 07:13 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Recently Manga Entertainment announced that it will be releasing a number of very popular animes onto the Xbox Live network via their Video Store. The service will allow viewers to download the released media and have up to 30 days to watch the films. Within that 30 day period the film can be watched for only 24 hours after it first starts, so you are able to watch the film two or three times in the same day, but that’s it.
The films that are currently releassed are Ghost in the Shell and Blood: The Last Vampire, these join Black Jack, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Kai Doh Maru and Ninja Scroll.
There’s no announcement as to whether they will be subbed or dubbed, but it’s like to the latter.
Source: Manga Entertainment
News - by Ian - October 14, 2008 - 07:16 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!
Yesterday it was announced that Manga Entertainment have teamed up in the United Kingdom, and Manga Entertainment will be able to market, sell and distribute various titles from Funimation’s library.
Just a few of the titles licensed to Manga Entertainment are “Claymore,” “Negima Season 2,” “Darker Than Black,” “Ghost Hunt”, “Jyu Oh Sei”, “Ouran High School Host Club,” “Sasami,” “My Santa,” “Save Me Lollipop,” Baldr Force EXE”, and “xxxHOLiC,” with the first releases set for later this month and November.
“Our sales and marketing expertise, coupled with Funimation’s strong lineup of titles, convinced both companies that these could be some of the best selling new franchises of 2009 in the UK,” said Colin Lomax, Managing Director, Anchor Bay Entertainment UK/Manga Entertainment, a Starz Media company.
This is great news for Manga, but it must be a disappointment for MVM.
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