Friday 16 November 2012

News roundup: Sengoku Basara manga is delayed, Tiger & Bunny movie home video release is announced

The Japanese home video release of Tiger & Bunny -The Beginning- has now been listed for preorder, and the package looks extremely compelling. According to the listings, the release date is 22nd February 2013 and all versions will come with Japanese audio and a choice of English or Japanese subtitles. The website notes that the subtitles can be switched off.

There's a first press Blu-ray version, a standard Blu-ray, a first press DVD and a standard DVD. The standard editions come with a special booklet, audio commentary and video extras including commercials, the creditless opening and ending sequences and various promotional materials, while the first press special editions add a bonus disc with 180 minutes of extra material, including Gekijouban Tiger & Bunny -The Beginning- World Premiere (Night+Day Movie Special) and highlights from the Tiger & Bunny New Year Otoshidama Special, as well as a segment commemorating the tickets going on sale in Hong Kong and Road To Theater (title subject to change), which is a digest video including greetings from handshake events and from the stage play. The first pressing also includes an special box illustrated by Katsura Masakazu and an exclusive jacket illustration by Hayama Kenji. There will also be a smaller reproduction of the original movie program in a booklet and a bonus drama CD with the usual 'free talk' with candid words from the seiyuu cast.

Amazon Japan is also listing an exclusive steelbook version of the BD special edition, whereas Animate has a premium version with a "Nathan's Fire Room" (Nathan No Fire Heya) radio CD, and Bandai Visual Club is offering a mysterious set of Origami Cyclone's 'personal belongings' with theirs. Other stores in Japan will be including exclusive posters and clear files to attract buyers.

I think I'll go for the Animate special edition as things currently stand. The fact that I had to write three paragraphs to describe the extras for a single compilation movie really highlights the differences between Japanese anime releases and the cheap overseas versions!

The other news from the last couple of days, accordingly, was that solicitations for the February anime releases in the US have been announced and the pickings are extremely slim. So far, the only ones I'll be buying as they come out are both from Sentai Filmworks, namely Battle Girls: Time Paradox (Sengoku Otome ~Momoiro Paradox~) on Blu-ray and Qwaser of Stigmata part 2 (Seikon No Qwaser), which is sadly DVD-only. I can't even remember the last time there was an entire month with so few interesting western anime releases - and why is the show which I want to buy more also the one which is DVD-only? Grr!

On the manga side of things, the main news for me this week was from Udon Entertainment. The second and final part of Haibara Yak's Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends (Sengoku Basara 2) manga has been delayed for a few weeks awaiting final approvals. It should be coming out in December now instead of November as planned. For some reason, it's still not being listed on Amazon, but it's readily available for order from most other stores like United Publications. I enjoyed volume one and the artwork is stunning, so the finale will be a guaranteed purchase when it finally reaches stores. Let's hope that Udon are able to bring some more of the Sengoku Basara manga titles over in English one day.

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