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Sunday 25 October 2015

Industry News: MCM London Comic Con (October 2015) Announcements (Part 2)

MCM Comic Con London has officially reached its third and final day now. The second day didn't have any major panels but fans were able to experience four anime films as part of MCM Loves Anime. The next day featured the last two major anime panels - Gundam and Anime Ltd Part 2. This second part of the news post will feature the remaining new announcements from Anime Ltd including MVM Entertainment's social media news.


I'll start with MVM Entertainment as they only have a couple titles to announce. It's worth mentioning that they unveiled a lot of titles scheduled for 2016 back in May so it's not a surprise that the announcements this weekend were rather small.

The distributor have licensed three new titles for home release.
 - GATE
 - Hanamonogatari
 - Monster Musume: Everyday Life With Monster Girls

GATE and Monster Musume were among the most popular shows of the summer 2015 season and while both could have gone to Animatsu thanks to Sentai, it certainly does fit MVM's catalogue. GATE's license applies to Season 1 as far as I know so it may take a while for Season 2 to be licensed. As for Monster Musume, this might cause a problem with the BBFC due to the uncensored scenes so it's a matter of whether it ends up with an 18 uncut or not. I feel it's going to be problematic if the BBFC decide to mess things up with the title because if MVM do have to put up with cuts then it's going to cause poor sales.

And of course we finally see a release for Hanamonogatari. This arc was once part of the Second Season airing for Monogatari but was pushed back as its own OVA series (it's still part of Second Season in the novels). It's odd that Tsukimonogatari wasn't also licensed but I guess MVM have a pushback limit with that title. All of the titles announced are scheduled for next year, with Hanamonogatari available in Japanese w/English subtitles only.

MVM also revealed a new update with Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works which is now scheduled for March 23rd. The Blu-ray release will be a collector's edition featuring the exact same style that Hanabee are releasing - a rigid box with a poster, booklet and even the exact same discs as the Aniplex release (yep they're using 4 discs). The price is unknown but my guess is that it'll cost around £69.99 if we're lucky. The series will contain an English dub and Japanese w/English subtitles.

And now we have another batch of Anime Limited news. Unfortunately their second panel turned out to be dedicated entirely to Viewster and their Omakase service but the distributor did the good deed of announcing everything on social media. You thought 4 titles was enough to reveal, well they just added 9 more plus 3 Gundam titles to the mix. That's a lot of titles.


The additional nine new titles set for home release are as follows:
 - The Anthem of the Heart (Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda.)
 - Attack on Titan: Junior High (Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou)
 - Brother's Conflict
 - The Case of Hana & Alice (Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken)
 - Claymore [Blu-ray]
 - Prison School
 - Selected Infector Wixoss
 - Snow White with the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime)
 - Tokyo Marble Chocolate

And the additional three Gundam titles set for the UK are as follows:
 - Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
 - Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
 - Turn-A Gundam

This is an interesting combination of licenses here. First of, most of them are already licensed by Funimation so that's further evidence that the distributor could be a replacement for Manga UK when it comes to releasing these sort of shows for the UK.

The Anthem of the Heart was a surprise addition which was announced exclusively via Twitter after rounding up the second batch of titles on Saturday. The film has already been licensed by Aniplex of America and it's from the same studio as Anohana. I expect a relatively reasonable priced release sometime next year.

Attack on Titan: Junior High is an adaptation of the spin-off manga of the same name and it's odd to see the distributor handling this title instead of Manga UK however over in France they have the main series so it's a reasonable fit for the company. The series will no doubt sell well for them so it's a good pickup. Funimation have licensed this in North America.

Brother's Conflict is a reverse harem series and one that Funimation have delayed for quite some time in North America (it's confirmed to have an English dub). It's a very strange addition to Anime Ltd's catalogue but I haven't seen the show so I can't make an opinion yet.

The Case of Hana & Alice was another title that I figured would be announced at some point as it was leaked alongside Haruhi. The fact that it showcased at Scotland Loves Anime and won everyone over it was bound to get Anime Ltd's attention sooner than later. The film was also rotoscoped which is interesting considering the last major anime with that effect (The Flowers of Evil) didn't seem to fair well with the community.

Probably the biggest surprise for me was Claymore getting a Blu-ray release from Anime Ltd. I received word that Funimation's master (despite being done in-house) was also used in the Japanese release so the quality won't be better which is a shame but knowing the distributor they'll provide a nice box set for the show. The show will have an English dub and Japanese w/English subtitles.

Now this is ironic. Back in MCM London Comic Con in May, Anime Ltd stated that they wouldn't purse Prison School because of the possibility that it could get cut by the BBFC (and that the distributor wants to release their shows uncut and uncensored) and now they have it *laughs*. Anywho Prison School is one of the best summer 2015 shows and is worthy of their catalogue. I would argue the show could escape with a hard 18 rating but it's up to the ratings board to decide that, at least the manga is released uncut and uncensored by Yen Press. The show is licensed by Funimation in the states and has also received a broadcast English dub.

Selector Infected Wixoss became a cult hit of sorts in the anime community and to see it licensed isn't surprising given the positive reception over it. It's already released by Funimation so Anime Ltd should get this show out there as soon as possible (at least in Q1). The show has also received an English dub.

Snow White with the Red Hair has also been given the buzz in the community and it has been a favourite for many throughout the summer 2015 season. The show has also been licensed by Funimation in the states. A second season is on the way early next year so I expect that will get licensed as well.

And lastly, I have never heard of Tokyo Marble Chocolate. From looking at the info on MAL, it's a two episode OVA series done by Production I.G. from back in 2007. Sounds interesting and I wouldn't mind picking it up. The series hasn't been licensed in the states also.

Now for Gundam. Having Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ appearing isn't a surprise as they're continuations to Gundam '79. It's worth pointing out that Zeta Gundam has an English dub while Gundam ZZ doesn't so how this gets released is going to be interesting, I think the Dynasty Warriors Gundam games dubbed the characters from the latter series so if they do make one they could bring those VAs back. Meanwhile there's Turn-A Gundam which was already released by Rightstuf in the states but is known to be one of the most popular Gundam shows in the franchise so I look forward to watching it.

And that's it for the announcements. Overall it was worth the wait to hear these shows revealed. I'm happy to see Anime Ltd picking up shows that Funimation have grabbed, gives us UK fans a sigh of relief and also the opportunity to have a Funimation release without the defects that Manga releases tend to have. Though I was disappointed for the lack of retro licenses, though Haruhi was a big one I was expecting a few more to be licensed especially from the Beez days.

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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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