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Funimation Adds Hetalia World Series, Strike Witches 2 (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The North American anime distributor Funimation has announced at its Otakon panel on Friday that it licensed the Hetalia: World Series, Strike Witches 2, Blessing of the Campanella (Shukufuku no Campanella), and Okamisan (Ōkami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi) anime series. The licenses include both home video and streaming rights.
Studio DEEN and Media Factory's Hetalia: World Series adapts Hidekaz Himaruya's Hetalia - Axis Powers web manga, just as the two earlier television seasons did. The manga and anime take the archetypal characteristics of about 20 countries and regions, and anthropomorphize them as (mostly) bishōnen characters. A fourth 24-episode season was just announced, and Funimation will release the fourth season as well. Hetalia: World Series premiered in March, and a Hetalia film (which Funimation is also licensing) just opened in Japan last month. Starting this August, Funimation will stream the newest episodes of Hetalia: World Series — with English subtitles — shortly after they are posted in Japan. Funimation already licensed the first two television seasons for North America.
Like the first Strike Witches television series (which Funimation licensed and released), the 13-episode Strike Witches 2 anime adapts Humikane Shimada's mecha-girl illustrations. Most of the main staff returned from the first season, including director and anime character designer Kazuhiro Takamura, the series script supervisor "Striker Unit," and Takaaki Suzuki (the staffer who helps develop the setting of the story's world and military matters). However, AIC is animating the second season for Kadokawa Pictures instead of Gonzo, the studio behind the first season. Funimation will simulcast the newest episodes and stream the previously shown episodes in the anime, which premiered on Japanese television on July 7. The distributor is also planning to release the series on DVD in 2011.
The Blessing of the Campanella television anime adapts Shukufuku no Campanella -La Campanella Della Benedizione- adult personal computer game, and Marvelous Entertainment just premiered the 12-episode series this month. The original fantasy adventure game from Windmill Oasis is set in a port city known as the "treasury of the world" for the great riches that pass through it. The city is in the middle of preparations for a special harvest festival for the mysterious energy source known as Ēru, as a "Day of Shooting Stars" lights up the night skies. Leicester Maycraft is a young item technician who lives in the city as part of the Oasis adventurers clan. On the "Day of Shooting Stars," one shooting star lands near a party that Leicester attends. When Leicester searches for where the shooting star landed, a girl appears before Leicester and says, "You are my Papa!"
J.C. Staff and Media Factory's Okamisan television anime series adapts Masashi Okita's romantic comedy light novel series about three high schoolers — Ryōko Ōkami ("Ōkami-san" or "Wolf"), Ringo Akai ("Akazuki-chan" or "Red Riding Hood"), and Ryōshi Morino (his name is a wordplay on "forest hunter"). The three are part of the Otogi High School Bank, a club that solves the high school's problems. The Japanese anime channel AT-X premiered the 13-episode series on July 1. The anime features the director Yoshiaki Iwasaki (Love Hina, The Familiar of Zero) and a cast that includes Shizuka Itou and Kanae Itō. Funimation plans to simulcast the anime "soon," and then release it on DVD in 2011.
Update: More background information added.
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