News
Madman Announcements from SMASH 2014
posted on by Jon Hayward
The following announcements were made during the Madman Panel at the Sydney Manga and Anime Show 2014 on Sunday the 10th of August 2014. You can read the accompanying press-release here;
- One Piece Film: Z - DVD, Blu-ray and Digital release in November 2014.
- Giovanni's Island - Release plans to be confirmed at a later date.
- Grave of the Fireflies - DVD and Blu-ray in November 2014.
©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha, Toei Animation
© 2012 One Piece production committee
One Piece Film Z
An ex-navy admiral known as Z travels the seas with one goal, destroy all pirates. When Luffy and his crew save the life of Z and his sub-ordinates, Ain and Binz, they return the favour by attempting to kill Luffy and nearly succeed due to Z's seastone arm. Now with his crew at half the size, Luffy must track down Z while avoiding the Navy and dismantle Z's master plan to annihilate all pirates in the world by making the oceans burn.
This 2012 One Piece film has Eiichiro Oda at the helm as the film's executive producer and Oda also designed the film's antagonist, Z. Tatsuya Nagamine (One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventure in Alabasta) directed the film, Masayuki Sato (One Piece Film Strong World, Air Gear) served as the animation director and Osamu Suzuki (Jungle Emperor Leo, Love*Com the Movie) wrote the script. The opening song "Zeal" was contributed by Yasutaka Nakata (capsule) alongside Canadian pop singer Avril Lavigne contributing two more theme songs, covers of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" and Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" (According to the music's announcement, Avril Lavigne and Eiichiro Oda are fans of each-other's work.)
Upon release to Japanese theaters on the 15th of December 2012, One Piece Film Z's opening weekend sold over 1,140,081 tickets for a total of 1,372,054,050 yen making it the highest opening box office in Japan in 2012, beating out Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo. The film went on to sell over 5 million tickets in the following four weeks.
Funimation announced they had acquired One Piece Film Z for North America in April 2014. Funimation has since revealed the English dub cast for the film at Anime Expo and will release the film in September 2014.
In March, Madman Entertainment originally announced over twitter that they would be releasing One Piece Film Z with a English dub in July, they quickly retracted the announcement and have been quiet on their release plans until now.
One Piece Film Z will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital in November 2014, we presume the release will include the English dub alongside Japanese audio and English subtitles.
© 2014 JAME
Giovanni's Island
Production I.G's Annecy-winning hand-animated Giovanni's Island film tells the story of two brothers living on the island of Shikotan. Their family and the people of the island hear of Japan's loss in the war and are told not to worry. However, their island gets caught in the middle of the continuing conflict in the west and is invaded by Russian soldiers. The boys meet a western girl on the island named Tanya and the older of the brothers, despite their language barriers, cultural differences, and warnings from friends, starts to fall in love with her. The boys' father gets lured out by the army is and is captured and taken to Siberia. The brothers embark on a journey to see their father again.
Produced by Production I.G., Giovanni's Island was directed by Mizuho Nishikubo (Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, Video Girl Ai) from a screenplay by Shigemichi Sugita (From the Northern Lands) and Yoshiki Sakurai (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Blood+). The film is being presented by the Japan Association of Music Enterprises (JAME) in order to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary. Warner Entertainment Japan opened the movie in Japanese theaters on the 22nd February 2014 and Production I.G is handling international release of the film worldwide.
GKids is distributing Giovanni's Island in North America and Canada and has premiered a dub in L.A. Anime Limited has also licensed the film but there is no further information.
Giovanni's Island was previously announced as part of Melbourne International Film Festival's 2014 program. The first screening has passed but you can still catch Giovanni's Island on Sunday the 17th of August.
Madman will confirm Australian home video release plans in the near future.
©1988 Akiyuki Nosaka/Shinchosha Co.
Grave of the Fireflies
Set during the final days of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister Setsuko are orphaned after an air raid kills their mother. The film follows Seita and Setsuko as they struggle to survive, first with their Aunt and later by themselves.
This Studio Ghibli title from 1988 is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel by Japanese novelist Akiyuki Nosaka. Directed and scripted by Isao Takahata (Pom Poko, My Neighbors the Yamadas), Grave of the Fireflies also has animation direction and character designs by Yoshifumi Kondô (Kiki's Delivery Service), art direction by Nizo Yamamoto (Castle in the Sky, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and music by Masahiko Satoh and Michio Mamiya.
The Japanese voice cast includes Tsutomu Tatsumi as Seita, Ayano Shiraishi as Setsuko and Akemi Yamaguchi as their Aunt. We have yet to confirm which English dub will be included on Madman's release but we assume it will be the Sentai Filmworks dub with Adam Gibbs as Seita, Emily Neves as Setsuko and Marcy Bannor as their Aunt.
Madman originally announced a Blu-ray and DVD release for Grave of the Fireflies during AVCon 2014 but at that time stated the release would be in the near future. In the meantime Grave of the Fireflies was screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival 2014.
Now Madman Entertainment have confirmed that Grave of the Fireflies will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in November 2014.
