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Attack on Titan, Hal, Appleseed Alpha, Marvel Superheroes Released Monday
posted on by Andrew Osmond
On Monday October 27, Manga Entertainment will release the second volume of Attack on Titan on both Blu-ray (pictured) and DVD. The series is based on Hajime Isayama's original manga, which depicts the battles between humans and the giants who rule the world outside humans' walled enclaves. Isayama launched the series in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2009. The manga has become a sleeper hit, and Kodansha USA is publishing it in North America.
Anime Limited is releasing its Blu-ray/DVD combo pack edition of the series HAL, a romantic drama by Studio WIT (which also made Attack on Titan). The Amazon UK page lists the following extras on the release: Actor Commentary; Making Of: Production Process; Making Of: Animatics & Scratch Tracks; Original Trailer; Textless Closing Song; Collector's packaging; and a 20-page booklet.
The "near-future romance" follows a girl named Kurumi (voiced by Yōko Hikasa) who lost Haru (Yoshimasa Hosoya), a boy she liked, in a plane accident. A robot "Robo Hal (Haru)" turns into her substitute for Haru. Ryoutarou Makihara (storyboard and episode direction on Guilty Crown, The Tatami Galaxy) made his directorial debut with this film. Izumi Kizara (live-action Sexy Voice and Robo) wrote the screenplay, which is not based on preexisting material. The film opened in June 2013 in Japan.
As well as Attack on Titan, Manga Entertainment is also releasing The Devil is a Part-Timer on both Blu-ray and DVD. It is the television anime adaptation of Satoshi Wagahara's Hataraku Maou-sama light novel series. In the story, a devil named Satan is one step away from conquering his alternate world when he is transported to Tokyo of our world. He ends up having to work part-time at a fast food restaurant to make ends meet. In order to conquer Japan, Satan (under the Earth name Sadao Maō) has to first move up from a freelancer to an actual employee. Meanwhile, the heroine Emilia has arrived in Japan also, in pursuit of Satan. Naoto Hosoda (Shuffle!, The Future Diary) is directing the anime at WHITE FOX (Steins;Gate, Jormungand), and Atsushi Ikariya is adapting original novel illustrator 029's characters for anime.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing Blu-ray and DVD editions of Appleseed Alpha, a CG-animated film of Masamune Shirow's science-fiction manga Appleseed. Shinji Aramaki (Starship Troopers Invasion, Space Pirate Captain Harlock) returned to direct this new project after helming two previous CG Appleseed films. Joseph Chou (Appleseed Ex Machina, Halo Legends) produced. The new film will be "a reboot that will depict the early days of Deunan and Briareos in search of the legendary city of Olympus." The original manga follows Deunan Knute and her bioroid partner Brialeos in the futuristic city of Utopia, where human terrorists are battling government's ESWAT forces.
Sony Pictures is also releasing a seven-disc Marvel Anime Boxset containing the following titles: Wolverine, X-Men, Iron Man and Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher. All four series were adapted from US Marvel superhero strips and animated by the Madhouse studio.
MVM Entertainment is releasing the OAV continuation of Kokoro Connect. (The original TV series is already available.) It is an anime adaptation of Sadanatsu Anda's Kokoro Connect light novel series. The "love and teen pentagonal comedy" follows the strange phenomena at the Yamahoshi Academy's Culture Club, starting with the five male and female club members switching bodies with each other.
MVM will also release the Blu-ray edition of the second volume of the series From the New World (already available on DVD) about a young woman growing up in a future world of psychic powers, mutant rats and some very dark secrets.
In addition MVM is releasing a collected edition of the original Bakemonogatari TV series (which begins the Monogatari franchise. The series adapts NisiOisin's Bakemonogatari light novels. The short stories in NisiOisin's two volumes of Bakemonogatari deal with a high school boy named Koyomi Araragi and strange students he encounters. ("Bakemonogatari" is a wordplay on the Japanese term bakemono for supernatural creatures and the term monogatari for stories.)
