News
Weekend Wrapup: 17/Feb - 23/Feb
posted on by Jon Hayward
Hanabee Entertainment surprised everyone at @con with a slew of acquisitions including Kids on the Slope, Mysterious Girlfriend X and Dusk maiden of Amnesia. Kids on the Slope will be released on the 1st of May 2013 on Blu-ray and DVD, Mysterious Girlfriend X and Dusk maiden of Amnesia will both be released on Blu-ray and DVD on the 5th of June 2013.
Vertical, the North American manga publisher announced at it's katsucon panel that it has licensed Satoshi Kon's Tropic of the Sea (Kaikisen) and Takahiro Seguchi and Hikari Asada's Sickness Unto Death (Shi ni Itaru Yamai). Kaikisen was Kon's first manga series (well before he delved into creating anime) which ran for 11 chapters in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine in 1990. The series follows a beach town where the townspeople have kept a promise with the legendary "sea people" who exist in the area, but now a resort developer threatens to break that promise. Seguchi and Asada's Sickness Unto Death manga was originally published in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine and was collected into two volumes. Sickness Unto Death is a "literary love story" following a woman named Emiru who suffers from a deep despair and a man named Kazuma who tries to figure out the reason behind Emiru's sadness. Tropic of the Sea and the first volume of Sickness Unto Death will be published in October.
GREE's social game Odoriko Clinoppe (Dancer Clinoppe) has been green-lit for a television anime. The game allows the player to raise the mysterious Clinoppe, outfit it with clothes and items and watch it dance as well as chat and exchange ideas with other players in game. The "surreal, comical" television anime will follow the daily life of Clinoppe and an office lady named "Onei-san." The anime is the first part of GREE's initiative to expand its licensing character business for the game.
Japan's National Police Agency has announced that it has arrested 27 people who are suspected of uploading manga, anime, films, music videos and video games online without the copyright holders permission. Of the 27 people, two are suspected of uploading content through Perfect Dark, a "next-generation" program with more robust anonymity features than Share, the current popular file-sharing program.
The Pokémon Company has started streaming a "Top Secret" video of Genesect, who will take up a starring role in this year's Pokémon movie, Pokémon the Movie: ExtremeSpeed Genesect (Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Shinsoku no Genesekuto). The film will open on the 13th of July 2013.
And finally, Universal Sony Home Pictures Australia has announced it's first slate of titles for release in Australia including Shakugan no Shana, A Certain Magical Index, Armitage III, Haibane Renmei and Serial Experiments Lain. Their releases will start on the 24th of April 2013 and continue into the year.
