News

Ghost in the Shell Arise and Blu-ray Kill la Kill Released Monday

On Monday, November 24, Manga Entertainment will release the first volume of Ghost in the Shell Arise on both Blu-ray and DVD. This carries the first two 50-minute episodes of the reboot of the cyberpunk franchise ('Ghost Pain' and 'Ghost Whispers'). Kazuchika Kise (chief animation director for Otogi Zoshi, Blood-C: The Last Dark) directed the series and designed the characters and Tow Ubukata (Le Chevalier D'Eon, Mardock Scramble) supervised and wrote the scripts. Production I.G produced the series, and Cornelius (Appleseed: Ex Machina) composed the music.

The series has a new voice cast with Maaya Sakamoto as Mokoto Kusanagi, Kenichirou Matsuda as Batou, Tarusuke Shingaki as Togusa, Tomoyuki Dan as Ishikawa, Takurou Nakakuni as Saito, Youji Ueda as Paz, Kazuya Nakai as Borma, Ikkyuu Juku as Daisuke Aramaki, Mayumi Asano as Kurutsu, and Takanori Hoshino as Raizō.

Anime Limited will release the first volume of Kill la Kill on Blu-ray, carrying the first nine episodes of the series. (The DVD is already available.)

The heroine is Ryūko Matoi (Ami Koshimizu), seeking her father's killer. Her search brings her to Honnōji Academy, an insane high school, where she must fight endless battles. Kill La Kill is an original anime from Studio Trigger (Little Witch Academia) that premiered on MBS Tv in Japan on the 3rd of October. Studio Trigger consists of several staff from Gurren Lagann including director Hiroyuki Imaishi (Dead Leaves, Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt), series script supervisor/writer Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann, Nodame Cantabile: Finale, Re: Cutie Honey) and character designer Sushio (key animator/animation director on Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt).

Manga Entertainment is also releasing Bayonetta: Bloody Fate on both Blu-ray and DVD. Funimation has described the film:

Based on the best-selling franchise, this pulse-pounding feature length anime shows you a side of Bayonetta you've never seen before! Twenty years after her awakening, the hottest witch in gaming history is still searching for clues that could help unravel the mysteries of her dark past. Aided in her quest by the clandestine weapon smith Rodin – and his deadly creations: Scarborough Fair – Bayonetta continues to leave a trail of angel corpses in her irresistible wake. Her search for answers leads to encounters with a mysterious – and eerily familiar – little girl, a vengeance-obsessed journalist, and a deadly white-haired beauty that seems to know more about Bayonetta than the witch herself. Fans of the franchise won't want to miss this chance to see their favorite fantasy come to life in a killer flick packed with mind-blowing action and scandalous scenes of seduction!

Kizaki (Afro Samurai, Basilisk, Super Street Fighter IV, X-Men) directed, storyboarded, and shot Bayonetta: Bloody Fate off a screenplay by Mitsutaka Hirota (The Prince of Tennis II, Tetsujin 28-gō Gao!, X-Men). Ai Yokoyama designed the characters based on Mari Shimazaki's original game art. Shimazaki also supervised the project. Platinum Games and Sega released the first Bayonetta action game about a shape-shifting, fighting witch on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan in October 2009 and then in North America in January 2010.

MVM is releasing the first volume of Blast of Tempest. The series adapts Kyou Shirodaira, Arihide Sano, and Ren Saizaki's fantasy mystery manga. The story centres around Yoshino Takigawa (played by Kouki Uchiyama), an ordinary high school student with a mysterious friend named Mahiro Fuwa (Toshiyuki Toyonaga). Mahiro made a deal with a witch named Hakaze to hunt down the killers of his parents and sister. Now Mahiro is missing, and Hakaze confronts Yoshino. Yoshino finds himself involved in a crisis that may doom the entire world.

Studio Bones produced the project. Masahiro Ando (Sword of the Stranger, Hana-Saku Iroha) is directed the series, and Mari Okada (Black Butler, AnoHana, Hana-Saku Iroha) was series script editor.

MVM is also releasing Nekomonogatari (White) on both Blu-ray and DVD. Part of the Bakemonogatari franchise, the anime is summarised as follows:

At the end of summer vacation, upon the morning of the opening ceremony for the second semester, Tsubasa Hanekawa encounters an enormous tiger on the way to school. 'White. So white... So purely, blandly white...' Proclaiming Tsubasa as such, the white tiger strides past her and vanishes. Later, Tsubasa's house is destroyed in a fire. But this is just the beginning of a series of unfortunate incidents for her and the people around her. Koyomi Araragi decides to save her with help from the former "Kiss-Shot," a legendary vampire.

MVM's third release this month is a new collected edition of Samurai Champloo on Blu-ray. The period-action series was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy).

Studio Canal is releasing a new edition of Spirited Away, the classic fantasy by Hayao Miyazaki. It is a double-play edition, containing the film on both Blu-ray (its debut in this format) and on DVD.

Finally, Manga Entertainment will release Season 5 of the original Dragon Ball series, carrying episodes 123 to 153 of the series.