News

CG Harlock Film, Gatchaman Crowds, Oda Nobuna Released Monday

On Monday April 27, Manga Entertainment is releasing two editions of the CGI film Space Pirate Captain Harlock, a remake of the space saga by Leiji Matsumoto. The new film is directed by Shinji Aramaki. There will be a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack; the Blu-ray will contain 2D and 3D versions of the film. There will also be a standard DVD edition.

Animatsu will release Gatchaman Crowds on both Blu-ray and DVD. The series is set in Japan in the early summer of 2015. 180,000 people live in Tachikawa City, the "second metropolis" of the Tokyo area. Among them are "Gatchaman" — warriors who fight in special reinforced suits powered by "NOTE," the manifestation of special spiritual powers in living beings. A council has scouted a group of individuals with latent powers to protect Earth from alien criminals. In recent years, the council has assigned Gatchaman warriors to deal with the mysterious entity known as "MESS."

Kenji Nakamura (Mononoke, tsuritama) is directing off scripts from Toshiya Ono (Suite Precure, tsuritama) at Tatsunoko Productions. Illustrator Kinoko did the original character designs for the characters, while Koji Nakakita (Wandaba Style, Jūsō Kikō Dancouga Nova) did the mecha designs.

MVM is releasing the series The Ambition of Oda Nobuna. The story, based on Mikage Kasuga's light novels, follows a modern-day high school boy named Yoshiharu Sagara who is transported to Japan's Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States) — except the well-known warriors of the era are female. Oda Nobuna, a cute girl who happens to be a warlord, nicknames Yoshiharu "Monkey" and takes him under her wing.

The series title is a wordplay on Nobunaga no Yabō or Nobunaga's Ambition, KOEI's simulation game franchise inspired by the real-life historical figure Oda Nobunaga. Yuuji Kumazawa directed the series off scripts from Masashi Suzuki (Shuffle!, Minami-ke: Okawari) and Yuka Takashina designed the characters. Studio Gokumi collaborated with the anime Studio Madhouse on the project.

MVM is also releasing the 12-part series Sankarea. It adapts Mitsuru Hattori's Sankarea zombie comedy manga, which features Chihiro Furuya, a high school freshman who is obsessed with zombies. Even his dream is to "kiss a zombie girl." Through an unexpected set of circumstances, Chihiro gets to know a pretty girl named Rea Sanka, and discovers she wants to get away from her many responsibilities by becoming a zombie herself.

Finally, MVM is releasing the Blu-ray edition of the first volume of Log Horizon. (The DVD is already available.)