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Madman's Final Day of Christmas Brings Five New Acquisitions

posted on by Jon Hayward

Madman Entertainment's final day of Christmas announcements brings five new acquisitions for the Winter season starting in January 2015. The Testament of Sister New Devil, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! Kan Colle (Kantai Collection -Kan Colle-), Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman (Seiken Tsukai no World Break) and Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) will be streamed on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand in January 2015 and will be released on home video at some point in the future.

Madman Entertainment are the first company outside of Japan to license The Testament of Sister New Devil, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman and Samurai Warriors.

You can view the announcements on Madman's Facebook page here. This is the final announcement as part of Madman's 12 days of Christmas. You can view the complete list below;

Madman Entertainment's 12 Days of Christmas

  • Day 1 - Tamashii Buddies available on Madman.com.au [link].
  • Day 2 - Banpresto and Megahouse Figurines pre-order on Madman.com.au [link].
  • Day 3 - One Week Friends! [link]
  • Day 4 - Free! Eternal Summer! [link]
  • Day 5 - In Search of the Lost Future. [link]
  • Day 6 - Wanna be the Strongest in the World. [link]
  • Day 7 - No-Rin. [link]
  • Day 8 - A Good Librarian Like A Good Shepard. [link]
  • Day 9 - Kamisama Kiss 2 (Kamisama Hajimemashita). [link]
  • Day 10 - Tokyo Tribe (live-action film). [link]
  • Day 11 - ISUCA. [link]
  • Day 12;
    1. The Testament of Sister New Devil (Shinmai Maō no Testament)
    2. Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! (Binan Kōkō Chikyū Bōei-bu Love!)
    3. Kan Colle (Kantai Collection -Kan Colle-)
    4. Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman (Seiken Tsukai no World Break)
    5. Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou).

The Testament of Sister New Devil

This "rather risque battle action" story centers around Basara Tōjō, a first-year high school student who is flustered by a sudden question by his eccentric father, "Hey, didn't you used to say you wanted a little sister?" Plus, his father announces that he is getting remarried. His father brings over two beautiful step-sisters, but then embarks on an overseas trip. However, the two sisters Mio and Maria Naruse are actually a novice devil and succubus.

Basara almost ends up forming a dangerous servant and master contract with them, but due to an error, the contract becomes reversed and Basara becomes the master instead. To add to things, erotic situations continuously start to happen in Basara's life. However, it turns out Mio is having her life targeted by other monsters and heroes. And so, the "desire/action" tale of the strongest contractor begins.

Tetsuto Uesu wrote the original light novel series, Shinmai Maō no Testament (The Testament of Sister New Devil), with illustrations by Nekosuke Okuma (Nitroplus). The series started publication in 2012, has six volumes available since August this year and is published under Kadokawa Shoten's Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint. Kashiwa Miyako has been drawing a manga adaptation in Kadokawa's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine. Another light novel series by Uesu, Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, also inspired a television anime that is also licensed by Madman Entertainment.

Hisashi Saito (Haganai, Fantasista Doll) is directing the anime at studio Production IMS (Inari Kon Kon, Date A Live II) from scripts by Takao Yoshioka (High School DxD, Yoshinaga-san'chi no Gargoyle). Yoshihiro Watanabe (Heaven's Lost Property, Haganai) is designing the characters for the series and Yasuharu Takanashi is composing the music. Sweet ARMS performs the series opening song "Blade of Hope" and Kaori Sadohara will perform the ending theme "Still Sis.

The Testament of Sister New Devil will premiere in Japan on January 7. You can view the voice cast and character designs here.

At the time of writing this article, Madman Entertainment is the first company to license The Testament of Sister New Devil in the west. Madman will stream the series via their AnimeLab platform in January 2015 and release the series to home video at some point in the future.


© Kurari Umatani/Kurodama-yu

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!

