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Right Stuf, Eleven Arts Partner for Home Video Distribution

Retailer Right Stuf and theatrical distribution company Eleven Arts Anime Studio announced at Right Stuf's Otakon panel on Saturday that Right Stuf will be the exclusive home video distributor for Eleven Arts anime home video releases. The first two titles that will be released under the partnership will be Laughing Under the Clouds: Gaiden Part 1 & Part 2 and Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1.

The companies confirmed that both titles will be released on Blu-ray Disc. Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern is slated for this year's holiday season.

Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 1 (Gekijōban Haikara-san ga Tōru Zenpen - Benio, Hana no 17-sai) opened in Japan last November. Eleven Arts screened the film theatrically in the United States and Canada beginning on June 8. The second film will open in Japan on October 19, and Eleven Arts will screen the film in the U.S. and Canada this winter.

The manga, which adapts Waki Yamato's Haikara-san ga Tooru manga, is set in Tokyo in the Taishō era (1912-1926). The story follows Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, who lost her mother when she was very young and has been raised by her father, a high-ranking official in the Japanese army. As a result, she has grown into a tomboy — contrary to traditional Japanese notions of femininity, she studies kendo, drinks sake, dresses in often outlandish-looking Western fashions instead of the traditional kimono, and is not as interested in housework as she is in literature. She also rejects the idea of arranged marriages and believes in a woman's right to a career and to marry for love.

The first Laughing Under the Clouds Gaiden (Donten ni Warau Gaiden) opened in Japan in December, and the second film opened in Japan on June 9. The third film, Donten ni Warau Gaiden: Ōka, Tenbō no Kakyū (Cherry Blossoms, the Bridge to Heavenly Wishes), will open in Japan on September 1 for a two-week screening.

Eleven Arts will open the two films, Laughing Under the Clouds Gaiden: The Oath of the Yamainu (Donten ni Warau Gaiden: Ketsubetsu, Yamainu no Chikai) and Laughing Under the Clouds Gaiden: The Cursed Twins (Donten ni Warau Gaiden: Shukumei, Sōtō no Fūma), in U.S. theaters on August 24, Eleven Arts will also screen the upcoming third film in the trilogy at some time in the future.

The original Donten ni Warau Gaiden manga by Kemuri Karakara includes stories not told in the Donten ni Warau (Laughing Under the Clouds) manga, including some from the past and some from the future. Donten ni Warau takes place in the 11th year of the Meiji era, when the number of people in Japan who feel dissatisfaction toward the government are increasing due to the increasing speed of Westernization and the ban on samurai. In order to curb the increased rate of crime, the government opens a new prison. The three brothers of the Kumo family are entrusted with the duty of transporting these criminals to the new prison, but adventures await them on the way.

Source: Email correspondence, Right Stuf's Otakon panel (Gabriella Ekens)