News
Madman Entertainment Panel from Wai-Con 2013
posted on by Jon Hayward
The Madman panel, hosted by Sylvester Ip, announced the acquisition of the following titles;
New Acquisitions
Jormungand
Jormungand follows a team of arms dealers as they operate under the auspice of HCLI, an international shipping corporation. Their leader, Koko Hekmatyar (Shizuka Itou) travels the world selling her wares and avoiding local authorities due to her work's illegal nature. The rest of her team are mostly ex-military whose task is to protect Koko, but things change when Jonah (Mutsumi Tamura), a skilled and talented child soldier who despises arms dealers joins the team to find the arms dealer responsible for his parents death.
The series was directed by Keitaro Motonaga (Getbackers, School Days) at studio WHITE FOX with Yoosuke Kuroda (Mobile Suit Gundam 00) overseeing the series and writing the scripts. Character designs by Kazuhisa Nakamura (Katanagatari, Steins;Gate) and Taku Iwsaki (Gurren Lagann) composed the music.
Jormungand is based on Keitarō Takahashi's original manga which began in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday GX magazine back in 2006 and ended in 2012 having published 11 volumes. The series has been translated into English and published by Viz Media in North America and the final 11th volume will be published in May 2013.
Madman will release Jormungand mid 2013.
Planzet
In the year 2047 a unknown alien life force codenamed FOS attacked and destroyed Earth's major cities in one attack wave. The survivors of that worldwide disaster build a shield to protect the Earth called "The Diffuser". Now, three years after the shield was turned on the Earth is planning a counterattack against the FOS and the diffuser will need to be disabled for the plan to succeed. Amid this desperate struggle, Taishi Akejima is a soldier in the PDFA (Planetary Defence Forces Alliance) and plans on taking revenge against the aliens that killed his father, will he gain his revenge or will humanity lose it all in the final gamble?
Planzet is written and directed by Jun Awazu (Negadon: The Monster from Mars) with CGI direction by Makoto Miyahara (Space Brothers, Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys) and music by Shingo Terasawa (Negadon: The Monster from Mars). The film was produced by CoMix Wave Inc. and Media Factory. Taishi Akejima is voiced by Mamoru Mitano (Death the Kid in Soul Eater, Rintarō Okabe in Steins;Gate) in the Japanese soundtrack. Taishi is renamed Hiroshi Akshima in the English soundtrack and voiced by Blake Shepard (Luke Ainsworth in The Sacret Blacksmith and Shouma Takakura in Penguindrum).
Toriko
The Gourmet Hunters (Bishokuya) are a highly talented group of hunters who hunt and collect rare ingredients and animals far beyond the reach of mortal men. Toriko (Ryotaro Okiayu), a gourmet hunter, is hired by Komatsu (Romi Park), a chef, to hunt down a 300 year old galala gator for his restaurant which will put all of Toriko's superhuman strength and knowledge of the animal kingdom to the test. As they hunt down the galala gator Komatsu is inspired by Toriko's journey to find the best food the world has to offer to add to his "full course menu". However a dark organisation is making plans to control the world's food supply which will make their task much more difficult.
Toriko is an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. Serialised in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since 2008, Toriko has been collected into 22 volumes to date. While Viz Manga publishes the series in North America, Madman Entertainment has been releasing the series in Australia and volume 14 will be published in March 2013.
The anime adaptation is produced by Toei Animation under the direction of Akifumi Zako (Fresh Pretty Cure) and series composition by Isao Murayama (Precure All Stars DX) with music by Hiromi Mizutani (The Wallflower, Hell Girl) and character design by Hisashi Kagawa (SaiKano, Wangan Midnight). The anime series has been running since April 2011 and is up to 75 episodes and counting. Toriko and Komatsu are voiced by Ryotaro Okiayu (Shigure Soma in Fruits Basket) and Romi Park (Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist) in the Japanese dub with Ian Sinclair (Ginei Morioka in Rosario + Vampire) and Josh Grelle (Akihisa Yoshii in Baka and Test) providing the main voices in the English dub.
Panel Questions
Q: Why were the episodes of Elfen Lied out of order on the Madman release? A: We used the material we were supplied with by the license holder.
Q: When will you be releasing the rest of Hellsing Ultimate? A: We covered this earlier in the panel. (Covered from Brisbane Supanova, Hellsing Ultimate episodes I to IV will be re-released in February 2013 in both DVD and Blu-Ray collections. In March episodes V to VIII will be released, again on DVD and Blu-Ray and a final third collection containing episodes IX and X will be released in the near (undated) future. - Ed) Q: Will you be releasing more Digimon in the future? A: Maybe but cannot confirm at this stage. Q: When will you be finishing D-Gray Man's release? A: No news, still waiting on Funimation.
Q: Will Madman be running ReelAnime in 2013? A: We don't know if we will run it this year.
Q: When will Wolf Children receive a home release? A: Wolf Children's home release will be at the end of 2013.
Q: Will Madman be releasing more Gundam series? A: Potentially, currently nothing planned beyond Gundam Unicorn but Gundam is under review.
Q: Will existing DVD's receive Blu-Ray releases? A: Working on some titles but we cannot announce anything at this stage.
Q: Will Mass Effect: Paragon Lost be released as digital download? A: Available on iTunes right now.
Q: Fate/Zero or Fate/Stay Night Blu-Ray? A: Cannot confirm at this stage, Unlimited Blade Works in March, everything else in negotiation.
Q: Will you be releasing the English dub of Blue Exorcist? A: Available later in 2013 on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Q: Will that release of Blue Exorcist include the English dub of the special features? A: Probably but that feature is not confirmed yet.
Q: Will you be releasing Queen's Blade? A: Far too adult to release in Australia, so unlikely.
Q: Will you be releasing the Matsuri Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts OVAs? A: We will be releasing that in May, season 2 of Baka to Test soon as well.
Q: Will you be releasing Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie uncut? A: We're working on this title but cannot confirm anything at the moment.
Q: Will you be finishing Mardock Scramble? A: Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust will hopefully be at the end of 2013 but we are waiting on the English dub. When it's released, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression and Mardock Scramble: The Second Combustion will also be released on Blu-Ray.
Q: When will Inu Yasha The Final Act be released? A: Later this month (20th of Feb -Ed).
Q: Will you be releasing Gyo? A: Another company is releasing this title. (Hanabee -Ed)
Q: When will we see Adventure Time season 2 on DVD? A: Some time in the near future.
Images: Planzet - ©Jun Awazu/MEDIA FACTORY/CoMix Wave Films