At Binan High School a group of students form the "Earth Defense Club", a club dedicated to doing absolutely nothing. When two of the club's members Atsushi Kinugawa and En Yufuin are soaking in the host tub at the Kurotamayu bathhouse, a pink Wombat suddenly appears and asks the pair to lend him their strength to save the world. Atsushi and En are saved from the confusing situation by the appearance of Yumoto Hakone, the son of the bath-house owner, who chases the pink fluffy Wombat. But the next day when Atsushi and En gather with the remaining two club members, Io Naruko and Ryu Zaou, Wombat appears with Yumoto who then proceeds to clamp bracelets on all five and declare “It's about love-making!” and together they must save the earth as “Battle Lovers” the heirs of the throne of love...

This original anime series was green-lit in September and created by Kurari Umatani. The series will be directed by Shinji Takamatsu (Daily Lives of High School Boys, School Rumble, After War Gundam X) with series composition by Michiko Yokote (Love Stage!!, Red Data Girl, Genshiken) and character designs by Masakazu Ishikawa (Campione!, Squid Girl, Kodomo no Jikan). Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!'s opening theme is "Zettai Muteki☆Fallin' LOVE☆" (Absolute Invincible☆Fallin' LOVE☆) and will be sung by the Defense Club's voice actors and the ending theme “I miss you no 3 meters” will be performed by the series's antagonist voice actors, the Earth Conquest Club.

The voice cast for the Earth Defence Club is as follows;

  • Kazutomi Yamamoto (Love Stage!!'s Kōsuke) as Yumoto Hakone
  • Yuichiro Umehara (Orenchi no Furo Jijō's Wakasa) as En Yufuin
  • Kōtarō Nishiyama (Haikyu!!'s Kazuhito Narita) as Atsushi Kinugawa
  • Yusuke Shirai (The World Is Still Beautiful's Minor Rani Theus) as Io Naruko
  • Toshiki Masuda (Samurai Flamenco's Masayoshi Hazama) as Ryū Zaou
  • Mugihito (Tokyo ESP's Sukesaburō) as Wombat

You can view the character designs for the series here and ANN has a anime spotlight examining the series here.

Madman Entertainment will release Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! on AnimeLab in January 2015 and to home video at a date to be confirmed. Madman is also the first company to license this title.

Kantai Collection -Kan Colle-

When humanity's oceans are under threat due to the appearance of the mysterious "deep sea fleet" the only people that can counter the threat are the Kan-musume (warship girls), girls who possess the spirit of naval vessels from days gone by.

The naval base where the Kan-musume live is based in Chinjufu and the fleet that lives there work, train and battle together. When Fubuki, a special class of destroyer, arrives at the base the Kan-musume's story truly begins.

Kan Colle is adapted from Kadokawa Games original free-to-play browser game that launched on DMM.com in April 2013. In the game, players compete with cards featuring female moe characters inspired by Japanese World War II warships such as aircraft carriers, battleships, and cruisers. Players build, organize, and repair their anthropomorphized fleet to progress through maps. A PlayStation Vita port of the game, directed by the original browser game's producer and director Kensuke Tanaka, is slated to ship in spring 2015. The game has also inspired multiple art books, drama cds, manga adaptations and light novels.

Keizou Kusakawa (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise, Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?) is directing the anime of Kadokawa Games' moe-character card battle game at the studio Diomedea (Squid Girl, Problem children are coming from another world, aren't they?). Jukki Hanada (Love Live! School idol project, Steins;Gate) is in charge of the series scripts. The series will have the opening theme "Miiro" (Sea Color) by AKINO from bless4 (Amagi Brilliant Park) and ending will be "Fubuki" performed by Shiena Nishizawa.

Voice actors for the series includes Sumire Uesaka as Fubuki, Saki Fujita as Akagi and Yuka Iguchi as Kaga. Other cast members include Ayane Sakura, Nao Tōyama, Yuka Ōtsubo, Rina Hidaka, Aya Suzaki, and Iori Nomizu.

Kan Colle will host a preview screening on the 27th of December at Tokyo's Shinjuku Piccadilly theater with the cast, the event will also be broadcast through select theaters in Japan simultaneously. Kazé Germany has licensed the series in Europe and the series will be streamed on Anime-on-Demand in the UK and Ireland.

You can view character designs for the series here.

Madman will stream the series on AnimeLab in January 2015 and release to home video at a later date.


