News
Funimation Adds Excel Saga, Noir, Bubblegum Crisis 2040
posted on by Gia Manry
Funimation has confirmed with ANN that it has acquired the license to the 1999 television anime adaptation of Koushi Rikudou's manga Excel Saga from Flying Dog. The company says that it has also acquired two other former ADV Films licenses: Noir and Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040. All three titles will be released in North America in 2011.
A listing for Excel Saga: The Complete Series is currently listed on retailer Amazon.com with a suggested retail price of US$49.98 and a release date of March 29, 2011.
All three of these titles were previously acquired by ADV between 1999 and 2002. ADV formally shut down in 2009.
The anime adaptation of Excel Saga was directed by Shinichi "Nabeshin" Watanabe, and it spawned a 2001 original video anime (OVA) spinoff Puni Puni Poemy. Viz Media has the license to Rikudou's original manga, and has released up to volume 21; there are 25 volumes of the ongoing manga out in Japan.
The 2001 television anime Noir was directed by Bee Train co-founder Kōichi Mashimo and written by Ryōe Tsukimura.
AIC produced Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 in 1998 and modeled it after the original 1987 video series Bubblegum Crisis. Hiroshi Hayashi, the creator and director of El Hazard, directed the project.
[Via AstroNerdBoy, Japanator]
Image © 1999 Koshi Rikdo / Shonen Gahosha • Victor Entertainment
© Ryōe Tsukimura, Bee Train, Victor Entertainment
© JVC/AIC
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