News

New Cities of Gold and Infinite Stratos Released Monday

On Monday February 17, Fabulous Films will release the 2012 second season of the The Mysterious Cities of Gold (26 episodes), on Blu-ray and DVD. This is a French series, with no Japanese involvement confirmed. However, it is a continuation of the 1980s French-Japanese historical adventure series, broadcast on children's BBC in the 1980s. In Japan, the original series was shown on NHK as Taiyo no Ko Esteban or Esteban, a Boy from the Sun. Set in the sixteenth century, it chronicles the adventures of three children, the boys Esteban and Tao and the girl Zia (plus the parrot Kokapetl), as they seek the legendary cities of gold in South America. The sequel takes the heroes to China.

The new series was made by Blue Spirit Animation in partnership with the French TV channel TF1 and Movie Plus. Movie Plus is an international producer-distributor founded by Jean Chalopin, who co-scripted the original Cities of Gold, as well as co-creating another French-Japanese animation, Ulysses 31. The production was in the French town of Angoulême.

MVM is releasing the series Infinite Stratos (left). Based on Izuru Yumizuru's light novel series IS, it revolves around a school training pilots to use the Infinite Stratos weapon system. The system can only be piloted by females who are selected from all over the world, except for one boy: Ichika Orimura, "the only male in the world who can use the IS."

The live-action film version of Rurouni Kenshin (right) will be released by Warner Brothers in a DVD edition and a 'Limited Edition Steelbook - Blu-ray and UV copy.' Nobuhiro Watsuki's popular samurai manga was remade as a live-action feature film in Japan in 2012. Keishi Ōtomo directed the film with 22-year-old actor Takeru Satoh (Kamen Rider Den-O, Rookies, Beck, Ryōmaden) as the titular character.

Manga Entertainment will release the fifth box-set collection of One Piece (left), carrying episodes 104 to 130 of the series. It is also releasing Bleach Series 12 Part 3 (right), carrying episodes 254 to 265. Finally, it will reissue Season 1 of Dragon Ball as six individual DVD discs (the season is already available as a six-disc set).