Licence notes from Anime Expo

Well, in addition to the 4th of July festivities going on across the US this weekend, we’ve also got another event going on in the US – Anime Expo in Southern California. While I was not able to attend this year, I was able to get some information from other sites about the new licences and so forth coming from the convention. All of this is courtasy of Anime News Network.

RightStuf/Noizomi Entertainment

In addition to announcing re-releases of His & Her Circumstances, Astro Boy ’63, & Boogeypop Phantom, they’ve licenced the forth season of the Shojo-Ai series Maria Watches Over Us, and fantasy anime Rental Magica, Aria TV, and the shonen-ai series Junjo Romantica, and Antique Bakery. They’ve also saved a few hentai series from Central Park Media’s adult line, but those don’t show up in our digital disk picks, and we don’t review porn, I won’t be getting into that. They don’t give a title list anyway, but if I was going to make a wild guess for a title they might of rescued, I’d pick La Blue Girl.

Bandai Entertainment

Bandai has box sets upcoming for Gundam 00, and Gurren Lagann. Also, Hayate The Combat Butler, is finally getting a DVD release, as is the Lucky Star OVA. We don’t really have any new licences aside from the upcoming Eureka Seven movie.

CMX Manga

As a nice change, DC Comics’ manga label had a lot of new licences to announce, including Oh! My Brother (a body switch comedy), Battle of Genryu: Origin (a martial arts series similar to Tenjho Tenge only slightly less extreme), Rampage (a series set in China’s Three Kingdoms period), and My Darling! Miss Bansho (a series about a girl who ends up in charge of all the gangs at her school).

Aniplex

One of the few if only anime studios at the show, Aniplex showed off some of their series that were already broadcasting, as well as films that had not been released yet (such as Gurren Lagann: Childhood’s End, which covers the second half of the series. They did announce one new series in production, Garden of Sinners, a supernatural horror series created by Type-Moon (who did Tsukihime, and Fate/Stay Night), and the short film Cencoroll, which is being done by hand by independent animator Atsuyu Uki, by himself.

Viz Media

The second Bleach movie, Diamond Dust Rebellion, will be coming out for a limited theatrical release starting in the middle of August, with a DVD release in September. Finally, the first DVD boxed set of Naruto Shippuden will be coming out in late September. There was also some stuff related to the various Death Note live action films, which will be coming out on DVD throughout September.

Funimation

Funimaton willo be releasing DVDs for the original Dragonball series, including the original 13 episodes which were kind of in licencing limbo. They also will be releasing DVDs for Sgt. Frog, season 2 of Gunslinger Girl, and the anime spinoff of Sega’s upcoming game Sands of Destruction. They also announced that hey had the licence for Sengoku Basara, the anime series based on Capcom’s Devil Kings series of games. They also announced the dub cast for Slayers Revolution, which has Central Park Media’s dub cast returning, with Lisa Ortiz as Lina, Eric Stewart as Gourry, and Crispin Freeman as Zelgadis. I wasn’t too familar with most of the dub performances except for Crispin’s, so I re-watched some of Slayers this weekend with the English Dub, and it holds up rather well (at least the core cast).

So, that’s it thus far. I’ll post additional updates as they come in, but I’m not expecting any really bombshell licence announcements (such as the licence of season two of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which is currently airing in Japan – the review of the first season is currently sitting in my queue) or any additional major series that were salavaged from Central Park Media (such as Patlabor or Lodoss), until either San Diego Comic Con or Otakon (if Right Stuf was going to make a big deal about specific titles in the hentai they’d rescued, they’d probably do it at Otakon.) We’re still missing ADV’s panel, which is either going this evening or will happen tommorow.

More news as I hear about it.