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Haruhi Arrives! After the teasing advertising at the start of the year, the much anticipated Melancholy of Haruhi Suzamiya has been confirmed for release by Beez. Details are scarce at the moment, but the first of four volumes is pencilled in for release on 26th May, with the remaining volumes released monthly thereafter. It looks like Beez will be releasing a standard and special edition of each volume too, with the standard one costing £19.99 and the special edition of volume 1 at £39.99 and subsequent special editions costing £34.99. We expect the first volume special edition to include an artbox to hold the whole series, hence the higher price. More details should be released at this weekend's Minamicon, and we'll report on it as soon as we return. Source: Beez |
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Out Yesterday Another quiet release day, with Beez closing in on the final volumes of both Eureka 7 and .hack://ROOTS. Manga unleash the next 10 episode volume of Bleach, but intriguingly we also see the live action incarnation of Revelation's excellent Mushishi. .hack://ROOTS vol 5 (Beez) Source: Various |
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Lagoon With a View Thos good folks at MVM have been kind enough to give us some clips of the forthcoming Black Lagoon vol 1 for your viewing pleasure. Check them out at the links below, but be warned - they're pretty violent! Source: MVM |
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Out Yesterday Without ADV's planned releases it looks a bit sparse, but Revelation manfully step up to the plate with the horror title Hell Girl and the continuation of the superb Mushishi. Hell Girl vol 1 (Revelation) Source: Various |
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Death Note Confirmed! Following Wednesday's speculation over the possible UK release of Death Note, Manga Entertainment have confirmed to us that they have indeed got the licence! Manga have always been favourite to release it in the UK, despite telling us that they didn't have the license when we spoke to them in December. We're just glad that this excellent series is coming to the UK though! Source: Manga
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Death Note for UK? Some random looking at forthcoming titles on Amazon and Play.Com has turned up a few surprises! According to the online retailers the following titles are lined up for release: Death Note vol 1 - Episodes 1-8 According to Amazon, Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, Lupin and Space Adventure Cobra are being released by Anchor Bay, but as the site also lists Bleach as being released by Anchor Bay this points to Manga Entertainment having the licenses. Mar and Megaman are only listed on Play.Com, which doesn't list distributors, so it is unknown who will be releasing them. Play.Com also lists Ex Machina, which we assume refers to Appleseed 2 - Ex Machina. No release date is given for this yet, for release dates of the other titles, check out our release schedule. Source: MVM |
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Love Hina Again, and Again... Those nice people at MVM have been kind enough to send us through a host of clips of the recently released romantic comedy Love Hina Again! Love Hina Again is the final chapter of the popular anime incarnation of Ken Akamatsu's successful manga Love Hina, and to see what it's all about check out the following clips: Clip 1:
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Free Anime! Some people may remember Manga Entertainment's Anime Showcase DVD, a special cut-price disc available exclusively through HMV. It contained no less than three full anime episodes as well as a host of trailers and previews, all for the jaw-dropping price of £3.95. Well, now they've gone one better. But a DVD in HMV's sale (starting 25th Feb) and you can pick Anime Showcase 2 for free. Yep, you read that right. Anime Showcase 2 contains the first two episodes of both Naruto and Bleach, so that's four complete episodes for nothing! Great stuff. Source: Manga
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Lagoon Marooned MVM have informed us that the first volume of their forthcoming actioner Black Lagoon will now hit the shelves a week later than originally scheduled. It will now be released on the 10th March, but it's worth the wait. Check out our review here. Source: MVM |
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Out Today Don't get too excited now, but today there's a grand total of one DVD released! Oban Star Racers Complete Box Set (Liberation) Source: Various |