© Akamitsu Awamura, SB Creative
/WaruBure Production Committee

Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman (Seiken Tsukai no World Break)

Akane Academy is a private high school that brings together the "saviors" of humanity. Saviours are youths with awakened memories of their past lives and they are divided up into two distinct disciplines, the Shirogane who are weapon and technical users that utilize the Puraana powers in the own bodies and the Kuroma that have the power of magic to manipulate Maana powers to surpass physics. When Moroha Haimura enrolls in the academy they soon discover that Moroha is the first person with history with past lives of both Shirogane and Kuroma. However Moroha will also have to fight alongside the current re-incarnations of his memories, Satsuki Ranjo and Shizuno Urushibara, who both have their own plans for Moroha.

Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman is based on Akamitsu Awamura's "campus sword & sorcery" light novel series Seiken Tsukai no World Break. SoftBank Creative's GA Bunko imprint launched the light novel series in 2012 with illustrations by refeia (Koiken! ~ Watashi-tachi Anime ni Natchatta! ~) and the series launched it's 8th novel in August 2014. This anime adaptation was green-lit in February 2014 and a manga adaptation will run in Kadokawa's Monthly Comp Ace magazine.

Takayuki Inagaki will direct the anime at Diomedea (Gingitsune, My mental choices are completely interfering with my school romantic comedy) with Masakazu Ishikawa (Campione!, Kodomo no Jikan) adapting refeia's original character designs for the series. Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Gingitsune, Comic Party) will handle series composition.

Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman's cast includes Kaito Ishikawa as Moroha Haimura, Ayana Taketatsu as Satsuki Ranjō and Aoi Yūki as Shizuno Urushibara. They are joined by Yui Ogura as Maya Shimon and Maaya Uchida as Haruka Momochi.

The series will premiere on TV Tokyo on the 11th of January 2015.

AnimeLab will be streaming Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman in January 2015 and Madman Entertainment will release the series on home video in the future. Madman Entertainment are also the first company to license Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman outside of Japan.


© Koei Tecmo Games
/ Anime Sengoku Musou Production Committee

Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou)

Samurai Warriors (Sengoku Musou) is an anime adaptation of KOEI Tecmo Games' game franchise of the same name.

The key phrase of the anime's story is: "What are you fighting for?" The story takes place in Japan's tumultuous Sengoku era, where violent battles are being raged across the country. The "passionate and painful" story follows the "troubled fate" of the Sanada brothers, who have sworn an oath that no matter what, they will fight to the bitter end together.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi is on the verge of unifying the realm, and all that remains is the Odawara Castle protected by the "Lion of Sagami" Ujiyasu Hōjō. Hideyoshi's personally trained generals — Ishida Mitsunari, Katō Kiyomasa, and Fukushima Masanori — as well as Ōtani Yoshitsugu, Shima Sakon, and Naoe Kanetsugu are all on the frontline of the battle. Amidst the battle formation are the two young warriors of the Sanada household: older brother Nobuyuki and younger brother Yukimura. As the stalemate begins to break down, Sanada Yukimura rides on a lone horse into the fray. His brother follows him right after.

Koei Tecmo Games software development head Hisashi Koinuma is serving as chief production supervisor of the series. Kōjin Ochi (La Corda D'Oro - primo passo, Case Closed, Sengoku Musou SP: Sanada no Shou) is directing the series, Yuka Yamada (Neo Angelique Abyss, Mushishi, Black Butler) is handling the series composition, and Aki Tsunaki (Chōyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi, Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Owari Naki Unmei) is designing the characters. Tezuka Productions and TYO Animations are both animating the series, and NAS is producing the series.

Wagakki Band, a group that combines rock with traditional Japanese instruments and features a vocalist who recites Japanese or Chinese poetry, will perform the show's theme song "Ikusa."

The series will premiere in Japan on the 11th of January on TV-Tokyo. You can view character designs and the cast for the series here.

The franchise already inspired the Sengoku Musou SP: Sanada no Shou television anime special this past March.

Madman Entertainment will stream Samurai Warriors in January 2015 and release the series to home video in the future.


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