Brent talks with the awesome Adam Sheehan of Funimation about how he's seen anime fandom change in the past half-decade, as well as what's going on with Funimation.
Media Blasters has licensed Squid Girl. The first six episodes will be released on one DVD (which will be "loaded with extras"! nice!) on September 27th (which is only 3 months away. wow). It'll retail at US $25, so expect it to be more like $17 on Amazon.com and RightStuf. It'll include a dub, too.
No word on whether this covers the upcoming second season; probably not.
Nice to see licensing for a title that wasn't super-hot when it aired. Gives me a sliver of hope for things like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou....
France's BFM TV aired footage from the upcoming Space Pirate Captain Harlock CGI film (and, helpfully, blabbed in French all over the dialogue):
CGI films are extremely rare in Japan, so it's interesting to see the staff take this direction with this film. It also looks pretty darned faithful to Leiji Matsumoto's distinctive, curvy designs.
It must have been significantly more expensive to do than a 2D film. Matsumoto's works must remain extremely popular even today.
The next Gundam series has been announced: Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. More info at ANN; promo video below.
A few interesting tidbits:
The series will cover a "One Hundred Year War," and will focus on three protagonists:
14-year-old Furitto Asuno, who builds the first Gundam based on plans passed down through generations of his family.
Asemu Asuno, Furitto's child.
Kio Asuno, another descendant of Furitto (possibly a grandchild or great-granchild).
The last two protagonists are non-gender-specific, so one of them could be a girl. Hurray! A female pilot protagonist in Gundam! Let's have that, please!
This looks like it's aimed at younger audiences. The designs are close to Sgt. Frog's, and indeed AGE will be directed by Susumu Yamaguchi, who directed all the Sgt. Frog films. He was key animator on a number of Gundam works, including 0083, 08th MS Team, Turn-A, and various SEED works.
The story will be integrated across manga, model kits, games, and cards. This is something I've longed for since I first saw the .hack franchise. We all know there are going to be manga, card games, etc.; why not have each one explicitly provide different elements of a larger story?
The story is supervised by Akirhiro Hino, who heads a video game studio called Level 5. He also supervised story on Inazuma Eleven, Danbooru Senki, and Professor Layton, three works all aimed at younger audiences. So, we can assume that video games will be central to the experience. Good; video games are central these days anyway.
The story involves attacks from an unknown enemy, presumably aliens, who pilot...well, basically Guymelefs from Escaflowne. Are they aliens? Are they Clans returning from the Periphery? Probably a mystery that the series itself will explore.
I'm most intrigued by the century-spanning storyline, and the three protagonists. Gutsy move.
Media Blasters has licensed Squid Girl. The first six episodes will be released on one DVD (which will be "loaded with extras"! nice!) on September 27th (which is only 3 months away. wow). It'll retail at US $25, so expect it to be more like $17 on Amazon.com and RightStuf. It'll include a dub, too.