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Friday 31 July 2015

Industry News: Otakon 2015 Announcements Round-up (Part 2) - Discotek, Funimation & Visual Novels

Rather late on this one (apologies for that). Otakon recently happened and it's one of the biggest anime conventions primarily due to the industry announcements. While most of them were copy & paste from Anime Expo a couple of weeks ago, there's also some new additions added to the mix.

Here's the other half of the announcements.


This post will cover the announcements revealed by Discotek Media, Funimation and visual novel publishers MangaGamer and Sekai Project.

MangaGamer


MangaGamer's announcements were revealed in the middle of the night over here in the UK but they did provide some more titles for their catalogue.

Minori's Supipara chapter 1 was announced after successfully funding more than $100,000 on Kickstarter. The next goal is to release the second chapter which is set for $200,000. The visual novel is an all-ages game and will be released on Steam.

MangaGamer have also announced a new partnership with developer propeller for two titles; Tokyo Babel and The Shadows of Pygmalion (Negai no Kakera to Hakugin no Agreement). Both titles were released in all-ages form.

And the last announcements are Liarsoft's Kindred Spirits on the Roof (Okujou no Yurirei-san), an eroge yuri title, and Moonstone's Princess Evangile W Happiness, a fandisk eroge sequel to Princess Evangile which will be released in all-ages and eroge form via Steam and their website respectively.

Sekai Project


It's quite a surprise to see this company still announcing more visual novel titles considering they must have a huge backlog to work through. What's interesting is that they are now also going to publish manga for English territories starting with GATE, which is an adaptation of the original light novel of the same name. They stated more details will be revealed about the title and their manga initiative at a later date.

For visual novels, Sekai Project will be releasing the eroge game Tenshin Ranman: Luck or Unlucky!? from developer Yuzusoft. The visual novel was originally released in May 2009 on PC. In addition they also acquired Kuro Irodoru Yomiji's Ne no Kami: The two princess knights of Kyoto (Ne no Kami - Kyou no Miyako to Futari no Hime Kishi), a yuri game which will be available in Japan soon with both an eroge version and an all-ages version.

Another title that Sekai Projecr will be bringing over is Rosemary House's Witch boy magical piece, which will be Sekai Project's first Boy's Love title in their catalogue. The game was released in Japan last year for smartphones.

Last year the distributor held a kickstarter to release Alice in Dissonance's Fault Milestone One -directors cut-, At Otakon, Sekai Project announced they will be bringing over the next instalment Fault Milestone Two Side:Above.

And the last new announcement was the reveal that Nekopara Volume 0 will be coming soon from developer Neko Works. Nekopara Volume 1 was released on Steam in all-ages form while the eroge version was published via Denpasoft back in December 2014.

The last announcement were details from their Grisaia kickstarter. The all-ages spin-off Idol Magical Girl Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru will be arriving on Steam this month in two parts (as the game was released in two parts) while The Fruits of Grisaia eroge version has recently finished QC and will be available to download soon via Denpasoft.

Funimation


When I watched the live-stream for this panel I literally thought they were going to repeat the exact same thing as they did at Anime Expo. And then the announcements came in.

First up was the reveal of their latest collector's edition titles. Tokyo Ghoul (which was already announced) will have a special collector's edition (as well as a standard DVD, standard Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo pack) in a box with a lot of nice art for the digipack and covers. The set will include a Premium Collector's Box with Clear Sleeve Revealing Kaneki and Rize's Transformation from Human to Ghoul, the entire Season 1 set on both Blu-ray and DVD, a Fabric Poster, 60-page art book, 40-page blank journal and 4 Art Cards. The price is set for $129.98 and will be released on September 22nd. The other collector's edition set is Black Lagoon, which will contain all current episodes available from the series (The First Barrage, The Second Barrage & Roberta's Blood Trail) on Blu-ray contained in a Collectible "Ammo tin" chipboard box alongside a 60 page full-color art book with a Black Lagoon lighter and dog tags. The price has not been revealed but it will be available this November,

Next up was their plans for theatrical screenings of a couple of their anime titles, most of them were new acquisitions. Existing titles include Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and the Beast and Naoyoshi Shiotani & Gen Urobuchi's Psycho Pass the Movie but in addition they will also be releasing the new Ghost in the Shell movie (from the ARISE series) and their recent acquisition of the live-action Attack on Titan films. Ghost in the Shell: the New Movie and Shingeki no Kyojin will be in screens this fall while the others will be available in 2016.

