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The Wind Rises and Blu-ray Ghost in the Shell Released Monday

On Monday September 29, Studio Canal will release Studio Ghibli's The Wind Rises, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (who has said it will be his last feature film). The story centers on Jirō Horikoshi, played by Evangelion director Hideaki Anno), the designer of Japan's famed Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane of World War II. Studio Canal will release the film in three editions; as a DVD, as a DVD/Blu-ray combi pack and as a Collector's Edition (pictured) including five artcards.

Manga Entertainment is releasing a Steelbook edition of the original 1995 cinema cyberspace film Ghost in the Shell, directed by Mamoru Oshii, based on the manga series by Masamune Shirow. It contains an HD remastered edition of the film on Blu-ray.

The film is set in a near future, technology has firmly taken root into society at large. Cybernetic implants are nothing uncommon and robots roam as plentiful as humans, all connected through their ''ghosts'' to the electronic datastreams of the net. Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Public Security Section 9 find themselves in a constant battle with the newly created wave of technological terrorists and cyber-hackers. But things take a turn once Motoko gets involved in a certain case involving an extremely dangerous ''ghost'' hacker nicknamed the Puppeteer, as she dives deeper and deeper into the limitless reality of the net, to reach her own startling conclusions.

Manga will also release Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, on both Blu-ray and DVD. Production I.G's original science-fiction adventure anime begins in the distant future in the far reaches of the galaxy. The Human Galactic Alliance has been constantly fighting for its survival against a grotesque race of beings. During an intense battle, the young lieutenant Ledo (played by Kaito Ishikawa) and his humanoid mobile weapon Chamber are swallowed up into a distortion of time and space. Waking from his artificially induced hybernation, Ledo realizes that he has arrived on Earth, the long forgotten planet. On this planet that was completely flooded by the seas, people live in fleets of giant ships, salvaging relics from the seas' depths in order to survive.

The set includes the original 13-part TV series and two OVA episodes.

MVM is releasing the teen romantic comedy Toradora! on Blu-ray and DVD. The American distributor, NIS America, described the story as follows: 'Ryuji Takasu is cursed with his father's threatening face and is labeled a "delinquent" because of it. Even though this makes it difficult for him to meet people, he is madly in love with Minorin, the one girl who does not flee from him in terror. Taiga Aisaka is a notorious hothead with the nickname "Palm-top Tiger." She also happens to be Minorin's best friend, and what's more, Taiga has a crush on Ryuji's closest friend. This unlikely duo strikes a tenuous agreement to assist one another in stealing the hearts of the ones they love. They will face many hurdles along the way, but perhaps true love is closer to them than they think.' The box set will include all 25 episodes and the OAV.

MVM will also release a DVD collected series edition of Bodacious Space Pirates, previously released in two volumes. (The Blu-ray collected edition was released a week earlier.) The 26-part series involves a spirited high school girl named Marika, who is told she has inherited a space pirate ship, and finds herself embarking on a new life as a pirate. The series is based on Yuichi Sasamoto's Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku (Mini-Skirt [Space] Pirates) space-opera novels. The anime version premiered in January 2012.