According to FUNimation’s official blog, FUNi has the rights to the two Vandread OVAs known as Vandread Gekitouhen (Tubulence) and Vandread Taidouhen (Integral). Vandread, originally released by Pioneer in 2002, managed to have a small cult following, but never high enough sales figures to justify the licensing of the two season condensing OVAs released by GONZO in Japan. Each OVA reduces the 13-episode season to a tighter story — some times re-arranging the order of events seen during the TV show — with updated animation and a small amount of new footage. The Japanese releases also included a thick artbook and a hardshelled artbox to hold the artbook and DVD.
There are no details available yet on when or how the Vandread OVAs will be made available. FUNimation recently released Vandread: The Complete Series on DVD on April 7th after Geneon’s license expired.
According to Variety, YouTube has signed a large deal with multiple studios in order to increase the amount of content the video site currently offers. You can now find episodes of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, 1980’s & 2004’s Astro Boy, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and a few ADV series in the new Shows category. However, this blitz of new content comes with inserted ads to help YouTube generate revenue it desperately needs. Enjoy it while it’s still free because sooner or later YouTube is going to have to look at business models like Amazon Unbox and iTunes in order to make their site profitable for Google.
Bandai Entertainment has started to update their YouTube page once again. In addition to the first season of Code Geass in English and Japanese, you can now watch Mobile Suit Gundam 00 episode 1 through 10 in Japanese and the entire 25 episode first season in English. This gives you plenty of time to check out Gundam 00 before the first DVD set comes out on June 16th.
Following up on earlier news about Digimon: Data Squad coming to DVD, the first collection’s cover and street date have been released. Digimon: Data Squad Collection One will be available in stores on May 26th from Well Go USA. The set will spread the first 13 episodes across 3 DVDs. (more…)
FUNimation has posted the second full episode (subtitled) of their new series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in the video section. At the time of this posting, the server is doing better than last week’s swamped result, but as the day progresses expect some need to pause and buffer due to traffic. The best suggestion is to start the episode, pause it, and find something else to do for awhile as the player loads the episode completely.
Anyone with half a brain saw this coming. Why FOX didn’t go for the straight-to-DVD sales and avoid a complete disaster at the box office is beyond me, but their misguided hope that a popular series like Dragon Ball could still carry enough weight to beat Hannah Montana and six other films has failed. Dragonball: Evolution pulled a pathetic $4.65 million at the U.S. box office on its first weekend making it number 8 in the Top 10 list.
The toys are sitting unwanted on shelves everywhere. TV commercials have been almost non-existent. The movie has been floating online for several weeks now between cam versions and clips from FOX Australia’s workprint for the few still desperate enough to want to see how bad the film really is. The poor box office results will hopefully be the final nail in the Dragon Ball sequel coffin that FOX was planning and then put on hold last summer.
As we noted before, RightStuf’s Critical Mass line has been on a bit of a licensing spree lately with a couple of new titles and several from Central Park Media’s Anime 18 line. With the new series of press releases sent out, we now know:
New:
Destined for Love: Confessions (Milky) – 7/28/09 – PR
Re-licensed:
Angel Blade Returns (Digital Works/Vanilla) – 7/28/09 – PR
Crimson Climax: Island of Sin (Green Bunny) – 7/28/09 – PR (Anime 18 Review)
FUNimation has posted the first full episode (subtitled) of their new series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in the video section. At the time of this posting, the server is still having trouble streaming the episode without a constant need to pause and buffer. The best suggestion is to start the episode, pause it, and find something else to do for awhile as the player loads the episode completely.
With Murder Princess: The Complete Series coming out just around the corner on May 12th, actress/director Caitlin Glass has revealed the main cast to go along with the new trailer online. Murder Princess is a 6-episode OVA series based off of a two volume manga series by Sekihiko Inui.
Falis/Alita: Colleen Clinkenbeard
Alita Forland/Milano: Monica Rial
Dominikov: Chuck Huber
Pete Armstrong: Ben Phillips
Jodu Entolasia: R. Bruce Elliott
Prince Kaito: Patrick Seitz
Cecilia: Wendy Powell
Ana & Yuna: Carrie Savage
In the modern world, one tweets their space live constantly. Or you could just be a fan of Twitter, MySpace, Livejournal, Technorati, Virb, MyBlogLog, and BlogCatalog. People twitter. Government officials twitter. Even Colbert twitters, but only from the gut. So, why can’t we twitter too?
Cross our hearts, no twitters from the john. Ever. We’re old school where it counts.
