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Wednesday 25 May 2016

Industry News: Aniplex of America ACen 2016 + May 2016 Announcements

This past weekend was the Anime Central 2016 convention and while there was not that much announced for other publishers, Aniplex offered to unveil some new additions to their ever growing catalogue. In addition we also have one more added a couple days after.

Here's the small list of titles Aniplex are planning on releasing over the course of the Summer/Q3 2016 season.


Before going into the new titles, it's been officially announced that Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi) has been greenlit to receive an English dub. This is good news for the fans so I expect an early 2017 release at the very least.

In total we have 1 film, 1 OVA/special and 1 show getting domestic releases. As mentioned in the previous announcement on Aniplex, this summer also includes Persona 3 the Movie #4 import and domestic releases of Nisekoi:, Plastic Memories and Wagnaria!!3.

Classmates

Japanese title: Dou kyu sei
Release format: Single Volume


Film
Blu-ray Features
Release Date: September 20th 2016
Spoken Language: Japanese
Subtitles: English
Episodes: Film
Number of Discs: 1 Blu-ray Disc
Total Run Time: Approx. 60 min.
Rating: 13UP
Suggested Retail Price: $74.98
Retail Price: $59.98

Bonus Contents
PV & CM Collections

Bonus Materials and Special Package
Deluxe Booklet
Illustration Cards
Package Illustrated by Asumiko


Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Japanese title: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
Release format: Box Set


Complete Series Box Set
Blu-ray Features
Release Date: August 23rd 2016
Spoken Language: Japanese & English
Subtitles: English
Episodes: #1-12
Number of Discs: 3 Blu-ray Discs
Total Run Time: Approx. 300 min.
Rating: 13UP
Suggested Retail Price: $149.98
Retail Price: $119.98

Bonus Contents
Trailer Collection
Textless Opening & Ending
Ending Theme Song “Magia” music video by Kalafina

Bonus Materials and Special Package
Package illustrated by Takahiro Kishida (Character Design)
4-page insert
Clear cases with 2-sided wraps

Sword Art Online: Extra Edition

Japanese title: Sword Art Online: Extra Edition
Release format: Single Volume


OVA - Standard Edition
Blu-ray Features
Release Date: June 14th 2016
Spoken Language: Japanese & English
Subtitles: English & Spanish
Episodes: Film
Number of Discs: 1 Blu-ray Disc
Total Run Time: Approx. 120 min.
Rating: 13UP
Suggested Retail Price: $49.98
Retail Price: $39.98

Bonus Contents
Special Animation ”Sword Art Offline” (English subtitled)
SAO II Trailer

This is quite the surprise now isn't it.

Well the obvious one here is the appearance of Classmates (Dou kyu sei). The film was translated for US theaters this year and since the Japanese home release has already been set with no English support, it was expected that we would eventually see a domestic version and here it is. There is no dub for this film and I guess that's to be expected due to the nature of it. It may not be getting the best of treatments from Aniplex but it's on my radar to pickup on Blu-ray.

Now for the unexpected, we have a complete collection set for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV series. Even though Durarara!! received one, this is technically the first time Aniplex of America have done this for one of their catalogue titles. Durarara!!'s case was simply coping the Japanese model including the discs so that doesn't count. I was most certainly not expecting this to happen at all, heck I guess this means that Aniplex really do want to keep their titles in print this time around. It does however look like they're dropping DVD formats though which is fine by me since everybody should have access to Blu-ray by now.

Another surprise is a standard edition Blu-ray for the Sword Art Online: Extra Edition OVA. This went out of print back in April 2016, and lasted for about 14 months which is pretty quick for a single Aniplex title. I was not expecting this because Extra Edition is essentially a 2 hour recap with some fanservice added to it, though it is technically canon to the anime as it connects the two seasons together. Either way it's now available again and I will be able to pick it up later this year (or next year depending on what happens).

In terms of what could be expected for the rest of year, we should see Owarimonogatari releases at some point and potentially the first Kizumonogatari film. For other titles there's rumours that GOD EATER may receive a dubbed release which is cool because the games are finally coming out on PS4 soon. Charlotte news is coming as mentioned in one of the live streams but it does look like it'll be a subtitle only release despite the attention it got during its simulcast.

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Member of the Anime UK News forum, and also once part of the Sheffield Hallam Visual Arts society throughout 2013-2017. Been collecting anime since 2012 and supported the anime distributors ever since. Also been hanging around on the Blu-ray forum and Fandom Post forums.

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