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ADV Link Up With Lace Digital Media Sales Announced ADV Films have today announced that Lace Digital Media Sales will become their sales and distribution partners for the UK and Germany. The deal will see LDMS handle seemingly every part of ADV's UK operations, from frontline sales and marketing to production, design, finance, PR and promotion. They will also take on ADV's impressive catalogue of titles and aim to strengthen ADV's business in Europe, but nothing has yet been announced as to when their releases will commence. Please click here to read the full press release. Whilst on paper the fact that the partnership will see ADV's titles continue to be released in the UK seems great news, there is a dark side. Effectively this deal means the closure of both ADV Films' UK and Germany offices, and the loss of a dedicated staff both familiar to many fans and integral to the anime community as a whole. It's sad to see ADV's survival come at such a cost, and the impact this will have on anime events across the country has yet to be seen. For us it is a bittersweet day. ADV UK, and in particular their marketing head Hugh David, have always been very supportive of us and have been a driving force in the anime community since the VHS days. It's hard to think of the UK market without them, and we sincerely wish all of ADV UK's staff the best for the future. Source: ADV
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MVM Doing A-OK! Whilst ADV Films' future may be in doubt, MVM seem to be going from strength to strength. Today it was announced that MVM would reduce the price of it's single-disc DVDs from the current £19.99 or £17.99 to £15.99 each! Boxsets will remain the price they are now, but the lower cost of many of MVM's other titles will bring them to a level footing with Revelation Films, who have been releasing anime DVDs for £15.99 since 2006. With ADV's situation bringing a general gloom to anime fans in the UK, it's nice to have some good news from a UK anime company. With titles like Trinity Blood, Black Cat and Ergo Proxy covered by the reduction, MVM have certainly cheered us up a bit! Source: MVM |
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Cities of Gold Discovered! After waiting for so many years we've lost count, the classic French/Japanese anime series Mysterious Cities of Gold is due to hit DVD on 24th March! All 39 episodes are being released by Fabulous Films in a single six-disc boxset which is available exclusively through HMV. Fabulous have done a great job of asking fans what extras they wanted and they've delivered a great selection that includes cast and crew interviews, deleted scenes, biographies, storyboards, a karaoke version of the theme tune and concept designs. Best of all though is the inclusion of the mini-documentaries that originally followed each episode, and random footage of Philip Schofield singing along to the theme tune on Children's BBC! Fabulous also intend to include an A3 poster and collector's postcards. RRP is £54.99, but the pre-order price is £37.99 - a saving of seventeen quid! Trust us when we say that this series is well worth picking up, unlike many children's series of the 1980's it still stands up today. It's a shame that the Japanese dub is not going to be included, but with fully restored picture and sound we can't wait to see this classic series nonetheless! Click here to see the DVD on the HMV website. Source: Fabulous
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Out Today A new month, and a new selection of anime! Sadly ADV's current predicament sees 009-1 vol 3 and the first volume of Ah! My Goddess Season 2 drop from the schedule, but MVM fill the breach with no less than six releases. Four of them are continuations of ongoing series, including the next volume of the excellent Ergo Proxy, but we also have one boxset and one new release... Basilisk vol 5 - Shades of Night (MVM) Source: Various |
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ADV Halt Selected DVD Distribution Following yesterday's unexpected clearance sale, it seems that some of the odd rumours we had heard actually had some truth to them. Today we have received an ADV Films press release stating that their forthcoming titles are on hold whilst they move their operations from a 'US run office outsourcing to retail partners, to a partnership with a yet-to-be-named local home entertainment group'. The series on hold are: Pumpkin Scissors What this means for ADV Films in the UK, apart from the suspension of releases, is unclear. It does however, sound like ADV Films are planning to distribute their titles in the UK through another company rather than handle everything through their own UK operation. Considering we received the press release from Anime-on-Line, the retail arm of fellow UK anime distributor MVM, it seems a possibility that they may be the company ADV could collaborate with. However, it could also be that the press release was sent to all retailers and they just decided to make it public. Until we hear official word from ADV we're unsure of how this will affect them in the coming year, but we hope that they and their staff will be around for a long time to come. Source: Anime-On-Line |
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