The next announcement is an early pickup for the upcoming season in 2016 with Assassination Classroom Season 2. The distributor have the first season and also dubbed it as part of their Broadcast Dubs list.

These next couple are entirely new announcements that were not leaked or hinted at all to anyone.

Funimation have acquired the Project Itoh film trilogy; which consists of Genocidal Organ, Harmony and The Empire of Corpses. Each film is handled by a different studio while the stories are based on the late Project Itoh works. Studio manglobe and director Shukou Murase will be working on Genocidal Organ, Studio 4°C and directors Takashi Nakamura and Michael Arias for Harmony, and WIT Studio and director Ryoutarou Makihara for The Empire of Corpses. The films are scheduled for Japanese theatrical release this fall but the Funimation releases are planned for 2016.

The next announcement is a license rescue with Noein: To Your Other Self, which was once released on DVD by Manga Entertainment, will soon be available on Blu-ray and DVD with the existing English dub and Japanese audio w/English subtitles this November.

And the last announcement blew everyone away including the host Justin Rojas who actually found out about it the day before Otakon. The company will be releasing the original Mach Go Go Go on Blu-ray and DVD. The show is known very well outside Japan as Speed Racer. It will be the first time that the series will be released uncut and uncensored with Japanese audio w/English subtitles. The English dub will also be included in the set though it's unknown whether it will be re-dubbed as the original applied only to the cut version. No release date has been planned as of yet.

Discotek Media


The final industry panel went to Discotek Media (or Eastern Star). They only had two new announcements but they did provide a lot of new information for their existing titles.

Starting off with the new acqisitions they have picked up Gaiking (Daikuu Maryuu Gaiking) with all 44 episodes and in Japanese with English subtitles, and also rescuing Wicked City (Youjuu Toshi) from Manga Entertainment & Streamline Pictures. The film will include both English dubs as well as Japanese w/English subtitles with a new remaster on DVD. Both titles will be released sometime in 2016.

For new details on the existing catalogue, here's a summary:
Darkstalkers (Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge)
- All 4 OVAs, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, Newly remastered, DVD Early 2016

Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei)
- All 13 episodes, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, DVD September 29th

IGPX
- All 26 episodes, Japanese with English subtitles and English dubs from the uncut version and Toonami version, Newly remastered in original widescreen format, Packed with extras, "People ask for the micro series, as of right now, the plan is to include them all", DVD November 2015

Iria: Zeiram the Animation
- All 6 OVAs, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, New cleaner master for DVD, Extras are tentative

Lupin the Third: Jigen's Gravestone
- Film, Discotek's first English dub that's not from someone else, Blu-ray and DVD 2016

Lupin the Third: Voyage to Danger
- Film, The first Lupin film rescued from Funimation, Discotek will pursue the others if the film sells well, DVD 2016

Lupin the Third vs Detective Conan
- OVA special and Film, 2016, Discotek has no plans to rescue Detective Conan

Magic Knight Rayearth
- All 49 episodes, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, Newly remastered in High Defintion, DVD in December 2015 with Blu-ray arriving sometime in Winter 2016

Night on the Galactic Railroad (Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru)
- Film, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, Extras are tentative, Blu-ray and DVD in November

Robot Carnival
- All 9 OVAs, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, All new subtitles, September 1st

Samurai Pizza Cats (SD on Blu-ray release)
- All 52 episodes, English dub version, Experimenting with Standard Definition content on Blu-ray, There are no HD masters, all 52 episodes are SD, September

Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo (Shin Getter Robo tai Neo Getter Robo)
- All 4 OVAs, Japanese with English subtitles, Blu-ray sometime in September

Street Fighter II: The Movie
- Film, "Yes, it's uncut", Blu-ray and DVD, Both the unrated dub tracks, Japanese audio track and the PG-13 edit will be included, 2016

Super Dimension Century Orguss (Choujikuu Seiki Orguss)
- All 35 episodes, Japanese with English subtitles, with the first 17 episodes available in English dub, September 29th

Toei's A Little Mermaid (Andersen Douwa Ningyo Hime)
- Film, Japanese with English subtitles and English dub, September 29th

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
- Film, English audio, Due to licensing issues the Japanese dub is not included, the film was produced in English, Blu-ray on September 9th while DVD on September 22nd

Yowamushi Pedal
- All 64 episodes (38 from Season 1 and 24 from Season 2), Japanese with English subtitles, 2016

And that's pretty much it for the Otakon announcements. I wonder what could top up these recent announcements from this month, heh.

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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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