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Aniplex of America Streams Rurouni Kenshin Blu-Ray Promo
posted on by Daryl Bunao
Anime distributor Aniplex of America uploaded a 26-second promotion video for the upcoming Blu-ray release of the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs and animated movie. Announced during FanimeCon in May, Aniplex of America will directly import the Japanese Blu-ray Disc edition for both OVAs and the film, but the company will add an English-translated booklet.
The first of the Blu-ray discs to be released will be the 1999 prequel OVA, Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal (Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuioku Hen). The four-episode collection is priced at US$64.98 and will ship August 24. Aniplex confirmed in April that the Blu-ray release will feature both Japanese and English subtitles with an option to switch the audio to the English dub created by the now-defunct ADV Films.
The 2001 two-part OVA, Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection (Rurouni Kenshin: Seiso Hen) and 1997 Rurouni Kenshin The Movie will ship September 21 and October 24, respectively. Both of these Blu-ray releases are priced at US$54.98.
All three titles will ship from Right Stuf and Bandai Entertainment's online stores and are currently accepting pre-orders.
The Rurouni Kenshin franchise was originally created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The samurai manga ran from 1994-1999 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump and later was adapted to the television anime series. Viz Media published all 28 volumes of the Rurouni Kenshin manga, while anime distributor Media Blasters released 22 DVDs containing 95 episodes of the anime.
The Garden of Sinners, Aniplex of America's last Blu-ray import, was an eight-disc Blu-ray boxet with a US$398.98 price point. The boxset sold out within a month.
